ITV uses never.no for TV social engagement

Social TV company, never.no, based in The Landing, MediaCityUK, has signed an agreement with ITV, the UK’s largest commercial broadcaster. never.no is providing on-air social engagement software, ‘STORY’ to manage the live integration of social content into ITV’s ‘Daytime’ programming.

The agreement will see award-winning shows in the ITV Daytime family such as Good Morning Britain and Lorraine use STORY to interact live via social channels and then bring those interactions instantly into the broadcast environment.

STORY was first used by ITV for Good Morning Britain earlier this year, for the live gathering and moderation of Oscars award show moments as they happened. STORY, via never.no’s automation system, published approved Instagram and Twitter content from celebrities on the red carpet to the studio touchscreen. The production team could review the content and approve before entertainment presenter Richard Arnold was able to present the live comments and pictures to the viewing audience.

Over the coming months, ITV Daytime will be driving the inclusion of social comments, images and videos as well as asking the audience to vote socially on key moments to make shows more interactive.

Tim Guilder, Technical Manager for ITV Daytime, is delighted to have found a solution that is perfect for his production workflows. “Just as Warhol said, in the future, everyone will have their 15 minutes of fame but with social media, this has turned into 15 seconds and we needed to embrace that more than we had been. During a live news or magazine show, we are flooded by audience-derived content and in order to capitalise on that we needed to reflect this on-screen via our Viz Graphics system – and quickly!”

“STORY by never.no gives Production the ability to gather, moderate and publish actually during a programme item, not 10 minutes later or after an ad break – right then. Speed is the key – if you can tap into social media feeds while the topic is still relevant or still in the moment, it becomes a way to drive up visibility and the amount of people talking about your show and brand.”

never.no’s CEO Scott Davies added: “ITV’s Daytime shows are not only iconic, but have a large socially engaged audience by their nature. So we are very excited to be part of the process, providing the tools and support to ITV’s production teams to help drive their social engagement and to bring that engagement with the audience directly to the primary screen in real-time.”

Maya Dibley, Head of Programmes and Partnerships at The Landing, where never.no is based, said: “never.no is a great example of the smart, agile and innovative tech companies we support at The Landing and we are very proud of what Scott and his team have achieved in the social TV space. This deal with ITV also illustrates the increasing convergence of television content with second screen applications, which is why The Landing’s relationships with the major broadcasters and programme makers in and around MediaCityUK are so valuable to the numerous mobile and tech businesses we have based here.”