mediatime

No and No. To Broadcasters

Canadian " conventional" broacasters are losing share of viewing, they are concerned with consumers not paying attention to ads ,younger consumers are watching less TV . Whats' there solution? Make consumers pay ( via higher cable costs ) to watch there stations and jam the content full of even more ads!

Hopefully sanity will prevail and the CRTC will say NO to broadcasters requesting carriage fees from cable companies ( which the cable cos will pass on to you and I ) and no to pushing the 12 minute limit on commercial time to " anything you can get ".

How about more innovation and better content and creativity instead.

Why not start monetizing content delivered via video streaming and to mobile devices ....and kick start some SVOD opportunities.

Lost will be Lost

It makes no sense to me , for shows that are building a following ,like Lost or Heroes , with an ongoing storyline  , to go on 3 week hiatus, never mind 3 months!

Conventional TV finds new ways every season to kill or erode audiences.

For content that has legs; they should be airing in a continuous session ( eg. 12 straight weeks) , pre and post streaming online, repeating at least once between original episode " regular" nights ,providing overall story synopsis online and extra content, repeating in summer months in "marathon" screenings( on TV or at the ciniplex)  and capitalizing on the huge demand for TV shows on DVD much sooner .

Canada leads with etc.tv

etc.TV is a pioneering enhanced or " telescopic' television platform which launched this week in 615,000 ( almost 40% ) of French Quebec homes with potential reach of 1.3 million digital cable consumers.

The service allows TV viewers , via their remotes , to push the select button while watching " enhanced" commercials, and then choose to watch

an extended length video ..now....which can be 2 minutes , 10 minutes or longer

book mark an extended video content to watch later ...on demand

or just return to watching regular programming.

The benefits include a deeper, engaged brand experience with self-selected consumers who see the message as " relevant".

You can also close the loop via a 1-800# or drive to unique url .

Down the road T-Commerce is a possibilty ; and the roll out to millions of additional homes via other digital service providers is expected in late 2007.

You can separate the province into 10 distict regions and test offers, creative, length etc.

Reporting is live online, actual household views, when , watched part or all, multiple views etc.

Mediaedge:cia participated in the test earlier this year with Molson Coors beer ; and generated the highest " click view"  in the test to a 90 second video; and the highest return /additional views.

In the roll-out this month Ford of Canada is  participating with a 4 minute " truth about trucks" and other MEC clients are watching results closely with several planned for winter trials.