The networks miss the boat
I’m surprised that the strike-silenced TV networks didn’t have a plan B to call on all the new talent out there. I’m not suggesting that every YouTube video should become a prime-time show. But surely there’s a show that could be made out of the creativity of the public and in making such a show, a network would open itself up to new talent, whom it could commission to make new TV. And it’d be cool.
ABC made a show out of YouTube videos this summer, but it was more of the gotcha variety.
I’m thinking there could be a show made up of the entertaining videos people are making. Out of the millions of minutes on YouTube, Blip, etc., surely they could find 22 good ones, no? I’m prejudiced, but I’d start with Black20 (in which — full disclosure — I have an investment) and Mary Matthews and Liza Persky on 39 Second Single (with whom I worked on IdolCritic). But there are so many more. Ze Frank could be the emcee. Rocketboom could do the news. Who else would you nominate?
The network that does this finds cheap programming and new talent and tames that wild YouTube thing for its audience. I’m surprised this isn’t already in the can. Silly networks. Do they think TV can be made only their way?
Tags: Exploding_TV, strike
November 12th, 2007 at 3:11 pm
Well, the broadcast networks have tried a couple of time to do “clip” shows of YouTube stuff (albeit it really badly).
But I guess what my first reaction is to this is that arguing the networks can break a strike by using web talent seems to a misguided arguement.
Having seen some of the clips WGA writers are putting together during the strike, it’s clear that at least some of them understand how to entertain online as much as anyone else.
And I certainly agree that there are a lot of people working online who deserve some distribution through “traditional” channels.
I’m just not convinced that arguing “hey, these people write without a union” is the best arguement right now.
It’s not a matter of networks only thinking they can make TV their way. It’s a matter of respecting someone’s union. I know that’s an almost quaint arguement nowdays. But I think it’s the right one in this situation.
November 12th, 2007 at 3:14 pm
Jeff, that’s called “scab labor”.
Are you really suggesting it’d be great for the networks to use the “creativity of the public” as a union-busting tool? Please think through the implications there. If nothing else, it’d put aspiring video creators on the wrong side of every non-management social network in the whole industry.
November 12th, 2007 at 3:16 pm
[...] Jarvis argues that the networks should use programming produced for the web as a way to fill those increasingly empty network schedules during the writers [...]
November 12th, 2007 at 3:31 pm
People are trying to give themselves away on Craigslist, too…
Rather than the networks realizing that they don’t need the writers, I’d say a more likely scenario is the writers realizing they don’t need Big Media. I’ve written a couple of pieces about it on my blog.
November 12th, 2007 at 4:57 pm
Seth,
Not necessarily. New opportunities arise where there are voids. This is how other shows have started that didn’t use writers. What if a network started a new news show in a time slot rather than having reruns? What if they had a YouTube talent show (which is what I’m talking about)? Just because something fills the timeslot, that doesn’t mean it’s scab.
November 12th, 2007 at 8:25 pm
How specifically ironic to this strike for TV to be the place to see YouTube content.
November 12th, 2007 at 11:16 pm
Have to disagree with you on this one. If videos on the web were good enough to be on TV, they probably already would be. There are plenty of talent agencies and others from mainstream media already actively trolling the web for fresh talent.
My biggest problem with what you’re saying is the ease of transition with which you feel these shows can be moved to TV. I’m personally producing 4 web series right now, but have a background in Film/TV. In my mind we’re dealing with a new way to tell stories online, and if the show can transition so easily to TV, as you suggest, then the show does not really belong online in the first place.
This medium will not move forward or have a true breakout success until people stop treating it like the minor leagues of mainstream media and start writing/creating for this medium—which in my mind means either too interactive or too controversial for TV.
Maybe you should have invested in http://www.neovids.tv instead.
November 13th, 2007 at 12:54 am
Jeff, any way you slice it, it’s strike-breaking. Network production is affected by the writer’s strike - that’s the point of the strike. Turning to YouTube or similar would be a way of using the “public” (really, ambitious talent) as a replacement production system, which is union-busting. The purpose would be to replace the shows shut-down by strike Sure, it’s an “opportunit[y]” - that’s why there’s social pressure against people taking such “opportunities”!
November 13th, 2007 at 8:59 am
dislike term scab workers - prefer non union workers
network production was affected by upscaling to HighDef
union actors replaced by BuzzLightYear and Survivors
just ask Kodak
the silicon chip is disrupting everthing
yet I love it too … sure changed things around here
to fast tho
24 years a union Sheet Metal Worker and 22 years a non-union artist
overlaped
EVERYONE needs one good job
ps - anybody need a chemistry darkroom?
November 13th, 2007 at 4:07 pm
the big networks abc. cbs. nbc. fox are afraid of youtube people.
if some of the really good people on youtube get on tv they are just screwed.
the networks will screw the youtube people in being creative and with the money.
run away now youtube video people. run away fast.
November 18th, 2007 at 12:01 am
[...] are a lot more ins and outs on the writers’ strike than I think Jeff Jarvis realizes. He’s posted saying that networks should be using YouTube talent to fill the voids made by [...]
November 19th, 2007 at 7:46 am
No TV? No Prob - I Live In An On-Demand World…
What if the writer’s struck and nobody noticed? Or cared? What if they took matters into their own hands excised the studios from Hollywood’s economic equation?…