Striking writers in talks to launch Web start-ups

We've long predicted that with increasing deployment of faster broadband, entrepreneurial writers would bypass TV and film to start creating content directly for the Web. That's why we're so strongly in favor of Net Neutrality -- because without NN, these efforts will run into the same Big Media distribution roadblocks as television. The Writers strike has hastened that evolution, as this LA Times story describes:

Dozens of striking film and TV writers are negotiating with venture capitalists to set up companies that would bypass the Hollywood studio system and reach consumers with video entertainment on the Web. At least seven groups, composed of members of the striking Writers Guild of America, are planning to form Internet-based businesses that, if successful, could create an alternative economic model to the one at the heart of the walkout, now in its seventh week.

"The companies are pushing us into the embrace of people that are going to cut them out of the loop," marveled one show runner who is tracking the start-up trend but not participating. "We are one Connecticut hedge-fund checkbook, one Silicon Valley server farm and two creators away from having channels on YouTube, where the studios don't own anything." Link: Striking writers in talks to launch Web start-ups - Los Angeles Times.