Written evidence submitted by William
Poel (arts 202)
William Poel is Chairman and Managing Director
USP Networks, a company with 18 years of "hands-on"
experience of the online revolution and evolution, and at the
leading edge of developments such ad servers, content management
systems and targeted media with response schemes.
Once upon a time, the Arts were funded from
the "3 Ps":
There were no middlemen (other than perhaps
venue owners) to speak of. Those that gave the paying customers
what they wanted, managed to eat; otherwise the rest starved for
their art, or pursued their art as fulfilled amateurs, willing
to wait for a cruel world to come around to their way of thinking.
Then in the 18th/19th century, the spread of
printing made books and sheet music much more widely available—and
at marginal cost to produce—and then the world of Agents
and Lawyers got involved. So it's been downhill ever since.
In this document, I propose an innovative way
to address the subject of funding creative arts, that takes full
advantage of the digital revolution and revert to the original—and
sustainable—principles—OF Arts funding.
The present realignment of funding brought about
the necessities we face is an opportunity to revisit old values
and apply new technologies.
All forms of art may now be delivered and enjoyed
"on line" these days, and this provides a perfect response
mechanism for audiences to pay in a variety of ways.
Television can also participate in this new
form of funding. The present system generally starts when a (scheduled)
TV company commissions a series (generally from one of the usual
companies) that leads to a pilot, and possibly a series.
The costs of this process are largely unchanged
in recent times, despite the media revolutions going on all around,
yet a system where many more creative companies were able to put
together short pilots—extended trailers if you like—and
have the audience vote by "pre-subscribing" to the potential
series is perfectly do-able.
The system I have in mind can operate at a very
local basis as well—even to the extent of a local amateur
dramatic society producing a series of five minute trailers for
their plays, to ensure they are steered towards the one their
audience actually wants (and is willing to pay for!)
Moreover, there should be scope for the UK to
lead from the front in this idea, and create a much-needed employment
in areas where the UK has traditions of creative excellence, along
the way.
There will obviously be concern expressed that
minority interests will not be supported by a system that is plainly
designed around harnessing a popular opinion, but experimenting
with public funds is one of many luxuries of less accountable
times, before that the financial realignment "changed everything".
I have a lot more I should add, but commercial
confidence is a major issue under your terms of engagement; I
fear you will only hear from the disgruntled whose gravy trains
are grinding to a halt, and those with no financial opportunies
to put at risk. SO I suspect the result will be very bland.
September 2010
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