NATPE - National Association of Television Program Executives

Opportunities in Branded Entertainment

Mon, 13 Apr 2009 18:29:21 +0100

Doug Scott of OgilvyEntertainment talks Opportunities in Branded Entertainment

Is TiVo the Answer to Television's Advertising Woes?

Wed, 04 Mar 2009 21:47:57 +0100

According to predictions from Forrester Research, by 2013 more than half of U.S. homes -- between 50 and 60 million-- will have a DVR. With half of America's homes time shifting programs and fast forwarding through ads, the future of the traditional television advertising model is threatened.

But could the technology that created this challenge for the television industry also be the one to provide the solution for its survival? NATPE interviews TiVo president and CEO Tom Rogers…

NATPE VideoNuze’s Seven Broadband/Mobile CEOs Explain How to Raise Money in the Down Economy

Tue, 13 Jan 2009 22:51:50 +0100

Amidst all the gloomy economic news, there are actually still some earlier stage companies that are raising new money. To learn more about how they’re doing it, NATPE VideoNuze editor Will Richmond e-mailed the CEOs of seven broadband/mobile video companies that have collectively raised nearly $80M in the last three months. He asked each of them three basic questions: What are the key success factors for raising money given the difficult economic climate? What are the biggest challenges? Is there any specific advice you’d offer to those trying to raise money these days?

The seven CEOs who graciously took time out of their busy day to contribute their thoughts (along with the recent rounds they’ve raised) are:

Amir Ashkenazi, Adap.tv ($13M Series B, 9/23/08)

Frank Barbieri, Transpera ($8.25M Series B, 11/13/08)

Alex Blum, KickApps ($14M Series C, 11/25/08)

Dean Denhart, BlackArrow ($20M Series B, 10/6/08)

Keith Kocho, ExtendMedia ($10M Series C, 12/2/08)

Steve Rosenbaum, Magnify.net ($750K Series A1, 11/21/08)

Ben Weinberger, Digitalsmiths ($12M Series B, 11/13/08)

While there were some common themes in their answers (many of which echoed the usual fundraising maxims), there was plenty of variety and a few outliers. Space constraints didn’t allow for Richmond to share all of their specific answers, but he tried his best to summarize the common themes and highlight key nuggets of wisdom below.

1. What are the key success factors for raising money given the difficult economic climate?

The answers that dominated were all around revenue, profitability and cash flow. All the CEOs mentioned, in one way or another, that being able to demonstrate real revenue growth and momentum is essential. Some noted that in the past traffic or usage may have been sufficient, but now the “premium is on paying customers,” and how get to profitability and cash flow breakeven using reasonable assumptions. Several mentioned that investors are as risk averse as ever, which of course comes as no surprise. They want to see concrete, well-thought-out plans.

Investors have also become more sophisticated about the whole broadband video sector and expect entrepreneurs to be able to explain where they fit into the ecosystem and what their points of differentiation are. Importantly, they are looking for proven models (unfortunately an oxymoron for a pure start-up), or at least some minimal history of success that goes “beyond PPT slideware.”

A couple of CEOs noted that investors have shifted from asking “how fast can you scale?” to “how will you get through this crisis?” They no longer expect a quick exit. They are looking for a real plan that includes contingency tactics if, for example, competitors do something desperate like cut their prices in half.

2. What are the biggest challenges?

The prevailing theme here was uncertainty, starting with investors’ own business models. They’re focused on how much of their funds to hold in reserve to shore up existing portfolio companies. They’re trying to gauge their own limited partners’ appetite for venture investing given the credit squeeze. Then of course they’re trying to understand the impact of broadband market drivers like ad spending and user adoption. One CEO lamented the difficulty of persuading people to put new money to work on the very day the stock market’s dropping by 500 points. Still another noted that all of this can lead to a “self-fulfilling prophecy” where everything freezes and missed opportunities abound.

With respect to the broadband market specifically, one CEO said the key challenge is showing how “you monetize video for your clients.” Absent that, “it will not only be hard to raise money, but harder still for your client to spend money with you.”

Another said that the level of scrutiny has gotten so high that it’s not even worth talking to any investor that doesn’t have its own track record of investing in the broadband video sector. It’s just too hard to educate people in this environment. Another CEO added that your model needs to be “brilliant and bulletproof, with an A-level management team already in place.” Boy, there’s a steep hurdle to clear.

3. Is there any specific advice you’d offer to those trying to raise money these days?

Many of the answers to this question reflected fundraising basics: understand your business thoroughly, put a balanced team in place, seek out investors you know first, have a solid plan, and bootstrap as much as possible first.

With respect to raising money in the current lousy market, there was a broad range of sentiment. One CEO said “Don’t…the terms are going to suck,” while another said to be “incredibly realistic about how much to raise, your burn rate and valuation.” On the more optimistic end of the spectrum, one said “The market’s poor performance means that investors are looking for new opportunities. Ignore all the negative energy and naysayers.” And another remarked that “Even during the tech disaster of 2001-2003, angel investors, VCs and tech behemoths were still putting money to work in promising sectors.” Another heavily emphasized the value of loyal and supportive existing investors (if there are any) in helping making the case to new investors.

More tactically, one CEO said that the more you “minimize uncertainty that surrounds your business specifically, the better off you’ll be.” Another said to make the transaction as simple as possible, and to “get the big items off the table first.” Still another said to demonstrate “you’re indispensable to customers, helping them weather the downturn.” Finally, one cautioned to be ready to take a lot more meetings than usual and expect a lot deeper follow-up: “it may require you to go well beyond investors in your backyard to find the right fit.”

Hopefully some of this is helpful to those of you trying to raise money right now, or thinking about doing so in the near future. Broadband video remains one of the hottest sectors out there; even still, if you’re not getting a lot of love right now, you’re not alone.

Will Richmond, a 20-year veteran of the broadband, cable TV, content and technology industries, will be facilitating NATPE’s Digital Briefings during the upcoming NATPE 2009 Market & Conference. The Digital Briefings, held Tuesday and Wednesday in the Theatre on the floor in the NATPE exhibition area, will feature executives who are on the front lines leading their companies into the digital and broadband age. Top decision-makers from technology and new media companies participating in the Briefings include

Steve Cooperman, product line business manager – P2 HD Systems, Panasonic Broadcast and Television Systems; Adobe’s Nick Hippe; Katrina Wood, founder and CEO, MediaXchange Ltd; Theodore Garcia, strategy and advisory lead, media & entertainment, Capgemini Americas; Shari Barnett, director, marketing, Microsoft; James Semenak, principal industry consultant, Teradata Corporation; James Rooke, strategy & business transformation lead, Capgemini; Cathy Hetzel, president, advanced media and information (AMI) division, Rentrak Corporation; Eric Bruce, research director, WSB-TV; George Winslow, contributing editor, HD Update; Douglas A. Lee, EVP, worldwide digital media, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc.; Maryann Baldwin, VP, Frank N. Magid Associates; and Kirk Kopic, president, Vimation.

Hollywood is stepping up its efforts to create original online series, but is the studio system capable of coming up with a hit Internet format, and just how do you judge success in this medium? C21 Media.net’s Jonathan Webdale, in a story filed on October 31, asks Can digital Hollywood deliver?

Sorority Forever (left) debuted on MySpaceTV in September, the latest among a rapidly lengthening roll-call of online shows emerging from Hollywood’s studio system in a bid to crack the dark art of Internet entertainment.

If a couple of guys in a garage can create a phenomenon like Lonelygirl15, then surely the collective talents of Tinseltown can come up with something better.

Well maybe, but Sorority is playing it safe, drawing on the popularity of LG15 lead Jessica Rose and the coproduction skills of Big Fantastic, the outfit behind web series Sam Has 7 Friends and the Michael Eisner-backed Prom Queen.

Sorority comes out of Warner Bros. Studio 2.0, the division the company set up two years ago to tackle perhaps the greatest challenge facing Hollywood right now: how to come to grips with a medium that’s threatening its existence.

Can Jessica Rose really come to the rescue? At the time of this writing – 18 episodes into the series’ 40-installment run – MySpace was clocking up reasonable numbers, between 50,000 and 200,000 for each.

It’s not clear how the show’s performing on TheWB.com (left), Warner Bros.’ broadband revival of its one-time TV network, but either way, Sorority still doesn’t look like the breakaway hit Hollywood’s holding out for.

If only the web weren’t there at all. Life would be so much easier. People would stay glued to their TV screens and continue to consume the multimillion-dollar-per-episode dramas and sitcoms the studios have traded in for decades.

The Internet isn’t exactly blowing all that away, but it is exerting considerable pressure on the status quo. The plot Hollywood is having to figure out is how to take its big-budget genius and apply it to an environment that plays by an entirely different set of rules, if indeed there are any rules at all.

The trouble is, no one’s written a script like this before. But at a time when TV advertising is purportedly in decline and viewers are spending more and more time online, it’s critical that someone come up with a working draft soon.

Gemini Division (left) is NBC Universal’s (NBCU) first attempt, a 50-episode online sci-fi series that kicked off in August. The plot is unmistakably a Hollywood product, and so is its star, Rosario Dawson, who first sprang to fame in Sin City as a machine-gun-toting, fishnet-stocking-wearing hooker.

When NBCU announced Gemini in April it came with the news that it was setting up a new digital studio. But in truth the Peacock trumpeted the creation of the same operation back in the autumn of 2005. If the aim this time around was to erase all memories of series such as Junior Year Abroad and About Face, it really didn’t need to bother.

What is different now is that NBCU has to some extent honed its business model, partnering with Omnicom Media Group to try to bring in the agency’s clients at the earliest stages of potential projects.

“We’re lining up advertisers and brands before we move forward into production, which is a little different from how other folk are looking at this,” says Cameron Death (left), VP at NBCU Digital Studio.

“We have a first-look deal where we’re providing Omnicom with a look at our slate prior to other agencies and they’re pulling us in early and giving us a look at some of the brand plans and briefings that are occurring with them. Advertisers and brands are critical to us and the studio’s success.”

Gemini has been entirely funded by advertising, although Microsoft, Cisco, Intel, Acura and UPS were wooed by Creative Artists Agency before NBCU was named U.S. distribution partner.

The show actually comes from Electric Farm Entertainment and is co-owned by Sony Pictures Television International (SPTI). The two collaborated last year on Afterworld (below), Sony’s first foray into original digital – a futuristic multiplatform animated series for which Dawson provided a voice-over, and which has sold globally since its debut in the U.S. on Anheuser-Busch’s ill-fated Bud.tv.

“It was a property that defined us as a group because we’ve always been a traditional TV company and through the success of Afterworld I was able to bring in a mobile and digital team,” says Marie Jacobson, SPTI’s executive VP of programming and production. “That’s really spawned what we’re now setting out to do, which is create a full suite of original proprietary digital projects.”

Jacobson says the experience of Afterworld taught Sony some important lessons that it’s carried through to Gemini, the first international sale of which has been sealed in Australia, where Afterworld aired to great success on Sci Fi Channel.

In the pipeline is Woke Up Dead, an online zombie comedy with Napoleon Dynamite star Jon Heder, which also comes from Electric Farm – a firm set up by veteran Hollywood producers Stan Rogow, Brent Friedman and Jeff Sagansky. NBCU has again claimed U.S. distribution.

Jacobson (left) says the series will debut early next year and that Sony has another six projects in the works, three of which it will look to launch next spring. “We’re definitely spending seven figures on development but we’re not being silly. We’re investing very tactically.”

NBCU isn’t exclusively choosing original web productions that are entirely ad-funded and has nine shows in development, some of which it will fund and produce in-house, but it's actively pitching all to advertisers right now. Jacobson says Sony’s approach is less brand-centric.

“Advertising is critical to our success but I don’t think like a media planner, I think like a programmer and a development executive. Something that’s really important to me personally is that we apply the same creative standards to whatever we commission for the web, and it’s not dependent solely on whatever advertisers we have on board.”

NBCU’s Death says the Digital Studio’s attempts at weaving brands more deeply into its web series will not compromise their integrity. “I won’t put anything online that I wouldn’t feel comfortable putting on air or putting the Peacock logo on. We’re upping the game in terms of the level of production quality, the star power and the way we’re having brands interact with the content,” he says.

Over at CBS Interactive, director of web original content Jigar Thakarar has just presided over the launch of the company’s first two online shows. The first, an Ikea-sponsored comedy, stars … wait for it … Illeana Douglas, Jeff Goldblum, Tom Arnold, Craig Bierko, Kevin Pollack, Justine Bateman, Robert Patrick and Ed Begley Jr.

CBS acquired the show from SXM a few days after it debuted on YouTube, pulling it from the world’s biggest video-sharing site in favor of running the remaining episodes exclusively on TV.com, a business CBS picked up with its $1.8 billion summer acquisition of CNET Networks.

“It’s a little bit of a departure from our primary model, which is developing shows ourselves, taking them to sponsors, pre-funding them and then distributing them through our Audience Network,” says Thakarar, referring to CBS’s string of online distribution partners – AOL, MSN, Yahoo! and Bebo among them.

This model has been adhered to with the company’s second web series, a clip show about primetime TV called The Dial, which it’s also chosen to window on TV.com before considering a wider release. Created and funded in-house, the series is currently without a brand on board.

“We’re putting it up to test demand and we’re actively seeking out sponsors for it now,” says Thakarar. Several other projects are in the early stages and again, bringing in advertising partners from the outset is a crucial part of the equation.

“What we’re pitching to them is scripted, branded entertainment that they’re going to see and have input on. These ideas were generated with an advertiser in mind but it’s not going to be overt product placement to the extent that the story doesn’t come first. Although the brand is featured and is in some cases the star, the entertainment value is really what we try to focus on and strive for.”

Gauging success on the Internet is also something the studios are still very much trying to come to grips with. NBCU’s Death says it’s “an interesting philosophical discussion” the Digital Studio group has all the time.

“Would I turn down tens of millions of views on YouTube? No, not at all, but I think we need to change the conversation about what success looks like. What I look for is how engaged people are with my brand and how much time they are spending with it, and that’s a very different measure from just a raw view number.”

Indeed, if this barometer were applied to Squeegees (above), the first original series to come out of Disney-ABC digital studio Stage 9, it certainly wouldn’t qualify for hit status. Having shown promise, with its second episode racking up over 300,000 YouTube views, by the fifth installment the number had dropped to little more than 3,000.

Barry Jossen (below), ABC Studios executive VP of creative and Stage 9 general manager, says that such a narrow definition doesn’t do justice to the Handsome Donkey co-production, which debuted in February. “We think it’s been very successful. It premiered on ABC.com and YouTube, sponsored by Toyota. Following the initial launch we’ve expanded the distribution to a number of different sites. Mevio, Hulu, eBaum’s World are examples. When we aggregate all the views together, Squeegees is now at over 2.5 million views, which is a significant number for any original online video.”

A further mark of the series’ success, he says, is that Disney-ABC Television International has now sold it to MSN Europe, where it’s due to launch soon. “We have very high expectations it will perform well there too,” he says, and Stage 9 is already in post-production on Handsome Donkey’s next project, Decisions Decisions.

But hopes of having Stage 9’s second series – an ambitious sci-fi action thriller called Trenches – out by last spring were dashed, highlighting the challenges Hollywood studios are encountering with web content.

“It’s probably the largest production ever made for new media, loaded with visual effects and space battles. Due to the complication of the production and the cost structure we have, it took a long time to complete post-production, which has now finally happened. You’re going to see it this fall,” says Jossen.

“There’s a lot to be learned but there’s also the issue of building up enough inventory so that we can have regularity and frequency of releases. What’s been going on over the past six months has been a re-evaluation of our development and getting projects through the production process.”

Some are skeptical that any of the studios will succeed in original digital entertainment, partly due to the fact that their main motivation is rationalizing their businesses rather than innovation for innovation’s sake, and also because newcomers tend to succeed in new media.

“NBC and CBS didn’t make it in cable, Ted Turner and MTV Networks did – they were new brands on a new platform,” says Herb Scannell (left), chairman of Next New Networks, owner of a portfolio of Internet TV channels.

He should know. Prior to co-founding Next New in January last year, Scannell was vice-chairman of MTVN and president of Nickelodeon. Like former Disney CEO Michael Eisner with his digital media studio Vuguru, Scannell decided to step out of the Hollywood system and try to create web content from there.

Obama Girl (below), star of one of Next New’s channels, Barely Political, is probably the biggest success story to have emerged from these attempts. “She regularly gets 2 to 3 million views any time she makes a video. Barely Political last month had 42 million views,” says Scannell.

He gives short shrift to the Hollywood studios’ attempts to generate online hits by bringing in the likes of Rosario Dawson. “It’s a strategy that can work. Stars are stars and they are of every medium but I think stars are also born of a medium,” he says.

Disney’s Rossen is unfazed by such comments and admits great creativity can come from anywhere, but believes that the opportunity and the resources that the studio system provides mean it’s as good a place as anywhere for it to happen.

“What I can say with a lot of confidence is that the transcendent pop cultural hit from new media has not emerged yet. We’re pioneers now. There’s no path to success, no path to profitability, no path to longevity, so we’re all out here forging ahead, trying our own ideas to find that formula and establish an industry that will have durability.”

What the studios have learned so far:

Quality
It’s absolutely essential to have high-quality content, both in terms of production values and in execution. It needs strong storytelling and good performances.

Delivery
People want great, deep storytelling but they also want it fast. Asking them to wait six months for a narrative to play out in such an immediate medium is asking too much.

Awareness
Having proper marketing and promotion is crucial to make sure the audience knows where the content is and how to find it.

Ubiquity
Having distribution that enables the audience to access the content from multiple locations is very important.

Sponsorship
Since most content is available free but there is some cost involved in producing it, you must have sponsorship to drive the whole system.

Community
Video drives viewership and creates an audience, a community. Once that is formed it needs a place to congregate. Interactivity or social networking are helpful tools in building and maintaining the community.
C21Media.net’s daily news headlines are available in a brief Daily Programming E-mail Alert. To subscribe to the free service, register at http://www.c21media.net/my_account/new_account.asp.

C21Media.net’s Can digital Hollywood deliver?

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 21:56:42 +0100

Hollywood is stepping up its efforts to create original online series, but is the studio system capable of coming up with a hit Internet format, and just how do you judge success in this medium? C21 Media.net’s Jonathan Webdale, in a story filed on October 31, asks Can digital Hollywood deliver?

Sorority Forever (left) debuted on MySpaceTV in September, the latest among a rapidly lengthening roll-call of online shows emerging from Hollywood’s studio system in a bid to crack the dark art of Internet entertainment.

If a couple of guys in a garage can create a phenomenon like Lonelygirl15, then surely the collective talents of Tinseltown can come up with something better.

Well maybe, but Sorority is playing it safe, drawing on the popularity of LG15 lead Jessica Rose and the coproduction skills of Big Fantastic, the outfit behind web series Sam Has 7 Friends and the Michael Eisner-backed Prom Queen.

Sorority comes out of Warner Bros. Studio 2.0, the division the company set up two years ago to tackle perhaps the greatest challenge facing Hollywood right now: how to come to grips with a medium that’s threatening its existence.

Can Jessica Rose really come to the rescue? At the time of this writing – 18 episodes into the series’ 40-installment run – MySpace was clocking up reasonable numbers, between 50,000 and 200,000 for each.

It’s not clear how the show’s performing on TheWB.com (left), Warner Bros.’ broadband revival of its one-time TV network, but either way, Sorority still doesn’t look like the breakaway hit Hollywood’s holding out for.

If only the web weren’t there at all. Life would be so much easier. People would stay glued to their TV screens and continue to consume the multimillion-dollar-per-episode dramas and sitcoms the studios have traded in for decades.

The Internet isn’t exactly blowing all that away, but it is exerting considerable pressure on the status quo. The plot Hollywood is having to figure out is how to take its big-budget genius and apply it to an environment that plays by an entirely different set of rules, if indeed there are any rules at all.

The trouble is, no one’s written a script like this before. But at a time when TV advertising is purportedly in decline and viewers are spending more and more time online, it’s critical that someone come up with a working draft soon.

Gemini Division (left) is NBC Universal’s (NBCU) first attempt, a 50-episode online sci-fi series that kicked off in August. The plot is unmistakably a Hollywood product, and so is its star, Rosario Dawson, who first sprang to fame in Sin City as a machine-gun-toting, fishnet-stocking-wearing hooker.

When NBCU announced Gemini in April it came with the news that it was setting up a new digital studio. But in truth the Peacock trumpeted the creation of the same operation back in the autumn of 2005. If the aim this time around was to erase all memories of series such as Junior Year Abroad and About Face, it really didn’t need to bother.

What is different now is that NBCU has to some extent honed its business model, partnering with Omnicom Media Group to try to bring in the agency’s clients at the earliest stages of potential projects.

“We’re lining up advertisers and brands before we move forward into production, which is a little different from how other folk are looking at this,” says Cameron Death (left), VP at NBCU Digital Studio.

“We have a first-look deal where we’re providing Omnicom with a look at our slate prior to other agencies and they’re pulling us in early and giving us a look at some of the brand plans and briefings that are occurring with them. Advertisers and brands are critical to us and the studio’s success.”

Gemini has been entirely funded by advertising, although Microsoft, Cisco, Intel, Acura and UPS were wooed by Creative Artists Agency before NBCU was named U.S. distribution partner.

The show actually comes from Electric Farm Entertainment and is co-owned by Sony Pictures Television International (SPTI). The two collaborated last year on Afterworld (below), Sony’s first foray into original digital – a futuristic multiplatform animated series for which Dawson provided a voice-over, and which has sold globally since its debut in the U.S. on Anheuser-Busch’s ill-fated Bud.tv.

“It was a property that defined us as a group because we’ve always been a traditional TV company and through the success of Afterworld I was able to bring in a mobile and digital team,” says Marie Jacobson, SPTI’s executive VP of programming and production. “That’s really spawned what we’re now setting out to do, which is create a full suite of original proprietary digital projects.”

Jacobson says the experience of Afterworld taught Sony some important lessons that it’s carried through to Gemini, the first international sale of which has been sealed in Australia, where Afterworld aired to great success on Sci Fi Channel.

In the pipeline is Woke Up Dead, an online zombie comedy with Napoleon Dynamite star Jon Heder, which also comes from Electric Farm – a firm set up by veteran Hollywood producers Stan Rogow, Brent Friedman and Jeff Sagansky. NBCU has again claimed U.S. distribution.

Jacobson (left) says the series will debut early next year and that Sony has another six projects in the works, three of which it will look to launch next spring. “We’re definitely spending seven figures on development but we’re not being silly. We’re investing very tactically.”

NBCU isn’t exclusively choosing original web productions that are entirely ad-funded and has nine shows in development, some of which it will fund and produce in-house, but it's actively pitching all to advertisers right now. Jacobson says Sony’s approach is less brand-centric.

“Advertising is critical to our success but I don’t think like a media planner, I think like a programmer and a development executive. Something that’s really important to me personally is that we apply the same creative standards to whatever we commission for the web, and it’s not dependent solely on whatever advertisers we have on board.”

NBCU’s Death says the Digital Studio’s attempts at weaving brands more deeply into its web series will not compromise their integrity. “I won’t put anything online that I wouldn’t feel comfortable putting on air or putting the Peacock logo on. We’re upping the game in terms of the level of production quality, the star power and the way we’re having brands interact with the content,” he says.

Over at CBS Interactive, director of web original content Jigar Thakarar has just presided over the launch of the company’s first two online shows. The first, an Ikea-sponsored comedy, stars … wait for it … Illeana Douglas, Jeff Goldblum, Tom Arnold, Craig Bierko, Kevin Pollack, Justine Bateman, Robert Patrick and Ed Begley Jr.

CBS acquired the show from SXM a few days after it debuted on YouTube, pulling it from the world’s biggest video-sharing site in favor of running the remaining episodes exclusively on TV.com, a business CBS picked up with its $1.8 billion summer acquisition of CNET Networks.

“It’s a little bit of a departure from our primary model, which is developing shows ourselves, taking them to sponsors, pre-funding them and then distributing them through our Audience Network,” says Thakarar, referring to CBS’s string of online distribution partners – AOL, MSN, Yahoo! and Bebo among them.

This model has been adhered to with the company’s second web series, a clip show about primetime TV called The Dial, which it’s also chosen to window on TV.com before considering a wider release. Created and funded in-house, the series is currently without a brand on board.

“We’re putting it up to test demand and we’re actively seeking out sponsors for it now,” says Thakarar. Several other projects are in the early stages and again, bringing in advertising partners from the outset is a crucial part of the equation.

“What we’re pitching to them is scripted, branded entertainment that they’re going to see and have input on. These ideas were generated with an advertiser in mind but it’s not going to be overt product placement to the extent that the story doesn’t come first. Although the brand is featured and is in some cases the star, the entertainment value is really what we try to focus on and strive for.”

Gauging success on the Internet is also something the studios are still very much trying to come to grips with. NBCU’s Death says it’s “an interesting philosophical discussion” the Digital Studio group has all the time.

“Would I turn down tens of millions of views on YouTube? No, not at all, but I think we need to change the conversation about what success looks like. What I look for is how engaged people are with my brand and how much time they are spending with it, and that’s a very different measure from just a raw view number.”

Indeed, if this barometer were applied to Squeegees (above), the first original series to come out of Disney-ABC digital studio Stage 9, it certainly wouldn’t qualify for hit status. Having shown promise, with its second episode racking up over 300,000 YouTube views, by the fifth installment the number had dropped to little more than 3,000.

Barry Jossen (below), ABC Studios executive VP of creative and Stage 9 general manager, says that such a narrow definition doesn’t do justice to the Handsome Donkey co-production, which debuted in February. “We think it’s been very successful. It premiered on ABC.com and YouTube, sponsored by Toyota. Following the initial launch we’ve expanded the distribution to a number of different sites. Mevio, Hulu, eBaum’s World are examples. When we aggregate all the views together, Squeegees is now at over 2.5 million views, which is a significant number for any original online video.”

A further mark of the series’ success, he says, is that Disney-ABC Television International has now sold it to MSN Europe, where it’s due to launch soon. “We have very high expectations it will perform well there too,” he says, and Stage 9 is already in post-production on Handsome Donkey’s next project, Decisions Decisions.

But hopes of having Stage 9’s second series – an ambitious sci-fi action thriller called Trenches – out by last spring were dashed, highlighting the challenges Hollywood studios are encountering with web content.

“It’s probably the largest production ever made for new media, loaded with visual effects and space battles. Due to the complication of the production and the cost structure we have, it took a long time to complete post-production, which has now finally happened. You’re going to see it this fall,” says Jossen.

“There’s a lot to be learned but there’s also the issue of building up enough inventory so that we can have regularity and frequency of releases. What’s been going on over the past six months has been a re-evaluation of our development and getting projects through the production process.”

Some are skeptical that any of the studios will succeed in original digital entertainment, partly due to the fact that their main motivation is rationalizing their businesses rather than innovation for innovation’s sake, and also because newcomers tend to succeed in new media.

“NBC and CBS didn’t make it in cable, Ted Turner and MTV Networks did – they were new brands on a new platform,” says Herb Scannell (left), chairman of Next New Networks, owner of a portfolio of Internet TV channels.

He should know. Prior to co-founding Next New in January last year, Scannell was vice-chairman of MTVN and president of Nickelodeon. Like former Disney CEO Michael Eisner with his digital media studio Vuguru, Scannell decided to step out of the Hollywood system and try to create web content from there.

Obama Girl (below), star of one of Next New’s channels, Barely Political, is probably the biggest success story to have emerged from these attempts. “She regularly gets 2 to 3 million views any time she makes a video. Barely Political last month had 42 million views,” says Scannell.

He gives short shrift to the Hollywood studios’ attempts to generate online hits by bringing in the likes of Rosario Dawson. “It’s a strategy that can work. Stars are stars and they are of every medium but I think stars are also born of a medium,” he says.

Disney’s Rossen is unfazed by such comments and admits great creativity can come from anywhere, but believes that the opportunity and the resources that the studio system provides mean it’s as good a place as anywhere for it to happen.

“What I can say with a lot of confidence is that the transcendent pop cultural hit from new media has not emerged yet. We’re pioneers now. There’s no path to success, no path to profitability, no path to longevity, so we’re all out here forging ahead, trying our own ideas to find that formula and establish an industry that will have durability.”

What the studios have learned so far:

Quality
It’s absolutely essential to have high-quality content, both in terms of production values and in execution. It needs strong storytelling and good performances.

Delivery
People want great, deep storytelling but they also want it fast. Asking them to wait six months for a narrative to play out in such an immediate medium is asking too much.

Awareness
Having proper marketing and promotion is crucial to make sure the audience knows where the content is and how to find it.

Ubiquity
Having distribution that enables the audience to access the content from multiple locations is very important.

Sponsorship
Since most content is available free but there is some cost involved in producing it, you must have sponsorship to drive the whole system.

Community
Video drives viewership and creates an audience, a community. Once that is formed it needs a place to congregate. Interactivity or social networking are helpful tools in building and maintaining the community.
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NATPE VideoNuze’s Will Richmond says “Broadcasters Must Do More to Succeed with ...

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 17:51:12 +0100

Even before the recent economic crisis, broadcast networks were facing unprecedented challenges. An article in The Wall Street Journal, “Network Audience Keeps Eroding,” caught my attention as it highlighted the current season’s viewership shortfalls. The article pointed out that four of the five major broadcasters have suffered double-digit percentage declines in same-day primetime viewing among 18-49-year-olds as compared with a year ago.

To me, the overarching thematic challenge that broadcasters now face is how to successfully address the core 18-49-year-old audience. This group is important not only for traditional reasons relating to its appeal to advertisers, but also because it represents the leading edge of audience behaviors that will only accelerate in the future.

So what should broadcasters be doing? Here are three suggestions:

Broaden definition of programming and brand promise

Broadcasters must re-imagine what constitutes compelling visual entertainment. The traditional paradigm of 30- and 60-minute time blocks, scripted to accommodate preset advertising pods and programmed sequentially on specified evenings, is increasingly meaningless in an on-demand world. Programming should be looked at as anything that entertains the audience, on their terms, period. This is particularly relevant for 18-49-year-olds who arguably have the most entertainment alternatives.

Though it breaks with traditional success formulas, network executives should be excited by this, as it loosens creative constrictions. Further, it offers up the opportunity to expand a network’s “brand promise” to become positioned as a “wherever, however, whenever entertainment provider.” Going forward, networks should view themselves as being in the entertainment business, not just the TV business. This would also help bring advertisers along, as they too are suffering from diminished consumer access.

Embrace new distribution platforms and help drive new development

In the above vein, broadcasters must fully embrace new distribution platforms like broadband, mobile, VOD and DVR. Creating programming specifically for these platforms, suited for each one’s strengths and weaknesses, is essential. Simply repurposing TV shows for these platforms is insufficient to meet 18-49-year-olds’ entertainment appetites.

Further, broadcasters need to take a leadership role in how these new platforms evolve. It is not enough to accept what technology and service providers choose to prioritize and offer. Instead broadcasters must have their own roadmaps and requirements, and work actively to see that their needs are met. This is a new role for broadcasters and they need to learn to embrace it.

Focus on experience, not just ratings

Broadcasters need to look at their shows as the hub of an ongoing and immersive entertainment experience, not just a once-per-week interaction to be measured in ratings points. A network’s “customer relationship” is repeatedly put on hiatus between episodes (and worse, between seasons!), thus undermining the viewer’s loyalty and engagement. A friend recently lamented to me that NBC is offering just 14 new episodes of The Office this season. Realistically, what kind of customer relationship should NBC expect to have when so many other weeks of the year pass without offering a product to its customers?

Broadcasters have incredibly compelling assets that can be the basis for deeper audience engagement and experiences. Mining all the various interactive tools and capabilities that 18-49-year-olds already regularly engage with is crucial to bonding with audiences and creating excitement and ongoing loyalty. To be sure, some of this is already happening, but in perusing the networks’ websites it’s obvious there’s a lot more that can be done.

Final Thoughts

Broadcasters are getting squeezed by audience fragmentation, new technologies and the shift to on-demand consumption. The 18-49-year-old cohort is ground zero for networks to maintain their future health. What the networks choose to do, and how well they succeed at it, is surely a business school case study in the making.