While Twitter is working hard to dispel rumors that they’ll be making a reality Twitter TV show, Verizon engineers have been working hard combining Twitter with their FiOS TV.
FiOS is Verizon’s new fiber-optic television system that just might help everyone say goodbye to the cable guy a whole lot sooner. Verizon’s FiOS TV boasts the “best picture quality around,” more than 100 HD channels, over 500 all digital channels, and “room-shaking Dolby 5.1 surround sound.” But now Verizon is hoping to make the FiOS viewing experience even better by bringing the show’s audience right into your very living room. At least, via Twitter, anyway.
Twitter users already do a lot of twittering about their favorite (or hated) shows, but most of the twittering takes place after the show. What Verizon’s FiOS Twitter marriage hopes to accomplish is to bring the twittering live to the same screen as the show through a “Twitter widget.” With the widget, viewers could select tweets about the current channel, show, or movie, and then jump into the conversation themselves. Even if you’re home alone, this experience might make you feel like you’re at a huge party where everyone is discussing the show.
One issue that is unclear is how user/viewers will tweet. Will Verizon issue a special keyboard designed to interact with FiOS equipment? Or will mobile devices be used? The first option seems more likely, since it’s already quite possible, albeit inconvenient, to watch a program while tweeting via laptop. It would be surprising if Verizon did not already have something in the works that would enable to user/viewers to use only their FiOS TV and a keyboard (or similar device) to share tweets.
Meanwhile, Verizon may also be working on a similar widget for Facebook users, but of course it would most likely work a bit differently. Regardless, it’s obvious that one thing is certain: social media is changing just about every media in which we interact and receive information.
With the same flavor of disclaimer that Twitter uses to clear up TV show rumors, they also add, “Some Hollywood folks are developing something that leverages Twitter and they are extremely enthusiastic as evidenced by all the media hubbub yesterday and today. We have little to do with their efforts but we wish them success.”
Could this be a vague reference to Verizon’s plans? Most likely, yes; but Verizon may not be the only company attempting to bring Twitter to TV. Meanwhile, stay tuned…
