Obama Hits the Big Screen, Courtesy of MSNBC

(MoneyWatch)  Good to know that innovation and inspiration are still alive in the media business, despite the carnage all around. So, instead of focusing today on, say, the Gannett furloughs, let's focus on this: MSNBC, in a deal with Screenvision, will screen Barack Obama's inauguration live in 27 theaters in 21 major markets across the country. Free tickets can be had at MSNBC.com, if there are any left by the time you read this. As The Hollywood Reporter points out, even though the screenings are free, they are sure to goose sales of popcorn at the unusual time of midday on a Tuesday.

Even though many of us have home theaters on which we'd watch the inauguration if we could get off from work, one of the reasons this is such a cool idea is that, in a perfect world, many of us would like watching the Obama inauguration to be a group experience. Witness the unprecedented number of people trying to get into DC to see the actual event. Media consumption is becoming more of a narrowcast experience but some events scream "Group!", and this is one of them.

MSNBC has a business purpose behind its decision to blow up the inauguration to the big screen: it's part of a plan to make the network -- which gained audience during the election by sharpening its positioning as the anti-Fox -- be everywhere this year. Network president Phil Griffin told THR: "We want to reach people we've never reached before. We're going to do numerous things like that to get our name out there. Ubiquity is the name of the game in 2009." Maybe mass media isn't quite dead yet.