Content owners and broadcasters have long seen, and successfully used, social media as a place to promote TV shows and engage potential viewers. However, they are now partnering with social media platforms in more innovative ways to both attract new viewers and generate revenue.
It’s widely recognised that social media platforms can be a perfect gateway to access younger audiences. Trailers, bonus content, behind the scenes footage and cast interviews are just some of the ways broadcasters have promoted their shows on social media, all with the aim of enticing viewers to their linear broadcasts, yet none of this was being monetised.
But social platforms can offer more than just marketing opportunities. And as traditional suppliers seek to take advantage of the wider and generally younger audiences that social media has access to, those social platforms are becoming increasingly significant as content distribution pipelines in their own right.
For example over the last few years Snapchat, which specializes in short-form video, has inked deals with a range of media companies including BBC Studios, Channel 4, Sky Sports, Discovery Communications, A+E Networks, Disney-ABC Television.
Made-for-mobile edits of popular shows, old shows, highlights of premium events etc. are being created and licensed to social media platforms, which is not only driving interest and gaining new audiences for current shows, it is also resurrecting old shows and providing a way to derive revenue from the broadcasters “back catalogue”.
People who may never have watched a programme on traditional TV are engaging with those same shows online. They are turning to YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok to watch both original content and reworked versions of existing TV shows.
For example, in the UK, E4 series Tattoo Fixers, which ended some years ago, was reworked and recut into short vertical-format “stories” for Snapchat, and found a whole new, younger audience. Whereas, ITV (also in the UK) repurposes clips of its flagship Love Island show allowing viewers to catch-up with the latest developments and re-watch amusing or contentious moments.
Revenue is generated through sponsorships and advertising around the content, with broadcasters and content owners entering into revenue share partnerships with the social media platforms they license their content to.
This approach also provides a route to monetize the type of “special” content that was previously used solely for promotion. Social media is often the first port of call for viewers who want to dive deeper into their favourite shows, thus providing the opportunity for that bonus content, behind the scenes footage and cast interview video to become desirable and valuable content in its own right.
However, this approach does come with its challenges for broadcasters, despite the additional source of revenue. It could feed the fire in terms of viewership decline on traditional linear television, it could also cause them to loose brand association with the content.
Broadcasters must find ways of accessing and engaging with social media audience’s to extend the reach of their shows and contemporize their brand – and do it without giving away their crown jewels.
