...Timing.
At the very least. Especially if you're the BBC with a new series of hot sitcom
Gavin and Stacey on your hands and you're looking to take advantage of... Well, let's come back to that.
First let's consider
the recent post by blogger,
Word Magazine Editor and seasoned music hack,
David Hepworth on the subject of the shifting - transposing even - nature of music and television content. Essentially Hepworth describes a world where TV, once a medium streamed one-way and at one time only (bar repeats) to a mass audience has gradually adopted a model akin to the music industry of creating events and products it now exploits across a variety of media, hard copy, digital, and (bless it) for a while longer, analogue TV. While music, once proud rider of a miriad of media, now seems to be training itself to stream (albeit streaming on demand) in the complete absence of artefact or artwork.
He sites (of course)
David Simon and
The Wire as examples of TV of a new model - proffering a (not unlikely) scenario where, rather than subjugate himself to the whim of TV channels, he might be able to create a special episode of the Wire and sell it soley as a DVD to recoup the cost (and make a few bob over and above, no doubt). And while, in this age of torrents and downloads,
that seems a tad retrograde, there's still a good proportion of people who own a box set or six of the Wire's original series runs.
Apparently this has hacked people off -
the BBC slammed for this premature release, perhaps discrediting @davidhepworth here; but I think not. Hepworth’s examples are commercial concerns and fair play; it is once again the
unique funding of the BBC that hauls it over the coals for playing the very game Hepworth describes. If David Simon wishes to exploit as many commercial angles as possible to deliver the Wire, no one minds - indeed they’ll likely applaud the innovation of traditional content models; if the BBC do the same, they’re screwing the British public. Or at least
Don Foster MP would have us see it that way.
And maybe he has a
slight point (he did say this devalues the licence fee only '
slightly' afterall): maybe the BBC is being
slightly cynical,
slightly too cavalier with the commercial angle by releasing this early to cash in on Christmas, but, for god's sake - who's REALLY being harmed here? The idea that 25 million people all sit all week waiting to watch an episode of a TV series is as dead as
Dillinger. We all watch content in different ways now, at different times - as Hepworth says: it's about how and when you get it, not the thing itself. And if someone wants to BUY a copy of the DVD and watch it before I do (for no extra cost), then fine - I guess they love the show more than I do. And have more cash than patience. That's life. And providing for those people who want to pay more just makes business sense for BBC Worldwide to accommodate that.
Personally, I'd like to see the day that we stop holding content ransom to archaic release structures. If a series of
Heroes or
Being Human has wrapped, why should I have it trickle fed to me by a content provider, like I was some child being rationed sweeties, or a prisoner being administered methadone jellies. It's not for my own good, for fear too much straight hit content goodness will blow my tiny mind - that same puritan provider will later allow me the privilege of splurging £25 on the box set without a care for my silly synapses or binge behaviour.
Balls to that. You've got a series ready? Release the lot all at once - online, on DVD/Blu-ray, AND on TV in increments for those that like it that way (or for the serendipitous viewer who flicks and discovers).
'What about the conversation?' you ask. 'What about the watercooler / coffee break discussions?' 'All these beautiful moments of human interests coming together around the glowing hearth of last night's TV will be lost to us, like tears in rain...'
Oh, please. Have you met the internet? You enjoyed Blade Runner? Join the club:
literally. The Wire? Tell me, did The Wire make its big splash on its initial TV outing?
Nope. It was a slow-burner,
fan-led, word of mouth, internet / DVD /
media phenomenon. Anyone who watched it talked about it, blogged about it, Tweeted it, bought their friends the DVDs... Watercoolers everywhere. Conversation a-go-go - even
about Gavin and Stacey. And most of it without the show being on TV anymore.
Oops! Was that a
spoiler? Sorry. Again - have you met the internet? Yes, spoilers are a problem. If everyone can watch a series at a different time, won't they be able to tell everyone else the ending of, say, the 3rd series of Gavin and Stacey?
Maybe. But we don't all cram into the cinema at once to discover the identity of
Keyser Soze as one grateful public, lest we overhear a spoiler on the radio, on the bus, or - christ no! - at the watercooler. Nope. Spoilers are a risk we all have to face and have had to face for years. I'm sure there were a few disappointed
C15th English serfs who overheard someone discussing the last few threads of the
Bayeux Tapestry as they waited in line to see it. We all rely on the discretion of others - always have, always will. That and our own good sense not to watch the finale of
the Sixth Sense on YouTube before you've watched the bloody film.
So release it all at once, I say. Give the user the choice about the when and how they receive the stuff. Then people can watch what they want, when they want - and buy their friends and family the DVD of their favourite series for Christmas instead of giving them crappy HMV vouchers.
Heh. I never thought I'd put this much text to anything about Gavin and Stacey. I can't help feeling that this simultaneous release wouldn't remotely be of issue if the series had remained on its birth channel BBC Three. Same content, same issue, same licence fee, just lower/niche profile. Maybe that's the natural way, that new models and opportunities find their feet in cult formats; the overflow of that fringe emergence into the mainstream will always come as a shock to the mainstream status quo.
Keep th' faith,
Article Dan
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