My nephew the high- school freshman would sooner show up for class in wingtip shoes than be caught watching old- fashioned television.
Not that he actively dislikes the most popular comedies and dramas, or the news and sports events. He’s simply uninterested. He’s got his entertainment patterns down, and they don’t include hours with the local network affiliates.
For four days over Thanksgiving, I observed his viewing habits at close range: a nonstop rotation of Xbox to YouTube to MySpace and back to Xbox through his waking hours. When he occasionally ventured out of the house, it was to play Xbox at a friend’s house, interacting with international game players online.
“Primetime” is meaningless to him. The habit of channel surfing from the sofa is unfamiliar to him. He gave up consulting TV listings when he graduated from Juicy-Juice. Rare glances at Comedy Central make up his interaction with the TV set. The 10 minutes he sacrified to the Macy’s parade were the extent of his non-cable viewing.
No wonder the networks are scared.
This well-founded fear is inspiring the old-line TV companies to experiment. At least one has struck a smart deal: CBS hooked up with YouTube in mid-October. A month later, its news, sports and entertainment clips are among the most- viewed videos on YouTube – to the tune of more than 29 million look-sees since their collaboration began.
That’s a lot of uninterested nephews drawing a daily dose of CBS from a different well.
And that’s part of why Google thought YouTube was worth $1.65 billion in stock.
Right up there with all those soccer moments, laughing
babies and filmmaker-wannabes sent in by individuals worldwide, CBS has three of the most-viewed videos for
the month (through mid-
November).
A catfight clip from “NCIS,” a Borat interview from “Late Show With David Letterman,” cheerleaders from CSTV (CBS’ college sports channel) and clips from “The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson” and “The Early Show” ranked high on the YouTube most-viewed list.
Beyond clips, CBS negotiated a direct route to its full-length programs onto the YouTube site. The CBS Brand Channel (sounds almost new, doesn’t it?) has a spot under the
“Partners” heading, along with PBS, NBC, Fox News, Spike TV and Playboy.
Tell the truth: Isn’t the sight of Borat sitting next to Letterman intriguing? Any one of the numerous Borat clips contributed by CBS is bound to be a more fruitful experience – not to mention a more polished, professional production – than the clips made in dorms.
Maybe this is the best way to watch Letterman, after all. Cut through the padding, get to the most entertaining minute.
Ironically, CBS executives are starting to see that little picture of Letterman and Borat on YouTube’s index as an effective commercial for the geriatric network itself.
The network claims ratings for its late-night shows in particular benefit from their association with YouTube. Since the YouTube postings started, Letterman has shown a 5 percent increase, up 200,000 viewers. Ferguson is up 7 percent, or 100,000 viewers.
No word on exactly how much credit YouTube deserves for the boost. Still, the exposure in a cool medium can’t hurt.
And it’s likely to draw in new viewers who are much younger than tradtional CBS audiences.
Still, the placement of network TV content on YouTube inevitably feels manipulative. It lacks the essential homegrown, spontaneous quality of the shot of a Moscow subway traffic jam, apparently snapped via cellphone, that makes the original free-for-all YouTube feel so small-d democratic and oddly personal.
Once it becomes just another outlet for the corporate conglomerates’ branded material, it loses its appeal as an underground destination. Once the YouTube regulars like my nephew figure out that they’re targets of fierce marketing campaigns by the vintage networks, they may steer clear of the too-mainstream site.
Like Borat or Letterman, if it’s too popular, it can’t be cool.
TV critic Joanne Ostrow can be reached at 303-954-1830 or jostrow@denverpost.com.
