This one’s for the Darkplace fans out there.

For the uninitiated, Darkplace is quite possibly one of the funniest shows ever made. British, ridiculous, hilarious. Especially for anyone who was at all sentient in the 80’s, there’s a lot here to love.

Watch this clip. Brilliant.

Please pay close attention to Sanchez’s recipe suggestion ::

Sanchez: What I do is sometimes get a tin of soup…
Dagless: Yeah.
Sanchez: …Heat it up, poach an egg in it, serve that with a pork pie, sausage roll.
Dagless: I’ll get a Wimpy.

Though Liz doesn’t bite, Sanch does have a chance to serve his favorite later in the episode ::

On a recent Friday, we were searching for dinner options in a somewhat barren fridge and Sanch sprang to mind. So, I took the plunge. Egg in soup.

I didn’t poach it (I went with fried, sunny side up), but served it very much as pictured above. I did not have the pork pie, sausage roll on hand, so I went with two eggs. Cream of chicken soup. Here is the result ::

However it sounds to the reader, I must say, it was delicious. Props to Sanch. Liz and Dagless really have no idea what they’re missing.

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

I’m struggling to care about Sex And The City at the moment to be honest, as far too much is going on in my life. By ‘far too much’ I of course mean watching a multitude of sport that’s occurring at this time – the rugby in South Africa, Andy Murray defying the odds at Wimbledon, and the hordes of council house kids who scrap with each other every night outside of my window due to the harsh life that they have been dealt by God.

This episode started with Carrie finding out that her apartment was going ‘co-op’ which apparently means she could only stay there if she bought it outright. Not having the bunse for it, it looked like she was going to be out on her arse, until Aidan suggested that perhaps they buy the place together. Anybody who watched Bruce Springsteen at Glastonbury over the weekend would know that ‘Dancing In The Dark’ was a highlight, but in this instance it’s more dancing with the devil.

Especially when you consider that, after Carrie had found a ring – supposedly for marriage proposal in Aidan’s luxurious gym bag she panicked and threw up all over the place. That sort of reaction isn’t really the catalyst for a successful relationship is it, let alone sharing a house together. Maybe her sick was a reminder for people not to snoop around looking for things that you don’t want to find out are there. I can share a similar story – only two hours ago I was hugely worried, having listened to music far too loud resulting in my gorgeous, yet sensitive ears ringing for a good forty-five minutes. The worst part of it all was, I could never have gone to the hospital and told them of my problem in case they asked me what I was listening to – my reply of ‘C’est La Vie’ by b*witched would have had me laughed out of the place.

Carrie was going through dilemmas to rival ‘Nelly and Kelly’, although really all her own problems were in her own mind. Women are so ungrateful aren’t they? ‘How could I marry someone who chose the wrong ring?’ Carrie moaned after seeing the ring in question. How could you marry someone who would care about such a trivial thing like that? If she can’t have the grace, and the feeling of comfort to politely go ‘yes I’ll marry you but let’s change this bloody ring!’ then she should just fuck off now. “How do you know when it’s right?”, she also asked. Again – bit of a stupid question. If you think that you need to even broach that question, to put it out there, then it’s clearly fucking wrong. You KNOW when it’s right, when you’re listening to shit 80’s tunes at 3 in the morning and loving it, you can’t just say something like that.

Miranda clearly had no problems just saying things though, especially when she told Steve that she had gotten up the duff thanks to his super-semen whilst they were ordering ice creams. I’m surprised the scriptwriters didn’t go the whole hog and have them ordering ‘Nobbly Bobblies’ or whatever the hell those ridiculous things are called. I’m a Maxibon man myself, although sometimes you can’t go wrong with a 99. As Jay-Z once memorably crooned, “I’ve got 99 problems, which is ironic as that’s also the name of my second favourite cream based treat”. I think that was the demo version actually thinking about it.

Can you imagine living with Carrie Bradshaw? Sorry to keep harking back to her, but I do think about it from time to time. ‘Living with Carrie Bradshaw’ it sounds like the sort of shit show Channel Four would make, like ‘The Boy Whose Skin Fell Off’, and ‘Living with 50 pounds – the Karen Carpenter story’. I just don’t think it’d work, they’d be fashion magazines festooned all over the place, dirty knickers piled up in the sink to try and wash the shame, scum  and discharge away, with big problems everywhere else. Like when she met Big to tell him about Aidan. “He’s not the guy for you”, he told her. As remarks go, that’s pretty much bang on the money – but then who is right for her? If she can’t deal with the perfection of Aidan, then who else is she gonna turn to? Big? Don’t make me laugh. No really, don’t – I’ve got a terrible hacking cough that makes me feel like a rape victim every time I open my ebony lips.

Charlotte and Trey went to some sort of ‘Scottish fling’ which naturally left me in a state of distress. Fans of me know my feelings on the Scottish, but for those of you who don’t, it’s very similar to Garth Marenghi’s. My opinion of the Scots lowered even more a few weeks back, when on a jaunt to Sainsburys I was stopped by a grotesque Scottish charlatan, who asked me through scowled pursed lips if I could lend them the change for the train journey, because they had a doctors appointment for their hand which had doubled in side. Upon closer inspection, their hand was as swollen as Ian Huntley’s cock in a bathroom store, but alas their story was too unbelievable – what kind of a doctors is open on a Sunday? Realising I had almost been had, I doffed my hat and continued on with my day. A part of me died that afternoon, much like that persons fucking disgusting hand.

In the end, Aidan proposed to her whilst he was walking his dog, which must have left him confused as to who he was supposed to give the ring to. He ended up slipping the ring into the one with the more equine features. It’ll all end in tears won’t it? For Carrie and Aidan, for Charlotte and Trey continually arguing about having a baby, for Samantha fucking her boss in the most boring storyline I’ve ever seen, and even for Miranda and Steve – even after Steve proposed to her and got turned down because he had used a second hand ring. I don’t know what her problem is – curly haired and economical, has she never read the books on Stalin’s reign? If you can overlook a few flaws in someone, be it dodgy jewellery or millions dead in Siberia, you know your love can outlast anything – even the death of Communism.

Resonance is a British artsy radio station, and as with everything done pro bono, there’s plenty of throwaway stuff but also some interesting people and music on. The reason I’ve been tuning in lately is the recent appearance of legendary dreamweaver Garth Marenghi (of Darkplace) on the OST show. It was quite good, lots of tasty tunes were played and of course, any Marenghi interview is not to be missed.

Luckily for you, it’s going to be repeated tomorrow (Wednesday 22nd), at 3 PM GMT, so be sure to catch it!

Since I have indulged in the loveliness that is 4oD it has dawned on me that Channel 4 has truly paved the way for comedy over the past few years. Sadly the same cannot be said for the dear old BBC.

I have nothing against the BBC, they have delivered quality programming my whole life and I don’t see it slipping up yet – except in the comedy department. I blame for this the training ground known as BBC3. Any comedy show which is in its first series nowadays seems to be broadcast on BBC3 first; namely the current blast of awfulness in Grownups and the thankfully now deceased ’sitcom’ Clone. A terrible show to say the least. Any comedy to emanate from the Beeb tends to come from comedy panel shows such as Qi, Have I Got News For You and Mock The Week. These shows though are great, the guests are usually from a comic background or conversely ridiculed into looking foolish – which is also amusing.

There are no actual comedy TV shows on the BBC these days though which are remotely edgy or original, just the same family friendly programmes the BBC can get away with repeating at any point of the day to fill in schedules. The latest culprit being The Old Guys. I watched the first episode with low expectations, and to be honest I was suprised that it wasn’t 100% dire television, but it was capable of so much more. The same goes for Not Going Out, a harmless sitcom which still brings nothing new to the table.

It hasn’t always been this way though, a few years ago the BBC had the likes of The Office and The League of Gentlemen which were completely different to the traditional programming and instantly became cult hits. Similarly Extras was hugely popular and at the same time not the ’same old same old’ drivel that has been churned out as of late. There have been some attempts at unconventional comedy which have blossomed, namely being the overnight successes of The Mighty Boosh and Gavin & Stacey. But they’re still nothing compared to Channel 4’s repertoire.

Channel 4 has always been seen as the alternative TV channel, bringing original and contemporary programming to our humble homes first. As of late 4 has brought us the comedy gold of The I.T Crowd, Peep Show and Garth Marenghi’s Dark Place to name a few. The I.T Crowd in particular is notable as it is basically a stereotypical sitcom, 3 people based primarily in one room having conversations – something the Beeb have been running on for years – but the writing in The I.T Crowd is so much better. On the other hand, Garth Marenghi wouldn’t have been commissioned on BBC at all. Possibly on BBC3, but at 2am and no-one would have seen it. The premise that the show is funny because it’s awful has yet to be covered by the BBC in any notable way, and now it’s too late.

I do wonder what the future is for British comedy on the BBC, it seems that recycling the likes of Little Britain, Catherine Tate and Two Pints… is fine and dandy for the folks over there. Sadly though I am losing faith in the Beeb and its entertainment factor, it seems that hard-hitting drama shows are the latest fad for the writers – sadly none of these are that good either. For comedy then C4 is the way forward, with new shows currently gaining cult status such as Free Agents I see British comedy with a bright future on Channel 4.

Also if you don’t yet have 4oD, get it. It’s so much better than iPlayer.

One of the funniest shows i’ve seen. This is the 2nd Episode. You can find all six episodes on google video by searching for them under ”Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace” and episode 1-6. If you click this link i have it set up so most of the episodes show up in a search i did on google but you made it this far, im sure you can make it the rest of the way.

Todd Rivers – “One Track Lover”:

I know, it’s been three months. Here’s what I’ve been up to:

1. I’ve been reading lots of books, including the Twilight series (*rolls eyes*).  Yeah, I play aloof on my blog, but the truth is I loved those stupid freakin’ books and read the whole series in under a week.  I saw the movie too and now am ridiculously enamored with Robert Pattinson.  Did you know he’s also a musician?  A pretty damn good one, in my opinion.  You can hear him in action here.

2. I wrote a children’s book!  My friend Joanna and I wrote, illustrated and printed the thing.  You can read about it, in parts, with these links to the blog on my Myspace page: 

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

At this point, I haven’t put up the final info on the book.  I’ll get to that and post the link when it’s done.

3.  Pizza Quest! I’ve been hunting Portland for my favorite pizza and documenting the search in pictures  on my Facebook (yes, I have a myspace and a facebook — I am that lame). 

Like everything in my life, apparently, it too needs to be updated.  Sheesh. 

4. I was introduced to the comic genius of Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace.  Sadly, a very short-lived TV show in England.  Goods news: all the episodes are on YouTube.  Here’s part 1 of Episode 3 — Skipper the Eye Child. Note: if you don’t laugh, we probably can’t be friends.

There.  Up to date.

Hey,

I made a quirky little bar-related discovery over the weekend that I feel inclined to share, as it also served to remind me of long-forgotten TV show with which I was previously obsessed.

On Sunday, I was in Bristol with my good friend Wendy for one of our patented ‘many-a-beer, many-a-laugh’ evenings and we left our usual haunt after a few hours to try out a bar she had stumbled (literally) across the previous Friday.  So, after many wrong-turns down several suspicious looking side-streets which seem to offer nothing but the prospect of impending death (of which Bristol is full, though most offer wonderful little discoveries like this one rather than the afore-mentioned death) we came to the Rummer Hotel.

Now it’s quirk comes from the fact that the whole front of the building is boarded up, so we entered from a side entrance that was hidden behind a rather theatrical looking, gigantic black velvet curtain.  The entrance was guarded by a surly looking bouncer who seemed to wear the expression of someone who hasn’t quite come to terms with the fact that this is how he spends his Sundays.  Anyway, the inside of this place is dominated by a huge open fire (the surround of which is covered in random, Mason-esque carvings) and several large, dark green leather sofas.  The whole bar instantly reminded me of some bygone gentlemen’s club – exactly like the one from TV show ‘Snuff Box.’

If you’ve never seen the particular brand of craziness that was ‘Snuff Box’, know that it centres (though not exactly) around the lives of 2 hangmen who frequent the titular gentlemen’s club - imagine the twisted offspring of ‘Garth Marenghi’ and ‘Black Books’ if Marenghi was having an affair on the side with ‘The Mighty Boosh’ – and you’re still nowhere near.  View with caution if you’re the least bit offended by swearing – I give you ‘Snuff Box’:

Amy at WB x

The past is stirring in the halls of Darkplace, and for Dr. Rick Dagless M.D., that means Trouble. With a capital T (the rest of the letters lowercase). Something long dead has been reborn on ‘B’ Wing. Is it a macabre sign, a terrible warning, or a sacred gift from the gods? What’s certain is that it is a giant eye. A journey of discovery lies ahead for both of them… Garth Marenghi, the titan of terror, introduces this lyrical episode of his hospital horror drama.

I love you Skippy

Some of the best stuff I’ve seen come out of the UK has been in a small, grainy box on Youtube and that needs to change in a hurry.  Come on BBC video, get cracking and get these shows ready for me to purchase!

The Mighty Boosh is a splendidly surreal trip into the universe of Vince Noir and Howard T.J. Moon (Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt).  Each episode finds the duo faced with a bizarre foe (often played by Fielding or Barratt) who often wants, or steals, something ridiculous from them.  Loaded with big laughs from the stars along with Rich Fulcher, Michael Fielding and a guy in an ape suit, the Boosh is a must have for my DVD collection.  Favorite characters include the Hitcher, the Crack Fox, Saboo, local crocodile Eric Phillips, and, of course, Old Gregg.  Look into this one if you love bizzarre comedy.

Peep Show series one is available but there are four more series out on DVD in the UK.  What happened?  Get those discs out.  A look inside the twisted minds’ of best friends, Mark and Jez (David Mitchell and Robert Webb), Peep Show pushes the boundary of good taste with each episode and I love it.  How can such horrible characters keep me wanting to see more of their story?  The best sopporting character has got to be Super Hans.

A similar case is I’m Alan Partridge starring the brilliant Steve Coogan.  Alan’s mock talk show Knowing Me, Knowing You and series one of I’m Alan Partridge are available but where is my series two?  Long before Ricky Gervais made you cringe uncomfortably, Alan was getting himself into some pretty awkward situations.  The biggest blowhard since Ted Baxter, Partridge is a great program that I want to see properly and in its entirety, please.  Fantastic stuff.

From Father Ted creator Graham Linehan comes the hilarious I.T. Crowd.  Moss and Roy are socially inept computer geeks who work in the basement of Reynholm Industries; their new boss, Jen, knows absolutely nothing about computers.  The set-ups in this sitcom are fantastic.  Roy trapped under a desk or Moss attempting to extinguish a fire don’t sound particualarly funny, but they are.  Snappy writing and great performances (especially Richard Ayoade as Moss) highlight the 12 episodes produced thus far.

Another sitcom featuring, and directed by, the aforementioned Richard Ayoade is Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace.  The show is a bit high concept, which may explain why it lasted only one series, but it is ace.  Back in the 80s, schlock horror writer Garth Marenghi (the brilliant Matthew Holness) created a TV show which never saw the light of day, except for a brief run in Peru.  In the new millenium, however, the network asked him to release six episodes of the program spliced together with interviews of the cast.  A hilarious send up of cheap 80s sci-fi/horror, Darkplace needs to be on a shelf in my living room.

If you can find any of these shows anywhere on the world wide internet, watch them immediately.  Otherwise, wait and see if they arrive on this side of the pond for purchase as proper DVDs.  You will not be disappointed.

Honorable mention:  Nathan Barley and The Inbetweeners.  The first is a cult hit and the second is quite recent.

‘Nina’s eyes popped out of what was left of her back. Why oh why had she opened that tomb? The sand turned red. This was because she was bleeding on it. Blood, ruby-red blood, her blood. This was the worst day of her life.’

Well, this is the funniest shit ever.

Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace, which originally aired 2004, is a British comedy series about a fictional medical drama that supposedly aired in the 1980s, but was ’so radical, so risky, so dangerous, so goddamn crazy, that the so-called powers that be became too scared to show it.’ The concept started out as an award-winning stage show at the Edinburgh fringe festival and was eventually picked up by Channel 4 in the UK. Only one series (six episodes) was produced, but what a series (six episodes)! (Actually, one of the six kind of blows, but I won’t tell you which one.) A film version is supposedly in the works. You might recognize Matthew Holness as Simon from series two of The Office UK. Stephen Merchant has a cameo, too.

I assembled all the episodes available on Youtube for your convenience. You can also buy the DVD here for 12 dollars (plus shipping), although you would only be able to watch it on a region-free player or on your computer using VLC. Thanks to constant companion Chris (a.k.a., Dr. Snus, a.k.a., big guy) for introducing me to this Renwick customer.

Episode 1: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

Episode 2 in full

Episode 3: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

Episode 4: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

Episode 5: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

Episode 6: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

‘I’m a One Track Lover‘ video.

The Penn Relays Track and Field Meet – arguably the greatest track meet in the world – took place this past weekend at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Being a former competitive runner, I made it a point to mark my calender months in advance in anticipation of the phenomenal event. Penn Relays has everything that a running fan could hope for in a track meet; exciting races, a historic setting, and an energetic crowd. The meet is sure to be an absolute blast for followers of the sport.

Although I was in Philly for the entire weekend, I didn’t watch a single race. Now that I think about it, I didn’t even see the stadium. Come on people, I’ve got better things to do than hang out at a fucking track meet. What better things, you ask? Seeing a puppet show and punk band of course!

On Friday night, Scottbrundage.com and I arrived at Philly’s best nerd hostel, Mockubunkport. We slammed some beers while watching downloaded episodes of Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace. If you’ve never seen the British sci-fi/medical spoof, then I highly recommend checking it out on youtube. One of Scott’s college “love” interests, Allison, invited us to her birthday party at 10 Stone in Center City. How could we turn down the request? We jumped into the MockuMobile and headed other there.

The scene was kinda bizarre. The party’s attendees included Allison’s coworkers, current boyfriend, ex-boyfriend, and our idiotic trio. Thank God for alcohol. We got smashed and managed to offend only one hipster in the establishment. Scott and Mocku did urinate all over the walls of the bathroom, but that’s nothing out of the ordinary. Mocku claims that he ran into Jeff Daniels (Harry from Dumb and Dumber) at the bar, but I’m convinced it was a Sparks mirage. We talked to a couple of girls until closing, but neither seemed to want anything to do with us. Once again, nothing out of the ordinary.

We headed over to Pat’s for some late-night cheesesteaks. After consuming the wads of grease and meat, Scott and I waited for Mocku by the car. From a distance, we could see him stumbling down the sidewalk, clearly too drunk to drive. We told him so once he got to the car, but he explained the situation: “Nah guys, I was just taking a piss while walking. I’m fine.” Who were we to argue? Arriving back to Mockubunkport, we soon passed out on couches half our size with the lights and television blaring. My standard Philly sleeping conditions.

On Saturday, we headed over to the 2pm showing of Animal Farm, staring Dave Johnse. Dave is an actor, currently performing in a puppet-rendition of the Orwellian classic. Before the show, I was grabbing a cup of coffee in Starbucks and met a super-cool girl named Erica. She informed us that she’s a bartender, and invited us to stop in for drinks later that evening. It would have been idiotic to turn down the offer.

Dave’s show was a blast, even with the annoying ADD kid sitting in the front row. My favorite part was when the animals overthrew Farmer Jones and his crew. Dave and the rest of the cast put on a great choreographed wrestling scene, which even included a sick body slam. Props Dave!

At this point of the day, I had planned on checking out some races, but Chuckblog VIP’s Catie and Danny came into town for the evening showing of Animal Farm. While enjoying some beverages and light-hearted laughs at Skinners, I made the mistake of inviting some random dude sitting alone at the bar to chill with our posse. He seemed like a decent enough fellow at first, but he turned out to be pretty fucking out of his mind. And by “out of his mind”, I mean in the uncool sense, as in he might have mutilated our bodies and murdered us later that night.

Things got wierd when he followed us to another bar across the street. At one point, I went to go use the bathroom, and he came in soon thereafter. I thought to myself “if we’re going to escape, this is the time to do it.” As I walked back to Mocku and Scott, I started mouthing the message, “If you want to leave…” at which point, Scott started shaking his head furiously before I could finish, and we darted from the bar. We left half-full drinks behind, being much more concerned with sprinting to avoid being caught by the dude as he walked out of the bathroom. It was a pretty mean thing to do, and we were fairly confident that the guy committed suicide after the incident. To get ditched by our group is deifnitely a sign of hitting rock bottom in life.

Next up on our itinerary was catching a performance by my friend Mark’s punk band that travelled in from NYC. The name of the band is Fucking Hell (FH), which sums up pretty much everything that the band represents. They’ve got a straight-up DIY, screw-everyone mentality, opposed to bands like Fallout Boy and whatever other group-of-the-year is conforming to their money-hungry record label. We picked up a case of Sparks before the show. I think it’s safe to say that  8 cans of Sparks per person is enough to let our hearts and blood pressure know who’s boss.

FH put on a great performance. In between songs, someone made the glorious mistake of yelling out “Voltron”, triggering Mocku’s nerd switch. He began yelling out a string of obscure, early 90’s robot-cartoon references, such as “Go-Bots”. People were either wildly amused or very confused. After FH ended, Scott accidentally cursed out a 10 year old girl at the show. I’m not sure of what’s more puzzling, the fact that a 10 year old girl was at a punk show, or Scott “accidentally” cursing her out. Soon thereafter, Mocku fell down the steps and broke the staircase. Needless to say, it was time to leave.

The mind-erasing effect of Sparks hit me hard after the show, so the details of the rest of the night are pretty fuzzy. We headed over to meet up with Erica, and kept our cool for the sake of her job. Knowing a bartender is very strange for someone like myself, as I’m so used to sneaking alcohol into bars via Lil’ Gibraltar. The next morning, Mocku said that I was so puzzled when I paid for less shots than were actually poured. I couldn’t grasp the concept of being given free drinks. I must consult with my scoundrelling mentor over this odd occurence. At closing, we headed back to Mockubunkport, resumed our positions on couches half our size with lights and television blaring, and packed it in for the night.

Thanks to all for the great weekend, including but not limited to SPA, Mocku, Dave, Danny, Catie, Erica, Mark, the residents of Chernobyl, and the makers of Sparks.

Chuckblog loves you more than Philly! Come back to me!

This is the intro from the best show i’ve seen in a very long time. I made a post about it a while ago. You can see it, and links to six full episodes on youtube by clicking here

Intro video

Deconstructing Darkplace and the decline of television

This is one of the funniest shows i’ve ever seen. All six episodes can be found at the links.

Episode 1   Episode 2 Episode 3 Episode 4 Episode 5 Episode 6

Part 1                                     Part 1      Part 1    Part 1        Part 1

Part 2                                   Part 2      Part 2    Part 2        Part 2

Part 3                                   Part 3     Part 3     Part 3         Part 3

Todd Rivers – “One Track Lover”

a bit of snuff from the Snuff Box

An mp3 of the classic song from Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace.

Lyrics
Why won’t she be mine?
I wish I was more attractive like Dagless
Still one can only dream.
I’m a one track lover, down a two way lane.
Drivin’ fast down the highway, must o’ been insane.
Cos the temperatures too high, traveling driving way too fast!
And I knew our lovin, was too hot to last…

(Daglass Guitar Solo)

She’s smooth, like ice, cold to the touch and it isn’t very nice,
When your left (Cold to the touch) alone,
You let them treat you badly,
Leaves you hanging on the phone,
Take off (Hot enough) shove you loving to the wheel
Put the pedal to the floor,
Cos your heading for the hills,
Got to get away (Making love) ,
Cant take it no more,
Man you don’t need this leave it,
Leave it,
Leave at the door
(We should be making love!)

Download mp3

http://rapidshare.com/files/83450699/one_track_lover.mp3.html

from Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace

Television stations need to explore solutions that drive viewers to online content

By Michael Hackmer
Email: mhackmer@bia.com

We’ve known for some time that the number of people viewing online video is on the rise.  With the expansion of broadband and high speed internet access, more people finally have the bandwidth to support video downloads.

But where do we really stand?

In 2006, the number of Americans between the ages of 12 and 64 that viewed online video content every day was 9 percent.  This year however, that number has grown to 14 percent and could end up being higher.  Frequency of viewing online video also is on the rise.  Last year, 44 percent of 12 to 64 year-olds watched video online at least once a week.  This year – that number is up to 52 percent.

YouTube is driving much of the rise in online video consumption with 20 million or more viewers per month watching over 100 million video clips per day (Let’s just not forget there are numerous providers of video content, including Yahoo!). Though YouTube and others provide some news content, they traditionally reach audiences interested in viewing comedy and what some may call “fringe” or alternative content (like Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace, which has reemerged as a cult favorite online), as well as those posting personalized content as opposed to news and special interest stories – a backbone of most television programming.

In point of fact, research demonstrates that the most popular video downloads on the Internet are news and special interest stories, with comedy, television programming, movie clips / previews, and weather the next most popular selections. 

This means that the interests of Americans who view video online plays directly into the strengths of television stations, which have access to video content that they produce, as well as the ability to offer network and audience produced content that may not normally be aired in regular programming cycles.

Another facet to the trend of people viewing video online includes the growth of people who are online while they watch television.  According to a study conducted by the Solutions Research Group (highlighted in a recent Time magazine article), 37 percent of the US population over the age of 12 use their computers while they watch television.  This means that close to 100 million Americans are multitasking – shifting between watching television and online computer use. 

Other research shows that the longer people use the Internet (in numbers of years they have been online), the more their television viewing decreased.  Though the time spent online per day remains less than total time watching television, such a trend represents viewers lost from television stations’ over the air service, but in fact they could be recaptured with on-demand and download Internet based services delivered to

One way to both maximize the trend towards online video viewership and combat declining market share and audience is to implement a desktop application or widget to deliver video and other programming directly to the computer desktop. 

Desktop applications and widgets are particularly effective in driving viewers to a station’s website, because they offer one click access to any portion of a website. Desktop applications reside on the computer desktop of a specific viewer giving a television station the ability to stream video and audio content directly to the desktop, as well as alert messages, RSS feeds, weather, and other forms of content.  This has the effect of creating a communication bridge between the station and the viewer whenever the viewer is online.

Once the communication bridge has been established, a desktop application or widget can then drive viewers back to a station’s website for additional breaking news, severe weather bulletins, school closings, community updates or contest and promotional information.

Given the growth of online video consumption by Americans, the growing trend of multitasking between television and online viewership, and the possible decline in television viewing in favor of Internet use, television stations have the opportunity to enhance their online presence by delivering interactive content through desktop applications that also help to funnel these viewers back to their websites.

To learn more about DESKTOP APPLICATIONS AND WIDGETS for television, click here.

For more information on how to build a digital strategy for your television station, please contact BIA by clicking here.