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Programme Commissioning
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[Deleted User]
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I have a few ideas which I feel may make decent programmes for local ITV regions, the sort of programmes that they show in there half hour slots either late on a week night or in the early evening half 7 slot, but am after some advice from people who have had experience or dealings in programme commissioning.
Obviously I'm not going to discuss in a public forum the ideas I have, I'm just after some advice and/or pointing in the right direction.
Firstly am I better approaching an existing production company regarding my ideas and working with them, or setting up one of my own (I do have previous experience in TV production and have professional filming and editing equipment).
If going with an existing company how do I stop them from taking my ideas and getting them to screen and taking the credit as if it was their idea?
Can someone give me an indication of budgets (for example, daily filming costs for a small 2-3 man team, what budgets do ITV local companies work to/look for when working with indies etc).
I would appreciate it if I'm able to get some answers to the questions above and please feel free to pm me answers if you prefer not to discuss things such as budgets in a public forum.
Many thanks.
Obviously I'm not going to discuss in a public forum the ideas I have, I'm just after some advice and/or pointing in the right direction.
Firstly am I better approaching an existing production company regarding my ideas and working with them, or setting up one of my own (I do have previous experience in TV production and have professional filming and editing equipment).
If going with an existing company how do I stop them from taking my ideas and getting them to screen and taking the credit as if it was their idea?
Can someone give me an indication of budgets (for example, daily filming costs for a small 2-3 man team, what budgets do ITV local companies work to/look for when working with indies etc).
I would appreciate it if I'm able to get some answers to the questions above and please feel free to pm me answers if you prefer not to discuss things such as budgets in a public forum.
Many thanks.
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Budgets for ITV regional programmes are around £10,000 per half hour.
Would the programme ideas you have work better on a niche digital channel, where you are more likely to get a commission, and possibly a slightly higher budget?
As ever there's always one pleb who posts something totally unconnected to the subject matter :rolleyes:
Actually, I was offerring genuine advice - no-one's going to hire somebody who doesn't know the difference between 'there' and 'their'...
I work with people who've made programmes in the past for Granada's regional output, but there just isn't any more work available in that area. The regions basically just make the minimum they have to - news/politics and sport - and don't really use any outside people or companies anymore. You're better off targeting some of the smaller channels - but from experience I can tell you that it's certainly an uphill struggle to get any programme commissioned in the current marketplace.
As an anecdote, a car programme I worked on for an independent company was shown on ITV1 at 11pm and got the highest ratings across all channels for the hour it was on. Then the following year, they said that they couldn't find anywhere decent for the same show in the schedule (even though the cost to them was minimal - the beauty of sponsorship!) so they put it out at about 3 in the morning!