Hail the hastag which is coming to South African television is a big way with M-Net which has finally seen the light after a bit of experimental testing and is now ready to fully embrace the new social TV revolution.
#Top Billing on SABC3 has been first in South Africa and very consistent in cultivating and coalescing viewers and followers on screen during episodes to make episodes interactive on a whole new level as viewers excitedly chat and share opinions.
Top Billing has the biggest "presence" in terms of energy and effort devoted to this (in my opinion), followed by Discovery for it's shows and TV channels seen in South Africa.
On American television the initially humble, now brash hastag has fully intruded on screens, hanging, dangling and propping up from below on TV screens during episodes of daytime and primetime programming.
South African television has been a bit slow, even reluctant to embrace the latest new addition to on-screen clutter but after M-Net mostly used the past year and a half with a wait-and-see and tentative approach in which it tested the water, the Twitter hastag is now definitely here to stay.
From now on M-Net will make as full use as possible, especially during its primetime schedule for primetime shows, of the hallowed hashtag. The # of course provides TV channels and shows with additional information and feedback on how viewers perceive and view their shows, line-ups and channels.
M-Net is now encouraging subscribers to "find and tweet" about their favourite M-net programming with specialised hastags. "All international primetime programming on M-Net will have specific hashtags to allow our loyal Twitter family to search for what M-Net, or other viewers are saying about shows on the channel," says the pay TV operator.
Because of M-Net's great new strategy to acquire and roll-out American shows much closer to their overseas broadcasting dates, M-Net is now creating - and want to bring under viewers and the Twitterati's attention - that hashtags of shows on or for M-Net will mostly contain the suffix "SA" in capital letters to distinguish the broadcast or temporal place during a season for South African viewers.
"Because M-Net brings viewers many of their favourite shows hot-on-the-heels of the American release, tag your comments with an SA, for example #DexterSA," says M-Net. The hashtags will not only encourage awareness of the activity around our shows, but will also help to ally confusion with the same shows airing in the US or other countries at concurrent times," says the broadcaster.
