Tag Archives: Transmedia

The Battle For The Living Room

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Apple TV vs. Google TV:  The Battle For The Living Room

There’s been a lot of hype and discussion with the futurist and media folks on what the future holds for our living room entertainment experience.

Who can deny the sheer power behind the possibility of Apple TV syncing with all of your other Apple products.

On the other side what happens to the entertainment experience when we can search for content (any kind of type of content YouTube, premium, on-the-street) anything, anytime, anywhere via Google TV.

In the eye of the optimistic futurist –  there are endless possibilities.

Mark Suster wrote an excellent piece on the future of the TV and the living room experience. This is a must-read for anyone interested in what’s in store for the business of entertainment and content. He brings up so many relevant topics and developments to keep an eye on. TV, film, accessibility, gaming, online video, niche content providers, etc.

The bottom line is that premium content isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. What’s also interesting is that while our entertainment experience in the living room will change – maybe it won’t change all that much. Mark Cuban recently wrote a spot on posting on the value of time and how it impacts internet video/TV battle.

 Cuban is right on with his points – noting that while the youth of today will pirate video content, spend time on YouTube and illegally download music their behavior will change due to their timing constraints and needs. Will that same person invest this much time in tracking and finding their entertainment content once the job, house, wife and kids come along? Doubtful. Extremely doubtful – just ask your married friends.

The bottom line: the entertainment pie will continue to get cut up in more ways than it has in the past but there is no clear winner yet in the race to control the living room entertainment experience. Will there be a winner within this fragmented media marketplace? Most likely, and as Mark Suster’s piece pointed out – there will be multiple winners. Only time will tell.

@MitchKapler

 

The Talent Owns The Building

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TALENT OWNING NETWORKS – A GROWING TREND

 

Seacrest, CAA and AEG are possibly partnering to start AXS cable channel.  What’s crazy is in this same article there are murmurs of Comcast purchasing AEG due to their portfolio of the some best arenas/stadiums in the world, in order to compete with Live Nation/Ticketmaster.   At this rate, we’ll have one music-live-event-tv-cable-premium content-set-top-box-ticket distributor to go to and we’ll just call it the ministry of live entertainment come 2015. 

 

All joking aside – what’s in it for Mr. Seacrest?

 

It’s no secret that Ryan has had a consummate show biz resume starting from his youth.  Idol and E! Entertainment exposure lead to overall deals, tv, radio, producer credits, first-looks, back-end participation – you name it – Ryan’s done it and has a reputation as one of the hardest working men in show business.  What is Seacrest’s rationale behind this latest strategic move?

 

The little known fact about the what makes the cable business go round are extreme affiliate fees.  It’s a $32B dollar a year business.  It’s why Oprah Winfrey is opting to hang up her hosting shoes and go into retirement off of Oprah Premium Programming.  Click on this link to learn more about the cable biz from the awesome VC, Bill Gurley.

 

When you are an Agent in Hollywood – you yearn to put together mega-deals like this CAA/Seacrest with AEG. These type of deals are headliners and they make both you and your client a lot of money – something CAA’s been good at for quite some time.  This is why Seacrest’s former agent, Adam Sher left to become President of Seacrest Productions in 2008.   It’s what a good agent should always be trying to accomplish.  Take a brand name  talent and connect to the proper business model.  See Oprah, Ashton, Ellen, Lady Gaga, Diddy, Paris Hilton, Kardashian and Lebron.  Vertically integrate the talent and those revenue streams!

 

Another example are the Jonas Bros (who are already a multi-million dollar a year biz) partnership with AOL in Cambio, which gives the talent from their label The Jonas Group a platform to control their message and brand to their core demographic.   Cambio is a web-site/platform that aims to be MTV-meets-online programming. 

 

For AOL, Cambio (Spanish for “change”) represents a move to more premium content as opposed to the creation of lower-cost niche sites aimed at various slices of tech aficionados, sports fans and women. The focus on “premium” content is also an extension of the plans AOL has been working on for its advertising business.’ 

 

Major talent partnering up with major companies is nothing new – been happening for years (See United Artists and Charlie Chaplin.)  Major talent partnering up with big media for ownership stake in the property is all about equity.   

 

As talent needs to sustain traction/exposure in the marketplace to demand a strong dollar so do major media brands. Its a safer bet for both teams – big media gives up some ownership but keeps talent happy and committed and talent becomes an owner instead of a hired gun.   As the battle for the consumer’s attention grows even more intense – entertainment brands – people and businesses will push hard to remind you who is the best at the premium entertainment experience. 

 

Mitchell Kapler

Storytelling Innovation

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WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Ron Howard and Brian Glazer are shepherding a new unprecedented storytelling project. The uber producers will use Universal Pictures infrastructure to tell Stephen’s King’s trilogy, The Dark Tower as a combination of films, television and even comic books.

By alternating the story between film and television – the storytellers can use different methods to engage the audience. Imagine using the television series to work in the incredible character development and the film to create incredible visuals.  They can change pace without being disjointed.  The key is that the material can support such an audacious move.  These incredible hefty literary properties will be the backbone of more innovative forms because of their depth and richness.

Of course, there are hurdles – the deal took months to complete and the actors are gonna be locked up for extended amounts of time but similar to Lord of the Rings – the overlaying production cycles will keep costs down and bring huge opportunity for financial success.

Adam Neuhaus

Mattelwood and Transmedia

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WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT -

Toys have long been thought of as the after effect of a franchise.  Its an additional revenue stream after TV and movies established the characters or its been a longstanding toy that is turned into a movie.  But in the new age of toy companies leveraging their assets in savvier ways – Mattel is revolutionizing their R+D process.  Instead of relying on Hollywood to drive the ship – Mattel is taking matters into their own hands.  They asked their developers for new toy ideas that can be turned into properties – took the top five and picked the best one.  By creating a new line of toys with its own back story and hiring  producer Neal Mortiz (Fast and the Furious), Mattel is taking control of their ‘transmedia’ options.  Transmedia being the ability to spinoff their product into every conceivable market. – play with, see, hear and eat.  Now they can control all parts of the process.  By exercising more control over the creative – Mattel will enjoy more equity and more financial responsibility for the product.