04-13-2010, 12:11 AM
There's a lot of socialism rampant in this thread: the FCC should do this; this should be mandated.
And some delusion, like I want a la carte and straight to DVD to be affordable. That those options are even relatively affordable now requires the significant $$ outlay of the sponsors up front. Without those advertisers paying $$ to fund the show, much less gets made for less money with lower budgets (and usually lower quality).
PBS's model is fairly good, with them funding certain projects which can be made well on a shoestring and having each "branch" doing a good job on a couple of shows they have experience doing and then sharing the whole gamut of shows across the network. As well as purchasing episodes of or cofunding other shows which are made internationally to expand the audience and spread money source wider.
Perhaps that's the fund-it-yourself answer - globally produced shows which can muster up enough $$ worldwide to fund a good production budget and then sell it to 7 billion people.
And some delusion, like I want a la carte and straight to DVD to be affordable. That those options are even relatively affordable now requires the significant $$ outlay of the sponsors up front. Without those advertisers paying $$ to fund the show, much less gets made for less money with lower budgets (and usually lower quality).
PBS's model is fairly good, with them funding certain projects which can be made well on a shoestring and having each "branch" doing a good job on a couple of shows they have experience doing and then sharing the whole gamut of shows across the network. As well as purchasing episodes of or cofunding other shows which are made internationally to expand the audience and spread money source wider.
Perhaps that's the fund-it-yourself answer - globally produced shows which can muster up enough $$ worldwide to fund a good production budget and then sell it to 7 billion people.