User Behavior in the "teleda" Social TV Service - Achieving a Public Forum on the Network

The spread of Video on Demand (VOD) services is driving the creation of video viewing environments in which users can watch whatever they like, whenever they like. The recent appearance of social network services (SNSs), moreover, is bringing big changes to the world of media by enabling anyone to become a disseminator of information. At NHK, Japan ' s public broadcaster, we are studying a platform that combines VOD and SNS to create "horizontal links" between program viewers and facilitate encounters with new programs. To investigate the requirements for this platform, we built a SNS site called "teleda" that enables program viewing by VOD and conducted a large-scale, three-month verification trial with about 1000 participants. We report on the features of viewing behavior obtained from the results of this trial and discuss the potential of public broadcasting services that combine VOD and SNS.