Nation TV integrates social-media analytics into news coverage

ONLY ENGAGING with audiences by inviting them to join in live news programmes through social-media channels is not enough any more. In an era when people rely on social media more and more as their main source of information, TV news channels have to listen to what people are talking about and interested in, and analyse these data for their reports. 

Nation TV, a news station operated by Nation Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) under the Nation Multimedia Group, one of the largest media organisations in Thailand, is moving into the next chapter of the integration between social media and broadcasting. This "social TV" project involves a collaboration with Computerlogy, a Thai software company, to allow real-time social-media data-analytic tools to be used in Nation TV's news-development process and reports.

NBC president Adisak Limpa-rungpatanakij said this was the first time that a Thai TV station to provide consumer insight for the analysis of real-time audience behaviour and to determine the trends over social media. 

"The collaboration with Computerlogy and Facebook is our latest move in our role as a 'social TV' leader to bring innovative service to the audience. Nation TV will not compromise in offering innovative services to its audiences. Nation TV is the pioneer in utilising social media in all processes of news development," Adisak said.

Since the introduction of the second screen, led by smartphones, Nation TV has deployed the "social TV" concept to engage audiences through such devices, he said. 

Adisak said that with Computerlogy's social-media listening tool and analytic system called "TH3RE", Nation TV would be able to analyse both positive and negative trends and to tailor its news coverage accordingly.

The main point of the collaboration is to use two data-analytic tools together to keep up with trending topics and analyse them. This will enable Nation TV's audience to get in touch with the new trends and movements in the online world immediately. 

It also helps Nation TV get real-time consumer insights into which topics are trending, what issues people are talking about, how many people are talking about them, where and when such issues are occurring, and whether people view a particular topic as positive or negative.

"Social media are developing big data that need a system to collect, manage, and analyse them efficiently. With the use of the TH3RE system, Nation TV will offer different topics and different angles of news stories. Nation TV will embed the TH3RE system in all news programmes throughout the day and across the news beats including the economy, politics, and even entertainment," Adisak said.

Vachara Aemavat, co-founder and chief executive officer of Computer-logy, said that under the collaboration, his company was providing the TH3RE system that would help Nation TV better understand consumer insights from information flowing over social-media platforms including Facebook, Twitter, Instag-ram, YouTube, Webboard, news websites and blogs. All data will be displayed through visualisation that will help Nation TV present analysis in many different dimensions.

"All data from the social-media platforms are collected and analysed through data-analytic algorithms. Data can be analysed in various dimensions to serve the different purposes of news reports or investigative coverage," Vachara said.

Vachara added that under the collaboration, his company also provided Social.gg, a system that helps Nation TV investigate the topics trending over social media in real time. This move would help Nation TV maintain its leadership in social TV in Thailand.