Paper Thin TV

Will wonders never cease? To promote its fall television line-up, CBS will run an advertisement in Entertainment Weekly magazine that incorporates video clips of some of its fall shows. That's right, there will be video in the paper magazine.

How can that be? A company called Americhip has developed a thin, plastic-film video screen that can fit between the pages of a magazine. Powered by a tiny battery, the screen plays video programs – with sound – the way those little computer chips in greeting cards play music. Call it "waaaaaay flat screen TV." The CBS ad will contain 40 minutes of program clips and the battery will last for 6 hours, which means viewers can watch the full menu of clips 9 times before the battery expires.

An executive of Time Warner, which owns Entertainment Weekly, said: "We've been looking for this type of technology for a long time." I bet. EW's advertising revenue fell 28% and its advertising pages dropped 32% in the first half of this year. Ouch. "Anytime you can make your advertising more interesting," said this exec, "it's always beneficial. If we can efficiently put video into magazines, think about the possibilities it would open up."

Okay let's think: Ultimately, print magazines could morph into video cards, and when I go into the doctor's office of the future, instead of facing a rack of magazines with titles like How to Turn a Covered Bridge Into Your Dream House or License Plate Collector, I'll find a bunch of "magazines" with TV programs like ER, House, and Scrubs. Maybe my local hardware store will sell little videos of Home Improvement next to notions like LED flashlights and tiny screwdriver key chains. And my local police precinct will have Law and Order videos in all the cells. Cool.

Ultimately, as this technology becomes more powerful, we'll end up with disposable television sets. Purchase a little copy of Airplane! as you board your flight and throw it in the trash when you land. Sound far fetched? Remember when there were no disposable razors or disposable cameras? Soon, disposable TVs? Weird. The beauty of disposables is that I can buy it, try it, and chuck it if I don't like it – instead of piling it in the basement. Here are some more items I'd like to see go disposable some day: Pasta machines, espresso machines, and deep-fat turkey fryers.

Potential headline for this story: "TV Headed for the Dumps."


Peter Nulty
Editor