Article about SciFi's Programming

[MediaSavant]

This appeared in this week's "Broadcasting & Cable":

Broadcasting and Cable

December 8, 2003
HEADLINE: For Sci Fi, the Future Is Everything;
Series plans go forward, even as network awaits takeover by NBC
BYLINE: By Allison Romano

Sci Fi Channel is expecting big changes over the coming year, both with NBC's pending acquisition of Universal Entertainment and the network's own plans to experiment with more original programming.

Yet, despite the likelihood of other changes when NBC takes over (executives from both companies are spending a lot of time in "integration meetings" these days), Sci Fi Channel President Bonnie Hammer says her channel is marching ahead with an aggressive development slate. "This is business as usual. No one has told us to even mildly put on the brakes."

NBC officials are clearly curious about their soon-to-be charge; entertainment chief Jeff Zucker was expected to attend last week's Los Angeles premiere screening of Sci Fi's latest original miniseries, Battlestar Galactica. The two-part miniseries, a remake of an ABC series that aired from 1978 to '80 and starred Lorne Greene, debuts tonight and concludes tomorrow (it will be shown again this weekend).

There is much more in the channel's pipeline for the next two years. With its originals, Sci Fi aims to broaden its audience slightly. That means drawing new viewers, particularly younger ones, while still catering to its science-fiction fans.

That mission kicked off with last December's hit Taken, the Steven Spielberg-produced miniseries that resulted in record Nielsen marks for the channel. Now Hammer is looking for more in both reality and scripted formats.

Sci Fi routinely attracts between a 0.8 and 1.0 household rating in prime, making it one of cable's highest-rated niche nets. But, Hammer says, "to continue to grow, we have to live in original programming."

If a cable net like Sci Fi could score a few hits, says Magna Global Executive Vice President of Audience Analysis Steve Sternberg, "then you have the chance to broaden. One or two shows might provide some spillover effect, but it takes more." An ongoing scripted series would provide particular muscle. Along with a ratings pop, "you have the opportunity to constantly promote other programs."

For alternative programming, Sci Fi has several programming experiments coming in March. Debuting that month: reality show Mad, Mad House, featuring contestants, known as "guests", who move into a house filled with "alts" who practice different alternative lifestyles, like a witch and a vampire, and the channel's first animated show Tripping the Rift.

"It may be easier to target a younger demo with non-scripted," says Hammer. "You can be a little more kitschy, have a little more humor and a little more edge."

Still, Hammer and her team are keenly focused on finding a scripted hit. The net already has modest successes in Stargate SG-1 and Farscape, and spinoff show Stargate Atlantis launches next summer.

Two pilots in the works may provide that spark. Sci Fi has ordered pilots for Dead Lawyers, which features lawyers who return from the dead to correct their misdeeds, and Anonymous Rex, based on a book by Eric Garcia and billed as a detective show where dinosaurs live among humans. The series would debut in 2004 or 2005.

The network also plans several more miniseries for next year, including five-parter Five Days to Midnight for the second quarter. And Spielberg and DreamWorks are working on a limited series for 2005, Nine Lives, which will tell a single story over a trilogy of miniseries.

[Digger]

Two pilots in the works may provide that spark. Sci Fi has ordered pilots for Dead Lawyers, which features lawyers who return from the dead to correct their misdeeds, and Anonymous Rex, based on a book by Eric Garcia and billed as a detective show where dinosaurs live among humans. The series would debut in 2004 or 2005. The other day I saw Anonymous Rex on the Bargain Table at my local bookstore. $4.95 for the hardcover. I figured, what the heck and bought it, and read it that night. I was underwhelmed.

[RydraWong]

"So, what we really need is an ongoing original, scripted series. We want it to be edgy and have humor. Oh, and we also want to attract an audience outside the traditional male scifi audience .... What's that coughing at the back?"

<sigh>

[icknarkcls]

Originally posted by MediaSavant
Sci Fi routinely attracts between a 0.8 and 1.0 household rating in prime, making it one of cable's highest-rated niche nets. But, Hammer says, "to continue to grow, we have to live in original programming."

What orignal programming? Stargate was bought from Showtime, as was Outer Limits, Tremors was based on a movie that Sci-Fi did not do, Scare Tactics is a rip off of a number of other extreme pratical joke shows, the Discovery Channel, even the History Channel does a better job of producing alien/u.f.o. documentaries. The only possibly original program they could claim they have "originated" in the past year could be Dream Team. If I am not mistaken, wasn't Battlestar Galactica a series on ABC in the '70s? I thought Roar had already aired as a series on FOX. Now, if they mean they are going to do a bunch of shows based on what they see as being trendy on other channels, each for 13 episodes, advertise the cr*p out of them to get an initial high rating that drops off faster than they can air the remaining episodes before switching to the next over-hyped, super-cheap show, then yes, they have developed an original look for their network. I predict that, since they are owned by NBC now, that before too long, Coupling will appear on the Sci-Fi Channel and will by defended just as vigorously by Ms. Hammer as all of the other changes as valid sci-fi and needed to broaden their market.

[Vampgrrl]

BSG: we need more of this type of SciFi
Farscape: more plz
SG1: ok, a bit tired but ok

Mad MAd House: sheer shit on a single
Scare Tactics: crap
Dead Lawyers: I dunno, kinda sketchy

And someone please take Steven Spielburg and lock him away somewhere. He's now just a hack who lives on name alone. I'd rather see a Joss Whedon mini than more Stevie Spielburg.

[CosmicTheorist]

The net already has modest successes in Stargate SG-1 and Farscape
Skiffy does not HAVE a modest success with Farscape; it HAD. They canceled Farscape over a year ago, and the LAST new episode for Skiffy aired last March. If this is a typo, it is an utterly forgiveable human type error, MS, since this is a long article to type; however, if it is NOT a typo, then it is just plain shoddy reporting. The writer should have checked those facts, and maybe even asked follow up questions like why would Skiffy cancel a "modest success" when it is trying to "grow" a broader audience.

Nevertheless, it is nice to see in print an outsider acknowledging what we fans have known for over a year, that Farscape was a success just like Stargate, even if the reporter got her tenses wrong.

;)

[kechara420]

CT, maybe it's referring to the fact that the reruns still earn fairly decent ratings, even with their crappy timeslot. Personally, I get the feeling that the Farscape reference was a shot at Skiffy, reminding readers that Farscape *was* a Sci Fi original and that it *was* successful. Maybe the present tense was the only way the writer could get the mention. Either way, I'd say that some people at Skiffy aren't going to be thrilled at the mention ...

[Mivonks]

That mission kicked off with last December's hit Taken, the Steven Spielberg-produced miniseries that resulted in record Nielsen marks for the channel. Now Hammer is looking for more in both reality and scripted formats.

Holy frelling dren! When are they going to let this go?! They had some success, with Taken, a frelling YEAR ago!

What since?

I can see it now - cut to this time next year and they'll be talking about the success LieFi has had with the Taken and BSG minis.

:mad:

Matt
Same old press release. *sigh*

[njak]

Sci Fi routinely attracts between a 0.8 and 1.0 household rating in prime, making it one of cable's highest-rated niche nets. But, Hammer says, "to continue to grow, we have to live in original programming."

And new Farscape episodes averaged what, 1.4-1.8? What have new StarGate episodes been down to recently? No better than Farscape that I've seen.

Again, ?!?!?!?!?!

Between veteran viewers and new converted viewers, if they brought back Farscape they'd faint from the ratings.

:ewink:

[CosmicTheorist]

Farscape averaged 1.3 for episodes 4-1 to 4-11 in the summer of 2002; it's highest rating that summer was 1.6 and it's lowest rating was 1.1. For the same period, Stargate averaged 1.7 with a high of 2.0 and a low of 1.4.

Since Skiffy canceled Farscape following episode 4-11 "Unrealized Reality" which had a rating of 1.5, and since MediaSavant has mentioned that canceled series frequently exhibit further erosion in their ratings, I believe Skiffy was VERY lucky to have Farscape's ratings for its final 11 episodes. Farscape averaged 1.2 for episodes 4-12 to 4-22 during the first 3 months of this year; its highest rating was 1.4 for episode 4-22 "Bad Timing" and its lowest rating was 1.0. During the same period Stargate averaged 1.7 with a high of 1.9 and a low of 1.4.

During this past summer Stargate averaged 1.6 for its new episodes with a high of 1.9 and a low of 1.2. Since August 22nd of this year all of the SG1 episodes that have been shown have been repeats of its first 5 seasons in syndication or repeats of Skiffy's SG1 episodes on Fridays. SG1 Mondays helped Skiffy enjoy 17 months of consecutive month to month average ratings growth by doubling the rating average for one night. That growth streak ended with this past November.

Skiffy has programmed about as much SG1 as it can to get maximum ratings growth from it. But SG1 by ITSELF cannot keep Skiffy's ratings growing. Skiffy NEEDS more programs like SG1 with ratings averages higher then Skiffy's overall average if Skiffy wants to KEEP growing. Farscape's ratings were STILL higher then Skiffy's overall average even AFTER it was canceled. That sounds like a business opportunity to me. And it sounds like an opportunity to someone else, too, which is why we have Farscape back in production for that mini-series.

;)

[cbooth]

Shouldn't we enlighten either NBC or Sci-Fi of the potential ratings that Farscape had and still has? After all, it's original programming and still garners a rating that's higher than Sci-Fi's average.
A mini-series is nice, but a continuing scripted series that rakes in decent ratings is a no brainer. Besides, a network can't live off of one-shot deals forever...eventhough it looks like Sci-Fi is going to try its darndest to do so.

[vhsiv]

Originally posted by CosmicTheorist
Since Skiffy canceled Farscape following episode 4-11 "Unrealized Reality" which had a rating of 1.5, and since MediaSavant has mentioned that canceled series frequently exhibit further erosion in their ratings, I believe Skiffy was VERY lucky to have Farscape's ratings for its final 11 episodes. Farscape averaged 1.2 for episodes 4-12 to 4-22 during the first 3 months of this year; its highest rating was 1.4 for episode 4-22 "Bad Timing" and its lowest rating was 1.0. During the same period Stargate averaged 1.7 with a high of 1.9 and a low of 1.4. The caveat is that those were the ratings for *the households that were measured*, which to me is looking fishier every day.

Why, you ask? My narrow empirical eyes have watched Firefly DVDs sail off of the shelves at the local Costco in Arlington, Va - I've had to return there twice to exchange sets that had duplicate disks in them. If there's that kind of market for Firefly, there's got to be an equal market for Farscape out there - it's just not been made available to the bulk shoppers.

- vhsiv, the naïve

[AnnieBW]

Judging by my local Best Buys across the river here in Maryland, the later sets of Farscape DVDs are flying off of the shelves, too. I couldn't find anything past 3.3 at the Beast here in Laurel.

- Annie

[vhsiv]

Actually, I don't go looking for the 'Farscape' DVDs at the 'local' BestBuys - there's little retail in the city here that ISN'T absurdly priced - b/c I ordered them all from the UK (impatient me).

But I *do* keep an eye out for the number of 'Farscape' DVDs on the shelves when I'm out there. Farscape seems to turn over with some regularity, while the 'SG-1' sets seem to get backed up.

But getting back to 'Firefly' - I'm hoping that the Fox idiots start to feel that they might have made an error. I hope that the DVDs exceed all of their expectations, and that they realize that THERE WAS an audience out there that WASN'T being reflected in the Nielsen numbers. I think that the check-out counter could *somehow* really put the lie to Nielsen's supremecy.

It's a case of Bonnie's inimitable circular logic: If nobody *watched* 'Firefly' and it wasn't *that* popular, why is it that the DVDs are now flying off the shelves?

Perhaps the sales-counter, rather than the Nielsen meters (owned, no doubt by right-wing 'reality' television enthusiasts) might become the criteria by which programming is judged.

Maybe this time next year we'll see a boxed set for 'Space:Above and Beyond'.

[MediaSavant]

Keep in mind that even if Firefly's ratings weren't high enough to satisfy Fox, they were still almost three times higher than Farscape's and about double Stargate's. Fox's benchmarks are much higher than for a cable network.

Plus, DVD sales--we hope--are as much a measure of the intensity of viewers' relationship with a show as the quantity of people watching. I may watch several shows, but there are only a few I buy DVD's of.

Shouldn't we enlighten either NBC or Sci-Fi of the potential ratings that Farscape had and still has? After all, it's original programming and still garners a rating that's higher than Sci-Fi's average.

Frustratingly, we don't know who we should be talking to and what about. Until we know more about the mini-series and where it's running, a lot of things are hazy.

The leaders of this board have said convincingly that SciFi has nothing to do with the mini-series.

An important question will be whether the new telecaster has signed this deal considering Farscape as a backdoor pilot for further series. That's how Battlestar Galactica was produced. Right now, given that mini's success, SciFi has been pondering whether to go further with it.

Will the Farscape deal have the same clause? We don't know.

[BillFrugge]

Originally posted by vhsiv
But I *do* keep an eye out for the number of 'Farscape' DVDs on the shelves when I'm out there. Farscape seems to turn over with some regularity, while the 'SG-1' sets seem to get backed up.

Perhaps the sales-counter, rather than the Nielsen meters might become the criteria by which programming is judged.

I don't think many here truly understand what the Nielsens are really about... Does advertising affect your buying decisions? Are you more likely to purchase a product based on a television ad you watched during Farscape? The Nielsen formula is designed to demonstrate what people with short attentions watch -- that is the ideal audience for advertisers. Face it: the audience that will sit and watch John Edward, Survivor, and Bachelor are prime targets for advertising. (I'm speaking in general, here.)

Stores will stock the DVDs they believe are going to sell, and kudos to Best Buy for having faith in Farscape. Whenever I tell someone about Farscape, they don't know anything about it, but they have heard of SG-1 and Star Trek. Best Buy apparently has heard of Farscape. (They probably noticed that it was selling.)

Since DVDs are the only real way that people can watch Farscape, that helps sales. Also, since a lot of SG-1 episodes are self contained stories that don't affect other episodes, if you've watched one season you've pretty much seen it all. (No flaming, I do like the show just the same.) There's not much sense in buying the DVDs if Farscape is going to play every episode endlessly through the week.

I don't believe that my area (Fort Wayne, IN) is thriving with scapers converting everyone. (We're actually a very small, but extremely vocal, group) I suspect most of those DVD sales are from people who used to watch Farscape, and wonder whatever happened to it.

People have complained about ADV's release strategy. Consider that Red Dwarf has released only two seasons about a year ago, and is going to release two more. ADV has consistently kept new titles on the shelves, and is acquiring more shelf space. The DVDs are getting noticed. (One season takes about 3" of shelf, Red Dwarf takes about .5")

Remember way back when Bonnie talked about our letters, phone calls, bras, and faxes, and stated that if that many people really watched the show they wouldn't have had to cancel Farscape? If we could get sales figures for the Farscape DVDS, attach Bonnie's comments, and then throw it back in her face...

[Antrobus]

On another thread (I think on this board, might have been Kansas) I asked if anyone knew if ADV was pleased with the sales of "Farscape". Someone (I forget who) who had some contact with ADV said that they were selling better than expected.

I would assume that's the case otherwise I don't know that ADV would have joined in on the Military Project. It would seem that by joining in that endeavor that ADV sees an even bigger potential with Farscape. I don't think that they'd be doing that kind of promo with DVDs that were not "moving" well.

As for the original article of the thread, I didn't know whether to laugh or barf! It can't be possible that NBC doesn't know the history of SciFi and "Farscape". I'd love to hear their (NBC's)comments on how things went down!

[MediaSavant]

Originally posted by Antrobus
It can't be possible that NBC doesn't know the history of SciFi and "Farscape". I'd love to hear their (NBC's)comments on how things went down!

Actually, if they inquired into it, they would find out much more about what really went down than we do. They could find out the dollar figures behind the offers and counteroffers. They could find out the advertising revenue compared to the cost of the show.

It's not like NBC themselves never canceled a show that got them lots of letters from fans protesting it. Who do you think they are going to side with and identify with? SciFi, of course. NBC has far more experience canceling shows than SciFi does. Canceling a show after four seasons is amateur-land compared to how NBC has canceled shows.

[Antrobus]

MS, I guess I'm wondering whether or not NBC considers SciFi's cancellation of Farscape a good decision. Of course I know there'll never be an answer to that. But I'm still curious.

[vhsiv]

I wonder if SciFi's "clear-cutting" will survive as a programming technique after NBC takes over.

For the past 2 or 3 years, Bonnie has made a habit of clear-cutting moderately successful shows to make room for untested shows that flop.

Though there's a cost-analysis going on, I hardly think that NBC would cancel a show and not have a known-quantity to replace it with.

[AnnieBW]

NBC had to have known something about Skiffy's treatment of Farscape. If not from us, from reading the trades and TV Guide. Besides, the Henson Company has always had a special relationship with NBC. I'm sure that someone in the company let them know about Skiffy's treatment of their show. What, if anything, are they going to do about it is another story. However, I'm going back to what both Heather Henson and Juliet Blake both told us - our campaign has drawn the attention of people that we don't know about.

I'm wondering if Brian was told to go ahead with the miniseries, and whoever NBC put in charge of Skiffy after it changed hands would take care of the rest? It's pretty significant that, if you go back to what lawyer-guy told me, they got the funding on what would have been Jim Henson's birthday - and when the Hensons were in the news because of the statue dedication.

Maybe I'm reading too much into things, but there's too much going on to be just coincedence.

- Annie

[Mike G]

The new Mini series of Farscape now in production, I am figuering is at least a $12,000,000.00 investment. That is twelve million dollars if you adjust the old figures of the Sci-fi channel of 1.5 mil per 1 hour episode. Now times four mini dramas of 2 hours each.

Whoever is investing this kind of money is doing it to make a profit. The investors already know how this show is going to pay back their money. The deal was made and they know who is going to air it and when.

There is no speculation that they will be paid back. They have the deal in place and we have to wait until the announcement is ready.......

If it goes to a feature film then the cost will be closer to 100 million to compete with current Hollywood blockbuster Sci-fi major studio releases.

Nobody invests this kind of money unless they are certain to make it back and then some. Business is business.

Because of Henson's solid connection with NBC,
my guess is we will be seeing the new episodes on the Sci fi channel. Then we will find out that NBC has put up the production funds. I would not be suprised to see Universal Studio's logo now attached with Hallmark's.

[LadyCrais]

Originally posted by Mike G
The new Mini series of Farscape now in production, I am figuering is at least a $12,000,000.00 investment. That is twelve million dollars if you adjust the old figures of the Sci-fi channel of 1.5 mil per 1 hour episode. Now times four mini dramas of 2 hours each.


It would be really nice if they were filming four 2-hour dramas, but the way I've understood it is that it's only a total of 4 hours. The big issue on money, at least the way DK explained it, is that the start-up costs are huge. You can't just throw together the 1.5 mil X 4 hours to get the cost. Or 8 hours either. But then again, he said he'd film the end of the story even if it had to be ala Blairwitch Farscape. Not that that's likely to be what's happening based on the number of characters that the creature shop is having to churn out.

[Davesnothome]

The four miniseries will probably have a 180 minute running time. (Equal to four episodes @ 45 minutes each). Four times $1.5 million, equals $6 million. That's equal to a very long, but low budget theatrical movie. I would think the producers of "Farscape" convinced the finanacial backers to finance the miniseries, based on the sale of the first run rights to broadcast the miniseries to a network or in first run syndication. Repeat showings on the same outlets or resale in syndication, and the potential dvd sales based on the four seasons dvd sales and overseas broadcasts were also considered. They probably lucked out in finding the right person, who liked the show and the miniseries premise, who had the $$$ to finance the miniseries, at this moment. Being in the right place, at the right time, is usually how most great television shows and movies come about.

Dave

[AnnieBW]

Actually, $12-15 million would be closer to the amount needed for the miniseries. Remeber that FS was at $1.5M per episode because the sets were built, equipment and studio space was rented, and contracts were signed. They have to do all of that stuff over again for the miniseries.

- Annie

[Vampgrrl]

I was pretty sure DK said $20 mil is the start up costs alone for the show.

[MediaSavant]

A big part of those costs were the initial creation of the Rygel and Pilot animatronics. As I understand it, those were carefully stored. Besides that, I'm sure the module and prowler props were also expensive. Those, too, were said to be stored.

There are other costs that are avoided with a project like this. The series needed to have a staff of writers. This only needed two.

We also don't know what the script entails. There are cheap scripts that require few location/set changes and there are expensive ones that require many.

Basically, it's hard to say what the cost of this is until we've seen it.

[BillFrugge]

I thought everyone might be interested in this article. It sounds like the concept of straight-to-DVD might be practical...

http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/articles/sales.cfm

[evilnos_unholy]

I wished they made 5 episodes, that way it would be a five night event where ever it plays at, and a great dvd as soon as I can get my hands on one, but I'd take the 4, (forever wishing for a 5th season):( :(

[Gaussian]

Originally posted by vhsiv
The caveat is that those were the ratings for *the households that were measured*, which to me is looking fishier every day.

Why, you ask? My narrow empirical eyes have watched Firefly DVDs sail off of the shelves at the local Costco in Arlington, Va - I've had to return there twice to exchange sets that had duplicate disks in them. If there's that kind of market for Firefly, there's got to be an equal market for Farscape out there - it's just not been made available to the bulk shoppers.

- vhsiv, the naïve

I just went to the Suncoast Video store in the Crystal Mall in Waterford, CT......and there a large display of Farscape DVDs on the shelf. I wanted to jump up and down right there in the store!:D

[Davesnothome]

It might just be for the fact, that for a little more than a single volume of "Farscape" episodes on dvd, which might contain four or five episodes, you can buy all 15 episodes of "Firefly". Plus a large number of extras on the Firefly dvds.

Fans of Buffy, Angel, Xena, Hercules and Stargate SG-1 can buy season sets of region one dvds for between $40 and $60. Fans of Farscape, Andromeda and the Star Trek franchise have to pay $90, to $100 or more, for a full season of episodes on dvds.

For the casual fan or viewer, which of these dvds will they spend their money on first? Bring down the price on Farscape dvds and the sales numbers will go up.

Dave

[Farsight]

Yeah, the way Farscape is split up into smaller but cumulatively more expensive DVDs has definitely hurt their profile. A season-boxed-set for other shows is an event that gets noticed, including reviews, etc. Farscape's smaller sets sneak onto shelves with little notice outside of fans. It also makes it nigh-impossible to know or compare sales figures.

It must be working financially for ADV, since they've stuck to the installments, and seem to only reluctantly put out boxed sets at a later date. But I do think those installments make our job a bit harder by pricing the overall set higher and making the numerous release dates into non-events for reviewers and casual consumers.

I can't help but wonder how many more reviews would have been written, and how many more new fans we'd have here if Farscape's seasons were released as boxed sets at $40-$60 like many other recent shows...

[BillFrugge]

There is a down side to the box sets. Here are some observations:

X-Files sees 2 releases per year.
Buffy sees 2 releases per year.
Babylon 5 has been slow in coming.
M*A*S*H is seeing 2 releases per year.

It was nearly 1 year between the first two Simpsons sets.
It was nearly 1.5 years between the first two Stargate SG-1 sets. It was nearly that long before the third season was released.

Blake's 7 has been pushed into limbo over concerns about a season box set without releasing anything.
ADV pushed a substandard release of seasons 3-5 of Earth: Final Conflict, while the company responsible for the release of seasons 1-2 cannot seem to release anything.

It took about 14 months to release the first season of Farscape. Season 2 took an additional 8 months, after nothing was released for 4 months. (That's 1 year!) Season 3 took 6 months. Be honest, could you wait 6 months to a year for more episodes?

ADV may be following the same method that was used for Star Trek: TOS, and also followed by the BBC (Avengers, Doctor Who, and Monty Python) but it does attract more notice to the stores. (More line items...) Sales are due either to our influence, or Farscape was watched by far more people than Sci-Fi let on about.

I discovered Farscape when the first release came out. Two episodes on one disc for $25 (!) seemed like a cheap way to look at the series. (It now sells for $15) I would not have spent $100-$150 for a box because I didn't know if I'd like it. As Davesnothome states, they should bring the price down.

[AnnieBW]

Originally posted by BillFrugge
ADV pushed a substandard release of seasons 3-5 of Earth: Final Conflict, while the company responsible for the release of seasons 1-2 cannot seem to release anything.

Which is pissing me off because they're the only two seasons that I want! :D Typical of E:FC, though...

Overall, I've been pretty happy with the ADV DVDs. I get both Farscape and Andromeda on a regular basis (although I'm not so keen on Andromeda anymore...) At first, the $25/DVD was a good deal for me, since I couldn't afford to shell out $100 or so at a time for a whole season's worth. But now that money is less tight, and the price of a season of DVDs has dropped considerably (unless you're buying DS9 or X-Files), I'm finding that I could really use the shelf space...

- Annie