Post by oowsvu on Nov 23, 2011 18:40:13 GMT -5
was e-mailed this letter earlier today
After five months of negotiations with various guilds, hundreds of presentations
to potential financial and technology partners, and a hope that we could pioneer
a new network for the future, it is with great disappointment that we are
suspending our aspirations to revive “One Life to Live” and “All My Children”
via online distribution. It is now becoming clear that mounting issues make our
ability to meet our deadlines to get OLTL on the air in a reasonable time period
following its January 13, 2012 ABC finale impossible.
We believed the timing was right to launch an Online TV Network anchored by
these two iconic soap operas, but we always knew it would be an uphill battle to
create something historical, and unfortunately we couldn’t ultimately secure the
backing and clear all the hurdles in time. We believe we exhausted all
reasonable options apparent to us, but despite enormous personal, as well as
financial cost to ourselves, we failed to find a solution.
While we narrowed in on a financial infrastructure, the contractual demands of
the guilds, which regulate our industry, coupled with the program’s inherent
economic challenges ultimately led to this final decision. In the end, the
constraints of the current marketplace, including the evolution and impact of
new media on our industry simply proved too great a match for even our passion.
In our opinion, new models like this can only work with the cooperation of many
people striving to make them happen, and we would like to thank and praise the
numerous people who tried to help and showed us incredible support. We are
extremely grateful to the fans and media who showed great support to us through
this process, to ABC who did everything in their control to help, and we are
especially grateful for the support and encouragement from many of the Soaps’
cast and crew themselves.
We hope that our efforts are not lost, and that we somehow created a dialogue
and movement on the feasibility of first run, network quality content online.
Of special note, we would like to thank Frank Valentini (Executive Producer),
Ron Carlivati (Head Writer of OLTL), Agnes Nixon, many of the cast of OLTL
including Michael Easton, Ted King, Kelley Missal, Melissa Archer, and of course
Erika Slezak all of whom signed on quickly and did all they could to help, as
well as our own Christine Sacani. Cameron Mathison and Lindsay Hartley also get
our sincerest thanks for their support. We feel terrible we couldn't come
through for them and we were very much looking forward to working together.
With appreciation,
Rich Frank
Jeffrey Kwatinetz
After five months of negotiations with various guilds, hundreds of presentations
to potential financial and technology partners, and a hope that we could pioneer
a new network for the future, it is with great disappointment that we are
suspending our aspirations to revive “One Life to Live” and “All My Children”
via online distribution. It is now becoming clear that mounting issues make our
ability to meet our deadlines to get OLTL on the air in a reasonable time period
following its January 13, 2012 ABC finale impossible.
We believed the timing was right to launch an Online TV Network anchored by
these two iconic soap operas, but we always knew it would be an uphill battle to
create something historical, and unfortunately we couldn’t ultimately secure the
backing and clear all the hurdles in time. We believe we exhausted all
reasonable options apparent to us, but despite enormous personal, as well as
financial cost to ourselves, we failed to find a solution.
While we narrowed in on a financial infrastructure, the contractual demands of
the guilds, which regulate our industry, coupled with the program’s inherent
economic challenges ultimately led to this final decision. In the end, the
constraints of the current marketplace, including the evolution and impact of
new media on our industry simply proved too great a match for even our passion.
In our opinion, new models like this can only work with the cooperation of many
people striving to make them happen, and we would like to thank and praise the
numerous people who tried to help and showed us incredible support. We are
extremely grateful to the fans and media who showed great support to us through
this process, to ABC who did everything in their control to help, and we are
especially grateful for the support and encouragement from many of the Soaps’
cast and crew themselves.
We hope that our efforts are not lost, and that we somehow created a dialogue
and movement on the feasibility of first run, network quality content online.
Of special note, we would like to thank Frank Valentini (Executive Producer),
Ron Carlivati (Head Writer of OLTL), Agnes Nixon, many of the cast of OLTL
including Michael Easton, Ted King, Kelley Missal, Melissa Archer, and of course
Erika Slezak all of whom signed on quickly and did all they could to help, as
well as our own Christine Sacani. Cameron Mathison and Lindsay Hartley also get
our sincerest thanks for their support. We feel terrible we couldn't come
through for them and we were very much looking forward to working together.
With appreciation,
Rich Frank
Jeffrey Kwatinetz