AUTHORS

Disruptomatic
Angela Natividad
Angela Natividad is a freelance copywriter, journalist and strategist based in Paris. She co-founded AdVerveBlog.com, a blog and podcast about ads and design, and writes MarketingProfs' “Get to the Point!: Social Media” newsletters. She likes people and animals, but not as much as books.
Tweet her @luckthelady.
James Martin
James Martin is the community manager of music & TV tradeshows midem & MIPTV/MIPCOM. He edits their respective industry news & trends blogs (blog.midem.com & mipblog.com) and also covers video games and technology for French cultural weekly A Nous Paris
Tweet him at @jamesmart_in
Stuart Dredge
Stuart Dredge is a freelance journalist based in the UK. He writes about digital music for Music Ally, and about apps and mobile for The Guardian, The Sunday Times and The Appside, as well as his own Apps Playground site.
Tweet him @stuartdredge

YouTube Launching 13 French Networks: ‘Producers’ Include Agencies, Websites

It’s all happening. This October, YouTube is launching 13 themed networks for France, which will appear both on the web and on connected TVs.

An RFP was released for programmes to populate the networks, a process that sticks out especially because it wasn’t only major production firms that could enter; agencies and websites were also eligible. Brands that made the cut include production firm Endemol, agency Capa, website Auféminin.com (for women) alongside sister site Marmiton (for cooking); and “new generation” producer “Troisième Oeil” (“Third Eye”). Jean Dujardin, who made a big Stateside splash this year, has also been asked get involved in a comedy project.

The budget for partnering producers may range from 500,000€ to 1,000,000€ for the development of 20 hours of programming. The networks will be closely themed around family, health, cuisine or culture, and — crazier still — the annual programming budget is roughly the equivalent of French primetime network TF1.

Ad profits above and beyond a promised minimum will be split between content creators and YouTube, although pending contracts suggest that producer margins will be squeezed. Producers will also be forbidden from airing their programmes on other media for the first year.

Similar deals are currently being made for YouTube network launches in Germany and the UK.

This Isn’t Daddy’s TV Channel.

Web series Leap Year is now in its second season. And it’s as good as, if not better than, the scripted stuff you’ll find on TV. “Here’s proof that webisodes have come of age,” writes Darryl Ohrt, “with real production value, Hollywood-level talent and writing that makes you want to watch.”

The series airs on Hulu and follows the founders of Silicon Valley’s hottest tech startup. It’s exciting, a little bit over-the-top, and it doesn’t take itself too seriously.

What’s more, the series producer isn’t the garden variety: insurance and reinsurance agency Hiscox targets “businesses and individuals with unusual and often complicated insurance needs.”

Kinda sounds like the description for a fictional Dickensian enterprise that may or may not be magical. Or owned by the mob. Either way, yay! Brave new world.