Press Conference.com
ITV Concept
Madoka Higuchi
a. Genre
Press Conference.com is a live entertainment news show on a T.V. station’s website which allows users to ask questions at the actors’ press conference held by the company –mainly about new dramas, movies and plays produced by it and its affiliates.
b. Concept
For users, this website is a new style of live entertainment news show in which they can ask questions to actors during the press conferences through the Internet. These celebrities’ press conferences have been exclusive for major media companies’ writers and reporters for many years, but this is a website to partly ‘democratize’ them.
The other benefit of this website for users is that they can see the whole press conference by famous actors. In the regular entertainment news shows, they often show a small part of a press conference which can be news –usually each sound bite is 15 to 25 seconds-- even if some want to see the whole conference. In this website, those users can enjoy the entire press conference. It lets them see actors’ facial expression and hear the tone of voice more than the news clip would.
For a T.V. company, this website promotes the entertainment produced by it and its affiliates; it also helps the T.V. station to have a better image.
The other advantage of this website is that it does not require the company to create new content for this project, which costs a lot. Not many T.V. stations can afford much money to create content only for websites, so this can be a T.V. station-friendly project.
c. Targeting whom?
This targets the existing viewers of the T.V. station and hopes to attract future viewers. This is also for those people who only access entertainment news through the Internet.
d. How does this work?
1. The T.V. station posts an announcement about the next participatory press conference two weeks before. This announcement contains names of the actors and the information about the entertainment.
2. Users who are interested in participating in or watching the live conference become members of the site by submitting names, passwords and e-mail addresses, checking the box saying “I accept the Press Conference.com pledge” and paying 10 dollars by credit card. The pledge includes “Your questions might not be asked to the actors,” and “This section might be shut down without the prior announcement.” The 10 dollar fee is not to maintain the website but to filter users. Also, the payment might cause a psychological change to users. Even if the membership fee is small, users are involved in the show, the press conference, more compared to just watching it.
3. The new members receive their membership numbers by e-mail from the company.
4. On the day of the press conference, users enter their numbers and pass words to watch and participate in the press conference. Each number can be entered only once during the conference.
5. The T.V. station shows the entire press conference by live streaming on the site to the members who join.
6. Members start sending questions to the site.
7. Two or three ‘filter persons’ at the T.V. station start looking at the questions and if questions are appropriate enough to show on the site, they post them. They also categorize questions to find the 3 most asked questions.
8. The questioner at the press conference asks the actors the 3 most asked questions and 2 unique questions chosen by him/her.
e. Notes
1. The press conferences are held by the company every other month.
2. The T.V. station takes care of the whole cost and the announcement of each conference is also posted on the homepage of the company.
3. This site shows and allows users to participate in only press conferences held by the television company and its affiliates. This is because only the host can control questioning at the press conference. It can stop other journalists, and ask questions by the web members. It can get more space in the room for the web questioner. The host company does not have to worry about missing the new information since it already knows about the entertainment.
4. The host can get permissions by the actors to distribute the whole press conferences through the Internet prior to the event. Usually press conferences by actors have strict distribution regulations for their copyrights.
5. Some might want to participate in press conferences of politicians, but it is almost impossible for correspondents to look at the posted questions by the members during the press conferences. Because of the limited space in the room and budget, each company can send maximum 2 to 3 correspondents to each conference and they all are very busy listening to the speakers, asking questions, and thinking about how they are going to write or report about it. Politicians’ press conferences do not have any distribution regulations, but it is not allowed for any particular company to stop other attendees and ask questions freely since they are technically hosted by press clubs or the politicians.
