An article at Yahoo News – Crowdsourcing goes to Hollywood as Amazon makes movies – reveals that Amazon are taking a different approach to greenlighting movies and TV shows than the traditional studios.
Amazon are taking a more data-driven approach to developing and proceeding with projects, relying heavily on testing:
Last week Larry Jordan invited me on the Digital Production BuZZÂ to discuss two apparently conflicting articles:
Max Wessel on The Inevitable Disruption of Television and
Andrew Wallenstein on TV Studios too strong for Apple disruption. (Sorry about the Variety paywall.)
How to reconcile these seemingly contradictory reports?
While waiting for the delivery of an iPhone I’ve had the “joy” of experiencing both UPS customer service and Apple customer service over the same issue. First the facts:
http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/08/the_inevitable_disruption_of_t.html
Television as we know it is not going away any time soon, but it is going to be disrupted at some time: all industries are.
But even the largest industries enter periods of transformation — think of once-dominant railroads, wired phone lines, the postal service. The fact of the matter is that periodically, technologies or business model innovations allow start-ups to enter industries offering services that are generally cheaper and more accessible, but of far lower quality. Initially, these innovations are adopted only by the least demanding industry consumers or those who couldn’t afford to participate in existing markets (like the college students who use Reddit to find entertaining Youtube videos instead of paying for HBO). However, over time, these start-ups tend to invest in performance improvements in such a way that allows them to displace industry incumbents (the professionals who are cutting the proverbial cord in favor of Netflix, Hulu Plus, and Amazon Instant Video). This is the essence of what we call “disruptive innovation.” It’s transformed a number of industries and is starting to do the same in the world of television.
Read how Maxwell Wessell cut the cord and transformed his Television viewing.