I've though a bit about traditional media, structured content, and multi-platform distribution etc.
I think the challenge for innovation in this arena is two-fold.
Firstly, Baumol's disease: creativity is expensive and time consuming. Traditional media is an R&D model where costs are upfront and the endeavor is high risk.
Innovative meta networks/new platforms are like the the olive farmer and his grove - s/he cultivates a long term crop that continues to yield fruit (Apple and Google)
...but the creation of digital media and entertainment content are hunter/gatherers
...starting from scratch every time.
Efficiencies in the creative factory are increasing - structured content is one of those developments ... but structured content hyper-commoditizes content...
Secondly, the issue for content creators is not market capture but retention across multiple platforms. That requires stickiness:
a.) Stickiness can come from talent. (Stars, Authors, etc.)
b.) Stickiness might occur if a revolution took place in how that branded narrative content is packaged and sold.
c.) Stickiness from innovation in the structure of storytelling. Some structures work in a muti-platform world others do not.
Here are a few developments to storytelling and the narrative form in creative digital and interactive content.
I think Lost "lost" out on a game changing opportunity when it failed to cultivate a kind of online storyline. There was the appearance of character and leitmotif sites (fan created and official)...which could have been choice for revealing more clues and other storylines...and an opportunity to merge tv and internet storytelling in a way that I think would have been revolutionary.
Some forms and genres (like the who dun it? mystery, quest, travel log, reality, video games storytelling form work for interactive narrative content.
Innovation in digital media is not just about media economics its about the structure of storytelling
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