( I know i have to come back to this one and think it through a bit more…)

It’s another day, and  another pure content  play launches in LA. The movie guys see the monitors of the world as a gajillion little movie screens, and seem to be looking to adapt their traditional "We make movies, kid" model to those screens. I can see why they think that makes sense. All those video viewers at YouTube need something to watch, right? And, given the choice, who wouldn’t rather watch something good vs. something bad? When you’ve made your living on blockbusters, you believe "quality" will always trump "Crap".

“60Frames was born out of the belief that the bar for quality content
produced on the Web will rise,” said Jeremy Zimmer, board member and
partner at UTA. "

Are we suffering from a quality crisis online right now? Would more people be watching video online if the quality were better? I don’t think that’s the case. Oh, don’t get me wrong, 60frames will make money. There’s clearly an opportunity for a company like this. Corporate Marketing Weasels like me will always want. to work with companies like this, assuming their experiences in Hollywood will lower our risk of failure and increase the chances we’ll do something great. Plus, secretly, a lot of us will feel our jobs will be more interesting and we’ll be cooler by associating with the Hollywood types.

And, i can see why UTA and SpotRunner invested. There’s value in being in this space if a) You’re an ad distribution company like Spot Runner and b) you want to find good talent before anyone else (UTA). But, why is this a good financial investment for anyone? Do you really need 3.5MM to get this business going? Sure, they may be planning on investing the capital into the productions to own the license to the content they create. And, there are production fees that needed to be fronted. But,  it sure seems like they could get this off the ground with less capital, and, i’m sure hoping they’ve given some thought to some of the points Marc Andreeson (and others) about raising too much money.

More importantly, as the internet explodes the business model of "old media" like the movie companies (content creators/distributors) and the networks (distributors) and the talent agencies realize anyone can be a star (access to the "best" talent), what is really, truly, the role of content? Good luck guys!

Please, go back and re-read this report from Spencer Wang at Bear Stearns and this comment from Chris Anderson about how "content is only as valuable as your ability to find it".