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Request for Startups: Kill Hollywood.

ycombinator.com

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Re: Request for Startups: Kill Hollywood.

#21

Post by AdamFernandez »

Yes! I was thinking the same thing. I'm hoping many more will come to this conclusion:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3490496

Artists are the key. Can we offer them something better than the existing system? The answer would suggest content production, but how is it funded initially? Is it crowd sourced? Do investors take on the initial risk? Do we make it easier for people to purchase subscriptions to the (new) content they enjoy while giving artists a much higher percentage of revenue?

Re: Request for Startups: Kill Hollywood.

#22

Post by InclinedPlane »

I find it utterly fascinating how under the radar a lot of the new media has been.

Only recently have some people begun to appreciate that Netflix has as many subscribers as many large cable companies, though I think it's still flirting with the popular consciousness so far. Meanwhile, there are many people making their living off of original content posted to youtube or elsewhere, and in some cases they are making 6 figure incomes.

The Guild, Penny-Arcade TV, vlogbrothers, Dr Horrible, etc, this is an incredibly rapidly growing phenomenon. Yet good luck finding a story about it in the traditional media, it might as well not exist.

Meanwhile, online comics are quickly upstaging print comics. There will come a day in the next few years when the aggregate revenue from web comics exceeds that from the traditional comic studios (DC, Marvel, etc.)

I wonder at what point these phenomena will start to penetrate the mainstream, when the average guy on the street will start to "get it".

Re: Request for Startups: Kill Hollywood.

#24

Post by pavel_lishin »

Typhon wrote: post #17
armandososa wrote: post #5

I hope whatever kills hollywood also kills distribution by regions. In the third world we are people too.

It's obvious that many new forms of entertainment will use the web as a medium which, barring dictatorships, is worldwide, so you don't have to worry about it, insofar as you have enough bandwidth.

[ This comment is unavailable in your region. ]

Re: Request for Startups: Kill Hollywood.

#25

Post by VikingCoder »

I honestly believe that technologies like Flatr will make this possible.

You have to lower the barriers to having people purchase content. There's a mental barrier which stops you from spending $1 to watch another episode of House. Even though you like House, and you'd like to watch another episode.

And for "free content," well, ads suck. Nobody likes ads. We don't like being forces to watch ads, before we watch content. People who buy ad space don't like you to be able to skip their ads. YouTube is trying to pitch "skippable ads". Still not close enough, I think.

If I watch Sherlock from the BBC and like it, I Flatr it. I think that model works. I'm not sure - but that's my hunch.

Humble Indie Bundle is another great example - but I don't think it works for broadcast video.

Re: Request for Startups: Kill Hollywood.

#26

Post by sounds »

cstross wrote: post #7

Hollywood and the MPAA isn't about making movies. Rather, it's about maintaining a distribution chokehold on mass produced popular entertainment. This in turn means controlling what goes into the pipeline, and how the output from the pipeline is delivered to the consumers, and how the MPPE is marketed -- for example, the whole star system, Oscars night hype, and so on. What is needed is a better distribution channel,…

By implication then is the next big distribution channel already technically feasible?

I think history makes it pretty clear someone will jump on it. It sounds like that someone will not be in the US or US-similar copyright regimes.

So what kind of business can capitalize on the new distribution model -- without running afoul of the DMCA etc.?

It would probably be helpful to megaupload's successor (that assumes megaupload was the next distribution channel) to have an ecosystem ready and crying out for it. It would keep the distribution channel stuffed with _legitimate_ content, thus increasing its odds of survival when it inevitably runs into US Federales.

Re: Request for Startups: Kill Hollywood.

#27

Post by socratic »

I agree that Hollywood is evil, however, is the argument that it has peaked really accurate? ("Hollywood is dying.")

This RFS doesn't really give any statistics (perhaps because it will be up for longer than those statistics will be current). That said, based on a few minutes of Google searching, the average American apparently watches 150 hours of TV per month, and every few years there is a new "biggest grossing film of all time." That doesn't necessarily constitute growth, but it hardly seems like the type of upheaval occurring in the recording industry.

Is this analysis incorrect?

Re: Request for Startups: Kill Hollywood.

#28

Post by tincholio »

Typhon wrote: post #17
armandososa wrote: post #5

I hope whatever kills hollywood also kills distribution by regions. In the third world we are people too.

It's obvious that many new forms of entertainment will use the web as a medium which, barring dictatorships, is worldwide, so you don't have to worry about it, insofar as you have enough bandwidth.

Right... go tell that to Hulu and Netflix. I'd do it myself, but it's not available on my region. And I'm not even in a 3rd world country! Go figure...

Re: Request for Startups: Kill Hollywood.

#29

Post by iamdann »

Free idea: Create an app that provides a TiVo-like experience to all web video. You could "record" channels from YouTube the same way you'd queue TED, or even Hulu+, Netflix, et all.

Your app would automatically pull new streaming episodes for you to watch and manage the same way people use DVRs on televisions.

If internet TV, and "television app" really are the next thing...if you build an amazing version of this now, you'll be set.

Not only that, but you'd encourage more people to produce content, since viewing it and following new episodes would all happen in one place.

Re: Request for Startups: Kill Hollywood.

#30

Post by tincholio »

diego wrote: post #13

This strikes me as a bit naïve. Hollywood can be seen as two different things: 1) An ecosystem of artists creating music, movies and TV shows. 2) A group of companies distributing and commercializing the output of the ecosystem. It's hard to say where one ends and the other one begins. YC, you may want to kill #2 but not #1. Or do you expect to fund "startups" that create TV shows, movies, or music? If so, start look…

Except the money for #1 comes from studios and production houses, who incidentally are the ones distributing the content as well.
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