As reported in today’s MediaPost TVWatch, the WaPo and Adweek, NBCU has redesigned its local TV station Web sites, dropping call letters and/or channel numbers, with the goal of turning the sites into local news portals. The initial roll out includes stations in Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Washington DC, and New York.
TVWatch asks the question whether dropping a station’s well known online call letters/numbers (ex: DC’s nbc4.com) is throwing away years of well-earned publicity and local brand familiarity with broadcast and online viewers.
I don’t think so. NBCU is keeping the URL short and catchy – ex: NBCChicago.com – and have a redirect from the old URL to the new one. What NBCU might lose initially in confused viewers, they’ll reap in more traffic to these well designed and information-enriched sites that enjoy the branded look and ease of use of NBC’s home site. I like the change and as a web analytics geek, I look forward to seeing any disclosed metrics on the new sites. Very cool NBCU!
Here’s beta NBCChicago.com:
