Commenting on recent news from Yahoo and an LA Times piece, Cynthia makes the point that “business models don’t transfer from an old medium to a new medium.” After following her link to Chris Gaither’s LA Times story, I thought I’d continue the discussion by excerpting a few items from Gaither’s piece that underscore Cynthia’s point and offer up partial answers to his question “What defines a hit on the Internet?”
In January, ABC canceled its new sitcom “Emily’s Reasons Why Not” after a single episode because only 6.3 million viewers tuned in. But Daniel Myrick — who produced the 1999 independent film “The Blair Witch Project” — says he would be thrilled if “The Strand,” an online series he is developing, would attract one-fortieth of those viewers. “If we had 150,000 people,” said Myrick, “then we could continue making episodes forever.”
NBC…plans this summer to launch “StarTomorrow,” an “American Idol”-like search for music talent. NBC plans to release video clips of 20 bands or singing groups each week for eight weeks, then let users winnow the field until a victor emerges. Executive producer Dave Broome said that because production costs on the show were one-fifth those of a network series, NBC probably would be more patient about letting the show find its audience.
Giather points out that new shows being developed by AOL, “will rely not only on video but also on e-mail and instant messaging to pull viewers into the plots.” And he quotes AOL programming head Jim Bankoff defining an online video “hit” based on “how engaging was the content and whether it takes on a life of its own.”
Gaither notes that, with the online ad market growing nicely, and with video ads accounting for only $225 million of the $12.9 billion in U.S. web ads last year, and lagging far behind the $60 billion pulled in by cable and local TV ads, “many top Hollywood producers are creating “webisodes” and other entertainment fare for…[online] distributors hop[ing] to cover their costs with advertising revenue.”
But Gaither also notes that “ad dollars aren’t the only way to recoup investments in Web programming.”
Amazon.com…is developing a TV-style talk show specifically for its website. “Amazon Fishbowl With Bill Maher” will be judged not by how many viewers it gets, but whether those viewers buy more books, CDs and DVDs.
He also cites a new web program being developed by Fox Interactive Media (FIM) based on its animated TV hit “Family Guy.”
The idea of the Web show…is to appeal to the largely young and computer-savvy fans of the TV show. To [FIM president Ross] Levinsohn, success will be measured not in number of viewers, but in how well the talk show promotes the “Family Guy” franchise. “We’re not looking to create a mega-hit,” Levinsohn said. “We’re looking to continue to extend that brand, to have a way to market and promote our core assets: the TV show and DVD business.”
Then there’s Yahoo’s “Keven Sites in the Hot Zone,” which Gaither says has had difficulty attracting sponsors “because of the controversial subject.”
That doesn’t mean Yahoo didn’t benefit. Even though only 5% to 7% of Yahoo News visitors watched Kevin Sites, they were much more active than other users, viewing 23% to 26% of all Yahoo News pages served up each month, according to Nielsen/NetRatings.
Mitch Shapiro at 6:06 PM|Comments(0)
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