just wondering.

and what’s with the idahoradio thing? can seem to get it to resolve anywhere.

I’m the last person to get worked up about old notions — but wasting my time with something that isn’t going to work – and doesn’t make sense, doesn’t do me a bit of good.

I would venture to guess that those 143 views mostly came from a certain TV blog… and most folks around here already know about NECN.

BUT: I think the idea does have some merit if the content and brand match. A few weeks ago, the CBS comedy “How I Met Your Mother” had an entire episode centered around one of the character’s “earlier life” as a teen star in Canada. The show featured “Robin Sparkles’” video – Let’s Go To The Mall. It was very funny — and CBS reported (via TVWeek if I remember correctly) that they saw a ratings spike the week after the video hit YouTube.

The problem with your hypothesis that giving folks a free video will get them to go to NECN.com is flawed, I think. When I go slumming on YouTube, they do such an AMAZING job of being sticky that I am not punching up other websites to watch video. And again, I go back to the original thought: that one funny or good video is the exception, not the rule on a news site. If you had a “funny clips” show on NECN, that free taste MIGHT get me to watch your TV product later… but it’s not going to move me to your website.

We should take all that energy, and as an industry CATCH UP to YouTube. We’re getting our butts kicked folks — again and again. All of us stuck with Windows Media need to convince the bosses to switch to Flash — and feature embedding, e-mailing and other ideas.

Any time I can help take away the notion that you have to maintain complete control over your video, I’m happy. We worry too much about “brand” and the like. We’re in the information business. When we have good information we think people will like, it’s our job to let people have it however they want.

Will this one clip add substantially to the NECN viewership? No. But it may introduce a few more people to the website and they may try it out.

As of this evening, the video has had 143 views. Tiny number. We’re not going to lose any revenue. But I bet a lot of those people never saw an NECN video before. Is there any station or site out there that would mind getting sampled by two dozen people per day for free?

At the site, we prominently feature more “viral video” than we do with the hard stuff. We know what people are more likely to pass around.

Stations obsess too much over ad impressions. This is promotion. The idea is to get more people to sample your stuff. Give them one freebie and hope they come back for two videos with ads.

No station ever knows whether their TV promos have an impact. It’s just a guess. With this, we can see how many people watched and we can monitor whether there was an uptick in traffic. It may fail. It may be a bad idea. And that’s the fun of trying.

What I do know is that the days of trying to have complete control of your content are over. So you might as well take advantage of the technology and use it. Experiment with it. Try, fail, and try again. Just don’t get all worked up with the old notions and cliches.

Best of all – it doesn’t cost a thing.

And yes, I like the tingly feeling.

Putting a “funny” news video on the service isn’t. How does this help the NECN brand? It doesn’t. If someone watches this clip online – they are not going to be more inclined to watch NECN, because you have gears grinding… this clip is FUNNY… NECN/NECN.com generally are not.

Daily Show & Colbert clips work well because people see them on YouTube and are more inclined (probably) to watch the TV show. Watching a bunch of politicians sing isn’t going to make me watch the cable station – since that isn’t what I would traditionally find on the air.

So you don’t get ad impressions, and you aren’t going to move people to your product. What are you left with? The tingly feeling of “being progressive?”

(p.s. – I know you can take it Steve, or I wouldn’t write it!)

Plus, they are paying the bandwidth. Anybody not using the embedded YouTube player is so Web 0.1.