Building A Billion-Dollar Enterprise, 25: An ugly milestone; a way forward; a huge question.

A couple of my Facebook friends shared links today to an article in the New Pittsburgh Courier about the disappearance of black-owned television stations in the U.S. (not "reduction," not "decimation" - disappearance. There are now none.)

In the article's comments section, reader Rob Wilson, after acknowledging "the power and influence of the mass media," says:

"My suggestion would be to quit lamenting the fact that we don't own old technology and instead leverage new technologies that have no barriers to entry."

In so saying, Mr. Wilson is preaching what he practices as the owner of a blog (like me!) and a YouTube channel (like me!). For him, the death of Black-owned televisions stations marks not a dead end, but a change in direction.

His comments led me to think about how to make best use of Homewood Nation's YouTube channel.

I decided to see what the most popular YouTube channels do.

The first response to my Google search for "most popular YouTube channels" was a list of the top 100 most subscribed channels, at vidstatsx.com.

According to that list, here are the top 10:

One Hundred Most Subscribed Channel Rankings List by Subscribers

Video Producer	Sub Rank	Subscribers	24 Hour Sub +/-	7 Day Sub +/-	Videos	Views
Video Producer	Sub Rank	Subscribers	24 Hour Sub +/-	7 Day Sub +/-	Videos	Views
PewDiePie	1	19,230,846	2,453,631	2,453,631	1.6K	3.19 B
YouTube Spotlight	2	19,035,715	2,258,500	2,258,500	187	384.3 M
Movies	3	15,966,415	38,988	247,302	0	0
Smosh	4	15,038,347	30,038	217,959	337	2.87 B
HolaSoyGerman	5	14,255,691	30,286	205,617	95	949.2 M
JennaMarbles	6	11,943,560	17,390	106,135	175	1.33 B
RihannaVEVO	7	11,913,795	14,950	121,570	83	4.54 B
nigahiga	8	11,278,526	14,345	96,604	173	1.67 B
TV Shows	9	11,139,532	3,544	28,040	0	0
OneDirectionVEVO	10	11,007,255	17,799	142,322	83	2.34 B

Quick observations:

1 - The #1 channel, PewDiePie, is listed as having just under 19,231,000 subscribers. As of this writing, there are 19,242,643.

2 - During the week of Dec. 9, according to Nielsen, the most-viewed series on primetime network TV, NCIS, drew 19,297,000 viewers.

3 - Three of the top 10 channels are YouTube-branded channels - Spotlight, Movies, and TV Shows.

4 - Two channels, Rihanna and OneDirection, belong to celebrities.

5 - Half of the top 10 channels - five of 10 - belong to seemingly ordinary people who set out to make people laugh. Comedy is big. Very big.

I have always envied people who can make people laugh.

Hm. Could Homewood Nation produce satire?

For some time, I have envisioned a weekly video series (working title, "Homewood Nation Week in Review") - perhaps one segment of that, which could stand on its own, would be a 3-5 minute clip satirizing some aspect of the week's news.

Or maybe not: the 14th ranked YouTube channel, Epic Rap Battles of History, does not seem overly dependent on the news for its content, which I will not even attempt to describe. Just watch.



In any case, the idea is there: short, funny, topical videos could provide value.

Another thing worth noting. ERBH posts new episodes every two weeks. YouTube producers have flexibility in when to broadcast their content. I like the idea of a weekly broadcast, but not everything has to follow that schedule.

There's lots more to think about - the differences between stations and networks, the opportunities afforded (or not) by new digital networks, the increasing ability to watch YouTube on TVs, the possibility of a channel hosting subscriber-created content - but I don't want spend ALL of 2013's final hours on this. I will end with just one question of gigantic importance to my 2014 - and maybe Homewood's:

What type of content would you like to see on Homewood Nation's YouTube channel?

(AN HOUR LATER) - WOW. I just realized that I should ask a second question, which may be more powerful than the first: Would you like to provide content for Homewood Nation's YouTube channel, and if so, what kind?

(GOTTA get past that do-it-all mentality; it's not about me, it's about the work, and the work includes releasing/unveiling the potential of other people.)

Building a billion-dollar enterprise, 15 - Notes in preparation for a really big week.

Tomorrow is going to be such a big day that by the end of it, I may want to sleep for a week.

No such luck.

Early Wednesday morning, I will drag myself out of bed to catch a 7 a.m. flight for Los Angeles. From Wednesday afternoon through Friday night, I will enjoy/endure a whirlwind of meetings put together by my friend Andrew W. Thornhill.

At least, mostly put together by him. The first one, Wednesday evening, will be the regular monthly meeting of the Black Association of Documentary Filmmakers West (BADWest). I expect good content from the presentation, but the real purpose is to be in the room with a group of documentary filmmakers. The relationships established Wednesday evening could prove transformative for me, especially if I wind up acquiring 1015 N. Homewood Ave., redeveloping it, and making a documentary about the process.

Anyway, after that comes the whirlwind.

I want to be on my toes for all of it, but the meeting which offers the greatest apparent opportunity will be an informal sitdown with Joseph Collins. Mr. Collins is President and Co-Chairman of the Board of Directors of IC Places, Inc., the corporate parent of Punch Television Network, aka Punch TV. Punch is one of the numerous TV networks that sprung up after the transition from analog to digital television left all of America's 1,700 full-service TV stations with four channels, where they had previously had one. According to the press release announcing its first annual stockholders meeting, Punch ended 2012 with 38 partner stations.

I will spend much of the next three days studying the company's annual reports, along with the information on its websites. As with Joe Ciotti in tomorrow's meeting, the word that seems to best describe what I want to do with Mr. Collins is "seduce." I want to make him want to work with me. Not to pitch a specific project. To have him know that Luminaria Productions can offer a variety of projects over the next 2-3 years.

Or as Dov Simens taught me to say in "From Reel To Deal," "I have multiple projects in various stages of development."

Such as? Well, besides the aforementioned documentary on the redevelopment of 1015 N. Homewood, which would also be about Homewood itself, there's:

1. "The Laundry" - a dramatic TV series about the professional and personal challenges faced by staff and residents of a rehab facility/program that boasts one of the highest success rates in the field ("Come in dirty, leave clean"). The idea was hatched by actor-writer Atticus Cain, known around Homewood as William Robinson, who is also our tenant and one of my closest friends.

3. Either a one-hour TV special or a feature length documentary on Naomi Sims, the Westinghouse alum who became America's first black supermodel. This would build on work already done and already being done: Kilolo Luckett and I partnered last year for a tribute to Naomi Sims, and are planning a 2nd Annual Tribute on March 30, which would have been Ms. Sims 65th birthday. That tribute can be a major piece of a TV program/documentary.

4. "The Nature of Love" - a feature film (drama); a married woman unwittingly falls in love with a man who plans to kill her family. Both this and "The Moses Effect," below, are scripts that I have worked on, and need to finish anyway.

5. "The Moses Effect" - a feature film (comedy); a small town is thrown into chaos when the world's most advanced surveillance system enforces every law on the books, including absurd ones.

Did you see what I did there? I skipped #2. That's because if Mr. Collins expresses any level of interest, and if I have any choice about what to produce for/with Punch, the 1015 N. Homewood doc would be my second choice. "The Laundry" would be my first.

Why?

Jobs.

The desire to create jobs is a very large part of my motivation for building Luminaria Productions. And while even a small indie film can create 50+ jobs, my thinking is that a TV series would create more jobs for a longer period of time than a one-time project.

...okay, there's a second reason.

Financing. Which deserves its own post.

March Monday morning media madness

Nothing to do with basketball, but I've just noticed a couple of articles from the world of media that have my head spinning a bit.

First, from TheWrap.com, the news that talk-show titan Larry King has partnered with Carlos Slim to create a digital television network.

The article says the network will be headed by one Jon Housman, who "previously served as president of digital journalism at News Corporation and was the publisher of the Wall Street Europe."

The New York-based network, dubbed Ora.TV, will begin programming later this year.

This is just the latest example of full-blown networks seeming to appear out of thin air since most U.S. broadcasters made transition to digital television on June 12, 2009. Back in September, Bounce TV, geared towards the mature African-American demographic, made its premiere, less than six months after its founding last April. 

According to Wikipedia, "The founding group and initial ownership team includes former Atlanta mayor and United Nations Ambassador Andrew Young, Martin Luther King III, and Andrew "Bo" Young III; the group also includes Rob Hardy and Will Packer, the co-founders of Rainforest Films, a top African-American production company."

Fifty years ago, creating a network meant building stuff. Now it seems to mean - primarily, if not exclusively - just making the deals. The stuff - the hardware, the infrastructure - is already there. There's even enough programming already in existence to launch a network without creating any new material (Bounce's first program was an airing of "The Wiz."). And if your deal is for a single channel rather than a network, you can just run video of chickens being roasted. Snag the asset, and you can figure out what to do with it later.

Anyway, a talk show host and a telephone magnate are creating a television network to be headed by a guy with a mainly print background. Verrrrry interesting.

Second, also from The Wrap - CNN is in talks buy Mashable, and may pay $200 million.

WHAT???

Granted, Mashable's 20 million readers a month make it "one of the most popular sources of technology information on the web," but does Mashable make enough money to justify a $200 million pricetag? Or is CNN, more than a decade after the dot-com bust, just buying eyeballs?

Well, maybe the big boys are just looking for eyeballs again. The third piece of news that made me blink is from the Wall Street Journal: Instagram is preparing a round of financing that would value the company at $500 million.

This, in spite of the fact that Instagram's "success in attracting users has yet to translate into significant revenue in the way it has for some desktop-oriented Internet companies."

This, in spite of the fact that Instagram is only an app, "that lacks the real estate of a desktop for displaying advertising."

Ah, but it has 15 million users on iPhones alone, and the company has plans to port the app to Android.

Okayyyy.....

Over the past year, dealmakers have been partying like it's 1999. And that was before Yelp's IPO trading pushed its valuation to nearly $1.5 billion. In eight years, Yelp has yet to turn a profit.

Really makes me wonder what kind of valuation Luminaria Productions could fetch if I devoted myself to getting eyeballs on "Homewood Nation." Maybe I should stop asking what it would take to make $5,000, $10,000, or even $50,000 or $60,000 a month (the latter figure based on the datum from Mani Saint-Victor, CEO of game development company Marveloper, that the average online game pulls in $2,000 a day), and start asking what it would take to build a billion-dollar company.

Whoa, Elwin - do you seriously believe that you can build a billion-dollar company?

Not necessarily. But I absolutely believe that if I act like I can, I might.