Day: March 16, 2011

Some Ideas About The Future Of TV

Carl Setzer

I’m watching G4‘s Attack of the Show. I’ve checked out the show, and the network, a few times since they merged with TechTV. I’ve not been too impressed with G4’s programming work, as it seems to mostly consist of reruns of COPs.

AOFS AOTS, though, has some interesting concepts. Their focus is tech, in the form of gaming, internet memes, viral video; mainly the goofy and wacky of online life. I like their displayed Twitter stream, and the way they incorporate that and audience reactions into the show. There clearly is preparation, thus some scripting (there are guests for instance). The show seems to be allowed to flow in whatever direction it wanders. They riff off of whatever random tweet comes through.
They may be silly & goofy (The show is not for everyone. Shall we say it’s a tad bit ribald?), but I think they have glimpsed the future. That we’re expecting to be interacted with, not just fed. We have something to say about a broadcast, and that others are interested in engaging with each other. It’s an interesting experiment, and bears watching. Hopefully, G4 can do something interesting with the concept. If not, someone else will.