Telling the world what you think about a live television event can be a frustrating experience. I’m often exasperated after shouting my feelings at the plasma box, whether it’s about a contestant on American Idol, that Apprentice scene or the latest duo ‘Jedward‘ on UK’s X-Factor (who surely, despite their talent deficit, must win).
Television companies have been late to build tools to engage with their audiences but many have now realised the competitive edge it can bring. It’s been possible to text and tweet for a long while, these tools plus voting and other feedbacks are all positive in retaining a live audience, but what about live, real-time chat?
Mibbit has noticed people starting to try out live television chat and wants to help see how it might contribute in this area, so we are hosting a couple of chats around X-Factor this weekend; 20.00GMT Saturday and 20.00GMT Sunday, one on Facebook and one on the main Mibbit client. If you’re around those times come over to the chat and tell us what you think about Mibbit, and of course, X-Factor.
You can also drop in at #xfactor_fb on irc.mibbit.net with the regular mibbit client.
This is not a new concept at all – many networks have channels dedicated to certain television shows when they’re occuring, for example Eurovision.
Of course permanent channels which people visit each week to discuss a show while it’s on are lacking – partly because people would probably rather prefer to watch the show than talk to people on the other side of the world.