__twocolumncontent.jpg)
As broadcast series try to reach out to viewers via every new online outlet that pops up and more online studios are premiering broadcast-quality series, the definition of TV programming is getting more confused.
TV showrunners and digital representatives gathered at the Variety TV Summit on Wednesday to speak about the increasingly blurred line of broadcast TV and digital content – namely, what works online when engaging fans and how TV brands can influence on-air programming with related online content.
Below are a few examples of what the speakers saw as successful TV/digital programming.
“@midnight”:
Chris Hardwick’s late-night show is a simple example of a TV brand that exists almost simultaneously on-air and online. Kent Alterman, president of content development and original programming at Comedy Central, says that “@midnight” shows how the network is trying to approach social media in a more organic way, “rather than as an after thought.”
By making it intrinsically part of the show’s format, Alterman says, the audience connected to the show much more quickly and allowed Comedy Central to treat social media as a holistic idea rather than parsing out what is social and what is content.
“For the millennial audience, comedy is currency,” said Alterman, comparing comedy bits to the old water cooler conversations, which is what makes comedy series such a natural fit for social outlets.
“Now we live in a time in which nothing prevents anyone from creating content and putting it out there. It’s fostered such a great time of creativity and expression - so many of our shows were birthed on the Internet,” he said.
“The Voice”:
Audrey Morrissey, executive producer of “The Voice,” says that a broadcast network only allows one so much time to deliver a story over the air, so she looks to digital platforms to continue that story.
For “The Voice,” that means beginning the moment the show is off the air to add to a viewer’s experience, but also thinking of ways to make those same viewers watch the show live, which means involving them live—not DVR, not binge-viewing, but live. One way “The Voice” does that is with the Twitter Save, giving fans a say in who stays and who goes during the Tuesday night results show.
“It’s really additive and it’s seen in the ratings – our ratings in those last acts sky rocket,” said Morrissey.
More recently, the show has even shown those votes onscreen during commercial breaks, and NBC has seen upticks in viewers staying for those breaks when they would have otherwise walked away.
Another example Morrissey provided is simple Twitter gags that “The Voice” and other shows like it can use, such as coaches Blake and Adam switching Twitter handles for a night, encouraging people to watch the show live in order to play along on Twitter, much like how “Scandal” actors live-tweet each episode so superfans will want to watch live in order to avoid spoilers and hear from their favorite TV stars.
Amazon:
“In an online environment, no one randomly runs into the show,” said Roy Price, director of Amazon Studios, “so you have to reach out for the show. So it creates a different dynamic.”
Amazon Studios uses online testing to try to predict the future, and Price says this method has worked tremendously well.
“We use pilots, instead of going to a small room with a two-way mirror,” he says, asking Amazon users to watch pilots and give feedback.
After Amazon receives that feedback from around the world (he says they put out pilots in the U.S., U.K. and Germany), the studio uses the data to move forward.
However, he’s very careful to say that they wouldn’t simply dissect Amazon searches and use that information to decide what content to create.
“We wouldn’t see that people searched for ‘Downton Abbey’ a lot so commission a show about British people in Surrey,” he said. “That’s probably not the way to go.”
Price points to a few differences between broadcast and Amazon content – more binge-viewing online, more serialized series, less cancellations – and he says that it’s these differences that Amazon can leverage while growing its pilots into full series.
Tags:
