BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE : OCTOBER 23, 2000 ISSUE
BUSINESS WEEK E.BIZ -- SPECIAL REPORT Retakes Hollywood dot-coms are finding there isn't a big appetite for short films on the Net. Now, they're scrambling to change their business strategies to stay afloat. ICEBOX.COM Founded: November, 1999. Funding: $15 million. Investors: Incubated by eCompanies. Old plan: Use top Hollywood talent to produce original programming for the Web to stoke demand from traditional media outlets. New plan: The site recently licensed an animated series to Showtime, which will produce it as a prime-time series. But the Net version will not appear first on the Web. Instead, the show will be broadcast simultaneously online and on Showtime's Sci-Friday night lineup. IFILM.COM Founded: October, 1998. Funding: $42 million. Investors: Paul Allen, Quincy Jones, Sony Pictures Digital Entertainment, Kodak, Roy Disney, Liberty Digital, and Director Steve Tisch. Old plan: Pay for content, namely short films, to be distributed over the Net. New plan: Still a film shorts aggregator but no longer pays for content. Has morphed into a business-to-business Web site that charges subscription fees to connect people in the film industry. POP.COM Founded: October, 1999. Funding: $50 million. Investors: DreamWorks SKG, Imagine Entertainment, Paul Allen. Old plan: Produce and broadcast original Net-only programming. Claim to fame was access to A-list production talent, such as backers Steven Spielberg and Ron Howard. New plan: After several delays, the backers have ''indefinitely'' postponed the site's launch and laid off most of the 70-person staff. SHOCKWAVE.COM Founded: April, 1999. Funding: $44 million. Investors: Parent company Macromedia. Old plan: Sign multimillion-dollar deals with top-notch talent such as Tim Burton to develop unique ''Webisodes'' for the site. New plan: Will focus on online games and short animated films. No more deals with A-list talent. MEDIATRIP.COM Founded: October, 1999. Funding: NA Investors: Former Disney studio Chairman Joe Roth purchased majority stake in June. Old plan: To create and distribute original programming, and to review movies. New plan: The site will also help market Roth's films, discover new material and talent for upcoming productions, and distribute films and music online. WIREBREAK.COM Founded: October, 1998. Funding: $7 million. Investors: Former CBS Chairman Michael Jordan and former Perot Systems Corp. Chairman Morton Meyerson. Old plan: Launched as a site to highlight its own content. New plan: Now a Web production company that licenses original programming to online and offline companies. DATA: VENTURE ECONOMICS, COMPANIES _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ BACK TO TOP					RELATED ITEMS EBIZ Contents for issue dated Oct. 23, 2000 HollyWeb Flops TABLE: Retakes Babes in Broadband Re-editing IFILM INTERACT E-Mail to Business Week Online

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