Viable online presence a must

I’ve been musing recently about several television identities’ lack of useful presence online.

These shows are missing out on capturing the attention of younger audiences. We may not comprise the majority of their potential viewership, but it’s worth reaching out to the younger generations.

Effective websites today have new content on a frequent basis. They also must be fully, easily, searchable. We don’t have cable, and in our rocky, hilly region, we only get two channels. I’ll talk here about what I know, which is ABC. (The other option is PBS.)

Martha Stewart recently launched her new, upgraded site. It’s grand. It has video archives of the show, and you can search for past content, too.

Oprah only recently added video of recent shows to her website. Edit: Oprah’s website did recently add video, but it’s just the show intros. Even for past days, only the introduction is available.

Live with Regis and Kelly’s site doesn’t have a search box. I can’t see even today’s show online, either. It’s a big ad, to make visitors turn on the tube, rather than offering viable content in its own stead.

The View and Good Morning America both have sites only within the ABC site, which is cumbersome and nearly impossible to search. It also doesn’t offer video content.

TV shows have such an easy avenue for new content. Offering the entire show to be viewed online should be a gimme, just the start.

Our local ABC affiliate is, sadly, ahead of the curve when it comes to website content, although it’s still unwieldy and ugly. It even has a blog, however cheesy it may be.

One reason (besides it being a no-brainer) TV shows and networks should offer their shows online: People will watch them, and this can be advertising-supported.

Case in point: I catch up on new episodes of several shows (Ugly Betty among them) via the web, when the episode airs when I’m unavailable. I don’t have to pay for TiVo, but I can still watch when I want. A couple weeks ago, however, I decided I’d like to fill an hour or two with CSI. I like crime-fighting, investigative shows, and my husband doesn’t. Besides, we don’t get CBS, as I already mentioned, so I went to CBS.com. I didn’t get my fix, though. I spent more than thirty minutes trying to get it to work on my Mac, to no avail.

Moral of the story: Don’t just offer video content, offer it in an accesible format. I downloaded a couple pieces of new software and new plugins, but alas. No success. The industry has standards, so comply with them. Make your content accesible: Online, and in a reachable format. It’s a win-win: You can sell advertising for the site if it’s got decent content and visitor levels, so it’s another potential revenue stream. Why wouldn’t you?