I Want My Green TV
June 5th, 2008Written by Douglas Beagley
The Discovery Networks company premiers a new cable television channel this week: Planet Green.
We all live on one planet. It is rather odd that so little of our daily dose of media addresses our larger home. The environment, when featured in the nightly news, usual shows up as a special feature, a news piece that is pre-recorded and slipped in as filler at the end of a show. Even a major scientific report will slide off of Tom Brokaw’s plate if there is a celebrity disaster that takes higher billing. “Hold the mother-earth issues for a slow news day,” our media seems to say.
Humans made a game show channel, a cartoon network, and an “All Puppies, All the Time” channel before they launched a channel fully devoted to environmental issues.
I listened today to Brian Seltzer, of the New York Times, talk about the Planet Green channel on Marketplace. He called it, “The highest profile cable launch of the year,” and “a big bet that environmentally-themed programming can be entertaining [and profitable].” In other words: no matter how good the message, the programming has to attract viewers. It has to attract sponsors. It has to make money.
Who is Planet Green’s first premiere sponsor? General Motors: the makers of “The Hummer,” the king surfers of the SUV wave (which thankfully now seems to have crested.) Perhaps every major company or organization needs to have a green platform now.
Discovery’s method for attracting viewers, according to Seltzer, will be to focus on “making everything a little bit better,” and to be “optimistic, not preachy.” For the first half of this blog entry, I have definitely been preachy. For the second half, I promise to be optimistic.
I applaud vigorously. The Planet Green channel will replace the Discovery Home channel, which means it will be in 80 million American homes as of Wednesday, June 4th. 80 million American TV sets will have a constant source of awareness-raising, pro-earth information. That’s awesome. What’s more, the network is making a gamble, and to ensure that the gamble pays off they are going to have to create invogorating content. Al Gore giving (excellent) PowerPoint presentations is not going to be enough. I look forward to seeing the result.
A reading of Planet Green’s weekly schedule reveals their strategy: take show concepts that have worked before and paint them green. The schedule includes home improvement, fashion, and travel shows all with a dash of eco-verve. There’s a “Hollywood Green” show which features, “eco-conscious celebrity lifestyle segments in a sophisticated-yet-fun-to-watch style.” And then there’s “Mean Green Machines,” an enviro-friendly attempt at a greaser’s “Trucks + Bikes”-style show.
The big bang, however? Reality TV shows. Seriously. Check out the descriptions of Wasted or Greensburg. It may seem a bit forced, but if they can take reality TV, a style of television that is frequently reviled (although also frequently watched), and give it a purpose beyond ego-stroking, I may have to tune in.
The real gain here is to the American consciousness. Knowledge is power. Plenty of people have a luke-warm interest in helping the environment, and Planet Green may help them learn simple ways to really help. If arm-chair environmentalists learn lifestyle tips that help them save money while they save the earth, the show might build an unexpected middle-American fan base.
Depressing environmental news can lead to learned helplessness. Barring miraculous shifts in governmental policy, optimism and knowledge that empowers are our only roads out of the environmental decline. Knowing that you can make a difference, even in small ways, is vitally important. Despite my usual skepticism about such efforts, I’m going to tune in, visit the excellent Web site, and give big corporate America another chance to step up to the plate.
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