According to the NY Post, Disney’s ABC has sold the online rights of the soaps to Prospect Park, a TV, film, and music company. According to the paper’s sources, Prospect Park is in the final stages of funding an online TV venture, similar to Hulu.
If everything works out, the plan is to continue the daily dramas in new episodes made for audiences online and utilizing the same cast and crew. The soaps would be be the first of a number of brand-name TV shows that would be available on the site.
Prospect Park was founded in 2008 and is run by former Disney Studios executive Rich Frank and the company’s founder, Jeff Kwatinetz. Both are currently executive producers of USA Network’s, Royal Pains and have extensive experience in branding and marketing. Kwatinetz founded The Firm, a management company that promoted big name music artists as brands. After leaving Disney, Frank ran an advertising and marketing company, Integrated Entertainment Partners, and merged it with Kwatinetz’s Firm.
A Disney spokesperson declined to comment and calls to Prospect Park weren’t returned.
While this certainly could be positive news for fans of One Life to Live and All My Children, it’s important to remember that it’s not a done deal yet. Aside from details of the venture having to be finalized, one would assume that new contracts would have to be worked out with the soaps’ cast and crew to cover the online episodes.
Also, both shows are very expensive to produce and up until now, no one’s been able to find a model that would work. A venture like this might require viewers to pay a subscription to supplement costs. DirecTV offered a subscription option for fans of Passions to watch new episodes online but most declined to pay.
What do you think? Would you watch either or both of the soaps online? If a subscription was required, how much would you be willing to pay each month?
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