Social media revives the big Christmas TV event
Remember a few years back, when there were only five channels (or fewer)?
Before the explosion of satellite and digital TV, the main Christmas Day TV event would unite households the country over. Whether it was Morecambe and Wise, Only Fools or The Royle Family, or even (spit) EastEnders, up to 20 million would all tune in at once and these Christmas specials would be among the main Boxing Day talking points.
In latter years this dissipated as more and more people were able to access infinitely more channels, and the Sky Plus facility made it even easier for viewers to record and save multiple programmes to watch whenever they wanted. The 'TV event' was certainly losing its impact as the millennium came and went.
However, the advent of social media, far from fragmenting viewing habits yet further, is helping bring viewers back together. Many TV series now actively encourage live interaction through Twitter hashtags, so one really has to be watching a...