Sony's Character Tracker

Looks like Sony wants viewers to engage with TV characters on a new level.

Sony Pictures Television filed a trademark application on July 25, 2007 to protect the phrase Character Tracker for "non-downloadable software for following the exploits of feature players of various television shows."

I found no other info about Character Tracker, and I received no reply to my request for additional information. You know what that means — I'm going to fill in the missing gaps myself with my best guesses.

Blogs are so passe. TV characters have been keeping blogs for a while now. As far back as Fall 2005, The Carver from "Nip/Tuck" and Barney from "How I Met Your Mother" wrote blogs (ABC News, Jan. 23, 2006). Now if a new TV character has a blog, it's just not newsworthy.

Even TV characters probably migrate to newer tools for social networking. Instead of keeping a blog, can you imagine if Ripley Holden of "Viva Laughlin" used Twitter during the first season? What if you could follow Ripley's movements between airings using Gawker Stalker?

If Sony can execute these ideas to provide a deeper viewer experience without affecting the flow of the TV show for casual viewers — just like the graphic novels for "Heroes" — then they may have a winner on their hands.