Panasonic Launches Social Media Compatible Television

As CeBIT announced, Panasonic is launching a new range of televisions with social media compatibilities.

For marketers the three screen consumer is hard to reach effectively and reaching the customer at the right time with the right channel can be quite a challenge. As the Nielsen “Three Screen Report” shows, the average American user spends 3.5 hours every month surfing the Internet and watching television at the same time (This number is a lot higher for young adults and teenagers).

Now Panasonic has revealed its new range of LCD and Plasma televisions, with Viera Cast – which was already shown in 2008. The new flatscreen range will be able to access popular networking social media sites like Skype, Twitter, You Tube, and Facebook.

The televisions were launched yesterday, 20. April and already could show the full functionality. A tester received an incoming call via Skype while watching television.

As Panasonic announced, the televisions will hit the market in June around the same time the 3D televisions will be released.

This dual functional television could change the consumption pattern of many users. This could bring advertisers new possibilities in marketing, if they are able to use data from Facebook to personalize television advertising. Analog to online advertising where age, location, behavioral targeting are already working, television advertising could take a new leap in customized advertising.

Also this television might be a positive factor for manic “work-o-holics”, enabling them to talk business on Skype while watching their favorite episode of “The Office”.

I can’t wait until the time comes were Dad tweets his son and daughter to come down to eat dinner, while sitting in front of the television watching the news.

Will the multi functional television become a hit? What’s your take on that?