TV and social media advertising

Strong words used by Alan Wurtzel, head of research at NBCUniversal will no doubt put a dent in social media ad budgets, already under pressure. As reported by a recent FT article, based on the results of analysis conducted on Comcast's airing of the Sochi  Winter Olympics, Mr Wurtzel claims that social media had little impact in augmenting the effect of TV ratings. "The emperor wears no cloths" were the words he used to summarize his verdict. Comcast's own data seem to be at odds with this diagnosis, however: 19% of viewers did some social media activity and overall 150 million 'additional' people were exposed to posts via social media overall. This compared to about 21 million TV viewers per day. While there is no doubt that TV's impact is much higher, social media's impact seems far from being insignificant! And this only after about a year of experimentation with the whole concept of connecting the two entertainment platforms. One should also speculate - to be checked - that the 19% posting on social media were younger people. No doubt, this group's size will grow larger and their social media activity become more intense over time. Just this effect appears to be significant. Bottom line: I wouldn't short social media stocks (further) just yet.... at least not based on this analysis!