My wife is addicted to HGTV, I think, and the folks at the Home and Garden Television Network are more than happy to oblige with increased content, it seems. Starting this week, HGTV is going to launch its first two Web-only series, as part of its popular Web site HGTV Kitchen Design.
The two new shows are called 8 Fresh Ideas for Kitchen Backsplashes and Getting Started--10 Steps to a New Kitchen. Not surprisingly, the first series will take place over eight installments, the second in 10. The idea is to create content based on popular searches from the existing online audience, according to Daisy Whitney with TelevisionWeek, and to increase traffic through HGTV's kitchen remodeling Web site, which already features a wealth of video content that has been transformed from the television product.
According to Christian Lewis with Multichannel News, the Backsplashes Webisodes will feature "celebrity designer Scott Sicari," with hopes of bringing in Sicari fans as well, it seems. According to Shawn Zehnder Lea, the event comes just in time for "Kitchen and Bath Month" (for some reason my calendar just doesn't have that marked!)
The original press release is available here.
But, it seems that this is a fairly straightforward and effective way to create online content...a clearly numbered list that makes organic use of a short-run online series, focused on a very concentrated topic that is likely to have viewers coming back for more. Most types of entertainment aren't as cut-and-dried as DIY programs like these, but these types of Web-only content can be instructive by their form more than their content.
