I know this has already made the Internet rounds, but I’m too impressed to not post it here. A remake of The Simpsons introduction we all see everytime the cartoon starts was done by Sky TV for airing in the UK. Only this introduction uses real actors and not animated characters! A link to the video can be found at: http://youtube.com/watch?v=49IDp76kjPw . The following excerpt is from a Reuters-Yahoo article:

Painstakingly crafted by Sky (BSY.L: Quote, Profile, Research) and its ad agency Devilfish, the video was originally intended as an on-air promotion for the Sky One network, which airs new episodes of “The Simpsons” in the UK.

The company decided to release it on the Internet as part of a word-of-mouth brand building exercise, tapping into the red-hot Web video sector.

“If we had only showed it on air, you might turn to someone and say that was really cool,” said BSkyB communications director Matthew Anderson. “Putting it online, there’s a fantastic discussion between millions of people — it’s bringing the Simpsons to them instead of having them tune in.”

After less than a week, the video has been viewed millions of times at online video sites like YouTube (http://youtube.com/watch?v=49IDp76kjPw) and Google Video.

After countless years in grade school working hard on science fair projects and not receiving a ribbon, I finally gave up and wrote a “non-experimental” paper on computers in the eighth grade. Despite the paper being weak, I finally won a ribbon (third or fourth place) in the school science fair. Remember, this was the early 1980s and everyone was still fascinated with the then new concept of computers entering “everday” life. Why am I going down memory lane? Well I came across an article on the 60th anniversary of Eniac, the “first” computer built which of course was mentioned in that paper of mine some 25 years ago.

Though, only to find out after reading the article, ENIAC wasn’t the first computer and really didn’t do a whole lot. They just had a good public relations department that explained well to the American audience what role the computer would play in the future. If you read the article you’ll find (not included in my excerpt) that the PR people went so far to include the placing of flashing light bulbs on the computer console so that people had something to look at besides vacume tubes and switches. Still, you have to admit it was an amazing engineering achievement.

Compared with other computers that performed such practical functions, ENIAC was an odd bird in technical terms. It relied on a 10-digit decimal system, rather than the binary systems of ones and zeros used by virtually all subsequent computers, even those developed by Eckert and Mauchly. Programs could not be stored on ENIAC. It didn’t really employ conditional branching–the if/then statements that form the cornerstone of modern programming.

And only one ENIAC, in fact, was ever built.

“It was a monstrosity. It was rapidly overtaken by general purpose machines,” thundered Jay Forrester, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor and one of the leading computer architects of the last century. “There wasn’t anything in it that survived into modern machines, except maybe electricity.”

But supporters respond with an indisputable fact: It worked. Until it was immobilized by lightning in 1955, ENIAC performed computational problems relating to the development of the hydrogen bomb and other military projects. Penn professor Irving Brainerd once even speculated that during the 80,223 hours ENIAC operated, it crunched more calculations than had been performed by all humanity since time began.

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.