Social TV is buzzing in the US, but what is it and what does it mean for the UK?   One of the more social uses of TV in the UK many years ago were basic multiplayer interactive TV games like those offered by PlayJam that allowed a few people to participate at the same time or on different devices like those offered by gameplay.  Sms to the TV screen and formats like Idol which have increased the level of audience participation and influence over the years continues to gain momentum.  News programmes using video captured on mobile phones enabled citizens to participate in journalism and has become an accepted practice.  Overlays of sms interaction like AQA’s Mr. Know it All on MTV became common amongst channels targeting younger audiences.

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If you look around the desks at Sky News, and for that matter many other newsrooms, you’re likely to find some people browsing Tweetdeck, Qik, Flickr, YouTube & Facebook.  And no they’re not skiving, they’re in fact doing a great job.  We’re not going soft in our 21^st year at Sky News, this is the world of breaking hard news in the 21^st century.

When I started at Sky as a TV output producer in 2000, our sources were 4 news wire services, 2 TV agencies and our correspondents around the UK and the world.  Now there are millions of lenses recording images of our world, millions of bloggers publishing to the web, millions of potential sources. (more…)