CBC as one of the First International Partners to Use New Tools on Television
CBC is breaking new ground again, this time as the first Canadian broadcaster partnering with Facebook® to utilize its new tools for broadcast media outlets.
The announcement came on Monday, Oct. 7 from Dan Rose, VP Partnerships for Facebook, during his keynote address at MIPCOM, when he mentioned a handful of global broadcasters would gain access to Facebook’s Keyword Insights API and Public Feed API.. These tools will enable CBC to feature a real-time feed of public posts in their broadcasts, and to measure the engagement around keywords from specific programs. Since Facebook is a platform based on real identity, CBC will be able to understand the basic demographics and location of the people that are talking about their programs, in an anonymized and aggregated format.
“With over 12 million Canadians active on Facebook every single day, utilizing Facebook’s new tools for broadcast media is a natural step in our goal to more deeply connect Canadians with each other and the moments we bring into living-rooms across the country,” said Neil McEneaney interim vice president, english services, CBC.
“In the old days, people would gather around the office water cooler to discuss what they watched on TV the night before. Today the water cooler is online, and on Facebook,” said Dan Rose, VP Partnerships, Facebook. “We’re focused on building tools and partnerships to better connect people with the TV programming they love, and we’re excited to continue expanding our partnerships around the world to support this effort.”
CBC is one of the first international partners to integrate data from these new tools into on-air programming, through the hit primetime skating competition series, BATTLE OF THE BLADES. The integration involves using the Facebook data, to show audience support for individual competitors on a map of Canada, during the show.
Pictures and videos from fans on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram have also been incorporated into the programming. This integration is unique given it is part of the set of the show itself; becoming a natural part of the story and allowing competitors and the audience to engage with it accordingly.
CBC’s partnership positions the public broadcaster as a world leader in social TV technology and broadens our reach, as Facebook has the largest audience of any social network with 19 million Canadians accessing the service every month.
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About CBC/Radio-Canada
CBC/Radio-Canada is Canada’s national public broadcaster and one of its largest cultural institutions. The Corporation is a leader in reaching Canadians on new platforms and delivers a comprehensive range of radio, television, internet, and satellite-based services. Deeply rooted in the regions, CBC/Radio-Canada is the only domestic broadcaster to offer diverse regional and cultural perspectives in English, French and eight Aboriginal languages.
About BATTLE OF THE BLADES:
For more information about the competitors, please visit the official online portal of BATTLE OF THE BLADES, cbc.ca/battle. BATTLE OF THE BLADES is executive produced by John Brunton, Barbara Bowlby and Sandra Bezic who is also a co-creator. Supervising producer is Lindsay Cox with producers Erin Brock and Mark Lysakowski. It is produced by Insight Productions in association with CBC Television.
For a complete list of publicity contacts and for more information including series synopses, press releases, hi-res images, video clips and bios, please visit the new CBC Media Centre at cbc.ca/mediacentre. Follow CBC’s publicity team on Twitter @CBC_Publicity.
Facebook® is a registered trademark of Facebook, Inc.
For more information, please contact:
Erin Richards, publicist, CBC
416.205.7994 (Office)/ 416.627.5728(Mobile)
