Thinking Out Of The box
MBN: The creation of an Internet television network
To Think Out Of the Box
We live in a nation where growing old has become virtually a crime while those between the ages of 18 and 49 are the only ones thought to have any value.
Yet besides having real economic clout those over the age of 49 also have one other very valuable commodity, "KNOWLEDGE."
Knowledge of what has came before, what mistakes have been made and what wrong turns have been taken.
Since the days of Edison and DW Griffith my family has been in either the film or television business.
We have seen the hand-cranked camera replaced by the spring ran camera then the battery powered then the digital camera.
Black and white to color to Technicolor to video.
We have seen the film companies fight tooth and nail to keep television from being born then the studios becoming the major suppliers to the networks and now owners of networks.
Television networks then fighting the advent of cable then buying cable networks as cable took their audiences away.
Then cable in a battle with satellite companies and HI-Def taking the place of standard analog broadcasting freeing bands for more and creative uses.
2006 marks the 102nd year my family has been in the film and television business and we see now Internet pod casts and the start of broadcasting over the net.
Internet broadcasting is in its infancy like feature films, television networks and production, and cable and satellite once were.
There is no difference between this baby and the infancy of the feature film or television, cable and satellite.
All were thought to be impossible and were the products of men and women whom refused to be defeated in their quest to bring something new and exciting to the world.
At the CES in Las Vegas it was estimated that there were more then 70 million Internet users whom averaged 30 hours a week infront of a screen.
Those used to be the figures that network television would give till it was decided in the days of too much rural programming that the 18 to 49 years old were who the nets were after.
In today’s economic climate it is almost impossible to bring forth a network of any kind due to the high cost of programming.
Look no further then UPN and the WB merging.
To make a net such as MBN work you must have programming available 24 hours a day. Costs have to be kept at a minimum; far less then those of a television network or cable network or failure is guaranteed.
Today there are nets already on the internet that are depending on subscriptions and programming supplied free by others to fill in the time and it is repeats after repeats.
Repeats destroy; original programming is a must.
There was a time when shows only repeated a few shows a year, today it is over 30 weeks of repeats and 22 or less of new programming.
Where does the programming come from you need to operate?
From the thousands of creative people that come to the Natpe every year and are turned away. From every country in the world that has creative people wanting to show they can produce for our country.
From those people that helped create what we now see but have been told they are too old to be of any value.
How do you deliver what you have and make any money?
You use as many methods as possible for delivery because you’re only as good as your slowest connection.
You use broadband to deliver straight to your computer for free with commercials, you make arrangements like we are for businesses to have broadband downloading services for the shows to be downloaded either to DVD’s or I pods are whatever device they have that the program can be downloaded to.
Whom do you aim for as an audience?
Many years ago at a lecture given by the founder of Warner brothers, Jack L. Warner told us he didn’t care who came to see his films as long as they had the money to pay for a ticket.
That is our audience, anyone that has a computer or device for downloading. No demographics, just every person willing to download.
With every passing day we do more, we add more to what we have and we get one more step closer to fully being on the air.
We gladly are available to answer any questions you have.
William Hoehne & Joyce Chow
MBN
