Everyone wants to be able to grab a bit of the web action these days, and who can blame them for trying? Efforts are not always successful as happened with NBC 600 million dollar purchase of iVillage last year (“Making a Clean Start In a House of Mixed Media” New York Times). Some of NBC’s efforts to drive people to the site even ended up lowering the amount of traffic. “iVillage Live” was a show that invited viewers to chat online about the topics being discussed on television. It resulted in a month to month decrease of visitors to the site. NBC will not be deterred and is revamping and re-launching iVillage live in the near future.
Why do I personally think this is ridiculous? It’s actually the combined problem of America’s house’s floor plans and laptop vs. desktop. As NBC is well aware the target audience for iVillage (and therefore for iVillage Live as well) are mature women, mothers, domestic engineers in many cases. When these women are watching television I am sure they are taking the opportunity to multitask in many ways (I imagine running on a treadmill, preparing food, resting legs, etc.) and needless to say these activities are not usually done in a room with a laptop or desktop at hand. The average American household has several television sets: one in the den, another in the kitchen, in each and every person’s bedroom perhaps. In most cases however the household’s computer is not in the den, or the kitchen but in an office (or bedroom). iVillage Live being a daytime show I would argue that it would be viewed in the kitchen or den, and as a short break during a busy day which would not allow time to grab a laptop unplug it and move it to the appropriate viewing location to simultaneously chat. That is to say IF the family even has a laptop. If they do not, who ever heard of facing a desktop so as to facilitate television viewing (NOT feng shui to say the least).
The point being, no matter how much they revamp the show, no matter how many celebrities NBC gets to come on because of their new location in Chicago they will only be causing the site traffic to suffer. If a woman is going to take some time out of the day to tune into something iVillage related, I doubt she will do so on two different occasions on the same day. Agree or disagree? Is NBC wasting its time with the new show or not? I know I hate sitting at the TV with a steamy laptop in my lap (despite the name, they are really not meant to sit there…especially for boys).
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