Black Hulu: Creating a Home for Independent Black Video
by Guest Contributor Aymar Jean Christian, originally published at Televisual
When new technologies emerge a host of new companies tend to sprout up. Tons of independent radio stations catering to diverse interests before 1970s-style deregulation. Digital technology brought dozens of new channels to television; that same technology fostered numerous production companies making independent TV and films. Now the drive to create original web video — a trend that dates back to the late 1990s, but has gained new steam with broadband and YouTube post-2006 — has attracted new voices previously unheard. We have corporately produced web series, but also black web series and series made with virtually no budget at all.
Well, that’s great. But how do you distribute and promote all these shows and videos? Anyone can create a video, but if, like my YouTube videos, nobody sees them, then there isn’t much a point. Sure, decently endowed websites now fund and promote web shows. But what about black content, in many cases prone to smaller audiences?
Enter the sites pictured above. Entrepreneurs, keen to the problem of distribution, have created sites where folks looking for black content can go. Surprisingly it looks like all these sites are coming out around the same time — now. As noted in my article in The Root, BET.com is just now getting into the market for original web shows; there’s been a lack of visibility from major black media companies. In my interviews I found numerous black producers didn’t know of the other black shows debuting online.
BetterBlackTV (BBTV) looks like one of the more well-funded of the sites: it counts among its list of backers both Denzel Washington and Will Smith and is headed by Percy Miller (Master P). (If the site is smart, it will do what FunnyOrDie did when it launched and have both of those actors star in short, funny videos for BBTV, as Will Ferrell did for FoD). The site calls itself “family friendly,” which could be a potential boon or a crutch.
BBTV looks like good business. It feels like a network, offering a diverse slate of programming, slickly organized and easily accessible. Not to be outdone by BET.com and Blackplanet, it has a built-in social networking site and hopefully will allow users to connect via Facebook and Twitter. Most important, I think, was the decision to include music videos, which are among the most popular kinds of video online today. That’ll bring young people, if the videos are new and high quality — and landing exclusives would be crucial. There’s a store attached to the site, which, if the creators have some vision, might be used to sell products integrated into the original programming made for the site (see Koldcast’s “ShowShops.”)
Page 1 of 2 | Next page