Wired: Roll-Your-Own Net TV Takes Off
An interesting trend is afoot: online content making its way to TV. The above Wired story talks about amateur documentarians getting their digital video content aired on TV stations around the world, particularly on cable stations and in poorer countries. Interesting enough, but then today I got an email from NYCBloggers.com, saying that a local cable channel, RNN (Regional News Network), is seeking NY-area bloggers to become regular commentators on their program.
The deal is that every day they will send a question out to bloggers on an opt-in email, soliciting opinions. If subscribers are interested in answering the question, they should do so on their blogs and alert the TV station, which will select a few of those comments to read on the nightly broadcasts.
What's the marketing application of this? Well, nothing, yet, but it wouldn't take much imagination to think of one. E.g., I've long been waiting to see an advertiser sponsor an advertising contest for amateur ad submissions: "Send us your homemade commercial, and we'll air the best one and pay you $100,000 and put the best five runners up on our web site."
