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Is ABC’s ‘My Generation’ iPad app a good idea?
Disney/ABC and ratings analyst The Nielsen Company are rolling out an iPad app for ABC’s new Austin-set and -filmed drama, “My Generation.”
The app, utilizing Nielsen’s Media-Sync technology, listens to the show you’re watching and delivers interactive content, triggered by audio cues, to your iPad. Content includes polls, quizzes, behind-the-scenes and in-depth character information. Because the technology relies on audio cues, the app can be used in first-run viewings or while watching DVR’d content. In addition, it should be able to keep up with you as you fast-forward and rewind through a program.
I’m not sure how I feel about this. Aside from nagging, unconfirmed (and possibly unfounded) suspicions that information on viewing habits will be sent back to Nielsen (it is a ratings analyst, after all, and probably wants to know how many — and which — commercials you zip through) it seems as if suddenly taking one’s eyes away from the action unfolding onscreen to read and participate in a poll has the potential to really pull the viewer out of the story and create distance rather than intimacy with the product.
I’m also concerned that such information could be used to “focus group” the show’s content — how might future content be altered by viewers’ responses to polls about what they’ve just seen? Maybe I’m just paranoid and wrong. Perhaps it’s simply good, harmless fun and I should rethink that plan to sell all of my electronics and move to an 20-square-foot shack in Montana.
Check out this promo video. Is this a good idea or a bad one? Let me know what you think in the comments below.
You can download the “My Generation” Sync iPad App here. More information about the product can be found on ABC’s site.
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