According to Techcrunch Canceled Soaps “All My Children†And “One Life To Live†Coming Back From The Dead On Hulu, iTunes with a new business model.
It’s no “Arrested Development,†but Hulu is today announcing that it, too, is bringing TV programs back from the dead. (Coming back from the dead – hey, that sounds like a soap plot!). Hulu has now signed a deal with media production Prospect Park to air the previously canceled soap operas “All My Children†and “One Life to Live†on Hulu and Hulu Plus, where they’re air in addition to Apple’s iTunes.
No it’s no Arrested Development, but there’s a market for Soap Operas – not a market big enough for a major network to service, but in the world of distributed distribution, there is a revival.
It mostly reminds me of what I wrote a few weeks back: the way for Apple/Google/Amazon/Netflix (did I miss anyone) to solve the content problem, is to get it made by the same people who make it now, but for their distribution channel alone.
In this case, the revival has been delayed because of union issues rather than the business model. Now that’s not something I’d have expected:
The production company has been trying to revive these shows for some time now, after firstlicensing the content from ABC in mid-summer 2011. Prospect Park tried bringing them to cable TV, but those deals fell through due to funding and negotiations with the various unions involved in such a venture.
But it has now closed on a consulting agreement with Agnes Nixon, the two series’ creator, as well as deals with labor groups the Screen Actors Guild, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, and the Directors Guild of America, in order to get the actors back, as well as another deal with the Writer’s Guild of America. And it has closed its financing with ABRY Partners, the company says.