This seems like a good idea, ironic, but good. I can remember all the stuff we used to play outside – the forts, the grand road construction plans, the exploring strange new worlds….
What are some of the things you used to play outside? (This question is for those readers old enough to remember playing outside.)
Turn off the TV and go outside! Kids hear that from their parents all the time. Now, improbably, they’ll hear it from a TV network.
This fall, the Nickelodeon network will go off the air for three hours one Saturday and urge its young viewers to play instead.
The turn-off is planned for noon Oct. 2, when Nickelodeon usually has about 1.5 million viewers ages 6 to 11. During those hours, Nick will show a graphic saying it’s time to go outside.
“They’re not doing as much after-school play as they used to,” network president Cyma Zarghami said, “so we wanted to make sure they know it’s important.”
She’s certainly aware of the grand irony of this coming from a network that made it possible for kids to spend hours on end staring vacantly at the tube. But she said studies have shown that children aren’t watching much more television than they did 15 years ago.
“We don’t have control over how much they watch television,” she said.
Nick probably won’t lose much advertising revenue during the stunt; companies will be compensated by having commercials run at different times, she said. Nick estimates that it’s spending some $10 million on its “Let’s just play” campaign.
When Nick comes back on the air at 3 p.m. that day, it will air a live music and sports special that encourages viewers to stay healthy and active.
If it’s a success, might a couple of hours off per week become a regular part of Nickelodeon’s schedule?
“Our cable operators and our advertisers might have a little trouble with that,” Zarghami said.
. . . i grew up in metro washington dc and in our then surburban home there was this space beneath the porch where i use to get any kid in the neighborhood to help me dig . . . it was a blast . . . but one time debbie barkley pee’d under the porch . . . no time to go anywhere else . . . and it was never the same again . . .