The Reboot of Transmedia Content
Transmedia is a reboot of saying multi-platform media or IP, but now tied to a hopefully valuable piece of IP real estate. It’s like adding interactive curb appeal to your content property. A little viral interest or insurance doesn’t hurt…
Transmedia content is also “bite-sized, buy-in for consumers” or “low-cost lure,” i.e., it creates additional interest beyond the basic trailer and press materials while telling a story.
Check out what Saban Brands is doing in this space with $500M – basically, significant backing on IP that has been exhausted, and needs a refresh in terms of 360 degree merchandising.
Labels had their lunch eaten by digital, same is happening (incrementally) with media studios. So, labels are doing 360 merch, which studios like Disney, Summit (Twilight Saga, anyone?), Warner Bros (“Why So Serious”) and Paramount realize adds significantly to their bottom line growth. Read more >>
Foot in the Future: PwC Global Media & Entertainment Outlook
With the recession clearing in digital media, the case is being made via PricewaterhouseCoopers that traditional media will drink more from the digital well, and be forced to take risks with their models.
This redrawing of the traditional/digital value chain will not change the conversion rate of digital dimes to analog dollars overnight, but it accelerates the conversion or transition process, and forces studios to get a “foot in the future,” as Bob Iger said recently.
Via THR: The biggest challenge in running a company as big and varied as Disney is “to maintain the balance between heritage and innovation.” Also tough is to resist those folks who want the company to invest in assets that are not “core or that don’t enhance the brand.”
[Iger] ”We looked at digital media and believed that there was a migration there by consumers whether we were there or not,” he said. “We didn’t want to be marginalized. We have to be where the fish are. [...] We’re in business with a lot of important third parties — theater owners, big-box retailers, satellite providers, TV affiliates — and this was deemed threatening. That was difficult to manage. But I felt it was important to do.”
With PwC’s new outlook, that equates to a validation of the digital subscription and download models. In addition with Blu-Ray and gaming consoles, more digital distribution gives the home entertainment market a slight upward bounce with, we suggest, strong social media marketing drivers. Read more >>
The Fight Over Miramax
Harvey and Bob Weinstein want to buy back Miramax, their parents’ namesake film catalog which they sold to Disney during the Eisner years for $80M.
With Ron Burkle’s Yucaipa and Fortress Financial backing them, the Weinstein’s had entered into an April exclusive buy with Disney for $625M.
However, Disney is reportedly reopening the bidding, including the Gores’ Platinum Equity Group.
Via LAT: The Weinsteins and Burkle had been in exclusive negotiations with Disney after beating out two other bidders in April: investor brothers Alec and Tom Gores and an offshore entity organized by troubled financier David Bergstein and his partner, construction magnate Ron Tutor. It’s believed that Disney plans to approach the Gores about restarting talks. Read more >>
Saban Re-Brands Transmedia Brands with $500M in Capital
Just when you thought IP/patent libraries and protection only covered technology – with allusions to Nathan Myhrvold’s Intellectual Ventures and its patent aggregating history – Haim Saban’s capital group has jumped into the brand valuation business, and it’s a rather ingenious play.
With enough capital to carve out real brands and bring them to life via transmedia (i.e., across all media), Saban is creating value separate from the media/technology base that most look at for in IP.
His recent “Power Rangers” buy-back from Disney allows his team to reinvigorate brands that, in this case, Disney bought from Saban. Read more >>
The Ten Spot: Nov 7, 2009
Spielberg: Have Movies Will Travel…. Again? – BusinessWeek
Even before Steven Spielberg’s newly reformulated Dreamworks SKG makes its first film, his studio is moving for a third time – well, sort of. BusinessWeek has learned that the Dreamworks operation, headed by Spielberg and producing partner Stacey Snider, is moving the rights to show its movies on pay TV from Starz (LMDIA) to Showtime (CBS).
The Hot New Business Of Virtual Goods – SAI
NYT: Analysts estimate that virtual goods could bring in a billion dollars in the United States and around $5 billion worldwide this year — all for things that, aside from perhaps a few hours of work by an artist and a programmer, cost nothing to produce. “It’s a fantastic business,” said Jeremy Liew of Lightspeed Venture Partners, a venture capital firm that has invested $10 million in several virtual goods companies. “Because it’s digital, the marginal cost for every one you sell is zero, so you have 100 percent margins.”
FunnyorDie.com: ‘SNL’ for the online crowd – LAT
Since its launch, the site has transcended the initial hype of Ferrell and McKay’s debut video, “The Landlord” (with 66.7-million views and counting). Now it’s a fledgling new media studio with a CEO, a Silicon Valley office and a reported ($15-million investment. (Though the site is making money, it hasn’t turned a profit, according to those familiar with its finances. McKay calls it “our not-for-profit theater.”) For the legions of comic unknowns out there, the site offers another way to network and possibly get discovered. For the A-listers, it is a creative outlet, set apart from the conglomerates running entertainment, that may not earn them a dime but pays off with street cred on the comedy scene.) Read more >>
New Medici: Media “Ten Spot”
Deadline / #1 ‘Paranormal Activity’ Scares Away Weekend Rivals
[Nikki Finke] can report that, as it expands for next Halloween weekend, the studio is starting to think the thriller has a shot at $100M. Which would make this the most profitable pic in modern Paramount history. After all, the project was acquired for a mere $300K, and the studio spent under $10M total on prints and advertising, “so this will be the best return Paramount has ever had,” an insider tells me. Amazing, since Paramount had been playing the movie mostly at midnight shows and in just a 100 or so dates. Then again, the hype has been so successful — right down to the claim that Steven Spielberg screened it and returned it in a trash bag.
Circle of Eight tells the story of a young woman who moves into an historic building, The Dante, where she encounters an assortment of neighbors harboring a mysterious secret that unravels in a chain of deaths and supernatural interactions. Multiple levels of interactive content enhance the audience’s connection with Circle of Eight, including hidden clues, an online and mobile game, and exclusive material that can be unlocked through game play.
Viewers can tune into MySpace at www.myspace.com/circleof8 now to watch the first three episodes of the series. Following the online run on MySpace, Circle of Eight will be available for rent exclusively at participating BLOCKBUSTER® stores, as well as by mail and through BLOCKBUSTER On Demand®. The full-length film will have additional scenes and a surprise alternate ending.
FT.com / UK – Hollywood told to rewrite script
Mr Iger advocates a thorough re-examination of costs associated with marketing and film production. The solution, he said, required “research and development, risk-taking . . . real focus on changing the status quo”. Next month Disney plans to unveil Keychest, a new technology that will allow digital copies of films to be stored remotely and then viewed and moved across several platforms, such as smartphones, or games consoles such as Microsoft’s Xbox.
Yahoo! News / Disney CEO calls for rethink of movie model
Iger advocated a fundamental rethink of the costs associated with movie production and marketing. Disney’s movies studios, which account for about 15 percent of the media conglomerate’s revenue, suffered a 12 percent fall in sales in the quarter to June 27 and swung to an operating loss of $12 million.
Broadcasting & Cable / Rupert’s Main Man: Q&A With News Corp.’s Chase Carey
[Chase Carey] I think cable networks are a great business; they have a lot of room to grow. The areas that would be at the top of the list would be international, which is a place to which we bring a unique set of strengths. In some ways, the international market is uniquely appealing. You always want to be an opportunist with the content businesses. There are ways to really expand that content portfolio. If I look at our cable group, it’s not where I’d like it to be today. I look at Discovery, it’s a road map of where I’d like to be.
NYTimes / Eisner’s Web Video Studio, Vuguru, to Emerge With Backing
Bolstered by an investment from Rogers Communications, one of Canada’s largest media companies, the budding new-media mogul Michael Eisner is expanding his Web video studio.
Mr. Eisner [...] intended to increase production of the programming that he started financing two and a half years ago. Under a dozen series have been released by Vuguru to date, but he would like the company years from now to be producing 30 series a year. “The most important thing is volume, honestly,” he said. Mr. Eisner said he expected Vuguru to generate 10 to 12 series in 2010, gradually building up to the goal of 30 a year. Read more >>
Part I: The Curse of the Mogul
A must-read for followers of Big Media – or would it be High Media given the mogul personalities involved(?) – The Curse of the The Mogul delivers an academic treatment on how digital media is forcing the studio or communication mogul’s work to be more transparent and hence more competitive. It’s argued that in the past, the lure or image of Hollywood allowed more mogul leeway as running a studio, handing the creative industry, “managing a Jennifer Lopez,” etc. was harder to quantify. With digital both making the studio returns or numbers easier to read, public and shareable, creating transparency; and, lowering the cost of entry for new digital companies to immediately step into publishing, video and home entertainment, creating more competition, the mogul is more and more clearly “wearing the emperor’s clothes” in a quickly diminishing empire or moguldom. Read more >>
Disney/Marvel: Last of the Independent IP
Disney/Marvel Hybrids: When IP Worlds Collide
Bob (Iger) the Brand Builder, indeed. Who doesn’t love the new Mouse House under Bob Iger? With Pixar as the premium family + crossover adult animation brand acquisition to start (and building direct access to Apple which makes iTunes Video/Apps/Music more lucrative for its properties), followed by Marvel, a brand known originally for its comic books, which is now creating merchandising gold with Iron Man – not to mention the recent Guillermo Del Toro “Disney Double Dare You” line of films/merch, and ImageMovers … and Disneynature – Disney is “crossing genres” while building enormous brand reach in the entertainment marketplace.
Forget the licensing deals that Disney has to earn/work out with competing studios, the real driver is that Iger can start turning on merchandising for upcoming Marvel IP (intellectual property, e.g., the original characters) while cashing in on the current crop of merchandise.
And growing it – meaning every studio salivates at Disney’s ability to merchandise product (and not just Disney DVDs) and grow brand share.
So if Disney can extend the Spider-Man or Iron Man or X-Men brand merchandise, it’s a win-win for all parties until Marvel’s external deals terminate and the Mouse House can own it outright.
The lesson learned many decades ago with George Lucas and a little property called Star Wars is that merchandise rights are extremely valuable, especially as they help build continuity between film and franchise (e.g., sequel) releases.
In Marvel’s case, pre-Disney, they also move you away from a pure for-hire production company. Think of it as entertainment windowing being improved on by actually branding your properties to draw revenue year-round.
Now that Disney is on its acquisitions’ run again, expect the other studios to start trying to create value quickly on both internal IP catalog (Warner Bros’ Robinov taking more control of D.C. Comics) and looking for bargain basement IP acquisitions. We’ll list a few of the more interesting IP catalogs or filmmaker relationships that New Medici would scout after the jump… Read more >>
Weinsteins’ Media Makeover: Project Add-More-Runway
Via the NYT’s The Weinsteins Scramble to Regain a Golden Touch in Hollywood story, there’s more personality restructuring going on within the Weinstein Company: talk of the relatively new “newco” being stretched too thin in creating a “Barry Diller-style conglomerate” with the 2005 $1 billion in private equity from Goldman Sachs, which Joe Ravitch set up. Ravitch is now working with William Morris Endeavor. A few directors “made” by the Weinsteins, via Miramax/Disney days, impart that the guerilla-style of old, indie studio days needs to return. Kevin Smith, following “Zack and Miri Make a Porno,” suggests that the brothers succeeded when they were hungry, but now are “starving and desperate.” Harsh but perhaps realistic. Read more >>
Highest Paid CEOs, Disney’s Iger #3
Associated Press recently listed its highest-paid CEOs for 2008 list with only one media appointment: Bob Iger of The Walt Disney Company in 3rd place with $51.1 million. With the majority of the top 10 being finance and industrial-based, it’s interesting to see that media/content still has a hold on the environment. With ESPN’s continued growth, Pixar integration, Disney’s recent partnership with NBC/Fox’s Hulu, teen-star “Hannah Montana” and “High School Musical” talent factories, the start of DisneyNature and relatively strong film and tv revenues, not to mention the ongoing international expansion, Disney is running a very diversified content business in a market favoring global tech-based scalability. Alongside a News Corp/20th Century Fox model that slants toward print, news and politics, Disney has maintained a clean global brand while expanding in tech. And, although it’s a big compensation foothold in Iger’s case, it speaks to the power of entertainment and its role in innovating the US. If one of our bigger exports is entertainment, shouldn’t those who drive branded expansion be rewarded? After the jump, a breakdown of the other CEO list-makers and the New Medici “3Ways” to continue innovation… Read more >>
Dreamworks’ Reliance on Disney
Just in case you actually might have been living in Fantasyland for a portion of last month, and missed the news of the Disney/DreamWorks (with Reliance funding) deal here’s a recap, background info and a few innovation questions good measure. Walt Disney Studios will be marketing 6 DreamWorks live-action features per year. The Wall Street Journal has reported that Disney will earn at least an 8 percent fee off the box office gross of DreamWorks films, and would lend the studio $150 million. Read more >>