Strategically, are you trying to be a brand, a studio, a platform, an marketplace, or maybe all the above? I think the question I have is what to try to build first.
As a brand, I see you trying to become a trusted provider of content for an underserved black-identifying audience with diverse tastes. To build brand first, I wonder if you don't want to put BlackOak-curated content out on existing media platforms. That could be #BlackOakRecommends on twitter.
As a studio, and one competing with other producers, how will you differentiate yourselves to content creators? I guess that starts with the ability to get one's content in front of subscribers, but is there something beyond audience (which you are building), and money (which you are growing), that you can offer creators? Maybe that is access to and information about audience.
As a platform, you are starting with UScreen.tv, and categorically the questions I have are how does your consumption experience road map and analytics & recommendations road map line up with theirs? How will you be able to deploy your own tech relative to theirs? Analytics might differentiate you. Netflix reportedly does not share much. How might you be able (through analytics) to inform creators about audience response through your platform? Can you use analytics uniquely to reinforce and maintain the trust of your audience - e.g., when the platform recommends a video or creator to a user, be able to answer the user's question "Why am I seeing this?"
As a market place, you are an intermediary between content consumers and content creators. How do they to find each other and be rewarded from that - how users browse and how you recommend would be central. Maybe you license curator channels on your site. Perhaps that is in part potentially how you are able to connect creators directly to audiences, i.e. like hosted artist's pages. Perhaps the "BlackOak artist's page" is the place that consolidates an artist's identity, catalog and channels - twitter, instagram, twitch, etc - vs the artist's own page, youtube channel, weebly, etc. So, that's MySpace, of yore, on BlackOak.
If there's a theme to all this, I would say it is how to make consumers, curators, and creators more visible in relation to a consumption experience. Ideas are cheap! good luck with everything.
To your point, we are trying to be all of things... and I would add community to that list.
In terms of where we're starting, I'd say we've headed down the dual path of curator and studio. Five years ago, I think we could've been just a curator and come out earlier with a differentiated product. But today, with so many curated options out there, content differentiation was something we felt was key (and a part of our go to market).
With those paths, we offer creators at a certain point in their journeys they don't get elsewhere: investment. And at the same time, our viewers get to be among the first to discover new talent.
But like you said, we have lots to do to prove ourselves to many entities... so we know we have our work cut out for us!
It talks about how they could act like a software company by letting their suppliers take inventory risk. I feel like there could be a parallel here in BlackOakTV - perhaps by enabling independent studios to self-finance and have upside in the success of their content.
As a brand, I see you trying to become a trusted provider of content for an underserved black-identifying audience with diverse tastes. To build brand first, I wonder if you don't want to put BlackOak-curated content out on existing media platforms. That could be #BlackOakRecommends on twitter.
As a studio, and one competing with other producers, how will you differentiate yourselves to content creators? I guess that starts with the ability to get one's content in front of subscribers, but is there something beyond audience (which you are building), and money (which you are growing), that you can offer creators? Maybe that is access to and information about audience.
As a platform, you are starting with UScreen.tv, and categorically the questions I have are how does your consumption experience road map and analytics & recommendations road map line up with theirs? How will you be able to deploy your own tech relative to theirs? Analytics might differentiate you. Netflix reportedly does not share much. How might you be able (through analytics) to inform creators about audience response through your platform? Can you use analytics uniquely to reinforce and maintain the trust of your audience - e.g., when the platform recommends a video or creator to a user, be able to answer the user's question "Why am I seeing this?"
As a market place, you are an intermediary between content consumers and content creators. How do they to find each other and be rewarded from that - how users browse and how you recommend would be central. Maybe you license curator channels on your site. Perhaps that is in part potentially how you are able to connect creators directly to audiences, i.e. like hosted artist's pages. Perhaps the "BlackOak artist's page" is the place that consolidates an artist's identity, catalog and channels - twitter, instagram, twitch, etc - vs the artist's own page, youtube channel, weebly, etc. So, that's MySpace, of yore, on BlackOak.
If there's a theme to all this, I would say it is how to make consumers, curators, and creators more visible in relation to a consumption experience. Ideas are cheap! good luck with everything.