Shine’s Murdoch Calls Social Media Key to TV’s Success

We’ve often said that social media is the key to TV’s economic future and that’s exactly what Elisabeth Murdoch, CEO of Shine Group, said in an address that issued a digital call to arms to TV producers and distributors at last month’s annual NATPE convention in Las Vegas.

In recent times, broadcast television has been challenged by the lack of social media tools available to its formats, which elsewhere in the digital space has become the norm of connected entertainment.

U.K. based Shine – which encompasses Ben Silverman’s former company, Reveille, in the U.S. – is the producer behind such worldwide formats as The Biggest Loser and Masterchef, and series such as Life on Mars. With social media in mind, Shine is focused on “rethinking our creative model so audiences who desire to be even more immersed can be met on their terms. The goal is to form enduring connections with our fans and create new and magnetic social media experiences.”

With the arrival of such social-networking tools as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, as well as smart phones and tablets computers such as iPad, iPhones and BlackBerries, “our audience has become unrecognizable over the past ten years,” said Murdoch.  “We in the TV business have to catch up with what our audience is doing. We can no longer afford to be a one-screen business. Social networks are finally the interactive dimension of storytelling. We now need to evolve with our audience. To resist this would be like resisting Technicolor.”

Our advice to rights holders in the past has been to encourage companies like Shine to work more closely with companies like MySpace, to use Social TV  platforms and  t-commerce and increase the use of live programming and create social programming formats that will appeal to global IPTV audiences who will increasingly be using Internet-enabled TV sets.

Last week, Elisabeth Murdoch launched her new Australian production company Shine Australia in Melbourne at George Calombaris’, Press Club restaurant. She was joined by her joint Australian CEOs, Mark and Carl Fennessy, formerly of FremantleMedia Australia.

Junior Masterchef will be produced this year by Shine Australia for Network TEN.