TV Goes Back to the Future
PC Magazine, April 18, 2007
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2115173,00.asp
By Jim Louderback
Maybe it’s because I’m just a 7-year-old at heart, but when I visited the headquarters of Next New Networks, the high point was The Fairly Odd Parents.
The big story was supposed to be that TV wunderkind Fred Seibert – who ran Hanna-Barbera, Nickelodeon, and TV Land (among others) and helped launch MTV – had entered the nascent world of online video with a bullet. Seibert, along with cofounder Herb Scannell, has announced an audacious plan to launch 101 new networks over the next five years. Next New Networks already has a reasonably popular Web video network up and running – Channel Frederator – and it’s just launched another four destinations, including one based on comic books, another on sewing, and two based on cars.
Why do these old-school TV stalwarts think they can make it in the mash-up, crowd-sourcing, user-generated video world of the 21st century? Because they trust good talent. Trust in talent is what made them successful in the past. And that gets me back to The Fairly Odd Parents.
When he was resuscitating Hanna-Barbera in the early nineties, Seibert uncovered a fresh-faced animator named Butch Hartman. He was impressed by Hartman’s willingness to embrace a new approach to cartoons, along with some promising early shorts, and a few years later, he recruited Hartman for the new Frederator Studios. After an extended courtship, Hartman signed on and brought along early storyboards for a show called The Fairly Odd Parents – now one of the top ten shows on cable TV.
That same story line is playing out today at Next New Networks. Seibert, Scannell, and their team don’t claim to be on the inside track when it comes to knowing the future of Internet video. But they do know how to find, attract, and develop young, new talent who will create the The Fairly Odd Parents of tomorrow. And they’re doing it on the Internet, not on cable TV.
Why is this such a big deal? Because when it comes to video on the Net, it’s not about dancing dogs and pimply kids playing Jedi. Nope, it’s all about talent and skill. Lower barriers to entry don’t make everyone an auteur. And even the best raw talent needs to be developed. With 101 new channels, I’m betting that NNN ends up with at least a couple of hits on its hands. It’ll be fun to watch – in between episodes of The Fairly Odd Parents.
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