Idea: LastChance.tv

Idea Pitches
#1

What’s the product?

TV networks regularly cancel awesome shows that have millions of viewers because they don’t have “enough” viewers for advertising purposes…

But the show has millions of viewers… what about what they want?

LastChance.tv is a crowd funding platform that allows passionate fans to pledge cash to keep the show running. In return for pledging cash fans get access to digitally streamed versions of the new series.

If 100,000 viewers of a 2-3 million audience pledge $100 it’s $10m.

LastChance.tv then liaises with the shows producers to try to give 'em the money and get things started.

Who is the ideal customer?

Fans.

What pain does the product solve?

When TV shows are cancelled it sucks.

How will it make money?

It will take a percentage of all funding.

What is the early-stage path to market?

Focus on one very high profile show that was cancelled and market the product from that point forward.

2 Likes
#2

I feel like you need a devil’s advocate section to these idea pitches.

The problem I see is Kickstarter, etc. already exist and have been used for something like this sort of thing (the Veronica Mars movie). Those platforms have many other campaigns to keep them going and keep traffic coming between cancelled shows, which are relatively rare events.

#3

I see 2 main problems:

  • $10m is a lot to raise. But it probably won’t go far in TV land.
  • Existing platforms such as kickstarter could already do this and would be hard to compete against as they already have the audience. What advantage would you have over kickstarter?
#4

I remember reading about how a show called Jericho was cancelled after Season 1 and the fans pestered the producers to continue the show by sending then packets of Nuts.

18,000kg of nuts later they decided to produce Season 2! Maybe they had a nut allergy?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6729411.stm

So committed fans are definitely committed.

  • Are there enough shows like this to make a bushiness?
  • Can a niche crowdfunding site compete against the big established ones?
  • How would this work in the industry - perhaps $10m isn’t enough to totally fund a show but is it enough to make up the shortfall from advertiser revenue and crucially reduce the risk the producers are taking (as the $10m would already be ‘in the bank’ whilst the ad revenue is a total guess).