Already the whispering has started. Oxygen, according to cable experts, has fallen behind in its plan to line up 30 million cable subscribers by 2002 and is finding that too many cable systems don't have any extra channel capacity. My betting is that Laybourne makes it, but she'll have to scale back, bring in new partners, maybe lay off more of Oxygen's nearly 700-person payroll. Even as DreamWorks has enjoyed probably the hottest summer of any studio in recent memory, thanks in part to its hit Chicken Run, other studio execs have been savoring the problems the company has had launching its site. Allied with Microsoft billionaire Paul Allen and Imagine Entertainment, DreamWorks announced last year that it would have its site operating by spring, filled with content by such luminaries as Steven Spielberg, Ron Howard, and Eddie Murphy.
Spring is gone, and still no pop.
More than likely, the stock market is what Katzenberg is referring to. If anyone anticipated a quick trip to an initial public offering, the recent crash of Internet interests probably soaked those dreams. Now they plan to turn over their site to amateurs, instead of Eddie Murphy et al. Celebrities' Internet plans, like almost everything else they do, are subject to intense scrutiny. The bigger they are, the harder they fall, and people love to watch.