An hour or so after I posted my “DigitalFirst” idea, I was sent this latest blog post by YCombinator in their RFS (Request for Startups) series.
The main reason we want to fund such startups is not to protect the world from more SOPAs, but because SOPA brought it to our attention that Hollywood is dying. They must be dying if they’re resorting to such tactics.
What’s going to kill movies and TV is what’s already killing them: better ways to entertain people. So the best way to approach this problem is to ask yourself: what are people going to do for fun in 20 years instead of what they do now?
Don’t think though, that this means Hollywood is going away. There’s probably a few more versions of bad laws to be submitted, received, reviewed and eventually defeated. And don’t think either that the individual companies in Hollywood are actually the enemy. Some of them will willingly collaborate on a project that will increase their distribution, monetize their content and fillet the big boys.
Put it this way: Apple wasn’t a powerhouse when they went to the record labels with the iTunes Store idea. But they’re now in the uncomfortable position of being a middle man in all of this.
Speaking to some small companies in Northern Ireland like Small Town America and Bruised Fruit, Sixteen South and Straandlooper, Scattered Images and 360 Productions; there’s appetite for change.
HBO have shown is that there is a market for quality TV that people will pay up front for, as opposed to the traditional ad- or government-supported model. On the other hand, iPlayer has shown that there is appetite for online, on-demand (but heavily restricted) viewing. I would certainly like to believe that if the technology were available, the likes of HBO would be the first to use it, as it better suits their business model. It would probably take such a brand name to increase awareness of the technology and drive initial adoption.
The end game would be to get the technology preinstalled in smart tvs. Initially though, it would need to be a black box with a big HD and a remote. So why hasn’t AppleTV gone this route already? Probably because the big studios are only just coming around to the idea of Netflix and they can’t get the content.
So what you need is a critical mass of independent producers who are willing to make content for the new platform. But then you get into the chicken and egg problem. Every new platform needs a killer app. Who is going to produce the killer show that is only available on the new platform, so forcing everyone to buy into it and creating the space for the small producers to fill?
I’m thinking HBO again. But what’s in it for them? Cutting out the middle man, perhaps. There’s a lot of dealing involved to get your show on air in multiple countries, and the networks take their cut. The question here is not the technology (which we know exists), but the economics. What is the cost/benefit ratio of putting a (subsidised?) black box in every home in order to sell HBO over bittorrent? Is it currently worth the risk of making expensive quality content only to see it fail?
But the content doesn’t have to be limited to the new platform. I’ve had an idea (from back in my brief media industry days) of having phased releases of TV content – you could show it first in cinemas with digital projectors, B-movie style, before each week’s new opening. Then release it a week later on bittorrent, then after the season is over a boxset, then (a year later) network TV. Make episodic TV run on a movie release schedule, with bittorrent factored into your model the way people use it anyway. You piggyback the content on cinema tickets initially, but people don’t go to the cinema every week, and will need to catch up. Make the bittorrent tracker require payments to use, app-store style. If they’re cheap enough people will stick with the approved platform. Sell the black boxes at the box office, prepgrogrammed to series-link the killer show as soon as you put in your credit card number. Fork Miro (saves on subsidised boxes, after all).
But killer content is key.
I do wonder whether any of our local cinemas would give the few minutes before each showing over to some local flicks. Just for coverage.