ABC/Disney Shows Being Added To Hulu

Variety announced this morning that the Hulu catalog will get quite a bump.

From Variety:

The Walt Disney Co. is taking a stake in Hulu.com. This means titles from The Walt Disney Studios library of films and full-length episodes of ABC television shows will join the online video site.

Disney joins NBC Universal, News Corp. and private equity firm Providence Equity Partners, who own Hulu in a joint venture.

Disney said Chief Executive Robert Iger, Disney/ABC Television Group President Anne Sweeney and Kevin Mayer, a Disney senior vice president, will join Hulu's board.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

I doubt many Disney films or even Disney Channel programs, but I suspect all full episodes of ABC series and lot's of ESPN clips will be forthcoming.






     
 

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What Did You See During Lost's 100th Episode?

The internet has been all a flutter about those "What Did You See" spots that ran during each commercial break of this evenings Lost. Surprisingly, not many people seem to know what they're talking about even though the Hollywood Reporter ran a story about the ads last week.

The show hasn't officially been picked up by ABC but they probably wouldn't be wasting some very expensive ad time if it weren't gonna run the show, would they?

Watch the clips here.

The related website: The Mosaic Collective. By entering an answer you get "The Mosaic Collective is dedicated to connecting the world one experience at a time."

And does anyone know what show was playing on the TV in the hospital waiting room just before Eloise Hawking shows up?

Updated 05-08-09: ABC has officially picked up Flash Forward.






     
 

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NBC Stars In Commercials

Being a DVR addict, I rarely see commercials...Usually just when I'm in the midst of doing something with the TV on in the background, not really paying attention, or when watching something on the DVR and not being able to find the remote come fast forward time.

For the last two weeks I had been seeing the Greg Grunberg (Matt Parkman) Insight commercial during Heroes and then today I just happened to catch it during a rerun that was playing while writing a previous post. This evening while watching Law & OrderGossip Girl on the DVR I was scrambling to find the remote and wait...is that Hayden Panettiere on this cell phone commercial?

Youtube...search...Hayden...how the hell do you spell that?...Panettiere...at&t...It is!

And then there was the related video, another Insight commercial featuring Chuck's Zachary Levi. Huh. NBC stars are really getting out there. I wonder, though, if this is all just coincidence or if NBC is making deals for it's actors. The fact that both Greg Grunberg and Zachary Levi are in commercials for the same car, in the same ad campaign, makes me think so. But where does the phone commercial fit in and why haven't I caught it on NBC yet?









Update:5/05/09 Just caught a new Neutrogena Deep Clean Cream Cleanser starring Hayden Panettiere. She's actually been a spokesperson for a while now, but this is the first new one in quite some time. Funny, too, is that it aired during Gossip Girl, the same show her cell phone ad ran on.

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Heroes Cops Out

Tonight's season finale of Heroes was pretty fantastic at times. The death of Nathan, Peter's limo surprise for Sylar, seeing the syringe disappear from Danko's hand, Parkman erasing Sylar's mind, the cleansing bonfire, the surprise return of Nikki. Good stuff all around.

Except for the one scene which could have probably been the greatest the series had ever seen.

I'm talking about when Peter and Nathan tag teamed Sylar in the hotel room, of course. Their walk and talk down the long hotel corridor, the build up, I was expecting a battle of biblical proportions, a fight to end all fights...And we got blue light shining on Claire's eyeball. What a freakin' cop out.

Whether it was budget cuts or time constraints it was pretty disappointing. The story lines for both the end of Volume 4 and the beginning of Volume 5 lived up to my expectations. It's a shame the execution didn't.

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Chuck Versus Subway

I came across this video of Chuck star Zachary Levi leading an estimated 600 people into a Subway restaurant to order the infamous $5 footlong subs. Avid watchers of Chuck may have noticed these subs making a few appearances this season, especially in the last few episodes.



NBC's Chuck has never been a winner in the Nielsen's ratings game but it's had a pretty rabid fanbase since the beginning. The noticeable increase in quality this season has no doubt lead to a lot of growth in that audience, too. And so now it's sweeps time.

It's been well documented that Chuck sits precariously on the bubble and may not make a return for a third season, so that rabid fan base has begun what every rabid fan base of every threatened to be or already canceled show does - they start a campaign.

Most campaigns consist of online petitions, trying to get people to watch the show, et al. The best come up with some quirky way to let the network know they mean business, such as fans of Jericho inundating CBS offices with peanuts when the show was canceled a couple of years ago. Recently I posted about Slate's The Big Money's recommendation for online streaming.

The Chuck masses have been doing the online petitions and mail campaigns as usual, they've also taken to mailing Nerds candy but the big news online today is a push to get fans to buy $5 footlong subs from Subway restaurants tomorrow, the day they air the season finale.

At first I wondered if this was a real grassroots campaign or just a viral marketing trick secretly put together by Subway and NBC marketing creeps to see how many subs they could sell, sort of like cops sending plain clothes officers into protests to start riots but then I noticed the end of the post on Zachary Levi's page thanking Wendy Farrington. A quick google of the name and I came across a letter:

Hi Everyone,

As I’m sure you’re aware Chuck is struggling to find an audience amidst a very competitive Monday 8pm line-up and is in danger of not being picked up for a 3rd season. I’ve done my duty and written my letters to the network, but given the economy and the Jay Leno effect, I’m not confident that will be enough. I wanted to request your help to promote a ‘Save Chuck’ strategy that goes beyond the standard fare of sending letters or bobbles to the networks. What I’m proposing is a consumer driven campaign that will lend a voice to all the loyal Chuck fans that are not represented by Nielson ratings.

With the changing media landscape, the key demographic that most advertisers are seeking is also the segment most likely to be viewing TV programming in non-traditional ways (online, DVR, iTunes, etc.). Nielson ratings are not as strong an indicator of advertising value as they once were, but they remain the industry standard because there are precious few ways to demonstrate and really capture the success of product promotion in this digital age.

As a non-Nielson viewer, I feel the most effective means of making an impact is to wield my consumer power in a way that NBC and their sponsors will be able to measure. I’ve noticed that Subway has worked with Chuck/NBC to incorporate product placement within the show. To demonstrate my gratitude to that franchise for their support of Chuck, I’m pitching a ‘Finale & FOOTLONG™’ campaign to all the Chuck forums and boards. I’m also sending this idea out to key TV critics who’ve been supportive of Chuck, asking them to write articles and raise awareness for this effort. Included below is a list of the boards, forums, and critics to whom I’ve sent this concept.

The ‘Finale & FOOTLONG™’ campaign will call on fans to show their dedication by pledging to purchase a $5 FOOTLONG™ from Subway on the evening of the Chuck season finale (which hopefully isn’t the series finale). If enough Chuck fans ban together to do this and Subway sees a rise in sales Monday April 27th as a result, it would give NBC/Universal an actual metric to gauge the fan dedication in relation to the return on investment of a key sponsor.

At the end of the day, the television industry is still a business and I hope other fans will recognize that fact and organize with me to show their support in a tangible way. I’ve sent in my ‘Save Chuck’ letters to Ben Silverman (NBC) and Angela Bromstad (Universal) including this idea, but I really need the help of other Chuck fans to drive this program and make it happen. To that end, I’ve also sent a letter to the Chief Marketing Officer at Subway (Mr. Bill Schettini) outlining the effort I’m putting forth to galvanize the show’s loyal fan base to reward their sponsorship of our beloved Chuck.

Chuck is in one of the toughest timeslots on television and continues to hold its own against fierce competition on every major network. The cast is fantastic, the story is compelling, and I truly believe the show deserves another season (hopefully on Wednesday’s at 8pm). The best way to save Chuck is to give NBC/Universal a legitimate business justification for keeping their quality programming on the air. It’s more likely that the network and sponsors will hear our pleas for a Chuck renewal if we speak their language…$$$. So fans, please write your letters, mention the campaign, and buy a $5 FOOTLONG™ from Subway on April 27th (bonus points for those that drop off a comment card saying they’re buying their sandwich in support of Chuck.)

Put a reminder on your calendar, alarm on your phone, whatever it takes to remember…personally I’ll be buying my sandwich from Newark International Airport after an 8hr flight on the 27th, but I’m going to do it! If the mods for this board or forum would be so kind as to post a reminder on April 27th as well, that would be phenomenal! Thanks for listening and I hope I can count on your support.

Warmest Regards,

Wendy Farrington

FYI – I swear on all that is holy, I do NOT work for Subway or any marketing/media based company. I’m just a lowly sales rep in the pharma industry, who happens to have an underused undergraduate degree in marketing and a deep affection for CHUCK.

I guess all we can do is take that FYI and trust that it's not some NBC marketing guru being extra-jerky. It's a good idea, though, which makes me seriously doubt that it actually came from someone in the marketing department because, really, when was the last time a TV series had a good, in depth, evolving marketing campaign? I can't think of many.

We get something like "Save The Cheerleader, Save The World" once every few seasons with no growth or continuation, so really, I doubt NBC would have been smart enough to pull this off.

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