A new video demo has been released of the BBC’s concept for an interactive TV application, and as you can see, it has a specific social initiative that links to Facebook’s network, reports PaidContent. Running on Microsoft’s Mediaroom platform, the prototype of BBC’s interactive application has live video as well as on-demand video, featuring content from partners across the mainstream media outlets.

Other interactive features include direct sharing options for spreading content to friends, as well as geo-tagged user-generated content feeds. The less social of the features include mobile support and viewing alerts for various programs, as well as a slew of content-specific controls that enable a highly custom viewing experience for end users.

The social features themselves are somewhat basic when compared to the integration options we’ve seen from other services like Splashcast and newcomer Boxee. But as this particular BBC prototype may be related to the broadcaster’s set-top box initiative, it may end up being more social than other set-top box options already out on the market. Whether this particular approach will work in light of Boxee’s rapid feature releases and growing partnerships remains to be seen, but on the social front it looks like Boxee’s approach may be more beneficial to end users.

Having deeper integration for Facebook support beyond links could have an impact on the BBC’s ability to penetrate the social aspect of the market, but it’s unlikely that this will have any major effect on the BBC concept for interactive television, as a number of apps and networks already provide media-sharing options and the apparent personalization of BBC content through this app could have a greater appeal to mainstream users.