Microsoft announced Tuesday that it is hiring Robert Litvak, a veteran casting director for ABC and Warner Bros., as its new talent and casting manager for Interactive Media. Like many members of the Hollywood-seasoned staff he will join, Litvak is to use his contacts to bring top talent to MS, particularly MSN.
"What's interesting is that we get calls on a daily basis about Microsoft versus Netscape, or Microsoft versus Lotus. How about Microsoft versus Disney?" asks Danny Rimer, an analyst with Hambrecht & Quist who follows MSN.
As MSN and its new "21st Century Studio" staffers creep into producers' offices across Los Angeles, Microsoft is looking to position its online network as the newest entertainment empire. The company aims to reach 3.2 million users by July - a 50 percent increase from the current 2-million-user base - and to get there, it's pushing the Hollywood metaphor hard. "[MSN] is more of a form of entertainment," explains Litvak. "It's easier for people who are new users to understand if you relate it to something they already know."
Viewers are immediately hit with terminology like "You're Watching," and "On Stage," as well as an interface heavy on push animations and music soundtracks. MSN employees describe their content as "shows," which are now ending their first 13-week "season." The focus is flashy, well-produced "shows" that users can get through in five minutes. To get that content, MS launched Microsoft Multimedia Productions (M3P), a division that has bases in Hollywood and New York City and uses a hefty portion of MSN's US$300 million budget to find old-media talent.
"Microsoft recognizes that in order to work with Hollywood we have to be here," says Jamie Fragen, who runs M3P's West Coast office out of Hollywood. Fragen, who has worked on TV and film production for Lifetime and Kennedy/Marshall, has the task of gathering top talent on the West Coast for MSN. Working with agencies like the CAA and ICM, she meets with producers, actors, and writers who want to pitch Microsoft their idea for the Next Great Online Thing.
"The medium itself causes a lot of speculation - how big the market is, who the players are. It's still maturing. But everyone's interested," says Mark Evans, an agent at ICM. "They're pulling a lot of the high-quality talent."
Fragen meets with five to eight individuals a day, giving each an hour to pitch their concept. In total, since its inception at the end of September, the M3P content recruiters have heard "thousands" of concepts, and taken a few hundred through a formal proposal. Of those proposals, only 25 to 35 shows are being put into production.
Getting Hollywood types to forget linear storytelling and start thinking in interactive terms is a challenge for M3P's West Coast office. "Most of the concepts we get seem to be for broadcast, and we need to tailor it to be made for the medium," explains Madeline Kirbach, the director of M3P.
MSN isn't the first to set up a Hollywood-style content studio. AOL is pushing its Greenhouse project, which, with the help of TV exec Brandon Tartikoff, is signing deals with companies right and left to create proprietary content for the network. Another former Warner Bros. exec also recently set up a content studio, CyberStudios, to connect Hollywood with the interactive medium.
"[Microsoft and AOL] have a very similar approach," asserts Evans. "How they differ...is mostly in what technologies they're using. There's more use of audio and animation on Microsoft. And the more media you come across on the Internet, the more you're using the celebrity."
Like AOL, Microsoft isn't planning on simply co-opting Hollywood talent, but also plans to move into Hollywood by pushing successful MSN content through more traditional media: books, TV, film. "Microsoft is looking to become a 21st-century studio," says Kirbach. "That means you own brand franchises ... It's integral to our strategy to push those content across multiple media."
But it won't be easy. Says H&Q's Rimer, "Can the Internet provide the same kind of entertainment that you'll get with a TV show? We don't think so."
