Better Tomorrow Challenges

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Film Commissions: First state/province/nation film commission to join forces with its

Chambers of Commerce to get at least ten advertisers in the state/province/nation to buy product placement advertising on cable and syndicated TV shows produced in the state/province/nation. [Product placement advertising helps offset production costs.] Also to get these advertisers to commit to buying advertising time on these cable and syndicated TV shows when they air on cable TV networks or TV stations [which will help sell the shows to cable TV networks or TV stations]. The film commission lists on its website all of the state advertisers who are interested in doing this and provides a film commission employee whom production companies can contact to help them approach these advertisers.

[Incentives to film companies (who make movies) have been shown to be a waste of money. At best they’re a flash in the pan (they only create temporary jobs) and at worst they bring in less revenue than they cost. Backing broadcast network shows is also a losing proposition since the vast majority of their TV pilots never see airtime. Whereas cable network TV pilots always see airtime as “specials” (and are run numerous times in numerous timeslots) and if they are picked up as a series, they tend to run for a very long time (usually well past the cow’s ability to produce milk. Steak, anyone?). And syndicated shows are even better as they can be cancelled by a TV station and still continue to run on all of the other TV stations they are syndicated to. Whereas even popular broadcast and cable TV shows (e.g., Special Unit 2, which was increasing in its ratings when it was unbelievably cancelled by a newly-hired network executive) can be cancelled by a single network executive for simply being perceived as the shows of the previous network executive or for not going in the direction the new executive wants the network to go.]

Future Challenges:

1) Stop awarding monetary rewards (such as tax rebates and/or refunds) to production companies and instead just help production companies network with their state/province/nation’s advertisers.

2) Do the above for webseries. [Today, webseries are proving to be a great way to interest TV networks in new shows. Webseries are essentially proofs of concept and their download numbers also demonstrate the show’s potential popularity.]

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