Are we already at Television 2.0?

-
A funny thing happend while watching the season finale of The Office. Based on a mention in the show, I found myself browsing CreedThoughts on the NBC website immediately after the show. It was kinda weird the blog exists since on the show the "blog" is just actually a Word document that the incredibly incoherent Creed is writing stuff into.:)

But this did get me thinking as to how TV shows have moved beyond just television now (probably started with the lost 2 seasons ago.) After watching the season finale of Lost with friends (Thanks Faisal!), the next day I spent an hour on Lostpedia tying up so many things I'd seen earlier in the show. Spending time on the site makes you appreciate the show at a whole new level, adding even more depth to the entire experience.

These offline components allow the fan base to galvanize which helps the show retain loyal followers and hopefully attract new ones. On the other hand, I really believe it also gives TV writers an incentive to write shows with greater depth and meaning, knowing that people have an avenue to find and publicly appreciate their work. On the flip side, there's a deterrent in place to avoid putting crap out there.

As the use of Joost - like systems spreads, we're going to have an even greater opportunity to seamlessly use these other media. Imagine pausing Lost, to look up on the same TV screen an entry from Lostpedia.

ABC has done a really good job with their online video offerings, but the blogs and extras seem to work only for Lost and ABC has let fans drive that, rather than drive it themselves. NBC seems to be a little more pro-active on moving their TV-shows to the other media. For example, The Office has exclusive webisodes with characters from the show and Heroes (another Lost-like mind-bender) has online comics related to the show.

There's good reasons for them to do this. In a DVR-driven world, the other media opportunities are not just a way to retain fans. They're also another opportunity to advertise to people who're probably skipping your TV ads.

Comments

The Dirty Canuck said…
i have an entry in draft about the changing nature of television too, though the focus more on the creative side. as a hardcore fangirl of various fandoms for about 15 years, it's been interesting to see how economics and technology have changed the nature of fan involvement in media and how that involvement has fed back into the message itself.
6:33 PM
Josekin said…
I just want to say... that Heroes is not mind-bending like Lost is.
6:43 PM
salgar said…
To both of you, I concur.:)
3:59 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A short love letter to ~8 years on Google Search - 8 things I’m grateful for.

-
  After a few weeks off, I started a new gig within Google yesterday and it hit me that for the first time in almost eight years I won’t be working on some part of Google Search. Eight years ago, I told the team when I was interviewing that I was “looking for a place to call home for a while and grow there”. My experiences here more than met that need.  I used to write a regular “10 things about…” listy column for a while at a college newspaper. So in that style here’s 8 things (one for each year) I feel grateful to have experienced/learned in this time. Also, like that column which I banged out the night before it was due, this post is something that I don’t need to do, yet I feel somehow compelled to do (and so it’ll likely be longer and less crisp than it should be :-))    It actually is awesome to work on something so many people use and love, and that positively touches people’s lives. There’s a talk I give externally about Search and a line I often end up using is how the mission
Read more

Why don't you love Chocos, America?

-
Image
A few days ago I had the following conversation with a customs agent at San Francisco airport - as an Indian returning from India I get sent to the customs line even when I check "No food" on the customs form. :-) Agent: "Any food?" Me: "No" Agent: "Sure? No jira or cadipatta ? Me : "No....     well actually I do have a box of cereal." Agent: "Huh. What? Really?" Me: "Yes. Its a brand you don't get here." Agent: "Seriously. Even in the Indian stores? I've never heard that before." Me: "Ummm....yeah." I love reading local customization stories, particularly about how international chains tailor their offerings to local markets - the food industry has the best examples of these - check out this McDonald's story about the McPaneer , or how KFC is incredibly successful in China . But I seem to have missed that the customization extended to breakfast cereal. Turns out the
Read more

What might Twitter and/or Facebook have cost us if they were invented earlier (or should some things stay deliberately un-social?)

-
Image
So I was reading an ebook last week, and came across a quote that I liked. My first thought wasn't "I should write this down" , it was "I want to tweet this." My ebook reading software wasn't equipped for it, and it wasn't trivial to do so I didn't, but I expect most ebook reading software will be updated to do this in the next couple of releases and probably encourage me to as well. Why should reading be left behind? Twitter is already saving live TV . As I look back on the last week watching the Cricket World Cup , a huge part of it for me was watching my Twitter and Facebook feeds for reactions and being part of them. My parents were the only ones that actually called me during the match, but I felt connected to so many more people through FB and the Big T . Wether you're shopping, eating out, playing games, even searching ... apparently "everything gets better with social." We all have a very human, internal urge to express ours
Read more