Want to know the difference between “professional” and “amateur” programming on Brooklyn’s cable access network? Just look for the bugs.
Brooklyn Cable Access Television, or BCAT, has begun using television “bugs” — those little channel logos on the corner of your favorite TV shows — to differentiate between such long-time, community-made hits like “Black Men Screaming” and “Access Kids Power,” and “professional,” Brooklyn-centric shows produced by BCAT’s own staff.
Those shows — overseen by BCAT’s eight full-time producers, such as Neighborhood Beat, Reporter Roundtable, and BCAT Presents — are now labeled with a “Brooklyn Independent Television” bug. The nearly 500 shows made by everyone else are now classified as “Free Speech TV.”
The “Brooklyn Independent Television” logo features text that is superimposed over a sketch of the Brooklyn Bridge, while “Free Speech TV” bug has text on top of the arch in Grand Army Plaza.
“I think people want to know what they’re watching,” said Greg Sutton, BCAT’s executive producer. “It’s really about being proud of everything that we do.”
Steve de Seve, whose show “Brooklyn versus Bush” doesn’t get the “professional” bug, said he doesn’t mind the new classifications.
“The bugs are fine,” he said. “I’d hate to be watching Fox News, and not know it. If you see the ‘Fox News’ bug, then you know it’s all lies. If you see the Brooklyn bug, you know it’s a local thing.”
Some argue that such bugs, which began appearing in January and share screen-space with the original BCAT logo, actually mar the TV-watching experience (see www.stopthelogos.com for lengthy debates about them).
Last Monday, de Seve tuned in to BCAT, only to discover “some bug layering” — the phenomenon that occurs when BCAT airs content from other sources, like the Art Network, that already has its own bug.
“Right now, in the upper left hand corner, there’s the BCAT bug, then in the lower right corner there’s the Art Network bug, then over that is the Free Speech bug,” he said.
