Nuno Bernardo, the smartest man in transmedia today, on financing and business models:

…why do producers keep saying that there is still no business model in transmedia (and other forms of digital online content)?

The answer is: the problem is not the business model, or the possibility of producers making money on their digital content experiments, but on the funding model associated with transmedia content. TV and film producers are used to getting funding from broadcasters (or networks) or film boards and film public bodies, combining that money with probably some sort of tax credit and an advance from a distributor. That is the funding model established a long time ago, and the base of thousands of TV and film productions made in the last few decades.

The notion that transmedia doesn’t have a business model comes from the fact that there’s still no template to fund this type of production. Broadcasters that commission transmedia or online projects are still rare. There are few film and public bodies that have funding for these type of projects, the tax incentives still do not apply to transmedia or digital productions (except in Canada) and the few distributors operating in this arena don’t usually provide MG to producers.

The problem is that the distribution platforms like iTunes, YouTube, Hulu or Facebook allow producers to connect with a big and global audience but they don’t “commission” content in the same way broadcasters do for TV. This makes funding a transmedia project something very difficult and dependent on the creativity of the producer in finding the money in less usual places.

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