Surfing the Channel at SU

HBO prides itself in not being TV, for transcending the lateral constraints of the television box and creative limitations of broadcasting. I suppose I would not go so far as to suggest that Orange Television Network, Syracuse University’s cable network, rivals HBO yet there are significant similarities in both the workings of national and collegiate television networks.  
 
As promotions manager for Orange Television Network, I have had to consider the most effective methods of branding. OTN airs such diverse programming ranging from Indie Flick Files, a show on independent films, to Humor Whore, the Telly Award-winning experimental comedy show. There is no niche market to directly target, rather a large and diverse student body that may be interested in program offerings. In that sense, the issue echoes broadcast networks’ declining ability to understand their mass audiences while cable stations can so easily orient themselves in accordance with niche markets.
 
There is an upside, however, in the fact that we do know one thing about the OTN audience, they are college students. The cycle of creation and exhibition succeeds because of student interest in producing and watching television. The relationships between students encourage viewing of friends’ and colleagues’ work. Yet where are they going to watch? It’s the question of the decade. Is the television obsolete? At OTN we have launched a new website (http://orangetv.syr.edu) and increased the rate at which programs are published on the web. In targeting the main demographic dependent on Internet streaming, dual Internet and television marketing must be enforced. It would be silly, in fact stupid, to assume that 1. Every college student has a TV in his or her dorm room and that 2. Every college student has time to watch appointment programming.
 
Then there is the question of differentiation. During my time at OTN, I have worked to establish the key differences between OTN and CitrusTV, Syracuse University’s television studio. CitrusTV provides OTN with programming to air while OTN also airs network produced programming. The two organizations cooperate and coexist although there is a general understanding that they compete or remain as two isolated networks. While students seem perplexed by the actual relationship, it is not much different than the inner workings of the television industry, which is dependent on the collaboration between production studios and television networks.
 
OTN does push the envelope in new content. Just last year, the network began airing an educational sex advice show, Honestly Naked. To disregard OTN as merely a college extracurricular activity would be to demerit its actual worth. The issues I have experienced in forwarding public relations endeavors best serve as examples of how “real-life” this experience has been. After interning at a major cable network last summer, I can safely say that the digital age has effects on the entire industry, even here at Syracuse University. So yes, admittedly, we’re not HBO in quality, content or scope but we are, in fact, television.