Viacom Doesn’t Suck: How Viacom is Leveraging its Brand Strength to Create the First 21st Century (New) Media Company | Imagining the Internet

The prediction, in brief:

The Nick at Nite Online service will be the preeminent nerve center for all aspects of classic TV and pop culture. It is the ultimate theater, library, clubhouse and meeting place for the millions who have the common bond of “Good TV.” In a sense, it is the virtual rec room for the TV generation…. Nick at Nite Online is also the place for interaction with classic ads, games, music, products, experiences, events, movies and other forms of pop culture.

Predictor: Horowitz, Ed

Prediction, in context:

In a 1995 article for Wired magazine, managing editor John Batelle quotes Viacom’s David Vogler, executive producer of Nickelodeon Online. Batelle writes: ”David Vogler, the recently appointed executive producer of Nickelodeon Online, created an outline characterizing Nickelodeon’s interactive goals. ‘The world of Nickelodeon Online is similar to the world Alice encounters through the looking glass,’ the outline reads. ‘It is an alternate universe, a place that is utterly impossible and complete engaging. It does not share the same logic and points of reference of the everyday world … Nickelodeon Online is a totally enveloping world that playfully subverts the medium … it is not driven by “educational” guidelines or adult agendas. It’s about the things that matter to kids and that immediately affect their world.’ And here’s what Vogler writes about Nick at Nite’s future online space: ‘The Nick at Nite Online service will be the preeminent nerve center for all aspects of classic TV and pop culture. It is the ultimate theater, library, clubhouse and meeting place for the millions who have the common bond of “Good TV.” In a sense, it is the virtual rec room for the TV generation…. Nick at Nite Online is also the place for interaction with classic ads, games, music, products, experiences, events, movies and other forms of pop culture.'”

Date of prediction: January 1, 1995

Topic of prediction: Getting, Sharing Information

Subtopic: TV/Films/Video

Name of publication: Wired

Title, headline, chapter name: Viacom Doesn’t Suck: How Viacom is Leveraging its Brand Strength to Create the First 21st Century (New) Media Company

Quote Type: Direct quote

Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/3.04/viacom_pr.html

This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney