Hollywood Reporter has a very weighty roundtable discussion between some very big TV names. I’ve done the trawling, so you don’t have to.
On what digital means to TV businesses: Gary Newman, co-president, 20th Century Fox TV, said digital enables studios, as well as networks, to have a direct relationship with audiences. The consensus is that until monetization is worked out, the biggest advantage and best value is in marketing. Angela Bromstad, president, NBC Universal TV, said eventually they will create original content for digital but for now it’s a great place for creators to experiment.
Evaluating which content ideas to take forward: James Erlicht, Sony Pictures TV president, said it’s about marketing again, and that valuable 18-34 demographic. The midrange plan is to use digital to monetize existing assets and as an incubator for new talent and voices outside the Hollywood system. Lionsgate TV president Kevin Beggs said it was tempting to propose streaming for all new cable deals, but said that if digital just becomes a standard part of the distribution package it potentially devalues the back end.
Using platforms like YouTube: Dana Walden, 20th Century Fox co-president said most talent still comes through traditional channels. Zack Van Amburg, Sony Pictures TV co-president, said a pilot for ‘Gay Robot’ wasn’t picked up, but they are building up a profile on MySpace and leaking clips in the hope that creates enough interest for a TV show.
Planning digital spin-offs from conception: No-one sounds totally committed. Walden said digital extensions come later when trying to build on brands. Van Amburg said it will happen more as Sony learns how to monetize this content, and Newman said 20th Century Fox was able to do this with “24: Conspiracy,” its first mobisode series for Europe audiences. Did that make money? “It was monetized it in the sense that we started a new platform that everyone will be monetizing in the future.” No, then. CBS Paramount Network TV president David Stapf said they have seen a lot of pitches for work on digital that aims to move to broadcast later, but the studio has yet to bite the bullet because it isn’t sure how to make it pay. Bromstad said it just has to be a great product that suits the web, citing The Office.
Measuring the impact of digital: Touchstone TV’s Mark Pedowitz said ABC’s streaming experiment had found that 87 percent of viewers remembered ads in video streams. Newman: “All of us are continually balancing the benefit of the additional exposure against the deterioration of our potential revenue. If a show breaks out and becomes a hit, you’ll probably see us shift more to protect the asset so there can be a revenue payoff down the road.” But with downloads available hours after shows are broadcast, syndication revenue is bound to be impacted.
This article originally appeared in MediaGuardian.
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