• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, May 14, 2012

Have social media and television together become too much of a good thing?

Seemingly everyone wants to get a foothold in social media, believing it is the next entertainment or marketing platform for all things television.

Now comes warning of a collapse, or at least a consolidation of players.

If there is a paring down, you would have to believe TV networks may want to control some of the better-funded social media operations, so that they’ll work more seamlessly with their traditional TV operations and media-selling platforms.

This fits in with their current refrain in the growing digital entertainment world: We control the content. And if we are looking to extend that content and are willing to take more risks, we want the spoils for those endeavors.

The reverse also rings true  -- social media platforms want to extend themselves into TV. But Does Facebook want to get into the original TV game -- to look for a TV network, develop 10 shows and perhaps come up with one real one.

All types of entertainment are tough to produce.  “It is hard making great television — it may be harder to make compelling, synchronous experiences for viewers,” Miguel Monteverde, vice president of digital at Discovery Communications, said at a recent industry event.

“There’s a lot of noise in the social TV space. A lot,” Randy Shiozaki, co-founder of social technology company TVPlus, toldMashable. “Many of these companies will disappear over the next year as leaders emerge in the space and capital dries up for these guys.”

Viewers need clear locations to get their social TV media fix – not just separate “silos” of TV program information. Say hello to another Hulu-like problem.

Social media platforms are like any other mass entertainment business – they need scale. All this comes from the main instigators of TV content – big media companies who also need scale, as do TV marketers.

Much credit has been given to social media for lots of increased buzz and viewership of traditional TV content. TV networks are more than happy to extend storylines, plots and characters. But resources are unlimited.

Right now, plenty of high-profile TV show content is fighting to grab social media share of rabid TV consumers’ opinions, suggestions and recommendations. To survive, the strong social media platforms will need to help muffle some of that “noise.”  To succeed, they’ll need to lift the volume for other efforts.