Clarion Content

Binge viewing victim

If you have Netflix or own a DVR cable box, you probably already know from the title of this article what it is about, binge viewing is fairly self-explanatory. It will probably sound like a Stone Age myth to the Millennials' children that we once had to wait a week for a new episode of a television show to come out.

Already the way Netflix and the DVR let us consume television programs has altered habits of both the viewers and the creators of TV shows. The Walls Street Journal notes, "In 2009, Netflix members would watch an average 4.5 episodes per week of a serialized show. Now they watch 6.1 episodes per week, an increase of 38%." Binging as a way of watching television is on the increase.

This is going to drastically alter the revenue model for television programming.¹ The WSJ again, "Bingeing breaks habits that have long supported the TV business, built on advertising and syndicated reruns. TV executives are torn by the development: gratified that people are gorging on their product, frustrated because it's a TV party that all-important advertisers aren't invited to."

The bad news is this probably means more blurring of the line between storytelling content and advertising, much like the trend with the product placement we have seen in the movies.


Notes
¹(and already is)

Labels: Pop Culture, television

Uh, yes. Yes, actually, she did.

Ahhhh Katy Perry, is there any childhood meme that she can't make hot?



You will recall her plunging neckline Elmo t-shirt on Saturday Night Live.

Read more about Katy as Smurfette here.

Labels: Pop Culture, television

How did we never see the whole video to U2's "Where the Streets Have No Name?" How did we miss the story behind it? The band performed an eight song set on the roof of a Los Angeles liquor store before the LAPD came in and shut things down?!? What? Wow!

U2 and the video's director Meiert Avis had stashed a back-up generator on the roof in case cops cut the power to the main generator powering the filming and sound crews. The conceit was to reference The Beatles final live performance, which was on a rooftop in a public place.

Check out the marvelous music video here, with the audio of the cops and a couple of local radio DJ's who were on-air in that day in LA dubbed in over the song. The video won Grammy Award for Best Performance Music Video in 1989. So welcome the Clarion Content to the party two decades late...

Labels: music, Pop Culture, technology, television

Before leaving for Italy

Word is they are breaking up the Jersey Shore gang. This season, number five, currently being filmed in Italy, will be the last one for Pauly D, The Sitch, Ronnie, Sammi, J-Woww, Snookie and the rest of the cast. From Hollywood, CA to Belmar, NJ, beware! We have no idea where they are heading off to. Readers, your thoughts, on what's next for them?

Calm down, calm down, reality junkies! There are no plans to end the show, the Jersey Shore endures, a whole new crew of Jersey peeps are going to be cast to replace them. We can only pray they tape the auditions.

Labels: Pop Culture, television

Keep an eye out for this kid!



The Clarion Content does not have a staff member assigned to watch America's Got Talent, but even we heard about eleven year-old Anna Graceman's stunning rendition of Alicia Keys hit, "If I Ain't Got You." We had to go to AOL of all places to dig up a link to the video. Check it out here... The B listers who are serving as celebrity judges obviously passed her along to the next round of their competition in Las Vegas.

Labels: music, Pop Culture, television

This coach is in the title game for a second year in a row...

There was a strange dichotomy in the two NCAA Final Four games played last night. In game one, there were two gritty, mid-major teams that few expected to be there. In game two, there were a couple of storied programs with long but sordid histories. It made for a strange rooting dynamic, in game one we felt sad that one of these gallant underdogs had to lose. In game two, we felt perturbed one of those cheaters was going to win.

Who do you root for one when on one bench is a coach who has had to vacate both of his previous two Final Four appearances and on the other side is a coach who the NCAA has cited for multiple violations, including lack of institutional control? Blech.

The narrative was undermined and we predict the television ratings reflect it.

Labels: college basketball, Ethically questionable, NCAA, Predictions, television

A thought from the Australian Open tennis tournament, do not put anything in a text message that you would not say to a person's face. Kim Clijsters reminded former Australian tennis star turned sideline reporter, Todd Woodbridge, of that axiom very publicly. The story goes like this. Woodbridge had sent a text to thirty-nine year old Australian doubles player Rennae Stubbs. Stubbs, a female, apparently felt some solidarity with Clijsters, the first mom to win a Grand Slam tournament since Evonne Goolagong Cawley at Wimbledon in 1980, so she showed her the message. Woodbridge had sent a text saying Clijsters looked "especially busty" and "grumpy" suggesting perhaps she was "pregnant" again. Clijsters called him out with grace and humor, courtside and on tv, after her next match. Watch below.

Labels: television, tennis

One of our loyal readers from Hillsborough, NC sent this internet meme our way. The Jersey Shore's Snooki is satirized in cartoon form on Southpark. We were drawn to the physical depiction of Snooki. What crazy ass shit Cartman and the boys are doing with her hardly matters, because they cannot debase her more than she has herself on the Jersey Shore. In Southern parlance, she has shown her ass. Of note, she has also literally shown her ass and been arrested in the last two shows. Yet throughout it all, Snooks remains human and sympathetic. She is just a kid.

Labels: humor, Pop Culture, television

You may, dear readers, remember this author and Clarion Content guest columnist, one of Durham's own, from his on-going work of meta-fiction. The hilarious and wildly popular, The Unauthorized Autobiography of G.Ia.M'Rock. Read the old chapters here. Today he muses on memory and fame. Check out this piece and accompanying clip from the old television show, "What's My Line?"

It's a curious thing, fame. How someone who is well known to the nation or even the world at one time can be completely anonymous at another time, or vice versa. I doubt many of my compatriots could identify Humphrey Bogart, even in his trademark fedora and trenchcoat. And yet my grandfather would be at a loss to pick out Justin Bieber from any sort of lineup.

I don't know if you're familiar with the old panel show "What's my Line", but it's a guessing game where a panel of four famous contestants try to identify the occupation of someone of less renown. When the guest has a famous face, the panelists are blind folded, but in this particularly amusing section, someone whose face is now legendary, sits calmly in front of a group of people who have no idea who he is. At the end of the clip, he describes how big his fame has spread, and it makes you sort of wonder about the effects of advertising on our consciousness.

Labels: Guest columns, Pop Culture, television, thought

A grateful thank you to one of our oldest readers for sending this clip our way from PA. And while the little old lady Mr. Cosby is speaking to is living in Pennsylvania, she is actually from South Carolina. North, South Carolina. Which is ninety miles southeast of Due West, South Carolina. Funny ha-ha.

Labels: humor, Pop Culture, television

Our look at what the teens and tweens of America are watching. We peer into their world through the lens of Youtube. You may have caught some of our earlier episodes, if not, follow this link and [scroll down].

The kids they still love the physical comedy and the slapstick humor. The message is in the action, not some highfalutin reference or irony. Check out the satirization of country singer Kenny Rogers below doing "Jackass", the eighth graders who sent this video our way had no idea who Kenny Rogers was, nor had they ever seen him. They still found this video utterly hilarious.

Labels: humor, Pop Culture, television, what they are watching

LeBron James is apparently looking for suggestions. LeBron utilizes the methodology of communication between icon and the masses that has become the norm in post-post modern society, the commercial. It transcends the press conference because of the limitless opportunities for staging and setting that a commercial presents. Moreover, it is a one-way channel of communication, no nagging questions from the fourth estate can be heard...

LeBron himself asks the only question, over and over, "What should I do?" and despite all the options the Nike marketing people have offered him, it appears quite clear, LeBron does not quite know what he should do.





Here, in one societal reply to the once and former King James, Eric Cartman asks himself the same question.

Labels: NBA, Pop Culture, Sports Economics, television

The current show we see as mostly likely to become a cult hit in reruns, a much bigger success in its second life than in first run, is "How I met Your Mother." It has been increasingly popular as a CBS network television show. Word of mouth has gradually built over the years, it has momentum. As the sitcom heads into a sixth season, "How I met Your Mother" is poised to enter another echelon of fame moving into syndication.

Labels: Pop Culture, television

The pipes versus the content. In this case, the pipes are represented by Cablevision, provider of cable television and internet connection services in the New York area. The content is represented by the Fox network owned by News Corporation. Billionaires with agendas on both sides to be sure, massive corporations with lots at stake.

What is the dispute you ask? Fox, like the other networks: ABC, CBS and NBC, has long given its content to the cable television providers for free. Why not? Fox, like the other networks, broadcasts its content for free over the airwaves. Back in the day, people used to commonly receive it on antennas for free.

In recent years, as the antennae using public has dwindled to near nil, the networks have been trying to charge retransmission fees to the cable provider companies: Cablevision, Time Warner, Comcast, etc. (pipes), fees which mimic the fees that cable television networks: ESPN, TBS, MTV, etc. (content) charge cable television distributors (pipes) for their programming.

The fight over Fox~News Corporation trying to charge these fees to Cablevision has caused an already four day long shutdown of Fox's programming to Cablevision subscribers. Fox reportedly wants $1.00 per subscriber. This has meant no network TV Shows, no National League Championships Series' games, and no Sunday Giants football for more than three million irritated subscribers in the New York area. This is the single largest corporate battle in this arena to date. Previously, Walt Disney Company and Cablevision had brawled over fees for the ABC network, culminating in a twenty hour content cutoff that briefly interrupted the Academy Awards.

In the current dispute, yesterday, day four, Fox~News Corporation signaled a potential lateral escalation when it blocked Cablevision's customers from being able to view Fox content on Fox.com or Hulu.com. The blockade, which further mocked the concept of net neutrality, was quickly withdrawn when News Corporation realized that by blocking Cablevision subscribers’ computers (pipes) it was also blocking some people who pay Cablevision for Internet service only, including consumers who pay competitors like DirecTV for television.

The government would love to get involved. The chairman of the FCC issued a statement. Senator John Kerry threatened some wafflely and likely useless legislation.

The super short summary for the average person; network television is not free, cable distributors are going to pass the costs along to you and don't count on making an end around on the internet, either.

Labels: Politics, Pop Culture, technology, television

Our local Carolina Hurricanes are leading the N.H.L. into a new 21st century era and model of sports broadcasting delivery. The New York Times reports that the Canes are live-streaming all of their preseason games on broadband this month; by using their in-house video feed and the play-by-play from their radio broadcasts. The NHL has seen the light, the groundswell of positive response from the fanbase, and plans to follow suit. The Canes home market is the technologically savvy triangle between Durham, Raleigh and Chapel Hill, N.C. The N.H.L.'s chief operating officer, John Collins, says the league is close to an agreement under which many of its 24 U.S. based teams would provide broadband and wireless live-streaming of games in local markets.

Read more here in the Triangle Business Journal.

Labels: hockey, Sports Economics, television

Not sure if you have been following the Katy Perry-Elmo saga, dear readers. The lovely and talented Katy was supposed to have a playdate with the Sesame Street star, furry, red Elmo. However, at the last minute under fire from the patron saints of Political Correctness, Sesame Street decided not to air Katy's pre-taped appearance. She and Elmo sing a version of Perry's hit Hot and Cold together. Apparently, there was too much cleavage for some folks, even though Perry was wearing a flesh-colored body stocking. Both Katy and Elmo have since appeared to talk about the non-event.

Elmo here on Good Morning America.

Katy here on Saturday Night Live.

Gotta like the self-deprecating sense of humor that Perry shows...

Labels: humor, music, Pop Culture, television

As you may have noted, dear readers, the Census is going on, every ten years the Federal Government counts how many people are living in the United States. Not by estimating or projecting or sampling and extrapolating, nope they map the location of every residence in the United States, and mail them a questionnaire. If the questionnaire is not sent back, they send someone door to door to follow-up and do an interview. Most times in probably does not goes as bad as things do in this old Christopher Walken Saturday Night Live skit. Sorry about the crummy video quality. If anyone can find us a better video we will gladly post it.

Labels: Pop Culture, television

Is anyone else irritated by all the Iron Man II advertisements? We do not mean the standard commercials for the movie, but rather the insidious product placement and fusion campaigns.

The Clarion Content has seen Ironman II footage and/or characters fused with ads for Dr. Pepper, Burger King, Audi and the NBA. It bugs that the movie is too present; it is everywhere, but because it is the sequel to one of the biggest movies of all time (sorta), we understand and expect that to happen. What is truly vile is the level on which these product placement ads cheapen the character and plot integrity of the movie.

This is not a new trend in the movies, the Clarion Content's editor grew up in an era where they ditched a planet of Wookies for a planet of Ewoks because they thought the toys would sell better. We would argue however that it is an additional iteration, another level, to see the Iron Man fused with the Burger King or to watch Tony Stark hop in an Audi like a real celebrity. This fusing of the fictional and the commercial eats at the core of story-telling. The willingness to suspend disbelief for a good story runs 180 degrees reverse course of humanity's hardened attempts to disbelieve advertisers. Getting sucked into a good plot is not supposed to make you one of P.T. Barnum's suckers.

This chafes our consciousness.

Labels: economics, Pop Culture, television

He was a sensation back in the day. It tells you how good advertising (an oxymoron, if there ever was one) is sticky. Who can forget the tagline, from an era when Federal Express was still an up and comer, "When it absolutely, positively has to get there overnight." They said it could not be done. FedEx proved them wrong.

Labels: Pop Culture, television

Alicia Guastaferro (pictured above) another reality TV rocket scientist is suing ABC after being featured on the network's 'Wife Swap' two years ago. Now to be fair, the show was truly focused on her mother, the wife swapped. However, Alicia blames the show for a variety of problems in her life. One: she has supposedly gone from the honor roll, to being a special education student. Now besides ABC, another factor might be that her mother freely admitted on the program and subsequently demonstrated that she does her daughter's homework. Mrs. Guastaferro said, "She doesn't have time! I feel the way to Alicia's happiness is, give her everything she wants. Don't give her any rules. Why upset her?"

The episode of Wife Swap showed the Guastaferro's home life to be rather different. Alicia is described as the "princess of pageantry" and is given gifts every single day by her parents, who kept a Christmas tree up all year in the house. But it's ABC's fault?

The entertainment blog the Pop Eater reports, "[Her parents] Ralph and Karen Guastaferro plead guilty to felony money laundering charges stemming from a Canadian telemarketing scheme. Karen is also in hot water for not declaring wages at the family's glass-tinting business...she faces up to 16 months in jail, while he could spend up to 57 months behind bars."

So we'd guess that blaming someone else is about the only logical response left open to them.

Labels: humor, Pop Culture, television