Prospect Park's Jeff Kwatinetz (pronounced KWAH-tin-ets) was featured in a New York Times piece on Wednesday. He believes the web is now a practical way to funnel traditional shows to viewers (including ALL MY CHILDREN and ONE LIFE TO LIVE). “Seeing the music business morph as it did allows me to see, perhaps earlier than some, what is happening to television,” Kwatinetz said. “A lot of the same mistakes are being made, and in that is opportunity.”
Kwatinetz thinks that television companies, like the record labels before them, are moving too slowly to embrace how viewers want to consume their content: with ease, everywhere. Networks have followed their customers online, but only to a point; the goal is to protect existing revenue streams at all costs.
If the popularity of streamed 30-minute and 60-minute shows on Netflix and Hulu is any indication, consumers are ready to move beyond using the Web for bite-size video, he said.
The Online Network is intended to be financed by Prospect Park, which Mr. Kwatinetz said was profitable, and outside partners. He does not yet have all of those investors lined up — he won’t say how much money he is seeking — but independent investment bankers who have been briefed on Mr. Kwatinetz’s plans said there was strong interest.Plans call for new episodes to be streamed on the web site and then made available on living room on-demand systems and, a few weeks later, on a traditional cable channel. Mr. Kwatinetz intends to make additional money by selling advertising and syndicating the shows to other Web sites like Hulu or Google.
So how does this latest bit of information make you feel? Are you more confident Prospect Park is going to pull off the transition? Feel the same? Anyone feel worse?
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