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And, as cable channels mush- room and the American TV mar- ket fragments, the networks are desperate to hold on to their audiences while spending as little as possible in the process.
Exacerbating the situation is the fact that American networks have been forced to pay silly money to retain their hit shows. Programme producers have the networks over a barrel – recently, NBC paid Warner Bros $10m a half-hour episode to renew Friends.
But will the British export boom continue? Ian Jones, the general manager of Granada International and this year’s chair of the British Television Distributors’ Association (BTDA), admits reality shows “could be a fad”, but, he predicts, “as long as the UK develops innovative formats the US will pick them up.”
Some would see this develop- ment as long overdue – prime- time British TV was dominated in the eighties by US game show formats like The Price Is Right.
Selling off-the-shelf program- ming to the States, however, is a harder job than flogging formats. The big four networks, ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox, tend to commission their whole schedule to entertain what may be the most insular TV nation in the world. Hit shows are American to the core.
“To try and crack that market is well nigh impossible,” says Jones.
Christina Willoughby, manag- ing director of Chrysalis Distribution, who has been sell- ing programmes for more than 20 years agrees that “it’s very, very hard to sell to America. To get something on a major chan- nel in America is unusual.”
However, as well as the cur- rent wave of reality formats breaking across the States, there are hopes for a number of rescripted – ie Americanised – British comedies and dramas.
“We’re constantly presenting scripted formats out of the UK,” says BBC Worldwide’s Mike Phillips, “though none of those who have worked particularly well recently.”
The American versions of Men Behaving Badly and Absolutely Fabulous flopped, although Showtime’s remake of Channel 4 drama Queer as Folk has won plaudits and HBO is keeping its fingers crossed for its version of Da Ali G Show, which launches at the end of this month.
The big successes, however, came years ago when Till Death Us Do Part’s Alf Garnett left the East End and pitched up in New York as Archie Bunker in CBS’s All in the Family, and ABC churned out episodes of Three’s Company, which was based on Man About the House.
The BAFTA award-winning The Office is currently airing on BBC
America, but it’s also being remade for the wider American market.
“It’s very difficult to get these things right,” admits Mike Phillips. “Ricky is a unique talent, plus the whole kind of cultural context is difficult to replicate.” But there is a chance. “The American net- works are under such pressure that they are looking for the breakthrough show. They’re not looking for a straight down the line family sitcom, they’ve got lots of those.”
Both the arts and entertain- ment network, A&E, and America’s public broadcasting system (PBS) – especially its biggest channel, WGBH Boston – welcome British programmes with open arms.
Some programmes are so quintessentially English, they could almost be designed with anglophiles in mind. Bentley Productions’ crime series Midsomer Murders, which has sold around the world to 157 countries, is shown in the States on A&E, which also co-produces the show.
“They are a co-producer in what any British producer thinks is the most wonderful co-production sense,” says Christina Willoughby, “they pay you very good money and the don’t interfere too much in the programme.”
She explains that the genre is the key to success of the rural cop, which is now in its fifth series on A&E. “Everyone seems to love a really good whodunit and it has all the right elements. Midsomer fol- lows the formula immaculately.”
But she adds that what really sells the show to an American audience is that it fits “their pre- conceived idea of what they would like to think – even if they know it’s not true – the quintes- sentially English countryside looks like, with its thatched cot- tages, village fetes, cricket, babblings brooks, and people in their wellingtons.”
Co-productions, says Mike Phillips, are “a hugely important part of the BBC’s business in the States. Most of our more ambi- tious, particularly period and liter- ary, adaptations are co-pro- duced with American partners.”
He adds, however, the link with WGBH is under threat since the Boston channel lost its funding for the long-running Masterpiece Theatre, which has always been the premier slot for British program- ming. Phillips, though, is hopeful that new sponsor will be found.
There are other outlets for BBC and other British pro- grammes. Phillips explains that syndicating long-running come- dies like Are You Being Served? to PBS stations across America is a good earner and the BBC also has a huge umbrella deal with Discovery that covers most of its
blue-chip wildlife, science and history programmes.
And then there’s the cable channel, BBC America, which is BBC branded but airs other British shows too, and now reaches 31 million American homes.
“A crucial part of our export effort is the creation of channels overseas like BBC America,” explains Phillips. “As the market gets tougher, the ability to pre- mière shows on your own channel will be increasingly important.”
Willoughby says BBC America is doing well. “It’s a real force to be reckoned with. It’s not just showing period drama; it’s edgy and mod- ern,” she says, adding that two of the top shows at the moment are the serial killer series Wire In The Blood and So Graham Norton.
BTDA’s Ian Jones is proud of Britain’s export efforts. “If success is measured in billions of dollars, then no programming apart from American is successful anywhere worldwide,” he says.
“American programming accounts for 75 per cent of world exports markets but British pro- gramming comes second with around 15 per cent. That’s a hel- luva achievement for Britain.”
“The American networks are under such pressure
that they
are looking for the break- through show.”
MEDIA Plus Development Call is now open for submissions
Media plus grants of up to €125 000 are available for European production companies to cover 50% of development cost of film, television and mulitmedia projects.
Deadline: 16th June 2003 (Call for Proposals ref 82/2002)
To download guidlines and application form visit our website: www.mediadesk.co.uk
Slate Funding Explained, Friday 28.02.2003
UK MEDIA Desk is offering an advice and information session to UK producers to prepare them to apply for MEDIA Plus Slate Funding. The session will feature case studies on successful UK recipients of Slate Funding and a guest speaker from the Media programme in Brussels. An unmissable event for anyone thinking of applying this year.
To reserve your place or for futher details please contact:
UK MEDIA DESK
66-68 Margaret Street London W1W 8SR
T: 020 7323 9733
E: england@mediadesk.co.uk W: www.mediadesk.co.uk
Education and culture
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