The deaths of "All My Children" and "One Life to Live" may have been greatly exaggerated.
Prospect Park, the production company that licensed digital rights to the soaps from ABC, has continued to hold meetings with other parties exploring options for keeping them going online, according to sources familiar with discussions.
These talks come just weeks after Prospect Park issued a statement suggesting it was done pursuing plans to revive the soaps. Reps for the company could not be immediately reached for comment.
While the discussions were characterized as preliminary, one of the options Prospect Park is said to be considering is bringing in an overseas firm to turn the shows into a co-production. That may or may not allow the shows to circumvent the unions, which couldn't come to terms with Prospect Park on compensation for talent on both sides of the camera.
Even though Prospect Park signaled they were no longer pursuing the soaps, they still retain the digital rights that ABC licensed to them that last for a full year after those shows end on ABC. That gives the firm the ability to exercise those rights up until September 2012 for "AMC" and January 2013 for "OTL."
In addition, Prospect Park could also still be sitting on the financing collected to fund production. It's also notable that the company characterized its abandonment of plans as a "suspension" of their efforts in the announcement, as opposed to a final withdrawal.
Sources confirmed that Prospect Park principals Jeff Kwatinetz and Rich Frank are still intent on bringing the shows to the Internet, where they would serve as the anchors for a broader online-network play.
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118047178