Hollywood, Television and Technical Innovation: 1900 to Today
Historically, cost imbalance leading to innovation is true for the media and entertainment industry. With the media business, the innovation doesn’t change how we build ships or computers, it changes how we tell stories, which in turn changes the entertainment business.
We are storytellers, but we have always used technology to share our stories. 15 thousand years ago, prehistoric humans used the light of fire to animate cave paintings and tell their story – a form or production, or editing their story. They used the warmth of the fire to attract a crowd to hear the story – a form of marketing their story.
Many forms of storytelling we enjoy today were made possible due to advancements in technology that followed imbalance of costs. Innovations in video technology created new ways to generate raw material, reach audiences and tell stories, and new studios and business models followed. Here is a timeline.
Early 20th Century: Silent Films and The Rise of Hollywood. The invention of celluloid film and advancements in projectors made capturing and projecting moving images practical. A cost drop. The change in cost structure unlocked bigger budgets, which required a new business model. Studios like Edison Studios (founded in 1893) and Biograph Company (founded in 1895) emerged to capitalize on this new technology, laying the groundwork for Hollywood.
1920s: Sound on Film and The Big Five Studios. The integration of sound technology revolutionized filmmaking and pioneered new storytelling techniques. Again, a change in the costs is involved.
The Jazz Singer, released by Warner Bros. on October 6, 1927, was the first feature-length film to include synchronized dialogue.?But on July 6, 1928, the first all-talking feature,?Lights of New York, premiered. The film cost Warner Bros. only $23,000 to produce, but grossed over $1,252,00
Silent film studios struggled to adapt, replaced by new players who embraced sound and thrived. “The Big Five” Hollywood studios were born out of this disruption: MGM, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros., RKO Pictures, and 20th Century Fox (all founded between 1908-1932).
1940s-1950s: The Arrival of Television and Specialized Studios. The widespread adoption of television offered a new platform for entertainment. This period saw a diversification of studios catering to both film and television. Studios like Desilu Productions (founded in 1951) focused specifically on creating television content, catering to the growing demand for TV shows. In 1968, Lucille Ball sold her shares of Desilu Productions to Gulf+Western for $17 million ($155 million today) Gulf+Western later rebranded Desilu as Paramount Television
1980s-1990s: VHS, Home Video and Growth of Cable. Development of VHS tapes and home video players made owning and watching movies at home a reality. Independent studios like Miramax Films and New Line Cinema capitalized on the home video market, offering alternative content often outside the mainstream of major Hollywood studios. These studios found success by catering to niche audiences and exploring diverse genres.
2000 – Today: The Digital Age and Streaming Platforms. The rise of the internet and streaming services like Netflix (founded in 1997) changed content distribution and consumption. Streaming platforms like Netflix and Hulu (founded in 2007) began producing their original content, challenging the dominance of traditional studios in content creation.
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