Re: The Future of Charitable Telethons

Media and Entertainment Interest Group,

I've expanded these ideas about fundraising on streaming media services into a fuller essay, shared both below and online: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/adamsobieski_what-if-we-could-donate-to-charitable-and-activity-7228312719672709120-tqPX/ .


It’s been a tremendous 75 years of technological innovation since the first telethon. With streaming video services, there are exciting opportunities ahead for fundraising.

In April of 1949, Milton Berle hosted the first telethon, raising over one million dollars in funds for the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation. LIFE magazine promptly featured a photo essay and a timeline of “probably the longest sustained vaudeville performance on record.”

Annual events for the Muscular Dystrophy Association started in the early 1950s, hosted by comedian Jerry Lewis.

Back in the day, before credit cards, people used telephones to make pledges, promises to donate cash or checks at later times. Later, the increasing popularity of credit cards enabled viewers to instantly make donations during live broadcasts. People were then able to call in, provide their credit card information, and make donations without having to write a check or complete a mailing form.

The use of credit cards also reduced administrative overhead. Telethon organizers were relieved of manually handling cash and checks and incoming donations could be automatically tallied.

The advent of the Web expanded fundraising events’ reach to wider, even global, audiences. Later, social media could be used to amplify telethon messages and to encourage content sharing and engagement.

Today, streaming media services are increasingly popular. 99% of American households subscribe to at least one streaming media service.

With respect to enabling fundraising events, streaming media services are superior to broadcast television in a number of important ways.

Firstly, streaming media services already have people's credit card information and therefore the act of making donations can be further simplified. People could use their remote controls to make donations. Those streaming content in Web browsers could, similarly, use a menu to do so.

Secondly, unlike broadcast television, fundraising events on streaming media services would not block the availability of other content for viewers.

Thirdly, streaming media services could provide navigational experiences, e.g., menu screens, for people to conveniently browse collections of local, national, and global charities and philanthropies to learn more about and to donate to.

Fourthly, streaming media services could also provide interactive branching video content. Such content could, for instance, branch depending on whether a viewer had made a donation. A fundraising event could, then, provide introductory segments of content for viewers followed by branch points where donations would be required for viewers to watch subsequent segments.

Finally, with interactive video, viewers could select from and move between multiple stages of entertainment content. Fundraising event organizers would, then, be able to provide wider audiences with multiple, simultaneous options for entertainment, e.g., country and rock and roll music.


Best regards,
Adam Sobieski
________________________________
From: Adam Sobieski <adamsobieski@hotmail.com>
Sent: Saturday, August 10, 2024 10:20 PM
To: public-web-and-tv@w3.org <public-web-and-tv@w3.org>
Subject: The Future of Charitable Telethons

Media and Entertainment Interest Group,

Hello. I am pleased to share some preliminary technological ideas to enable the future of telethons with respect to streaming services.

A telethon is a televised fundraising event that lasts many hours or even days, the purpose of which is to raise money for a charitable, political, or other cause. According to Wikipedia, "most telethons feature heavy solicitations for pledges by masters of ceremonies or hosts, who are often local celebrities or media personalities combined with variety show style entertainment such as singers, bands, and instrumentalists. In some cases, telethons feature content related to the cause being supported, such as interviews with charitable beneficiaries, tours of charity-supported projects, or pre-taped sequences."

Technology ideas include that, as streaming services already have users' payment information, making donations to charitable causes during streaming telethons could be made a simple and elegant user experience. Users could, for instance, utilize their smart remotes to navigate menus to make donations of 1, 5, 10, or 20 dollars. Additionally, users watching a streaming telethon in a Web browser could simply click to navigate a menu to do so. In addition to using their default payment methods, users could choose to enter other, secondary, forms of payment as desired. Perhaps streaming telethons could each have configuration screens or streaming services could enable configuration for the charitable telethon content type.

These technology topics, enabling new, simple, and elegant user experiences for making donations to charitable causes are interesting to me. So too are how modern streaming services might implement telethons, in terms of content, for those charitable causes of their or their event organizers' determinations. In addition to providing traditional forms of telethon content to draw audiences, perhaps other forms of enticing content could include making available first access to new trailers showcasing forthcoming series and movies.

Thank you. I hope that these ideas are also of some interest to you.


Best regards,
Adam Sobieski