Television, as we know it, is dying. According to the Wall Street Journal, the average age of prime-time viewers hit 50 this year. Kids would rather play Xbox or watch Hulu. Fortunately, television still has something going for it, and we’re not talking about iPad apps or mobile streaming. Rather, we’d like to discuss the emergence of a new hybrid medium.

Traditional TV is where hundreds of thousands or millions of people gather for a shared experience. Enter Facebook and Twitter. These social networks collide with TV to result in something even bigger. Viewers are now participants; participants are now connected, which has implications for the actual content. When we frame the situation as a battle between the Internet and TV, or a zero-sum game, we are calling it from a blind spot. Instead, what we should see is that both live TV and real-time information are converging to reinforce each other and in the process are creating something new.

In the following document, we’ve outlined emerging themes bubbling up around event TV. This is not the future, this is happening now. For those willing to break yesterday’s rules, some long overdue, fresh new opportunities await. As WIRED magazine recently stated, TV is moving from a “vast wasteland” to a “vast garden". Today, “TV is a crazy, weed-filled, wonderful, out-of-control garden.” It is time to rethink TV. It is time to imagine what it could be and redefine it for the participatory culture of tomorrow.