Lecture introduction
• Local adaptation of cultural content
• Global–local collaborative alliances
• International exchange-flows of cultural goods • Cross-national audience reception
Makeover on the move: Global television and programme formats
Main points
The author explores the development of formatted television programming to answer the
question:
how does format-remake television work as a worldwide institution?
this essay is concerned with understanding the institutional framework of global television,
which offers broad homologies of makeover that anticipate and contextualize subjects and
themes occurring at more micro levels in specific programmes.
In sum, the international television format trade is an important component of the global
television industry. Doing television in this way helps to reconfigure and reconfirm various
televisual genres.
the format programme has the capacity to be customized or indigenized to help meet local
tastes and expectation
format franchise licensing underlines the point that this kind of format exchange is never a one-
dimensional process. Instead, remaking is usually multifaceted, fluid, dynamic and complex.
Economically and culturally, the worldwide trade in television makeover programmes binds
more and more broadcasting and production components of hitherto local, national, and
regional television industries into a more transnational business. If this is television
globalization, then it is globalization with a local look and sound.
Key terminologies
Format program
● kind of recipe or guide to the remaking of a programme adaptation in another territory.
● devised, developed and broadcast in one television market
● what is put to air is a new programme produced in this other territory and using the
format of the original as a kind of template that will help to direct the remaking of the
adaptation.
Canned program
● Finished program.
, ● The previous form in which television shows travelled around the world
● the technology was available to record program as they were broadcast on air
‘knowledge exchange’
‘the transfer of economically useful practices, routines and conventions, which are complex and
coherent assemblages of different kinds of information’.
television format
multifaceted, unified package of industry knowledge that is licensed to facilitate the remaking of
a programme in another television market
television program format
set of industry know-how and resources that allows the development and production of a
television programme in another place and time.
format
complex, comprehensive body of materials which can guide and assist in the makeover of an
earlier version of a programme to produce a later version that may be more suitable for a
particular television industry and its local audiences somewhere else in the world.
‘strangeness’
the imported texts or formats ‘hold a high position in the scale of values, and are considered to
be true, beautiful, of divine origin’
‘indigenization
‘imported texts and the home culture restructure each other’
‘translations, imitations and adaptations multiply’ and ‘the codes imported along with the texts
become part of the meta lingual structure’ of the importing culture
national-internationalism.
There is a mutual accommodation between the ‘imported’ text and the ‘home’ culture wherein
the two reorganize one another
‘in between stage’
intensification of the previous stage.
commendation
exemplary texts are produced by the receiving culture.
International franchise of TV program
Globalization brought about new era in television
● Technological convergence has become a dominant notion with new players entering
the distribution arena
, ○ Increasing uniformity happened
• Local TV audiences differ linguistically, ethnically, historically, geographically, and culturally
• Invariably prefer programmes that look and sound as their own
• TV content producers
• Face high cost and risk when creating a new local TV programme
• Aim to maximize commercial value of successful TV programmes
● the franchising of telenovela into at least 12 national territories (as well as several
unauthorized remakes elsewhere) turns on industrial practices of adaptation
Problem
Licensing the re-broadcast of a finished or canned programme allows for very little cultural
adaptation in a particular market.
Solution: format program
“A recipe or guide to the remaking of a programme adaptation in another territory”
“Set of industry know-how and resources that allows the development and production of a
television programme in another place and time”
with a television format, what the trade seeks to export is the successful commercial knowledge
and know-how bound up in a programme that will help ensure its adaptation and remaking in
another territory.
it makes available a kind of mould that controls and shapes the efforts of production teams in
other markets in making their own version of a programme.
Format program
Main features
The premise is that a good creative idea in one place can be successfully established
elsewhere, especially if suitable care is taken with the adaptation
• Unified package of industry skills and knowledge
• Results in customised programmes
• that meets local tastes
• Increases commercial potential of successful shows
Elements of a TV format package
• Complex body of material resources
Script / running order sheets / studio floor plans / set designs / schedule & rating data /
marketing & promotion material / sample press releases / program synopsis / audiovisual
material of the program in other territories / program titles / music / special effects / logos /
graphics / promos
• Knowledge and skills
• Consultative production service to help in successful local adaptation
• Programme adaptations are more likely to be successful
• Local adaptation of cultural content
• Global–local collaborative alliances
• International exchange-flows of cultural goods • Cross-national audience reception
Makeover on the move: Global television and programme formats
Main points
The author explores the development of formatted television programming to answer the
question:
how does format-remake television work as a worldwide institution?
this essay is concerned with understanding the institutional framework of global television,
which offers broad homologies of makeover that anticipate and contextualize subjects and
themes occurring at more micro levels in specific programmes.
In sum, the international television format trade is an important component of the global
television industry. Doing television in this way helps to reconfigure and reconfirm various
televisual genres.
the format programme has the capacity to be customized or indigenized to help meet local
tastes and expectation
format franchise licensing underlines the point that this kind of format exchange is never a one-
dimensional process. Instead, remaking is usually multifaceted, fluid, dynamic and complex.
Economically and culturally, the worldwide trade in television makeover programmes binds
more and more broadcasting and production components of hitherto local, national, and
regional television industries into a more transnational business. If this is television
globalization, then it is globalization with a local look and sound.
Key terminologies
Format program
● kind of recipe or guide to the remaking of a programme adaptation in another territory.
● devised, developed and broadcast in one television market
● what is put to air is a new programme produced in this other territory and using the
format of the original as a kind of template that will help to direct the remaking of the
adaptation.
Canned program
● Finished program.
, ● The previous form in which television shows travelled around the world
● the technology was available to record program as they were broadcast on air
‘knowledge exchange’
‘the transfer of economically useful practices, routines and conventions, which are complex and
coherent assemblages of different kinds of information’.
television format
multifaceted, unified package of industry knowledge that is licensed to facilitate the remaking of
a programme in another television market
television program format
set of industry know-how and resources that allows the development and production of a
television programme in another place and time.
format
complex, comprehensive body of materials which can guide and assist in the makeover of an
earlier version of a programme to produce a later version that may be more suitable for a
particular television industry and its local audiences somewhere else in the world.
‘strangeness’
the imported texts or formats ‘hold a high position in the scale of values, and are considered to
be true, beautiful, of divine origin’
‘indigenization
‘imported texts and the home culture restructure each other’
‘translations, imitations and adaptations multiply’ and ‘the codes imported along with the texts
become part of the meta lingual structure’ of the importing culture
national-internationalism.
There is a mutual accommodation between the ‘imported’ text and the ‘home’ culture wherein
the two reorganize one another
‘in between stage’
intensification of the previous stage.
commendation
exemplary texts are produced by the receiving culture.
International franchise of TV program
Globalization brought about new era in television
● Technological convergence has become a dominant notion with new players entering
the distribution arena
, ○ Increasing uniformity happened
• Local TV audiences differ linguistically, ethnically, historically, geographically, and culturally
• Invariably prefer programmes that look and sound as their own
• TV content producers
• Face high cost and risk when creating a new local TV programme
• Aim to maximize commercial value of successful TV programmes
● the franchising of telenovela into at least 12 national territories (as well as several
unauthorized remakes elsewhere) turns on industrial practices of adaptation
Problem
Licensing the re-broadcast of a finished or canned programme allows for very little cultural
adaptation in a particular market.
Solution: format program
“A recipe or guide to the remaking of a programme adaptation in another territory”
“Set of industry know-how and resources that allows the development and production of a
television programme in another place and time”
with a television format, what the trade seeks to export is the successful commercial knowledge
and know-how bound up in a programme that will help ensure its adaptation and remaking in
another territory.
it makes available a kind of mould that controls and shapes the efforts of production teams in
other markets in making their own version of a programme.
Format program
Main features
The premise is that a good creative idea in one place can be successfully established
elsewhere, especially if suitable care is taken with the adaptation
• Unified package of industry skills and knowledge
• Results in customised programmes
• that meets local tastes
• Increases commercial potential of successful shows
Elements of a TV format package
• Complex body of material resources
Script / running order sheets / studio floor plans / set designs / schedule & rating data /
marketing & promotion material / sample press releases / program synopsis / audiovisual
material of the program in other territories / program titles / music / special effects / logos /
graphics / promos
• Knowledge and skills
• Consultative production service to help in successful local adaptation
• Programme adaptations are more likely to be successful
