I was very pleased to see all the responses we have been getting on the Blog section of the site as well as directly from people who are more interested in what is happening at OUTtv. When we re-built the website last year one of our goals was to create more interaction with our audience and the LGBT community in general. One of our prime reasons for this was to ensure we were giving the community what they wanted in the way of programming.

The challenge is always working through the gap between what the community tells you they want and what people actually watch on television. It really is the age old problem in the entertainment industry. Everyone thinks they know what the audience wants but no one really does. We can do marketing research and focus groups forever but the fact is they are consistently inaccurate.

The best gauge, in my view, comes from looking at what they are watching and what they are looking at on the website. I know this sounds pretty obvious but for years OUTtv didn’t have very good metrics. Now we have Nielsens ratings and an excellent web analytic program that gives us an indication of what is really going on. What I can tell you is the behaviour of our audience is often very different than what many people would expect. Recently we ask our web designer to put together a new tool that will publish our top shows every week. I think people will be amused by the results.