Strike.TV has signed a content distribution and revenue sharing deal with YouTube and Joost, allowing the WGA writers-backed video portal to extend its reach for its more than forty original web series. New video hosting and analytics site Episodic has been chosen as the hosting partner for Strike.TV videos, which will stream in HD on the site itself.
“We have partnered with some of the best storytellers in Hollywood to offer original content free for everyone with high-speed internet access,” said Christopher Barrett, Strike.TV’s SVP of business development. As we had mentioned earlier, this is apparently one of the holdups to the site much-delayed public launch. It was going to be tough at this point to actually get anyone to the ad-supported Strike.TV site without distributing the series out through the major players. Barrett acknowledged this adding that “these deals with strong, well-populated sites represent a critical step forward in the Strike.TV business model.”
It’s been a few months since the site let us into the private beta. Delays in launching probably have turned out for the better on this one giving the start-up time to shop the celebrity-heavy content around a little. With YouTube and Joost are looking to align themselves with some quality-written material pushing out at a consistent rate this could be a good partnership for all parties. The question remains how much the actual creators will see of this deal themselves. Most likely we’re looking at a meritocracy of sorts with the most popular shows netting the greatest payouts and StrikeTV taking a cut regardless. Either way, the first three months of revenues will go to the Entertainment Assistance Program of the Actor’s Fund.
A slew of a new series on top of Strike.TV’s original slate have been announced — and there’s a lot of them — Faux Baby, Anyone But Me, Tony Hand, Confessional, The Tender Morsels, Sketch Toons, Speedie Date, Tranquility Dome, John’s Hand, The Academy, Fusion, Me First, Wild Times in the Wildwood, The Crew, The Outlaw Emmett Deemus, Lawyers, Urban Cowgirl, West Guild Story, Psychobabble, Cathryn Michon’s Chocolate Powered Relationship Recovery Show, When Actors Need Money, Bumps in the Night, Buzz, Playhouse 331 and Solly’s Wisdom.
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I’ve been pretty underwhelmed by Strike.TV so far. But this does remind me to go back and catch up on With the Angels, which I thought had the most potential.
Here’s to hoping that they actually launch on the 28th.
This is the first time we’ve seen a firm launch date announced from them, so I’m feeling pretty good about the chances of them sticking to the 28th.
Looks for some promo art to start appearing on Joost later this week.
I think this is great for StrikeTV but with 40 shows they have some work on their hands.
TV has always master storytellers but the networks have also had marketing geniuses like Michael Mischler, John Miller and Vince Manzi, Bob Bibb and Lew Goldstein that ran their Promo departments. And they didn’t have 40 shows to launch at one time.
Does StrikeTV have a promo department? Does StrikeTV have promo people?
FYI I’m available for promo consulting. ;)
Yeah, it’s already overwhelming what’s currently showing on their beta site right now and the ‘coming soon’ lineup is pretty daunting.
I’d imagine about 1 in 5 will actually make more episodes than what they’ve already shot. Maybe 1 in 10 break out and sustain an audience beyond the first wave.
While the StrikeTV team seems to be getting serious about their launch and scoring some key partners, these shows still need their showrunners (or stars) to carry the banner for them. A lot of the shows have top writers behind them and some name actors, but not a dedicated promoter for that show’s brand.
Who’s going to be each show’s Tim Street??
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