'iPod TV,' Google and Branding
Google will be featured in segments on the new Al Gore-backed cable network, now being called "Current." The press release positions it as "the first national network created by, for and with an 18-34 year-old audience."
This is very very interesting on many fronts, not the least of which is the potential branding value that Google will get from the exposure.
More from the release:
"Taking its cues from their media consumption habits, Current will offer short-form programming in the TV equivalent of an iPod shuffle. Its "pods" will be 15-second to five-minute segments that range from the hottest trends in technology, fashion, television, music and videogames, to pressing issues such as the environment, relationships, spirituality, finance, politics and parenting, subjects that young adults can rarely find on television. Pod segments include "Current Playlist" (music for the digital generation),
"Current Parent" (advice to first-timers), "Current Gigs" (career guidance) and "Current Soul" (trends in spiritual awakening). Drawing from audience submissions are such pods as "Current Courage" (profiles of heroism and altruism), "Current Video" (video clips from the next Spielbergs or Spike Jonzes) and "Current Rant" (inviting viewers to let off steam).
'Google Current,' built using samplings of popular Google search data, including from Google Zeitgeist, complements the free-flowing pod format with news updates each half-hour. Thirty seconds to three minutes in length, these segments buck conventional news practices by reporting not on what media editors decide is "news," but on the topics people are actually searching for right now. So news isn't what the network thinks you should know, but what the world is searching to learn."
More at Search Engine Journal.
Related: Google Video. This could ultimately be huge. Think Sundance Film Festival meets America's (or the World's) Funniest Home Videos.