Today's New York Times has an article about this week's latest YouTube phenomenon. This one comes courtesy of "Saturday Night Live". Last week's SNL aired a parody music video called "A Special Christmas Box".
The clip features Justin Timberlake and Andy Samberg singing a smooth R&B number about making a special Christmas present for their girlfriends.
The premise behind the joke (and the gift in the video) just barely passed NBC's censors, who insisted on that a certain word -- that appears 16 times in the film -- be bleeped out. In an unprecedented move, the creators of the film asked NBC if they could post the un-censored version of the clip on YouTube. And NBC agreed.
(The uncensored clip can be seen here; I'd put it up directly but we are trying to run a family-friendly blog).
Okay, It's incredibly amusing. But why am I writing about it?
Because it is the latest example of one of the year's most interesting trends: the migration of mainstream content to the Web. The migration pattern is one particular facet of what I call the YouTube effect. Increasingly, major production studios and television networks are harnessing the Web both to provide another broadcasting channel for existing material as well as a way to provide new material that complements shows on the air.
NBC blundered onto this phenomenon last year when another SNL music video, Lazy Sunday, became a sensation after users posted it to YouTube. Originally, NBC had YouTube take the video down. But they soon realized YouTube's potential and have gone so far as to open up their own channel on YouTube where they broadcast clips from NBC shows.
I suspect that we will see a whole lot more of this in the coming year and by the end of 2007 there will be a hell of a lot of overlap between broadcast TV and the Web.
Comments