Don’t Touch That Dial: TwitterTV Coming to a Screen Near You (Maybe)
by Peter Kafka
Posted on May 25, 2009 at 8:55 AM PT
Must-Tweet TV?
Maybe. Twitter is lending its name to a to-be-developed TV game show that “would harness Twitter to put players on the trail of celebrities in an interactive, competitive format,” according to this AP report, which doesn’t have many details, presumably because the show is still in an embryonic form.
The show has good lineage: It will be a joint production between Reveille, the production house created by Ben Silverman, who runs GE’s (GE) NBC and who sold the company to Elisabeth Murdoch’s (yes, that Murdoch) Shine in 2007; and Brillstein Entertainment, formerly known Brillstein-Grey, which made some of TV’s best shows.
But none of this guarantees that it will be good or even that the show will even make it to a TV set near you. Note that the announcement comes after the TV “upfront” presentations, where broadcast and cable networks pitch their new shows to advertisers.
In any event, the show won’t be core to Twitter’s business, which is perhaps why Twitter has yet to mention it on its official blog. Tellingly, the most recent entry is about a deal the company has struck with mobile carrier Vodafone (VOD) to deliver Tweets to Vodafone subscribers in New Zealand.
The New Zealand/Vodafone deal is one of a series the company has been making throughout the world to expand Twitter’s distribution–and in some cases, get Twitter reestablished in markets where messaging costs forced the company to pull back. Earlier this month, for example, the company announced that it had pacts with every Canadian wireless company.
That’s less sexy than a TV show, but probably more important. And we’ll likely hear more about it tomorrow; co-founders Evan Williams and Biz Stone kick off the seventh edition of the D: All Things Digital conference and sit down for a Q&A with All Things Digital Co-Executive Editors Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg.
