A Brits Guide To US TV-Page 2
Friday, August 22nd, 2008
CABLE NETWORKS
The other main source for TV in the US is cable (there’s also satellite but it’s failed to penetrate in the same way cable has). Around 58% of American households have cable TV, which is split into two main types of channels.
Basic Cable: These are the channels that are normally available to anyone hooked up to a particular cable network. The cable company will pay a set fee per customer to the channel for its inclusion in the lineup, and the channels are likely to supplement this income with commercials. An increasing amount of US programming is coming from basic cable channels, such a Comedy Central producing ‘South Park’ and ‘The Daily Show’, FX airing ‘The Shield’, ‘Damages’, ‘Nip/Tuck’, ‘Rescue Me’ and ‘The Riches’, and USA Networks originating the likes of ‘Monk’ and ‘Psych’.
Premium Cable: These are channels that you have to pay extra for, with most of them primarily being film channels that don’t show commercials (it’s similar to Sky Movies in the UK). Most of these now offer a range of channels, which you have to purchase as a package. In recent years, several of these, such as HBO and Showtime, have moved into producing their own series, mini-series and TV movies. For example, HBO was responsible for ‘Band Of Brothers’, ‘Six Feet Under’, ‘Entourage’ and ‘The Sopranos’, while Showtime airs ‘Weeds’, ‘Californication’ and ‘Dexter’.
SYNDICATION
If all that weren’t enough for sources of TV programmes, there’s also syndicated TV, which for original programming are shows that aren’t attached to any particular channel or station. As mentioned above, the broadcast networks don’t and aren’t allowed to provide programming 24 hours a day, and so the stations have to fill up their schedules with something else. While there might be some local programming, much of the schedule will be syndicated shows, which are made by one company, but then sold to a multitude of different stations across the country. So, for example, ‘Oprah’ is not allied to any network, and so while her show might be on an ABC affiliate in one part of the country, she might be with an NBC affiliate in other areas.
Most syndicated TV is made for daytime viewing, so the likes of ‘Judge Judy’, many US gameshows and all the endless talk shows come from this source. Although this may seem like a slightly haphazard way of making and airing programmes, it’s incredibly lucrative, as when the fees are added up from the multitude of different stations across the US, the money can be enormous. It’s for this reason that Oprah can earn $385 million in a year from her talk show – a salary she wouldn’t even be able to get close to on network TV.
The other part of syndication is selling older network series to cable channels or local stations so they get the rights to air reruns. The important thing to remember here is that to get good money from rerun rights, you need over 100 episodes of a particular show, mainly because most stations will want to show one episode each weekday, and won’t want to run out of episodes too soon.
The reason this is important is because making broadcast TV in the US isn’t actually very profitable. For example, Warner Brothers makes ‘ER’ for NBC, and NBC pays Warner for each episode. However when production costs are taken into account, Warner doesn’t actually make much money from the initial airing. Indeed, when development costs are taken into account, the first season of a show might actually be done at a loss. Syndication is where the big bucks are made (and nowadays, DVD revenue is vitally important too), and as a result getting to 100 episodes is incredibly important to a show, and also to all those involved in making it, as big stars and producers will normally have syndication profits written into their contracts.
For example, Jerry Seinfeld became the highest paid actor in the history of television when he made $225 million in a single year. However the cash didn’t come from his self titled show, ‘Seinfeld’, airing new episodes on TV, it came from syndication rerun rights. In some cases, such as with ‘The Cosby Show’, the rerun rights per episode can total more than the original network paid to show the series when it first aired.
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