Ok, we are not sure if we like this idea or not. The thought of sitting a baby in front of a TV just scares the crap out of us. Yet, we all know whether it’s Teletubbies, Baby Einstein, or the latest on PBS…your baby as well as ours will likely be watching some TV. We just hope, that parents truly get it…you use the programs to interact with your child and not to baby sit your child.

The new, round-the-clock channel is called BabyFirstTV. For $9.99 a month, it will be available initially by satellite through DirecTV and later through cable TV providers as well.

TV offerings already abound for older toddlers, and a lucrative ? though controversial ? market has developed for baby-oriented videos, attracting the Walt Disney Co. and the makers of Sesame Street, among others. But until now there had been no ongoing TV programming aimed at infants.

“This is the first channel dedicated to babies and their parents ? transforming TV from its original purpose into a way for them to interact,” said Sharon Rechter, BabyFirstTV’s executive vice president for business development and marketing.

“The fact of life is that babies are already watching TV,” she said. “That’s why having BabyFirstTV is so important ? what we want to offer is completely safe, commercial-free and appropriate content.” KDKA.com.

We remember a time when bad children were just that, bad children. Here in the United States where we tend to take things to the extreme. Children are no longer considered misbehaving but considered guilty, by some school officials, of criminal behavior. Time is too short for us to truly comment about these “zero tolerance” policies except to say that they seem more like an excuse for those in charge to do “zero thinking”.

Regardless, we are glad to see there is some justice in the world. The following is an excerpt from an AP story posted at CBS News:

The family of a third-grader who was handcuffed and jailed after misbehaving at school will receive $221,000 from the city and its insurer to settle a lawsuit.

Jerry Trujillo, then 8, was sent the school counselor’s office after he hit another child with a basketball in August 2004, his mother said. The juvenile citation for disorderly conduct said Jerry then “got out of control and refused to go back to class.”

After police were summoned, Jerry was booked into the city jail, dressed in an orange jumpsuit and placed in a holding cell while adult inmates in a nearby cell taunted him, according to the lawsuit.

Earlier this week, we discussed here at Like that Idea how NBC’s handling of people posting “amateur” video clips of Saturday Night Live skits on Internet servers. We took no issue with NBC’s claim of copyright, but argued that as copyright holders it may have been a better business decision to allow fans to post such skits on sites. In our opinion, they should have considered it free advertising reaching their intended target. The whole NBC-YouTube episode was our first if three example of how TV networks have lost touch with their audience.

Since our posting, we’ve noticed some bigger fish also picking up on the story we first saw on CNET. One of those bigger fish includes the Motley Fool which argued a day after us some of the same points we made:

After all, the runaway success of “Lazy Sunday” had little to do with its original airing on SNL. But given YouTube’s growing popularity among the young audience that NBC surely covets, I’d have to say that for now, this seems like a rather shortsighted move. Much like the music recording industry’s often heavy-handed tactics, NBC’s decision to pull the plug might irritate the same customers it’s trying to attract.

However, this story doesn’t end. From this episode there are two more examples that can be drawn for how TV networks have lost touch with their audience.

Example 2: Many of the TV networks deny up to twenty percent of their audience from accessing their content fully.

This isn’t something new, but it is still amazing to me the number of large companies that don’t make their Web sites compatible with anything other than Windows and Internet Explorer (IE). Even those articles discussing Windows and IE favorably can’t hide the fact that 20 percent of Americans do not use IE. Instead those users use alternative browsers such as Firefox (Windows, Linux, Unix, Mac) and Safari (Mac). NBC is of course one of these companies that have yet to recognized how much the Internet and its users have evolved in the past five years. From the CNET article:

The video continues to reside on NBC’s official “SNL” site, though its embedded video player appears to work only with Windows.

Reading the CNET article you would believe that it’s only the Linux and possibly Mac crowd that need to worry about not being able to access the videos from the NBC site. However, when likethatidea.com visited NBC.com, using Windows XP and Firefox 1.5, we were prompted with a message that not only said you needed a Windows operating system but also Internet Explorer 5.5 or greater. So not only are the Linux and Mac users out from accessing the video but also Windows users using a non-IE browser.

Once again, the videos are NBC’s property and they can do what they wish. However, you just have to wonder why a network that wants to attract a younger and hipper audience to their network programming would do such a stupid thing. How many real businesses would survive pushing away 20 percent of their customers? I argue not many, especially those that are out of touch with their audience.

Example 3: Networks, such as NBC, insult their audience without even knowing what they’re doing wrong.

Let me ask you, if you sent an e-mail to a company that expressed concerns with a service or product not meeting your expectation, what would you expect in their reply? I think most of you would expect at a minimum a form letter that replied back addressing your concerns. Well I wrote back to NBC and they sent me back a form letter, but it so badly written that it barely touched on my concerns. In fact, it suggested I fill out one of their surveys! Yes, that’s how to calm a customer down…ask them to take additional time out of their schedule to fill out a survey.

However, the most insulting part of their response was in the final line of their reply, a reply responding to my concerns about not being able to properly access their Website without Internet Explorer. I’ve posted NBC’s response to my e-mail below and will let you judge it on its own merits.

Thanks for your email. NBC values your comments, but unfortunately, due to the volume of emails we receive, we cannot respond to each one. Please check our FAQ section to see if your question is answered there:http://www.nbc.com/faq/Since we cannot accept unsolicited scripts, show ideas, or other creative material, any such submission by email will be deleted without being read.We would also like to hear more of your opinions about television and the programs you watch. If you would like to share your feedback with us by becoming part of our viewer panel, please visit the following link:http://www2.rresults.com/1809998/index.cfm?s=50 Once you join, you’ll occasionally be invited to take Internet surveys, which are fun to do and usually take about 5 minutes to complete. The information you give will have an impact on the television programs you enjoy.Thanks for logging on to NBC’s websites.

I was just about to go to bed and did my usual browse of CNET’s news.com page. One of the articles on the page was titled, “SNL cult hit yanked from video-sharing site”. Apparently NBC didn’t like a number of online sites showing video clips from shows on their network. In recent attempts they’ve been asking sites to pull video clips of the Winter Olympic Games, as well as “a hip-hopping Saturday Night Live skit that sparked a Web craze”. The SNL skit centers on the Narnia story and is called “Lazy Sunday: The Chronicles of Narnia”. According to CNET a number of visitors of these “unofficial video” sites are upset that the video is for the most part only found on NBC’s own Website.

First, let me say right off the bat, I’m not upset that NBC only wants the video for the sites they approve. I respect the copyright issues. In every way, I understand that if NBC owns the copyright they have a say to who can and cannot serve their video online. There is really no debate on this matter and it’s not what I came to argue. It occurred to me that this article shows how much the networks continue to do business that is so last century. Is it a wonder why television continues to lose viewers…especially to those audiences younger than me? The television networks are out of touch with their audience and this story is providing me with three great examples to help make my point. I’ve posted the first example below and I’ll provide the other example in posts later this week.

Example 1: The TV networks don’t recognize free online advertising when they see it. How many of you grew up with Saturday Night Live in the 1970s, 80s, and even the 90s? I myself cover all three decades. How many of you are currently watch Saturday Night Live? If you’re like me the late nights are now spent picking up the living room floor after the kids have gone to bed, reading e-mails, or finally getting a chance to say “hello” to your husband, wife, or family pet. Finally, how many of you didn’t realize Saturday Night Live was still on the air? To be honest, I though the show was canceled until I saw the video online a few weeks ago?and no I didn’t view the video on NBC’s Website.

If asked, I’m sure NBC would likely say that it doesn’t matter whether the video clips are available on “unofficial” sites as long as it’s available somewhere. After all, if people want to watch the video it’s available from them at NBC.com. While this reasoning may sound good it isn’t logical if you’re hoping to lure new or once loyal viewers back to watching television shows. If I’m someone that limits my time during the week with how much television I’m watching, why would I waste additional time visiting the TV network online? Ah, ha and you finally understand where I’m going with this.

If I’m watching video online, in most cases it’s not because I’ve been invited by the network themselves but because a friend sent me an email with a link directing me to a funny video. Usually those links will take me online sites such as ifilm.com or stupidvideos.com. It appears I’m not the only one as CNET writes:

“It is (the characters’) obliviousness to their total lack of menace–or maybe the ostentatious way they pay for convenience-store candy with $10 bills–that makes the video so funny, but it is the Internet that has made it a hit,” the New York Times said on Dec. 27.

At YouTube, a site where people can upload and share personal video clips, at least one version of the file counted more than 5 million downloads–and multiple versions had appeared on the site.

So let me get this straight, NBC pulled a video from an online site that was intended for amateur videos. While people didn’t intend to watch an NBC show when they visited the site, over 5 million people viewed the two and a half minute video. While large companies, such as NBC, are willing to spend millions, if not billions, of dollars in advertisement?they dismiss the opportunity they have for free advertising. If you ask me, the TV networks are so blind to the reality of where the audience is really at that they continue to not recognize the paradigm shift that has already taken place.

This is why I say TV networks are out of touch with their audience. Television networks don’t recognize that removing videos clips of such shows as SNL or the current Winter Olympics from these video-sharing sites also dismisses a would-be audience. There had to be a healthy percentage of those 5 million that downloaded the video and decided for the first time in months to watch SNL on television the first opportunity they were given. If it wasn’t for the online video made available from “small sites”, people like me wouldn’t have known SNL is still funny and still on the air. I’m a man in my late 30s that no longer tunes to the traditional methods of advertisement. If the networks continue to use marketing and business strategies that are so last century, I have to wonder how little acknowledgement they will likely get from the younger generations following behind me.

Yet it’s not just about video clips as to why I believe the TV networks are out of touch with their audience. I have two more examples to talk about and all stemming from this single story by CNET. While I’d like to laugh, it’s not funny. It’s causing us here at Like that Idea for the first time to change our approach. Our site was always intended to focus on the positive and talk abou ideas we liked. For the first time we’ve had to post our point of view under a new category, Like that Idea - Not.