I’ve been thinking a lot about television recently — more so since we got our first PVR last weekend. I hadn’t felt I was missing out in not having one before (apart from the programme clash conundrum); I’d always been in the habit of scheduling myself around my favourite shows, and didn’t think that would ever change.

But it’s been three days now and I’m already converted. It’s really been one of those ‘you don’t really know until you try’ experiences. From now on TV will be fitting into my schedule, not the other way round.

Now, while I wouldn’t go as far as to say it’s part of the ‘democratisation of television’ or anything, thinking about it does lead naturally to ideas about how the TV audience behaves in the networking age — and how this audience isn’t adequately served.

Yes, we have blogs and Twitter and so on, but I want something more specific: I want a dedicated social networking site for television. Something that lets me link to and discuss the shows I watch, and see what other people are saying about them. I also want to know what I’m missing, and be recommended new shows that I might like to watch.

I want something like Shownar, but more. Not just links to discussion, but active chatter right there on the page: comments, Twitter feeds, what-have-you. And of course I want more than just BBC programming — I want a site where I can find a page for any show, on whatever channel, and if it’s not there I want to add it myself.

So I ask: is such a thing possible? Does such a site exist already? If it does, please let me know. But if it doesn’t (and I strongly suspect that’s the case) then what’s the hold-up?

Tue 13 Apr 2010 at 14:32   ·