ITV selects Demand Media to provide ‘This Morning’ social media platform

Broadcaster uses social bridging to connect site activity with Twitter and Facebook

London, UK - 30^th March 2010 - ITV has selected the Pluck® social media platform from Demand Media® to enhance viewer engagement with "This Morning" before, during and after the programme is shown.  ITV plans to implement the technology across other areas of ITV.com, which will include Loose Women, Coronation Street and its football section in time for the 2010 World Cup.

Viewers of "This Morning" have been able to catch up on their favourite sections of the show on the programme's website for some time, but they can now also react to the online content by posting comments on the site via the Pluck Comments application. They can also "agree" or "disagree" with other users' comments to spark debate about the show's content.

Demand Media®, the leader in distributed social media, also supplies to ITV its unique social bridging technology. This enables the "This Morning" community to directly connect their activity on the site with their other social networks; aggregating the comments and discussions they make on the "This Morning" site into their feed on Twitter and Facebook, thus extending the conversation to a far broader social networking community.  

"Watching TV has always been a social experience and now we are giving "This Morning" viewers the platform to interact and engage with the programme and each other online," said Ben Ayers, Social Media Manager, ITV.com. "With the Pluck social bridging technology, our viewers can share that engagement with each other and their wider social network. We've long been aware that conversations about our programming take place on Twitter and Facebook and the ability to integrate those platforms with commenting functionality is a logical extension."   

"Viewers today want the chance to interact directly and share their personal opinions with others and ITV has given its viewers exactly that," said Stephanie Himoff, vice president of Sales & Business Development for Demand Media in Europe. "ITV is our first UK customer to use social bridging but we think others will follow once they see the benefits of capturing all conversations about a brand across the social web."

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About Demand Media
With a comScore Top 50 global network of premium online brands, a breakthrough Internet content studio and an enterprise social media platform deployed on the world's leading digital destinations, Demand Media^® makes it possible for more than 100 million people each month to engage in conversations and form passionate communities around relevant content. The privately held company was founded in May 2006 and is based in Santa Monica, CA, with offices in Bellevue, WA, Austin, TX, New York, NY and London, UK. For more information about Demand Media, Inc., please visit: www.demandmedia.com 

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