Tip of the hat to Kirk for the heads up: Hulu has had to restrict the availability of one of its top performing shows (and a personal favorite) It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia due to rights issues with FX, the show’s cable network. They’re going with a sunrise / sunset release, where the older episodes expire as new ones come online.

Ouch. (more…)

Please welcome Liz Lemon!!!

NBC debuted 30 Rock last Thursday to series-high ratings as 8.7 million viewers tuned in to watch Tina Fey and her cadre of witty quippers poke fun at their craft. What’s notable is that the show hit those record numbers after the same episode had been available online exclusively on Hulu and NBC.com for over a week. (more…)

I remember in my high school psychology class an assignment in which we had to write and present an essay that analyzed an author’s perspective on a certain moral theory. While my classmates vacillated between Kafka and Proust, I saw the opportunity to enlighten and impress by going off the beaten reading list. Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen was my favorite book. Watchmen had blown my mind the first (and every) time I’d read it. Its depiction of an alternative future dystopia where the ends justifies the means had a heavy quotient in my teenage development. The moral theme I focused on was Consequentialism. I don’t think I’d ever been so excited to tackle a school project. I banged out my report in a night and went to to class eager to illuminate the world. (more…)

Take an hour out of your life and watch this important video. It’s an excellent overview of the evolution of new media’s impact on human interaction. It highlights the role that YouTube is playing in the development of Fan Fiction (a somewhat inaccurate yet my current preferred euphemism for User Generated Content). If you’re short on time, skip to the conclusion at 45:15 and listen to Lawrence Lessig’s take on the cultural inflection point that we have communally reached due to the connectivity and access provided to us through digital distribution.

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Today, Safran Digital went public with the details of our partnership with Xbox. In particular, we’ve announced the directors for our slate of original web video pilots, which launch this fall to coincide with Xbox’s user-interface redesign.

The directors involved include James Wan (Saw, Death Sentence), David Slade (30 Days of Night, Hard Candy), James Gunn (Slither), Lucky McKee (May), Andrew Douglas (The Amityville Horror) and Marcus Nispel (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Friday the 13th).

I’m extremely proud of the filmmakers and their camps, the deal we’ve put together and what I believe it represents for the future of digital content economics. (more…)

Heard a familiar parable today and thought it applies nicely to the conundrum of web-video and digital disruption:

Two campers are relaxing around the fire, intoxicated from a long meal and lots of beer. All of a sudden, a young, hungry, bear appears. The two campers look at each other. It’s clear that they’re about to become bear food. The first camper starts to lace up his shoes. The second camper says: “what are you doing? You can’t outrun the bear!” to which the first camper responds: “No. But I can outrun you.” (more…)

My recent post “Economic Constipation and Digital Malnutrition” was an attempt to critically analyze Mark Cuban’s provocative May 4th post entitled “The Ala Carting of Video on the Net - Will it lead to disaster?”.

Incidentally, it was my most trafficked day and much to my surprise, I received a comment from one of my favorite bloggers, Hank Williams, who writes the influential whydoeseverythingsuck.com?”

Mark’s post has sparked a debate that has spilled over from the circle of web video bloggers into a broader conversation. Next week I’m in New York for the Advertising 2.0 event and plan to bring Mark’s position, and my rebuttal, to the panel on which I’m speaking. (more…)

Let’s make a bet.

I’ll bet that by the time you’re halfway through watching the below video your commercial instinct will suggest that what you’re watching is a piece of marketing material. I’ll also bet that you’re going to keeping watching until the video is over. It’s that good. (more…)

Anyone else notice that NBC.com’s traffic has taken a dive since Hulu launched?

I’ll bet the folks that run NBC.com did. In fact, they mention it, but Hulu represents a threat to NBC.com and all network vertical sites. But as we know, a threat is opportunity unspun, which might be why I found last week’s Ad Tech Keynote discussion with NBC’s Chief Digital Officer, George K. so interesting.

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Lew Henderson, who oversees the William Morris Agency’s digital business, is one of the most respected players in the digital entertainment business. And for good reason. He’s been making deals during every cycle of convergence fever: from the CD-ROM to Bubble 1.0 to the Dot Com Bust to Web 2.0 to Rise of the Social Nets to the M&A Frenzy of ‘05/’06 to Video Site Landgrab of ‘07 to today. That depth of experience translates to a sophisticated perspective of the ways things work. When Lew talks, I listen closely.

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