Fans of the TV show “30 Rock” on NBC have watched in recent weeks as the show has taken on its network’s impending merger with Comcast in the form of a fictional company called “Kabletown.” This week, “30 Rock” upped the stakes, giving “Kabletown” its own Web site, www.kabletown.com.
The news section of the spoof site says, “Kabletown is thrilled to announce the recent acquisition of GE Sheinhardt NBC Universal. With this partnership comes the promise of high quality entertainment for our audiences, continued superior service for our customers, and the possibility of meeting the girl from ‘Chuck’ for our executives.”
The site exhibits classic “30 Rock” satire, but what is haunting is how close the biting humor comes to the real world. For example, in a nod to the anti-competitive nature of this deal, the site proclaims, “We at Kabletown know that the landscape of television is changing. Our goal is to evolve and adapt along with it, offering new ways for our customers to get their content. This acquisition will give Kabletown customers access to NBC content, plus content from the network’s cable properties.” Obviously, lacking here is content from any competitors.
In the programming section of the site, the “30 Rock” team also calls attention to the fact that Comcast is the country’s largest on-demand deliverer of pornography.
The sad thing is, between their discussion of the fake-but-real merger on the show, and this new Web site, “30 Rock” – a sitcom may actually be covering the merger more than any other show on NBC or MSNBC. As the network’s newscasts seem to look the other way, I guess we’ll have to rely on Tina Fey to give us the dirt on one of the largest media mergers ever.
Josh Stearns 