Scott Kirsner share his notes from Day 1 of the PGA Produce By conference http://bit.ly/b0kDIH You should be following @ScottKirsner on Twitter (if  you do that) or his CinemaTech blog.
Scott’s takeaway points from the day are diverse but I’ve grabbed a couple of points that hit home to me. Go to the site and read the lot if you’re interested in distribution (and earning money) from media production in the future.
The subtext of most of the sessions I went to was this: we acknowledge that new stuff is happening and new technologies are emerging…and we know audiences want to interact with content in new ways…but it’s unclear how we’ll make anything approaching decent money in this new world.
Then follows an interesting discussion on Transmedia, particularly interesting was The Lion King:
But [Cary Granat of Bedrock Studios]mentioned an interesting transmedia example toward the end: Disney’s decision to create a Broadway version of “The Lion King.” The studio took a risk in hiring Julie Taymor to reinterpret the film, and wound up creating a stage franchise that has since surpassed the movie in revenues by playing for years in theaters the world over (at a much higher ticket price than the film, of course.)
On 3D Television:
On 3-D television broadcasts, Fox Sports exec Jerry Steinberg said, “It is still a technology in search of a business model. People will have to pay extra at home, or for theater tickets.” But Steinberg is a believer that it’ll happen: “What 3-D does for sports is recreate the experience of being in the premium seats, and we as an industry haven’t sold that yet.” He said his expectation is that 3-D TV, just like high-def, will be an 8 to 10 year transition. “We’re two years into it,” he said.
And from Scott’s own panel:
In our panel on “DIY and Hybrid Distribution,” I tossed out what I’ve found to be four essential truths of the new media world producers are living in: “Distribution is free. Choice is infinite. Demand is instant. Noise is unprecedented.” You can either develop strategies to address those shifts, or you can try to ignore them. (I’ve found that many studios and more established producers are doing the latter.)
If that latter content is of interest you’ll want to buy Scott’s Book Fans, Friends and Followers in either PDF or paperback. (I have both versions: the paperback came from the Distribution U conference, but I purchased the PDF so I cold search the printed book!)