Eisner’s All-for-Nots, Not for All

The New York Times has a piece today about former Disney head Michael Eisner, and how he’s remaking himself as a new media mogul. But from the article, it seems like Eisner is doing so through some decidedly old media means.

After the mild success of Prom Queen, and the not-successful sequel Prom Queen: Summer Heat, Eisner is prepping the launch of his new comedic series The All-for-Nots. The show about an indie rock band definitely has new media roots, as it comes from Dinosaur Diorama, the team behind the web hit The ‘Burg.

But The Times notes that Eisner says he’s learned from his Prom Queen foray:

This time Mr. Eisner is protecting broad foreign syndication sales by restricting foreign access to the series, which will be available in the United States on YouTube and other sites.

Presumably, this blocking of foreign viewers is so he can repackage and localize the show for sale outside the U.S. like he did with Prom Queen. But that kind of thinking runs counter to the openness that web video is all about, and shuts out potentially huge audiences.

Look, it’s great that instead of just sleeping on his huge piles of money, Eisner is spending some of it on web video. His name brings a lot of attention to our little corner of the world and the more series created, the better. It would just be nice if new media moguls could take the innovation they bring to developing new media shows and apply it to how they distribute new media shows.