Creative Development for Film: Tyler Perry

Introduction

If you adore success stories, get ready to fall in love with multi-hyphenated entertainment mogul Tyler Perry. His net worth for 2017 is estimated to be a whopping $600 million (Cunneff, 2016) which is a big stretch up from living in his car just 20 years ago (Perry, 2010). Tyler Perry’s studio, Tyler Perry Studios, is located in Atlanta, GA. The studio is home to over 400 employees. According to the industry, (Wikipedia , 2017), from his New York best seller, to his 17 feature films, Perry is a promising player as he has created a sense of diversity to his brand and businesses.

 

Business Model

CEO Tyler Perry does not have a MBA or fancy business degree. In fact, he dropped out of high school at the age of 16, (Perry, 2010). However, he is a business man like no other. Perry is a well-known writer-director-producer-actor-playwright-songwriter. Tyler Perry creates content. For his films, he most famously adapts his plays to transfer onto the big screen. He has successfully done this 14 times over the past few years.  For example, for his first feature length film, Diary of a Mad Black Woman (2005), he first wrote the play then used the money from the play to help fund the movie along with other investors. Tyler Perry creates the content and produces his movies at his studio or at on site locations with the help from the state of Georgia’s media department. For additional funds, he finds personal “private entertainment investors” to help fund his movies (Perry, Madea Goes to Jail, 2009).

Perry also has a special arm under Tyler Perry Studios, 34th Studio, that specializes in producing movies that are not comedies (Wikipedia , 2017). From this special studio, Perry has produced heart felt dramas such as, For Colored Girls (2014). 34th Studios is important because it stands as its own company. Tyler Perry’s productions are often funded through both 34th Studio and Tyler Perry Studios.

Partnerships

       Tyler Perry has mastered the area of content creation. However, he has yet to create a business unit that distributes that content. Lionsgate before he ended his deal with them in 2015 , acted as his sole US distributer, and the company often contributed as a production investor (Andreeva, 2017).

Revenue Model

Tyler Perry is all about the money. He is the writer, producer, stars in, and sometimes the director for most of his movies. He gets money off the front and the back end. He is considered an independent filmmaker, so his idea is to serve an underserved audience by producing low budget films with a target audience that he knows will come out to the theatres works for him. Anything he develops he often holds more than two credits. For example, it took roughly $13 million to make his hit film I Can Do Bad All By Myself (2009), but the film grossed in the US over $53.5 million in the box office. Another example would be Madea’s Family Reunion (2006), Perry was the writer, actor, producer, and director in this particular film that took $6 million to make, but ended up grossing over $63.7 million after 9 weeks in the box office. Like other creative developers, Perry has to pay his distributers, post production companies, actors and crew, but most of the money made comes back directly to him (IMDb, 2017).

Assets

Not only did Tyler Perry found his own production studio in 2005, but he also owns the rights to all of the content created there. That includes roughly over 850 television shows, and 17 movies. Not to mention the rights to 25 stage plays written by him (IMDb, 2017).

Perry owns the rights to a lot of creative content and intellectual properties. Some of his original work, and some he acquired through business affiliations such as: the romantic comedy Peebles (2014). He did not write or act in this particular film, however he owns the publishing rights because he produced this movie (Wikipedia , 2017). He owns a host of intellectual properties, and in 2009 he bought an island in the Bahamas.  More recently, he won a lawsuit in and now owns the trademark to the phrase, “What Would Jesus Do?” (O’Neal, 2014). He used this phrase throughout one of his books, that was on the best sellers list for 12 weeks straight.

Tyler and The Future

Strategic Plan

Georgia vs Hollywood

It is no secret that Atlanta is a growing market for Entertainment. Last year, Georgia outpaced California by shooting 17 more feature films in 2016 (Galuppo, 2017). Tyler Perry is a huge part of the Georgia market. His studios produce a big percent of the feature length films made there. Although he owns a home in California, his team is fully aware that Atlanta is the place to be. He recently closed a deal to expand his space by 330 more acres, as he bought an old military based to rebuild. With the new purchase, Tyler Perry Studios is projected to become one of the largest film studios in the US (Cunneff, 2016).

New Business Ventures

Viacom

Perry is making what seems like a full switch from film to television. Perry is scheduled to work with the conglomerate Viacom once his contract is done with Oprah Network (Andreeva, 2017). Tyler Perry is currently crushing his competition with his ability to create shows at a much faster space than other production studios. He is projected to revamp BET, and have at least 3 new shows on air by 2019 (Welch, 2016).

 

 

Andreeva, N. (2017, 07 14). Tyler Perry Inks Mega Film & Television Deal With Viacom . Retrieved from Deadline Hollywood : http://deadline.com/2017/07/tyler-perry-viacom-film-tv-deal-with-viacom-1202128622/

Black Enterprise . (2016, 06 18). Black Enterprise Wealth for Life. Retrieved from Black Enterprise : http://www.blackenterprise.com/career/case-study-how-tyler-perry-built-his-billion-dollar-brand/

BornRich.com. (2014). Tyler Perry Net Worth . Retrieved from BornRich: http://www.bornrich.com/tyler-perry.html

Cunneff, T. (2016, 11 01). CNBC METRO 20: AMERICA’S BEST PLACE STO START A BUSINESS . Retrieved from CNBC: https://www.cnbc.com/2016/11/01/atlanta-rivals-hollywood-to-become-major-film-mecca.html

Galuppo, M. (2017, 05 23). Feature Film Production in Georgia Outpaced California Last year . Retrieved from The Hollywood Reporter : http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/feature-film-production-georgia-outpaced-california-last-year-study-says-1006912

IMDb. (2017). Tyler Perry . Retrieved from IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1347153/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1

O’Neal, S. (2014, 07 03). Newswire: Tyler Perry now owns the trademark for “What Would Jesus Do”. Retrieved from AV News : https://news.avclub.com/tyler-perry-now-owns-the-trademark-for-what-would-jesu-1798269982

Perry, T. (2010). Oprah Talks to Tyler Perry . (O. Winfrey, Interviewer)

Tyler Perry Entertainment . (2017). Tyler Perry’s Story . Retrieved from Tyler Perry Official Website : http://tylerperry.com/tyler/story/

Welch, R. (2016, 05 23). 4 Pieces of Must-Know Casting News . Retrieved from Backstage : https://www.backstage.com/news/casting/4-pieces-must-know-casting-news-58273/

Wikipedia . (2017, 09 13). Tyler Perry . Retrieved from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyler_Perry#Mo.27_Money_Taxes

Wikipedia . (2017, 08 24). Tyler Perry Studios . Retrieved from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia .

 

 

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WAER Markets Public Radio to Syracuse Listeners

 

Photo Courtesy of WAER Twitter

COMPANY BIO

Mary Evans proudly unfolds the banner sitting beside her desk: WAER 88.3, “Your local NPR Station.” Focus, being the word local. And that’s what WAER is, the local NPR station for Syracuse since 1947. The station is licensed to the university, but is a public station. It airs many popular National Public Radio Programs.

ASSETS

Jennifer Weekes-Osada’s voice is heard outside the door and is conveniently called into Evan’s office when asked about WAER’s assets. Weekes-Osada, like Evans, a Development Director with a focus on corporate support comments on WAER’s technology first. The station has updated equipment, which allows for high quality output at 50 thousand watts. Second is its staff of 12, volunteers and SU student base that assists with sports programming. Third is WAER’s business sponsors, who, in addition to other donors, allow quality programming to be purchased along with local talent.

 BUSINESS MODEL

WAER’s demographics are currently listeners in age range of 35 to 65. According to NPR’s Public Media Audience Profiles, most are educated with 240% of listeners having a post-graduate degree. WAER acquires a majority of its programming from NPR. It also obtains programming from the British Broadcasting Corporation among others.

Weekes-Osada states that, according to her most recent numbers, WAER has a cumulative audience of about 36,000 weekly with a 2% share. It is noted that this does not include streaming, which Weekes-Osada said she would like to calculate and combine with WAER’s current numbers in the near future.

 REVENUE MODEL

WAER’s financing comes from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, grants, underwriting, membership fees, donations and Syracuse University.

It is an interesting time for radio: as stations grow, supposedly its audience dwindles. According to Nielsen in a report from “Media Daily News” on September 1st.

Nielsen brought six years worth of data to the table showing that the younger demographic tuning into radio (ages 6 to 24) have not changed since 2011 and though Nielsen’s methods are not made public, its confirms itself as a reliable source for ad revenue as most media companies have been using its data for years.

If this is the case and new listeners are added into the rotating fold of information seekers that donate towards the station, this revenue model may continue to be beneficial. Mind you, some tweaks may still have to be made in regards to content and distribution to appeal and reach more of Generation Z. Generation Z will be 40% of all listeners by 2020. The advantage terrestrial radio currently has is coming through one’s car stereo, but 75% of new cars will be outfitted with digital services in the next three years. Digital services also pay royalties, which record companies and artists prefer. Also, this is where listeners are finding new music and information. This, according to an August 2017 study by Larry Miller of NYU’s Steinhart Music Business Program.

MARKETING STRATEGY

 The above models pour into how the station is marketed.

When I wrote to Pamela Levine, President of Galaxy Events, she stated that she and her team organize booths for various radio stations in the area as well as other Syracuse events such as the Bacon Fest.

At WAER, Evans said that its marketing booths for events are all done internally. The main booth WAER sets up is for the Strawberry Festival in July. However, Evans noted that the time is not ideal as most of the students are gone and that’s the listener the station wants to attract more of. The students like college programming, including sports. The station allows young musicians to come into its state-of-the-art studio and put down studio-approved music to showcase on the airwaves. If students are listening to their friends they may stay to listen to more programming and in the future start donating.

Other ways WAER gains and maintains funding are through two fundraisers a year, usually done through live pitching. The one this fall will run October 14th to the 20th. The pitches usually run seven days on average and the station is adding one more this year in December.

Unfortunately, WAER is confused with competing stations from listeners that also carry NPR programs and so listeners will give money to competitors thinking that they financed WAER when they have not. Evans is working on clarifying WAER’s slogan that it is, in fact, a different station unlike one in Oswego that has a further reach.

The one show that will not be interrupted though is the Grateful Dead Hour. A program Evans thought dormant and made an announcement to pull until she got a huge pushback. Apparently the “dead heads” are more passive listeners, but there are many and it includes a significant amount of membership. She knows though with this particular group not to put pitches mid-program but do it rather at the beginning and the end of the broadcast, otherwise those listeners will tune out.

Another lesson learned was a duel format: news to start; jazz following and then back to news. It lost listeners and donations. When WAER went solely to the news format listeners picked up. Jazz got moved to their HD channel.

With the current state of politics and natural disasters, WAER is obtaining more listeners to get a balanced sense of the news, which the station prides itself in. Yes, there are a few extreme or cruel commenters who call in, but those comments are usually shut down rather quickly to keep the format of the station balanced for all listeners. Most write in and are communicated with behind the scenes.

Evans does admit it hired a separate marketing firm to come up with its logo and tag line, but everything else is done in-house holding true to its local branding.

She ended as its website begins in the About section, WAER states that it means to Enlighten, Engage and Entertain through multimedia experiences and everyday is proof that it does so.

WORKS CITED

Aswed, Jem (2017, August, 30) “Traditional Radio Faces Grim Future”. Variety. Retrieved from http://variety.com/2017/music/news/traditsional-radio-faces-a-grim-future-new-study-says-120

British Broadcasting Company Radio (2017) Retrieved October 10th, 2017 from BBC Radio: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio

Dade, Corey (2012, March 5). “4 Survival Strategies for Struggling Newspapers.” Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/2012/03/05/147956695/4-survival-strategies-for-struggling-newspapers2542681/

Dotinga, Randy (2005) “Radio Stations Nudge Oldies Format Off the Air.” Christian Science Monitor – https://www.csmonitsor.com/2005/0609/p11s02-ussc.html

Evans, Mary, Development Director, WAER, September 27th, 2017, interview.

Galaxy Communications Events (2017) Retrieved October 10th, 2017 from Galaxy Communications: http://galaxycommunications.homestead.com/Events.html

Galaxy Communications. (2017). Retrieved September 14, 2017 from the Galaxy Communications website: http://galaxycommunications.com/radiostations/102-1-sunny-102/

Galvin, Gaby (2017, October 10). 10 of the Deadliest Natural Disasters of 2017. US News and World Report, Retrieved from: https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/slideshows/10-of-the-deadliest-natural-disasters-of-2017

The Grateful Dead (2017) Retrieved October 10th, 2017 from The Grateful Dead official website: http://www.dead.net/

Levine, Pamela, President of Galaxy Events, September 26th, 2017, interview via email correspondence.

Muoio, Will (2017, June, 12). Strawberry Fields: Where To Pick Your Own in Central New York. Central New York Living, Retrieved from: http://www.syracuse.com/living/index.ssf/2017/06/strawberry_fields_where_to_pick_your_own_around_central_new_york.html

National Public Radio. (2017). Retrieved October 10, 2017 from NPR: http://www.npr.org/

National Public Radio. (2017). Retrieved October 8, 2017 from NPR: http://nationalpublicmedia.com/npr/audience/

SiriusXM. (2017) Retrieved September 28, 2017 from SiriusXM NPR: http://www.siriusxm.com/nprnow

Politico LLC (2017) Retrieved October 10th, 2017 from Politico: http://www.politico.com/politics

Sunny 102.1. (2017) Retrieved from http://sunnysyracuse.com/

Turnow, Joseph. (2017). Media Today: Mass Communication in a Converging World. 6th Edition. New York: Routledge.

WAER. (2017) Retrieved September 27th, 2017 from WAER: http://waer.org/about-us

WAER. (2017) Retrieved October 10th, 2017 from WAER Twitter: https://twitter.com/waer883?lang=en

Weekes-Osada, Jennifer, Development Director, Corporate Support, September 27th, interview

“Why Radio,” Radio Advertising Bureau, June 2015, http://www.rab.com/whyradio/Full-Fact_Sheet062415.pdf. Accessed November 6, 2015

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Branding is Big Business with Troika Media Group

Background

A jeep, a dinosaur, and an old Mexican woman walk into a bar…wait. Is that the setup for a bad joke or the inspiration for a sophisticated company? The latter. Troika Media Group, Inc., a dynamic brand and marketing collective, gained its roots from the Russian language, as the moniker troika means three. However, with artists and professionals from around the globe it was named after the 1997 science fiction novel, The Troika, by Stepan Chapman, an American author. The fantastical, award-winning science fiction novel features those odd characters as they trek across the desert “under the glare of three suns”.[1] This description aptly describes the work of this creative company: unexpected, bold and blindingly bright.

Humble Beginnings

Founded in 2001, Forbes describes it as “Hollywood’s leading integrated branding and marketing agency.”[2]  Troika’s headquarters are in Los Angeles. Day-to-day operations for the brand consultancy are run by Troika President Dan Pappalardo. After the tech boom at the end of the century, Pappalardo – alongside Chuck Carey and Mark Bohman –  left a senior post at Pittard when his livelihood was threatened; to start a new venture.

Troika employs 34 employees and regularly contracts with dozens of creative and technical professionals to bring its branding work to life. And for the last 15 years, it has been a force to be reckoned with in the big media brand arena.

Management

On September 19, 2017, Troika appointed new members to its Board of Directors. Jeffrey Schwartz, founder and principal of Digital Direct Ventures, now serves as Chairman of the Board of Troika. The organization hired Andy Hann as creative director in August, 2017. With more than 30 years of entertainment media and brand consumer experience, Hann previously developed award-winning for companies such as Budweiser, New York Fashion Week Sundance Film Festival, “The Academy Awards,” and Visa. Another recent key hire was Aaron Sapiro, formerly director of development for UCLA – Athletics. He joined the organization in March to serve in the role of new account manager to lead Troika’s burgeoning sports division.

Business Model

Troika touts the breadth and depth of a full-service creative agency. Its client roster is a who’s who of mega brands. Fond of its long-held partnerships with some of the world’s leading entertainment and sports media brands. It has worked with:

  • ABC Television
  • Amazon
  • CBS Sports
  • Cirque du Soleil
  • The CW
  • “Entertainment Tonight”
  • HLN
  • FOX
  • PBS
  • Turner Television
  • Starz
  • Sundance Institute
  • UFC
    [3]

Bread and Butter

The leaders at Troika seem to have a specialty in landing mega sports clients. Additionally, if you need a major rebranding effort, this team of professionals is your go-to agency for delivering a bold and distinct look. The winning results are illustrated by the two recent refresh efforts of Turner Television, and AT&T Sports Network logos as they rebranded ROOT Sports as AT&T SportsNet in several markets.

Importantly, Troika also performed a massive facelift for the CBS Sports brand. After using the previous logo for 35 years, CBS leaders wanted a more dynamic mark that used animation. The rebranding effort would include “a more iconic graphics package, bringing in a mixture of photography and animation to replace the purely animated ones used before.”[4]

“We worked with Troika and they gave us almost 100 different designs and we narrowed that down to five or six we liked, before narrowing it down to the new logo that we will be debuting during Super Bowl week. It’s clean, it’s modern looking but it also has the traces of the great tradition that it CBS Sports,”[5] said CBS Sports Chairman Sean McManus. 

Competition

Troika competes for entertainment branding business from entities like: HUGE, Ignition Creative, Media Arts Lab, and The Branding Farm in Los Angeles. In order to be nimble and meet the myriad needs of its clients, Troika pulled together a multi-faceted collaborative comprised of the following five sub-brands, as noted on www.Troika.tv:

  • Giant Spoon is a new kind of agency designed for the future of media.
  • Fugitives is an editorial boutique that combines creativity, refined sensibilities, and simple solutions to push the boundaries of post-production.
  • Syn is a full-service music studio comprised of four divisions: Syn Songs (licensing & publishing), Syn Studios (original music production), Syn Entertainment (event production), and Syn Create (creative services).
  • Thinkingbox is a small shop with a broad range of skill sets, delusional ambitions, and late-night ‘Entourage’ binge-watching.
  • Collectively orchestrates influencer marketing initiatives to generate engagement and awareness.

Revenue Model

In the cluttered brand development landscape, Troika is a stand out due to the strength of its reputation and who’s who roster of big entertainment clients with deep pockets. The organization works on retainer basis for some clients and hourly fee-based projects for others. Additionally, its “band of brothers” group of smaller entities, mentioned earlier, help the business to thrive by servicing a variety of clients – in size and scope – even though its revenue model generally is essentially the same. The fact that Troika is able to provide different types of marketing solutions is their best weapon against downturns in the business and aggressive competition.

References

1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troika

2 Powell, C. (2015) Fashion, beauty partners say ‘yes’ to new W Network series. Marketing (Canada).

3 Staff Writer. (2016) Sean McManus’ Super Bowl Odyssey. Cynopsis Media.

Dachman, J. (2016) Sports Graphics Forum: Troika’s Gil Haslam Goes Inside CBS Sports’ Rebrand and Super Bowl 50 Graphics Sports Video Group News.

Koegel, M. (2007) Troika’s Triple Threat Branding. Studio Monthly.

Morales, J. (2016) Big Business Changes Future. Emmy Magazine.

Feloni, R, (2015) The 10 best logo changes of 2015. Business Insider.

(2017) AT&T Sports Networks Rebands ROOT Sports. Troika.tv.

http://www.troika.tv/about/

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How Clutchpoints is changing the game in online video preproduction

Youtube

Intro:

Although Clutchpoints is a startup venture that launched almost three years ago, the innovative news/media company has figured out how to make a unique breakthrough on today’s digital media landscape through video preproduction.

Background and Assets:

Clutchpoints (CP), founded by Nish Patel in December 2015, is a sports news website based in LA that produces social friendly content for its multimedia channels that total to about 20 million fans. Patel grew up a passionate fan of NBA culture, and he involves himself in many parts of the growing media entity that is CP. According to Dillon Reagan, Director of Partnerships for CP, the team consists of 10-15 full-time employees with some part-timers, and it is continually bringing in more full-time talent as the company grows. Additionally, Reagan noted the team owns the copyrights to ClutchPoints, Cavs Nation, as well as its Clutchpoints app’s algorithm. It also has a deal with USA TODAY Sports for photo content.

“We provide our products to all sports fans but primarily NBA and NFL on our social channels.” Reagan explained over conversation. “Our competitors range from Bleacher Report and ESPN to sites like Reddit, where a lot of our fans spend their time. The goal is to take those fans (from Facebook as well) and create our own platform that will enhance their experience as a sports fan.”

Business and Revenue Model:

According to Larry Elin, a professor at Syracuse University, “the biggest source of revenue for many [media] companies is advertising” (p. 2), and Patel recognizes this and, as a 24-year-old, channels his inner millennial mind, explaining how he utilizes his platform to give his audience what they desire.

“Millennials today want two things: Free content delivered right to them + not see any ads (use ad-block),” said Patel. “So that puts us media companies in a pickle in terms of how to monetize our viewers. Especially because the content isn’t cheap to produce at all and original content is even more expensive.”

When it comes to original content on CP, videos produced by rising sports talk personalities like Grady Rains and Da Kid Gowie take the main stage. CP partners with these guys in a mutualistic relationship where they independently pre-produce the content as CP shares it on its massive audience. These video creators gather facts and statistics from all major sporting events, puts them into an entertaining script format, and simply records the footage on the cameras in their smartphones. Because these video makers work on a freelance basis, they can create their own schedules, creating viral content when they feel necessary.

“If we’re going for comments we focus on hot takes and topics where there’s a lot of opposing views in terms of the content,” added Patel. “If it’s shares we’re looking for virality through emotion or parody.”

Videos are also produced in the simplest places, such as inside their own cars, apartments, etc, so scouting for location is an easy process. The carefree nature of sports entertainment allows certain flexibility in how and when content is generated.

Videos from CP typically engage fans of all NBA teams to like, share, or click through video content shared on social media, and Patel has kept a close eye on where the market is shifting in terms of what his viewers enjoy watching.

“At ClutchPoints, I’ve definitely noticed trends of higher performing :30 videos compared to 2-3 minute video campaigns,” Patel continued. “Depending on the way the video is produced, it is optimized for CTR (click-through rate), view, comments, etc.”

This trend Patel noticed follows the same findings the IAB Research Lab found in their case study presentation on digital video advertising. The study determined that 30 second ads had the “highest likelihood of being shared online,” (slide 7) among many other beneficial effects.

Additionally, Goodrich et al. noted how “longer advertisements were associated with lower feelings of intrusiveness, which positively affected brand attitude and purchase intention (good for advertisers) and site attitude or revisit intention (good for Web site owners)” (p. 48). Impressively, CP has found ways to make videos around 5 seconds long succeed in breaking through to their audience. A recent example is the “Share if you believe Lebron James will become the G.O.A.T” video posted near the end of August. This video raked in 3-7 times more views than most other videos shared on CP, and it is only 6 seconds long.

“The way we got 3-7 times was taking all fanbases into account,” Patel explained. “We not only focused on LeBron fans but we wanted our fans to have an emotional connection to the video graphic in general. We used hype (of him passing someone on the list), recognition (graphics of legends he passed) and text that prompted people to share and viralize the content.”

The Future:

Clearly, CP can adapt their video production skills to many forms and lengths, ensuring their audience is entertained. But as this industry changes, the way people consume sports media changes concurrently. According to some statistics in the “The State of Online Video” Powerpoint presentation, they say among 18-34 year olds, more than 66% of them view online videos together in the same setting, and this age group is very well CP’s target audience. Fortunately, CP prioritizes quality content when creating videos, so simultaneous viewing is enjoyable in all regards.

“For each video, we want to engage all our viewers, regardless of if they’re watching together,” Reagan noted. “If the quality of the content is high enough, the rest will take care of itself.”

As far as looking on the horizon, CP is a humble start up always looking for ideas in and outside the company. Every employee can make as big of an impact as they desire, and the young workers at CP always have open ears to advice on where the industry will move forward. When I mentioned Shaw and Frier’s article on Bloomberg that detailed Facebook’s plan to attract Youtube’s base users by allowing content creators to use copyright music in their videos, Patel was intrigued.

“Copyright with music is an obvious issue for us,” Patel said. “The more epic and relevant the music, is the more we can viralize the content. This will be very helpful in providing our fans with relevant hype music on top of highlights as trending news happens.”

Overall, CP will likely continue to grow as a news/media company. Although they primary gain revenue from advertising, Eytan Elbaz, an esteemed American entrepreneur, recently came on board as one of CP’s primary investors, so exciting opportunities are ahead. This allows CP to venture into pursuing other multimedia projects, such as producing more original content, an animated video series, and creating more brand synergy. CP hopes to remain on the path of growth they have been on these past few years, as the industry can be unpredictable and hard to pinpoint exactly what works in the preproduction process of videomaking.

References

Elin, L. (2015). Business models and revenue models in the U.S. media. Retrieve from Blackboard

Goodrich, K., Schiller, S. Z., & Galletta, D. (2015). Consumer reactions to intrusiveness of online-video advertisements. Journal of Advertising Research, 55(1), 37–50. https://doi.org/10.2501/JAR-55-1-037-050

Millward Brown & Dynamic Logic. (2008) IAB research case study on digital video advertising effectiveness. Interactive Advertising Bureau, Retrieved from https://www.iab.com/insights/iab-digital-video-ad-effectiveness-case-study/

Patel, N. (2017, September 11). Personal communication.

Reagan, D. (2017, September 1). Personal communication.

Shaw, L. & Frier, S. (2017). Facebook Offers Hundreds of Millions of Dollars for Music Rights. (2017, September 5). Bloomberg.Com. Retrieved from https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-09-05/facebook-said-to-offer-hundreds-of-millions-for-music-rights

The state of online video. Retrieved from http://www.comscore.com/Insights/Presentations-and-Whitepapers/2011/The-State-of-Online-Video

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Warner Bros. Distribution

Company Management

The Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. is one of Hollywood’s major production and distribution firms. Founded on April 4, 1923, the company began with four brothers; Albert, Sam, Harry and Jack. The brothers originally jump-started started their film business in 1903 while they moved around throughout Ohio and Pennsylvania. They bought about 200 films by 1908 and eventually showed Edwin S. Porter’s The Great Train Robbery, the first motion picture to tell a definite story.

The brothers then moved to California and premiered a full-scale picture named My Four Years in Germany in 1918. They eventually bought property at 5842 Sunset Boulevard for $25,000; this launched their West Coast Studios. According to the Warner Bros. website, the current employee population ranges anywhere from 5,000 to 10,000 per day in the North American area depending on the type of production and an additional 2,000 people overseas.

Kevin Tsujihara is the current chairman and executive officer for the company with many operating officers and divisional executives that work underneath him in the many branches of the company.

Assets

Warner Bros. Pictures is considered the forefront of the business making $4.93 billion in worldwide receipts. In 2016, some of its highest grossing films included The LEGO Batman Movie, Kong: Skull Island, and Wonder Woman (warnerbrothers.com). It also has Warner Bros. Pictures International and Warner Bros. Pictures Domestic Distribution. New Line Cinema is another Time Warner company that also drives a lot of revenue. It was founded in in 1967 and became a part of Warner Bros in 2008.

Warner Bros. Entertainment is another branch that was founded on October 25, 2005. It includes Warner Home Video, Warner Bros. Digital and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. Each one of these departments represented a different stage of distribution for films.

 

Warner Bros. Entertainment also owns DC Entertainment which was founded in 2009. It is the home of the entire brand and various consumer products. It also holds the rights to the Harry Potter franchise. The Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Universal Studios in Hollywood, CA and Orlando, FL was considered groundbreaking. J.K. Rowling is a major asset to the company for creating the fictional world.

Business Model

Warner Bros. Entertainment creates various outlets of entertainment content, each catering to a specific fan base and age range. It is considered one of the industry leaders with 17% percent of the market share (warnerbrothers.com). However, film distribution is one of the most difficult steps in the movie-making process.

One of the first steps of film distribution is intellectual property. Agents will typically see a piece of work and see potential before agreeing to represent somebody. Agents will help pitch the ideas to producers. They will then make sure that the production company, in this case Warner Bros., holds the copyright to the IP. An executive can then option a piece of property if they feel that it would be a successful production for the company. Parties on both sides of the project will come to terms and draw up a Literary Property agreement that insures that Warner Bros. gets all the conditions and rights that they want.

After a film is produced, it spends three to six months in its theatrical phase. According to Dan Manzel, Senior Vice President Cable Network/Digital Sales Warner Bros. Domestic TV Distribution, the film then spends another three to six months in the electronic sell-through phase. This includes DVD sales, iTunes and pay-per-view outlets. Most studios then have what is called the “premium pay window” (Manzel 2017). Since Time Warner also owns HBO, it gets the film for 13 months during the post pay window. HBO has a window before and after cable. After that, it becomes a Library Title for Warner Bros.

After HBO, the film will then rest (Manzel 2017). There will then be a six month period where the company will attempt to sell the film to cable networks where it has the potential to have about a six year life. A company like Netflix will not even have the potential to buy the film for at least ten years.

Revenue Model

Warner Bros. Pictures uses the leasing model. It distributes around 18-22 films each year and will fully finance or co-finance films that it produces and maintain distribution rights to rent out its movies to other outlets after its theatrical run. The company is also an example of vertical integration. Warner Bros. Television licenses more than 79,000 hours of television programs. About 7,400 feature films and about 50 series make up that time. Warner Bros will get a percentage of the box office sales at theaters and about 15-17% of cable box office sales. Also, due to the vertical integration of the company, they will receive a percentage of the sales from HBO and any other pay-per-view outlets (Manzel 2017).

It also has revenue from all of its consumer products that are licensed such as toys, home decor, publishings and distribution rights.

 

References

Elin, L. (n.d.). Acquiring a Literary Property for Film and Television. 1-6. Accessed on Blackboard.

Manzel, D. (Speaker). (2017, September 21). Guest Speaker. Syracuse University, Syracuse.

Lieberman, D. (2014, October 16). ‘Friends’ Licensed To Netflix In Warner Bros Deal

Retrieved September 11, 2017, from http://deadline.com/2014/10/friends-netflix-streaming-deal-851909/

Turow, J. (2017). Ch. 12 The Movie Industry. In Media Today: Mass Communication in aConverging World(pp. 335-365). New York, NY: Routledge.

Tyson, J. (2000, September 18). How Movie Distribution Works. Retrieved September 17, 2017, from http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/movie-distribution1.htm

Warner Bros. Entertainment. (2017, September 11). Retrieved September 11, 2017, from http://www.timewarner.com/company/operating-divisions/warner-bros-entertainment

Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. Company Overview. (n.d.). Retrieved September 07, 2017, from https://www.warnerbros.com/studio/about/company-overview

2016 Time Warner Annual Report. (n.d.). Retrieved September 11, 2017, from http://www.timewarner.com/sites/timewarner.com/files/downloads/twx_2016_annual_report.pdf

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Post Production/VFX of Broadcast Television: Empire Visual Effects

 

About

After receiving the backing of the Buffalo Billion program, Empire Visual Effects was founded in 2013 in Tri-Main Center Buffalo, NY as a post-production film studio. It is the first domestic business-to-business visual effects back-end factory (Post New York Alliance, 2015). It is a partner of Daemen College’s International Center for Excellence in Animation who received $2 million in Buffalo Billion funds to build out its space and equipment (Buffalo Business First, 2017). Gathering around Post New York Alliance, Continue reading

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Cable on Mobile, Will You Buy it?

Are you still watching live sports or shows on your Television? Even a home DVR (Digital Video Recorder) service is out of date with the fascinating Internet technologies. If you download the latest vision of GO90 in App Store or Google Play, you are portable to watch any Verizon FIOS program or streaming live sports without any data charge at any time. Continue reading

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Pre-production and production of broadcast TV: CGTN

This report mainly focuses on the CHINA GLOBAL TELEVISION NETWORK, referred to as CGTN. CGTN is a multilingual, multi-platform media agency. The slogan is “See the difference.” It is composed of six television channels, one news agency and new media organizations.  Continue reading

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Distribution and Exhibition in Music Industry: The “V LIVE”

Jiayin Zhao
TRF 635 Industry Force
9/28/2017
Assignment #1
Final version
                       

 Distribution and Exhibition in Music Industry: The “V LIVE” 

Introduction

     As the popularity of K-pop grows, there is an increased need for people all around the world to appreciate music live. In this circumstance, “ V LIVE” by NAVER Corp. Entertainment was born. The first version 0.0.9 was released on August 3rd, 2015 (Apple store, 2017). The app allows celebrities to broadcast live music engaging viewers all over the world. The global live video streaming platform “V LIVE” has about 575 channels now after starting with 260 channels. “V LIVE+,” “Multicam,” “V STORE,” and “V Fansubs” services add life to the app, which are backed by NAVER’s cutting-edge video technologies (V LIVE official website, 2017). It has now become one of the mainstream live music video apps of K-pop all around the world.

 History

     “V LIVE” was created by NAVER Corp. Entertainment by ex-Samsung employees. Its headquarters are located in Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea. The company was set up in June 1999, focusing on services like “Online Search Portal,” and “Mobile Messenger Platform.” It has branch offices in Japan, the U.S., the U.K., China, Vietnam, Taiwan and Thailand. It has 2,291 employees with income of  $3,132,078,830 (NAVER Corporation, 2017).

Assets

     The subsidiaries of NAVER Corp. Entertainment are Line Corporation, NAVER, and “V LIVE.” LINE is a smartphone, PC, and Mac app which allows users in 230 countries to make calls and message. In 2013, Lee Hae-jin, the chairman of NAVER, saw his stake value hover above 1 trillion KRW (US $939.4 million) on the back of its messenger service LINE. NAVER is a popular web portal in South Korea. According to “Pitchone”, NAVER handled 48% of web searches in South Korea in 2016. NAVER is the fifth most used search engine in the world, following Google search, Yahoo!, Baidu and Bing (NAVER Corporation, 2017). “V LIVE” is a live music video platform for K-pop bands and individuals. It doesn’t own songs, it is a platform that allows musicians to broadcast their music videos, concerts and daily life.

 “V LIVE” Business Model

  1. What it does:

By using their phones, fans can follow their favorite musicians, watch their music videos, and use comments and ‘hearts’ to share thoughts and feelings with others on “V”.

Fans can express feelings to celebrities through chat messages and heart icons. Celebrities can reply to them on “V LIVE” later. Also, by following channels of celebrities and watching videos, it is a way to increase Chemi-beat. The more Chemi-beat fans get, the more benefits (“V LIVE” official website, 2017).

NAVER has the service,“V LIVE +.” The “V LIVE+” subscription is a special membership system for fans, which allows fans to enjoy premium channel. “V LIVE+” provides HD live video, tons of unreleased trials, hidden videos and private moments, special live, secret stories, and behind-the-scenes stories in download music videos (V LIVE official website, 2017). From multi-cams for each member to external cameras, fans can discover new sides to stars using the various angles available only in “V LIVE+.”

Almost all of the official music videos have seven languages translation, differing from other music distribution platforms. I had an interview with an employee in the Facebook page, in which he said when he worked for the app, he needed to communicate with translating companies and attributed task to them every day. In addition, he needed to see their performance (Interview with “V LIVE,” 2017).

2. Target Audience:

The global live video streaming platform “V LIVE’s” image has proved its potential to fuel the company’s future growth. During 2016, the number of “V LIVE” users in the world increased 1.5 times from 16,000 to 24,000 (Sensor Tower, 2017).

“Sensor Tower” is a website that analyses a company’s review, audience and revenue. From the graphic, we can clearly see the percentages of users in each country, especially Asian countries. (Other: 12%; Vietnam: 6%; Thailand: 6%; Taiwan: 4%; Singapore: 1%; Philippines: 2%; Malaysia: 2%; Indonesia: 2%; Hong Kong: 2%; South Korea: 24%; Japan: 13%; Mainland China: 18%; US: 9%) (Sensor Tower, 2017). In conclusion, users in Asia use the app more than in the U.S., and the population of Asian countries outside of Korea is more than the portion of Korea.

3. Competitors:  (The graph was created by DJ Kang at Value Penguin)

From the graph, we know that Netflix takes up the service in Africa, Australia and South Asia; IQiyi occupies China, “V LIVE” is most popular in South Asia, and Showroom takes up Japan.

The online platforms in Asia that have similar functions are KITTYLIVE, SHOWROOM, IQiyi, and Pooq. KITTYLIVE (Korean) is a platform for broadcasting and watching live music streaming videos, bringing audiences closer to idols with HD video chat (Official website of KITTYLIVE, 2017). In SHOWROOM (Japan), fans can enjoy live music shows by their favorite celebrities. It contains four portions: “Today’s music pick,” “Live music,” “musical events,” and “music ranking.”(SHOWROOM official website, 2017). Pooq (Korean) provides Seamless-Streaming, On-Air VOD and Pop-Up Player (Official website of Pooq, 2017). IQiyi (China) provides live music, broadcast concerts, and music shows (Official website of IQiyi, 2017).

In western countries, there are competitors like YouTube and Netflix. Netflix and YouTube are winning in almost every country in Asia. Netflix is the top four streaming platform, and YouTube was the most downloaded video streaming app in 11 countries out of the 13 geographic regions (DJ Kang, 2017).

However, these apps are not competitive with “V LIVE,” and this is because the statistics from DJ Kang are about all of the video content by YouTube, Netflix, IQiyi, and SHOWROOM, not only the K-pop content. With regards to K-pop, “V LIVE” still has its advantages: HD videos, live music, interactive messaging for fans and celebrities, and exclusive content, like backstage music videos from each music company in Korea that are impossible to find on YouTube, Netflix and other apps. Compared to YouTube, “V LIVE” not only has music video channels that refer to a branch of areas, but also provides live music videos for the fans watching their stars in front on the “V LIVE” app in specific time period.

4. Suppliers:

“V” features the hottest K-pop stars. It has an on-air lineup of BIGBANG, SMTOWNBTS, YGFamily, iKON, Apink, WINNER, GOT7, INFINITE, BTOB, BEAST, AOA, SISTAR, CNBLUE, miss A, Girl’s Day, 2PM, JYPnation, 4minute, and VIXX (V LIVE official website, 2017), which are some of the most popular channels that connect exclusively with fans. All in all, people can find all Korean bands on “V LIVE.” And the number of the bands is still growing, from 260 music channels in 2015 to 575 music channels in 2017. “V LIVE” videos are selective: only celebrities are able to live streaming on “V”.

                                                           “V LIVE” Revenue Model

  1. How it makes money:

“V LIVE” is a free app, but as it is shown above, if fans want to enjoy some exclusive content, they can subscribe to “V LIVE+” inside each channel.

In order to subscribe to V+ channels, fans need to pay for the membership. For each band/channel, there are one-year memberships (V Coin: 2,200), six-month memberships (V Coin: 1,100), three-month memberships (V Coin: 600), and 30-day memberships (V Coin: 200). Each one needs different amounts of “V Coin,” the virtual currency within “V LIVE.” Furthermore, the more active fans are on “V LIVE,” the more special benefits they can get from “V LIVE+” service. To get more benefits, people need to follow channels of stars and visit every day, watch their videos over and over, and share them. Fans can purchase stickers in “V STORE” using in group chat. To conclude, “V LIVE” makes money from “V LIVE+” and “V LIVE” store (V LIVE official website, 2017).

2. Where it gets money:
By the end of Aug. 2017, it had 200,000 downloads, and earned $600,000 (Sensor Tower, 2017).    Let’s see what countries or areas it got money from:

From the graph, we see the revenue from different countries and areas. (Other 10%; Thailand 4%; Taiwan 6%; Hong Kong 3%; South Korea 23%; Japan 17%; Great Britain 1%; Mainland China 24%; Australia 1%; US 11%) (Sensor Tower, 2017). Korea, China, Japan, and the U.S. are the largest parts of the revenue coming in.

 

Reference 

1) Sensor Tower: The app profile of “V LIVE:”

https://sensortower.com/ios/us/naver-corp/app/v-live-broadcasting-app/1019447011/

2) NAVER MOBILE As of December 2016, number of daily unique visitors (27 million)

http://www.navercorp.com/nhnen_/ir/AnnualReport/2017/2016_NAVER%20AR_eng_Final.pdf

3) DJ Kang at ValuePenguin, Top Online Video Streaming Apps In Asia: Netflix And YouTube’s Absolute Dominance, Technology.

https://www.valuewalk.com/2017/05/top-online-video-streaming-apps-asia-netflix-youtubes-absolute-dominance/

4) Line Corporation

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line_Corporation

5) NAVER

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naver

6) NAVER Corporation

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naver_Corporation

7) SHOWROOM – 配信と視聴ができるショールーム,デベロッパ:(Can be sent and the audience showroom), SHOWROOM INC.

https://itunes.apple.com/jp/app/showroom-wu-liaode-pei-xinto/id734256893?mt=8

8) SHOWROOM official website

https://www.showroom-live.com

9) Official website of KITTYLIVE

http://www.kitty.live

10) “V LIVE” official website

http://www.vlive.tv/home/new

11) Official website of Pooq

www.pooq.co.kr

12) Official website of IQiyi

www.iqiyi.com

13) Interview with employee in “V LIVE”, 2017

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CoSA: Emmy award winning visual effects

Background

The Company of Science and Art, CoSA for short, is a visual effects studio that won an Emmy in 2017 for their work on the Gotham episode “Heavydirtysoul.” CoSA is a relatively young company. It was established in 2009 by supervisors, Tom Mahoney and Jon Tanimoto. Tom and Jon met one another while working in the post-production business for commercials in the nineties. The two worked together on films like Titanic (1997) and the Final Destination series.

Tom and Jon decided to start their own visual effects company, and with the help of Christopher Lance and David Beedon, they started The Company of Science and Art. Lance, a compositor with worldwide experience became a visual effects supervisor. Beedon also became visual effects supervisor for the company, with two decades of experience generating computer graphics. After being nominated for an Emmy each of the past three years, CoSA took home its first Emmy in 2017. Tom Mahoney supervised the team that worked on the Emmy award-winning episode of Gotham.

Business Model

CoSA’s business model is similar to other visual effects companies. CoSA signs contracts with studios seeking its service and it becomes their vendor. Depending on the contract, CoSA could develop the visual effects for just one episode of a show, to being the vendor for the entire series. In order to satisfy different studio needs and highlight particular skills, CoSA is split into four groups led by the supervisors, Mahoney, Tanimoto, Lance, and Beedon. CoSA’s executive producer Joseph Bell, manages the relationship between the client and the CoSA.

Assets

As a visual effects company, CoSA doesn’t have a number of assets. In fact, it’s greatest asset would be its reputation. For a company that is only eight years old, CoSa has been very active and worked on a number of very successful projects including, Gotham, Marvel’s Agents of Shield, Lucifer, Westworld, Stranger Things, Pitch, and Person of Interest.

Looking towards the Future

Having just won an Emmy, CoSA is continuing to produce top-notch visual effects for Hollywood’s top studios. They will continue there work with Gotham, and are the vendor for the upcoming pilot episode of The Gifted.

Bibliography

http://www.cosavfx.com/index.php

Idelson, K. (2017) “Growing Volume, Shifting Schedule of Peak TV Challenge VFX          Houses.” http://variety.com/2017/artisans/production/vfx-work-tv-1202406958/

Jayson, J. (2017) “Agents of SHIELD Season 4 VFX Breakdown Featuring Ghost            Rider.” http://comicbook.com/marvel/2017/06/11/agents-of-shield-season-4-vfx/

Jayson, J. (2017) “Gotham VFX Breakdown: Bruce Becoming Batman In Season 3           Finale.” http://comicbook.com/2017/06/11/gotham-vfx-bruce-becoming-batman/

Zakarin, J. (2016) “How ‘Westworld’ Uses Visual Effects to Make Better Human            Actors.” https://www.inverse.com/article/21633-hbo-westworld-actors-robots- vfx-special-effects-miles-beyond-a-glitch

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