RTA 211: Production Theory // Dana Lee
Lecture 11:
TV Renaissance:
“It’s fun to think that once people would watch what we told them when we told them,
but that’s not the case anymore”
TV has been around for 80 years
100,000 hours of TV is traditionally viewed in a lifetime - 12 years
Thoughts on buying shows?
- Starts in NYC at the Upfronts
- Advertisers putting money ‘upfront to produce the series
- ½ of the millions of dollars from advertisers committed at this time
- Finishes in LA - for international broadcasters
- Canadian broadcasters have been going here since 1962
- HYPER COMPETITIVE PROCESS
- Canadians are treated differently than other countries - geographically and
culturally
- Rogers and Shaw get special treatment
- All this money has to be dropped strictly off of viewing the PILOT. Advertisers
only get to see ONE EPISODE
“TV was for Whores...Now it’s for Pushers ”
- Dana Lee
(in reference to the fact that TV use to be cheap fast stories ard were critically underrated, but now binge
watching has made viewers use TV like a drug… Good TV has to be addictive )
Last Decade - Conversion to Digital TV
- Movie stars now on TV and even online series
- Ad ratings use to be the only metric and people would write and mail off what
they were watching when they were watching
- If you wanted an Ad free story, you had to go to a theatre
- You would end up watching about 14 minutes of Ads every hour
- Result: Writing has to be done around commercials leaving you on a cliffhanger
ever 5 minutes right before an ad
- Now that there are no commercials the way we tell stories are different
Relationship with the viewer - challenging but flattering because the viewer is
paying closer attention to more complex stories
Lecture 11:
TV Renaissance:
“It’s fun to think that once people would watch what we told them when we told them,
but that’s not the case anymore”
TV has been around for 80 years
100,000 hours of TV is traditionally viewed in a lifetime - 12 years
Thoughts on buying shows?
- Starts in NYC at the Upfronts
- Advertisers putting money ‘upfront to produce the series
- ½ of the millions of dollars from advertisers committed at this time
- Finishes in LA - for international broadcasters
- Canadian broadcasters have been going here since 1962
- HYPER COMPETITIVE PROCESS
- Canadians are treated differently than other countries - geographically and
culturally
- Rogers and Shaw get special treatment
- All this money has to be dropped strictly off of viewing the PILOT. Advertisers
only get to see ONE EPISODE
“TV was for Whores...Now it’s for Pushers ”
- Dana Lee
(in reference to the fact that TV use to be cheap fast stories ard were critically underrated, but now binge
watching has made viewers use TV like a drug… Good TV has to be addictive )
Last Decade - Conversion to Digital TV
- Movie stars now on TV and even online series
- Ad ratings use to be the only metric and people would write and mail off what
they were watching when they were watching
- If you wanted an Ad free story, you had to go to a theatre
- You would end up watching about 14 minutes of Ads every hour
- Result: Writing has to be done around commercials leaving you on a cliffhanger
ever 5 minutes right before an ad
- Now that there are no commercials the way we tell stories are different
Relationship with the viewer - challenging but flattering because the viewer is
paying closer attention to more complex stories
