Program scripts from week of March 25, 2013
My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media. TV, radio, the movies and more. I love them, and I hate them and I always have an opinion. Call this the View from the Phlipside.
Second Screen TV
So what’s the hot new thing in television these days? It’s people not giving the boob tube their undivided attention. Of course to be honest the number of folks who really do just stare at the flickering screen with drool hanging off their chins has probably been overestimated down through the years.
In this case however what is being watched may just be a good thing for TV. It’s called second screens. That means your tablet, your laptop, your smartphone that is used while you are watching the home version of the big screen.
Now the traditional reaction would be how can that possibly be a good thing for TV shows? These are people who are looking at something else and not paying attention. There are two points to be made here. First the ratings aren’t actually based on whether or not you’re paying attention. As long as you’re in the room and facing the screen they’re happy. The second point is just what those second screen folks are doing on that device.
What we’re discovering is that they are going social networking about the show they’re watching. I have never seen so much as a second of PBS’s hit “Downton Abbey” but I know when it’s on. Because my Facebook feed goes nuts with people commenting on the action.
Facebook and Twitter offer folks the chance to share their opinions in real time (or close to it) with other folks who are fans of their show. It actually draws them deeper into the program rather than distract from it.
Even more interesting are early studies that show a direct correlation between Twitter traffic for a program and an increase in TV ratings. In fact the folks at Nielsen say that Twitter traffic is now one of three significantly consistent variables in trending ratings (the other two are last year’s ratings and advertising spent for the show).
So now we know that active TV viewers can be found on Twitter, that they can be significant in the success of a show. That means money is headed that direction. Which perhaps explains why Facebook is now exploring things like hashtags.
Seems like Twitter has made the big time.
Tech Exhaustion
With all the technology that fills our lives it was inevitable that a backlash would be coming. Call it tech overload or tech exhaustion it’s the feeling you get when it just feels like all of your social media and technology have become a second job for you. That rather than being an extension or addition to your life it has become your life.
Now if you’ve made the decision not to jump into the digital social scene you can sit back and feel smug. Because most people in that category say they just don’t have time for all that nonsense. While I’m not ready to give up ALL of my online stuff I am starting to think about how much time it takes up.
The worst part is that never seems to be an end to it all. If it were just Facebook for social stuff that would be fine. But then you start playing games. It doesn’t stop there. Maybe Twitter is the next one down the list. Or you start getting professional pressure to join services like LinkedIn or Google+ or Klout. Then you get to the point where you have so many places to post you start investigating places like HootSuite or Ping.fm which allow you post over several different platforms at the same time. Or even start planning out your posts in advance so it can be done automatically for you.
It was about that time that I suddenly stopped and said “Why Am I Doing This?”. I’ll be honest and say that while I have a Google+ account I never look at it. I keep it mostly for the odd occasion when I need a quick conference call type thing and I can use Google Hangout. I have a LinkedIn account which I guess is supposed to help me professionally. The problem is that my career has taken a unique and slightly weird track over the years.
In the end we are all facing a time when we will have to decided what social media actually adds something to our lives that we want. If all it adds is time wasting activity and more tasks that need to be accomplished every day. We need to decide if it’s more important to enjoy the activity we’re doing or posting that we’re doing the activity on Foursquare.
Our technology and social media have the potential to be a great addition to our lives. We just need to make sure that along the way we don’t sacrifice that life at technology’s altar.
Movie Warmth
Well so far my desperate desire for it to be spring hasn’t helped at all. But I refuse to give in. It will be warm, it will be spring and then it will be summer. I just have to keep positive thoughts in my head. (I’m not sure I really believe that stuff but an old college buddy of mine who lives in California keeps telling me to do it when the winter weather overwhelms me.)
So what better way to keep warm and happy thoughts inside my head than to think about some spring and summer movie releases? There’s a lot to look forward to in that category.
As per usual we will get an enormous load of sequels. This includes Red 2 (which I will definitely go see. What a great cast) Despicable Me 2 and Smurfs 2 for the family audience, The Hangover 3 for the not family audience, Scary Movie 5 and Fast and Furious 6 for I have no idea what audience still is paying to see these movies.
Also in the we’ve done this before category Iron Man 3, a new Superman movie called “Man of Steel”, Jurraisic Park 3D (might work, still not sold on 3D), Johnny Depp in “The Lone Ranger” which to my eye looks awful in the previews, a “Monsters, Inc” prequel called “Monsters University” and my own personal oh-boy-oh-boy-oh-boy movie of the summer “Star Trek Into Darkness”
On the other hand we have Tyler Perry who is always bringing the crowds so we get not one but two movies from him this year one called “Temptation” and the other “We the Peeples”.
In other movies it will continue to be a tough year for the White House. “Olympus Has Fallen” has just opened and “White House Down” is still to come. We have classics of literature coming to the big screen Joss Wheedon directs “Much Ado About Nothing”, and Leonardo DiCaprio stars in“The Great Gatsby”, plus “I, Frankenstein” where the monster meets the graphic novel Which might just work, a re-make of Kon-Tiki (remember Kon-tiki? You’re old!), a Jackie Robinson baseball bio-pic just in time for the season to get started and last but not least “10 Habits of Highly Effective People” which is NOT a business systems movie but what the promo material describes as business executives being murdered in a darkly comedic romp.
I feel warmer already.
Call that the View From the Phlipside
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