March 24, 2005, 10.23am • 50 comments » • 3,027 Views

TV together - remote shared experience by television

We’ve been told for some time that conventional media are merging with computer-like media. Now Tom Coates and co. have proposed something that would really embody that promise - a buddylist for your telly.

Imagine AOL Instant Messenger for the box in the corner. You could see what your friends and family around the country are watching and strike up conversations about said programmes.

Tom is right about simultaneity. Whilst watching TV on the sofa with someone in your own home offers an obvious shared experience, the “oneness” of watching TV with remote associates can usually only be shared by dissection of the programming after the event (ie. the morning after, at work) - unless both participants watch TV together whilst on the phone.

Add in to that mix the fact that the television landscape is becoming ever-more fractious and TV begins to lose its traditional agency as a tool of massification, as plurality and multi-channel offerings present more choice that fragments the available viewing and kills shared experience.

The BBC has worked hard to maintain its place as nation’s massifier, knocking out programmes like the National IQ Test that are intended to be an active social glue.

But social software for the television could be an excellent boon to reinforcing TV’s social massification and, hence, fitting entirely the public service remit. The main difference would be that the shared experience would not necessarily be a national one, but one of a series of friends-’n-family groups each consuming their own clusters of splintered programming. Still, a start.

Tom says:-

Being able to see what your friends were watching on television would remind you of programmes that you also wanted to see, it would help you spot programmes that your social circle thought were interesting and it could start to give you a shared social context for conversations about the media that you and your friends had both enjoyed.

An alert that could fade up gently onto the screen when someone on your buddy list changes channel

You could then join your friend by watching that channel. Once there, you can see your friends on screen via webcam as the programme continues. This, to me, sounds like it would create a tremendous sense of serendipitous participation. It reminds me of the Saturday-night shows like Noel’s House Party that would perch a camera in someone’s lounge then, as they watched, flick the feed onto the programme, so the at-home family would be watching themselves on national TV. Or that other interactive national quiz that would put the nationwide at-home-participant winner on television by rushing a videophone to them before the end of the show.

Imagine if you’re friends spread around the UK couldn’t all be in the same place to watch Wales’ Grand Slam showdown against Ireland (the Six Nations has a great sense of participation that centres around going out into town with your mates) - you could increase that participation on the screen and share in the glory.

And, for moments when that communication is more important than the programming itself, Tom suggests pushing the show to the background to be replaced by some webcam-like talk-talk.

And, for more on participation, he points out that any programmes your contacts add to their to-record or favourites list may also be downloaded to your television - so, even in the absence of simultaneity, the shared experience can be replayed.

Don’t want anyone knowing you’re watching The Adult Channel? The function would be turned off by default, Tom says, and:-

Obviously there might be some programmes that you might wish to view with a significant other, but wouldn’t necessarily want to advertise to the rest of the world that you were watching.