VideoAge International June/July 2018

8 Book Review June/July 2018 V I D E O A G E By: Luis Polanco L egacy (or linear) television has produced an industry that is closed off and homogenous, and lacks novelty, argues Aymar Jean Chri- stian, an assistant professor of Communications at Northwestern University and a Peabody fellow. His solution? Open TV: Innovation Beyond Hol- lywood and the Rise of Web Television (320 pgs., NYU Press, 2018, $30). “Legacy” television refers to linear network distribution — which consists of broadcast, cable, and premium subscription networks, while open TV alludes to web or networked distribution that focuses on innovation and diversity in its series development, with an emphasis on fan and audience engagement. Recent successful examples of open TV that Christian cites include HBO’s High Maintenance , which originally premiered as a web series on Vimeo, and Comedy Central’s Broad City , which had its start on YouTube. That many of these “legacy” distributors have developed their own networked or OTT platforms — CBS has All Access, HBO has HBO Now, etc.— only bolsters Christian’s claim that television has entered “the networked era,” which he defines as the “convergence of old network and new networked business strategies for developing original TV programming.” The open TV market, Christian explains, has developed “in response to two opposing trends: the tightening of the series production market despite a greater number of distribution channels, and the opening of new TV markets through the Internet’s decentralized distribution system.” Independent and web TV creators — amateurs, film students, and industry professionals living mostly in Los Angeles or New York — were the first to embrace the newmarket, which, Christian argues, “demonstrates the value of more open access to distribution in industries where access has been historically restricted.” Christian remarks that one of the prominent innovations in the open TV market was its diversity. “Web creators often address communities underserved by legacy television development, and many of the most passionate producers create stories about thosemarginalized by race, gender and sexuality, and class in politics and culture,” he writes, speculating that this type of content is often considered too niche to do well in mass distribution. While Christian points out that part of the market’s innovation lies in its honest representation of different races and genders — which he thoroughly explores in his chapter on cultural representation — his focus lacks a persuasive argument exploring the distinctions of class. Christian’s study is most useful in its overview of the history of web series, a rather short period of time when “producers and organizations excluded from legacy television development used the Internet to create models for narrating and financing new stories,” he argues. This period is loosely divided into four parts between 1995 and 2011: the first boom took place from 1995 to 1999; then came the pre- and post-dot- com bust between 1997 and 2001; then the period from 2000 to 2005, when short-form comedy truly shined; and finally the post-YouTube generation after 2006. Out of the initial boom came The Spot , an interactive episodic cyber-soap that incorporated text, photo, and video diaries, even allowing viewers to send fanmail to impact the plot. Web shows like The Spot were followed by other highlights, including Jennifer Kaye Ringley’s JenniCam in the late 1990s and Issa Rae’s Awkward Black Girl in 2011. Elsewhere in his book, Christian discusses money in considering the issue of distribution, which proves to be the greatest struggle in developing an open TV market. It’s hard to compete with “legacy television’s exclusivity, control, and scale in program development,” he says. However, he doesn’t suggest any new business models to overcome this issue. One of the distribution-related problems that Christian finds is the oversupply of uncurated content, pointing to YouTube as a key culprit. Recent years have seen the development of networks, awards shows, and festivals to assess and provide a forum for the open TVmarket. Most notably, festivals like the New York Television Festival (NYTVF), the International Television Festival (ITVFest), and the Los Angeles Web Series Festival (LAWEBFEST), among others, have cropped up, modeling themselves after independent film festivals to acquire Hollywood- level financing. Maintaining these networks and festivals specifically targeted toward independent web series is often a struggle. An example Christian offers is Strike TV, an online network created out of the Writers Guild of America strike of 2007-2008. Where Strike TV went wrong, like many other networks, was the financing for distribution, marketing tools, and personnel. “Independent web content needs support from institutions with visibility, brand recognition, and refined methods for releasing content,” Christian writes. Independent web distribution has been unable to attain sustainable success. “If there is a third way,” Christian muses, it is “on the margins and at small scale, with programming supported directly by the communities that the distributor represents.” At times, Christian places too much emphasis on the advancements of open TV, especially its prioritizingcreativityanddiversityover “corporate media’s distribution strategies.” Interestingly, Christian finds, “What the history ofweb television shows is how new distribution technologies did not break entirely from television.” Instead, web producers and entrepreneurs looking to expand their work through networked distribution often “pursued continuity in legacy business practices.” He even points to research that suggests digital- first and digital-only distributors, like Netflix and Amazon, are no better at diverse representation in terms of race and gender than the networks. Christian critiques: “Instead of focusing on cultural representation, the likes of Netflix and Amazon are intent on improving legacy TV’s organizational and technological efficiency and effectiveness by reinventing the pilot process and series-release conventions.” Where the promise of open TV seems to fall short is in its honesty in representation and scope. Yes, as Christian notes, web TV producers “come from all races, sexualities, ages, and geographic areas.” But if these producers create indie series “for little or no money,” and if, as Christian remarks, “failure is high and payouts are low in markets of innovation,” who is really able to participate? Additionally, Open TV is strictly focused on networked production and distribution in the United States. There is no international perspective in the book’s analysis. Christian concludes: “In the networked era, we have to be honest and critical about who ismaking media, why, for whom, and how their identities influence its production and circulation.” The Future Is Web Series’ Open TV ? Yes, But What Is Its Business Model?