Next Hollywood It Guy: Nick Risher

As we know, you can make a film…but distribution as we knew it – is disappearing: the brick and mortar film houses, that is. Doing films ‘straight to DVD’ is really no good alternative either, because investors can’t recoup with having a significant competitive spot at your local Blockbuster. The alternative – is cable television production, which is highly competitive for those distribution spots. Next, the future of internet distribution platforms, and I’m now kicking myself (or maybe I should be giving myself a pat on the back because I was way ahead on this one back in 1993 – when the father of VIACOM, Sumner Redstone, was already meeting with what would become – the cellular providers (then known as ‘baby bells’) about this, and I was hot on his heels blazing a path behind him while various nay sayers were shooting his ideas out of the sky as ‘too futuristic’). He was the man ahead on this — well ahead of everyone.

The allied problem, is with internet ‘indexing’ and bottlenecking when it comes to promoting internet channels of this kind. Netflix has done quite well, but the ‘information bottleneck and indexing’ make it difficult to promote a specific film project today – you’ve got to have your A list principals commited before the money is released today. Still, there is not much longevity for these films before they go to Blockbuster where they inevitably recieve adequate back-end rentals and sales…or they die in the bin.

The answer, I think, is in developing new internet channels ahead of the crowd, where the programming is different, exciting, even eccentric, and sponsors – such as Nestle’ have product placement. Barry Silver, the former head of NBC, left to build a company like this late last year with that other Barry ala QVC …Diller – Sumner’s former Arch Nemesis. Now, that’s cutting edge, but if my guess is correct, it takes more than shmoozing with Diller and the venture capitalists to create channels or a group of channels that really work.

I’ve been on this question for a long time,… the most unlikely entreprenuer of the pack. It will be the most unlikely people who will create an answer to this dillemma.