ABI: Users Want Social Media Extended to TVs

More than one-third of 1,000 households surveyed are looking to extend their social networks to the TV, according to new data releases today by ABI Research.

The data reinforces the rapid spread of social networking beyond the computer screen as many users have already taken it to mobile devices. The combined data cripples the past assertion that social networking was a limited demographic fad.

However, social network site owners are still struggling with ways to monetize their popular assets, investigating options, including advertising.

Nonetheless, portal owners, such as service providers, have been quickly and steadily adding community features to the destination to make them more alluring, knowing well that they will not displace the likes of MySpace and facebook.

The company reported that 36 percent of those who currently use social media on a regular basis say they’d like to access their networks on the TV screen.

“Just as video entertainment is moving fluidly across various screens, so is social media,” says senior analyst Jason Blackwell, in prepared comments. “We’ve seen that consumers find increased value through shared entertainment experiences and want to explore and deepen these experiences through communities of interest; and that’s what social TV will ultimately do.”

When asked which types of application they would be most interested in for social TV, ABI said the answers were somewhat dependent on age.

Younger consumers were more interested in engaging with their friends through chat and messaging, while middle-aged respondents were more likely to be interested in more passive social networking behavior, such as checking status updates.

The most popular potential application for those over 50 who expressed interest in TV social networking was being able to see what their friends were watching on TV.

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