Long Road for Short Videos
January 11, 2019 – Media MentionThe market for commercial short-form video is still developing, but companies are rushing to figure out a formula to monetize the genre.
The name brand so far has been Jeffrey Katzenberg’s short-form video platform Quibi, but other outfits are emerging, including one new company that claims it will beat Quibi to market.
Fiction Riot, a business started by former United Talent Agency and Endeavor literary agent Mike Esola, will, like Quibi, sell a mobile phone app in which users pay a monthly subscription and gain access to a library of original, professionally produced videos that run for less than 10 minutes.
Buying book rights could be a savvy tactic, said Jesse Saivar, an entertainment lawyer at Greenberg Glusker, “If you’re identifying pre-existing works that have some traction,” because purchasing rights are often less than 5 percent of a series’ total operating budget.
