Consumer Based Entertainment

Written By Monty Metzger on Friday, September 15, 2006 at 5:00 PM | In Lifestyle, Marketing, Technology

An Internet TV Show integrates and interacts with its millions of fans to create the storyline and even content around the entertainment format.

TrendDescription:

Today the Internet is not only containing text and pictures anymore, audio and video is becoming the primary format for the entertainment industry. Hollywood is scouting online for new entertainment formats,(see CScout trend article) because people start to produce their own tv shows.

CScout reported about the Trend “Consumer Generated Media” a while ago (also: Consumer Generated TV, Viewer Created Content, Consumer Generated Campaigns , Update: Consumer Generated Campaigns). But since a couple of month one show integrates a growing community to create the whole story-line of a long-term internet tv show, called “LonelyGirl15″.

Case:

“It is a show build around a community.” And the community is made up by the fans of the show.

The fans have the ability to comment all the videos, to interact with the characters and also to create their own videos as a video-response. The fans have the power to affect the story and to communicate with each other and with characters about the story.

That is the driving force behind LonelyGirl 15.

The project became an phenomenon because the culture of the internet and the technology of the internet made it possible. The producers take advantage of the fact that a majority of internet users have webcams, digital cameras or video-cameras. These teenagers don’t only take the media, but they make it their own. They are producing their own media and this show really let’s them do that.
We reported about this Trend, called “Consumer Generated Media” and “Consumer Generated TV”, last year.

The fans download the videos, remix it themselfes, create video-responses, even create their own characters and upload those videos to the internet. The show is all about collaborative story-telling.

There are several internet platforms available to support this phenomenom, like YouTube, Google Video or Revver. By using Revver as the primary platform users can also earn money for their videos. Revver is the first platform sharing advertising revenues with its users (see our trend posting on Revver)

TrendImpact:

But what does this development mean for the entertainment industry?
MTV Overdrive published an exclusive interview of the whole idea behind the famous internet show.

The Website of the show LonelyGirl15.com is the place where the idea of Consumer Based Entertainment comes together. Fans can chat with each other, they can upload their videos on the site and interact with the characters and the other fans.

The production team is formed by three young film-makers with almost no budget and with standard TV-equipment. The internet show got more and more attention during the last months and the fan commuity grew to a couple of million downloads.
“This is the future of entertainment”, says Greg Goodfried, producer of “LonelyGirl15″.

Links:
http://www.lonelygirl15.com/

MTV Overdrive