With new technologies creating a sea change in the broadcast industry, Montreal’s TVA Group has introduced a new weapon: The Periscope.
The Quebecor Media division’s flagship station, TVA, used the new live-streaming video tool Twitter Periscope during the grand finale of its popular singing competition show La Voix on Sunday, becoming the first Quebec broadcaster to partner with the social media giant.
Twitter purchased the start-up for a rumoured US$100 million earlier this year and formally launched the service late last month. It appears poised for a battle with independent competitor Meerkat as it looks to attract celebrities and publishers.
Periscope was at the centre of a pirating controversy this past weekend when it was reported that dozens of people used it to live-stream the season five premiere of Game of Thrones – albeit with low quality audio and video.
TVA used Periscope to bring La Voix’s 69,000 Twitter followers the first live interview between the show’s host, Valérie Chevalier, and season three winner Kevin Bazinet immediately after his win was announced on Sunday.
Suzanne Landry, senior director of programming at TVA Group in Montreal, said Periscope was used to extend La Voix’s reach beyond its 2.8 million weekly TV viewers.
“It’s very important to us to enrich the TVA viewing experience,” she said. “We want to [be in] close proximity to viewers, and Twitter allows us to develop a relationship with a community.”
Landry said one of the new challenges for broadcasters is promoting and encouraging real-time interaction with fans during live events like La Voix. “Viewers don’t want to be passive, they want to participate in the experience, and these kinds of tools improve the live experience,” she said.
TVA also used the Twitter Mirror, which is becoming a fixture on the awards show circuit, as part of the show. Twitter Mirror enables users – most frequently celebrities – to take a photo simply by tapping the screen, and share the content with the event’s Twitter feed. The candid shots are intended to stand out from the standard red-carpet shots that appear in traditional news media.
An hour before Sunday’s La Voix finale, for example, viewers were able to see photos and animated GIFs from backstage via the show’s official Twitter feed. TVA will also use Twitter Mirror for its red carpet coverage of the 30th Gala Artis this Sunday.
Twitter Mirror has been used at major events including the MMVAs, the Grammys and the Oscars, and is permanently installed in the greenroom of ABC’s late night talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live.
Landry said the Twitter tools lend themselves to live events like La Voix, as fans engage with the brand via multiple platforms. “The artists are live at that moment, and with the viewers at the same time,” she said. “It’s very important for us to put viewers at the heart of the content, and social media is a good way to create this proximity.
“It’s important to innovate all the time,” she added. “People are searching for that kind of experience and we try to find different ways to maintain a relationship with the community.”
