Stockholm's Reupp Crowdfunds Good TV Back On The Air

    There’s some sort of cruel inefficiency in the world when good TV shows get canceled only to be replaced by some mindless nonsense. Instead of just signing another internet petition the next time a show got canceled, Stockholm-based Reupp is organizing fans as a lobbying group to come together and support their show creators.

    With this mission in mind, they’ve put together a crowdfunding mechanism to allow fans to pool together their money to donate to the producers or creators of the show. Founder and CEO John Noren explains that the point of it is to send money where it makes the most sense. He says in their research they’ve come across too much bureaucracy from Hollywood’s side, and rather than negotiating with network executives themselves it makes sense to become a lobbying power under a creator or producer that can point to the Reupp campaign and lobby on its behalf.

    “The idea is, what is the easy, direct, transparent way of supporting a show for a consumer? If it were a band, you can go to the show and buy a t-shirt. With a show you cant do that,” explains Noren.

    A notable angle of Reupp is that it leaves it up to fans which shows they want to support through this sort of crowdfunding. What’s interesing is that it’s not just inactive shows, like Firefly, that are raising funds, but also shows like Game of Thrones, which seems to be nowhere near dire straights.

    The platform launched only two months ago, so it’s still small money behind shows like Chuck and Twin Peaks at the moment, but it might be fun to see where this takes them.

    Nielsen started tracking Netflix views this past February, showing that they’re getting with the times, but good shows can still be canceled. Something should change because it’s unlikely that people will stop illegally downloading their shows, or that the families with Nielsen boxes will get a better taste in TV. Reupp still needs to prove it has real-world impact, but at least it’s proactive, which has potential.