Mayfiled, General Catalyst Partners, and Atomico Investments have put $5 million into Deca.tv, a newly launched production house for mainstream digital entertainment. Deca was started by Michael Wayne and Chris Kimbell, both from Sony Pictures.
The company will be putting the investment into finding and financing novel digital entertainment web properties. Deca, however, will not serve as a destination for these properties, but rather invest in them and distribute them through their partner’s channels. They’re being rather tight lipped about what properties they will focus their money on, but they will be announcing their first 3 projects soon. Web video shows are definitely in the cards, with non-video properties on the horizon as well.
The model is indicative of how the web is changing the production of entertainment. As Allen Morgan of Mayfield notes, “The separation between content, the audience, and the advertiser has now completely disintegrated”. Studios now have the ability to access and filter through more talent better than ever before, case in point, Crackle’s user generated web shows. The internet’s “fame machine” is getting better, and we’re all sure to benefit.
Sounds like some kinda scam to me!
“Give me 5 million, I will invest it in virtual or web properties”
I dont know, if its Sony Picture it might be something good. It might be something that will benefit users that generate home made video and make it more mainstream than YouTube.
I think the internet’s “fame machine” is a great term. Crackle, Youtube, and others have attempted to help find talent/good stuff (and in the process filter all the UG crap)…but their way of doing it invites gaming and fraud. I like the approach OurStage.com has taken for that…let the fans decide!
I’m not a humongous fan of this methodology, as it doesn’t seem to work too well for the sorts of shows I am interested in – e.g. drama, science fiction.
Sony Pictures seems like a channel that I might watch on my laptop. Crackle, http://eyevio.jp/ and now Deca, they’re really starting to spread content across varied platforms. Sounds like a Plan ; )