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Michael Eisner's Internet Play: Vuguru

With the premiere of Michael Eisner's second web series The All-For-Nots, here's a quick review of the new media world according to Eisner. His company's first series was Prom Queen. According the Eisner, it cost $3,000 per 90 second episode, was seen by 20 million people and made, "a couple thousand dollars." Though it had more shots of girls in bikinis than the original, Prom Queen's sequel, PQ: Summer Heat, was seen by fewer people and "lost money." Despite this (and his view that the writers strike was insane because "it [was] over a business and a marketplace that is not evolved enough to even know if there is a business or a marketplace there"), Eisner is determined to make Vuguru "the leader in high-quality, story driven content produced for new media platforms." He premiered The All-For-Nots with sponsorships from Chrysler and Expedia, distribution on Bebo and Verizon's V-CAST (not sure who paid who for what) and a simple strategy: produce cheap content that makes people laugh and cry. With little deference to Eisner's experience producing content that is professional, tear-jerking, and cheap, TechCrunch's Michael Arrington paid Eisner what must be high praise in Silicon Valley when he wrote that...

Hulu

With Hulu about to officially launch, here are some quick ways to get smart. First, check out the site when it debuts, probably some time this week. (If you can't wait, email me and I'll give you one of my ten "invites" to the beta.) The site has an elegant interface and high quality video. (I watched it in my office on a 24" Mac from six feet away. It was great. There just might be something to this TV on the Internet thing.) And though the programming selection seems scattershot - just 5 episodes of House, 9 episodes of The Office, the entire 39 episode first season of Alfred Hitchcock Presents but none of the second or third seasons - I can't be too critical of any site that lets me watch all of Arrested Development whenever, wherever and for free. Also see Fortune Magazine's fawning piece about the company, a joint venture between Fox and NBC, with a $100 million investment from a possibly crazy venture capital fund. The article, complete with photos of geeky programmers and laughing execs, reveals Hulu has spent $15 million so far, is run by a former Amazon executive Jason Kilar who brought...
 

Blog Posts

Letter From the Presidents - State of Negotiations


This was sent today by WGA Presidents Patric Verrone and Michael Winship to membership:

To Our Fellow Members,

While fully mindful of the continuing media blackout, we write you to address the rumors and reports that undoubtedly you have been hearing.

The facts: we are still in talks and do not yet have a contract. Whe… Continue

Posted by Brian Kalata on February 3rd, 2008 at 8:01pm — No Comments (Add)

The times they are a changing...

I have been talking to people on sets for the last couple of years about the changes in technology. I found it hard to believe that so many people who work in the entertainment industry where so uniformed about the state of technology. All The Majors have deals now with Apple, Microsoft and Netflix for direct delivery of content via the internet. These deals have been many months in the making - defiantly before the strike. I think they were hoping to push off any discussion of this for three… Continue

Posted by Brian Kalata on January 16th, 2008 at 11:11am — No Comments (Add)

Youtube - Writers Looking for Residuals in 2012

Posted by Brian Kalata on January 16th, 2008 at 11:10am — No Comments (Add)

WGA Signs Deal with The Weinstein Company

THE WEINSTEIN COMPANY AND THE WRITERS GUILD OF AMERICA ANNOUNCE INDEPENDENT AGREEMENT NEW YORK, NY and LOS ANGELES, CA – (January 11, 2008) – The Weinstein Company (TWC) and the Writers Guild of America (WGA) announced today that they have signed a comprehensive independent agreement. While the details are not being disclosed, the deal addresses the issues important to writers, including New Media. As a result of this agreement, Writers Guild members will now be able to work with The Weinstein… Continue

Posted by Brian Kalata on January 12th, 2008 at 1:37pm — No Comments (Add)

DGA Talks with AMPTP - Studios still being Weird - Symptoms of the times...

Things are not going as smoothly as many thought they would between the Directors Guild and the AMPTP. Many thought that the DGA would waltz in and strike a deal - n questions asked. I have been telling people that that is what the AMPTP thought would happen. But I also told them, I think the AMPTP is in for a surmise. The DGA has spent a lot of time and money studying the issue of internet revenue and they are not uninformed. And they are not up for giving away money. And there is money to be… Continue

Posted by Brian Kalata on January 10th, 2008 at 6:06pm — No Comments (Add)

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