An interesting article at the Hollywood Reporter argues that the Television industry needs a Steve Jobs – like visionary and needs it soon. While Television has been adapting (slowly) to the changes in viewer behavior it’s not particularly “customer friendly”.
Production is a business but it seems that we only “allow” financing by the distribution channel. I wonder why other forms of capital investment aren’t being used. Well, one example is the recent purchase by Content Partners of a 50% interest in the CSI franchise.
Over at The Mac Observer, John Martellaro writes what I’ve been wanting to say for a long time: almost everything written about Apple by “analysts” is either completely worthless because they know nothing; or is being written to manipulate the stock price.
Apple is not like other companies, which is why analysts et al get it wrong 90% of the time when they’re writing about Apple.
Netflix was always confident that House of Cards would be a success – as it’s proving to be – because they relied on big data analysis to know the potential before spending the money.
According to some reports a YouTube subscription for some of its partner channels is on the cards? If they do, will it become a cable competitor, or will it simply kill those partner channels?
Broadcast Engineers has an article For broadcasters, the name of the game is efficiency which really comes as no surprise:
Finding new and better ways of improving staff productivity and support new and existing distribution channels is key for broadcasters looking to successfully navigate the ever changing competitive landscape and remain relevant in today’s multichannel universe.
David Cohen at Variety wrote an in depth story, with the subhead of High-profile bankruptcies point to fragile underpinnings of blockbuster biz, that takes a look at the problems in the Visual Effects industry as a warning for the Studios’ “Tentpole’ strategy.
David Justus writes at GigOm argues that Cost per Hour will be a pivotal metric for both producers and consumers, but I’m slightly dubious (despite wanting it to be true.)
The legacy media businesses are just plain bad businesses: they apparently never make a profit and require constant subsidizing from local and State authorities; they require constant legislative support for their legacy (and obsolete) business models, and yet the public get very, very little from this investment. There’s no share of copyright, there’s no real payback in money spent locally. Â It’s time to let these business stand, or fail, on standard business grounds.
With Netflix’s stated goal of becoming:
…HBO faster than HBO can become us.
Is that going to lead to a Golden Age of Television?
TV is replacing movies as elite entertainment, because players like Netflix, HBO, and AMC are in an arms race for lush, high-quality shows
Derek Thompson, writing for The Atlantic in Netflix, ‘House of Cards,’ and the Golden Age of Television seems to think so. A rare positive thought for our production future.