Richard Hull

Richard Hull advises many of the nation's largest media and entertainment companies on content strategy, finance and distribution, and is a former film and TV producer whose projects have generated hundreds of millions of dollars in revenues. He is a featured contributor to the book Dancing With Digital Natives: Staying in Step With the Generation That's Transforming the Way Business Is Done (CyberAge, December 2010).  Hull is also a sought after speaker on the topics of digital media and Hollywood, and he recently gave the opening keynote at eContent's Buying and Selling eContent 2010 conference.

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Articles by Richard Hull


Whereas my personal Los Angeles community of technological early adopters tends to be driven to buy the coolest, most cutting-edge gadgets, we often forget (and I'm the most guilty here) that a huge chunk of the population is driven more by a good value. It could be a function of generation, socioeconomic status, the overall economy, or simply priorities, but while I expected to immediately put digital deals in place with my new film library, I've been forced to recognize that I must first focus on selling this audience entertainment in the way that it wants it right now. That just happens to be on the uber-traditional DVD.
Column/Screen Play - Posted Dec 01, 2011
As digital natives immerse themselves in emerging entertainment channels-and concurrently force old ones to change in order to meet their expectations-they are reshaping the way people are entertained, as well as how they entertain. In the natives' world, the tools of content creation available through these emerging platforms are free (or cheap) and readily accessible. And they have been that way since a native first thumbed his name into a smartphone.
Column/Screen Play - September 2011 Issue, Posted Sep 19, 2011
For Hollywood studios, rigidly defined distribution windows have traditionally dictated the sequential release of a movie: first exclusively in theaters, then on DVD, then on premium cable, and so forth. Previously pleasant relationships are being strained as theater owners try to maintain their place in the chain and studios try to bleed out as many bucks as are left in Walmart's dying (but still substantial) DVD revenues. As these battles distract the traditional Hollywood players, new platforms are quickly sneaking past the guards.
Column/Screen Play - May 2011 Issue, Posted May 09, 2011
One day last October, we looked up and-unbelievably-the Rangers had made it to the hallowed World Series. These underdogs' day had come: They were finally the big dogs. Today, the same has come true with content. For most of my life, content has been limited to a handful of sources: a radio, a book, a TV. But now, content has become limitless in the ways that it dominates our lives.
Column/Screen Play - January/February 2011 Issue, Posted Feb 16, 2011
I was part of a conversation the other day with the CEO of a niche animation company. He explained the company's digital strategy, which was to drive audiences solely to its website because, as he boasted, once your living room television talks to the internet, people will navigate to his company's site and it'll have "twice as much value." This presented me with the opportunity to hypothesize on what actually might happen when your TV does merge with the web.
Column/Screen Play - December 2010 Issue, Posted Nov 22, 2010
Though we're still very much in the Wild West of digital content, what we see today often feels like history repeating itself. This notion must have triggered considerable thought among audience members because I spent the rest of the day being stopped in the halls and reminded of more and more instances in which this was proving true. And while it's safe to say that I'm no history scholar, it is clear that the people who forget history are doomed to repeat it.
Column/Screen Play - September 2010 Issue, Posted Aug 31, 2010
Entertainment content creators today must focus on creating content strategies that can evolve along with consumers' perceptions. This content-flexibility conundrum is one that Hollywood and her siblings are rallying to confront.
Editorial/Feature - November 2006 Issue, Posted Oct 31, 2006
For the first time in years, Hollywood’s online ad spending is up, and the backrooms of Sunset Boulevard eateries are abuzz with producers talking about the Internet. Hollywood has timidly started to embrace the online world once again. Will it be for real this time? And if so, how is Hollywood seeking to get the most bang for its online content buck?
Editorial/Feature - October 2004 Issue, Posted Oct 20, 2004