NBC Just Doesn’t Get It
Remember back a few months when everyone was downloading the “Lazy Sunday” video from YouTube.com, and then NBC forced the site to remove the popular video? Well, the same scenario played out this weekend, except it took just a day for the network to bring the hammer down. This past installment of Saturday Night Live featured another short video from Chris Parnell and Andy Samberg, this one starring guest host Natalie Portman doing a gangsta rap about herself. Of course, someone captured the vid and posted it to YouTube but NBC quickly stepped in and had the clip removed. You can take a look at it on the NBC site now, though don’t bother if you use a Mac or the Firefox browser: the clip only works in IE on a Windows PC. In other NBC-related Internet news, the network announced today that it’ll pay $600 million to buy iVillage, a portal site with licensed content from women’s magazines that’s heavy on the health and beauty information.
So just to recap NBC’s strategy when it come to the Web: free publicity generated by audience members — bad. Paying through the nose for an idea that should have burst with the bubble — good. No wonder they were stunned to find out people were reading the Olympics results online in real time instead of waiting to see the games on tape delay.
1 Comment(s)
Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI
Leave a comment
I think I could deal with this if their website worked on Macs - although when most people think Saturday Night Live sucks, that they would appreciate the free publicity where they can find it.