42 October 2014 Looking Beyond the Future of TV (Continued from Page 40) subject: “A number of years ago I was involved in shows that we made for one of our own broadcast channels, but premiered on either a cable channel or secondary broadcast channel. We also used to shift shows around from channel to channel whenever we could target an audience.” He added, “The concept of ‘double-windowing’ makes sense to me in that the shows in the series, as well as all of the on-air promotions, get much more exposure to viewers, and thus a much greater chance of gaining some audience traction and social media buzz. Additionally, the calculation of ratings based on C7, rather than C3, appears to be a substantive statistical advantage.” However, a former Hollywood studio top executive told us he disagrees with the re-windowing concept “unless it is for a show that is not getting any audience at all and [the network] has all the deals in place to mix and match. We refer to this [concept] as repurposed and it does make sense, but not for your big primetime network shows unless [the network] has the rights and residuals have been established as to how they will be calculated for future use and how this use and re-use will be calculated. You really do not [determine] what you can do with content unless it was totally created, developed and produced by the network and it is not under a guild or union.” “Only NBC and FOX could really make this happen in some small way,” said Rick Feldman, an international media consultant and former CEO of NATPE (before turning to the non-profit world, Feldman ran commercial broadcast properties for USA and Chris Craft). “And both networks [NBC and FOX] have done a bit of this before [but] it would not reduce the odds of failure. It might help around the margins on occasion, but that’s about it. [Plus], it takes too much adjustment for the buying community to integrate. There are ways of course to change the development system, and perhaps reduce failure a bit, but this isn’t it,” he opined. Finally, Los Angeles-based international media consultant Mark Cutten summarized it all: “It is true that from 2006 to 2012 TV series averaged a 35 percent second season renewal rate, and it dropped to 29 percent for 2013. The economics won’t support further deterioration and that is why we are seeing greater investment by cable nets into original programming. “Audiences have fragmented so badly among myriad cable channels and online video outlets that broadcast networks are finding it harder to produce a hit. Fragmentation is a root cause formaking it difficult for a series to find its audience and VideoAge’s cable net/broadcast net ‘double play’ [suggestion] may be a possible solution. While I was at HBO in the 1980s, when we ran into subscriber growth difficulties we invented the ‘Free Preview’ weekends. Essentially the same reasoning...Build an audience.” Cutten continued, “[In addition, I find VideoAge’s] proposition similar to conversations that I have had over the years to convince major studios to license new TV series for emerging platforms: Fastweb, OrangeTV, HBO Nordic, etc. My argument is that licensing to a platform in a territory with a smaller market share actually acts as a promotional vehicle for the majors to later demand higher license fees from the broadcasters in the territory. The majors argued that broadcasters would lower their license fee because they did not have the first crack at premiering,” he said. “Internationally, the traditional model of windowing was FTA first window, premium [and/or basic] second window, then as third window, back to broadcast or basic. Over time, [it was] successfully argued that premium is the first window and FTA the second. [But] the majors run into difficulty trying to convince FTA to pay steep license fees for lesser U.S. performing fare. In these cases we know that building an audience through exposure on an in-territory premium service paves the way for the majors to push series for higher fees to broadcasters in a following FTA window.” YOURNEW CONNECTION TO EXCEPTIONAL NATURE & WILDLIFE CONTENT. www.blueantinternational.com Visit us at MIPCOM P-1.J7 5x60’ HD&4K | Nature &Wildlife 4x30’ HD | Nature & Science 78x30’ HD | Nature &Wildlife 4x60’ HD | Nature &Wildlife 24x30’ HD | Science 13x30’ HD | Factual Entertainment
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