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Comment by kitcar | Hacker News Reader

Out of curiosity - you mention that in the 90's there were a number of TV shows featuring prominent black characters but there isn't anymore. Why did you decide the solution to that problem was to create a black-focused distribution platform, instead of production company focused on creating new shows of similar quality to those in the 90's - has something changed about the market that would prevent shows like those that were successful in the 1990's from being successful today?

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That's a great point. I think both things probably need to be done. We took the distribution route, because ultimately we believe it's the direct relationship with the consumer that will allow for this to work. As a production company, you're a step away from the end-user, so you're at the mercy of a distribution company that has more than just the black audience to worry about. But if a company is solely focused on a single niche, like so many tech companies out there, the economics for super-serving that niche are a lot better.

> We took the distribution route, because ultimately we believe it's the direct relationship with the consumer that will allow for this to work.

Be honest. It's less capital intensive, with much higher valuations.

Generally, your points about capital and valuations are true. Of course, I could argue Netflix is way more capital intensive than any production company. And then, with Hello Sunshine and others, we're seeing production companies get Venture scale exits. So while I hear your point, those honestly weren't factors for us. It was more so about owning the relationship with the end-user.

There had to be a friendlier way to make that comment.

Yeah what the heck lol

"Be honest" is the same as "you're a liar"

But it would take Netflix just one or two demo-specific properties to win that demo back. Unless the goal is to be acquired.

It’s a yc (VC backed) company. You know the goal.

Hmm, interesting comment: it could mean either of two opposite things, but that makes it self-contradictory!

Just for clarity, when YC funds a company, the goal is not to have it get acquired. It's to have it go public. Acquisition interrupts that, so it's a suboptimal outcome. That said, YC supports what founders want to do.

True. I was making a simple blanket statement that for most VC backed companies you can be sure the end goal is either acquisition or successful ipo.

How many YC companies ended up going public out of the total? And how large is that total? What is the expected timeframe from launch to IPO? How many companies still outside of that window? Those would be interesting stats to have.

Sorry, I don't know the answers—but few so far (fewer than 10 I think). More in the last couple years though. It takes a long time. I'll see if I can convince someone who knows more than I do to comment here.

Thank you!

It doesn’t have to be either-or, lots of people have multiple streaming services

I read the average American has four. Seems like more than one person could reasonably watch but maybe I'm just not devoted enough to television.

But what are you going to distribute if no one is making high-quality media for Black people?

I think what he's suggesting is that lack of distribution may be contributing to / causing the lack of quality black programming. By setting up a distribution company, they can now create a channel for quality work that exists but isn't currently being distributed.

Subjectively-- many of the best "black" shows in the 90s were in the Traditional Sitcom category-- Fresh Prince, Martin, Family Matters, Steve Harvey show, etc.. Even though they touched on black issues, 80% of the shows' content was "typical American experience".

Perhaps the niche-ification of streamed content has resulted in Black shows that don't feel relevant to non-black people. And since the majority don't feel it's applicable to them, they lose the algorithm game.

Just a guess, I don't have any real evidence to back this up. But if that's the problem, it seems like it would be solved by this startup.

I really don’t think the middle class black peoples will love watching that kind of show but I might be wrong.

I can think of a few major factors that impacted the market in the 90s:

1. Fox/WB/UPN. These fledgling networks broadcast a lot of black-oriented content trying to grab a foothold in the market. This in turn spurred ABC/NBC/CBS to do the same to avoid losing market share.

2. Bill Cosby. The success of the Cosby show in the 80s/early 90s instigated a lot of attempts to grab a piece of that market. Cosby had further success with the spin-off show A Different World (which was notable also as being the only TV show at its time to focus on Gen X characters).

Not OP, but yeah the market has clearly changed. Everything we consume today and media in general has been fractured, organized into subcategories, and is now delivered by algorithms.

I my opinion the problem isn't that there is no demand for black-focused media, its that its just become another subcategory of Netflix. And because it may not be as popular on Netflix it doesn't get as much production. Look at what Netflix is producing these days - its mostly lowest common denominator algorithm driven garbage.

> Look at what Netflix is producing these days - its mostly lowest common denominator algorithm driven garbage.

This, the best content on Netflix in the last two or three years for my taste are largely foreign productions

Much like Reddit which hits lowest common denominator in all the big subs you have to dig for the quality stuff. And hope it gives you similar stuff, but I’ve found that harder on both Netflix and Reddit the bigger they got. But it’s still possible.

Twitter on the other hand seems to do everything possible to push you away from your niches and selected content, even though the whole idea is to follow people.

Yeah, at various points I've seen promoted categories for black created/focused content pop up on Netflix, YouTube, Amazon Prime, etc. It's going to be tough for a new service to compete with the substantial existing libraries of those streaming services. They already have the content and the audience, and just have to tweak their recommender to promote it more effectively.

But why would it not be as popular on netflix, amazon, hulu, ect?

Amazon actually produces the highest quality Black content consistently: Underground Railroad, One Night in Miami, Homecoming, Life, etc

Netflix was a distribution platform before it became a production company as well. If you have a revue stream from existing content then you have the money to make content. Also, if minorities have content that they want to be seen, they'll potentially have a better shot here because of the focus. So from this website's perspective, there might not be a shortage of content to licence right out of the gate, compared to what they could create themselves. Also, it sounds like they know how to make websites.

I would imagine it's got a lot to do with domain knowledge. Setting up a streaming service is a very different proposition from setting up a production company. These are presumably tech people, not TV people. Besides, I bet setting up a production company is a few orders of magnitude more expensive than this.

This was my thought as well. I'm sure there is demand for this content, but is it a strong enough demand to pay for yet another streaming service?

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