Live from the Internet,
24 hours a day, seven days a week and 365 days a year, ManiaTV! has done away with the couch and established a brand new way to watch television.
Walking around campus, one can’t help but notice all of the white earphones plugged into hidden something-or-others in pockets of jeans or jackets. The iPod has created a new way to listen to music, which could ultimately lead to the abandonment of CD players, much like CDs decimated the tape cassette. It only seems rational that other media started following in the footsteps of music technology, and ManiaTV! has begun leading the way for a revolution in television.
Now students are able to watch TV from their computers at home, in computer labs or even while droning out the professor in an 8 a.m. class.
“Our target audience ranges from 12 to 34, but we focus on college students because they are tied to the Internet so much. They’re on there for school, they’re on there for entertainment and they’re on there for work,” Christy Kruzick said, one of ManiaTV!’s 13 “Cyber Jockeys.” “Tons of people have classes that you need the Internet for, so we have students watching ManiaTV! during class.”
A press release from ManiaTV! gives more suggestions for where one should watch: “ManiaTV! is watched ‘picture-in-picture’ on your computer. Viewers can keep surfing the web, IMing, downloading, emailing, and pretending to study/work while they watch. And for those who really need a fix, ManiaTV! can be viewed via wifi in the quad, Starbucks, park, toilet or closet.”
Founded by Drew Massey, former CEO of POV Magazine, ManiaTV! was created out of Massey’s love for both the Internet and TV. Massey believes the Internet is the “medium of the future — at least among those born after the ‘Thriller’ era.”
“Bill Paley, with CBS, gave us network TV. Ted Turner, with CNN, gave us cable TV. Now, we’re delivering the next revolution in TV — ManiaTV!” Massey said in a statement. “Our mission is to deliver multiple stations of television online — just like Viacom does to your cable box.”
ManiaTV!, which bears the motto “F*ck Television,” seems to have struck a chord with its audience. After debuting Labor Day weekend, viewership has doubled every month for this new form of media and it doesn’t seem to be slowing down, even without any direct marketing.
“We haven’t spent any money on marketing. It’s mostly just been people telling other people,” Kruzick said. “There are a lot of young people on the site and the word just spreads virally really fast because the site is resonating with the youth market. We’ve been very fortunate with that.”
The types of shows seen on ManiaTV! range from music videos such as “100%” (“bubblegum pop, that doesn’t BLOW!”) to “Wake The Hell Up!” (a “daily morning show that brings you the coolest takes on the latest news, sports, gossip and fashion along with contests and plenty of audience participation”).
ManiaTV!’s interactive capabilities are another technological advance that has aided its popularity.
“We have a chat room and people are in the chat rooms 24 hours a day making requests, telling us what they want to see and what they don’t want to see,” Kruzick said. “They’ll be like, ‘This video sucks! We want to see something else!’ and we’ve been known to stop a video mid-play and put on something they actually want to see.”
Recently, ManiaTV! has embarked on a college campus tour, which began Jan. 19 and will reach more than 90 colleges and universities all across the nation.
For more information on the campus tour and to watch ManiaTV! any time of day, visit the Web site at www.maniatv.com. ManiaTV! will be at the University Feb. 22.
