Mark Cuban is Wrong

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No, you have it wrong Robert

You dont consider the most important issue, economics of creating programming.

you say "
Simply put, since there are no time slots and distribution scarcity on the Internet, the whole process of programming will be democratized. Many shows that would have never have seen the light of day under the old system will now get their day in the sun."

you might want to do your homework. I promise you that there are multiple cable outlets that will take just about any programming if its free.

you make it, they show it. it may be 2am, 4am, whatever,but im sure they will even offer it from their website on demand. on the internet (whoopee !). Again , for free.

now how you pay for the production of the programming is a completely different issue.

The cable network will gladly give you half the ads and let you sell them. Or they will sell them for you and give you a percentage. Website and on the air.

In either case, unless you are spending far less than RocketBoom for production, you will end up going deeper and deeper in debt.

and as far as your fatbelly. Who is going to fund it all and take the risk ?

go to any downloadable content site. There are thousands upon thousands of shows, movies, videos, all produced hoping they would just capture back their costs. Few do.


The thing about the gatekeepers in hollywood, if they say yes, they pay you . Most if not all of your costs. then they commit to spend a lot of money promoting you.

If you do it and throw it out on the net, YOU pay for it. The producers who take that risk, particularly in todays internet, will have anything but a fat belly. In fact, they will be working as waiters hoping they get free meals so they dont starve.

The internet has been open and darwinian for years. The concept of producing content for the net and seeing if it works isnt new. its been tried over and over again. It continues to be tried.

magazines, newspapers, movies, serialized shows, you name it have spent nickels to tens of millions trying to figure out how to repetitively draw enough revenue to content to just pay for its production.

The only glimmer of success has come from very low end productions or big brand names producing complementary content into an existing revenue stream. Another way to describe those big brand names ... gatekeepers.

Look at jib jab. Perfect example of success. They put their stuff on the net. It exploded virally. What did they do ? they sold their production and creative skills off to the highest bidder. A gatekeeper. A network. And they were smart to do so.


You are right about the fact the net is very darwinian. Its so darwinian and open that the cost of attracting an audience for all but the few virally fortunate is out of reach.

You are also right that the networks may use the net to evaluate and get feedback on pilots. But the key word here is networks. They are the ones that can afford the 10s of millions of dollars per year to create 10,20,100 pilots to test. And if that much money is being spent on producing content, its business as usual.

in the end, it doesnt matter if the gatekeepers are TV networks or individuals on the net voting with their pocketbooks (by viewing ads or paying for content). The true darwinian battle is to create great content. While there will always be Jib Jab like exceptions, the reality is that the cost to product content that can compete will not be cheap.

Posted by: mcuban   Posted on: 05/03/06 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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