The latest media property to rethink its Facebook strategy is American Idol, with the Fox flagship looking at using the social media pages as its core voting platform. Not so much visionary as more inescapable. The reality of reality TV is that consumers are tiring of premium rate phone lines and premium text as the primary way to participate. Our prediction: the audiences will move, but most of the revenue won’t follow.
Users will be able to use their Facebook accounts to reach a dedicated Idol voting page that will include all the current contestants.
Each fan will be able to vote 50 times during a telecast’s voting period. Viewers will still be able to vote via text messaging and toll-free phone calls as well.
American Idol creator Simon Fuller said in a statement: “We have been wanting to do online voting for several years, and now Facebook has offered us a secure solution and we are ready to go.
“The show has always involved a high level of engagement with its viewers through texting and phone voting, and it’s great to expand on this tradition.”
Idol creator Simon Fuller has been pushing for the show to embrace online voting as part of its widespread overhaul of season 10.
|he news follows the announcement that popular UK talent show The X Factor will allow Facebook voting during the competition for the first time.
While the deal is said to still be in negotiations, but the plan is to reserve Facebook voting for the final round of the singing competition.
Fans will be able to vote via their own Facebook pages or an X Factor application, and traditional phone voting will still be place.
The new tool will be part of a global partnership with the social networking site that would include all versions of X Factor around the world, including the US version which debuts this Autumn.
