Downton Desktop A Downton Abbey Transmedia Extension

CTCS 482 Spring 2013 Kylie Nicholson

Market Opportunity

�  Downton Abbey has driven record-setting traffic to PBS.org (traditional and mobile)

�  Most-viewed PBS program online (9.7 million online views)

�  Current webpage offers videos, photos, quizzes

�  Sources of additional information, but could be done in a more effective and engaging manner

Demographics �  Current web demographics – and increasing

�  7.8 million unique visitors visited the site from Dec 30 2012 to March 9 2013, a 33 % increase over Season 2.

�  32.5% of audience engages online

�  Visitors average 2.8 visits each, totaling over 18.5 million total visits

�  365,000 "Engaged" visitors (their most valuable) = 5% of visitors to site

�  Program Age skew: 73% of audience is 50 +

�  Tablet and E-reader ownership

�  50-64 and 65+ tablet owners increasing by 10-18 points per year (32% and 18% of each are owners, respectively)2

Source: PBS, Pew2

Demographics

Audience

�  Two main segments: the Older and the Engaged

�  Older: PBS text-preferrers who may not be comfortable with social media, or who prefer long-form text in a digital format (computer, tablet)

�  Engaged: Seekers who want to explore details of the show and extra storylines through thoughts, reflections and words of the characters à towards character embodiment

�  Ideal audience = Aged & Engaged

Downton Desktop An Epistolary Novel for the digital age

Epistolary Novels �  Earliest novel forms consisting of letters, journals, diary

entries

�  Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818); Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897)

�  Benefits of Epistolary Novels:

�  Multiple viewpoints; richer perspective on story and character relationships

�  Diaries: privilege one additional voice

�  Letters: provide two additional points of view, three if you count the relationship

�  Soliloquy phenomenon: character’s thoughts and actions differ when they are with others versus alone

Downton

Desktop

A virtual path into the thoughts, minds and world of Downton

characters

Diaries Letters

Telegrams Other Overheard by O’Brien Game Website Photos News articles/ style magazine/ weather/ town gossip

Downton Desktop �  Features

�  Interactive

�  Multimedia

�  Text (diary entries, telegrams, notes)

�  Newspaper articles/ advertisements

�  Images

�  Sound clips/ video clips from web series

�  Independently navigable; each viewer has agency and can forge own path through material

�  Personalization: similar to news/ reading apps, users create their own customized desktop based on episodes viewed, interests, ect

What does it do? �  Removes a dimension of separation between viewer and character

�  Viewers feast their eyes on the same artifacts as the characters

�  Inferences, conclusions

�  A portal into additional information/ stories that aren’t covered in the show OR are touched upon but not fully developed.

�  we don’t see telegrams received at Downton, but events are impacted by their contents (eg. Titanic)

�  IF there were to be second screens, this would be a way for fans to interact. Someone’s reading a letter, touch it to see it!

�  Creates a web of interconnection

�  News articles inform background story; off-screen character interactions and relationships inform show events, ect

Dear Diary, 18 April 1912

Mary Sybil Edith Those poor men and women on the great ship! If only there was something more to be done, but at this point it is much too late. There is speculation that those of the first class were preserved while the lower classes perished…

The Titanic went down overnight; some indestructible ship that was. Must we enter full mourning for an entire month? I can’t bear the thought of wearing nothing but black and refraining from enjoyment for this entire time.

Cousin Patrick is dead! Oh, me! Last he was here we got along so nicely… I couldn’t bear waiting to see him again. I was close to stealing his affections away from Mary enough to make a proposal! Oh, I cannot fathom life without him…

Additional Media Newspaper article by Edith Fashions of the times

Additional Media Letters between Edith and Patrick Overheard by O’Brien:

Lord Grantham pacing in office in middle of the night, stressing about future of Downton Estate

Letters LETTERS FROM DOWNTON

•  Sybil & Gwen

•  Anna & Bates

•  O’Brien & Thomas during the war

•  Edith & P. Gordon

•  Sisters, Cora & Sybil

•  Daisy & William

•  Daisy & William’s Father

Telegrams “Titanic Ship Crashes. Crawley brothers listed on passenger list. Missing, assumed dead” “P. Gordon, Crawley relative, requests admission to Downton Convalescent Home” “Mrs. Bates has died”

Diaries Letters

Telegrams Other Overheard by O’Brien Game Website Photos News articles/ style magazine/ weather/ town gossip

Other Overheard by O’Brien Game Website Photos News articles/ style magazine/ weather Town Gossip

can establish new characters and storylines through gossip column, letters and journals of locals

Extensions �  Encourage engagement through other DHS properties; mention

on TV show; sent out weekly emails when episodes air: “read the letter that ____ wrote to ______ about this week’s event!” ask questions: “how does it relate? What’s the backstory?” to encourage curiosity and exploration

�  Users can tag content and create webs of interconnections for a sort of database narrative. Experiment with different combinations of articles/ journals and see how the story differs based on read

�  Fans can create content

�  Diary entries as characters (new or existing)

�  History buffs: write articles

Connection to other DHS properties

�  Links to artifacts on the desktop would be found on each video online (as an “ad” for DHS)

�  Letters/ journals could appear on TV show, in book

�  Desktop would appear on DHS website

�  Could serve as an app; holder for links to game, other properties

�  Code for more artifacts (and/ or physical artifacts) in tea set