How long will it be before NBC and The CW merge?
I'm joking. Kind of. I mean, I don't see anything like that happening, but more and more they seem spiritually aligned. Neither's viewer base actually seems to watch television and they seem more interested in what's happening on Twitter and the rest of the Internet than, you know, actually promoting their shows.
NBC is stepping up its efforts to measure the online activity generated by its shows and to get more feedback from fans via the Internet.
Peacock has hired Virginia-based marketing and research firm New Media Strategies to help glean more info from Web-based research as it revs up the campaigns for its summer and fall series.
NBC is increasing its efforts to analyze what fans are saying about its programs and to assess which shows are generating buzz. Such chatter certainly played a part in the Peacock bringing back "Chuck" -- as well as drawing a financial commitment from Subway after a fan-generated promotional stunt involved the sandwich chain. It was also influential in saving such series as "Friday Night Lights," which the network now shares with DirecTV.
While I am certainly glad Chuck is returning, and thought the fan campaign of supporting one of Chuck's sponsors was brilliant as fan campaigns go, there's too much conflicting information to get a good read on how important the Internet fan campaigns were in the show's renewal. It couldn't have hurt, but I'm not sure it helped much. I'm not sure it didn't help much either and the likelihood is we'll never know. Neither NBC nor Warner Brothers (nor Subway) has sent me any thank yous for The Fifteen Days of Chuck (though we did actually hear thanks from a couple of people who work on the show).
Kidding aside, I like the folks at New Media Strategies (NMS) and I like how NBC is utilizing them. But I think Variety is probably misleading in terms of how NBC is really utilizing NMS. It seems the primary utilization is they are using NMS as a 3rd party marketing firm to handle Internet outreach by promoting NBC's offerings to blogs like ours. Pretty much every day these days I get e-mails with handy links and code for embedded video. Sure, I could be constantly checking out NBC's web site and getting the same information, but especially for sites that focus on including a lot of video clip, it's a whole lot more convenient to just have the information sent directly to you.
Admittedly, we're not too focused on being an entertainment site, but there's no doubt that I have embedded more NBC videos in posts in the last week or so as a result, but across all the blogs that do that, what that will mean in terms of more people actually watching NBC's shows remains to be seen. I'm guessing it's not much. And while I applaud NBC for the online outreach, whatever's busted at NBC will not be fixed by good Internet promotion. That doesn't mean they shouldn't do it, and in fact, I think it's smart that NBC has seemingly entirely Outsourced the whole thing and will hopefully be focusing its own efforts on what really ails it.
The Subway fan campaign was a large part an internet campaign. The idea development, organization, promotion and feedback to the company and network were all done on forums, fansites and Twitter. The internet aspect was important. I’m interested in seeing if the next phase of the fan campaign works – if fans can increase viewership by word-of-mouth (or word-of-keyboard?).
I’m also curious how NBC will use the information mined from the internet. How will it respond to “what fans are saying about its programs”?
Though I don’t believe the Internet saved Chuck or FNL directly, I think the fact that the Internet enabled people to connect so easily and plan the campaigns that were done so effectively makes it a strong argument for analyzing just what the impact might be.
The Internet is a critical part of engaging not only the TV viewer but society in general. Networks would be foolish to not invest in more fan engaging efforts through the net. Easy, ready, always available access to information in any format is why the Internet has changed the was we communicate so much. Look at what live blogging has done to keynote speeches and trade shows, what streaming has done for news and sports, and what Twitter and Facebook have done in terms of connecting people.
I can only hope that advertisers and industry experts look to the Internet rather than just the Nielsen system in the future to get a real sense of what people are watching and how fans are reacting to print/Internet/TV advertising placements.
I believe what Chuck illustrates is that fans are willing to PAY for good television. Chuck fans were able to buy Subway and in a sense PAID for the show’s renewal. The internet community was the root of that campaign, it was its social networking capacity that helped save Chuck, combined with fans willingness to spend their hard earn money on the chance of seeing Chuck and Sarah finally get together.
I think you will see Chuck fans vigorously buy whatever they can to keep the show going and compensate for its ratings. NBC has a potential goldmine with Chuck and should give Chuck fans other ways to spend their money on advertisers. The success of Chuck is a new era in television and we were around to see its inception.
I think if TSCC fans could have donated money to keep their show they would have. They would pay money out of pocket for their show. The networks should take note of this and use it to their advantage.
One final note, it is in the interest of Chuck fans to STOP buying subway. That way when Chuck returns and they purchase it with gusto, it will pad the sales and make the advertising of Chuck look even more effective. Subway will survive 9 months without Chuck fans money, but if they play their cards right, and buy only after Chuck returns, Subway and NBC wont know what hit them.
Flounder. There is wisdom in what you are saying, my friend. For now, the hard part for CHUCK fans will be NOT going to Subway until the show returns. They (including me) are just so thankful that the show will return and feel very indebted to Subway, that they will keep supporting it even during the long hiatus.
Other than that, I think what you said was very, very intuitive. Chuck fans basically “paid” for the show to return. Really, that’s what all advertisers are after – but with Chuck, a fan/Internet based campaign actually pulled it off.
I still dont know why NBC picked up Chuck. The show will never gain anymore viewers. it will lose more being of air for so long.
Chris – apparently with the Subway/Warner Bros. deal that NBC worked out, they figure that they can make money even without great ratings. When we’re talking about CHUCK, we have to look at what else NBC renewed – and MANY of the shows they renewed had the same or WORSE ratings numbers than CHUCK. So when talking about NBC, what got axed/renewed is all “relative.”
People need to remember, Subway is a major corporation – MAJOR. It’s up there with McDonalds (if not higher) in the number of franchises/stores/restaurants or whatever you want to call them. They didn’t get that way by being stupid, but by being smart and savy. I don’t think they would put themselves into an agreement with NBC that wouldn’t somehow make them money – even if CHUCK doesn’t put up great numbers.
I guess come Fall/Winter/Spring, we’ll see how it all pans out. It will be interesting to see what “crashes” on the different networks, and if we lose more good scripted shows (no matter which network they’re on) to more of this reality crap.
I guess that’s why more and more people are watching the shows on USA, TNT, etc. They’re the kind of shows that the “major” networks aired 10-20 years ago and which people liked – and apparently will still seek out on cable.
271 days until chuck returns, courtesy of http://sites.google.com/site/bringchuckbacksooner/
*g*
I agree about Subway. I have already stopped purchasing footlongs until Chuck returns. I did drop a comment that said thanks for Chuck look forward to foot long subs on Mondays.
Hi, I like Chuck, it is a welcome change from the mass produced CSI clones usually rammed down our throats. But sorry Flounder, I am not going to wait till Chuck returns to patronize Subway. I pick the fast food joint I go to based on what I want at the time, and a little by how long a line there is when I get there. Mainly though I doubt that a chain like Subway would even notice if I didn’t buy a sandwich for a while.
I do worry that scripted shows are in decline now. Even blockbuster shows like Lost are losing rating numbers. And I absolutely hate the so called “reality” shows. NBC in particular is in the hole on scripted shows that I like anyway, so whenever a decent one like Chuck comes along I kinda hold my breath to see if it works out. Much as I like Chuck I doubt it has more than one more season left. I hope I’m wrong.
Maybe this isn’t exactly the place for this post, but what the heck. It seems like newspapers are “going under” because of the popularity of the Internet. The Postal Service is suffering because people are sending each other emails rather than regular written (and postage stamped) letters. It seems only natural – and I know it’s still early at this stage – that the effect of the Internet on TV is only going to increase – positively and/or negatively.
Positively in that people who might not be able to watch TV shows when they’re aired (and don’t have DVR, TIVO, etc.) can go to network web sites and watch the shows on line (and still contribute at least something to network ad revenue). On the “negative impact” side – and this I believe is years or decades away – you may have the proliferation (there are a handful now) of “web only” shows that you can’t see on TV, but only on the Internet.
It behooves the networks to be reseraching the impact/effect of the Web NOW rather than get caught with their pants down later.
Rick Holy: I’m still waiting to see if Commander Data (Star Trek: TNG, first season) was prescient in saying that television, as an entertainment medium, was pretty much finished by 2040.
Wonder what NBC would be willing to pay (and CBS and Time Warner would be willing to accept) to merge CW with NBC?
Hi Rick, Thought I’d put my 2 cents worth in here. I believe that newspapers are going under for a variety of reasons, not just the internet. Until a few years ago there was no alternative to newspapers and the network news broadcasts. It was pretty much a monopoly, there was one basic viewpoint, and if you didn’t like it you were out of luck. Now you can turn to internet sources, and Fox News. Regardless of your opinion of Fox their viewership is growing while CBS, NBC, ABC etc are in the tank. Newspapers editorialize what should be hard news and more and more people just don’t trust them anymore. Newspapers in my opinion have shot themselves in the foot.
The postal service just plain sucks. they have fewer users, so instead of reducing their overhead, personnel and benefits they ask for and get rate increases. Huh in what universe does that make sense? “Hey, we are doing less so we have to charge you more for our shoddy service.” Right.
I agree that networks should look at ways to use the internet in the future. Those that do will profit, those that don’t will have to play catch up. Darwinism at its best.
What scares me is the thought that the government is looking at ways to use the internet as well. There are proposals that all medical records be posted on a web database. Imagine if hackers get access to that info. Saw a news story recently that someone claimed to have hacked a state medical record site and harvested a bunch of social security numbers. They demanded payment or they would sell the numbers to people for identity theft schemes. Yet our new president still wants to post the entire nation’s medical records on line. Bad idea, but no one seems worried. A health insurance company would do well to get their prospective client’s medical records so they can avoid insuring those with prolonged expensive comditions.
Looks like a tax on internet use is next up. Somebody has got to pay for the stimulous bill.
Just because we can do something doesn’t mean we should.
Does this mean they’ll finally listen to the Heroes fans about how much the show sucks now?
Probably not. Heroes started well then went off into crapland. Just stop watching, someday they will get the message.
I think it is a little lame to not patronize Subway until next March.
I think it is a lot better to just let subway know we are supporting them in the offseason. What more could subway want to hear than that? Send them a corporate email or something.
I will eat there when convenient and perhaps step it up to every monday in march.
I think the important thing is that subway knows we are supportive of them.