Earlier this week, I noticed a commercial that NBC was running on the PATH train system. It was professionally shot and I assumed that it was a new show for the summer or the fall season. I was wrong. At the end of the commercial, the URL pointed to www.dialstar.tv.
Dialstar.tv is a digital show produced by NBC and sponsored by AT&T. In fact, the show is called “Dial *” and the AT&T brand is indirectly mentioned throughout the show. The show currently has 10 episodes, most of them only a few minutes in length. Like most media properties, the site has a Twitter feed and a Facebook fan page. As of this writing, the Facebook page has a little more than 1500 fans and the Twitter feed has 68 followers.
If AT&T is footing the bill for the entire show, I’d be extremely curious to see what they expect in return for their sponsorship. While NBC doesn’t disclose viewership numbers, the social media profiles indicate that they’re not extremely high. Furthermore, the show is not distributed via YouTube. However, it is available via iTunes. (Although, as of this writing, the first 4 episodes display access errors. )
While the numbers may not be significant, this is a good step forward as it indicates that the media companies are interested in producing digital-only content. Just like all media ventures, time and persistence are the two key factors.
