Censored 'SNL' Sketch Jumps Bleepless Onto the Internet
The nearly three-minute digital film, shown on "Saturday Night Live" last Saturday, was a parody of two boy-band singers (including one played by the real Justin Timberlake) crooning a holiday song about making a gift to their girlfriends …
Context & Ripple Effects
Earlier in 2006, SNL’s move into paid iPod downloads and NBC’s challenge to YouTube over “Lazy Sunday” showed the network testing controlled digital distribution for its sketches. Making an unbleeped version available online draws a clear distinction between the broadcast edit and the version SNL can offer on the internet.
First-order effects
- SNL gives online viewers access to material removed from the broadcast version, while preserving the censored cut for its television audience.
- NBC’s digital team gains an official outlet for a high-profile sketch whose appeal depends on the content omitted from the on-air version.
Second-order effects
- NBC’s earlier effort to police unauthorized “Lazy Sunday” uploads becomes harder to separate from its own use of the internet as a channel for distinctive, authorized SNL material.
- Advertisers and broadcast standards teams must treat television and online releases as separate editorial products rather than assume a single cut will serve both outlets.
Third-order effects
- The release points toward windowed distribution in which broadcasters use the web not merely to replay programming, but to package versions that television standards do not permit.
- If networks continue to reserve different edits for different channels, control over the official online destination becomes as important as control over the original broadcast.
The trend: Broadcast comedy is beginning to use online distribution as a separate editorial window, with different content limits from television.