|
Karen Brown
Cable viewers and Internet subscribers in the Delaware Valley can literally talk back to the TV news thanks to a new media network with a unique Internet link.
Tri-State Media, which serves an area of southern New Jersey, central Pennsylvania and parts of Delaware, went on the air April 5 with one of the first interactive day-long, local news programs in the nation. The program was beamed via fiber-optic cable to more than 1 million subscribers to Suburban Cable.
Regional all-news formats are hardly cutting edge. But what is new about TSM is the interaction between viewer and broadcaster. Combining television and Internet access via cable modems, viewers are able to respond to the program by either calling up or logging onto the station's Internet site. Callers can air their opinions live, while Internet viewers can vote in polls or send comments, the results of which are displayed at the bottom of the television screen.
The Web site, meanwhile, not only provides programming information and the chat room but also local event listings and links to other news sources. It even lets viewers buy tapes of the chat news segments for $30 a pop.
Adding the Internet connection is the key element, according to Stanley Greene, president/CEO of TSM.
"We sense TV is going to be more like the Internet than the other way around, and we wanted to tap into that synergy," he said.
While gathering and presenting the news is still a primary goal for TSM, he believes it's more than just a news show.
"We wanted to go beyond that," he said. "We wanted to provide an outlet for people to respond to the news. We wanted to create a community forum for people to discuss issues and solutions, and hopefully improve the quality of their lives."
TSM does that by leading with a typical newscast at the top of every hour. The second half hour, however, is a news chat segment in which the anchors field calls from the viewers about the stories. A correspondent is the link to the Web, relaying polling results and providing commentary on what subjects are being discussed in the TSM Internet chat room.
At 6 p.m. there is a zoned local news broadcast with a similar chat response period, followed by a rebroadcast at 7 p.m. Entertainment chat time airs at 7:30 p.m., followed by local programming and infomercials for the rest of the evening.
Fate provided an early test for the show just three weeks out. When news broke of the April 20 massacre at Columbine High School in suburban Denver, the station was flooded with calls - nearly double the typical eight calls per half hour, Greene said. That may not seem like much, but when you factor in commercial air time, the available news time is just two 11-minute segments.
The next day, the station arranged to put a Jefferson County Sheriff's Deputy in Denver on the line, while viewers either called or e-mailed in their response. In that way, the news program is not just a one-way pipeline for information but also an important forum for people to talk about critical issues, Greene said.
"It gets us beyond the filter we get with anchors and reporters and gives us access to the public," Greene said.
If all goes well, Greene hopes to expand the news format later into the evening hours, perhaps by three to four-hour blocks. Future growth may also include links to the growing iTV market, he said.
Back to this issue
|
