Sunday, April 14, 2013

The Future of TV?

In case you missed it, we may be at a watershed moment in the history of television. Until now, viewers have been largely powerless when their favorite shows get canceled. Their primary outlets have been letter-writing campaigns, online petitions, and other forms of whining. Now, that could finally be changing. With the rise of crowdfunding, fans have their first constructive outlet for expressing their displeasure.

"Crowdfunding" is the act of funding a project through the contributions (large and small) of a "crowd." For example, Kickstarter.com is a crowdfunding web site: It starts with a project proposal and a monetary goal. Kickstarter users view the proposal and, if they want to back the project, they pledge to contribute a certain amount of money to it. If the project reaches its funding goal, the pledged amounts are collected from the users. If the project fails to reach its funding goal, the users' accounts are never charged.

The rise of crowdfunding is heralded by two events: The first event is the Veronica Mars Kickstarter phenomenon. The second event is the arrival of a brand-new web site, founded by two MBA's from San Francisco, called "SMGO (my Show Must Go On)."

First, the Kickstarter phenomenon of Veronica Mars:

Veronica Mars ran for 3 seasons on UPN, before being canceled in 2007. Ever since, the creator, Rob Thomas, has been asked when (or if) the fans would get a Veronica Mars movie. For 6 years, he failed to find funding for the film through traditional channels, so this March, he created a Kickstarter proposal for a Veronica Mars movie.

This Kickstarter proposal was special because it was created by an industry professional who had done his homework: He had put together a plan, contacted the potential cast, crunched the numbers, and – most importantly – obtained approval from Warner Bros. to proceed. With their blessing, he posted the Kickstarter proposal on March 13, with a goal of 2 million dollars (the smallest amount of money that would be sufficient to make the film).

The proposal reached its goal of $2 million in less than 11 hours. It ended on April 12 with $5,702,153 and 91,585 individual backers. It shattered multiple Kickstarter records to do so. The Veronica Mars movie will be a reality, and the entertainment world will never be the same. Thanks to the precedent set by the Veronica Mars Kickstarter, we have entered a future where fans can use the Internet to fund their entertainment.

That brings us to "SMGO (my Show Must Go On)":

Founded by two MBA's from San Francisco, Dave Coduto and Chehin Toumi, SMGO aims to be a dedicated platform for crowdfunding new seasons of canceled TV shows. With their backgrounds in marketing and film production (Dave Coduto) and international banking and finance (Chehin Toumin), these two entrepreneurs intend to fill the current gap between television consumers and the broadcasters, distributors, and advertisers who produce what they consume. To do so, they have partnered with Dumpark, Amazon Web Services, and PayPal.

Their idea is to offer a crowdfunding web site that is specifically geared towards determining the level of fan interest in crowdfunding particular shows, acting as the intermediary between the fans and the corporate entities that hold the rights to those shows, striking deals to produce additional episodes, and managing the crowdfunding process after such deals are made. Essentially, SMGO proposes to do for any show what Rob Thomas did for his own creation, Veronica Mars. And, unlike Kickstarter, SMGO won't take a 5% cut of the fan contributions. It will simply add an extra revenue stream to the existing system, allowing studios to make a satisfactory profit on shows that are popular, but not popular enough to survive on traditional revenue streams alone.

SMGO launched on March 15, for what was intended to be a quiet test run. Unfortunately – or fortunately – its test launch coincided with the month that two beloved, and recently canceled, series ended their runs: "Young Justice" and "Green Lantern: The Animated Series (GLTAS)," on Cartoon Network. The fan campaigns to save both shows were at their peak, and their organized enthusiasm overwhelmed SMGO (temporarily crashing the servers) and thrust it into the public spotlight sooner than intended. However, SMGO's creators chose to take the unexpected attention in stride and jumped into action, contacting Warner Bros immediately.

On March 22, Green Lantern's producer, Giancarlo Volpe, Tweeted the following in surprise: "I literally just got off the phone with the guy who runs #SMGO. He legit cleared this 'Save #GLTAS' campaign with WB." A meeting was subsequently arranged between SMGO and Warner Bros. to discuss the possibility of crowdfunding additional episodes of Green Lantern and/or Young Justice. The meeting took place on April 11, but no public statements have been made about the result. Meanwhile, SMGO has rushed to an official launch on March 30. Users are now able to vote their support for other shows (like "The River," which just met its voting target on April 10) and send write-in suggestions for others.

The main question now is whether SMGO will catch on in the same way that the Veronica Mars Kickstarter project did. Unfortunately, the answer to that question won't be revealed any time soon. For now, fans finally have a constructive outlet for their feelings about canceled shows. Best of all, they have a constructive way to expand that outlet... by signing up at SMGO.tv, by sharing and following SMGO on Facebook and Twitter, and by spreading the word about this groundbreaking new enterprise.



Relevant Links:
http://www.smgo.tv/
https://twitter.com/SMGOTV
https://www.facebook.com/smgotv
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/559914737/the-veronica-mars-movie-project