Television Industry
Websites
HGTV: www.hgtv.com
MTV: www.mtv.com
Comedy Central:
www.comedycentral.com
Travel Channel: www.travelchannel.com
Kaitlyn Deutsch
Rebecca Thompson
Jordan Wright
Joe Yosten
www.HGTV.com
Purpose
 Inspire homeowners- “Start
at Home” motto
 Give home and gardening
decorating ideas
 Promote TV shows
 Buying tips and links to where
items can be bought
 Viewer interaction with the
TV hosts and giveaways
 Geared toward homeowners of
all ages and genders
Content
 Eleven category toolbar:
 Decorating, Home
Improvement, Landscaping,
Crafts, Organizing, Dream
Home, Holidays, Kitchens,
Bathrooms, on TV, and Shop
 HGTV’s Dream Home, GMC
Terrain, and $500,000
 A lot of information on
homepage, but easy to
navigate and appeasing to the
eye
Blogs
 Message Boards
Social Networking

 Categorized by topics
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 Strict on keeping these
categorized
 Available for public to
make comments and ask
questions
 Answers from TV hosts
 Blogs on “Designs Happen”
 Designers post blogs
about once a day
 Decorating ideas with
pictures
 Public can make
comments
Facebook
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Twitter
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HGTV fan page: 200,000
fans and counting
Includes polls, “chance to
win,” and pictures
23,061 followers
Daily Tweets
 Show updates: “Tonight:
All-new ‘Bang for your
Buck’ with Vern Yip.
9:30/8:30c”
 Dream Home giveaway
reminders
LinkedIN
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
VP Creative Director
Design Assistants
TV show designers
www.MTV.com
Purpose
 Generate a plethora of information
 Watch the latest music videos and get up to date information on
celebrity and music news
 Increase brand awareness toward the adolescent and young adult
target audience
Content
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First stop for fans who want to voice their opinions
Celebrity news/gossip in an informal blogger fashion
Comparable to a teen magazine
Information provided on how to be on MTV shows like Real World
and True Life
Blogging
 Celebrity news, concert updates, and product reviews
 Professional bloggers, but does not provide a forum for views to
voice their opinions
 Add a refreshing personal voice to the corporate website
Social Networking
 Facebook
 1,187,736 fans
 Links and mini video clips found on the website too
 Twitter
 Most up to date information of all the online media
 News flashes, to the minute, on when shows are going to play
 New television shows are heavily promoted
www.ComedyCentral.com
Purpose
 A place where viewers can
experience ‘extras’




Jokes
Games
Old episodes and previews
Interviews
 Interaction
 Attract new viewers
Content
 Programming information
 Full episodes and previews

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Online games
Online shop
‘Flux’
Message Boards
Appearance


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Great navigation bar
Cluttered
Confusing
Search bar
Blogging
 Twitter, Facebook, My
Yahoo, Newsgator,
Bloglines, Video and text
media
 ‘Comedy Central Insider
Blog’
 Linked to show’s home
pages
 Daily Show with Jon
Stewart
 Colbert Report
 Tosh.0
Social Networking
 Facebook
 Approaching 80,000 ‘fans’
 Linked to 9 other Comedy
Central sponsored pages
 ‘Facebook Connect’
 Twitter
 Follow ‘Comedy Central
USA’
 About 10,000 followers
 Inform and update
 Communicate
 Feedback
 Interaction
 All congruent with each other
www.TravelChannel.com
Purpose
 To attract and maintain traffic through content
 Existing viewers seeking additional programming features
 Non-viewers seeking travel information
 Increased viewership = Increased and higher quality sponsors
 $$$
Content
 Programming information
 Schedule, upcoming specials, individual show landing pages
 General travel information
 Highlighted travel destinations, information about certain areas of the
world (interactive ‘globe’)
 Advertising
 Cruise ships, airlines, clothing
Blogging
 Show-specific blogging
 Each show’s landing page has blog/vlog written by host
 General travel blogs
 Various travel blogs with contributions from an array of employees
 Executives, camera crew
 Linked blogs
 A number of links to travel blogs not associated with The Travel Channel
 AOL travel blog, culinary travel blog
Social Networking
 Facebook
 33,000 fans
 Higher focus on Travel Channel itself
 Links to Travel Channel clothing, iTunes and Amazon show purchasing
 Twitter
 26,000 followers
 Periodic updates on upcoming shows, general travel information, and links to show
Twitter pages
 LinkedIN
 Much more of a corporate focus
 Median age: 34
 ‘Producer’ predominant job title
Comparison of Networks
 Similarities
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Similar focuses, different content
Successful at promoting television networks
Busy, colorful, and busy (especially MTV.com)
Helpful tool bar for navigation at top of home page
Use of blogging
 Differences
 MTV has a more narrow focus (young teens to young adults) vs the
other three sites appeal to most ages.
 HGTV is the only website that you cannot directly link to any social
networking sites
 HGTV offers the most information for the related topic (home and
gardening), while the other focus more the television shows
 MTV has largest presence on Facebook (1,187,000 fans) and Twitter
(471,000 followers)
 The Travel Channel easiest to navigate
Recommendations for the Industry
 All networks should take advantage of Websites
 Relatively cheap
 Increase brand awareness
 More traffic will increase advertising to support the site
 Blogging and Social Networking
 Sites such as Twitter and Facebook are free- so use
them!
 Offer substantial information without getting conjested
 Responsibility rather than an option
 A must-have in order to compete within the industry