MagneticMediaFed

Two weeks ago, in an effort to save money, MTV’s once-upon-a-time network staple Total Request Life began taping half of its episodes. After the live shows on Monday and Wednesday the following days show’s are recorded live-to-tape.

The one-time epicenter of popular music has fallen greatly since the boy band bubble burst (take that alliteration police!) at the beginning of the decade. David Bauder of the Associate Press breaks down the numbers:

At its peak in 1999, “TRL” had 757,000 viewers a day, with 346,000 of them aged 12 to 17, according to Nielsen Media Research.

So far this year, the show - now seen at 3:30 p.m. ET - averages 351,000 viewers a day, Nielsen said. The 12-to-17-year-old audienceis only 113,000, half what it was only two years ago.

This downward trend makes perfect sense within the current climate of cool. There’s still a mainstream, but its fragmented beyond belief and the notion of kids gathering around a tube to vote for their favorite song doesn’t really apply. There’s this whole new factor… um… what’s it called? It’s on the tip of my — Oh yeah, THE INTERNET. Yeah, that kind of changed things.

It probably didn’t help matters that a few weeks earlier the network cut 250 jobs as part of a major restructuring.

So do we cry a river for the unliveness of TRL? Hell no. What’s hilarious about this story is its suggesting that Total Request Live has been on MTV as long as the network has existed. In fact, the show didn’t premiere until September 1998. Yes it was almost a decade ago… but it was also 1998.

Read the AP story via MSNBC.com

According to the Associated Press, David Letterman went home sick today after coming down with a stomach bug. Adam Sandler, who was suppose to be tonight’s guest got a quick promotion to host.

Since coming to CBS in 1993, Letterman has had a string of guest hosts twice. First when he had his heart surgery in 2000 and then a few years later when he came down with a case of shingles. Tonight will mark the first time he simply got sick and couldn’t go on the air.

The Late Show does double tapings on Monday so he’ll be back on the air Wednesday night. Thursday and Friday’s shows are pre-empted by college basketball.

Read Bill Carter’s story over at the Times

After months of flirting and/or fighting Viacom Inc. remembered the long-standing tradition of tough guys getting the girl* by sicing its lawyers on Google Inc.’s YouTube. The ubiquitous video “sharing” site, which has been alegedly hosting some 160,000 clips of Viacom properties, is now being sued by the media giant for a sum of one BILLION dollars.Viacom says: [YouTube] “harnessed technology to willfully infringe copyrights on a huge scale” and had “brazen disregard” of intellectual property laws.

YouTube says: The Digital Millenium Copyright Act protects the company from these very suits so long as they remove clips when asked.

Neither side really matters as, in this case, we are the ones with the power. In the case of YouTube, it is the user who is decided what is uploaded. If people wanted to see videos of kids lip-syncing in front of webcams, then that’s what will be uploaded. If users want the highlights from last night’s Daily Show, then that will be uploaded as well.

Half of this lawsuit could be described as old media hopelessly grasping at something that will hold off the inevitable. Though the other half, the more interesting half, is really a discussion of whether the future of web applications will be based on a closed system or an open system.

CurrentTV, which I posted about yesterday, is very much a closed system. Users upload their videos, but then it is the CurrentTV system that decided where (or if) those videos will be displayed. They don’t offer embedded video and the company has established its own rules and regulations for who holds the copyright. Legally this is great because there is no grey area. The problem is that it really limits who will see these videos.

YouTube, on the other hand, is the ultimate open network. Anyone can upload anything and then post it wherever they like with the only limits being those imposed by people who see the uploaded video and deem it either explicit or in violation of a copyright. It’s paradise for the user and hell for massive companies who make their money producing content.

No one considers CurrentTV a threat because it doesn’t step on toes. Unfortunately for Viacom toe-stepping can ultimately result in revolution — so good luck with that law suit.

Read more about Viacom’s suit against Google via BusinessWeek

*At least in the first act.

As many of you know over-the-air TV signals will be switched from an analog signal to a digital signal in February of 2009. As many of you might know, any standard definition television will no longer be able to accept an over-the-air signal causing much gnashing of teeth for the likely 50 people who will still be depending on said signal to get “their stories.” As many of you likely don’t know, the federal government recently announcing the guidelines for its television conversion subsidizing program, giving qualifying consumers as much as $80 a household to purchase conversion boxes.

Starting in January of 2008 you will be able to qualify for a $40 voucher to purchase a $50 conversion box allowing you to watch digital television on your non-digital television. If you have cable or satellite you won’t need an upgrade. For houses with more than one television you can get up to $80. This money will be taken out of an all ready allotted pool of one billion dollars.

In this day and age it seems odd for anyone to not have a pay-for-TV service, though perhaps not as rare as we may all think. A mere 18 months ago I, your trusty TV blogger, was one of those over-the-air TV viewers (factoid: not a great way to watch TV in a major metropolitan area, especially if you enjoy channels that are on the lower side of the spectrum). It’s hard to say if this program will really work, but its nice to know you’ll be thrown a bone (even if its because you’re living in the past).

Read more about the digital TV payments via the New York Times

Nielsen Media Research, for those who don’t know, are the ubiquitous measurers of television audience size across America. The ratings that they come up with (based on the viewing patterns of a sample of Americans) are used by networks to determine ad rates (as well as making decisions as to which programs will live or die). It’s an important company that produces important numbers for a medium that I, obviously, find important. The more I learn about this company, however, the more I’m convinced that it is run by a group of retarded chimps, throwing feces at a dart board labeled “Rating” and “Share.” Take for example the lede of this AP article, which I read earlier today:

College students will no longer be invisible to the company that measures TV viewing once they leave home. Starting this week, Nielsen Media Research will begin tracking what college students are watching in their dorms, a development that could significantly boost the ratings - and advertising income - for programs popular among young people. [AP]

Initially I though that this sounded like a good idea. Of course. Why wouldn’t you monitor college kids. They love TV! And then I remembered how so many of my favorite shows over the past five years had been canceled because they just weren’t attracting a large enough audience and I thought, “What? All this time they haven’t been monitoring college kids? I’m sorry, but that’s the craziest f—–g thing I’ve ever heard.” What do they mean they’re going to start monitoring college kids? You mean those 18-24 year olds sitting on a pile of student loan money and the sweet, sweet taste of freedom? Those college kids?

Back when television as a whole was comprised of, say, five channels, Nielsen was a good company to measure ratings. What’s shocking is not that the company never really figured out what to do once digital took over, but the fact that no company was able to step up to the plate and take the reins.