This week, CHML’s Scott Thompson starts things off by asking about this new McDonald’s TV deal. Apparently the hamburger chain is launching its own TV network, which will initially broadcast inside its many California restaurants. McDonald’s calculates as many as 18 million people a month will sample the service.
Programming won’t just be burger ads. Content deals have been reached with ABC/Disney, The BBC, Mark Burnett and others.
My first reaction is to repeat one of my favourite Garry Shandling jokes. My second: while the concept does seem to bring new meaning to the term “super size me,” I also see merit in the idea. People are scanning through conventional commercial advertising. Why not bring viewers right into the commercial and dispense programming like nuggets? Do you want Fringe with that?
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| No fries with that, thanks |
The problem is where this could lead. Will we be forced to watch Dragon’s Den at every Boston Pizza joint? Jackass at Jack Astors? Mike & Molly at…well, every fast food place basically.
And will TV favourites start catering to the fast food giant in their storylines? Will we see the Hamburgler, say, being defended by The Good Wife?
A lot of today’s television just would not work in places where food is digested, including The Walking Dead, Dexter, True Blood or anything on Sun News.
Scott also asks about the book launch earlier this week for Air Farce: 40 Years of Flying by the Seat of Our Pants. And I go off on how CBC should absolutely be held to account as to exactly how their annual government appropriation is spent each year. Two words: full disclosure.
