Customer Reviews

The Business of Media Distribution: Monetizing Film, TV and Video Content in an Online World

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This book is loaded to the gills with information about how studios market their films. It's very high quality-it helps you maximize distribution while minimizing risk. Like any quality work it is laden with examples of who did what, what worked and what didn't, and the most important piece of the equation: why.

So essential is this book to me that I wouldn't recommend spending a dime making a film until you've read this first. It covers not only the nuts and bolts of distribution but gives insight into what kinds of films are likely to be more profitable than others and how to analyze it with greater insight. Beyond that it includes the dynamic marketplace and what to consider about how you want to release your work. And of course, you want to know how to deal with large competition. You get good info on that here.

Chapters included:

Market Opportunity and Segmentation-The diverse roles of studios and networks

Intellectual Property Assets Enabling Distribution-The business of Creating, Marketing, and Protecting an Idea

Financing Production: Studios and Networks as Venture Capitalists

Theatrical Distribution

The Home Video Business

Television Distribution

Internet Distribution, Downloads, and On-Demand Streaming-A New Paradigm

Ancillary Revenues:Merchandising, Video Games, Hotels, Transactional Video On Demand, Airlines and other Markets

Marketing

Making Money-Net Profits, Hollywood Accounting, and the Relative Simplicity of Online Revenue Sharing

Really, these descriptions only scratch the surface as the coverage of each topic is detailed and broad. If you've covered all these things and you've analyzed it and you think you can make a good profit, congratulations. If you're the typical Indy with what you feel is a great script in hand, and you're brokering your staff, this book is worth the time it takes to read all 461 pages (page count not including index and references). Personally, I'm very glad I have The Business of Media Distribution and recommend that no serious film maker spend a dime without reading it first, beginning to end. You might even change your mind about the film you intend to produce, or have better ideas for making it profitable. Making money is risky-making money with movies is certainly no exception, and if you're Indy and making a quality film, there's a chance you have your share of investors on board. You owe yourself this book. It will be some of the best $35.00 you've ever spent. Your investors will certainly agree.

The Business of Media Distribution: Monetizing Film, TV and Video Content in an Online World is a perfect all in one reference for the industry; it's a true "insider's" guide.

This book covers a wide range of subjects in over 500 pages with case studies, making it an excellent resource guide (good for both students and professionals in the field). From history of the subject matter, to economics, the internet, numerous media and more, readers will not be disappointed with this manual.

Whether you are a newbie on YouTube or a Hollywood bound Director, there are things covered in here that you would have never thought of, and that will only create more profit, in turn, providing the needed backing of a better picture.

There are financial opportunities to many entities if you have the ability to sell your film idea or even a completed film. Sponsors, product placement, tie-ins with other companies, cross promotion, and items sold based on the film as if it were fan memorabilia and more. Well, all that requires licensing, negotiation, contracts, and making the right agreements.

With a focus of web use, we all know that the Internet will only become the main source of our entertainment. I don't even think theaters will be around much. The tv screens are getting very big, very high quality and very reasonably priced. We will be staying home, with our TVs connected to online services. So, filmmakers may be looking at YouTube as a starting point, but the concept will continue to larger audiences.

With facts and figures from Hollywoods biggest production companies, you are informed of every level or expectation. Nothing is out of sight if you are able to sell your creation. This is a reference book as well, as you will be using your ideas and referring to it to see if you can connect those ideas with investors or distributors of services that go well together.

The entire process is overwhelming, tedious and frightening, but this publication will help organize your inspirations into something that could very well pay off in areas you didn't even know existed.

I have a lot to learn, and far from creating a film of merit, but will be using this guide to make sure I take the right steps to make it work.

The Business of Media Distribution: Monetizing Film, TV and Video Content in an Online World from Concept to $1B, is as comprehensive as its title suggests.

This is a 500-page reference book that is part glossary, part insider's information, and part scholar's lecture. It is a thorough breakdown of the complex and often-convoluted world of the Motion Picture and Film Industry, it's diversified distribution model as well as a look at how its model is affected by emerging outlets.

One of the things I really appreciated about this text is that it delves more specifically than other Focal Press releases about the industry by giving detailed, real-world examples of, for example, distribution costs of several theatrical released films, discusses current costs of film development, the various types of financing available as well as underground, guerrilla financing techniques used by others.

Some of the questions covered within are:

Studio and their projects

Markets and emerging outlets

Types of films, festivals and ancillary markets

Different types of financing

Studio financing, cooperative financing and independent financing

Cable, TV and Digital Video distribution

Protecting contents, copyrights, piracy and related issues

Hedge fund deals

Supplementary diagrams and graphs.

There are a number of titles that Focal Press releases about the film industry, one of them, Filmmakers and Financing, Sixth Edition: Business Plans for Independents, touches upon the same subject as this book, however, it doesn't come close to offering such a wealth of information, in depth or in scope. This book is, by far, the most comprehensive look at financing and marketing in the film industry.

A great find and a wonderful read. Thanks to author for writing this wonderful book which contains sophisticated business knowledge along with resources for media professionals. Mr. Ulin provides enormous clarity to navigating the world of TV and Motion Picture Licensing. I would recommend this book to anyone thinking of going into the business side of entertainment.

This book was written before VOD and Netflix cut into Blockbuster's market share and the video rental giant filed for bankruptcy. However, based on Jeff Ulin's excellent discussions, you could make the prediction that video on demand and Netflix would undercut Blockbuster (especially with Netflix direct rental on-demand--Blockbuster also offers its own service.)

However, the main point of the book is online content and monetizing online content so that studios and producers as well as media companies will not lose money to online rentals and Hulu TV shows (Ulin makes the excellent point that Hulu includes embedded advertising), with an exhaustive discussion in-context of the history of video rentals (worth reading), the details of theatrical rentals and distribution, and a meticulous overview of the business side of television. All this sets up exactly what a sea change it is to have film, TV and video content distributed online when the mechanisms have for so long been in place to finance and distribute studio films and television. It is difficult to encapsulate this book in one go. recommended for anyone in the Internet/media and entertainment biz, as well as film school students and business/communications studies majors. Read this with Jason Squire's The Movie Business Book, Third Edition and lynda obst's Hello, He Lied -- and Other Tales from the Hollywood Trenches, and you'll know everything you need to know. Of course, as screenwriter William Goldman once famously observed, "Nobody knows anything."

Like a strong distributor, this book covers a large territory. Taking the "from concept" literally, it branches beyond distribution into development, financing, accounting, and marketing. But the heart of the book remains media distribution, and the bulk of the chapters break it down traditionally according to outlet: theatrical, home video, television and ancillary (merchandising, video games, airlines, etc.).

This book itself is remarkably difficult to put into a distribution category. There is a great deal of material in here that independent filmmakers and producers need not concern themselves with, except out of curiosity about how things are done by conventional studios, who can avail themselves of much greater resources. Those working in distribution in the big media companies, on the other hand, will probably already be familiar with much of this, and might desire both more technical information and more outside-the-box speculation about where the business is headed. Film students would do well to tackle overviews of the industry that do a bit more hand-holding such as The Filmmaker's Handbook or are designed as textbooks, such as Entertainment Industry Economics, although there is an encyclopedic quality to this book that makes it work better as a reference than a cover-to-cover experience. I definitely think that industry observers, such as business reporters and market analysts, would find the whole of this book beneficial.

Brief flashes of personality aside, THE BUSINESS OF MEDIA DISTRIBUTION is flat and journalistic. It is well-researched and clearly comes from someone with a deep practical knowledge of the world. But because it lacks a strong point of view on the subject, I can't recommend it for casual readers. If you have a deep interest in the subject, you probably already have your own point of view, and I recommend you bring it along.

As a media producer AND a web designer, I have to constantly navigate the ever-changing landscape of the online media world and its affects on media production to stay ahead of the game and keep my clients happy. Whether it you need to understand the legal side and the ramifications of new media opportunities on your existing and legacy productions or future projects, or you are looking to expand your current horizons and branch out into new arenas, The Business of Media Distribution is a thorough and comprehensive resource for all aspects of distributing media content and making a profit.

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A Guide to my Book Rating System:

1 star = The wood pulp would have been better utilized as toilet paper.

2 stars = Don't bother, clean your bathroom instead.

3 stars = Wasn't a waste of time, but it was time wasted.

4 stars = Good book, but not life altering.

5 stars = This book changed my world in at least some small way.

This book is a slow read, but for a great reason: it's *packed* with information in every paragraph that can help set your mind racing on how to best apply what you learn to your situation. I recommend this to every aspiring film-maker, because making movies is a business, and understanding how things work will greatly help film-makers survive to do what they love and do best. For this first time, a detailed textbook lifts the veil on the mysterious and often irrational world of media. The writing is sturdy, neither stuffy nor flashy. And the author is clearly an authority. You can't miss with this book.

This book is the most detailed guide to media distribution ever written. It goes into intricate detail on delivery systems and methodologies, including the economics of film, video, DVD, and online distribution. You'll learn the history of media systems, behind-the-scenes accounts of venue bookings and rating systems, methods of financing and marketing media, and much more besides.

If you want to make movies that people actually watch, this is your one-stop guide for determining distribution, promotion, and finance.