April 11, 2008...2:25 pm
Media Status Quo, Who Wants It and Who Doesn’t
We’re away writing the Tomatoes feature right now, but these two articles caught my eye.
First Jackson West Probes Why Online Video Hasn’t Reinvented Hollywood yet:
I’m the first to admit that I wanted to see the Web kill Hollywood. It just ain’t happening. It’s finally dawned on the studios that you can now pay artists even less to produce content, and pay YouTube absolutely nothing to distribute it.
Also Nikki Finke interviewed Kenny Ziffren, a key player in coming up with a digital compromise for the DGA, which helped end the Writer’s Strike.
I believe that as representative of talent, I don’t want a lot of disintermediation. I want there to be strong networks that are willing to spend money on high-quality drama, sitcoms, and other genres.
A couple of things, Hollywood and the Web folks both need to learn from each other.
First, I respectfully disaggree with Mr. Ziffren. Distintermediation is the reality, and it will be both good and bad for Talent. It will allow creators to own more of their properties and get better deals with Hollywood. There wil always be the top of the food chain for the superstars. Big guaranteed money locks in talent.
The bigger question is what is a network? To me the big networks are simply just Ad Networks writ large. They work closely with the agencies and develop content that will interest the demographics that advertisers want to sell to.
So in the future as new media ad networks mature, they will start to resemble more and more Television networks. They’ll give proven creators and popular shows up front money and then split profits after they recoup. (Right now most just offer splits with no upfront cash.)
Sort of a hybrid between the book industry and television. Creators will keep the copyrights, license then to these ad networks. After the advance is recouped, creators will get a piece of the profits.
This will create a lot of competition which is good for talent. Competition drives up pricing on what that talent deserves. It’s scary to the old guard because it’s not just a few studios that you’re selling to, don’t worry, it’ll be okay. Quality Talent will always demand a premium.
The bad for talent? It’ll be harder to hide and fail upwards. There will be less of a market for anonymous midlevel writers and directors. Everyone will have had to have made a cult web series to get noticed.
Secondly, to Mr. West’s points.
Look, Show Business has been around forever. There are two things this business knows how to do, make money and screw over people. The invention of podcasting and flash video has done nothing to change this.
Create something the studios want, and then don’t give it to them until they pay you what you deserve.
YouTube is just a great way to get noticed. Use that attention to get someone to pay for your next project.
3 Comments
April 12, 2008 at 8:37 am
Of course Ziffren doesn’t want disintermediation because it will cost (or at the very least change) his relationship with his clients. It’s a case of “who moved my cheese?” Nobody wants to look for a fresh supply of cheese when they’re used to getting it the old way. I myself am guilty of this. The mantra of Silicon Valley “evolve or die” applies to Hollywood as well.
April 13, 2008 at 1:44 pm
“To me the big networks are simply just Ad Networks writ large.”
What about their marketing and publicity functions? For generating mass awareness of offline brands of all stripes (movies, laundry detergent, political candidates), they’re still the most powerful, though not necessarily the most efficient.
Is there a size and scale of production that requires the full promotional might of network television - something the size of, say, 30 Rock or CSI - in order to sustain it?
I’d be interested to read your thoughts.
April 15, 2008 at 9:58 am
Kent you are right on the mark.
I see video taking the same path as music. Big music distributes and promotes (screws over talent) and talent makes money off of concerts…fast forward to today where bands no longer need Big music to get promotions and distribution(Independent labels). So we are seeing the same thing in video. Yes there will always be big hits, but there is room for all of us to make some money. Keep us updated on the Tomatoes, I am excited for you.
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