Taylor Hackford from the Directors’ Guild is on now. He says media ownership concentration imperils the work of his members. He argues there is no “diversity of source” for TV content today. He pointed to changes in the ownership structure that over the last decade have driven independent production companies out of existence. Instead of independent suppliers the companies are all controlled by the big nets. And he discounts the potential of the internet to “democratize” or divversify content production. This is a crucial point because here in the Valley there is a lot of myth making about the web’s “democratic” potential when the fact is that it is big money and big corporations that drive the development of most startups.
But can capital really flow to independent producers as he hopes? This is a titanic battle against the flood of Wall Street money into the big established players.