JULY 15, 2009

Verizon FiOS Brings Social Media To My TV

We’ve posted several times here on Undercurrents about Verizon FiOS - and we’ve talked even more times about using social media and other media channels (TV, newspaper, etc.) in tandem. Verizon recently announced a new feature for its FiOS home media DVR that conveniently brings the two together in one set-top box. Adam Ostrow at Mashable explains some of the new capabilities:

Verizon FiOS TV is adding Facebook and Twitter integration, as well as several other social media options, to its service. Similar to the integrations we’ve seen on the Web, this allows you to update your status on either network when watching a given show or event and also see what your friends or the larger social media community is saying about it.

In addition to this functionality, Verizon FiOS customers will be able to access what are essentially big screen, simplified versions of Twitter and Facebook. For example, with Twitter, you can search and view currently hot topics, and with Facebook, you can view friend’s photos.

I applaud Verizon for taking steps to transform the consumer’s TV-watching experience, but as Adam also alludes to in his post, aren’t we already doing this? I’m already using Twitter and Facebook while I watch TV, albeit via either my laptop or Blackberry. Verizon is obviously targeting the technologically savvy here (I’m assuming that this won’t recruit a new wave of Twitter or Facebook users) - and I think most of the people in that group are already participating in social media as they watch. I initially thought these new features were intriguing, but the more I think about it, beside making Twitter’s trending topics look a whole lot bigger on my TV, this doesn’t seem to add anything to my experience.

What do you think? Will this feature prove to be useful - or will it join the FiOS weather, sports score, and horoscope widgets as another fancy add-on I never use?

For more on the service, check out Verizon’s demo video: