Not Our Old TV

As we mentioned below, it seems Conan O’Brien has the Internet cornered; but not by his doing. Social media promotes for you, and that is exactly what it is doing. Currently several of his fans got together and created an “I’m With Coco” avatar to support the ditched NBC late-night dude.  They urged fans to change their avatars and they responded.

Creating a Facebook page for a three word message seems ridiculous, however the ridiculous sometimes works – “I’m with Coco’s” avatar FB page has 318,000 fans, in about a week.

I remember thinking of starting an “I’m With Frankie” Facebook page when Magna was going through some trouble, but I was cautioned by many that it would probably have fewer followers than a Bernie Madoff Fan Club page. Upon further reflection, I think they were right.

I read recently that CDI has secured a deal to get Kentucky Derby prep races shown on NBC; they will be paying a couple of million for the prep-race infomercials. It’s no surprise I think this is a poor use of funds, as I believe that selling to the masses, or preaching to the choir will not help us in the long-run. I know many do not agree, and that is fine, however some of my reading this morning makes me think I might be on the right track:

Online television station Revision3 offers the aforementioned Conan O’Brien a job. Online stations are gaining more and more market share, specialty stations are as well. I personally liked the CDI deal with Bravo as it speaks to a newer market and racing can be shown in a different way – that is fine. But hammering old-network TV and having to pay for it? Not fine, in my opinion.

Second, Michael Learmouth at Adage has a feature on web tv and the possible loss of cable’s/network’s market share. He believes that within a few years cable companies, and the way we watch TV in general will be forever changed.

Some quotes: “At the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, cable operators got a look at a device that could start to eat into another core business: TVs with built-in Skype access. LG and Panasonic announced partnerships to start shipping the sets later this year.”

“….. customers are cutting back on cable bills: while rates go up every year, the average amount consumers are paying for digital cable dropped from $79 a month in the third quarter of 2008 to $70 in the third quarter of 2009 as they drop additional channels and services,”

“Parks Associates estimates that the consumer electronics industry will sell 80 million net-connected TVs by 2013, and there are already 20 million net-connected Xbox consoles in circulation.”

I think spending a couple of million on what we will be doing tomorrow, is better than spending that same amount on what we will not be doing tomorrow.

Then again, that opinion is what it is. Remember, I did want to start a “I’m with Frankie” Facebook page. :)