You’ll never have to watch TV alone again. Or at least without tweeting while you do.
Steamrolling ahead in its bid to create more ad revenue streams before its IPO, Twitter recently announced a partnership with NBCUniversal and Comcast to provide social TV features to their subscribers.
Although people are already using Twitter for real-time online discussions of their favorite shows, (check out this fascinating analysis of tweets during the Breaking Bad finale) this partnership aims to have the tweets direct people towards watching the shows.
A feature called “See It” will be available to Comcast XFinity users on Twitter. This will be a clickable button attached to a promoted tweet in user’s newsfeeds that will give them a list of different options, including a link to watching the show live, or recording it via DVR. Other functions will include booking movie tickets, setting show timing reminders and watching OnDemand movies.
Much like its partnership with the NFL, Twitter’s deal with NBCSports will promote sports content, such as highlights from the Premier League directly into user’s Twitter feeds.
Apart from promoting content via Twitter, the partnerships will provide real-time analytics to the channels on multi-screen user activity. Twitter is clearly making a big push to define itself as the social media platform for television, even if Facebook is nipping at its heels. Expect the partnerships to be the first of many as Twitter continues its struggle to get to profitability.
