Business idea: Web chatroom for radio listeners & TV viewers

mambo

Some websites that stream/rebroadcast live tv also have an accompanying "chat" facility, so that anyone viewing the broadcast can comment on proceedings.

So I'm thinking there should/could be something similar [edit: just the chatroom element, not the streaming tv/radio content] for regular TV or radio broadcasts (e.g. viewer of a soccer match or listeners to a current affairs radio program can comment live and chat with other listeners to the same broadcast).

TV & radio stations could set this up and promote it themselves, but I guess they don't because they would have to employ someone to moderate it and censor any negative comments about the show, or any obscene content. I did find this one though, but it was empty: http://www.urbanjazz.org/chatroom.htm

But there's nothing to stop a third party setting up such a site, and the site could eventually grow to become a clear market leader and the "obvious" place to go to chat about a broadcast you're watching or listening to. Of course there's a "chicken and egg" issue - if users go to the site, it's of no use unless OTHER users also go to the site at the same time, otherwise there's no-one to chat with.

Another issue to be solved would be preventing "bots" from spamming the chatroom with ads, etc. (but all chatrooms have this problem). The chatrooms could be "read only" until you register and your e-mail address is verified.

If such a site exists, I can't find it. So possibly a business opportunity for someone (perhaps starting small with just Irish tv & radio, and promote the site in Ireland)? All that would be required to get started would be some generic chatroom software, one chatroom per "station", and a list of stations for users to choose from.

Revenue could be earned with Google ads (e.g. sports-related ads on the "Sky Sports 1" chatroom).

Such a site could be an extension of a forum site (e.g. boards.ie) or a social networking site (e.g. Facebook chat facility).

Am I missing a possible pitfall? Or have I not spotted a site which already does this for a range of stations?

Sposs

The biggest problem i could see offhand , is why would TV channels pay a third party company to do this for them , when they could do it inhouse cheaper as most already have large IT depts.

Also what actual benefit would it have to a tv station/channel , you say money can be made from advertisments, however this only becomes a viable revenue model when you have a site like facebook or boards and a community big enough for that to work, and if you did get to be that size and the revenue you were generating was large enough the companies providing the data would just take it back inhouse.

mambo

This would be run completely independently from the TV/radio companies, and is of no benefit to them, only to the users who get to chat and the site operator who may make a profit from hosting ads, or other possible revenue streams.

Sposs

well it's not independent of them if they are supplying the content that's needed for your company, they can simply block the IP of your site from streaming their data unless you have their permission.For you to gain their permission you will need to prove it's in their interest and explain how they can make money from it , otherwise it's dead in the water.

mambo

It's just a chatroom, to be used while you listen to the radio or whatever in the normal way. It doesn't actually stream the radio/tv content. Sorry if this was not clear from my post.

Sposs

Ah right, got ya, there are currently IRC channels that do something simliar to this im afraid, but i suppose it's how you package it and how easy you make it to use that will attract users not to mention a memorable name.

KJF

There's certainly a market for this but it has been conquered by twitter.
Switch on any live broadcast these days whilst simultaneously browsing twitter and you will find hundreds if not thousands discussing said broadcast in real time.

tinktank.ie

mambo

As you say, Twitter are its ilk are where its at right now, and chatrooms and IRC, though still popular with some, never took off in the way Twitter / Facebook have. So maybe a chatroom is not the solution, but Twitter (as it currently stands) isn't either.

What I have in mind is a solution to the general problem:
I'm experiencing something (a tv show, a radio program, the snow currently falling in Dublin, a hurricane, a football match, etc.) and I want to chat (not just tweet) with other people experiencing the same thing.

With the chatroom approach, you have the issue of who decides what "experiences" to cover - you can hard-code certain radio & tv stations, but other "events" are more unpredicatable(e.g. weather) and perhaps could be user-defined. Twitter has the concept of "hashtags" to group tweets on a certain subject, but there is no central authority that decides what hashtags are to be used. Consequently, different users may use different hashtags for the same subject.

I see the Radio forum has a number of "megathreads" for some popular radio shows (Gerry Ryan, etc.) http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=613
which is close to what I have in mind, but they are threads, not "live" chat.

tricky D

What's to stop a broadcaster providing both the programme content and the chat/interaction function on their own site on the programme's homepage? Afterall, it's the most logical place to centralise this.

Dark Phoenix

There are some like this I think such as the ones on the living website they always advertise them during breaks on living tv. I think it could be a good idea but it depends on how people see it. You could just come on here and head to the tv section there is bound to be someone online!.

Re bots spamming you would need some moderators who are on the ball to spot and remove spam quickly. You also can put in a system where you can screen registrations before approving them. It delays the membership process which is a disadvantage but it means you can prevent these spammers from joining and posting

mambo

tricky D wrote: »

What's to stop a broadcaster providing both the programme content and the chat/interaction function on their own site on the programme's homepage? Afterall, it's the most logical place to centralise this.

I guess broadcasters in general don't do it as they would have to moderate it to prevent people posting obscene content, or making negative comments about the station/show/presenter/etc.

Cianos

Does anyone still use chat rooms? And if there are already forums where people partake in this activity (such as boards), you'll have a hard time trying to convince people away from these platforms and on to yours.

In terms of marketing it'd be a very hard task to conquer, unless you were very focused on particular segments of the audience. So you'd have to isolate the audience according to types of programmes they are passionate about and give them a platform on which to interact with others who also hold that passion. ie, not many people are passionate about the weather and thus jot many would think "cool, there's a place I can go to discuss what's happening with the weather", people are passionate about very specific things, such as the football team they support, or their favourite sci-fi programme. So your communication to them has to be entirely specific in order to make them care.

mambo

I've started using
http://tweetchat.com/
which allowed you to use Twitter as a chat room.

But I created a separate twitter account for using it. So I have:

* my normal twitter account, which my close circle of friends follow (not viewable publicly)
* my "anonymous" twitter account, under a pseduonym, which anyone can follow and which I use for tweetchat.com

This way I don't bore my friends with my contributions to a chat on a TV show or footie match I'm watching, which is not of relevance if you're not watching the show.