Tag Archives: mass media

Advice For a Potential Client (creating new IP in the age of social mobile video)

Last week I had an extensive discussion with a large cable network who wants to launch a new franchise online. Ideally this new franchise would work in many markets across the world, playable in multiple languages. We had a long … Continue reading

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The Achilles Heel of the Cable Networks

In Betting Against the Cable Bundle, Emily Steel captures some of the fault lines that exist in today’s mass media ecosystem. A cable TV provider, Suddenlink Communications, is in a dispute with Viacom, the media conglomerate that owns several cable … Continue reading

Posted in Broadband, Cable, Distribution, Internet, Television | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Media and a Strong Culture of Experimentation

Sometimes you read something that says it all. A group of sentences that you wish you had come up with (but sadly did not).   Yesterday I came across one of those gems while reading an interview with Amy O’Leary, recently … Continue reading

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Will Hollywood learn from The Fault in Our Stars?

In June of 2012 I wrote Another Crack in the Mass Media Wall, a post that detailed how Lionsgate effectively used social media for the first time to get a huge opening weekend for The Hunger Games. It is worth … Continue reading

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Movie Piracy: Surprising Tips from a Hollywood Insider

My recent post, The Movie Studios: Blinded by Piracy, generated many public and private comments.  One very smart one came in an email from a highly placed executive within the movie and television business. He has allowed me to quote … Continue reading

Posted in Hollywood, Innovation | Tagged , , , , , , | 9 Comments

How Cable TV Invented Crowd Funding

We assume that crowd funding first appeared when Kickstarter launched five years ago. We may be wrong. You see, the cable television business invented crowd funding a long time ago, when they created the basic cable bundle. The basic cable … Continue reading

Posted in Cable, Distribution, Innovation, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Pay by the Size of the Screen? Not Likely

This was recently reported by Variety. “DreamWorks Animation chief Jeffrey Katzenberg thinks the windowing model of feature films will become a “pay by the inch you watch.” During the Entrepreneurial Leadership in the Corporate World panel at the Milken Global … Continue reading

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When (and Why) Did I Start Paying for CBS?

The broadcast TV business model has always been very simple.  Convince a large number of people to view your show at the same time and advertisers will pay a lot for the right to get their attention. This is how … Continue reading

Posted in Advertising, Cable, Distribution, Innovation, Internet, Television | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Will Half of TV Melt Away?

Television shows have always worked as a binding agent in American culture since they exploded onto the scene in the 1950’s.  Gathering around the tube to witness a live event or a popular show on the night when a new … Continue reading

Posted in Advertising, Cable, Distribution, Innovation | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 11 Comments

Old, New and “Really Old” Media

One of the challenges in grappling with our current media environment, where old style mass media and new style Internet media collide and call each other out, is understanding how it is changing.  Generally we try to see how it … Continue reading

Posted in Distribution, Hollywood, Innovation, Old Media, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment