⏳ In Brief
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Amazon invests in Fable Studio’s AI streaming platform, Showrunner.
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Showrunner lets users create animated TV shows with simple prompts.
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Studios can license IP for fan-made content, sharing revenue.
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Features original show Exit Valley, a satire of tech giants.
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Faces concerns over copyright and job displacement in Hollywood.
A New Era of Viewer-Driven TV
Fable Studio’s Showrunner, backed by Amazon, empowers fans to create animated TV episodes using AI.
On 30 July 2025, Amazon announced its investment in Fable Studio’s Showrunner, dubbed the “Netflix of AI,” as the platform launched publicly after a 10,000-user alpha test.
Showrunner allows subscribers ($10–$40/month for credits) to generate animated TV episodes or scenes using text prompts, either from scratch or by building on existing intellectual property (IP).
Founded in 2018 by Oculus veterans, Fable’s CEO Edward Saatchi envisions a “two-way entertainment” future where fans craft episodes of beloved shows like Star Wars, within studio guidelines.
Showrunner’s first original, Exit Valley, a Family Guy-style satire, mocks tech leaders like Elon Musk. Fable has one studio deal and is in talks with Disney and others, leveraging Amazon’s support to scale.
“It’s a new entertainment medium, like video games,” said Edward Saatchi.
Crafting Stories with AI Prompts
Showrunner uses Fable’s proprietary SHOW-2 model, an evolution of SHOW-1, which gained fame for AI-generated South Park episodes viewed 80 million times.
Users input prompts (e.g., “Create a sci-fi episode where I’m the hero”) to generate scripted, voiced, and animated scenes in styles like anime or cutout animation.
Features include customizing characters, dialogue, and shots, with guardrails to ensure content aligns with studio IP rules.
The platform’s pitch to studios, outlined in a Business Insider deck, offers revenue sharing: studios earn a cut when fans use their IP, while creators get ~40% when others build on their work.
Showrunner’s interface mimics Netflix, making it accessible for non-professionals to create and share episodes.
Showrunner’s AI crafts full episodes from user prompts, democratizing TV production for fans.
Fable’s tech, trained on its own videos and alpha user data, supports episodic formats like sitcoms, not long arcs like Game of Thrones. Amazon’s investment, potentially tied to AWS, aims to scale this model globally.
Empowering Fans, Challenging Hollywood
Showrunner transforms viewers into creators, letting them star in or expand shows like Exit Valley, where users can insert themselves into satirical tech-world narratives.
For aspiring creators like Dov Friedman, co-creator of Hutzpa!, it offers a platform to bypass Hollywood’s gatekeepers after years of rejection.
Studios benefit from monetizing dormant IP and engaging younger audiences craving interactive media.
Disney’s 2024 Epic Games investment signals openness to such models. Yet, Hollywood remains cautious, with SAG-AFTRA and WGA wary of job losses and Disney’s Midjourney lawsuit highlighting copyright concerns.
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Showrunner lets fans create episodes with AI for $10–$40/month.
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Exit Valley satirizes tech moguls, expandable by users.
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Studios share revenue from fan-made IP content.
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Competes with Netflix, Runway in AI content creation.
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Faces copyright and job displacement concerns.
“Showrunner gave us tools to build a season without studios,” said Dov Friedman.
Navigating AI’s Hollywood Hurdles
Copyright is a key challenge. Fable insists its SHOW-2 model uses “publicly available data” and guardrails to avoid infringement, but Saatchi emphasizes original output over training data debates. Recent lawsuits, like Disney’s against Midjourney, underscore risks.
Job displacement fears persist, with unions concerned about AI replacing writers and actors. Saatchi counters that Showrunner creates jobs by empowering creators, citing 80% pre-production time savings.
Amazon’s backing aligns with its Prime Video strategy to boost engagement, but Saatchi admits uncertainty about user demand for interactive TV.
Fable’s Showrunner navigates copyright and job concerns to pioneer AI-driven storytelling.
Future plans include Disney partnerships and live-action capabilities, with Fable hiring DeepMind talent to enhance its tech.
A Vision for Interactive Entertainment
Amazon’s investment in Fable Studio’s Showrunner signals a shift toward AI-driven, interactive TV, where fans create episodes of shows like Star Wars or Exit Valley.
While empowering creators and monetizing IP, it faces copyright, ethical, and adoption challenges. If successful, Showrunner could redefine streaming, blending Hollywood’s legacy with user-driven storytelling, backed by Amazon’s global reach.
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31st July 2025:
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