Could “Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog” be a first step towards creating a sustainable freemium inspired business model for online television?
There have been several experiments with creating new business models around television content online. One of the more interesting examples is“Dr.Horrible’s Sing Along Blog”
In 2008, TV and movie writer-director Joss Whedon, created a 3 part 43 minute musical TV show. It was started during the writer’s strike, as a way of getting something out there. Because of this, it was made with a relatively small budget – just over $200.000 – which was possible because actors and a lot of the other key people initially worked for free.
The show was put online or free and later moved to iTunes downloads, DVD and Hulu.
In February, the show had earned back more than twice the original cost, with most of the revenue coming from DVDs and ITunes. Whendon describes the Hulu version as “In some ways it acts as an advertisement and in some ways it might be pulling people away from bothering to download it or to buy the DVD.”
This model seems very similar to classic freemium models that make the majority of their profit from premium products, while creating a little profit from advertising.
While this model is reasonably sustainable as a Ning like model, TV shows have the advantage of being able to provide additional products.
For Dr. Horribles sing along blog, there are a range of other possibilities.
They could offer print on demand merchandise. Which has a possible revenue, and little expense. Or they could create deluxe premium products, like NIN or Josh Freeze
What do you think, is this an example of the future of TV ?
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2 Comments
Hi, do you know if the sing along blog is still going ? Its been some time since the writers strike and I’m just wondering if this had generated enough interest to keep going. its an interesting concept.