Last month DigitalTimes.ie reported that Twitter was entering the publishing business by partnering with media companies to create rich content tweets and the firm now appears to be entering a new medium as rumours of Twitter TV spread across the Internet.
Twitter is thought to be working with some Hollywood producers to launch several different original TV shows on the site. According to Ad Week one such project, believed to be a reality show similar to MTV’s The Real World or The Hills, could launch before the end of the year.
Twitter has declined to comment on the rumours but it is looking to hire ‘entertainment executives’ in both London and New York. CVs must include “experience in traditional sports, music, or entertainment; digital and broadcast” and “the ability to ‘talk the talk’ with traditional entertainment players” which would suggest a plan for some sort of move into television.
TV driving traffic
It is a fairly logical move for Twitter which seems to be morphing the worlds of social and traditional media. Much of Twitter’s heavy traffic is driven by TV shows like the ‘X-factor’ and live sports broadcasts, so it makes sense for the San Francisco based company to host original content that it can monetise.
The idea would be that the TV show would be promoted via tweets which the viewer would then click to expand to full screen – much the same way people currently share video clips. This could be part of a larger business move for Twitter where it would act as a middleman distributing content from traditional TV producers to online viewers in the same way it partnered with publishers last month.
Of course this is all just speculation, but Twitter has already made deals with US sports channel ESPN where viewers’ tweets that included a specific hashtag were displayed on air during the NBA basketball finals. CEO Dick Costolo says he runs a “technology company in the media business” but with more and more people accessing traditional media online this technology company is fast becoming one of the biggest players in the media world.
