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Author Topic: GSN and PR  (Read 3210 times)

roadgeek

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GSN and PR
« on: May 30, 2004, 03:08:35 AM »
First off, I'm excited about joining this group. The gods released me from purgatory about a day or two ago, and in my time there I read about people's views about credit crunches, scrolling banners, and other annoyances on GSN. One group feels that these practices are wrong and should be stopped, while others do not feel that they are a problem.

I feel that when the issue is viewed from an ecomonic and a public-relations stance, the topic becomes much less personal and much more objective. My statements here will cover only the PR stance, because I admit to having no knowledge about niche-market television economics. (Or any other economics, for that matter!)

From my personal experience, GSN is not good at PR. My wife and I finally got cable for the first time last July or August, and the cable company picked up GSN during late fall -- I admit, a much shorter time than many of you have had GSN. But even in that short time, I have seen all sorts of distractions from the game shows: the credit crunches (tolerable before, much worse after the network/name change), scrolling banners, and obvious speed-ups. (To their credit, I like their new bug better than the old one.)

What makes the distractions frustrating is that they seem unnecessary. Perhaps GSN needs to plug "Gimme Games" every chance it can get. Fine. But does it absolutely need to shrink the credits that small? Better yet, can a more creative solution be found that allows new shows to get their proper attention while the credits run fairly unimpeded? I certainly don't lose any sleep over not seeing the credits, but if they are still part of the show (especially in the case of LMAD), it looks better on the part of the network to present its shows as they were meant to be shown -- as close as is reasonable. Because the image of the network is involved, this makes it a PR issue.

Another distraction that seems unnecessary are speed-ups, although the only show on which I notice them is Press Your Luck. Once again, perhaps GSN needs to fit in n minutes of commercials during the show to make it marginally profitable. Fine -- better than not having it at all (many will disagree!). But the speed-ups always take place during the Second Money Round, the highlight of the entire game. With a bit of creativity, one could fix this by speeding up the contestant introductions, question rounds, and the winnings at the end. If that's not enough, speed up the First Money Round too -- it's not quite as important as the second. Once again, no sleep lost, but it seems like such a simple fix, and it should keep GSN and its sponsors happy.

This next part is really not fair, because I'm going to talk about a different network with a different budget and different agenda. I'm speaking of Cartoon Network -- particularly their Adult Swim block late at night. But the people at Adult Swim seem to really enjoy cartoons. It may all be an act, but it's great PR! Between the transition from program to commercial or back again they run bumpers that are nothing more than text. I mean, they look cheap (but good). These bumpers might talk about the staff at AS, or about a new show coming up in the coming weeks, or about a particular episode that's coming up next (with the episode title!) or messages taken from the "mailbag" on Thursdays. As a result, there is a connection between the network and the viewer; I feel that AS actually cares about me. They probably don't, but the feeling is that they're one of us. I wish that GSN would look less like it was run by attitude, and more run by the love of the games. GSN should not put AS-style text bumpers up, but they can do little things like show the original air date in the corner for a second or two (a few people have suggested that idea before).

The GSN website can really help with PR in many ways. Putting future schedules on their own website for instance, so that I don't have to go to other websites to see what GSN is doing in the future. Adding episode information to the schedule online, with original air dates, or the episode number, or the names of the contestants. Making news about the network more accessible -- recently I tried to find more information about the Mother's Day special on their website, but had to wait on the news ticker for the article title to come up, and then had to click it before it changed to a different article. This is bad Web design, which makes GSN look bad by association, and thus bad PR.

So to conclude, I can understand why people complain about the bugs and annoyances they find, but I can also understand why it does not bother others. But I feel that these problems have created an image problem for GSN. It may hurt them economically at some point; it might not. But there are so many things that GSN can do to vastly improve its image while keeping its new vision of gaming. And speaking of public image, I'll try to keep my posts shorter in the future!

whampyl03

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GSN and PR
« Reply #1 on: May 30, 2004, 04:06:39 AM »
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First off, I'm excited about joining this group. The gods released me from purgatory about a day or two ago, and in my time there I read about people's views about credit crunches, scrolling banners, and other annoyances on GSN. One group feels that these practices are wrong and should be stopped, while others do not feel that they are a problem.

Well, a most cordial welcome to you as well. :)

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What makes the distractions frustrating is that they seem unnecessary. Perhaps GSN needs to plug "Gimme Games" every chance it can get. Fine. But does it absolutely need to shrink the credits that small? Better yet, can a more creative solution be found that allows new shows to get their proper attention while the credits run fairly unimpeded? I certainly don't lose any sleep over not seeing the credits, but if they are still part of the show (especially in the case of LMAD), it looks better on the part of the network to present its shows as they were meant to be shown -- as close as is reasonable. Because the image of the network is involved, this makes it a PR issue.

Well, I can't argue with you there.  I really was not nagged by the split screening in the beginning, but now considering that I can’t read the credit crawl unless I put my nose to the television monitor,  I'll agree with you and say that the current split screening practices are a little overkill now.

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Another distraction that seems unnecessary are speed-ups, although the only show on which I notice them is Press Your Luck. Once again, perhaps GSN needs to fit in n minutes of commercials during the show to make it marginally profitable. Fine -- better than not having it at all (many will disagree!). But the speed-ups always take place during the Second Money Round, the highlight of the entire game. With a bit of creativity, one could fix this by speeding up the contestant introductions, question rounds, and the winnings at the end. If that's not enough, speed up the First Money Round too -- it's not quite as important as the second. Once again, no sleep lost, but it seems like such a simple fix, and it should keep GSN and its sponsors happy.

Personally, I don't know many GSN/Game Show Network viewers (other than a few eagle-eyed Invision board members) that actually notice the time compressions.  That, and I really don't notice the time compressions much at all either, so I'm not complaining.

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This next part is really not fair, because I'm going to talk about a different network with a different budget and different agenda. I'm speaking of Cartoon Network -- particularly their Adult Swim block late at night. But the people at Adult Swim seem to really enjoy cartoons. It may all be an act, but it's great PR! Between the transition from program to commercial or back again they run bumpers that are nothing more than text. I mean, they look cheap (but good). These bumpers might talk about the staff at AS, or about a new show coming up in the coming weeks, or about a particular episode that's coming up next (with the episode title!) or messages taken from the "mailbag" on Thursdays. As a result, there is a connection between the network and the viewer; I feel that AS actually cares about me. They probably don't, but the feeling is that they're one of us. I wish that GSN would look less like it was run by attitude, and more run by the love of the games. GSN should not put AS-style text bumpers up, but they can do little things like show the original air date in the corner for a second or two (a few people have suggested that idea before).

Hmm.  I've never seen this "Adult Swim" block you talk about, but I have heard some nice things about it.  I'll have to check it out and get back to you on that one.

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The GSN website can really help with PR in many ways. Putting future schedules on their own website for instance, so that I don't have to go to other websites to see what GSN is doing in the future. Adding episode information to the schedule online, with original air dates, or the episode number, or the names of the contestants. Making news about the network more accessible -- recently I tried to find more information about the Mother's Day special on their website, but had to wait on the news ticker for the article title to come up, and then had to click it before it changed to a different article. This is bad Web design, which makes GSN look bad by association, and thus bad PR.

The original air date thing was done way back when, but not online.  Instead (correct me if I'm wrong...) a graphic popped up on one of the lower corners of the screen during the beginning of whatever program was being shown.

I believe that GSN did show some of their future schedules once or twice on the their website, but not much more than that.

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So to conclude, I can understand why people complain about the bugs and annoyances they find, but I can also understand why it does not bother others. But I feel that these problems have created an image problem for GSN. It may hurt them economically at some point; it might not. But there are so many things that GSN can do to vastly improve its image while keeping its new vision of gaming.

Personally, I believe that GSN is trying to distance themselves from their infancy; their Game Show Network days as much as possible, which could contribute to some of the the "bugs and annoyances", as you call them.

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And speaking of public image, I'll try to keep my posts shorter in the future!

Nah.  The post was a good intelligent one overall.  I've read far much worse from yours truly.
« Last Edit: May 30, 2004, 04:11:44 AM by whampyl03 »

roadgeek

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GSN and PR
« Reply #2 on: May 30, 2004, 05:01:45 AM »
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Personally, I don't know many GSN/Game Show Network viewers (other than a few eagle-eyed Invision board members) that actually notice the time compressions.  That, and I really don't notice the time compressions much at all either, so I'm not complaining.

Honestly, I wouldn't notice either if it weren't PYL, not because of the difference in video, but the difference in sound. The money board has that state-of-the-art backround sound, so it's easier to notice when it's sped up.

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Hmm.  I've never seen this "Adult Swim" block you talk about, but I have heard some nice things about it.  I'll have to check it out and get back to you on that one.

Give it a try!  "Offbeat humor" could be one way to describe many of the shows -- it's not for everyone.

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The original air date thing was done way back when, but not online.  Instead (correct me if I'm wrong...) a graphic popped up on one of the lower corners of the screen during the beginning of whatever program was being shown.

So it would be easy to do again, but after what you've added below...

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Personally, I believe that GSN is trying to distance themselves from their infancy; their Game Show Network days as much as possible, which could contribute to some of the the "bugs and annoyances", as you call them.

That's a shame really, because there are less abrupt ways to go about it.  But I respect that there are other people in charge; and in the end, it ain't my network.

Ian Wallis

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  • Posts: 3743
GSN and PR
« Reply #3 on: May 31, 2004, 09:04:05 AM »
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Honestly, I wouldn't notice either if it weren't PYL, not because of the difference in video, but the difference in sound. The money board has that state-of-the-art backround sound, so it's easier to notice when it's sped up.


I haven't seen GSN since late March - are they speeding up "PYL" again?  I know they were for a while when they first started the speedups, but I hadn't noticed it for several months after that.
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zachhoran

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  • Posts: 0
GSN and PR
« Reply #4 on: May 31, 2004, 09:32:02 AM »
[quote name=\'Ian Wallis\' date=\'May 31 2004, 08:04 AM\']
Quote
Honestly, I wouldn't notice either if it weren't PYL, not because of the difference in video, but the difference in sound. The money board has that state-of-the-art backround sound, so it's easier to notice when it's sped up.


I haven't seen GSN since late March - are they speeding up "PYL" again?  I know they were for a while when they first started the speedups, but I hadn't noticed it for several months after that. [/quote]
 They still speed up every classic game show rerun to varying degrees. It's most noticeable on PYL during WHammy animations.