Youtube is getting more views than most reality TV shows these days. Tonight I saw strong anecdotal evidence that we are past the reality TV product cycles apex. Advertised tonight was a new show called the “Oldest Drivers in Britain”. Now they really are running out of ideas.
There are still many years left and it will probably never leave us, however original concepts in reality TV are harder to come up with.
What’s the next wave?
If I were in the TV business I’d be analysing Youtube hit rates like a domain squatter watches his Adwords account. I’m sure many in that game are cluing up but we haven’t seen much evidence of it flowing into content. Dance and singing contest shows have given them a grace period for a few more years.
After seeing that over 1,000,000 people had watched a very lame Ferrari, Porsche, Lambo snippet on Youtube last week it got me thinking. Either the title tricked one million rev heads, “Lambo vs Ferrari”, or it’s not about the quality but more about the niche content.
More niche content is next.
So you will see channel’s with just car shows or just gardening shows. Internet TV providers like Joost will speed this trend up.
People like me love TV but don’t have the time so niche works. Niche allows precise content choice. Reality TV on these niche channels will become more of an “authentic reality”.
A lot of reality TV should actually be called “story board reality TV”. Filming someone just as they are in real life will start to grip more as Youtube retrains the content programmers that people like “real”. Youtube has shown that scripted reality isn’t as popular.
Fake reality is sniffed out very quickly and given plenty of “lame” tags. Unscripted content gets lots of hits because it’s real. People value real and they discount the contrived. It’s why people buy cotton instead of rayon and why fake plants never took off. Viral content is scripted and rates right up there but that’s another post.
Hey Marc - it was interesting to see one of the mainstream channels recently try to co-opt the YouTube success by replaying some of the more popular videos, but also telling the stories behind them.
YouTube is also interesting because advertisers can put their own ads up and, if they strike the right chord, can go viral without them having to pay a cent.
I agree that niche content is definitely where it’s heading - but not just in terms of “channels”, but also in terms of creating a connection with your fans - Loic Le Meur’s recent experiment with launching his startup via YouTube is a case in point. But any organisation can benefit.
WWF has been getting a lot of their video material up on YouTube too - trying to connect with their supporters. What’s interesting about that is that it also opened up comms between WWF’s offices - video material that sat in isolation could then be used by others in the network. And interesting and beneficial side-effect.
I saw the you tube show advertised. Looked to be like funniest home videos but with a panel. Will rate well no doubt. Still not a “choose your own adventure” experience though
BTW re Loic Le Meur, i saw their very funny LeWeb3 07 intro video a few weeks ago. Amazing how effective something so adhoc can be. No fancy promo budget.