Upfront week is underway and there are already major social TV announcements that have been made. According to the LA Times, “Fox said it would use Twitter to distribute clips of upcoming TV shows, tout highlights of live events or share video after episodes of various shows have aired.” This new partnership is going to allow Fox to tap into Twitter’s ad platform. Here are the exciting details. Read more

The growth of the social TV industry has reached new heights. There’s a book and now graduate student André-Pierre du Plessis has completed an impressive 40-minute documentary on the state of social TV and the industry. He created and produced Tech Report, the first weekly tech-news TV show in South Africa that is broadcast through Africa and the UK and he’s currently completing a master’s degree in business journalism at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. I had the pleasure of participating in this documentary, which you can watch here. Read more

On April 25th The CW aired a backdoor pilot of “The Originals,” a spin-off of The Vampire Diaries. Did feedback from Twitter help the network make it’s decision to pick up the show the next day? According to sentiment analysis from Fizziology, the pilot received 81% positive sentiment, with 20% of conversations saying they’d watch it. Read more

We wrote about the amazing numbers CNN Digital posted as a result of the Pope Francis announcement. Still, CNN is a go-to news source for both celebratory and tragic news, and  the events in Boston were of major concern to not only Bostonians but also to people all over the world. As events unfolded in Boston, CNN Digital had its most successful week ever in terms of page views, topping 808 million, followed only by the week of the 2008 Election which resulted in 665 million page views. While the tragedy brought up many editorial concerns both with CNN and other traditional and non-traditional news sources, the web results are still very impressive. Read more

NBC Sports proved its social chops with its coverage of the 2012 London Olympics. Now, looking to continue on its sports and social success, NBC is determined to give those tuning in to watch “the greatest two minutes in sports” an all-encompassing viewing experience. Here are some of the ways NBC plans to make today’s Kentucky Derby the most social one ever. Read more

Viggle , the second-screen platform that rewards its members for watching their favorite TV shows,  has partnered with the NBA to provide rewards and discounts to fans watching the 2013 NBA Playoffs and The Finals. In January, Viggle announced a similar partnership with the NFL for its MyGuy app, its real-time fantasy sports app.
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Executing a social TV is challenging enough with a brand new season that hasn’t yet been released before in the U.S. Darewin, France’s premiere social TV agency had to deal with launching The Walking Dead in France, at a late time zone, two years after the U.S. launch where probably pirating meant that many had already seen the episodes. We spoke with Darewin founder and CEO Wale Gbadamosi Oyekanmi about launching the first Zombie attack on Twitter, with network NT1. Read more

The Following, Fox’s new thriller starring Kevin Bacon has taken an extremely unique approach to leveraging social TV. It has built a strong social TV following (pun intended) that plays up the name and themes of the show across one of the fastest growing social platforms, Tumblr. We interviewed  Robin Benty Fox’s senior director of current programming and digital scripted brands about the show’s social TV strategy. Read more

Last week’s Lost Remote NYC show brought together the best and most forward-thinking minds of the social TV industry. Ryan Osborn, NBC News Vice President of Digital Innovation took the stage to discuss one of the most important issues that has arisen for TV networks who deliver news via social. Read more

The Lost Remote NYC show took place yesterday bringing together the brightest minds in social TV. I had the honor of leading the opening keynote with MTV President Stephen Friedman (who’s annual upfront is currently underway) and an afternoon session with some of the brightest minds on the network side of social TV. HBO Vice President of Social Media and Performance Marketing Sabrina Caluori presented results from their big Game of Thrones season three launch, exclusively at the event.  Read more