The Knowledge is a series of interviews with leading screen industry figures, conducted by experienced film journalist Andrew Urban and published via the CSB blog.
Bill Schultz - biography
Bill Schultz is a three-time Emmy-award winning animation producer (The Simpsons, Jakers! The Adventures of Piggley Winks) with more than 20 years experience in the entertainment industry. As one of the three principals at Mike Young Productions (MYP) and Taffy Entertainment, Schultz has grown the company into one of the most successful independent animation studios around today. In 2007, Schultz spearheaded the successful launch of Kabillion, a multi-platform kids entertainment service, available both as a free video on-demand (VOD) channel and a free online site.
Schultz also serves as executive producer on MYP’s latest productions, including the Emmy-nominated shows Growing Up Creepie and ToddWorld, and the Emmy Award-winning Jakers! The Adventures of Piggley Winks. In addition, Schultz was nominated for an Emmy in 2007 as a co-writer of the song Take a Look Inside from the series ToddWorld. Located in Los Angeles, the company operates a 25,000 square-foot state-of-the-art digital studio which employs more than 100 people.
Audio download
Chapter 1 - Shifting business models - 10 minutes
- Kabillion business model – VOD for kids, with original content
- New business model – online
- Part of the emerging, so called ‘zero-billion’ industry
- Currently all revenue is from advertising
- Looking at subs and transactions
- Children have big buying influence
- EG Online Penguin, sold to Disney for $700 million
- Vertical integration benefits
- It’s a shifting time, shifts in power
Video downloads
Chapter 2 - Content and consumption - 11 minutes
- Proof that content is king
- Digital production and distribution is exciting – for emerging players
- Limiting factor is server capacity – now have 10 hours online programming
- Refresh each month, so 25% each week
- VOD has tremendous measuring tools
- We are in 14 million households, can tell what’s watched and how often
- Data available is very precise re usage – but not so precise in demographics
- Ad rates developing on CPM rates
- Scalability of Kabillion is exciting
Video downloads
