Television, Internet show signs of merging
by Mark on 2/4/2004 (6)
 | 1950 RCA internet ready? Signs point to yes! | | The Internet, with its own sub-culture and cryptic language, is influencing television more and more. How far will it go?
Angelique "Leeky" Fedora, also known as Leeky Fedora on her Hotmail account explains.
"The web has a language all of its own. When it comes to rating a surfers sense of humor, there are three major abbreviations:
'LOL' means 'lots of laughs', and indicates an average, solid laugh. 'LMAO' means 'laughing my ass off', and indicates an even funnier response. 'ROTFLMAO' means 'rolling on the floor laughing my ass off' and is reserved for the funniest of all posts."
Leeky scrolled through a message board listing, scanning for more internet jargon.
"The internet is getting bigger than television, and the major TV networks have responded to this."
This would seem to be true.
Fox just released a "LOL Sunday" campaign for its biggest comedy trio, King of the Hill, Malcom in the Middle and The Simpsons, an obvious reference to the Pop internet term. The Jilian Barbieri show, "eXtreme dating" borrows from porn pop-ups, that try to seize your attention before you have a chance to close the screen. The beginning of "eXtreme dating" is structured the same way.
The million-hit question is, how far will the networks go to copy the web?
Here are some possibilities, some of them already being tested:
1. TV hit counter. Networks may create contests to see how many "hits" a show gets from a certain viewing area. A take-off of the Nielsen rating system of old. This may include installing an Alexa bar on remote controls. Who uses Alexa, anyway?
2. TV Message Boards. Networks may integrate an online message board onto a cable network channel. PC thugs take message boards very, very, very seriously, folks. I'm a greasy thug myself! Usefull for bashing Liberals and shagging dates nationwide.
3. Emulating "back" and "forward" key strokes using creative screen shots. This would be cool. Make the screen shots go back and forward like you do online. It would be very recognizable to a web savvy viewer. Hold onto your Shift key!
4. Pop-ups. I think you'll see pop-up commericials on TV soon, screen within a screen stuff. I can see commercials offering discounts and free products that can only be redeemed online through a code displayed on your TV. Bet on it, and plan on getting pop-up blockers for your RCA as well as your PC.
5. E-mail voting and marketing. This one is a sure thing: Watch for networks to display e-mail addresses for voting, viewer response, and such, which will be mined and marketed once they get to the PC level. It's in full Swing on the web already, and you can bet that some of the Spam you get will originate from TV soon as well. Keep that delete key crumb-free!
6. TV shows with an internet origin This one's a given, too. Currently, TV programming is spawned in Hollywood by studio writers. Can the web infiltrate their ranks? Look for the most popular and entertaining websites to become TV shows. Oddly, some themes that won't work on the internet work on TV, and visa-versa. That is probably due to the grunge underground feel the web has.
Can you think of any websites that may make the boob tube? I can...
Leeky Fedora closed a half-dozen pop-up ads and deleted a screen full of Spam, sighing:
"I'm not sure what comes after the Web invades television, but one things for sure, if 'Pay Pal' ever hits channel 8, I'm heading for the hills!"
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