“NATPE is about maximizing profits everyone is going to take based on the content they create.” Rick Feldman, newly elected President and CEO of NATPE

So you want to audition for Jerry Springer by throwing a tantrum; you want to verbally spar with Ray Romano; you want to shake the brilliant writing hand of Jerry Seinfeld, you want to make nice with Doris Roberts and Patricia Heaton of Everybody Loves Raymond; and you want to have your picture taken with a woman that you are not likely to meet next door, such as adult film star, Gina Lynn, then maybe NATPE, Las Vegas style is where you should have been. Now all of this is true, especially if you are a hungry and ambitious producer and /or writer, who want a leg up with his television career.

Now, for the uninitiated, the annual NATPE conference is all about deal making. This annual bazaar of program sellers and buyers, station owners and distributors, content providers and producers, has been going down hill in the last four or five years. As networks have consolidated their programming, as producers and syndicators are developing and selling programming all year round and as more modern means of communications have made less relevant and meaningful this annual confab of the buyers and sellers of television programming, NATPE needed to be revitalized.

Fresh oxygen needed to be pumped into the management system and decision making of NATPE - a new leadership was required. Rick Feldman, formerly a senior corporate executive with USA Network, was brought in last April to be the new CEO of NATPE.
Feldman was everywhere, introducing all the speakers at the seminars and a chat room, talking to attendees, making sure that every variable of the conference was running on time, even delivering water to the speaker’s tables. He was a whirling president of unlimited energy and devotion to getting the job done right. He organized the structure, format and selection of speakers so that each day was filled with useful information.

Essentially, there are two kinds of programs that are sold at NATPE: New, first run programming, specifically designed for syndication and these programs are often times front ended in development and pilot cost by a joint venture between an independent producer and a program syndicator, like KingWorld. Or these first run programs may be developed in house, by a network such as NBC, and then syndicated aka sold through their in house syndication arm. In the case of NBC, NBC Enterprises. Programs that you may be familiar with in this category include game shows such as Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy!, political talk shows such as the Chris Matthews Show and. of course, the giant talker of all time, Oprah.

The most profitable type of sale is the off-network sale. These are programs that have already proven their success in the marketplace, have already had prime time network broadcast runs, have at least 100 episodes in the can and are now syndicated for sale to independent stations, network affiliates and are ready to be sold to international networks. Successful series in this category include Seinfeld, Friends, and most sitcoms that you see over and over again, after they have had their network run.

PROGRAMMING TRENDS

Reality shows and more reality shows; no surprise here, given the geometrically expanding costs of scripted television, particularly sitcoms and one-hour drama series.
A reality show can cost a broadcast or cable network $600,000 for an hour vs. $1-2M for a scripted show. And here is the kicker. Audiences are responding big time to reality shows. There seems to be little to any relationship between production value and audience size, particularly in the mad dash that all the networks have, broadcast and cable, in sucking up to the 18 to 49 demographic - and most particularly the 18 to 34 demographic, that reality shows attract in droves.

The makeover show will be plaguing us in the coming TV seasons. All kinds of make-over: not just yourself, but your house, your trailer, your office, your brother-in-law, everything and everyone will be subject to a makeover show this year. As Warner Bros. Station Group Senior Vice President Lynn Stepanian stated, “Whether it is a home or a life, it is all about rehabbing.” Warner Bros. has a show called Ambush Makeover.

Here is a reality game show concept that the 18 to 34 demographic, will surely grab onto LoveScene. Good Little Pictures, a relatively new independent producer, showcased LoveScene at this year’s NATPE. The show pairs up actor-wannabees, making them act out famous movie love scenes for cash prizes and the chance to star in a film. The series, which has been described as “an American Idol for actors,” is hosted by former MTV V.J. John Sencio.

Jane Pauley, is baaaaccckk! She is going back to NBC, this time NBC Enterprises, the syndication arm of the NBC Network. Her show, which will debut in September, is already cleared in 99% of the US markets. With each show NBC Enterprises will receive an estimated $1M in licensing fees. She will be competing in key afternoon spots against Dr. Phil and Oprah. Each show will cover a specific topic and is target to women 35 and older. That is key element of any talk show; you must have a host, a star, who the audience can relate to, who is a real person. This person is not only in the TV, the real stars project themselves right into your living room. “We won’t be doing any shows on psychics or any shows Jerry Springer has done; we aspire to keep it real,” said Jane Pauley.

Jane Pauley’s return and also with Tony Danza beginning his own talk show in the Fall, and with Universal conducting negotiations with Jennifer Lopez and her sister for a daily talk show, the new trend is to not just have personalities yakking it up on a daily basis, but bringing in star with established audiences.

TECHNOLOGY INFLUENCES

Networks and sponsors are living in fear of digital video recorder (DVRs). They are now in 3 million US homes. They are scheduled to be in 6 million homes by the end of this year and DVR penetration is scheduled to reach 25 million homes by the end of 2007. As cable operators, satellite TV providers and consumer electronic makers integrate the time shifting devices into digital TV sets and other household gadgets.

Consumer surveys show that time shifting DVR owners skip at least 65 to 70% of all commercials. The Yankee Group of Boston predicts that if DVR growth exceeded to its 2007 penetration, TV advertisers will be wasting more than $5 billion a year in commercials.

Fearing the DVR onslaught, networks and advertisers are fighting back with a variety of methods for reaching viewers with marketing messages. Possible strategies include: increasing use of product placements; program sponsorships (e.g. IBM presents . . .); co-productions between sponsors and networks; long form commercials, similar to what you see in movie theaters today; viewer discounts, if as a cable subscriber, you agree to watch the commercials; and interactive commercials, in which the viewer received something for participating.

HDTV for the masses: tomorrow’s TV lead by innovators, who have the marketing and financial muscle such as Ted Turner and Mark Cuban, is the wave of the future. As Cuban said in an interview, “Most of the programming made up to now has been shot on tape or 35mm film. While you can upgrade film, tape will look like crap on a hi-def network. Even film doesn’t have the same depth of field. So you need original programming.”

While sports, nature programs and liver performances have been mainstays so far of HD programming, Cuban believes the next logical application is news, which is why HDNet has developed the world’s first shippable satellite uplink for HD. “Instead of a talking head sitting in front of a few burry pictures, now we can let the pictures tell a better story so viewers will be better able to decide for themselves.”

DEALING AT NATPE

If you are a writer or a producer-writer and you have ambitions to crack the television market, particularly if you want to position yourself for either broadcast television or cable, it is essential that you develop a relationship with a SHOWRUNNER. Who are these mysterious folk? Where do you find them? How do you approach them? What do you have to say to them?

SHOWRUNNERS are producer-writing teams that have already made it in the business; they have been part of successful, long running shows, both sitcoms and drama, and now reality television. They are trusted by the networks to deliver the goods. They deliver on time and on budget and they meet the quality, technical standards that the networks demand. In TV land, it is not the idea that sells, it is who is selling the idea. Ideas are everywhere. The ability to execute, to deliver on time and on budget are the critical factors. Reliability and consistency is what counts. SHOWRUNNERS have proven themselves to be the real stars of the television networks. Seasons come and go, but SHOWRUNNERS can move, usually within there genre, e.g situation comedies, from season to season. They keep getting up at bat and thus have the opportunity to keep swinging.

It is critical that if you are outside the Hollywood-Burbank-San Fernando Valley loop, that SHOWRUNNERS and their buyers (network executives) frequent, you must find a way to get in front of a SHOWRUNNER that has experience in the genre that you are pitching. The panel discussions as NATPE and the Feldman new programming format that he initiated, The Chat Rooms, allowed one to identify SHOWRUNNERS. The stellar SHOWRUNNERS frequently love to show up on industry panels, as it gives them the opportunity to be the star, to showcase what they know, to indicate to their colleagues and peer group, to the media and to “wannabee’s” as to why they are on the dais and you are not. Many of them are truly brilliant and have insights - and for the most part they are generous in sharing these insights - that can be enormously helpful to your own career arc.

You will gain an understanding of where you could fit in, and how formidable the competition is and the hurdles that must be jumped in order to advance to the position of SHOWRUNNER. The big carrot for a SHOWRUNNER is the equity stack that he owns in a successful series. As a creative of a show, that is able to put 100+ shows in the can - and then have these shows syndicated - either by the network that contracted initially for the series - or by a syndicator, who initially contracted with the SHOWRUNNER, for the development of a first run series, the profits are enormous and could go on for a generation. We are talking hundreds of millions of dollars, particularly now with opportunities for distribution of US originated shows into the global marketplace.

Now, here is the rub. SHOWRUNNERS have the capacity, capability and profit motive not to work with you. They don’t want to share their contacts or their ideas or to waste their time in creative discussion with you that would help you in further shaping of an idea that you would have primary ownership of and not them. Recognizing this upfront, it is of even greater imperative for you to test your idea against trends in the marketplace before pitching your idea to a specific SHOWRUNNER, who demonstrable success in your genre is the reason that you want him in your camp. Your idea better be damn good, totally fresh and new that also builds on a trend that the networks are pursuing. This is obviously no easy task. Very few have done it. But there are extraordinary examples of success - most recently in our own backyard - as we have seen what Scout Productions has accomplished Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. This is truly reality television with a twist.