Open Television Studio

OTV Studio closes the widening gap between increased global demand for culturally specific, unique stories and systemic under-investment in artists whose stories are the most underrepresented in Hollywood. Investing in the development and production of short-form digital projects to build a  pathway to long-form development, OTV Studio offers financial, professional, and creative support to emerging intersectional artists, launching new storytellers and stories in a sustainable, cost effective way. OTV Studio builds on the success of the Emmy- and Webby-nominated non-profit distribution platform OTV | Open Television (http://weareo.tv). As OTV's artists rise in the industry – gaining representation, selling feature films, staffing major TV shows – they are eager to keep working with OTV but require more resources to thrive. OTV Studio leverages OTV artist success to reinvest in new new talent, slingshotting the film and television industry into a sustainable, vibrant future.

Americans have not fully reckoned with the consequences of the fact that more than 80% of series creators and executive producers remain white, straight, cis, upper middle class men, extending who gets to be seen as valuable. We cannot build solidarity across cultural divides until we lift up stories that for decades have been marginalized. The problem lies not in individual tokenism or success but rather in the system from which television shows emerge: the development process. As I argue in my book Open TV (NYU Press 2018), the process is largely unchanged since the 20th century, when channels were few and bigotry more acceptable. Shows are developed in Los Angeles, requiring millions of dollars in development costs before audiences ever see a series, an archaic holdover in a digital world where projects can be any length and distributed globally. As seen with Issa Rae, Lena Waithe, and Justin Simien, among many others, short-form storytelling attracts audiences more cheaply with less risk for investors, opening up historical barriers to entry while also making the development process more efficient. Furthermore, long-form series developed from short-form series have lasted more seasons on average than those developed through the legacy development process.

OTV Studio is a for-profit spin-off of OTV | Open Television. After celebrating OTV’s Emmy nomination and the hiring of OTV alumni at HBO, Netflix, Showtime, and NBC, among others, OTV Studio seeks to bring investment to emerging creators and cultivate critical relationships with agencies, studios and networks. For the past 5 years, OTV has invested in artists who Hollywood recognizes as valuable, and now it’s time to formalize the process of not only developing OTV creator work but also developing the artists themselves and preparing them for careers in Hollywood, complete with introductions to industry insiders. OTV Studio takes an intellectual property share of 10 - 20 short-form series, pilots, films, and concepts annually and leverages online/mobile/festival exhibition to catalyze sales of higher-budget, higher-impact long-form series and films, from which it takes a percentage of seven-figure production budgets. OTV Studio has done the careful work of forming the right relationships across the industry to usher our artists through a process by which they can reach new levels in their careers. We empower those whose voices have been ignored and stifled in order to give them space, resources, time, and support in order to unleash their narrative power.

Our solution serves three primary stakeholders. First, our ecosystem of creators need OTV Studio to not only invest in the projects and professional development, but to broker connections to the larger studios,networks, production companies, and representatives that OTV Studio execs have already developed relationships with. Getting in front of decision-makers whowill provide opportunities for advancement is difficult, especially if one lives outside of the production epicenter (i.e. Los Angeles). Secondarily, studios, networks, production companies, and representatives need OTV Studio, because the industry hasn’t yet established a successful pathway for historically underrepresented artists, whose stories overperform in periods of technological or industrial transition (e.g. black sitcoms amid the rise of cable in the 90s, or the rise of queer representation amid streaming). OTV Studio assists the film industry by finding and developing artists into professionals who are capable of leading viable, marketable projects. And lastly, though just as importantly, creating this pathway to successful Hollywood careers for intersectional creators ultimately benefits the audiences who remain bereft of entertainment in which they get to see the full expanse of identity, culture, and perspective. This is a tall order, with many moving parts, and OTV Studio is up to the challenge.

Our project is focused on economic inclusion and building a sustainable economy. As an artist and intellectual property incubator leveraging the web to value our stories and communities, OTV Studio's goal is to develop artists as owners/executive producers of their stories, reinvesting profits to develop an ecosystem of emerging artists. Research shows diverse EPs hire more diverse writers and crews. Many "diverse" Hollywood projects are actually owned by people who don't come from the communities represented. Transforming who creates and owns stories is essential to transforming the labor supply chain and the depth of the stories we see and share.

Revolutionizing development is critical to making it representative of the communities that tune in. The high-cost and LA-centered nature of development limits representation. Hollywood is ripe for disruptive innovation that companies like Netflix, Amazon, and Apple are unable to carry forth. Tech companies hired executives from legacy media, buying and developing series in similar ways.

For 5 years, OTV | Open Television has leveraged the internet, piloting shows not for executives but for live online with communities of potential fans. The company develops short-form projects outside of Los Angeles, leveraging tax credits in Illinois and other states and the immense appetite among talented artists who simply cannot afford to live in Los Angeles and lack the social networks to get noticed. This is a bottom-up native-digital approach to television that has not yet been fully realized in Hollywood, despite failed attempts by media conglomerates to create short-form studio subsidiaries. 

The work of expanding and diversifying our storytellers is best done by entities outside of the system who can connect new talent with Hollywood studios, agents, and buyers who are too engrossed in business-as-usual to make radical change. We are a company run by women, Black, and queer people and have cultivated a slate of projects selected from dozens of storytellers with whom we have collaborated for over 5 years.

Our model is focused on R&D: developing a greater number of short-form stories, distributing them online, and using data about its circulation and industry trends to optimize sales to long-form adaptations.

The OTV | Open Television model from which OTV Studio is branching out from leverages open-access and subscriber-based web platforms for building audiences outside of Hollywood. Thanks to grants from the MacArthur Foundation, Surdna Foundation, Pop Culture Collaborative, and the Field Foundation, the OTV non-profit distribution platform is launching a suite of mobile and connected TV apps in the summer of 2020 to expand our distribution beyond Vimeo. The OTV Studio projects will have guaranteed distribution through the OTV app ecosystem, supported by a full-time marketing team starting in 2021. But it will also be able to do deals with established streamers like Netflix and Quibi, or emerging streamers like Ficto and EKO.

For five years, the OTV | Open Television platform has generated millions of views on our content online, but we view our greatest success in the culture space. With over 70 pilots, series and video art works released over 52 OTV-hosted screenings in Chicago and dozens more with local and national festivals, OTV has developed a new generation of artists. Our programs have received recognition, exhibition and nominations from major film and TV festivals (Tribeca Film Festival, New York Television Festival, Chicago International Film Festival, SeriesFest), award shows (Emmys, Webbys, Streamys, Gothams, IAWTV), and institutions and funders (MacArthur Foundation, Surdna Foundation, and the City of Chicago, among many others). We are particularly proud to have two Streamy wins (Brown Girls, the T) and five nominations, and for our Emmy- and Webby nominations, where we were the only projects of our kind. OTV programs have been covered over 200 times in the media, including by The New York Times, TIME, Chicago Tribune, ELLE, Vice, and AV Club, among many others. I'm now an associate professor at Northwestern University who earned tenure in part from this project, and thus have published several peer-reviewed articles on how OTV reimagines development for the digital age.

OTV Studio diversifies the nation's -- and increasingly the world's -- storytellers to  expand our collective understanding of how identities are differently experienced, oppressed and valuable. For example, as a recent report by Color of Change found, the vast majority of television shows with cops have police officers in a lead role, rarely facing repercussions for excessive force, in series largely written and created by white men. It is no wonder, then, that police budgets have swelled over the past few decades as social services have been cut. Television has tremendous power. Our theory of change insists that the identities of series creators and executive producers matter, as they hire writing teams more representative of the country; here, we build on another study by San Diego State University that shows how women directors and producers hire more women.

There is a misconception in Hollywood that historically marginalized storytellers only write for their specific communities and cannot reach broad audiences. In fact, as this study and this study show, diverse shows have bigger audiences and identities considered "niche," like black movies and TV shows, have global appeal.

With OTV  | Open Television we seek to prove a theory that, even when audiences for specific shows are small or niche, this also has transformative power. For example, many attribute Will & Grace to growing acceptance of gay marriage in America. In fact, it could be said that straight viewers watching Will & Grace were already queer accepting, but the show empowered closeted LGBTQ+ people to come out to their families, thus facilitating change. This supports decades-old research in communication studies that argues the role of media is to educate and empower critical nodes/leaders in information networks to  communicate to others on an interpersonal level, where trust is higher.

We currently have two dozen projects on our slate and about as many artists. Next year we hope to add another dozen. In five years we hope that number to approach 50 artists and projects. However, our reach is best calculated by the number of potential audience members who will engage with our stories. That number can easily jump into the millions once at least one series is sold into long-form development, and this could also happen relatively quickly with the release of short-form projects online.

Our goal is to become the go-to studio for emerging, historically untapped storytellers in television and film. In the next year, our plan is to secure one development deal for a new long-form show and produce 3-5 short-form projects to release online and build an audience around to catalyze further long-form sales. Seed funding is critical for this, and it goes without saying that Black entrepreneurs struggle to find investor connections. There has already been one show on our slate that has pitched to a major broadcast network that we missed out on because of a lack of seed funding.

Once we get OTV artists and shows in the Hollywood ecosystem, we can reach millions of people, and each success will allow us to develop and then sell more shows. In television today, one show employs three to a dozen writers, potentially more, who each may have a show of their own to sell. Diverse TV shows tend to do well in ratings or streams.

By year five, our goal is to have co-production or executive producer credits on 3-5 long-form series with at least 10-12 short-form projects produced, ensuring long-term sustainable growth.

There are very few funding opportunities for creative media start-ups, even as creative media is what trends online and creates cultural shifts.. Venture capital firms operate on short-term results and returns, and tend to fund scalable tech as opposed to scalable culture. We do have connections to non-profits, some of whom have impact investing arms, and we are in those conversations. But Hollywood moves quickly, and we are eager to leverage our industry connections before the pandemic and resulting economic crisis shifts the terrain. Finally, as a company owned by two Black people, we lack the social networks necessary to find private investment. OTV has a better track record of launching proven talent and receiving competitive wins and nominations from festivals, awards and guilds than most other media start-ups. One of our founders is a nationally recognized expert in web-based television. Yet the predominance of racism in the investor class means our blackness overshadows our significant accomplishments.

To gain solid advice and strategic connections, we are currently onboarding our first board members, including art collector & OTV (non-profit) advisory board member Jane Saks, who has connections to wealthy investors and large production companies and a track record of developing nationally recognized artists like Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage. In order to secure the seed funding needed to go full force, we have already applied to the New Media Ventures fund, having gained introductions to the NMV team through our connections to the MacArthur Foundation and Annenberg Innovation Lab at USC. Towards our efforts to continually expand our network of high-profile industry insiders, the dean of the School of Communication at Northwestern University, among others, has offered additional connections to prestigious alumni, many of whom are high-level executives in Hollywood. Finally, in order to formalize our processes, we have compiled a database of dozens of executives who've reached out to OTV over the past five years whom we are currently  nurturing, including notable industry players we’ve connected with through our partnership with the Sundance Institute. OTV Studio co-founder Dr. Christian is a fellow of Sundance’s new Impact Guild, which is introducing us to media executives in the social impact field. As the OTV platform launches a new app, we are securing multi-year funding to ensure the regular release of new programs, thus maintaining our brand recognition in the industry. Lastly, the OTV non-profit board is aware of this for-profit spin-off and continually making new beneficial connections.

Two full-time staff (CEO Stephanie Jeter and Chief Business Development Officer Julie Keck). One part-time team member (AJ Christian). We also have a slate of two dozen projects, each with 1-2 creators. These are part-owners in subsidiary companies demarcated by slate.

For at least 10 years, each OTV Studio team member has been working in their respective and overlapping fields to not only create their own creative or academic work, but also to create valuable support for artists and deep networks throughout the industry. OTV Studio co-founder Dr. AJ Christian has spent his academic career researching how the internet transformed the art of television and expanded cultural representation in media, culminating in his first book Open TV and the non-profit OTV platform. After five years, OTV is now a thriving hub connecting artists, audiences and industry. OTV artists have been nominated for Emmys, Streamys, and more, and secured jobs as writers, directors, actors, and more, for such companies as CBS, Showtime, NBC, Netflix, Comedy Central, and more. After graduating from DePaul University’s film program, Stephanie Jeter dove into production management for television, blockbusters, and commercials for 10 years. Stephanie’s professional career on big budget sets gave her the experience to understand how filmmakers can make the jump from independent film to Hollywood. Julie Keck brings yet another set of overlapping experience and collaborators. Having produced almost two dozen web series for and about queer women, Julie shared what she had learned about creative entrepreneurship in her book Social Media Charm School, teaching on a national speaking tour at film festivals, schools, and other industry events. In 2019 Julie earned an MBA with a focus on sustainability and innovation, adding to her toolbox strategies needed to support intersectional artists moving forward.

We are mostly closely partnered with the OTV | Open Television non-profit, which provides a consistent pipeline of promising, diverse talent from Chicago and, increasingly, across the country. We are in regular conversations and meetings with production companies, studios, networks, and agents in Los Angeles about developing new content. While some of these partnerships may solidify without much seed funding, funding will help us catalyze deals by allowing us to fund and release short-form concepts of our intellectual property online, as well as allowing our current team to dedicate more effort and expertise to this endeavor full-time.

The core of our model is revenue from sales and licensing of intellectual property (series and films). The buyers for the IP include production companies, studios, and networks, primarily. We solve a critical problem in Hollywood where there is genuine appetite for diversity but not a deep well of talent because of decades of exclusion (see NYT). We have IP: scripts, pitch decks, and produced short-form projects. We work with writers to edit and shape these ideas to be attractive to partners, with whom we're in regular conversation. Production companies, studios, or senior writers (executive producers) can take our ideas and shop them to distributors, or we could deal directly with distributors, which would make finding studio partners easier. We have found that the best way to speed up the sales process is to  fund the production of a shorter, cheaper version of the story (episodes in the 10-15 minute range as opposed to the 30-60 minute industry standard) and release it directly to audiences online. Because our audiences are under-served and there is a growing infrastructure for valuing short-form (including leading festivals like Sundance, Tribeca and SXSW), these stories can generate value outside of Hollywood, providing data that the IP has marketing potential. Secondarily, we will represent our slate artists in order to facilitate hiring by networks and studios for writer’s rooms and directing opportunities. When a slate artist we represent is hired, OTV Studio takes a standard fee that goes back into the development of emerging artists.

Revenue in television is generated through a return on shares of intellectual property across the development, production, and distribution of a series. Producers and IP holders are paid in several ways: 1) for the development deal, which initiates the process of a studio or network working on shaping the script to their needs before entering production (range: $10,000-$100,000 split between us and the artist); 2) as a percentage (5-10%) of writing fees per episode (averaging $50,000); 3) as a percentage (average 1-10%) of production costs once an idea gets a "green light" ($1-5 million per episode for a minimum of six episodes), and 4) a percentage (average 1-5%) of residuals based licensing the series to different distributors/channels in different global territories across different time periods ("windows"), though this business is slowly drying up because of global streamers like Netflix (producers for legacy broadcasters like CBS still make millions through this business).

We need to diversify our social networks to get connections to investors, board members, and advisors.

We also believe the exposure for receiving this award will allow us to communicate our value more concretely to our partners. We want the world to know we have a innovative solution to the lack of representation in media and that we have been vetted for having an idea that is thoroughly thought through. Hollywood runs on buzz. There are many examples of creative media companies in film & television that securing partnerships and investment simply off of good press and attention.

We have a firm grasp of how money is made in Hollywood, but we would love connections to mentors who can help us better communicate the potential for returns to investors. We are still in the process of building our board and could use a respected board member to encourage others to steward the project. As mentioned before, we think winning this prize will assist in our efforts to show the world how we are innovating in the development process in Hollywood using new media as a tool.

We could foresee partnerships in current Solvers in finding original stories of covering the many struggles that face our world.

Our core staff are both women and a majority of the artists we serve are women.

We serve artists who are adults who are seeking sustainable employment in an industry that has historically excluded them using technology to innovate in the development process.