2 posts tagged “online distirubtion”

Variety put up an article last night on four online distributors:  iTunes, Amazon, Jaman and Indiflix.  Here's a highlight:

• iTunes has been recently making deals with smaller indie distributors such as New Video.  Their deals are with distributors unless you're a Sundancer, Joss Whedon, or NBC. 
  
• Amazon Unbox uses Createspace to let filmmakers upload their movies and sell downloads via Amazon.  Filmmakers get 50% royalties.
• Jaman offers 1/3 of revenues to self distributing filmmakers.  90% arthouse or international films.
• Indieflix offers 70% of revenues.  It's a one stop DIY shop and offers various forms of movie delivery including downloads and DVDs.  Nonexclusive arrangement.
  

Susan Ee
http://feraldream.com

Looks like the Internet video content race has a new lead.  I was rooting for a startup -- a real startup, not a child of a giant like Revver, who is Sony's child.  But Hulu opens to the public tomorrow.  Hulu is a joint venture between NBC Universal and Fox.  They have content from over 50 media companies including MGM and Sony.  They also have ads, probably lots of them.  Although I don't think they'll take over YouTube -- YouTube is a different animal in my opinion -- they'll dominate over all the other professional content sites.

Indie filmmakers and startup web video companies are like the democratic party right now.  We're so busy trying to get attention for ourselves and competing with each other that we're actually killing our own chances to put up a real fight against our biggest threat.  The Internet is our turf and we're losing the war.

The only real contender I've seen on our side is more of a potential contender.  Withoutabox was recently bought by IMDB which in turn is owned by Amazon.  Virtually every indie filmmaker who puts their film into festivals channels their content info through Withoutabox.  Although they haven't implemented the really cool stuff yet, it looks to me like they're headed there.  If Withoutabox can filter content via their partnership with the festivals, they could be THE indie provider and have an endless supply of good indie content.  Amazon could be the new cable industry of the Internet.  Amazon could be our champion.  They have the resources to make it happen... the problem is that they've been buying and partnering up with so many companies lately that I'm not at all sure they know what they have.  Withoutabox could be their (and our) golden goose.  Will somebody please tell them?  Have them give me a call and I'll set them straight.  :-)

Susan Ee
http://feraldream.com/