A group of expert panelists, recognizing that content licensing is evolving, expressed more concern over how to make money from the 700,000 hours of entertainment content that currently exists on the Web each day.
The group spoke today at EmediatainmentWorld, a three-day conclave of Hollywood and Internet insiders that began on Wednesday in Los Angeles.
The panelists had reason to be concerned about making money from online entertainment - they were all entertainment content creators. Moderated by Jeff Morris, president and CEO of Yack.com, the panel consisted of Johan Liedgren, founder, chairman and CEO of Honkworm International; David Gajda, CEO of Hollywood Software; and, David Gassman, a former talent agent who is now a programmer for Vidnet.
After identifying the four most common ways to make money from online Content - selling ads, sponsorship, subscription and e-commerce - panelists focused on the nature of Web-based content.
Yack.com's Morris foresaw large portals providing niche content. But Honkworm's Liedgren believes that cross-media operations that take Web content to film, and vice versa, offer moneymaking opportunities.
Liedgren predicted many studios will launch their entertainment products on the Internet before releasing them to television, because it is less expensive to produce content for online viewing. Thus, a show that does not look like it would be a success can be pulled before large sums of money are spent on it.
However, with the possible exception of "South Park," Liedgren knew of no Web-based content that has gone on to become successful in either television or motion pictures. The attributed the success of "The Blair Witch Project" and the most recent "Star Wars" offering to successful Internet marketing, but said they were not cases of profitable transitioning of content from new media to old media.
Hollywood Software's Gajda felt that there would be more opportunities to create online content as production costs continue to decrease. He said the ability to view more content would attract more viewers. He also believes that people will pay for specific content, such as on "how- to" sites, which can for example feature videos for fixing a leaky faucet or breast self-examinations for women.
Liedgren cautioned the panel's audience that the Internet is a different medium than television, and that he was not talking about taking TV to the PC. The Internet, he said, is the "new fast food industry for entertainment."
Morris wondered how the Internet, as a vehicle for entertainment distribution, would impact traditional distribution methods, particularly for video, where new content may be released as a first-run film and then progress through various less expensive pay-per-view "windows," until it eventually appears without charge on network TV. Each of these subsequent exposures provide a lot of money for content producers, he reminded the audience.
Gajda pointed out that there were about 10,000 different rights that can be defined and sold worldwide. Traditional entertainment companies, he said, want to retain as many of these rights as possible, whereas there is only one viable right to sell on the Internet: "Internet, worldwide."
Gajda questioned whether any right but the initial right to release on the Internet worldwide really matters, referring to a comment he attributed to "Star Wars" creator George Lucas. Lucas was said to have remarked that if he can make $1 billion in one weekend as the result of a spontaneous worldwide release of a movie, why should he care about ancillary rights?
Morris said that presently, the primary protection for online content distribution appears to be litigation, and he expects that content would soon be released worldwide in a global distribution model.
Another eMediatainmentWorld conference is scheduled for New York City In November.
Reported by Newsbytes.com, http://www.newsbytes.com