AFI BLOG: Media and Technology

Dozens are turning to venture capitalists, seeking to bypass Hollywood and reach viewers directly online.
Los Angeles Times
Dozens of striking film and TV writers are negotiating with venture capitalists to set up companies that would bypass the Hollywood studio system and reach consumers with video entertainment on the Web.
At least seven groups, composed of members of [...]

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Who Would Benefit From Writers Strike? The Portals? - paidContent.org

So thinks Doug Anmuth, the Internet analyst from Lehman Brothers, in his weekly Friday note. Among his points:
– Given that remaining TV inventory available in the “scatter” market is limited and reports suggest scatter ad rates which are 30%-40% above upfront rates, we believe advertisers [...]

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Starcom: Major TV Nets Set To Bring In $120 Million From Online Video - paidContent.org
Publicis Groupe media buying agency Starcom estimates that the four major TV networks stand to bring in about $120 million from online video ads this year, the FT reported. The TV nets have been notably reticent about the actual amount of [...]

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Forbes.com has some interesting views on the WGA strike against the networks and studios. Predictions notwithstanding, there’s some good legwork in this reporting.
A Hollywood Ending? - Forbes
What The Writers’ Strike Won’t Change - Forbes

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Webisodes of ‘Lost’: Model Deal for Writers? - The New York Times
On the picket lines, striking television and film writers adamantly claim that studios are refusing to pay for the use of writers’ scripts on the Internet.
But ABC Studios is doing just that. Over the next three months fans of the hit show “Lost” can [...]

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Over the coming three months, ABC.com will be streaming mini-webisodes of the hit show Lost that add more details to the plot and help fill in backstory. As the NYT reports, these episodes, dubbed “Lost: Missing Pieces”, were developed under a special agreement between the studio and the WGA that addresses many of the complaints [...]

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Back Channels Drive New Talks for Writers - The Wall Street Journal
The planned post-Thanksgiving resumption of contract talks between striking screenwriters and Hollywood studios offers a moment of hope in what has been a nasty work stoppage. But people in the industry caution that the prospects of quickly making a deal, and returning the entertainment [...]

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Online Show Quarterlife Gets Picked Up By NBC For Network Debut; Strike Workaround With WGA Possible — Paid Content.org
It is a bit of a co-incidence, but I was talking to a Portfolio reporter this morning about a story he was doing on how TV networks are trying develop original online shows, and in the middle [...]

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Time to rewrite their future - LA Times
Why don’t striking writers create original online programming that could bolster their cause and show the medium’s true potential?
LAST week in a CBS Studios picket line, one TV writer referred to the current WGA work stoppage as “the first Internet strike.” And there may be something to that.
Certainly [...]

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