NATPE 2008: Eisner Says Internet Video Programming Still An Experiment
Low Cost Equipment And Discipline Key To Making A Little Money (Or At Least Not Losing A Lot)
By Linda Haugsted -- Multichannel News, 1/30/2008 10:08:00 AM
Everybody's interested in the Internet as the eventual platform for long-term scripted programming. All they have to figure out is who will make the content and how it will make money.
One of the current Internet investors, Michael Eisner, former head the The Walt Disney Co. and now founder of The Tornante Co. says jokingly, "In a decade, or five years, seven years, two decades, it will be the primary source of scripted television with maybe a replay on ABC."
At a NATPE panel on the perils on Internet TV, Eisner conceded there's no money in it now but that isn't stopping people from experimenting. In the executive's view all it will take is low-cost equipment, discipline and content creators that don't have three ex-wives and a beach house to support to create cost-effective programming. It can be done, he said, noting his company's Internet "hit," Prom Queen cost $2,300 and garnered 18 to 20 million viewers on destinations such as MySpace. But Eisner didn't say what his company made on that Internet content, though he did mention he's "in profit."
One of his next experiments will be an old media-new media hybrid. Eisner said he has a deal to create 50 two-minute episodes, a sort of prequel based on characters in a novel to be published on the 51st day of the content deal. The web content will be produced by the same creative team behind Prom Queen. He did not name the author, but said the deal is structured so his company will get $1 per book sold in excess of the average number of sales recorded by the author's last five titles.
He joked the deal will "probably be a disaster" but added, with the low cost of production, the deal probably won't cost him much money.
