Monday, May 22, 2006

Why the TV networks just don't get it

See. Here's what I'm talking about. People just have to stop and think about what they are doing once and a while and realize that a lot of it is outdated. No matter how many web portals or video on demand web deals the major tv networks put up, they still will sound like idiot dinosours when their to people say stuff like this:

"We are in the hit business," explains 20th Century Fox's Sharp. "You've got to make sure that once in a while you make a hit, otherwise you can actually go out of business in a couple of years."

That was from a Wired News article about tv pilots. According to the article, there are on average 100 pilots produced a year and of them, we the public get to see maybe 30% make it to the air. And we all know that of those, only a small few actually last more than a few episodes.

Here's a stupid question. Why not post the pilots that don't broadcast on the web somewhere? Why not create a whole alternate network of these long tail shows and see what catches on. How much would that cost? Relatively nothing. Give these producers a shot to grow an audience online.

The same goes for shows that critics and medium audiences love that don't catch on with the rest of the sheep in this country. (Sons and Daughters, Arrested Development, Enterprise, etc.). Move them to the web or direct DVD distribution. You can't tell me that they can't make a profit.

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