CBS is mounting a digital and social production around the 57th Annual Grammys that is nearly as big and complex as the show itself.
This year’s Grammys air Iive on CBS on Sunday, Feb. 8, from 8 to 11:30 pm ET/PT. The show, which will feature a duet by nominee Sam Smith and multiple Grammy winner Mary J. Blige (above) among many other performances, is the center of a digital production that’s already up and running on the Internet’s most popular platforms.
Grammy Live, the Recording Academy and CBS’ digital pre- and behind-the-scenes show, will begin Sunday, Feb. 8, at noon PT and be available on CBS.com, Grammy.com and on the Grammy Live app for iOS, Android and Windows Mobile as well as on the CBS App for iOS and Android. In its fourth year, Grammy Live will continue through the live telecast. Grammy.com already has plenty of interviews with artists and other content posted to the site, contributed by red-carpet correspondent Andrew Burnette and others.
This is the first year that subscribers to CBS All Access will be able to view the Grammys from their smart phones and mobile tablets. CBS’ new subscription video on demand service will offer a live stream of the awards show in CBS-owned station markets: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas, San Francisco, Boston, Detroit, Minneapolis, Miami, Denver, Sacramento, Pittsburgh and Baltimore. Subscribers also will have access to exclusive behind-the-scenes content.
“Every year we have … the most robust digital offerings for the Grammys,” says Rob Gelick, CBS senior VP/GM of digital platforms. “The Grammys really is a unique program that reaches a broad audience. It’s a great way to have this larger conversation around music with fanfare that happens across the digital landscape.”
Grammy Live is the online hub for all things Grammy, including the Grammy Awards Premiere Ceremony, which will be hosted by Hunter Hayes on Sunday from 12:30 pm to 3:30 pm PT. The Premiere Ceremony awards statues in some 70 categories that aren’t handed out during the primetime broadcast.
Leading up to the big show, Quddus and fashionista Louise Roe will host Grammy Live’s red carpet, with Burnette reporting. Artist Rita Ora is the platform’s as a special guest live blogger, sharing her perspective from her VIP seat inside Los Angeles’ Staples Center.
Due to a partnership with Snappy TV, fans will be able to grab clips and highlights from the red carpet and share those across social platforms.
Once the show gets going, Grammy Live will move off the record carpet and backstage, offering in-audience correspondents, fan-submitted questions with Grammy nominees and performers, real-time social media trends and a wrap-up show immediately following the telecast.
NCIS’ Pauley Perrette and CSI: Cyber’s Shad Moss (aka BowWow) (pair pictured in cube image) will serve as the event’s social media reporters. They’ll be accompanied by YouTube star Tyler Oakley who will interview arriving stars on the red carpet. The interviews will be made available on CBS.com, CBS Audience network partner sites and on CBS’ YouTube channel, which is already populated with interviews with Grammy nominees and performers.
“All of this gets amplified by our social media producers,” says Gelick. “While all of this is going on, we’re retweeting, reposting and favoriting in order to get a rich dialog going.”
Microsoft and Target are both returning to partner with CBS and the Recording Academy on Grammys Live.
“We can thread their brand story through not only their on-air [advertising] units, but also with everything we are doing on digital and on-site,” says Jeff Grossman, CBS VP of content and product strategy.
Other technology partners for Grammy Live include AMV Digital Media, which will Iive stream the online show using its Tremolo Player and Akamai’s global distribution HD network. The Recording Academy is working with Acquit, Drupal, Lullabot, MJD Interactive and Ooyala on both Grammy.com and Grammy.org.
CBS also is conducting a watch-and-win program during the show, in which the winner can win a VIP trip to Los Angeles to see the upcoming Grammy special, Stevie Wonder: Songs in the Key of Life, which will tape on Tuesday, Feb. 10, and air on Sunday, Feb. 16.
Beyond its own digital efforts, CBS and the Recording Academy also have active partnerships in place with such major social platforms as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.
“This is the first year I can remember where we have active participation from all of these players,” said Grossman. “We’re deeply integrated across all of these platforms.”
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