I have to admit, I was trying to blog during the SuperBowl, but my heart wasn’t in it. Greg’s post about the ads yesterday reminded me that I was already missing the boat on relevance a day later and now that it’s Tuesday, and I’m still pulling this post together, and it’s getting to the point of complete irrelevance, which is more a statement of how fast topics move on in importance.
What struck me as I half-watched the ill-fated game was the importance of digital cable and on-demand video for how we view and re-view cultural moments such as the Superbowl and its ads. For example, take the infamous Justin/Janet “costume malfunction” of the 2004 Superbowl half-time show. It was early in my DVR experience, and when the infamous “malfunction” occurred, I was incredulous. Did what I think just happened, happen? Stop. Rewind. Replay. Pause. Stop. Rewind. I can now stop time and slow it to the pace I need. What did we do before DVR?
All of a sudden, TV becomes a fundamentally different viewing experience. Though the NFL has implemented the “instant replay” for the first time in 1986 (and then abandoned it and then brought it back in 1999), now a large number or viewers of television have that power. Furthermore, even if some do not have that ability when watching television, the increasing pervasiveness of online video is making more and more moments available for us to play and replay over and over.
Meanwhile, we take it for granted that we will have access to much content whenever we wish. Ads during the Superbowl this season were touted as being available on MySpace after the game. What other ways has increased user control and on-demand video impacted our role as “audience”?
