I live in LA and met them through work and friends.
I posted your link in one of our group chats. If any of them reach out to you it means they're interested. However, I wouldn't get my hopes up, critiques from the chat thread so far:
-"so it's quibi for black people"
-trying to be BET "for indies" but without backing it up with the funding, marketing, audience, mentorship opportunities, or industry connections
-based on out NY, but the hearts of the black TV industry are Atlanta and LA (BET is hq'd in NY, so I think this one was about where the talent/crew are located rather than the execs)
-featured shows on front page: "First Dates" has promise if marketed properly. "Trifecta" tested poorly with all the women in the chat ("hell no"). Nobody could figure out what "The Retreat" was about and based on the trailer they weren't interested in finding out.
- the website is amateurish, the copy is basic and doesn't inspire interest, and "looks like a fly-by-night operation"
- "they need to hire a marketing team ASAP"
- "it's all stuff BET rejected" (this was from someone who works at BET)
Just for whatever this is worth to you, and I know you probably already know this, but networks rejected Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead, South Park, Mad Men, and, I think most infamously, Stranger Things.
There's nothing wrong with that --- perhaps the networks involved should have rejected those shows! You pick one, you gotta turn down another one. But having more venues specialized in a specific type of show means that, for instance, when BET passes on your thing, it can still find a home somewhere else.
I don't know anything about these particular shows. But look at the first couple episodes of Broad City --- not the extremely successful TV show, but the low budget web series that started it all. I'm inclined not to dismiss things based solely on production quality relative to what's on FX.
Just for clarity, I don't think the commenter you were replying to there is affiliated with this startup. I was confused at first by what you meant by "your link".
gamblor956|4 years ago
I posted your link in one of our group chats. If any of them reach out to you it means they're interested. However, I wouldn't get my hopes up, critiques from the chat thread so far:
-"so it's quibi for black people"
-trying to be BET "for indies" but without backing it up with the funding, marketing, audience, mentorship opportunities, or industry connections
-based on out NY, but the hearts of the black TV industry are Atlanta and LA (BET is hq'd in NY, so I think this one was about where the talent/crew are located rather than the execs)
-featured shows on front page: "First Dates" has promise if marketed properly. "Trifecta" tested poorly with all the women in the chat ("hell no"). Nobody could figure out what "The Retreat" was about and based on the trailer they weren't interested in finding out.
- the website is amateurish, the copy is basic and doesn't inspire interest, and "looks like a fly-by-night operation"
- "they need to hire a marketing team ASAP"
- "it's all stuff BET rejected" (this was from someone who works at BET)
tptacek|4 years ago
There's nothing wrong with that --- perhaps the networks involved should have rejected those shows! You pick one, you gotta turn down another one. But having more venues specialized in a specific type of show means that, for instance, when BET passes on your thing, it can still find a home somewhere else.
I don't know anything about these particular shows. But look at the first couple episodes of Broad City --- not the extremely successful TV show, but the low budget web series that started it all. I'm inclined not to dismiss things based solely on production quality relative to what's on FX.
The rest of these points are probably well taken!
dang|4 years ago