HGTV Offers How-To For Launching A New Show, Hint: It Involves The Internet

In a first for the Scripps Networks, the cable TV programmer will use the Internet exclusively to launch a new TV show. While the Oct. 17 webcast of HGTV's new "My First Place" isn't an explicit Internet bypass strategy, it is a tacit acknowledgement that online media is becoming an important way for TV outlets to introduce new shows to younger audiences. The program, a show about first-time home buyers will premiere as webcasts on HGTV.com on Monday, Oct. 17, five days before the show is telecast on HGTV. Scripps also has arranged for Webcasts of the show to run on TVGuide.com.

The network anticipates that offering the show online will draw younger viewers, on the theory that young people are especially likely to view a Webcast--and that once their appetite is whetted, they will watch the program on TV.

"We're always hoping to show readers and viewers that there's more new, hip young programming on the network--that it's not the HGTV that you may have seen five years ago," said Charity Curley, director of HGTV's Web site. Streaming the program, she said, was a way of "putting it in a medium where young people are watching."

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Scripps, like many TV networks, faces the challenge of competing for consumer attention with the Internet's myriad of sites. The decision to stream the premiere reflects the network's attempt to win back viewers by taking content to the online audience, rather than waiting for the audience to return on its own to the network.

Scripps is not alone in this approach. A growing number of TV networks have started putting their programs on the Web in an attempt to grow viewership. For instance, last month, Yahoo! streamed the first episode of the WB's "Supernatural" before it aired on TV; the year before, AOL did the same with the WB's now-defunct "Jack & Bobby."

More than just offering online previews of TV programs, networks also have been streaming shows simultaneously with the TV broadcasts, or soon after they've aired the first time. In a move analogous to the Scripps decision to stream "My First Place" on TVGuide.com, CBS recently arranged for Google to host the debut episode of "Everybody Hates Chris" for four days after the UPN show premiered on TV. The arrangement involved links to UPN sites appearing next to the streams.

CBS's move to stream "Chris," like that of the Scripps Network, was driven by hopes of increasing ratings, said Dana McClintock, senior vice president, communications at CBS. "The main intent was simply to get people to watch the show," McClintock said.

The idea, he added, was to recapture consumers who surf the Web at the expense of watching television: "The hope is that they watch this programming and enjoy it as much as the critics did, and then decide to watch it on television."

CBS plans to stream more shows in the future but, McClintock said, the network hasn't yet decided whether its goals are better served by hosting streams on CBS sites or branching out to other Web sites.

"The question remains: Do we do it like this, or do it on [our] own Web sites?" he said. The decision, he added, will depend on "the terms of the deal that you can get and the exposure of the site that you're working with."

Along with the streams of "My First Place," HGTV.com will carry interviews with actors, including Katherine Heigl of "Grey's Anatomy" and Judy Reyes from "Scrubs."

The interviews are designed to "sex it up a little bit" Curley said, adding: "We've never done any celebrity programming online." Other celebrities the network will feature on the Web include movie star Jamie Lee Curtis, movie and TV actor Natasha Henstridge, comedian Paul Reiser, Jorja Fox from "CSI," and Persia White from "Girlfriends."

But it's not clear that those particular celebrities--at least some of whom seem more Baby Boomer than Millennial--will bring younger fans to the TV station, which already does well with women 25 and older. HGTV in September was tied for 10th place among women ages 25 to 54, with an average of 318,000 viewers in September, according to Nielsen Media Research. Overall in prime time, HGTV was 23rd, with 709,000 viewers.

On the Web, as well, HGTV.com is more likely than average to be visited by users older than 34, and less likely than average to be visited by users ages 18-34, according to comScore Networks. In fact, adults ages 35 and over are 35 percent more likely than the average Internet user to visit HGTV.com, while adults ages 18-34 are 24 percent less likely to do so, according to comScore.

In addition, the decision to Webcast on TVGuide.com isn't the most obvious way to reach a younger demographic; that site also skews older than average, although somewhat younger than HGTV.com. Adults age 35 and over are 17 percent more likely than the average Internet user to visit TVGuide.com, while people ages 18-34 are 2 percent less likely to do so, according to comScore.

The "My First Place" Webcasts will be sponsored on HGTV.com by Century 21, which will run 15- or 30-second pre-roll ads, while the TVGuide.com streams will run ad-free, said Curley.

Wayne Friedman contributed to this report.

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