There is a movement within television to go from the permanent screen to one that is mobile. With the ever increasing viewership via mobile units (smartphones and tablets), along with new mobile methodology in place to measure new media viewership, television is expressing its growth by announcing major programming initiatives to ‘live stream’ on mobile. NBC’s announcement that Super Bowl XLV in February 2012 from Indianapolis, the biggest draw on American television, is the bellwether.
There is an historical reference for this move. Television in its earliest years advanced sales tremendously by bringing out ‘color’ telecasts. NBC did this by telecasting coast-to-coast ‘The Tournament of Roses’ from Pasadena, CA, on January 1, 1954. That drove color television set sales through the roof as the dream of seeing ‘radio in color’ just as we did at the movies, was realized. On February 16, 1954, NBC expanded ‘color’ programming by transmitting the first color newscast, ‘Camel News Caravan’.
NBC is doing it again, this time to expand on the theory that it isn’t where the sets are but where the screens are. No longer will television be measured by those sitting at home in the living room or at an out-of-home establishment. Now television will expand its borders anywhere and everywhere people want to watch. It’s all about screens.
That makes mobile integral in allowing television to move forward while print remains stuck in the 20th Century. There will be a point in the future where we will only be limited to viewing an informational, news or entertainment programming if we are dead. Screens are now available to us everywhere. This is how television will survive and flourish.
It has always been about reaching eyeballs. Television now has the availability to reach as many eyeballs as it wants. It can also continue to offer advertisers their distribution channels to reach their target audience in order to expand and flourish.
It doesn’t matter if you are at home or on the move. News, information and entertainment via television are all about the availability of screens.
This is the beginning of the new ‘television era’. It’s all about mobility.
Mobile in short, is a tool for you to win with today.
Think MOBILEFirst.
Lance Hanish is Chairman/CEO and Chief of Imagination at Sophis1234 Data.Digital.Direct. He can be reached at Lance@Sophis1234.com; facebook: Sophis1234; twitter: @Sophis1234; linkedin: Lance Hanish; YouTube: LBC Advertising
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