Television And The Net- Growing Together, Not
Apart
Author: Madison Lockwood

The old fashioned wall posters that featured TV and movie stars
along with rock bands and that highlighted generations of
teen-age bedrooms have been overshadowed, if not replaced, by
fan sites on the Internet. There are untold tens (hundreds?) of
thousands of them, ranging from amateur idol worship to
sophisticated collections of information, photos and often
video clips of the person, or shows being lionized.

For the most part, fan sites can upload photos and small clips
from films under the "fair use" policy. Generally speaking,
fair use is a court-defined copyright principle based on the
belief that the public is entitled to freely use portions of
copyrighted materials for purposes of commentary and criticism.
Short clips or stills of a program or film are usually covered
under fair use.

Turning Fandom into Big Business

Like most everything else on the Internet, people are finding
ways to make money from the phenomenon. There are indexes of TV
fan sites that are peppered with advertising. Sites for the soap
opera stars provide particularly potent advertising
opportunities. There are "official" and unofficial sites
dedicated to public figures in the entertainment world. Many of
the unofficial sites have advertising as well, while the
official sites often peddle memorabilia. For that matter, so do
the unofficial sites.

Any Press is Good Press

What the entertainment industry has learned is that, generally,
fan sites have a positive impact on the entertainer or
entertainers featured. The old adage about negative news
coverage is "Print anything you want about me, just spell my
name properly." In other words, any coverage is good coverage,
any exposure is good exposure. The really short version is
"there's no bad press."

For television, this is particularly important with regard to
the premieres of new shows and the launch of new seasons. Web
fan sites provide the opportunity for the TV networks to
premiere character outlines and even selected promotional
clips. This was previously the exclusive domain of morning news
programs and entertainment news magazines like Entertainment
Tonight.

In the World of Sports

In the sports world, there are several gaming sites –
particularly in the UK – that invite viewers to upload their
personal videos or photos of pro athletes or games. The entire
sports industry, including the gaming segment, is TV driven.
Some sites pay for this content. In this country as in Europe,
many of the media savvy pro athletes have their own websites.
Controversial pros such as Barry Bonds and Terrell Owens use
those sites to respond to negative news coverage; you will
often see their personal blogs quoted in sports stories. Some
athletes peddle their own autographed memorabilia over their
web sites.

TV Personalities

Many teen TV and music personalities also have their own
websites and provide (ostensibly) personal updates on their
lives, careers, etc. It has changed the nature of teen idol
worship by bringing the entertainer much closer to the fan.
These personal "star" sites have proven to be productive
publicity and outreach tools for performers seeking to build a
following among the 12-24 age group. They have also helped to
build ratings for the TV shows starring these young actors.

Hollywood.com

Hollywood.com is a site dedicated to television and film
industry gossip, news and images. You can find television show
clips there, presumably placed with permission from the studio.
An important component of their content, however, is the index
of fan pages for stars of all types – music, movies, TV. All of
this content including the fan sites is interlaced with
advertising for upcoming movies and many non-entertainment,
online products.

You can even find a fan site index entitled "Obsessive Fan
Sites – Excess only the Internet can Provide" at
www.ggower.com/fans/. There is a weekly competition for worst
site among the choices posted, along with lots of sardonic
commentary.


About The Author: Madison Lockwood is a customer relations
associate for http://www.apollohosting.com. She helps clients
understand how a website may benefit them both personally and
professionally. Apollo Hosting provides website hosting,
ecommerce hosting, & VPS hosting to a wide range of customers.