Television and the Internet are not exactly best friends, as traditional broadcasting business models find it hard to adapt to new media strategies, and vice versa. However, these days it’s the rare series that doesn’t have at least some online presence, and examples of great integration between a show’s website and the show itself have begun piling up over the last several years. Why? Because the amount of content currently available for the average TV junkie is astronomical these days; to not engage with a potential new viewer on every possible platform is to let those viewers slip through your fingers. And a multi-platform approach — iPhone apps, banner ads, etc. — increases branding and monetizing opportunities. This is especially true when video is included, given that the average American now watches 30 minutes of online video every day.
The important thing for those looking to create accompanying web content for television programming is to be clear about who your audience is, as well as your strategy for engaging with viewers. Let’s examine a few types of shows and the ways in which broadcasters can reach a larger number of viewers in more interactive and meaningful ways than simply viewing a show on the television network.
Engage Audiences with Multimedia
One way of engaging — and therefore retaining — an audience is to encourage viewers to participate in the show’s creation. Take, for example, Mythbusters. The popular science program features hosts Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman applying their vast special effects and technological expertise to the challenge of recreating popular myths. Online, fans are given the opportunity to contribute ideas and get more information about the science behind the episodes through quizzes, games and a complete “Myth Database” that’s slowly but surely cataloging the over 700 myths tackled by the show since 2003.
While no full-length content is available online, the official Mythbusters website features video clips front and center. While the fact that they auto-play is a little annoying, it does give the visitor an immediate flavor for the show and inspires them to check out the full-length content.
On the television side, episodes of the show draw their content from user-submitted “myths” to bust — including a 2009 episode that put YouTube viral videos to the test. And host Adam Savage is actively engaged in social networking, including a lively Twitter account with over 335,000 followers.
All this engagement pays off: 1.3 million households watched the recent Mythbusters season premiere.
Similar shows: Other Discovery Channel content, awards shows like The Grammys.
Continue the Story Online
A CBS sitcom now entering its sixth season, How I Met Your Mother has been fairly subversive in its integration of supplemental web content. The official CBS site does host some web-exclusive content on top of a limited number of the most recent episodes, including a feed of all show-related Twitter posts and the blog of the show’s chronic womanizer Barney Stinson (Neil Patrick Harris), written in character and directly relating to the most recent episode to air.
But the exciting content exists outside the CBS brand. Internet usage is integrated not only into the onscreen narrative, but also in web content that exists outside of the official CBS web presence. For example, when it was revealed in an episode that a character created a website telling the world how a main character had screwed her over romantically, a real site — tedmosbyisajerk.com — was created to support the storyline. It incorporated other in-jokes as well. And when series regular Robin’s (Cobie Smulders) secret past as a Canadian teen pop star was revealed, a music video was not only a part of the episode, but posted in full on multiple sites, including YouTube and MySpace. The YouTube video has been viewed nearly half a million times, and Robin Sparkles has 10,000 MySpace friends.
However, following these references isn’t essential to understanding the show itself, which now leads CBS primetime content and on Nov. 15 was watched by 8.88 million people, winning its time slot. Not all of those 8.88 million people are Googling every single one of the show’s in-jokes, but creating “easter egg” content for fans to discover allows for a more engaged fan experience.
How I Met Your Mother‘s slightly subversive approach to web content means that while the large majority of its audience might not be aware of how deep the rabbit hole goes, those who follow up on some of the show’s bigger inside references and in-jokes are rewarded.
Similar shows: Lost, Glee
Take Viewers Behind the Scenes
From the very beginning, former SNL cast member Jimmy Fallon and his team have used the web as a way to interact with its audience as well as hone content for the broadcast. This has made Late Night With Jimmy Fallon not just an heir to Conan O’Brien’s late-night legacy, but a true innovator in how television and broadband can interact.
The official Late Night website features not just video clips from the most recent episodes (full episodes are also available for a limited time on NBC.com as well as Hulu), but web exclusive “out-takes” from the show, extra content that provides the viewer a great deal more insight from what goes on during the show. This might include a between-commercials performance with a musical artist or some patter between host and guest that was edited from the final version for time reasons.
And it’s not just clips from between commercial breaks, but original content produced specifically for the web. Recently, for example, the team launched a web series called “Twitter Questions,” where the show’s guests are asked Twitter-sourced questions on all matter of random subjects.
The show’s official blog, updated multiple times a day, breaks down the previous night’s episodes and displays funny links from around the web. Fallon and his team directly engage with fans on Twitter, experiment with live-streaming and create a home for important content like “Robert is Bothered.”
All this contributes to a web presence that has lead to Late Night winning two Emmys over the last two years for interactive media, as well as a steady ratings increase in the 18-45 demographic.
Similar shows: Conan on TBS has only just launched, but while its interactive elements are fledgling there is a sense of outreach created by the show’s official Tumblr and behind-the-scenes web video content.
Web content for a TV show is a one-way conversion, though — while viral stand-alone content (such as the recent Jimmy Fallon sketch “If Puppies Could Vote”) can contribute to discovery of a new show, it’s far more likely, due to the size of the audience, that a potential viewer will find the TV show first, then explore the website. With the advancement of two-screen viewing and increasingly integrated TV viewing solutions, this may be something that changes over time.
All of these examples treat the web and television as separate entities, but make sure they work in unison — meaning that the casual television fan can enjoy the show as is, but their experience will be so much richer when they also engage with the content online.
Most television executives at this stage are relatively blunt about the fact that the web elements of a TV show are strictly supplemental to the broadcast or cable content; that’s because, for the moment, broadcast or cable is a proven business model. But as users get more sophisticated and new opportunities for monetization are explored, that equation may change.
