Chapter 75 Cooperation or buyout?

Regarding the matter of participating in his own production team, Barron still gave Bonnie time to think about it.

But whether she is willing to join in the end or not, this plan will always move forward.

At the beginning, Barron's idea was to produce the variety show "Traitor" by himself and then cooperate with a certain TV station to broadcast it.

Just like the "separation of production and broadcasting" later implemented by China, that is, TV stations purchase program content from other producers and broadcast it on their own platforms. In fact, it originated in England.

In 1982, Britain's Channel 4 was launched. The biggest difference between this government-owned commercial TV station and the BBC and ITV was that all its TV programs came from independent production companies. It ushered in the era of separation of British TV production and broadcasting.

In the following more than ten years, Channel 4's "catfish effect" continued to heat up. In 1990 and 1996, the government successively promulgated the "British Radio and Television Act" to control the proportion of outsourced programs, TV station ownership, program copyright, etc. The separation of broadcasting and broadcasting was clearly stipulated, and these laws became the institutional motivation to promote the prosperity of the British television industry.

For example, the Radio and Television Act passed in the UK in 1990 stipulated that the proportion of outsourced programs for all TV channels should not be less than 25%.

Today, the proportion of outsourced programs for BBC and ITV has reached 50% and 60% respectively. Correspondingly, there are thousands of independent production companies across the country and British TV programs with constant creativity.

Therefore, after learning about these situations, Barron's first thought was to set up his own program production company and participate as a content provider for TV stations, and then accumulate experience so that he could enter the field of TV stations.

As for the program production team, it is actually not difficult. The most difficult thing is creativity.

Because after more than 20 years of development and improvement, the separation of British television production and broadcasting has formed a complete industrial chain.

In this chain, independent production companies are responsible for creativity and production, TV stations are responsible for procurement, arrangement, broadcasting, and advertising, and model companies are agents for program copyright sales. Each of the three parties performs their own duties and has a clear division of labor.

Here, it is almost impossible for a production company to simultaneously act as an agent for program advertising and marketing rights, as is common in China. Most production companies in England only deal with creativity and programming, while advertising is entirely handled by TV stations.

This is their philosophy to do what they are good at and to achieve the ultimate in creative research and development and program production in a professional spirit.

In the production of programs, in addition to companies that are good at creativity, there are also a large number of small and medium-sized secondary contractors and freelancers in the British television industry who are responsible for specific production matters. Among them, there are those who specialize in camera and lighting. , those who specialize in editing, etc.

After a creative company gets an order, it usually subcontracts the specific aspects of program production to professional companies.

Therefore, in the UK, most TV programs are the result of collective collaboration between many companies and individuals, and there are very few programs that are hosted by one company.

The same can be said for Barron's future content production company. Only core members are needed, and other professional work can be outsourced to other secondary contractors or freelancers can be hired temporarily.

The backbone of British television production is a large number of freelancers. They include core planners such as production directors, producers, directors, and screenwriters, as well as basic-level jobs such as camera work, sound effects, lighting, props, makeup, and post-production.

They are neither affiliated with a television station nor permanent staff of a production company, but are completely free-flowing professional TV people.

Usually after an independent production company gets an order from a TV station, the first thing it needs to do is recruit a project team. The first step is to determine important positions such as production director, producer, and director based on the budget and program type, and then they recommend candidates. Trustworthy grassroots employees, such as camera, lighting, sound effects, props, hosts, artists, etc.

All the staff work together for the project, and after the project is over, everyone will disband and become free agents again. This is the combination model of British TV people.

Freelancers are the norm in the UK. Regardless of whether it is a TV station or an independent production company, the ratio of permanent staff to freelancers hired every year is usually 20:80.

Many production companies usually only have a few people, but once they get an order, the number of employees will soar to dozens.

Every type of work is a circle. Only by working hard to do a better job can freelancers establish a good reputation and gain a foothold in the circle.

Therefore, under normal circumstances, Barron does not have to worry about the professionalism of the personnel he hires, because he only needs to ask around in the circle to find staff who can match the qualities he expects.

Even if he needs a relatively fixed team, he can still find the most suitable members during this running-in period.

However, there is one thing that makes Barron a little hesitant about this method at this time, that is, although the copyright of the final program is still mostly owned by the production company - unless it is specifically stipulated in the contract.

However, most of this situation is still a common practice in the industry and has not been stipulated at the legal level, so it is not without disputes.

This situation will not be finally legally determined until the Communications Act is enacted next year.

Another one is that after Bonnie returned to London and finally agreed to join Barron's program production team, Halo Company registered the copyright for the planning details of the "Betrayal" variety show that Barron finally wrote, and then After the plan was submitted to ITV, the other party showed a certain interest, but for this kind of reality show that has not been verified by the market before, the prospects are not particularly certain.

Therefore, in the end, the other party said that after the program is produced, they will decide whether to adopt it after watching the finished film.

Each TV station has its own purchasing editor. It can be said that as senior professionals, these purchasing editors have great power on the one hand. On the other hand, although these people will be more experienced in grasping the market, they will inevitably have their own Preferences, often do not necessarily have an overly adventurous and aggressive style of acting.

Therefore, after comprehensive consideration and the team's suggestion, Barron decided to adopt another method of cooperation, which is to purchase the broadcast time of the TV station and directly launch his own program content within the corresponding time.

Here, Barron’s TV station of choice is still ITV.

The British Independent Television Station, abbreviated as ITV - although it is also named Independent, it has nothing to do with the independent newspaper company under Barron's name.

ITV was officially launched in 1955. It is the earliest commercial TV station in the UK and one of the largest comprehensive TV stations in the UK.

It covers the entire UK and is one of the biggest competitors of the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation).

The operation of ITV is very interesting. When it was first formed, it was composed of 15 operators, each with its own logo and identity. These subcontracted TV stations all independently produced programs and even filmed TV series.

However, so far, only 4 of these 15 operators have been able to maintain independent Taiwan logos and identities - the other 11 operators have merged with "Independent Television Limited" to become ITV1 ).

The reason why I chose this TV station is because ITV has a very interesting operation method.

The ITV network was founded in 1955 and currently consists of two companies - ITV Corporation and STV Group. It has 15 regional licenses in 14 regions (one in London on weekdays and one on weekends, and only one in other regions) and 1 A national morning show franchise.

But not all companies can always get the franchise. Every once in a while, the independent television management department will bid for 15 regional franchises. If you successfully bid for the franchise rights of a certain region, you can broadcast programs in that region in the next period of time. .

In 1990, the UK passed the Broadcasting Act 1990.

In addition to establishing the Independent Television Commission to replace the Independent Broadcasting Authority, this bill allows the establishment of a fifth analogue television channel (i.e. Channel 5, now owned by Paramount), and stipulates that 1/4 of the programs broadcast by the BBC must As well as being produced by independent television production companies, the tendering process for ITV franchises has also been reformed.

The bill stipulates that ITV's franchise rights will be allocated based on potential value, and the ownership of the franchise will be determined through secret bidding.

Therefore, every once in a while, through bidding, you can obtain the broadcast time slot of the ITV network.

What’s interesting is that according to Bonnie’s news, Night Television, which is responsible for the one-hour broadcast time from 22:00 to 23:00 on the ITV network, is being investigated by the British Independent Committee for the Supervision of Telephone Information Services Standards due to suspected violations of the program. ——The reason is that their prize-winning guessing program, in which viewers participated through a hotline, was suspected of cheating by deceiving the audience into calling the hotline and making profits by predetermining the grand prize winner or raising the tariff without authorization.

ITV stated that if the program violates the rules, it will be suspended.

Then Summit Media has the opportunity to take over the program in this time period - of course, provided that their bid can satisfy ITV.

The data during the new book period is related to subsequent recommendations, so follow-up reading is very important. I beg you not to keep it all the time. If you feel that it is okay, read it every day to help increase follow-up reading. Thank you very much.