Last millennium, teens watched television’s “AfterSchool Specials.” Today, young audiences head to the computer after school, send instant messages to each other, forward favorite video clips and watch an increasing amount of entertainment at desks and on laptops.
Chasing them is an urgent preoccupation at the traditional television networks. In what could be the biggest cultural sea change since the introduction of cable TV, America’s television executives are pushing beyond the tube, pursuing viewers through the Internet. No longer an experiment, the streaming of video entertainment has arrived.
With the click of a mouse, more material – highlights, short clips and extras surrounding fan favorites – is becoming available around the clock. And it’s free. On CBS’s new innertube Web channel, accessible through the cbs.com website, Pearl Jam’s webcast concert was restreamed following an appearance on “Late Night with David Letterman.” MTV’s popular “TRL” and the Video Music Awards are streaming simultaneous live feeds on TV and MTV Overdrive, a broadband channel, streamed via the Internet.
The broadcasting business is now about multiple screens – “platforms” in insider argot.
“Multiplatform will be the watchword at the upfronts,” said Will Richmond, president of consulting group Broadband Directions, referring to the annual rite of spring when the networks use elaborate presentations to presell commercial time to advertisers before the fall TV season.
When the dog-and-pony shows start today in New York, the shift will be evident. All the broadcasters are expected to make websites a highlight of their presentations.
Hundreds of millions of dollars are expected to be diverted from network TV to Internet advertising. While that’s a small fraction of the total $18 billion upfront advertising pie, the shift is stealing a bit of the limelight from old-school media.
MTV’s Brian Graden sums up the Internet’s importance: “There’s no doubt that our end of the demographic lives there. You have a choice: Be a TV company or be a touchstone culturally in the lives of that audience.”
Richmond says the change is clear: “In the past six to nine months, we’ve seen a huge acceleration of companies moving video to the Internet.”
Signs of this shift are everywhere:
In April, AOL won a Daytime Emmy in a new category, Outstanding Achievement in Video Content for Non-Traditional Delivery Platforms. TV shows created especially for cellphones, hand-held computers and the Internet became a new Emmy category this year; the winner was the “Live 8” concert promo.
At the beginning of May, CBS launched innertube and ABC started streaming four of its TV series to computers. In both cases, advertising covers the costs; programming is free to consumers. So far, ABC is simply replaying “Lost,” “Desperate Housewives,” “Alias” and “Commander in Chief” on broadband; CBS has some new content, including “Inturn,” a reality contest to cast a winner on the daytime soap “As the World Turns.” CBS also is dumping some failed TV series on innertube, like “Fire Me … Please.”
(Broadband refers to two-way, digital transmission links, such as DSL and cable, capable of using multiple frequencies to send large amounts of audio and video information.)
The major networks have launched digital sales forces to work in conjunction with traditional sales teams.
“Rescue Me 2.5,” a short, scripted preview of the Denis Leary FX series, is available through May 29 via AOL and video-on-demand through cable companies, including Comcast.
Reversing tradition, Web content is inspiring broadcast shows. HGTV this month debuted a bath-remodeling show lifted from material on HGTV.com.
All this results from the collision of three trends.
First, more than 40 million homes are connected to the Internet via cable or DSL. A critical mass can now receive video.
Second, consumer behavior is changing, telling the industry how people want to access video: on demand, without commercials, highlights only. Spare the boring parts.
Third, as a result, advertisers are changing strategy. They are increasingly under pressure to get their messages in front of the fragmented audience.
While MTV Networks told its advertisers last week that “multiplatform is the message,” Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart summed up the revolution with his own sardonic twist: “They actually have a show that’s delivered through Jell-O shots.”
MTV’s Graden said by phone last week that there’s qualitative and quantitative research on the subject, but the impulse is more intuitive at MTV.
“This is how people are living,” he said. “Advertisers are looking to us for solutions. My instinct is, this (multiplatform) is the dominant conversation now. Your imagination, when a pitch comes in, is fired up in a different way. That component is imagined from minute one.”
While the networks have tried “pay to play” models, on Google Video and iTunes, those efforts fell short. The current broadband streaming marks the first time the content is being offered without subscriber fees.
A peek at CBS’s innertube reveals inexpensive-looking reality programming bolstered by extra material that supports existing series. CBS will stream three shows a day on innertube, with one new program posted each weekday. Advertisers signed on so far are Cadbury Schwepps, Pier 1 Imports and Verizon SuperPages.com. Product placement is rampant.
The landscape is shifting rapidly as programmers embrace the Internet as a key part of the network business plan.
After being burned in this area a decade ago, Microsoft plans to offer original programming, teaming with a successful television producer to introduce 10 Web pilots. Most are loosely scripted, quasi-reality shows. Tom Arnold is reportedly set to star in a sitcom.
NBC Universal Television Group promises that digital packages will accompany all the company’s cable and TV series.
So far, MTV, Comedy Central, ESPN, SciFi, USA and CBS appear to be in the forefront of networks exploring the uncharted broadband territory. Industry veterans say this new media gold rush is reminiscent of cable’s early days, when a frontier mentality ruled.
Viewers soon can expect to see premieres of network series on computer and video on demand. Starting Wednesday online, then moving to MTV’s global television presence, MTV Networks launched a series with ad partner Hewlett-Packard. Titled “Meet or Delete,” the series lets college students check out each other’s hard drives to determine sexual compatibility.
Viewers will see the show on TV as well as on their computers. Cashing in on the product-placement trend, HP hardware will be featured prominently in each episode.
The question is no longer “what’s on TV?” but “what’s TV on?”
Television critic Joanne Ostrow can be reached at 303-820-1830 or jostrow@denverpost.com.
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