Zuiker: We're Going To Drive Them Back To Television

CSI is looking to expand beyond television.

"I lost 8 million viewers on our premiere last season. Where are they? They're on the Web," CSI creator Anthony Zuiker said at a panel on Monday. "People are consuming more and more content on the Web. ... The broadcast model in terms of advertising is a little bit broken."

Zuiker spoke about "Cross Blending Storytelling", which he described as "launching a narrative from television to the Web to mobile to gaming and back to television." Zuiker said the goal is to "drive them back to television, not away from television," and he went on to warn, "if you don't take care of television ... the laptop will dominate."

"The good news is now you can monetize all four platforms," he said. "We are going to monetize TV on all four platforms to make up for the dollars we are losing on TV." Zuiker said people such as himself and his staff would accomplish this by "building story lines into the script -- launching new characters, launching new story lines, launching things you can enjoy beyond TV in one hour." He went on to say, "You have to make content specific to the device."

Zuiker and his team are already exploring ways to outsource into mobile and gaming. "The days of just watching a show from 9-10 (p.m.) are over," he said. "It's all going to change. ... There is no such thing as a one-off anymore."

The original article is from the Hollywood Reporter.

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