Saturday Night Live is becoming a brand that no longer needs a TV or NBC.com in order to reach viewers. As a string of recent “online hit videos” illustrate, SNL is seeing a huge surge in popularity by posting to YouTube. Which leads me to ask: Will brands need to own the delivery channels anymore?
However, it seems that even massive popularity online, cannot move the needle in SNL’s TV ratings:
“However popular, such films — including “Lazy Sunday,” a rapping homage to “The Chronicles of Narnia” — have not appeared to raise the ratings of the show itself. Last season, “Saturday Night Live” drew an average of about 6.4 million viewers a week, which was down from the year before. But the digital shorts have given the show, and Mr. Samberg in particular, a Web presence and cachet.”