Ludo Dufour is the Managing Director, Sales & Co-Productions for OFF THE FENCE, the leading independent non-fiction specialist based in Amsterdam. We connected last June in Durban at NEWF, that super-exciting African conference linking Conservation and Filmmaking. I was taken by Ludo’s presentation on the nuts and bolts of financing and distributing quality documentaries and unscripted programs. …
Letters From Baghdad is a beautiful documentary that uncovers the story of British adventurer, diplomat and Arabist, Gertrude Bell. (Republished December 11, 2018 to mark the PBS premiere. Original publication: 6/6/2017) Filmmakers Zeva Oelbaum and Sabine Krayenbühl reveal the struggles of a brilliant, lone woman in an all-male world. Their research uncovered a largely forgotten but mesmerizing film …
Is the U.S. Cable /Satellite Channels business facing its Napster moment? That’s when a disruptive online solution (Napster) sucks the revenues out of an established business model (the CD-based retail music industry.) Cord-cutting accelerated to record levels in the 3rd Quarter, surprising industry analysts. Cord-nevers: The mainly Millennial non-cabled home is a growing segment. Cord-nevers …
The 2019 Sweet Spots Study is out now! The Study is an invaluable guide to cost benchmarks for network commissions. What do 31 U.S. channels pay for original programs? For documentaries and specials? And for reality series? Does my pitch fall in the budget “Sweet Spot” for my target network? My interviews with executives and …
Netflix and Amazon Prime famously don’t disclose their viewing data. We don’t know how many subscribers are watching documentary and unscripted programs. Or how their audience breaks down, for example by gender, age, education and income. And how do the hit, binge-watched scripted series compare with the unscripted audience on the OTT/Netflix platforms? The lack of …
Advertiser-supported channels like Discovery and History provide the greatest volume of commissions for factual producers. There’s good and bad news for producers in current projections for the U.S. spend on TV advertising. The bad news is that U.S. TV ad spend is projected to continue to decline this year. TV ad revs will fall from …
This week’s podcast covers Netflix. Our focus is on its deals with producers. And on how the channels’ deal terms are evolving in response to the rise of the online video platforms. Sharing his experience is veteran programming executive John Ford. John is an extremely well-placed analyst of the market in his current position as General Manager …
Our topic for this week’s podcast: Measuring demand for FOOD programs in the U.S., UK and Europe. Sharing her expertise and analysis is Karina Dixon, the Insights Director of Parrot Analytics. Karina Dixon, Insights Director of Parrot Analytics. Top Food Shows In the podcast, Karina surveys the top Food shows measured by audience demand in the UK, U.S. and Western Europe. PODCAST …