People Creating Stuff around World Cup

This is the sort of thing I was hoping to hear at the media marketing panel thingie I went to a fortnight ago. You remember, the one that had the head of digital content for ABC and Channel 10 and umm Yahoo!7.

ITV today launches a World Cup TV show that will feature up to 50% of user generated content.

World Cuppa, which will run for sixteen episodes on ITV4, enables viewers to upload content from Webcams and camcorders to the ITV site for possible inclusion in the show. Content is uploaded via the downloadable Video Cuppa application, developed by Coull. Viewers can also upload content by dialling a video shortcode number on their 3G phones.

Content submissions will themed around tasks set by the show’s presenters. The best five entries will be shown on the TV show, with the rest available to view online.
“Enouraging viewers to contribute to the programme is a terrific way for ITV4 to drive traffic to the Web site, boost viewing figures and test the market for future initiative,” said ITV Consumer Interactive head of production Peter Mossman.

I grabbed that snippet from NMA but you can read the full thing at ITV World Cuppa. There are actually three pages to read, so look for the little tiny weeny numbers at the bottom. Oh and I added the italics to the 3G phone bit.
Integration of offline media with online communities is so critical, doncha think? BTW I wonder if ITV will become iTV in the near future? Or have they been there, done that? *sniggers*

EDIT: Its unlike me to add stuff to bloglets, even though new media says everything is dynamic, I still don’t like the idea of people getting one idea, and then coming back and seeing something different.

But creating another bloglet seems silly. Network could die by a thousand cuts by Mark Day of The Australian wrote this article about Nine news programs (Don’t you think the model above would work well in News programming too?)

Around the world, free-to-air broadcasters are feeling the pinch. The public focus here might be on the battle between the Nine and Seven networks, and which one wins more viewers, but the real story lies in the falling audiences for FTA TV. Eyeballs are being hived off at an alarming rate, attracted to the internet by streaming video, movie downloads, subscription TV services and games

McGuire wrapped his unpalatable news in a spin-doctor’s confection of technological waffle. “Around the world, the way news is gathered and presented is changing rapidly, and I want Nine to lead the evolution in this country. “Internet and mobile technology is changing the way people communicate and this means we have to adapt the way we deliver news and current affairs.”

How gizmos and mobile technology improve story selection and presentation is not clear, but the cuts will strip $10 million a year from Nine’s $130 million news and current affairs budget.

Well, Mark Day, I have some ideas -if the staff of, say, Jana Wendt’s program are being massively cut, why not have your viewers do some work for you as per the World Cuppa? And put NineMSN to better use. I can say that now because Mandy, PR-Guru-at-NineMSN-and-who-bleeds-when-they-bleed is on holidays. Anyone who knows Mandy knows how scary she is. And when she told a bunch of us one drunken afternoon at the pub that we had to change our search engine from Google Search to NineMSN’s the only possible response was “what now? or can I finish my G&T first?”. But she’s on holidays so I can be a bit critical of our incumbent-most-visited-but-why-would-you-want-to-stay?-site. Just don’t tell her ok?

Actually NineMSN are doing a good job of integrating offline magazines with online articles. They often have ‘to see more, go to this URL’, type directions at the bottom of the article. Feeding from online and offline and back again is so important to survive. Unlike some traditional media it’s not hidden away, shamefully, either. I just hope the new person who comes in to replace Mr Hoffman completely reorients the portal to user generated stuff, breaks it down so that swarming is easy, has transparent metrics (most visited, but stickiest?), builds profiles so that buddy lists, ranking and rating of content, community badges and leadership points and loyalty programs are incorporated. Not much to ask for, is it? Heh.

All in all, I think Eddie McGuire (does his mummy call him Edward?) is on the right track and is being well advised. And Mark Day has the wrong end of the stick (yeah yeah, mixing metaphors) by failing to recognise that diminishing revenue on FTA is directly a result of content on the Internet – it really isn’t ‘spin’ to state the bleeding obvious hon. Oh and I am still mad because his Australian article doesn’t allow me to generate a comment. Shame on Newscorp, shame on The Australian. *makes a grumpy face*

Technorati Tags: Online Communities, World Cuppa, ITV, User Generated, NineMSN, Mark Day, The Australian, Eddie McGuire