Survey Says: FUN!: Blurring the Lines between TV and Casual Games

Christian Meyer, CMO WorldWinner & SVP Marketing, GSN Digital WorldWinner/GSN Digital

WorldWinner is in a unique situation in that they work with the Game Show Network (GSN). This collaboration is really blurring the lines between television and casual games. Television delivers emotion. In turn, emotional motivators can be studied and you can change behaviors.

GSN game shows are essentially casual games on a different platform. People watch game shows on television to have the buy in experience. They want to see if the little old lady from Pasadena wins or loses. GSN can reach up to 66 million homes because of its reach through cable television.

Time is the new currency of technology. Where does casual gaming fit in? The top three activities women spend their leisure time on is television, Internet, and reading a book. Men watch television and play on the Internet. Over a third of the people using computers say that they're starting to eat into television watching time. The average user will use the personal computer for entertainment 12 hours per week.

Isn't there a symbiotic relationship between television watching and the Internet? Yes! More and more television content is starting to show up on-line and it's important to keep up with the consumer demand for content on the Internet. The music industry did not keep up with this demand and has become badly hurt because of it.

Gaming is now a part of television sites. Lifetime advertises "Play Here" and has female oriented content that drives viewers to their site. USA has developed a very socially oriented site with the "Characters Welcome" tag line.

The gap between television and the Internet is getting smaller and smaller.

Competitive entertainment are the key words that WorldWinner focuses in on because one out of two telecasts revolve around competition related programming. Out of 191 million adults, two-thirds are already playing casual games. They play casual games to stimulate their brain, to have fun, and to take a break.

What will draw a casual gamer in? WorldWinner found that people want to be able to win money and play games that they know and like.

Bingo, the GSN game show, allows the whole audience to play and participate. People go on-line to download Bingo cards so they can play along with the players on television. The television ratings were not explosive for this show, but the on-line registrations exploded with registrations of 60,000 cards per night in shows that were repeats.

Catch 21 existed on-line before it was translated into a game show on GSN.

WorldWinner tries to develop forward leaning entertainment. The best way to describe this is that it is competitive entertainment. Travelocity allows you to book your vacation. Priceline allows you to WIN your best price.

Page 2