Collected Data
"Cable networks used to enjoy profit margins as fat as 50%, but not anymore. That pressure has trickled down to program suppliers, who are tasked with delivering better shows despite having budgets that have been reduced or stagnant for the past few years."
One issue that cuts across most major cable networks, producers say, is the increasing flood of notes on shows and demands for multiple versions of episodes — all of which add to costs that usually come out of the producer’s pocket.
Producers emphasize that the development of new series can take months, if not years, and require significant up-front investment before a project is ever set up at a network. Companies often fund talent deals on their own, producing sizzle reels and accomplishing other pre-production work before the show is shopped to buyers. In the view of the NPA and PactUS, that activity amounts to an invaluable R&D service for networks. But producers of unscripted shows are rarely reimbursed for those costs — unlike major studios and networks under the generous terms for scripted series. The nightmare scenario for an unscripted producer is making that major investment, only to have the show taken away by the network after a season or two.
“The scary part for producers is that you can work really hard to develop this intellectual property, and the networks can arbitrarily take it away from you,” says the NPA’s Ford, a Discovery alum. “There’s a perception on the part of producers that it is becoming more likely to happen.”
Reality TV’s Hidden War: Legal Battle with Discovery Highlights Rising Tensions
"Television quotas are an idea that is wholly anachronistic in the age of abundance and in a world of choice"
The national broadcast regulator said Thursday it was cutting the quota for the ratio of Canadian programs that local TV stations must broadcast during the day from 55 per cent to zero. That's a recognition that stations have sometimes been broadcasting the same program episodes many times over the course of a day, or even over years, simply to satisfy the old Cancon rule.
CRTC eases Canadian-content quotas for TV
I’ll wait until smarter people review, but I have a bad feeling about this.
Broadcasting Regulatory Policy CRTC 2015-86
"I’m a guy with a point of view who goes to a place, looks around, comes back and tries to give as honest an account of my experience as I can, but it is my experience."
There are two important things I’ve found in television. One is to understand that most people in television are frightened all the time. They’re frightened of losing their jobs. They’re frightened of making the wrong decision. When they encounter someone who really and truly doesn’t give a f*** about losing their job, that is a relatively immovable object, it’s something they’re not used to encountering. That attitude was always helpful to me.
Another is that television, generally, likes to repeat what works already. My partners understood early on with No Reservations that whatever worked and made people happy last week, it’s the smart thing to do something completely different next week.
Realscreen’s Trailblazers for 2014: Anthony Bourdain
Cineworks New Site
Cineworks Independent Filmmakers Society (est. 1980) is an artist-run production and exhibition centre that supports independent filmmakers and media artists. Through initiatives that foster dialogue and experimentation with cinematic practices, we engage our membership and the broader community through the transformative power of the moving image and the changing role of film in its contemporary context.
Cineworks, Vancouver’s film co-operative has relaunch their web site.
Back in the day, I worked as their Digital Media Co-Ordinator. Since then, I’ve sat on the Board of Directors twice. I’m still involved as a member of their Equipment Advisory Committee.
If you are based in the Lower Mainland of BC, become a member. They are good people.
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