Live TV drives up to 87% of social Twitter engagement during primetime

19/06/2017

Despite wide-spread debate about whether Linear TV is dying, it's clear that live TV is still king. For most people, watching television is a real-time, shared experience.

A recent report by the Video Advertising Bureau (VAB) explores the close relationship between TV and social engagement. The report, aptly named #TVisSocial, has found that TV programs make up 79% of trending Twitter topics during primetime.

Watching TV has always been a social experience, even before the internet people would gather around to tune in with their friends and families, discussing what they were viewing. Today we're seeing more than ever that TV is not a passive medium with millions of people taking to social media to talk about the content they're consuming live.

Why are people compelled to engage on social media around programming?

VAB puts it well:

Because TV consistently creates and captures moments that are exciting, entertaining, humorous, enlightening, uplifting, aspirational, inspirational and educational...moments that people almost immediately share and talk about online.

Live TV content fosters emotional connections that encourage audiences to engage. Online conversations are often driven by the shared experiences viewers have around relatable topics.

While not surprising, the findings of this report were exciting for us as it reiterates ideas that we at never.no are passionate about and believe in. Harnessing audience engagement around programming and TV ad campaigns is something we see the benefits of everyday. A TV ad campaign for Oykos yoghurt is one of the latest examples of how capturing an audience with a call-to-action to participate can increase social audience and activity. Viewers were enthusiastic to share photos of themselves and a message about why they should feature in the campaign to Facebook for chance to be on TV. As a result, the brand saw thousands of entries, shares and likes. The interactive campaign also resulted in them growing their Facebook audience by 30%.

People are engaging in all kinds of TV content, however the study found that sports dominated social activity, followed by entertainment and news.

Source: VAB custom analysis of Top 10 trending Twitter Topics each night (8:15p, 9:15p, 10:15p, 11:15p) during 4-week time period (10/10-2016 - 11/6/2016). Results include both direct and related TV topics

While most activity is about everyday shows and topics, big TV moments can be amplified by social media. People are eager to talk about iconic moments that happen across entertainment, politics, sport and news and voice their thoughts online.

Jason Wiese, Vice President of Strategic Insights for VAB told The Drum:

Ultimately, the study is a snapshot that helps dispel some of the myths around [television] viewing, like people aren't watching live TV anymore, TV's losing scale the abundance of TV viewing is still live.

This speaks volumes to us as we've seen the successes that major broadcasters such as ITV are having by interacting with their live social audiences. ITV Daytime is including social comments, images and videos, as well as asking the audience to vote socially on key moments to make their shows more interactive. As a result, they've seen increases in social engagement and reach.

Just as Warhol said, in the future, everyone will have their 15mins of fame but with social media, this has turned into 15secs and we needed to embrace that more than we had been. During a live news or magazine show, we are flooded by audience-derived content and in order to capitalise on that we needed to reflect this on-screen - and quickly! Tim Guilder of ITV Daytime told never.no

There are clearly exciting opportunities for broadcasters to capture the social conversation around their content and engage with their audiences across platforms to increase viewership, dwell time and social engagement.

LINK:	http://www.never.no/news/live-tv-drives-up-to-87-of-social-engagement-...
	See more stories from neverno

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

01/06/2026

Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026

January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026 Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...

02/05/2026

Dalet Flex LTS Delivers Smarter Search, Faster Editing, and an AI-Ready Foundation for Modern Media

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...

01/05/2026

NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to Integrate Dolby's Full Suite of Premium Picture and Sound Innovations

January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...

01/04/2026

DOLBY AND DOUYIN EMPOWER THE NEXT GENERATON OF CREATORS WITH DOLBY VISION

January 4 2026, 18:00 (PST) DOLBY AND DOUYIN EMPOWER THE NEXT GENERATON OF CREATORS WITH DOLBY VISION Douyin Users Can Now Create And Share Videos With Stun...

18/03/2026

Net Insight Names Larissa GrnerMeeus CPO

Newly named chief product officer (CPO), Larissa G rner Meeus will return to Net Insight on May 4. Larissa G rner Meeus will become CPO of Net Insight on May 4...

18/03/2026

SVG Europe's The Football Summit 2026: Select Sessions Now Available to Watch on SVG PLAY

SVG Europe's The Football Summit 2026 explored how the sports broadcasting i...

18/03/2026

SVG's SportsTech@NABShow Blog Goes Live as Countdown to Vegas Heats Up

The 2026 NAB Show kicks off one month from today and SVG is once again set to cover the show from every angle. SVG's SportsTech@NAB Show Blog is now live - ...

18/03/2026

The Premiere of Dead Lover Showcases Grave Robbing and Sex With a Giant Finger

(L-R) The cast and crew of Dead Lover at The Ray Theater for its premiere at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. (Photo by Robin Marshall/Shutterstock for Sundan...

18/03/2026

Music Row Piano from Wiltone Productions

Yamaha C7 captured in Nashville Wiltone Productions have announced the release of Music Row Piano, a deeply sampled Yamaha C7 piano library that's been ...

18/03/2026

Techivation introduce T-Warmer Mk2

Bass-enhancement plug-in upgraded Along with a steady stream of new releases, Techivation have recently been revisiting some of the older plug-ins in their ...

18/03/2026

Tonal Balance Control 3 from iZotope

Mix-reference plug-in overhauled iZotope's powerful mix-referencing plug-in has just reached its third major version, and now boasts a new capture proce...

18/03/2026

Toontrack Transistor Organ EKX

Latest EZKeys 2 expansion arrives Toontrack's staggering collection of EZKeys 2 expansions has grown once again, and the latest instalment delivers a on...

18/03/2026

Jess Ho explores the politics of food in new SBS Audio podcast For The Culture

Jess Ho explores the politics of food in new SBS Audio podcast For The Culture 18 March, 2026 Media releases New SBS Audio podcast For The Culture, hosted ...

18/03/2026

Future-ready broadcasts with ATSC 3.0 and enhanced services from Rohde & Schwarz at NAB 2026

Future-ready broadcasts with ATSC 3.0 and enhanced services from Rohde & Schwarz...

18/03/2026

LCTWS 2026

London Calling - When The Industry Convened to Help Streaming Find its MoJo In this blog, Laura Rognoni reflects on key discussions from the Connected TV World...

18/03/2026

SMPTE Unveils 2026 NAB Show Educational Presentations

SMPTE Unveils 2026 NAB Show Educational Presentations Brie Clayton March 18, 2026 0 Comments SMPTE , the home of media professionals, technologists, a...

18/03/2026

Auditel Ad Campaign Shot on Blackmagic PYXIS 12K

Auditel Ad Campaign Shot on Blackmagic PYXIS 12K Brie Clayton March 18, 2026 0 Comments LED wall virtual production blends 12K open gate acquisition w...

18/03/2026