Fantasy TV shows pursue the Legend of the Seeker market

Every show has its detractors and Legend of the Seeker has earned a few lumps from people who didn’t like it, but as any dedicated Seeker fan knows by now the Sam Raimi/Rob Tapert show didn’t fail for lack of loyal fans. The show was torpedoed by the Tribune Company’s bankruptcy. Seeker fandom is nothing more than collateral damage from the Great Recession of 2008-2009.

Lately, two shows have been drawing comparisons from marketers and journalists alike with Legend of the Seeker. Cable giant HBO has rolled out Game of Thrones (you can see EW’s sneak preview here). Game of Thrones is based on George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Fire and Ice novels. Early fan ratings for Game of Thrones have been fairly positive but HBO is a very limited market. It’s only shown in 150 countries….

The premise of the show (as I understand it) is that there are several thrones for which just about every bloodthirsty, ruthless character is vying. Some of the characters will be killed off and some of the characters will capture a throne. Sean Bean is the biggest name (in my imagiation) associated with Game of Thrones but the cast is very respectable.

Fans of the Sarah Connor Chronicles will be pleased to see that Lena Headey has an important role as well. Mark Addy (“The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas”, “Robin Hood”) is also in the high-powered cast. Harry Potter fans take note: Natalia Tena (Tonks) is also in the cast.

Not so long ago I received a Tweet from someone associated with SyFy or Riese the Series asking me to support the show. It was one of those random marketing Tweets that are becoming more common.

Nonetheless, I have actually written about Riese the Series before. SyFy is promoting Riese: Kingdom Falling as “an epic 10-episode online series”. Amanda Tapping (Stargate SG-1, Sanctuary) narrates for the show, which is trying to follow in Sanctuary‘s footsteps and make the transition from the Web to television.

So far, 8 episodes have been distributed online. The show is a SteamPunk extravaganza starring Christine Chatelain as Riese, a wanderer drawn into the politics of the Kingdom of Eleysia. Other cast members include Sharon Taylor and Patrick Gilmore. Gilmore plays Dr. Dale Volcker on Stargate: Universe. Ben Cotton is a Stargate: Atlantis alumnus — he played Dr. Kavanagh.

It’s clear that Syfy is experimenting with using the Internet as a testbed for new television shows. What is not so clear is whether the Internet has yet become a suitable model for primary distribution of commercial entertainment.

There is certainly hope for the growth of Internet TV, as Hulu has now proven the medium can be profitable. Hulu costs are dropping as the service makes some changes and emerges from “beta”.

Nonetheless, there are shortcomings with all this experimentation. Supposedly, one of the reasons why SyFy refused to pick up Legend of the Seeker is that a vast segment of the Seeker fanbase illegally downloads episodes from the Internet. Those fans don’t have access to the show (or to Hulu) because they live in countries where LOTS was not distributed.

SyFy and Hulu could certainly work together to create an online distribution channel that serves the entire world. The biggest challenge that I see is developing a mechanism for targeting advertising at the right country. There isn’t much point in selling GEICO insurance in Bulgaria, for example. So Internet TV still needs an advertising platform that can handle a world-wide audience that is profitable.

Legend of the Seeker creators have returned to their inspirational roots and are now working on an anime-inspired live-action show for Starz. Raimi and Tapert are also deeply involved with Spartacus, another cable show that delves deeper into blood and gore than Legend of the Seeker.

There is not a great deal of experimentation with Internet TV, which represents an underdeveloped market. 10 years ago several enterprises attempted to create a viable Internet TV market but they failed, largely because the technological infrastructure was not up to the task. Today’s Internet is faster and reaches farther around the world but too many markets are still modem-bound. There is room for growth, especially in the United States, which does NOT lead the world in high-speed Internet access.

Battlestar Galactica proved that you could pair online content with more traditional cable distribution to build audience share but we have sort of stalled out. The Internet should be able to support an Internet-only show by no later than 2015. It would be great if we could get a professional production sometime in the next two years where the end-goal was NOT to make the transition to TV but rather to launch an online entertainment distribution channel.

Many people may be waiting on Google to do that. I hope not. Google has the resources to pull it off but their ideas sometimes leave me cold. On the other hand, Google makes a lot of acquisitions. If they decide to launch Internet TV productions in a big way, maybe they’ll acquire someone who can do it in a way that appeals to science fiction and fantasy fans.

Meanwhile, fans of Legend of the Seeker continue to search for a way to bring back their show. Maybe there is a point where all the right elements will come together to make it happen. For now, the best we can do is continue to remind producers and marketers that there IS an audience for the show…a worldwide audience.