Entertainment Industry

What are they looking for?

For whatever reason, network audiences want serious drama — ripped from the headlines, contemporary issue pieces. MOWs (“movies of the week”) used to be disdainfully referred to as “disease of the week” or “women in jeopardy” stories — there’s really not a huge market for those types of projects anymore (or at least at the moment), though “family in jeopardy” has somewhat eclipsed the former mainstay for the free networks and Lifetime.

Comedies rarely do well on network television (unless a major motion picture star is attached or it’s a feature film being aired). Straight romance doesn’t have a huge market on network TV either unless its based on a best selling novel (and Danielle Steel and Judith Krantz already have that market cornered). Movies about minorities don’t get the numbers either as the audience is predominantly Caucasian. Minority programming has increasing homes at C/W (the merger of UPN and Warner Bros.), SiTV (for Latino programming), Black Entertainment Network, and maybe FOX — though this changes and evolves daily.

The most powerful cable networks, HBO, Showtime and Turner (and the Fox Network) generally buy stories with a strong male lead that can be identified with by a predominantly male audience. They also want a strong female second lead to add sex appeal to the story.

The free networks and Lifetime gravitate toward true-life stories (ideally ones that can be shot for $1.5 million in Canada and have worldwide appeal), the woman or family in jeopardy still has a place here, unique family dramas (whether true or fictional), coming of age teen stories, seasonal (Christmas or Thanksgiving) projects, stories addressing topical female issues, as long as they don't offend broadcast sponsors, contemporary heroic stories and some Sci-fi/fantasy so long as it's reality-driven and earth-based with an identifiable stake (no more than 10-30 years into the future) for today's audience.

Who are their audiences?

For ABC, CBS, NBC, the primary audience is women: with each network focusing on a different age group.

• CBS traditionally appeals to an older audience (the fully mature female) and to family viewers.


• NBC appeals to female boomer-aged viewers.


• ABC is younger, hipper, family programming.


• Fox is younger, hipper, trendier, leaning toward Generation X, predominantly male-oriented. Rioskier, edgier programming.


• USA used to be very male-oriented and focused on genre movies (action, horror, thriller, etc.) but has blended almost indistinguishably with broadcast network style programming.


• Lifetime programs projects for and about women.


• TNT favors period pieces, movies on subjects of "global importance," incident- or aspect-focused biographies and classics. Very star-driven and caters to A or B-list vanity projects.


• HBO programs male-oriented projects, best-selling books, sexy thrillers, "global importance" projects and action films with feature-level casting.


• The Disney Channel has a history and track-record reputation of doing predominantly children and family programming, they have joined the herd seeking network-type programming over the past several decades.

Ancillary Sales and Product Placement

Ancillary sales including books, soundtracks and merchandise must be set seven to fourteen months in advance of the theatrical release. Video games often take even longer.

Product Placement and merchandizing (think Reese’s Pieces in E.T., or the computers and AOL in You’ve Got Mail) are continually being mined for new sources of revenue.

Recommended reading: Two great books that will help you better understand the business of show business, especially producing and distributing feature films and setting up production companies are: The Producer’s Business Handbook by John J. Lee, Jr. and The Biz: The Basic Business, Legal and Financial Aspects of the Film Industry by Schuyler M. Moore.

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