It just might start a trend. USA Network is the about to
become the first TV broadcaster to launch a social networking site. Why risk
acquiring one of the remaining smaller players like Hi5.com or Tribe.net, when
you can build your own experience from scratch?

Showusyourcharacter.com, currently in beta, combines elements of traditional
social networking sites (personal profiles, music and video uploads) with
elements from fansites, focused here on USA’s stable of shows, including “Monk”,
“Nashville Star”, and the WWE.

USA runs a mixture of original programming, action-drama re-runs, and mainstream
movies. I call it the Law and Order
Channel.

The social networking site is a clever tie-in to their
current branding campaign, which makes a virtue of USA’s schizophrenic programming:
“Characters Welcome”.  According to press
materials, the most unusual character from the site’s profiles will be the
center of a web series and star in a national on-air campaign.

The irony is that General Electric, USA Network’s parent
company, has a number of other cable properties that would be much better
suited to be content hubs for social networks.  With the exception of wrestling, which is carried on multiple competing channels, USA doesn’t have shows that inspire real fandom.  And
they attract older viewers who are much less likely to participate in a social
networking site. 

What about the  fiercely loyal fans of Bravo’s “Project Runway” or the Sci-Fi Channel’s “Battlestar
Galactica”, two other GE properties which would have been much better candidates?  But
kudos to USA
for being the first to test the social networking waters.

Misha Cornes