This post is also available in: German

Hollywood is shaking. Not from an earthquake. Not because of the Korea Hack. The virus that has infected all studios is called Streaming TV. Two Golden Globes for Amazon. One for Netflix. Traditional television is dying, says Henrik Bastin. He has just finished a series for Amazon.

 

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Pitching Season in Hollywood

I’m having breakfast in a well-known restaurant in Hollywood. A man wearing sneakers and a grey hoodie comes in and sits down at a table next to mine: Kelsey Grammer (Cheers, Frasier). One by one an illustrious crowd is joining him. Quite a few hair implants, a lot of Botox. A bearded man in his forties starts talking, apparently a script writer. He’s loud, using his hands for emphasis. It’s about a new production. A new series. Photos of a suitable leading lady are passed around.

It’s pitching season in Hollywood again. These pitches do not always take place in hip restaurants like this one: Amazon has been putting up trailers on the internet to be rated by viewers (for the first time they show them to German and Austrian audiences as well). The most successful projects will be produced and become a series.

 

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BOSCH, Season 1 – Foto: Amazon Studios

 

Meet: Bosch

One production that made the pitch last year is “Bosch” (the complete first season will premier on Feb 13th in the US, the UK and in Germany). After comedies such as “Alpha House” starring Jon Goodman or the award-winning “Transparent”, “Bosch” is Amazon’s first drama series. If you are a fan of the book series, you can look forward to the TV adaptation. Reactions to the pilot movie were positive without exception.

Henrik Bastin has produced “Bosch”. A couple of weeks ago I met him in LA, and I talked to him about Hollywood, the new players and the future of television.

 


 

Here are the main points:

  • Amazon was very interested in the series (starting min 1:30)
  • What’s special about “Bosch” (starting min 2:35)
  • The TV series is the best format for complex stories (starting min 3:00)
  • “Bosch” novels already have a large fan community on Amazon (starting min 5:00)
  • Hollywood is ruled by fear – the new players are inducing more risk-taking into the system (starting min 6:10)
  • Linear television is in the process of dying (starting min 8:10)
  • Studios are moving towards series (starting min 9:10)
  • Why traditional television doesn’t have a chance in hell (starting min 10:20)
  • The TV gold rush and Silicon Valley (starting min 12:10)
  • Awareness as new currency (starting min 14:15)
  • The consumer as main beneficiary (starting min 15:30)
  • The cable and network system has no future (starting min 16:15)
  • But: Television still needs an aggregator (starting min 17:15)
  • Television will suffer the same fate as music and print (min 19:00)

 

In a blog post (Sorry, German!) I wrote two years ago I made a few predictions which have come true already or have even been superseded. That goes to show how fast the TV industry is moving. Amazon is about to break the classic exploitation chain for movies: Cinemas – Rentals – DVD purchase – Television. They want to make feature films available via streaming TV just a few weeks after their premiere in theaters, and only later bring them to stores for purchase. That should also reduce the number of pirated copies considerably.

So what we are seeing is television being re-programmed before our very eyes. Last week Amazon announced that Woody Allen will write and direct a TV series for the company. It will be his first TV series, after more than 60 years of movie-making.

 

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Talk to me – does linear television have a future at all? What would classic television have to do for you to keep you on your couch – or get you there in the first place?

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