|
"By the same logic, you shouldn't start a company because 90% will fail, you should start 10 or 15 to try and have a winner or two in your portfolio, right?" That's not at all the logic I was following, but interestingly enough, that's basically the VC portfolio strategy: counting on 1 company to earn 100x all the others combined. Spreading out the investment such that any one, or two, or ten can afford to fail so long as one wins big. Remarkably similar economics, in fact. It's how the TV networks have operated for so long. Networks aren't like founders; they're like VCs. The series creators are like the founders (sort of), the studios are like angel investors or accelerators, and the networks are like VCs. But that's beside the point. My logic is that a pilot is a lower-cost proof of concept of a series (and even a pilot is extremely expensive and often wasteful). If anything, production companies and studios (not networks) should be making them, and should be finding faster, cheaper, and more minimal ways to do so -- eventually rendering the necessity for a full-fledged pilot obsolete. There is no reason why Lean series development and product/market testing can't happen, especially if a company like Netflix is the buyer. To a certain extent, this is actually starting to happen. A lot of studios (again, not networks; let's be clear about that distinction) are pre-marketing and pre-releasing proof of concept videos and other materials before pitching them to networks and going down the tradition pilot path. "If Netflix can assess the content pre-pilot and then give the creators the money and space to tell their story, they don't need AMC or any of the old media, the creators will come to them." I never said Netflix needs AMC; in fact, I recall saying the exact opposite. Currently, FYI, Netflix is playing the "old media" game in going to, paying for (at a premium), and developing with the "content" marketplace in Hollywood. I don't think enough people quite grok that. As I said, this seems like a necessary step until such time as Netflix commands enough respect and power within that market to rewrite the rules and change the economics of distribution. |