September 23, 2007

Digital media needs to find its soap opera

HollywoodLaw250.jpg In a few weeks some the biggest names in Hollywood will get together with some of the most influential geeks in Silicon Valley to forge new alliances and - they hope -strike multi-billion-dollar deals to make silver-screen content for the smallest screens on the market - PCs, iPods and mobile phones. The Guardian reports.

"The invitation-only conference, set to take place in mid-November, is being put together by top Hollywood lawyer Kevin Morris, who just weeks ago brokered a groundbreaking profit-sharing deal for Matt Stone and Trey Parker, the creators of South Park.

Morris believes that the big Hollywood studios have totally failed to meet the challenges posed by the internet and believes urgent action is needed to ensure the entertainment industry does not lose any more ground. He says the big players make all the right noises about digital media, but when it comes down to execution they are clueless

Morris is keeping the guest list for his conference a secret, but it is expected that senior executives from Google, Apple, Amazon and Yahoo will be on it . Top studio executives from Hollywood, some of the biggest agents in the business and even executives from News Corp and GE are also likely to attend.

... Morris believes that, with his help in bringing talent to the table, the internet could be reaping twice or three times as much advertising revenue as it is currently doing.

'The soap opera and the variety show created popular television in the 1950s. After that, the advertising model changed dramatically and you had millions of dollars spent on TV advertising that you didn't have before. Digital media needs to find its soap opera - or whatever kind of show it takes - to bring in the big advertisers."

Image from Variety

emily | 8:51 AM | The threat to big Media | Add this this entry to your del.icio.us bookmarks. Digg This Technorati search results for this Entry
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