How TV drives conversation on Facebook by SecondSync

WATCHING
WITH FRIENDS
How TV drives conversation on Facebook

A SECONDSYNC WHITE PAPER

FEBRUARY 2014

WATCHING WITH FRIENDS

Contents
Introduction
Executive Summary

3
4

TALKING ABOUT TV
Real-time Engagement
Types Of Interaction
Different Engagement Patterns

5
6
7
8

SOCIAL TV PATTERNS
Genres Have Distinct Engagement Signals
Sport

9
10
11

DEMOGRAPHICS
Age And Gender
Devices
A Global Phenomenon

12
13
14
15

THE TV AUDIENCE
Conversion

16
17

CONCLUSION

18

METHODOLOGY

20

APPENDIX

80%

22

2

SecondSync | Watching With Friends

OF TV-RELATED CHATTER ON
FACEBOOK COMES FROM A
MOBILE DEVICE*

*Across all telecasts analysed for this paper


Introduction
Social TV analytics has moved from the media lab
to mainstream media research in just four years.
SecondSync has played a leading role in pioneering
the real-time, big data analysis of social interactions
mapped to TV programmes, working with the UK’s
leading broadcasters and advertising agencies. The
company is now spearheading the next stage in the
evolution of social TV analytics.
This white paper – the early fruit of that innovation
drive – presents the initial findings of a major study,
using SecondSync’s social listening technology and
social TV expertise to analyse total discussion levels
on the Facebook platform in the US, UK and Australia.
This is the first in-depth analysis of Facebook’s social
TV data across multiple territories, and the first time
Facebook has released social TV analytics to the
industry at this scale.
The huge volumes of public conversations on Twitter
have meant that until now social TV has largely been

3


synonymous with one social network. SecondSync’s
findings offer an additional perspective, one that is
able to draw on Facebook’s rich demographics, broad
reach, and multiple interaction types. My hunch is
we’ll be debating the efficacy of each platform well
into 2014 and beyond because they are different and
we use them differently.
As other social platforms emerge SecondSync will
further broaden the sources of its social TV analytics,
and present a more nuanced view based on different
platform functionalities, and ever-changing audience
behaviours. It all points to a more complex, but at the
same time even more exciting future for social TV
analytics.

Graham Lovelace
Non-executive director, SecondSync Limited
Director, Lovelace Consulting Limited

This is the first
in-depth analysis
of Facebook’s
social TV data
across multiple
territories, and
the first time
Facebook has
released social
TV analytics to
the industry at
this scale


Executive Summary
1
Contrary to previous
assumptions, most
TV-related Facebook
Posts happen within
the show airing.

4


2
Up to a quarter of
the TV audience
is posting content
related to the show
they are watching
on Facebook.

3
The scale of social
TV chatter seen
on Facebook
corresponds to the
broad reach of the
social network.

4
Posts are the
catalyst for
TV-related
conversations that
continue in the
form of Comments.

5
80% of TVrelated chatter on
Facebook comes
from a mobile
device.

TALKING
ABOUT TV

5


TALKING ABOUT TV

Real-time Engagement
The fact that people talk about TV on Facebook
has never been in doubt. However, it has
often been assumed that TV-related Facebook
interactions happen outside the show airing
and not in real-time. Our analysis challenges
this assumption.

Looking at a minute by minute breakdown of
anonymised aggregated TV-related Facebook
interactions it is clear that audiences are
talking about TV while they are watching it. The
majority of TV-related activity happens during
the show and we see huge peaks of activity
that map directly to key events in the telecast.

INTERACTIONS

INTERACTIONS

4,477,454

7,084,697
FINAL SCENE

BREAKING BAD
AMC | 29TH SEPTEMBER 2013

6


FINAL SCORE

CHIEFS VS COLTS NFL PLAYOFF
NBC | 4TH JANUARY 2014

60%
OF DAILY FACEBOOK
INTERACTIONS ABOUT A
TV SHOW OCCUR DURING
THE AIRING*

INTERACTIONS

1,987,972
THE KILLERS’ PERFORMANCE

X FACTOR UK
ITV | 14TH DECEMBER 2013


TALKING ABOUT TV

Types of interaction
We looked at how TV audiences engage with
shows using four different types of Facebook
interaction: Posts, Comments, Likes and

Shares. Each type exhibited distinct repeating
patterns of engagement that were consistent
across the TV schedules.

THE SOUND OF MUSIC LIVE | NBC | 5TH DECEMBER 2013
CIs

INTERACTIONS

65%

7,348,936

POSTS (501,073)
Posts are most closely aligned
to real-time TV ‘events’.

7


COMMENTS (2,097,815)
The bulk of TV conversations
are contained in Comments.

LIKES (4,730,608)
Interactions from Likes of
TV-related content have a long
tail of engagement.

SHARES (19,440)
Shares are used less in
TV chatter than the other
interaction types.

TIs

35%

CIs VS TIs
For The Sound of Music Live
there were more click interactions
than text interactions

TALKING ABOUT TV

Different engagement patterns
of engagement which are sustained for a
much longer time period as friends continue
discussions long after the show has aired.

Viewers use Posts to start conversations
that cluster around events in the show. In
turn, Posts often seed huge volumes of
Comments and Likes that have broader peaks
THE WALKING DEAD | AMC | 13TH OCTOBER 2013
INTERACTIONS

6,682,474

POSTS

COMMENTS

11%

LIKES

SHARES

21%

67%

1%

90000

45000

18:00

TRANSMISSION WINDOW

8


19:00

20:00

21:00

22:00

SOCIAL TV
PATTERNS

9


SOCIAL TV PATTERNS

Genres have distinct engagement signals
We analysed many types of shows and by
visualising the results we were able to identify
distinct patterns of engagement that are

consistent across different genres. These
genre differences reflect the nature of the
content and demographics of the audience.

DRAMA
Dramas generate a bookend
pattern of engagement with
Facebook activity peaking at
either end of the telecast.

COMPETITIONS
Posts around competition
shows map directly to
performances.

DOCUMENTARIES
Documentaries are a catalyst
for Posts that generate high
volumes of conversation in
Comments.

FILMS
Films are big drivers of social
engagement. Iconic scenes
from films tend to drive the
biggest peaks in engagement.

DAYTIME
Tabloid talk shows also drive
real-time conversations with
guests generating significant
Facebook reaction.

DR WHO
BBC | 23RD NOVEMBER 2013

DANCING WITH THE STARS
ABC | 27TH NOVEMBER 2013

BOUNCERS
C4 | 5TH SEPTEMBER 2013

INSIDIOUS
C4 | 7TH SEPTEMBER 2013

JEREMY KYLE
ITV | 5TH SEPTEMBER 2013

10


SOCIAL TV PATTERNS

Sport
Sport is a huge driver of engagement across
all interaction types. For instance, 2014’s
Super Bowl generated 185 million Facebook
interactions from 50 million unique users.
However, it’s not just marquee finales like this
that are able to generate significant

volumes of engagement. As can be seen
below, patterns of engagement map directly
to events on the field with the biggest volumes
of interaction seen after big plays, controversial
officiating decisions and directly after the end
of games.

NFL PLAYOFF, INDIANAPOLIS COLTS VS KANSAS CITY CHIEFS | NBC | 4TH JANUARY 2014
The Colts achieve the second biggest
comeback in NFL Playoff history, coming from
28 points down to beat The Chiefs 45-44.
INTERACTIONS PER MIN


51,003
19:27 Luck recovers a
Colts fumble and dives
for a touchdown

11


62,583
19:52 Luck throws a
touchdown to put The Colts
ahead for the first time


158,171
20:05 Final score

DEMOGRAPHICS

12


DEMOGRAPHICS

Age and gender
Facebook has a very broad user base that is
spread across all demographics. Using the
depth of demographic information coming from
anonymised, aggregated Facebook data we can

see which segments of the TV audience are
most engaged and how that changes across
the schedules.

BREAKING BAD
AGE AND GENDER BREAKDOWN

SOUND OF MUSIC LIVE
AGE AND GENDER BREAKDOWN

FACEBOOK SOCIAL TV*
AGE BREAKDOWN
55 - 64

45 - 54
13-24

65+

25 - 34

55-64

65+

35 - 44

45-54

55-64

30%

35-44

45-54

13 - 24

25-34

35-44

6% 3%

12%

13-24

25-34

65+

0

250000

500000
Interactions

13


750000

1000000

0

250000

500000
Interactions

750000

1000000

20%

30%

DEMOGRAPHICS

Devices
In keeping with the concept of second
screening, most TV-related engagement on
Facebook occurs via a mobile device.

Despite a trend towards mobile, the devices
used to generate Facebook interactions vary
depending on the genre of show, illustrating
the contrasting social media habits of different
demographics.

80%
OF TV-RELATED CHATTER
ON FACEBOOK COMES
FROM A MOBILE DEVICE*

Facebook.com in the browser is most popular
with the News and Current affairs audience.

14


Entertainment show interactions are more
likely to be generated by mobile apps.


DEMOGRAPHICS

A Global Phenomenon
Using Facebook’s detailed geo-location data
we can accurately analyse activity by country
and filter out chatter from other regions. Here
we see total interaction figures for the X-Factor
final across three different territories.

INTERACTIONS

1,987,972
X FACTOR FINAL (UK)

INTERACTIONS

246,909

X FACTOR FINAL (US)
FOX | 18TH DECEMBER 2013

15


INTERACTIONS

265,447
X FACTOR FINAL
(AUSTRALIA)
7 | 28TH OCTOBER 2013

THE TV
AUDIENCE

16


THE TV AUDIENCE

Conversion
Because of Facebook’s size (71% of adults
online in the US 1) and broad demographic spread,
interactions are generated by a group that is
broadly representative of the general population.

For a two week period we tracked all prime-time
UK television-related interactions on Facebook..
We also looked at high profile, prime time shows
in the US and Australia.

We found that the number of individuals
engaging with shows in real-time on Facebook
accounted for a significant proportion of the TV
audience when compared with ratings data. In
some cases, this was almost a quarter of the TV
audience.

PERCENTAGE OF TV AUDIENCE INTERACTING WITH FACEBOOK 2

10%
UK X FACTOR FINAL

17


19%
THE SOUND OF MUSIC LIVE!
NBC | FRIDAY DEC 5TH 2013

22%

24%

THE WALKING DEAD
AMC | 13TH OCTOBER 2013

BREAKING BAD FINALE
AMC | 29TH SEPTEMBER 2013

1 Pew Research Center, Social Media Update 2013
2 Calculated using publicly available average audience figures

CONCLUSION

18


CONCLUSION

Conclusion
When looked at holistically, real-time activity around
TV and Sport on the Facebook platform is hugely
compelling and there are important commercial
implications. Audience measurement, TV planning,
content discovery, direct response advertising, TV
commissioning and research are just some of the
sectors that will benefit from the insights coming out
of the world’s biggest social network.
TV is an important area for Facebook and it has been
actively encouraging activity in this space for some
time. Pages for shows, the adoption of the hashtag
and the ‘Watching’ status update have all contributed
to the high volume of interactions.

19


SecondSync will continue to work closely with
Facebook to surface actionable insights. Areas of
future research will include investigating the extent
to which Facebook drives TV tune-in, measuring
the reach of TV-related interactions, and looking at
the effectiveness of Facebook calls to action in TV
advertising.

Areas of future
research will include
investigating the
extent to which
Facebook drives
TV tune-in and
measuring the
reach of TV-related
interactions

METHODOLOGY

20


METHODOLOGY

Methodology
SecondSync and Facebook worked together to
make sure the data was of the highest quality
without impacting on the privacy of Facebook users
and clients.
Using proven techniques established over three
years of analysing social TV data, SecondSync
generated complex search terms based on show
titles, talent and narrative, which were then provided
to Facebook. Facebook used these search terms to
calculate anonymised statistics of total discussion
volumes for the search terms, aggregated at telecast
airing window, daily and minute level. In addition,
Facebook used these search terms to randomly
select a small number of anonymised public Facebook
posts that SecondSync used to test the accuracy

21


and quality of its search terms. Terms that did not
pass QA testing were revised and re-submitted to
Facebook. Facebook provided the resulting statistics
to SecondSync for analysis and use in preparing this
study. No private posts, user contact information
or client advertising data whatsoever was made
available to SecondSync by Facebook.
Demographics and minute level data generated
in this study came from a sample of high profile,
predominantly prime-time shows, which aired
between September 2013 and January 2014 in the
UK, US and Australia. Chatter distribution statistics
came from a study of 1500 prime-time UK TV shows,
broadcast between 1st September 2013 and the 15th
September 2013.

APPENDIX

22


SAMPLE US SHOWS

23


SAMPLE US SHOWS

24


SAMPLE US SHOWS

25


SAMPLE UK SHOWS

26


SAMPLE UK SHOWS

27


SAMPLE AUSTRALIAN SHOWS

28


CONNECT
SecondSync Ltd
Gas Ferry Road
Bristol, BS1 6UN
UK
+44 (0)117 325 1090
info@secondsync.com
www.secondsync.com

How TV drives conversation on Facebook by SecondSync

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