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Put your money where your mouth is...
Feb. 5th, 2003 12:09 pmSo, as lots of fans of teh genre are painfully aware, a great many science fiction television shows are getting cancelled these days. Farscape, even after earning scads of critical acclaim, couldn't survive even in a niche market like the Sci Fi Channel. Firefly, died young. Witchblade ran into troubles that caused the network to cancel it...
In the middle of this, I hear the fans howling. "The Neilsen ratings undercount us! The networks ignore us! The networks are evil money-grubbers, who dont' care about the quality of television today!" I hear them cry. Well, I'm not going to join that cry.
There's a fundamental fact that fandom seems to forget when considering the majority of television programming - the networks don't owe us anything. This isn't the movies, where we pay our $8, and therefore have some right to discuss whether it was worth the money. The only thing most of us pay for TV is a bit of time waiting through commercials, and VCRs and TiVo frequently eliminate even that commitment. I'm sorry, your cable or satellite TV bills don't count - they pay for the method of delivery, not for the programs themselves. Commercials are what pay for your programs. If they cannot show that we're there watching the commercials, the program won't fly. It's that simple.
Or is it? Let us consider...
I've been told that Firefly cost roughly $2 million per episode to produce. That doesn't sound like an outrageous prospect, so for purposes of discussion, I'll use that figure. The fans maintain that the Neilsens undercount - let's assume they do, and something like 2 million people watch each episode.
I think you see where I'm going now - if each of those people chipped in $1, you'd have an episode. If each chipped in $22 per year, you'd have a season. If each chipped in $100 per year, they could bankroll four such series, and have enough left over for a half-seasoner like Witchblade.
So, let us now take our 2 million subscribers, and call them "Two Million Fans Productions". TMFP goes out, and offers to produce shows like Firefly. It then turns around, and sells each epsidoe to a network for one single shiny penny. Donate the show, allow the network to keep every dollar of advertising revenue. If the network doesn't have to pay for the show itself, it becomes vastly more profitable to air it. The network gets what it wants (a profitable show), and the fans get what they want (a show to watch). Everybody is happy.
Of course, this is based upn the idea that two million fans could agree to act together on something. Even if that means getting something they want, it's not likely to happen. However, it still stands to reason - you get what you pay for.
In the middle of this, I hear the fans howling. "The Neilsen ratings undercount us! The networks ignore us! The networks are evil money-grubbers, who dont' care about the quality of television today!" I hear them cry. Well, I'm not going to join that cry.
There's a fundamental fact that fandom seems to forget when considering the majority of television programming - the networks don't owe us anything. This isn't the movies, where we pay our $8, and therefore have some right to discuss whether it was worth the money. The only thing most of us pay for TV is a bit of time waiting through commercials, and VCRs and TiVo frequently eliminate even that commitment. I'm sorry, your cable or satellite TV bills don't count - they pay for the method of delivery, not for the programs themselves. Commercials are what pay for your programs. If they cannot show that we're there watching the commercials, the program won't fly. It's that simple.
Or is it? Let us consider...
I've been told that Firefly cost roughly $2 million per episode to produce. That doesn't sound like an outrageous prospect, so for purposes of discussion, I'll use that figure. The fans maintain that the Neilsens undercount - let's assume they do, and something like 2 million people watch each episode.
I think you see where I'm going now - if each of those people chipped in $1, you'd have an episode. If each chipped in $22 per year, you'd have a season. If each chipped in $100 per year, they could bankroll four such series, and have enough left over for a half-seasoner like Witchblade.
So, let us now take our 2 million subscribers, and call them "Two Million Fans Productions". TMFP goes out, and offers to produce shows like Firefly. It then turns around, and sells each epsidoe to a network for one single shiny penny. Donate the show, allow the network to keep every dollar of advertising revenue. If the network doesn't have to pay for the show itself, it becomes vastly more profitable to air it. The network gets what it wants (a profitable show), and the fans get what they want (a show to watch). Everybody is happy.
Of course, this is based upn the idea that two million fans could agree to act together on something. Even if that means getting something they want, it's not likely to happen. However, it still stands to reason - you get what you pay for.
