In the hopes of reaching a younger audience, NBCUniversal makes a $200-million dollar investment in the social news and entertainment company, Buzzfeed. With the technology available to such a large amount of younger people, they have moved away from traditional broadcast media, such a television and radio, and choose to get their news and entertainment online. NBCUniversal plans to collaborate with Buzzfeed on projects such as movies, television shows, olympic coverage, and other ad agencies. They also plan to use this collaboration to put more of their content on social media because shareable content is key to gaining a bigger audience.
This article caught my eye because, as a part of the demographic NBCUniversal is trying to reach out too, I do get most of my news from the internet and I read a lot of Buzzfeed articles. Being a student with a lot of homework, I don't really have the time to watch 30-60 minuet long TV shows or be up-to-date on all the headlining news stories, so I appreciate the fact that they're trying to make their content more easily accessible through social media. As a filmmaker, and someone who spends way too much time watching Buzzfeed videos on Youtube, I think its really cool they got the opportunity to work with such a big company to expand what they're doing. It made me realize how many opportunities are out there if I do decide to work in the film industry.
This does, however, raise a few questions. Now that Buzzfeed is working with this big company, is their original content going to depreciate? Will they be able to handle these new projects and keep up with their huge audience online? I guess we'll find out!
I see your point on Buzzfeed not being the same after a big corporation makes an investment to them. I see it as something that can be compared with lets say Youtubers getting TV shows such as Annoying Orange and Fred. To my memory neither was as enjoyable experience on TV. While this is a bit different, considering that NBC might put out stuff on Buzzfeed and Buzzfeed gets stuff out on NBC, I can see the effects of something else getting in the way of what you normally do. I would read the article for more detail, but I can't read it because my LA Times trial thing expired.
ReplyDeleteOh yeah, this is Steve, by the way.
DeleteYou make really great points. Personally, I really love Buzzfeed and the possibility of a big corporation having a say on what they put out is a bit scary because some of Buzzfeed's content is pretty out there. There could be upsides to this, like a bigger budget for videos and possibly even better equipment than they have now. I had no idea this was happening, so I'm really glad you chose this topic to share with us.
ReplyDeleteYou make really great points. Personally, I really love Buzzfeed and the possibility of a big corporation having a say on what they put out is a bit scary because some of Buzzfeed's content is pretty out there. There could be upsides to this, like a bigger budget for videos and possibly even better equipment than they have now. I had no idea this was happening, so I'm really glad you chose this topic to share with us.
ReplyDeleteBuzzfeed is most definitely where a lot of young people get their news, I've learned a few things from them and I do see them growing in the future.
ReplyDeleteI think it was a great investment on NBC Universals part because now they're able to get there content out to a wider audience of younger people. Nobody tends to watch the news anymore and many young people know and are familiar with Buzzfeed so by investing in them NBC Universal's content will be broadcasted to all of the people that read Buzzfeed. I thought your article was very interesting and well written.
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