Hilarious debate among Hollywood types at last week’s Digital Upfront about whether or not there’s been an internet video “hit” yet. Ha. Really? How about the fact that Time magazine chose user generated video content as their person of the year in 2006?

And, I guess, I should also mention our very own Subservient Chicken which has had more than 200 million unique visitors worldwide, twice the size of this year’s Super Bowl?

What is Hollywood talking about? Oh wait, they are waiting for THEIR first hit. I see…

CBS Outernet announced last week the launch of GameStopTV, an in-store digital video network using high-definition screens. I am usually pretty annoyed with in-store TV channels because they are so, well, annoying. In this case the content is absolutely relevant to the retail experience and as such is a natural extension of the shopping experience. Awesome.

I wish my local Shaws would learn something from CBS. God, standing in-line to buy ground beef tonight I had to endure three back-to-back television ads for tampons. Ugh.

Was watching the Red Wings handily defeat the (personally hated) Penguins in the Stanley Cup Finals on NBC and the coverage was embarrassing. I sure wish ESPN was covering it. But, what was most frustrating, was that I wasted the entire first period of game four trying to get the player-cams to work at NHL.com or at nbcsports.com. Lidstrom, Fetterberg, Crosby and a few others were all supposed to be broadcasting live, for the entire game, from their helmets. They even ran some promotional spots in the first period. I thought, holy shit, this is awesome. A legitimate dual-screen experience. A reason to have the website up and open throughout the ENTIRE game. A breakthrough. I started to wonder if they sold joint media packages to advertisers on the TV and on the computer. I envisioned four live feeds on the website running continuously throughout the entire game and even during the breaks. I was hoping Crosby would throw his helmet down in disgust when the Wings scored and I would just see the corner of their box for a few minutes. That would have been awesome.

When I went to the site there was a link to Wing-Cams and Pen-Cams but, of course, when you clicked on them it merely went to the standard NBC video player and fed that video player the exact same feed that was on television, only a little bit shittier quality. Not only did it not have a grid of player-cams to choose from or even better look at simultaneously, but it didn’t have a player-cam of any kind. I tried it several times and bounced back and forth between nhl.com and nbcsports.com (the promo ad said it was featured in both places) hoping one of the sites would get it right, nope. Ok, I guess it was a nice try. Maybe someday.

But after thinking about this experience and bit more (it’s been five days now) and getting past the fact that by searching for this feature I missed the Wings tie the game up with a beautiful wrist shot by Lidstrom here’s the real question, the question every network needs to think about: Why the F would I want to watch on my computer the VERY SAME live video feed that’s on my television? Don’t think too hard about it network execs, it’s a trick question. We wouldn’t.

Here’s what networks should do on their websites while they are broadcasting live events like sports: show us something else. Stop protecting your precious broadcast on the television. It’s nonsense. Supplement it with other cameras and angles and just plain facts and figures. Show us the same data the announcers get to see. Let us watch the entire period from inside the goal. Maybe even give us a control room and let us cut our own feed (awesome). You know, it’s fine if the camera exposure is a little too hot or if it’s simply pointing at the corner of the box. It’s the Internet. We like that. The key is to be bold and creative. For example, give us some helmet-cams and just let them run for three hours. I guarantee a significant increase in traffic and time spent on your site.

Oh yeah, and now the best part:

Why does Hollywood continue to use the Internet as another form of syndication? Play. Stop. Rewind. That’s it. Three buttons. If I was a TV Network executive I would create and produce programs from scratch with the knowledge that people will be watching my show and surfing the Internet at the same time.

AdAge talks today about the upfront and forecasts that it’s going to be down. What a shock. My God. What’s funny is that they are blaming the economy primarily and only cite lack of ratings near the end. And, of course, there is no reference whatsoever to the abject decline in effectiveness of the thirty second television spot. Hilarious.

I can’t believe there is still an upfront let alone a debate about whether or not it’s going to be down. Please. I’m sure it’s been down every year for the last ten years.

That’s it. Just a comment. Nothing more.

According to the New York Times the WB is keeping its brand alive on the web. I like this idea. The WB had a specific brand and audience and I think they might be successful in retaining and attracting more people here than on the actual television.

So since I’ve come to TBG, I’ve found myself thinking more and more about the state and future of advertising, and all paths of thought have led me to a singular conclusion: The Internet will be the end of Advertising. As we know it. And we should be glad.

Over the past few months we have been hard at work with one of our zanier ideas yet…a celebration of sorts, with our friends over at CNN.
And not just any celebration of course—this one is all about the news—and pretty much all the headlines that are fit to print… on a T-shirt.

We got really excited when CNN asked us to help them help people uncover the newly reorganized and video rich CNN.com. They came to us looking for a fun way to get the word out and we decided what better way to turn “I just saw it on CNN.com” into a phenomenon than on a T-shirt.

The premise is simple- we added a tiny little T-shirt icon next to the headlines on the front page. Click on the T-shirt and you are taken through a seamless shirt ordering experience where you can have your favorite headline turned into a shirt (gray, white or the currently most popular black) unique to you with a custom time-stamp—all for just $19.99 including shipping!

Some of our favorites so far have included: “Weird fish leave sea, spawn on beach,” “Prince drops copter in galpal’s yard”

Sound fun? Sound crazy? Don’t believe us? Check it out for yourself and help get the word out. There will be new shirts on cnn.com every day. Heck you might even find a headline you can’t live without too!