FOX to Reinvigorate Reruns with Live Twitter Commentary

While in the midst of the summer season when most popular television series are on temporary hiatus, audiences are left with a network landscape (cable aside) comprised of a less-a-than enticing selection of re-runs and reality shows.  Meaning, that short of leaving the comforts of one’s couch, our mainstream entertainment options are severely limited. But the FOX Network is hoping to interject some new found value into some of this recycled content by running “live” Twitter commentary from producers and staff during episode rebroadcasts of of popular shows Fringe and Glee. The stream will cycle along the bottom of the screen, with only select tweets from fans making it on air, though it appears that streams on each show’s Twitter page (FRINGEonFOX and GLEEonFOX) will see far less moderation.

While it’s not clear if Twitter is actually making any money off of the deal, it can only help its reach and appeal as the service proves its utility outside of the web. For FOX, this announcement adds a compelling, participatory element to the experience of not only re-runs, but more importantly realtime broadcasts, an aspect of viewing that has fallen off in recent years with the advent of DVRs and online content. But to hold their audience’s interest, they will be need to be very aware of how closely they monitor the chatter. Too much, and you risk alienating the fanbase with a one-sided transmission that feels nothing like a conversation, a common problem when corporations and brands try to use social media. It will be interesting to watch how successful they are at achieving this balance.

But in the end, the chances of the Twitter engagement model making the full leap to prime time seem slim, as the technology may ultimately be too distracting for first-time airings of shows. Still, in a world increasingly caught up with the prospect of multitasking, bringing the water cooler conversation into our living rooms certainly makes some sense. Maybe in the future we’ll see this level of interactivity evolve into an option like “Closed Captioning,” one more thing that we can turn on and off on a whim.

[via TechCrunch]

[image via orphanjones on Flickr]