The National Television Academy has just announced a new Emmy Award category: “original entertainment programming created specifically for non-traditional viewing platforms, including computers, mobile phones, iPods, PDAs and similar devices.”
This is the first time the Academy will honor programming created for non-traditional platforms. It’s an obvious push in the direction of consumers, programmers and advertisers alike. And it may just induce me to return to the fold as a judge.
Last year, the Academy promised judges programming delivered on DVD and via streaming video. What arrived at my door? Three gigantic crates of VHS tapes. They dominated my living room for weeks (Emmy judges have to watch hours and hours and hours of programming).
Now that the Academy’s introduced portability to the proceedings, perhaps this year I won’t duck out after all.