TV Next conference outakes (silicon valley)

 [From my column this month ... will publish link shortly]:

 “We had 13M social comments in our interactive 54th Grammy Awards” said Rob Gelic, CBS’ General Manager Digital Platforms speaking to the TV Next audience. “It set a new record – bigger than the Superbowl – 25 times bigger than last year.”

Americans talk big. If it’s big, it matters. The thing is, CBS really is big and so are these developments. CBS is second in the world only to BBC. What’s new is that prior to this year’s Grammy’s, a three day live CBS event had a million unique viewers preview related content before the broadcast itself. It was the second highest rated Grammy of all time according to Gelic who honestly asks “Do these digital initiatives lead to more popularity?” He is empirical in answering his own question by saying “the uptick in social conversation tied to broadcast propularity was evident. What is super-compelling for us” he says is the attraction of exclusive content about the shows production – cast, executive producer and key events in the production.  

This is a new social media magnet, and you can it setting the bar for what will emerge in short order for all broadcasters around the world. A special app spotlights technology being used during the show – a kind of ‘behind the scenes’ production approach from previous years says Gelic. He calls it the “anatomy of a hit”.  These so-called web series extensions have delivered 130 M streams for CBS, 10M  f them alone followers of the on global travels of a three time Survivor winner.

“We are focused on facilitating dialog within those social spheres” says Gelic who believes that people want to contribute to a social media conversation where there’s meaningful fan engagement.