Want to Sell Your Web Video Series to TV?

Are you looking to quit your day job and sell your online video series to traditional television?

You might want to think twice about how you structure your deal.

If you Google “Dirty Jokes” one of the top searches you will find is Eli’s Dirty Jokes which is now on Cinemax. Not Showtime, Cinemax – you know the cable and satellite tv channel?

I caught up with James McFadden and Tyler McFadden of GoPotato.TV and they told me how they got their web series Eli’s Dirty Jokes (Animated by Doug Bresler / DoogToons) on Cinemax.

Did they sell their web videos to Cinemax? No. They did a licensing deal.

What does that mean?

I’m glad you asked.

A licensing deal means that Cinemax paid a fee to GoPotato to have the exclusive rights to Eli’s Dirty Jokes on Cinemax for 1 year. After that one year is over GoPotao has the right to license Eli’s Dirty Jokes to someone else and make more money. That means they can make and sell DVDs of Eli’s dirty jokes, they can license Eli’s Dirty Jokes to overseas / international television or to DirecTV or DishNetwork for a pay-per-view deal, deal with HULU or any other way they can think of exploiting it.

Do you want to sell your web videos? You might want to think about licensing them instead.

  • Many times young producers not knowing the value of their content and the power of the Internet take a bad deal from a big company because they think it will lead to something bigger.

    Indie Producers know how to make content they don't always know how to monetize it.

    It will be great when talented independent filmmakers can make their films, post them online and make enough money to live on and make their next film or web series.

    Hoefully that will be in the next five years.
  • Rachel
    That's really great. I think licensing, is even better than just selling your webseries and moving onto other stuff. This way you protect your property and essentially your vision, and pretty much control your destiny. What aren't more web video series, doing these deals.

    What a great idea!
  • If you have a cash cow in a web video series I don't think you should move on to your next project until you have exploited all distribution channels.

    As for Google results...I only care about Google results if they bring me money. Fame without fortune only turns you into Joey Buttafuoco.
  • Chris
    The web video should be licensed because it’s of “web video” category. Close the deal, pay your slave labor, and move on to the next project.

    The new audience(s) can only expand your career and Google results. Right?
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