Posted on 04/28/2008 4:38:39 AM PDT by abb
Is there still money to be made from “Matlock”?
Within the last few months, television distributors have opened up their libraries of classic content online, making thousands of episodes of programs like “The Twilight Zone” and “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” available free.
On Monday, Warner Brothers is expected to add a new twist, announcing the rebirth of the WB broadcast network as an Internet destination and offering programs like “Everwood” online.
In putting old episodes online, broadcasters are tapping into the “long tail” of niche content that the Internet has monetized. While executives are reticent about the costs involved, and while syndicated and DVD sales remain dominant sources of revenue, the repurposing of long-dead shows is creating another new revenue stream for distributors.
The online re-creation of the WB — a network that disappeared in 2006 when it merged with UPN to become the CW — will represent another step in that direction. While Warner Brothers would not confirm the plans, preferring to wait until a press conference on Monday, Bruce Rosenblum, the president of the company’s television group, said in an interview last week that “premium ad-supported digital destinations that are demographic-specific” are a key part of its strategy going forward.
Advertising-supported TV streaming sites like Hulu, Veoh and Joost are forming a time tunnel to 50 years of television — to shows like “Bewitched” and “Seinfeld” (and even 26 episodes of the 1966 drama “The Time Tunnel”).
“We have all this library content, and we’ve been surprised at how much interest there is in it,” Jeff Zucker, the chief executive of NBC Universal, said recently. “Frankly, if there is one person interested it — and there are streaming costs so you have to make sure you’re covering that — we’ve found it’s a new opportunity.”
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(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Network evening newscasts will go dark after the '08 elections and their news divisions disbanded.
ping
related.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-workers28apr28,0,3440249,full.story
From the Los Angeles Times
TV crew members still feeling effects of writers strike
Many can’t find work with production down, and their bills are piling up. Some are facing foreclosure and bankruptcy.
By Richard Verrier
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
April 28, 2008
The writers strike ended two months ago. But many in Hollywood remain on the brink.
Some are at risk of losing their homes. Some can’t afford groceries. Others have filed for bankruptcy. Still others struggle to work enough hours to hold on to their health insurance.
Across Los Angeles, many crew members who work behind the scenes and on the sets of television shows and movies are still quaking from the temblor of the 100-day writers strike that shut down scripted TV production.
Blame the aftershocks. Networks have sharply curtailed the number of TV pilots this year, continuing a trend toward ordering fewer shows for the new season.
The shows that did return are filming 20% to 40% fewer episodes. And in Los Angeles County, location permits for sitcoms and dramas since the strike ended have plunged 51% and 35% from last year, respectively, according to FilmL.A., which handles film permits.
Although hard figures are not available, union officials say that thousands of crew members who normally would be busy at this time of year are still idled because of the sharp contraction in television production. Some union locals report a quarter of their members are sitting at home.
snip
My kids never watch modern TV, but they will spend hours together on the sofa watching The Twilight Zone, Star Trek, old detective shows, and other things I used to watch when I was a kid. I might be tempted to join them myself!
A “Dinosaur Union Death Watch™” is long overdue.
"There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission. If we wish to make it louder, we will bring up the volume. If we wish to make it softer, we will tune it to a whisper. We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical. We can roll the image, make it flutter. We can change the focus to a soft blur or sharpen it to crystal clarity. For the next hour, sit quietly and we will control all that you see and hear. We repeat, there is nothing wrong with your television set. You are about to participate in a great adventure. You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to... The Outer Limits. —"
Speaking of Star Trek, here’s a CBS site that streams all of the original cheesy Star Trek episodes- (video quality is excellent)
http://www.cbs.com/classics/star_trek/video/video.php
As a kid in the early fifties, “Tom Corbett Space Cadet” was my favorite.
Wow! The WB is returning online?
I knew that I was missing something in my life...
...that minstrel show frog with the top hat and cane.
ping
I used to like ‘Adventures in Paradise’ and ‘Naked City’
Ooooh, creepy! I only ended up seeing those later in life because unlike Twilite Zone, OL usually had a dark ending. Loved them though...I tell my daughters good fiction scares you with writing, not gore.
“Network evening newscasts will go dark after the ‘08 elections and their news divisions disbanded. “
And that’s a bad thing?
Thanks. My teenagers actually don’t seem to mind the cheesiness and lack of production values. They don’t miss sophisticated graphics, and they enjoy the old-fashioned stories in most of the shows from the sixties.
But they are shaken at the revelation that the hero of Star Trek is the same William Shatner who appears now in Boston Legal. But the William Shatner in Boston Legal is old and fat! What? Does that actually mean that everyone must get older? Why . . . why . . . if that’s true, then—horrors!—it implies that someday even they might get old and fat! Oh, no! They had planned to be young and gorgeous forever!
CBS is also making The Twighlight Zone, Hawaii Five-0, MacGyver and some of their newer dreck available on-line. I love the old Hawaii Five-0. As for the Star Trek, I bought that on DVD a long time ago.
You think Star Trek looks cheezy on a high quality computer stream, just wait until you see it on HD with a converting DVD player. I think they only had two stunt-guys for the whole series!
“A “Dinosaur Union Death Watch™” is long overdue.”
Amen!
The Freepers who cry croc tears for the demise of the MSM feel for the union thugs of the MSM industry.
As the various parts of the MSM fade away, their vile left wing unions will lose members and lose their power.
So that is a double win for our side.
That's really got to bring out the best of those 2X4s and cardboard sets too.
Thanks for the website Capital L small a Capital F small o small n small g.
Hey Abb I got both Wild Wild West in box set on DVD and Rockford files tell you one thing you could tell that 50 year old actor like James Garner kick a*** when he able to do his stunts I could see on my HD TV
And Robert Conrad
Yeah I think network news and TV show are today’s version of Fall of Roman Empire
1/23: “A Taste of Armageddon”
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