In a fascinating San Francisco Chronicle article this morning, I read how Current TV (that's Al Gore's tv/web UGC hybrid) is bidding for the elusive C word - convergence - by challenging users to deliver 'assignments' to the website which may or may not end up on TV. Because, in case we didn't already know this, apparently 70% of 18-34 year olds are watching tv and 'noodling about' on their laptops at the same time. Those pesky kids.
I initially typed in 'viewers' there but that's exactly the nub of the issue - how do you combine the two so that your users become viewers - and vice versa. Confusing, isn't it? And I'm not even going to irritate you by calling them 'viewsers'...
So, TV execs throw down the creative gauntlet by asking folk to post videos on themes like 'Some companies are paying their workers to get fit' (I wish...) or 'Do you live in a megacity?'. Having broadcast - or posted - the films they like, they hope to get a conversation going around that content.
According to one of Current's co-founders, Joel Hyatt, 'The magic of the internet isn't that you can watch "Desperate Housewives" on it. It is that this is where you can engage and interact and build community and influence'.
The network's internal studies show that the average viewer to the channel watches 7.5 hours per week. Which isn't bad in amongst the hundreds of channels available on cable in the US.
What isn't clear, though, is whether those viewers are in the target age range. Because, as we all know, just creating content on a platform we know kids consume, does not mean they'll want it. The stuff has to be worth the effort to come and find...
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