Eisner to take on the Internet
NEW YORK — Former Disney CEO Michael Eisner built his career trying to identify and shape hit movies and TV shows. Now he's at it again, this time on the Internet. — His investment firm, The Tornante Co., will announce Monday the formation of a studio …
Context & Ripple Effects
Michael Eisner spent decades at Disney deciding what became a movie or a TV hit; having left the chief executive role, his investment firm [[a:none|]]The Tornante Co. is now standing up a studio whose output lives on the Internet rather than in theaters or on a broadcast schedule.
The bet has a proof point inside his old company: Disney's film distribution deal with Apple's iTunes store, announced in late 2006, had reportedly moved close to half a million films in under two months — evidence that audiences would pay for professionally produced screen content delivered online, which is exactly the demand a Tornante studio would be built to supply.
First-order effects
- Tornante becomes a working production company whose slate is designed for web distribution, putting Eisner's hit-development track record behind original online video rather than licensed library material.
Second-order effects
- Studios and networks watching a marquee executive build outside the system face a choice between funding original web content themselves and remaining suppliers of catalog titles to intermediaries like Apple's iTunes.
Third-order effects
- If veteran hit-makers can build profitable slates without broadcast windows or theatrical release, the scarce asset in entertainment shifts from owning distribution channels to owning the direct audience relationship online.
The trend: Hollywood's senior creative executives are beginning to treat the Internet as a studio business in its own right, moving hit-making off fixed broadcast schedules toward on-demand distribution.