Independent filmmaker Pat McGee explores the fast track production of his feature documentary Bernie Blackout: The Revolution Will Not Be Televised . We discuss: The Concept: documenting Bernie Sanders’ campaign and the media bias against him. His unique access to the Sanders campaign. The High-risk decision to commit to the production without a buyer. The …
Happy New Year to all my friends, colleagues, clients, subscribers, readers, contributors and more! I’ve really enjoyed this year, using my industry knowledge and contacts to provide you with valuable information and context through my weekly newsletter, regular ‘pod-versations’ with experts, producing panels at major industry events like MIPDoc, and consultations with producers, platforms, nonprofits …
Are Netflix and the streamers killing the channels’ business? And thus are opportunities shrinking for producers at the end of the ’20-teens’? Sample – 12 Factual Channels: For my presentation to the upcoming New York State Bar Association annual conference, Nielsen aggregated the Primetime audience for 12 channels that focus on Factual programs. They are: …
STEVE BURNS has enjoyed senior management roles at Nat Geo, Discovery Networks and CuriosityStream. Our podcast topic: HOW THE DOCUMENTARY LANDSCAPE HAS CHANGED SINCE THE ‘EIGHTIES. First, Steve shares his shock and loss on hearing that Sunny Side’s Yves Jeanneau had passed away. We discuss the rise of big budget international co-productions, “Occu-soaps”, character-led Reality, and …
The audience for COUNTRY MUSIC extends Ken Burns‘ run as the high-performing PBS documentarian. The average audience over 8 episodes was 4.42 million. That’s more that 3x the PBS average for prime (1.24 million). And slightly higher than the average for the VIETNAM series (4.38 million). COUNTRY MUSIC maintained its audience, even returning to peak …
This post covers the online demand for Netflix Original Documentaries in Germany. I also compare the demand for Netflix documentaries with the streamer’s Scripted Original hits like Black Mirror. Measuring Audience Demand: The data is provided by research firm Parrot Analytics which measures online audience demand for programs across all platforms. Today’s post continues my series on Netflix’s …
Netflix famously keeps its audience data a deep secret. We lack even high-level measures of its documentary viewing, much less the detailed demographics from the likes of Nielsen and BARB that drive the broadcast and Cab/Sat sectors. That’s a problem for the Unscripted / Documentary eco-system. Producers, schedulers and their funders are shooting in the …
The distribution footprint and average primetime audience of Cab/Sat channels are key measures of scale and performance. These metrics are of intense interest as Realscreen West kicks off in LA and Sunny Side of the Doc approaches in La Rochelle, France. Today’s coverage and ratings snapshot is for 40+ U.S. networks, from Factual leaders like …