Fear of social spoilers drives live TV viewing, finds survey

“TVGuide.com’s Christy Tanner released a new survey at the TVnext Summit today which looks at the age-old question, does social media drive ratings? According to a survey of TVGuide.com users, it does: 17 percent of respondents say they have started to watch a show and 31 percent say they have continued to watch a show because of a social impression. And 71% of TVGuide.com’s respondents say they’ve seen social messages about TV shows.

While those numbers may not be entirely surprising, this metric is interesting: a full 27% of respondents say they watch more live TV to “to avoid plot and reality spoilers that may be revealed in real time on social networks.””