The strike poses an interesting challenge for television at a time where internet usage has surpassed TV viewing time in most homes. Users are already choosing online entertainment over TV, how many more will switch off their televisions when their favorite shows stop going to air? These eyeballs present a real opportunity for online content creators at all levels; from the VC funded video startups through to the DIY part timers. The trends in viewer numbers have all been headed online to this point, this strike could well accelerate this trend, particularly if it lasts over the long term.
I was thinking about this yesterday, and, of course, this was the subject of the very first post I wrote on BloodhoundBlog:
In a subsistence culture, the work of the mind is precious and literally unsupportable. We are by now so rich that millions of people can create intellectual resources that they give away, in turn to be remarketed by others…. If almost-as-good is free or nearly free, what is the market value of slightly-better?
As an irony supplement, some of the free content that will be created during this strike will have been created by the strikers.
Amendment: Like this:
There are natural barriers to wealth, such as scarcity and inaccessibility. There are man-made barriers to wealth, like walls and laws. And there are barriers to wealth that are co-factors of relative wealth and poverty.
In a condition of vast abundance, trying to build walls around popular media content is an effort doomed to failure. What the Writers Guild actually needs to advance its agenda is not a strike but a campaign to forbid the creation of cheesy entertainment without a license.
And now you understand the National Association of Realtors…
Technorati Tags: disintermediation, real estate, real estate marketing
Pat Kitano says:
Having spent some time in Hollywood, the cult of the writer is an A-list phenomenon as it is in the NBA or classical piano. The rest are all chasing that A-list dream. The strike, intended to lock down writers’ rights and scare away competition, will have the opposite effect as producers start actively filtering the masses for talent because producers are always on the lookout for a find.
November 5, 2007 — 9:32 pm
Greg Swann says:
> as producers start actively filtering the masses for talent because producers are always on the lookout for a find.
Much good may it do them. Final Cut Studio is $1,299. Everything that would be needed to make a new Swingers would run less than $5,000.
This post details the future of Hollywood.
November 5, 2007 — 10:34 pm