BikiniZero Takes Net News to ‘Natural’ End

Say what you will about new show BikiniZero‘s use of bikini-clad female anchors to read technology news items, but at least it’s self-aware about what works and what doesn’t online. No offense to the women in front of the camera at Rocketboom, Wallstrip, Geek Brief TV and so on — all smart people, I’m certain. But as a cynic, I can’t help but wonder at the almost singular appeal to the male gaze this trend represents.

BikiniZero just takes the apparent logic at work to a natural conclusion. To compete in a marketplace dominated by shows featuring young, fit women, why not further disrobe?

When I asked Taylor Moore of BZ Media, who’s primarily responsible for producing the show, what the names of the anchors were, he responded that their names were withheld to preserve their security, making clear the dark side of harnessing attraction.

One imagines that such measures won’t be considered necessary for the male hosts of the planned BZ Media “Beefcake News,” but who knows. I’ll leave the post-feminist deconstruction of it all to academia for now. My questions for Moore focused on the technical approach, costs and time involved and, of course, the revenue model.

That the beach-themed show is actually filmed near the powder-covered peaks of the Canadian Rockies in Kelowna, B.C., is just another layer of irony. Everything is completely composited against a green screen — even solid-color bikinis are used so that they, too, can have graphics applied!

Nothing about it says ‘hard news’ (pun kind of intended), but everything says fun, right down to the whimsical player. Moore said, “We wanted it to be very art driven, and an easier pace, a place to get your news away from all the other noise of the web.” Moore has a background in production and post-production, with an emphasis on editing, compositing and computer graphics. Stints included work on the feature “Final Fantasy: The Spirit Within,” according to his resume.

A team of three, including Moore, his assistant and an art director, together spend over a hundred hours in a week shooting and editing a show. The heavy use of compositing certainly adds to the unique humor. Viewers are jokingly referred to as pasty shut-ins, lampooning assumptions about the audience for online video. For what it’s worth, Moore sent screenshots of a BikiniZero write-up from Japan [JPG], where it seems to have caught on.

Since the site’s release approximately four days ago, 10,000 viewers have tuned into the show, according to Moore. To capitalize on viewership, Moore is offering monthly sponsorships for $25,000, which buys a post-roll read on camera for four episodes. The current sponsor is web hosting provider Rackforce.

The show has a strong domain brand as well as broad distribution across video sharing sites, RSS and iTunes syndication, mobile devices, a high-quality full screen stream. Moore is also archiving all the content in broadcast quality on DigiBeta tape, just in case a traditional broadcaster shows interest.

BZ Media is based in Nevada to take advantage of a cross-border economy (lower taxes) often employed by Hollywood productions. The promotional effort includes a user-submission contest, with a video iPod grand prize. The next episode is due for release early next week, and further productions planned for the upcoming year include Beefcake News as well as possible weather and business segments.

Though BikiniZero is a brand-new show, it does have the benefit of three things that do well online: technology, humor and, of course, sex. A chunk of money in the bank won’t hurt either.

loading

Comments have been disabled for this post