How to Write a Business Plan Template for a Broadcast Company Channel

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Business plans, which have a traditional structure, can be modified to ensure a clear presentation of your business idea. In television, radio and now in online and mobile broadcast, many of those who will be reading it won't be familiar with the industry. Don't let structure get in the way of explaining your business idea fully and simply so everyone who reads it can understand what's at stake.

Business Model

Start the section on your business model with a page or two explaining the key niches of the broadcast industry your business idea will serve. Potential investors may not fully understand how broadcasting works, particularly if you're proposal deals with an alternative media like mobile or Internet radio. Don't leave any room for uncertainty. Explain why your channel is necessary and show how its intended audience compares to other outlets. Discuss your vision and mission and explain how you will create content, attract employees and build your schedule around it.

Target Audience

Define your target audience in detail and provide examples of how your channel will provide something they can't get elsewhere. Next, explain how you plan to market your channel to them so they're compelled to give it a try. Describe how you plan to keep your audience coming back and how you will build your channel into their lifestyles. Provide examples of how, why and when your audience will be tuning in and how frequently. Include an explanation of how you will attract sponsors and advertising.

Revenue Model

On-air and Internet advertising, subscriptions and sponsorship are among the revenue paths you might use to make money with your channel. However, the size of your audience must be verified by tracking services or a list of subscribers to justify your ad rates. Discuss how much you intend to charge for subscriptions and advertising during your development phase. Unless your content is unique and vital, you might have to offer the service for free until your channel becomes popular enough to attract advertising dollars. Other sources of revenue include special real-world events, charging guests for promotional appearances and running donation drives.

Financial Projections

Focus your financial section on defining what it will cost to build your broadcast channel, including equipment, professional services and operational and marketing activities. Next, estimate how much money you can reasonably expect to earn from your revenue streams. Investor decisions will probably be based on the value of your programming and the likelihood of attracting a substantial audience, so show how you will spend any investment funds and how those expenditures will create audience numbers that result in a steady stream of revenue.

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Victoria Duff specializes in entrepreneurial subjects, drawing on her experience as an acclaimed start-up facilitator, venture catalyst and investor relations manager. Since 1995 she has written many articles for e-zines and was a regular columnist for "Digital Coast Reporter" and "Developments Magazine." She holds a Bachelor of Arts in public administration from the University of California at Berkeley.

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Creating a TV Show: Step-by-Step from Concept to Screen

1. conceptualize your tv show, identify genre, create main characters, outline plot, 2. write the script, develop dialogue, establish setting, construct scenes, 3. secure funding, prepare pitch, approach investors, 4. assemble cast and crew, conduct auditions, hire key personnel, 5. start production, coordinate shooting schedule, manage production costs, 6. edit and finalize, review footage, add special effects, 7. market and distribute, plan marketing strategy, select distribution channels.

Have you ever wondered about the detailed process that goes into creating a TV show that you love? Each episode is a result of extensive behind-the-scenes work, all of which begins with a mere concept. Welcome to the art of TV show creation: from concept to screen. In this guide, we'll walk you through this fascinating process, one step at a time.

The first step in the art of TV show creation: from concept to screen, is, well, the concept. This is where you create the world that your TV show will inhabit. Conceptualization involves three key steps: identifying the genre, creating the main characters, and outlining the plot. Let's delve into each element.

The genre is the backbone of your TV show. It sets the tone, style, and expectations for your audience. Comedy, drama, thriller, sci-fi, or perhaps a mix? The choice is yours. But remember, the genre you choose will influence every other aspect of your show, from the characters and plot to the dialogue and setting. So, choose wisely and stay consistent.

Characters are the heart of any TV show. They're the ones who'll bring your story to life. When creating your characters, consider their personalities, backgrounds, goals, and flaws. These traits will not only make your characters relatable but also drive the plot forward. For instance, in the hit show "Breaking Bad", the lead character Walter White is a mild-mannered chemistry teacher turned ruthless drug dealer, a twist that adds depth and drives the show's dark narrative.

Now that you have your world and its inhabitants, it's time to decide what happens in it. The plot is essentially the sequence of events that make up your story. It's what keeps your audience hooked episode after episode. Start by deciding on the main conflict or problem that your characters will face. Then, plan out how this conflict will unfold and eventually resolve across the series. Keep in mind, a good plot isn't just about what happens, but also how and why it happens. For example, in the popular sitcom "Friends", the plot isn't just about six friends living in New York City—it's about their relationships, their struggles, and their growth over time.

With your concept firmly in place, the next step in the art of TV show creation: from concept to screen is to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) and write the script. This is where you weave together dialogue, setting, and scenes to create a blueprint for your show. Let's break it down.

Dialogue is the spoken word of your characters. It's how they communicate, express their feelings, and reveal their personalities. Good dialogue feels natural, authentic, and true to the character. Think about how your characters would talk in real life. Use their background, age, education, and personality to shape their dialogue. The witty banter between characters in "Gilmore Girls" is a great example of dialogue that not only entertains but also reveals the unique personalities of the characters.

The setting is where and when your story takes place. It's more than just a backdrop—it can influence the plot, characters, and mood of your show. Whether it's the sunny beaches of "Baywatch" in California or the gritty streets of "The Wire" in Baltimore, make sure your setting is vivid and immersive. Use descriptive language in your script to paint a clear picture of the environment.

Scenes are the building blocks of your script. Each scene propels the story forward by presenting a piece of action or information. A well-crafted scene engages the viewer, advances the plot, and develops the characters. When constructing a scene, think about its purpose in the overall story. Does it add tension? Does it reveal something about a character? Or does it simply make the audience laugh? Remember, every scene should serve a purpose. The iconic Central Perk scenes in "Friends" are great examples—they offer humor, character development, and often, key plot advancements.

After you've crafted your script, the next step in the art of TV show creation: from concept to screen is securing the funding. Producing a TV show can be expensive, and it's important to have a financial plan in place. Here's how to go about it.

First, you'll need to prepare a compelling pitch to present to potential investors. This is your chance to sell your concept and convince them that your show is worth investing in. Your pitch should include an overview of your show, the target audience, estimated production costs, and a marketing strategy. It might help to think of your pitch like a story itself—you want to hook your audience (in this case, investors) from the start, build interest, and leave them wanting to see more. Remember how the creators of "Game of Thrones" pitched their show to HBO? They promised "The Sopranos in Middle-earth" and it worked!

With your pitch prepared, it's time to approach potential investors. This could include television networks, streaming platforms, or independent financiers. When you meet with potential investors, present your pitch with confidence and be ready to answer any questions they might have. Remember, investors are not just investing in your show, they're investing in you. So, show them that you are passionate, knowledgeable, and capable of bringing your TV show to the screen.

Once you've secured funding, the next stage in the art of TV show creation: from concept to screen is assembling your cast and crew. This is the team that will bring your vision to life, so choose wisely!

Let's kick things off with casting. Finding the perfect actors to play your characters is no small feat. Begin with conducting auditions. It's a lot like matchmaking—you're looking for actors who can embody your characters and bring something special to the role. Think about how Bryan Cranston brought life to Walter White in "Breaking Bad" or how Julia Louis-Dreyfus became the unforgettable Selina Meyer in "Veep".

Next up is hiring your crew. This includes everyone from your director and cinematographer to your costume designer and makeup artist. Each member of your crew plays a crucial role in shaping the final product. For example, think of the iconic costume designs in "Mad Men" or the stunning cinematography in "Planet Earth". These elements didn't happen by chance—they were the result of talented professionals doing their thing. So, take your time to find the right people for your team.

Assembling a stellar cast and crew is a major milestone in the journey of TV show creation: from concept to screen. Once you've got your team in place, you're ready to start production!

With your cast and crew assembled, it's time to move onto one of the most exciting stages in the art of TV show creation: from concept to screen—starting production. This is where the magic happens and your concept begins to transform into a tangible TV show.

First, you'll need to establish a shooting schedule. This is essentially a calendar that outlines what scenes you're shooting, when, and where. It's a lot like planning a road trip. You need to know your start location, your destination, and the most efficient route to get there. And just like a road trip, there can be unexpected detours and obstacles along the way. Flexibility is key. For instance, remember how "Game of Thrones" had to schedule around various international locations, weather conditions, and even actor availability?

Along with coordinating a shooting schedule, another crucial part of this stage is managing production costs. It's no secret that TV production can be expensive. From paying your cast and crew to securing locations and creating sets, the costs can quickly add up. It's like planning a wedding—everything costs something, and it's your job to keep the budget in check. Think of the elaborate sets, costumes, and special effects on shows like "Westworld" or "The Crown". Amazing, right? But also, not cheap. So, keep a close eye on your spending and make sure it aligns with your budget.

Starting production is a big step in the art of TV show creation: from concept to screen. It's the part where you get to see your ideas start to take shape. And with careful planning and budgeting, you can ensure that this stage runs smoothly and sets the foundation for a successful TV show.

Once production wraps up, it's time for the next phase in the art of TV show creation: from concept to screen—editing and finalizing. This is like the home improvement stage of your TV show. You've built your house, now it's time to paint walls, install fixtures, and make it all look homely and inviting.

First up is reviewing the footage. It's a bit like sorting through your holiday photos, deciding which ones make the cut for your scrapbook. You'll sift through all the scenes you shot, select the best takes, and start assembling them into a coherent narrative. Remember how the editors of "Breaking Bad" skillfully intercut scenes to create suspense and drama? That's the goal here. And remember, you're not just looking for the best performances, but also the moments that best serve your story.

Next, it's time to add any special effects. This can range from simple tasks like color correction, to adding more complex visual effects, similar to the dragons in "Game of Thrones". This is where your show gets its final polish, the icing on the cake if you will. But remember, special effects should enhance your story, not distract from it.

Editing and finalizing is a meticulous and critical stage in the art of TV show creation: from concept to screen. It's where you refine your work, carving out your masterpiece from the raw material captured during production. It's a demanding process, but the reward—a complete and polished TV show ready for viewers—is well worth the effort.

Now that we've polished our masterpiece, it's time for the final stage in the art of TV show creation: from concept to screen—marketing and distribution. It's one thing to create a great TV show, but it's another to get people to watch it. This stage is about getting the word out and making your show accessible to the audience.

First things first, you'll need to plan your marketing strategy. This is like planning a party—you need to decide who to invite, where to host it, what to serve, and how to make it the best party ever. For your TV show, this might involve creating a social media campaign, designing promotional materials, or even hosting a premiere event. Think of shows like "Stranger Things" and how Netflix used nostalgia and mystery in their marketing to pull viewers in. That's the kind of buzz you want to generate.

Next, you'll need to select your distribution channels. This is where you decide where and how people will be able to watch your show. Will it be a streaming service like Netflix or Amazon Prime? Or perhaps traditional cable TV is more your speed? Maybe you have an edgy comedy perfect for Adult Swim, or a family-friendly sitcom that would fit right in on ABC's primetime lineup. Your choice here will depend on your target audience and the type of show you've created.

Remember, the art of TV show creation: from concept to screen doesn't stop when the cameras stop rolling. Marketing and distribution are key to ensuring your show gets seen by the right audience. The work may be tough, but there's no better feeling than seeing your show out in the world, being enjoyed by viewers far and wide.

If you're excited about the prospect of creating a TV show and want to dive deeper into the world of television, check out Atte Tanner's workshop, ' Getting Started In The TV Industry As A Photographer '. This workshop will provide you with valuable insights and tips on how to navigate the TV industry, specifically as a photographer, and help you bring your vision to the screen.

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10 Tips for Getting Your Business on Reality TV From pitching your humble beginnings to finding the right point person, we've got the picture-perfect tips to get your business in the spotlight.

By Sara Wilson

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Whether or not reality TV truly reflects the real world, it does generate real publicity. We spoke to Chuck LaBella, New Wave Entertainment's director of TV development and Stephanie Drachkovitch, co-founder and executive vice president of Studio City, Calif.-based 44 Blue Productions, a supplier of reality, documentary, lifestyle and action-adventure programming for U.S. broadcast and cable outlets. Drachkovitch is also the creator and executive producer of Peter Perfect , a business makeover reality TV show.

  • Treat reality TV as a reality. It might just be the future of television. "The European landscape is filled with reality-type programs with the occasional drama and sitcom sprinkled into it," LaBella says. "I think that's where the American landscape is going at this point."
  • Familiarize yourself with the different shows. This will help you not only determine which one you want to be involved with but also better hone your pitch.
  • Know who to pitch your business to by paying attention to the show's credits. On most reality shows, there's a title for "Talent Producer" or "Talent Executive," LaBella says. "It is a very small community of people who work on these shows," he says. "Get familiar with those names. If one show does not work out, they will be working on another show."
  • Got a great startup story? Be sure to tell it. You don't necessarily need an agent to get noticed. You just need a good story, so be ready to share the details of your rise to success. "Stories about humble beginnings or inventing something by accident always work," LaBella says. "The woman who invented Spanx is a great story. The woman who invented White Out is a great story. (She was also mother to one of The Monkees.) Steve Jobs and Bill Gates are exciting because they created empires from their garages. Education and credits can be impressive but a good hook such as a happy accident or coming from humble beginnings is very important."
  • Get ready to bare all. "We cast big personalities," Drachkovitch says. "We're drawn to people who know how to tell their story with emotion and animation. Be willing to bare your soul, with warts and all. You should be willing to be honest about any mistakes, and about what might happen if your business needs to close. Tell us the emotional stakes."
  • Know a good pitch from a bad pitch. We asked LaBella for examples of both. Here's what he had to say. A good pitch: "When I was finding successful entrepreneurs to give away money to worthy causes on Oprah's Big Give , the Maloof Brothers' publicist Troy Hansen called me. All I knew about the Maloof Brothers were that they grew up billionaires and owned a sports team. So immediately I thought 'two rich guys born with silver spoons in their mouths. Not interesting.' However, when I met with them, they told me how their dad instilled common values in the whole family and how they had to work their way up in their own corporation, sweeping floors driving trucks, etc. I had no idea how these two billionaires were basically raised as two blue-collar guys and have always given back and are especially passionate about the inner-city community. They go around to poor neighborhoods and talk to kids and give them brand new sports equipment as well as donate money to community centers. When we met, they actually pitched me the whole idea of how they wanted to give away money on the show. Oprah ended up inviting them as guests on her show as well as Oprah's Big Give . If their publicist had not insisted on me meeting them and explained to me that they were different, my perception of them might not have changed." A bad pitch: "A very wealthy entrepreneur called me because he basically wanted to be on TV and become the next Donald Trump. He invited me to his home in Palm Desert. It was exactly like Shangri-la. Servants with name tags, great lunch, he showed me photos of him and every living president and even had my car detailed when I was there. No story. Just a rich guy who thought he should be on TV."
  • Be creative when pitching your business and consider the different options. You could appear on the show yourself or you could have your business's product be part of a reality TV challenge. If you prefer to have the spotlight on your product rather than yourself, follow Drachkovitch's advice: "Contact the executive producers of the show that interests you and send samples, along with an explanation of what you are willing to do," she says. "In the case of a product, we need to see it, touch it, taste it--whatever the case. Also, producers will need to clear the product use with the network, so things take time. Producers will want to work the product into the storyline organically. If it's not a physical product, but a service provided by a company, we can credit the service provider."
  • Calculate the risk. Reality TV can be a risky business, and you might not be portrayed as you desire.
  • Feel out the producer you're working with. "No producers will allow the participants to control the filming and editing process, so it's important that you have confidence in the production company and in producers at the outset," Drachkovitch says. "Research clips of other shows that the company has done. Look at the types of shows they do and decide if you like those portrayals. By opening the doors to filming, you're opening the doors to who you are and if you be yourself, candid and authentic, then people will relate well to you."
  • Be ready to capitalize on the exposure that you'll receive--and the surge in sales that might follow. "In preparation of your episode airing, be prepared with a good phone system, a website that is ready for traffic, and make sure you have the ability to quickly fill orders of any product seen on TV," Drachkovitch recommends. "You might consider taking on temporary help. We've typically seen a dramatic spike in phone calls and website hits, and a 30 to 50 percent increase in foot traffic for the businesses on Peter Perfect , as well as salons featured on our Style Network show, Split Ends ." Lisa Donahue is the owner of For Heaven's Cakes, a bakery specializing in decadent desserts located in Thousand Oaks, Calif. After Donahue's business was featured on Peter Perfect , walk-in and online business tripled and literally saved the business, she says. Now, business pours in from all over the world, including South Africa and Singapore, and wedding cake sales increased dramatically. How did Donahue prepare for her big debut? "I tried to get all my ducks in a row," she says. "Because Peter Perfect airs nationwide, I knew people across the country couldn't come to my cake shop, so I really wanted my online business to prosper. However, our current website was not that advanced. After the show, we received 95,000 hits on our website. We had to make sure our online business could handle the increased traffic. "To do this you have to have a very sophisticated website. I spent a little more money and designed a second website that was data-based driven and could handle the increased volume. If your product is shipping nationwide, that's what I would recommend. To prepare for the inevitable heavy foot traffic, hire extra people to make sure you have sufficient help. We also printed some catchy T-shirts that say, 'Get Your Cake On' with our logo on the back, which helps tourists recognize us and is a fun souvenir. You need to be prepared for business to double or triple, even if that means spending a few extra dollars."

Pitch Peter Perfect Interested in getting your business featured on Peter Perfect ? Follow these tips from Stephanie Drachkovitch, co-founder and executive vice president of Studio City, Calif.-based 44 Blue Productions, a supplier of reality, documentary, lifestyle and action-adventure programming for U.S. broadcast and cable outlets. "The important thing to remember is pictures, pictures, pictures. Still [photos] are good, but video gets you quicker attention and further into the process. We want to see as much detail as possible about your business and the people behind it. It's a visual medium, so you need to show us as much as possible--180-degree view of the interior and the exterior of your business. Our Style [Network] show, Peter Perfect , makes over small businesses, so we want to know everything about you as well as your business--your age, how and why you started the business, what makes you unique and special, who your competitors are, and what you think you are doing right and wrong. For our show, the businesses have to be struggling to stay afloat for us to help them, so we want to know how the business is impacting your personal relationships. TV thrives on storytelling. Tell us your personal story."

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How to Pitch a TV Show by Developing TV Show Ideas Featured

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How to Pitch a TV Show Like a Pro [Free Pitch Template]

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I f you want to know how to pitch a TV show, preparation is key. The common assumption is that the pitch process is all about “selling it in the room.” It’s not. In the words of Sun Tzu, “every battle is won or lost before it is ever fought.” You have to sell it long before you walk into that room. Using our TV show pitch template, we will cover tips and techniques to help you craft a strong TV series pitch. By the end, you will know how to pitch a TV show.

Watch: How to Pitch a TV Show Idea

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Gathering Material

What you need for a pitch.

When you walk into "the room," you'll need a few essential materials. Sure, the idea is burned into your brain and you know the story up and down — but that's not enough. 

First of all, if you've landed a pitch meeting, your idea needs to be fully developed. The first lesson in how to pitch a TV show is to have a TV show to pitch! If you jumped the gun and need to take a few steps back, don't worry — we've created an entire masterclass on writing and developing a TV show .

Now that you're ready to pitch, let's go over what you'll need. There are three elements that you should have in-hand before stepping through the door: a logline , a show bible , and a  pilot .

The logline is the simplest and most direct sales pitch. It is a one-to-two sentence summary of your entire story. Sound easy, right? But writing loglines is deceptively difficult so start practicing.

Logline Examples:

  • Stranger Things — When a young boy disappears, his mother, a police chief, and his three friends must confront terrifying forces to get him back.
  • Ozark   — A financial advisor drags his family from Chicago to the Missouri Ozarks, where he must launder $500 million in five years to appease a Mexican cartel.

Let's explore loglines a little further with this breakdown.

Crafting a Logline  •   Join the Masterclass

You should also invest some time learning how to create a show bible . The show bible is an opportunity to flesh out your idea and to prove those executives that you've done your homework. 

Here's a really cool show bible example for Montauk , which would eventually become a little show you may have heard of: Stranger Things .

This video explains how show bibles work in greater detail.

Creating a Show Bible  •   Join the Masterclass

It's one thing to pitch a TV show, it's another thing altogether to actually write one. Writing a pilot , you've successfully taken this idea and put it into a viable form. The logline and show bible simply suggest an idea — the pilot turns it into a reality.

Read some pilots for  The Office ,  Breaking Bad ,  The Sopranos , and  Game of Thrones to see how those successful shows got started.

Generating a Pilot  •   Join the Masterclass

These elements qualify as the "content" of your pitch but now we need to discuss your "presentation" of it. In the next section, we'll provide some tips and strategies for presenting the perfect pitch, including some Q&A's with executives and producers who have seen it all.

PITCHING TO A NETWORK

How to pitch a tv show to a network.

The short answer? Come armed. What does that mean? Visuals. Spoken words and words on the page don't have the same kind of impact as images.

Want to really know how to pitch a TV show idea well? Bring some strong art with you. Make sure some kind of  mood board , or even  preliminary storyboards , are part of the development process.

But visual aids aren't enough — you also need to be able to adapt to the countless variables you'll encounter. Here are executives Charlie Ebersol and Susanne Daniels explaining how modifying your pitch works.

Pitching starts with asking questions

There is a ton of content out there so knowing your audience is very important. When you approach the question of how to pitch a show to Netflix vs. Hulu vs. HBO vs. ABC, keep this in mind.

Here are some executives discussing how they like to be pitched. As you'll see, they each have their own ideas on how to pitch a TV show so just remember there is no single guaranteed method.

Know who you're pitching to

Spend less time memorizing your lines, and more time doing an 'advanced scout' on who will be at this meeting. Use IMDb! What else has he/she produced? Where else have they worked? What does this company have on their slate?

Tailor your pitch towards the company as best you can. What types of ideas do they seem to like? Can you end with a question they might be able to help answer? You want to tee up a collaboration.

WORK THE ROOM

How to pitch a tv show in the room.

We've covered some broad strokes, some essential tools. But what about how to handle the room itself? Learning the actual art of the pitch? If you want to know how to pitch a TV show to Netflix, you need to learn how to handle being “in the room.”

If you used your  show bible template , you know all the elements of your show already. So, why can't you just send them the show bible? It's about interacting with them as people, getting them excited about the project.

How do we know what it's like to be in the room if we've never been in the room? We can start by getting to know the people you'll be dealing with. This Hollywood Reporter Roundtable brings together some of the top executives in TV and streaming to lay their cards on the table — how they approach their job and some of the challenges that come with it.

The more you understand their position, the better

We've heard from executives on how to pitch a TV show. With these tips in mind, it's time to start putting together your pitch. To get started, we've created a TV show pitch template that will guide your presentation with the elements that you'll need to have ready.

Pitch Templates Work

Using a tv show pitch template.

Below, you can download your free TV show pitch template. Use this template to lay out your pitch plan. In the next section, we'll walk you through each step in filling out this TV show pitch template.

Freebie: TV Show Pitch Template

TV Show Pitch Template - Exit Intent - StudioBinder

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Pitch Template Instructions

Working with the pitch template.

Now that you've downloaded the template, let's go over the various elements and how they work. From the format and logline all the way down to the synopsis and episode breakdowns.

Mention a few key details about your show. Is it cable or network? Ongoing plot or episodic? Half hour? Hour-long? Single or multi-cam? 

Who is it about, and what happens in their life that sparks the drama that will create a compelling series? Learning how to write a logline is important because the process is more difficult than you think.

Describe the basic outline of the show's concept. Think of this as the logline with a little more meat on its bones. What's the set up for the television pilot? Where does the show go from there? Why is it sustainable over the course of many seasons?

Go a little deeper in this section. Talk about the show's primary themes. Bring up future seasons. Mention tone, mention some of the fun stuff like style and design.

Episode Breakdowns

You'll want 2-3 sentence breakdowns of 5-10 episodes, including the pilot. You do not need to mention all these in the pitch. It's good to have these episodes on hand and in your mind so you can rattle off a few.

Make sure the episodes are all a little different so you can convey that your show won't feel stale or formulaic. Stale and formulaic are not words you want associated with your how to pitch a TV show process.

This TV show pitch template is designed to give your pitch a roadmap. Being "in the room" can be intimidating and there are endless variables that might come into play and throw you completely off balance. 

PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT

Every pitch is a chance to learn.

You're going to hear your fair share of "No's" even if your ideas are fantastic. There are factors beyond your control dictating what can or can't be bought or developed by any given network.

For as long as you are a creative producer and a writer you will need to pitch. It's something you can always hone and perfect. Also, learn to laugh at the experiences you have. Your battle scars will define you. They'll make you stronger, and they'll be fun to recount. Trust me.

Related Posts

  • How Long is a TV Show Script →
  • How to Create a TV Show Pitch Bible →
  • How to Write a Logline for a TV Show w/ Examples →

Producing a proof of concept

Sometimes, pitching a TV show idea needs a little more than mood boards and a show bible. Sometimes, you might have to actually film a proof of concept first. In this original docu-series,  Making It , we follow filmmakers from the original script through the entire pre-production process. From budgeting, casting, location scouting, and hiring crew, this series will get you a jump on mounting your own production.

Up Next: Making It: Pre-Production Series →

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tv show business plan

Producing Unscripted

Make Reality TV & Documentary Series | A Podcast & Blog from TV Producers & Filmmakers Joke and Biagio

How To Pitch A Reality Show

Ultimate guide from two working producers.

This page will tell you everything you need to know about how to pitch a reality show, and more.

Are you looking to pitch:

  • Reality TV shows?
  • Documentary series?
  • Factual programming?
  • Unscripted television?

You’re in the right place. By the end of this guide, you will know how to pitch a reality show. Maybe you’ll even become one of our success stories .

How to Pitch a Reality Show in 5 Steps

  • Read this free guide
  • Fully understand how the unscripted television and film business works
  • Prepare your pitch for different TV networks and streaming platforms
  • Determine if you need to team with a third party approved production company
  • Take your pitch to buyers

This guide will teach you how to do all of that, and much more.

Why Take Our Advice?

How to Pitch a Reality Show

We’re a married team, pitching, selling, and making unscripted entertainment for a living. TV networks trust our documentary, true crime, and reality TV production company to deliver finished television series.

Realscreen Magazine covered our company in great depth. You can also read about our shows in Hollywood trades like Deadline Hollywood covering Unmasking a Killer, Variety reporting on Don’t Trust Andrew Mayne, or The Hollywood Reporter covering MTV’s Caged.

Joke Fincioen and Biagio Messina are named as executive producers (that’s us). You’ll find our production company, Joke Productions , listed as well. We’ve made over a hundred hours of unscripted television.

Every one of those shows began with a reality TV pitch of some kind. This free guide will help you create pitches for unscripted television that will get you noticed.

Why We Wrote This

The question we’re asked most is “how can I pitch a reality show?”

It’s no wonder…good advice on the unscripted television business is hard to come by.

A lot of the “reality TV advice” that litters the internet was written by people who’ve never sold or made a show, or don’t understand how the unscripted television business works. Much of the information about making documentaries looks it the subject in relation to theatrical releases, not making television series.

So we designed “How to Pitch a Reality Show” to be the web’s best, totally honest, and insanely helpful free resource about pitching factual entertainment.

All backed up by real world examples and experiences from TV shows we’ve both sold and produced, taking productions from beginning to end.

Our hope is that this guide saves you time and resources, and of course, that you consider pitching your shows to us . However, whether or not you ever pitch to us, we believe the information on this site will help you accelerate your career in the unscripted TV and film business.

This is Also a Companion Guide

This guide goes hand in hand with our site Producing Unscripted , which we built to teach you the ins and outs of making reality TV, documentary series, and true crime.

To stay up to date and get tips and info on pitching reality television, get our newsletter .

To hear us discuss many of these topics in depth (while having a blast doing it) be sure to check out our Make Reality TV Podcast . With over 100 episodes, there’s plenty to learn about unscripted television. It’s all there for the taking.

(It was not easy for Biagio to talk Joke into doing a podcast. But it was SO worth it!)

And feel free to  follow us on Twitter to keep learning about unscripted television. In the last ten years, we’ve met some great people there. That said, to be fair, we’re not nearly as active on Twitter anymore, so apologies if we don’t get back to you there.

Table of Contents (clickable links)

How To Pitch a Reality Show

  • What We’ll Cover
  • Different Types of Reality Shows
  • What Reality Show Pitches Do Networks Buy?
  • Watching Television With a Critical Eye

Reality TV Structure: Self-Contained or Arced?

  • Reality TV Type: Format, Docu, or Hybrid?
  • What Reality TV Pitches are New Producers Most Likely to Sell?
  • Reality TV Ideas, A.K.A. What Are You Actually Pitching?
  • Bad Web Advice
  • Ideas Versus Execution
  • You Can’t Pitch What You Don’t Have
  • Make Yourself Valuable
  • Pitching Reality TV: 5 Ways to Make Yourself Valuable
  • All About Your Reality TV Pitch Package

Should You Shoot Your Own Reality TV Pilot?

  • How to Protect Your Reality Idea While Building Your Career
  • Pitching Reality Shows Early in Your Career
  • Should You Ever Pay to Pitch?
  • The Soft Pitch
  • What Happens When A Network Wants Your Reality Show?
  • What if You’re Not Third Party Approved?
  • Will Networks Meet With You?
  • The Problem With Pitching to Networks Directly
  • How We Broke In
  • Benefits of Pitching to a Production Company First
  • We Believe In Mentorship
  • What If You Don’t Want to Work On Reality Shows You Pitch?
  • How To Get Your Own Reality Show?
  • 15 Things to Remember about How to Pitch a Reality Show
  • 5 Step Action Plan: Pitch a Reality Show the Smart Way
  • 7 Steps: How to Pitch a Reality Show to Us

I What We’ll Cover in “How to Pitch a Reality Show”

There is A LOT here. If you spend the time to read, understand, and execute what we discuss, you’ll be miles ahead of most people who pitch reality ideas to us.

  • FIRST: We’ll give you the background info you need to know about the reality TV business. You’ll learn how different kinds of reality TV shows work. Plus, we’ll break down why you should avoid pitching certain kinds of shows when you’re just starting out.
  • NEXT: We’ll dispel some myths about reality TV “ideas.” We’ll explore why written descriptions have very little to do with how to pitch a reality show. You’ll learn to create pitch materials, and how to make yourself valuable when pitching reality TV.
  • FINALLY: We’ll talk about where and how to pitch a reality show once you’ve put together your pitch package. From pitch pits, to production companies, to networks, we’ll break down your options. And of course, we hope you’ll pitch to us, too .

When you’re done, you’ll know how to pitch a reality show that excites professionals.

We’d love it if your concept is something we can make together.

1 Understanding How Reality TV Works

In section 1, Understanding How Reality TV Works, we give you an overview of different types of reality TV shows.

You’ll learn:

  • What types of reality shows different networks program
  • How different kinds of shows are structured
  • What kind of pitches new producers are most likely to sell.

Wrapping your head around the different genres, styles, and structures of unscripted television will give you a giant leg up on most new producers pitching reality TV.

1a Different Types of Reality Shows

Reality TV Shows Different Kinds

People tend to lump all reality TV together in one giant bucket of “unscripted stew.”

But there’s a wide range of reality TV shows out there, more properly called “unscripted programming.”

When you start thinking about how to pitch a reality show, it’s important to recognize different reality TV genres and types of shows.

Consider Movies…

For simplicity’s sake, let’s talk about movies for a second.

We’ve all seen plenty of films.

The Notebook couldn’t be more different than Plan 9 from Outer Space, right? Some people enjoy Fincher flicks, some like The Farrelly Brothers.

Go to the movies and you can catch a comedy, a drama, a VFX laden blockbuster. Totally different kinds of films.

We all “get that.” Cinema’s over a century old.

But reality TV is a young form of entertainment, and people are still wrapping their heads around it.

Still Pretty New…

Because of that, the differences in genres of unscripted entertainment are often lost on the casual viewer.

If you’re going to learn how to pitch a reality show, you don’t have the luxury of being a casual viewer. You need to recognize what makes different types of reality shows work, and use that to your advantage when pitching.

Unscripted Television Has Many Faces

  • The First 48
  • The Kardashians Franchise
  • Deadly Recall
  • Master Chef
  • The Bachelor
  • Ghost Inside My child
  • Deadliest Catch
  • Basketball Wives
  • Hack My Life
  • Unmasking a Killer

They’re wildly different, yet all fall in the unscripted television bucket. (Often referred to in a generic manner as “reality TV” – though we think unscripted television or factual programming are better terms for most kinds of shows.)

More times than we care to count, new producers pitching us concepts assume they know what how reality shows work, but haven’t watched any recently (or ever).

Don’t make that mistake.

The truth is few people take the time to understand unscripted television basics.

That’s why so many reality TV pitches fall apart…almost immediately.

Nothing bugs industry pros more than someone who acts like they know how to pitch a reality show, but makes a ton of rookie mistakes.

So, Don’t Do That

Better to own that you’re a rookie right off the bat than try to “fake it.” We never mind when an enthusiastic person makes a few minor pitch mistakes. It bothers us when people over-compensate and act like a know-it-all (when that’s clearly not the case).

Since you’re reading this article, you won’t make any of the most common pitch mistakes.

Instead of seeming like a “clueless newbie” you’ll come across as an up-and-coming producer who’s done their homework. And you’ll get people’s attention.

1b What Reality Show Pitches Do Networks Buy?

Want to break into the reality tv business.

Do your research. Understand what TV networks are programming.

Those pitching to us will often say something like, “My show would be great for MTV, Spike, OWN, and Oxygen. Could also work at Lifetime, Nickelodeon, ESPN, The Food Network. Oh, and History, TLC, Discovery, and The Game Show Network.”

You might laugh. But at least one or two pitches a week boldly state they would work on all these networks.

That doesn’t make your show look more attractive to production companies. We don’t suddenly think, “Ooh, you mean I could sell this at ALL those networks? Wow!”

Instead, you’ve just hoisted a big flag that says, “Newbie here.”

Different Networks Buy Different Kinds of Shows

TV networks pride themselves on being different from each other. And while a show that works on History might also work on Discovery, there’s no way that same show could work on Lifetime.

We go into this in depth in Top Secret, What TV Networks Buy, and Why . For now, understand that different networks buy different kinds of shows. How to pitch a reality show changes with each network you target.

1c Watching Television With a Critical Eye

If you want to sell reality shows, watching a lot of TV is a must.

Nothing is more disheartening than when people pitch us shows that would never be on TV today (or that are already on TV! That happens often and proves those pitching haven’t done their homework).

There’s no sense in spending time on pitches networks will never buy.

What often happens is people pitch what they “think” would sell, even if those shows have been out of style for a while.

Often Pitched Reality Shows that Have No Chance

For example, here are some often-pitched shows that aren’t going to launch your career or get producers excited about working with you.

  • arts and craft shows
  • kids’ shows
  • bland health and fitness shows
  • info-tainment shows
  • old school, magazine style travel shows (i.e. “The 20 Best Hotels in St. Thomas”)
  • cooking shows (as in cooking over the stove one ingredient at a time).

If you turn on the TV today and look at what most major broadcast and cable networks are airing, you’d be hard pressed to find a lot of shows from the list above.

Yet these kinds of shows are some of the most pitched by people just starting out in the reality TV industry.

Sure, some versions of these shows show up from time to time, but they’re not what most networks are programming today.

They’re also not the kind of pitches that get production companies and networks excited about working with new producers.

Too Unique? Maybe.

In general, if there’s nothing like the show you’re pitching on major cable or broadcast networks, there’s a good reason.

One of our goals with this guide is to save you from wasting time on reality show ideas that have very little chance of making it to air.

The best way to do that is to watch reality TV. All of it.

Before you ever start pitching shows, do your homework. Watch a lot of TV. Know what kinds of reality TV shows networks are making today.

Understanding the market you’re selling to shapes how to pitch a reality show, and what kinds of shows you pitch.

“My Pitch Is So Unique! It’s Not on TV Anywhere.”

We hear that a lot.

Guess what? There might be a very good reason your show isn’t on TV. For example, maybe networks don’t want that kind of programming.

Maybe you’d love to binge watch a hundred episodes of a basket weaving show. That doesn’t mean enough of the general public would be into it to justify putting it on a TV network.

Often times these shows are far too niche for the broad audience that looks to a TV network for programming.

That’s not to say there’s NO audience for these kinds of shows, they just don’t belong on television.

A lot of programming that is too niche, or is out of fashion on TV networks today (like step-by-step cooking shows and magazine-style reports) has moved on to YouTube, where it often does well. Don’t discount making a web series if there is no network for your passion project.

For more on this topic, check out:

  • Make Reality TV Shows and Documentary Series with Joke and Biagio
  • Don’t Pitch These Four Kinds Of Shows

1d The Five Magic Words of Pitching Reality TV

Pitching Reality TV Shows: Five Magic Words

Know these five words and phrases before you pitch your reality show to anyone:

Self-Contained

Use them right and we’ll know exactly what kind of show you’re pitching. As a big added bonus, you’ll sound like a total pro.

Here’s a quick guide to these “magic words” to get you up and running.

In broad strokes, reality TV structure falls into two main categories: Self-contained and Arced.

An episode of a show stands on its own.

  • Intervention
  • Undercover Boss
  • Ghost Inside My Child (one of our own shows).

These shows are all self-contained, also referred to as “close-ended.” All parts of the story begin and end in one episode. You can play episodes in any order, it doesn’t matter. Self-contained shows are easy for networks to replay at any time.

(Pronounced ARKED) Continues storylines from one episode to the next. You can’t watch them out of order, it wouldn’t make sense.

  • American Idol
  • The Amazing Race
  • Project Runway

These are all arced.

Imagine watching episode 7 of a season of Survivor, then episode 2, then 9. That would be weird, right?

Arced reality TV shows are designed to be watched from beginning to end.

Arced shows require a greater “buy in” from reality TV audiences. This makes arced reality shows a bigger gamble for networks.

Think about it:

Someone misses the premiere. Will they really start watching four or five episodes down the line? Probably not.

This means TV networks have to spend big marketing dollars to make sure an audience shows up on night one. Not all networks can afford that. Plus, if no one shows up to watch, the networks’ wasted a lot of marketing time and resources.

So arced shows can be tough sells, especially to smaller networks.

Reality Television Type: Format, Docu, or Hybrid?

A format relies on tentpole moments that repeat every episode. A format can be either self-contained or arced.

Any show that has elements that repeat every episode is considered a format.

Myth Busters is a self-contained format. Survivor is an arced format.

In Myth Busters, the guys introduce an urban legend, then run experiments to see if it has merit.

On Survivor (though there are tweaks season to season) you see the same tentpole moments each episode:

  • There’s a reward challenge
  • An immunity challenge
  • Tribal council
  • The famous, “The tribe has spoken” tag as a torch is put out

Audiences recognize these repeatable elements in a formatted show, and come to expect them. If a viewer tunes in late, they can guess what part of the show they’re watching. (For example, if you see the immunity challenge, you know the episode is more than half-way over.)

To use our own reality TV series as examples:

  • Scream Queens on VH1 was an arced format.
  • Don’t Trust Andrew Mayne on A&E was a self-contained format.

Has its roots in documentary. More of a “follow real life as it happens” approach.

  • The Kardashians follows the family through their every day lives.
  • Duck Dynasty is a “docu-sitcom.”
  • The Housewives franchise is a “docu-soap.”
  • Hard Knocks on HBO is a true documentary series.

For the most part, there are no overt tentpole moments or repeatable format elements in these shows. There may be recurring events (dinners, parties, etc.), however, those repeatable elements don’t drive story in the same way every episode.

Also known as “hidden format.” This is the workhorse of reality TV. It’s like a follow-doc in that you feel like you’re following peoples lives. However, there is a “soft format” element that returns every episode.

  • Dance Moms follows Abby Lee, her students, and their parents in a follow-doc fashion. On the surface, it would seem like a straight-up follow-doc series. But the “hidden format” element is that every episode leads up to a dance competition.
  • In our own show Caged on MTV, we followed a group of young adults living in small town USA. They all happened to be connected to the local mixed martial arts scene. The format element was that every episode ended in a cage match.

How Does Your Show Fit In?

Look closely at your own reality show concept.

Is it an arced format? A docu-leaning hybrid?

We get hundreds of pitches through our submission portal. The ones that arrive using pro terminology snag our attention immediately.

So for instance, this description:

“I got these hilarious friends who hunt and play jokes on each other and make duck calls. They also have long beards. They argue a lot. Lots of great drama there. Funny too. Sound cool?”

…tells us much less than this log-line using reality TV lingo:

“I’m pitching you a self-contained docu-sitcom. It follows a family who’s made a fortune selling duck calls. They spend a lot of that money playing jokes on each other. Every episode follows some hilarious family drama, but in the end they all come together as one.”

For a spirited discussion and some cheesy Joke and Biagio moments, check out the podcast episode Pitch Reality TV Shows and Documentary Series with these Five Magic Words .

1e What Reality TV Pitches are New Producers Most Likely to Sell?

If you’re just starting out, avoid pitching arced competition shows. Unless you’ve got some incredible connections to a great piece of talent they’re just too hard to sell.

Self-Contained Hybrid

You’re going to have the easiest time pitching a self-contained hybrid. It should be a show built around strong, real-life characters and have a repeatable story element.

Good examples of this kind of pitch are family business reality shows that feature a “client of the week” like:

  • Pawn Stars (more format-leaning).
  • Flipping Out (more docu-leaning).

Next best bet for an aspiring producer or filmmaker?

Self-Contained Format

A self-contained format built around a larger than life character. That person needs major credibility in whatever world the show lives.

Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares and Tabitha’s Salon Takeover are perfect examples.

Our own show Commercial Kings with Rhett and Link on IFC is another. (Each episode they wrote and directed wild local commercials for small businesses.)

You can’t pitch those formats without Gordon or Tabitha, or Rhett and Link, because we’ve all heard them a hundred times. There’s really nothing new to the one-liners for those shows.

“We’re going to give really bad restaurant kitchens a makeover” sounds lame. But walk in with Gordon Ramsay and you have a hit.

You don’t have to attach someone who is already famous, by the way. Networks love new, fresh faces. But the people you pitch have to be experts at what they do. Plus, they have to be as good as or better than the characters already on TV right now.

It’s totally doable for a new producer to find someone like this (now that you know what you’re looking for).

Here’s a great guide to help you recognize great reality TV characters .

Do You Have to Have Talent In Mind Before Pitching?

It’s not a good idea to pitch reality concepts if you don’t have something or someone real attached.

2 Preparing to Pitch Reality Shows

In section 2, Preparing to Pitch Reality Shows, we’ll cover how to:

  • Understand what makes for a good reality pitch
  • Avoid bad internet advice
  • Make yourself valuable in unscripted television
  • Create reality TV pitch materials
  • Protect your reality show concepts
  • Build your reality TV career

Most aspiring producers waste hours, days, or even weeks preparing reality TV concepts that will never sell.

After reading this section, you’ll know how to avoid these giant pot holes in the road to reality TV success.

2a Reality TV Ideas, A.K.A. What Are You Actually Pitching?

Okay, we’re about to burst a lot of bubbles out there. Let’s rip off the band-aid and get it done.

You don’t just create a reality TV pitch on a piece of paper, send if off to Mr. or Ms. Important, and make a bundle of money.

Pitching reality TV means pitching something real that you have access to film.

Reality TV ideas are a dime a dozen, and ideas, in and of themselves, are pretty much worthless. Everybody has one. Many are identical or very similar to each other.

Even if you take that idea and turn it into a fleshed out treatment, it’s still just a glorified reality TV idea. There’s no “real life” substance to it.

Which means there’s an overwhelming number of people (who pitch to us every day) convinced that pitching:

  • American Idol for Bartenders/Rappers/Animal Trainers/You Name It
  • Survivor set in the Arctic/On the Ocean/In Space/Wherever
  • Cash Cab on a Train/Boat/Bus/Military Transport

…are worthy of paper pitches that can be five to fifty (!) pages in length.

Is That You?

If you’re an aspiring producer guilty of “creating” these kinds of shows, it’s not your fault.

There has long been a fallacy in Hollywood that “one big idea” can propel you to riches. It’s like a great fairy tale told over and over again.

Many people pitch reality shows as if they are playing the lottery (usually with the same results). “Here’s an idea, I’ll take a shot at the big time.”

A big part of this misconception is due to some…

2b Bad Web Advice

The web is a mixed bag. There’s some “okay” advice out there, but a lot of it is either:

  • Out of date.
  • Written by people who’ve never actually sold a reality TV show.
  • Irrelevant or useless for aspiring, unestablished reality TV producers.

Here’s what’s wrong with what’s out there:

A LOT of the results focus on writing elaborate treatments. These articles give the impression that a “solid write up” and a friendly letter could launch your career.

One site that has some otherwise nice info blows it big time with this quote:

“Pitching a reality TV idea is as simple as communicating a Title, Logline, and Synopsis (format). This applies to all formats of reality-based ideas.”

NO. WRONG. BAD.

Someone please sound the Family Feud buzzer as long and loud as possible.

The real shame here is that talented writers and creatives take advice like this and waste hours writing useless paper. (Especially since similar advice about reality TV treatments clutters sites all over the web.)

It’s a writing-centric approach that stems from scripted TV. After all, in the scripted world, written treatments are very important.

But people who give this advice to aspiring reality TV producers don’t understand this simple fact:

New producers and undiscovered writers don’t bang out the next Amazing Race in five pages and two lattes at Starbucks.

2c Ideas versus Execution

Selling a reality show is never about the idea itself…it’s about the execution of the idea — and whether you can get it done.

Being able to “make it happen” is FAR more important than any elaborate write-up you can put together.

Reality TV: Ideas vs Execution Example:

You’ve got a music show concept you think is on par with The Voice.

You planned out an entire season, sample episodes, the whole enchilada. (After all, you read how to do it in one of those web posts that made it seem easy.)

You’ve got:

  • Ten awesome pages filled with exciting format.
  • Surprising twists and turns.
  • Even a 360 marketing approach guaranteed to blow Hollywood’s mind.

No one cares.

Unless you’ve got CeeLo Green judging and a record company putting up a prize, you don’t have a show.

Getting big names on board and someone to offer a phenomenal prize — well, that’s the hard part. That’s what producing a large-scale, network level reality show is all about.

It’s cutting through the legal red tape, closing the big deals, and getting stars to say “yes” that matters.

That’s what makes these giant blockbuster TV shows happen. That’s what producing is all about: putting together a great package (more on that below).

It’s NOT about the write up any of us create in a vacuum somewhere. (Which will get re-thought and re-formatted a million times by the network anyway.)

Don’t worry. None of this means new producers can’t break into the business.

On the contrary, by following tips that come later in this guide, you can up your chances of success quite a bit.

2d You Can’t Pitch What You Don’t Have

Just starting out? Chances are you have no access to music superstars, big name talent, or the Hollywood clout to make headline deals.

No power agent in your corner, no weekend parties at Clooney’s Italian villa.

So why underline that by pitching the next “Big Celebrity Reality Show” or some other idea that requires all the might of showbiz to produce?

We get piles of pitches that have “creative” celebrity hooks. But the people pitching them have never met a celebrity in their lives.

By the way, we’ve worked on shows with celebrities ourselves. They’re hard to cast.

We’re repped by CAA, a pretty big agency. Even with their help and giant networks on board, it’s not easy to get stars to say “yes.”

So don’t fall in this trap of pitching shows driven by celebrity. You might think that makes your idea feel “special.” It doesn’t.

It comes down to this:

You can’t pitch what you don’t have access to film

We’ve actually been pitched a reality show set at The White House several times. Unfortunately, no one pitching that particular concept had ever checked with P.O.T.U.S. first.

This is why trying to “create” these types of reality show pitches when you’re just starting out is a total waste of time.

We’re hammering on this point because it’s where the vast majority of pitches we receive go wrong.

What To Do Instead?

In the next section we’ll give you the secret of how to turn things around. Do this one thing and entertainment professionals will take you seriously.

2e Make Yourself Valuable

How to Pitch a Reality Show?  Make Yourself Valuable.

Step back and ask yourself how you can bring more to your pitch than just words on paper.

What can you add to your idea so that it comes alive?

Do you have access to:

  • Some interesting people?
  • An exciting, visual world?
  • A book author?
  • An edgy new business that’s taking your city by storm?

For example:

  • Maybe you know about an amazing underground sub-culture. Could you film it? (Like Travis Bible and Steve Harris did after they first pitched us a log-line that became MTV’s CAGED.)
  • Perhaps you’ve discovered a shocking world never before seen on TV. (Like Suzanne Stratford did when she brought us parents with a problem. Their children remembered living and dying in past lives. That became multiple seasons of Ghost Inside My Child.)
  • You could be friends with the next Super Nanny or Gordon Ramsay. Can you convince them to make a show? (Our friend Andrew Mayne is an amazing magician. We sold a reality TV series to A&E starring him.)

Notice in all three of these examples, there was something more to the pitch than just words on paper.

Real people, real lives, and real stories were already along for the ride.

What Else Makes You Valuable?

Filmmaking skills of any kind.

Are you a great shooter? Editor? A documentarian with several projects under your belt? Hard-core YouTuber? Terrific story teller?

Wanna know what gets us excited? When a talented filmmaker walks in and says, “I found these amazing real-life characters and put them on tape.” (More on pitch tapes and sizzle reels below. Tip – don’t spend a lot of money on them. Ever.)

Now, you don’t necessarily have to be a filmmaker to pitch reality shows, but it’s a nice bonus, and always gets our interest.

2f Pitching Reality TV: Five Ways to Make Yourself Valuable

Here’s a simple list to get you thinking about how to add value to your pitches.

Find a Great Real Life Character

Provide access to a unique world, get the rights to an exciting property (like a book or a podcast)., bring useful filmmaking skills to the project., have a great personality..

The most important part of your reality pitch is the real assets you bring to it. Check off whatever you can from the above list.

The reason is that when you find real-world assets to go along with your pitch you have more than an idea.

You have the beginning of a “package.” More on “packaging things up” in our next section…

Helpful Links on Adding Value to Your Reality Show Pitches

Adding value by finding great real life people? Check out 6 Must Have Traits of Unscripted TV Characters

Learn more about great reality TV worlds: Great Reality TV Worlds Have These Four Qualities .

Want to approach a book author, business owner, or any other entity about developing a show around them? Be sure to check out How to Turn a Book, or Any Property, into a TV Show.

We talked about five ways to make yourself valuable (and more) with the awesome Stephanie Palmer over at Good In a Room.

(By the way, Good in a Room is an amazing site to help you do better in Hollywood pitch meetings, especially if you’re also a screenwriter. Highly recommended.)

2g All About Your Reality TV Pitch Package

The number one thing you are pitching is a package — not an idea.

A “package” consists of all the creative and real-world elements that come together in your reality TV or documentary series pitch.

Creative assets are your pitch materials (see more below).

Real-world elements are things like celebrities, books, businesses, families, or real people attached to your project.

Don’t freak out if you’re thinking you have no access to anything of value.

It doesn’t mean that if you live in the middle of nowhere you have no chance of putting together a great, pitch-able package.

In fact, let’s say you live somewhere in middle America. Maybe you discover a terrific new fashion boutique. It’s run by sassy 20 somethings you think could play well on Bravo, MTV, or Netflix.

The first step in putting together a pitch package could be a short tape you make yourself (doesn’t have to be perfect).

What Goes in Your Initial Short Tape?

That tape should do a few things:

  • Show off the personalities of the young ladies you discovered.
  • Give us a sense of their business.
  • Hint at the kinds of stories we’d see each episode.

Additionally put together some photos, and a SHORT write up of how the show would work.

Now you’ve got a conversation starter. With this big piece of the puzzle, you’ve got something reality TV industry pros can take a look at.

This Will Instantly Set Your Reality TV Pitch Apart. Why?

Here’s how most other people would pitch the above show:

“I have a write up of a reality TV idea here. What we’re gonna do is go find some interesting fashion businesses, and look for fun young women to follow around. It’s gonna be great! What do you think?”

Here’s the conversation you’ll be having instead:

“I found these terrific girls who started a new fashion boutique that caters to high-end prom dresses. They have great personalities which you can clearly see on this quick tape I put together. I also brought a short write-up about what they do, including a few sample story lines. I see it as a self-contained hybrid. We follow the drama of the boutique and the owners lives, but there’s a new prom dress delivered each episode.”

Congrats. Your pitch is officially better than 80-90% of what we hear from people who pitch to us.

2h Reality TV Pitch Materials

Reality TV Pitch Materials - What You Need, What You Don't.

In the last section we mentioned the idea of “shooting tape.” Far and away, the best way to get producers and networks excited is to walk in with a great video.

If you only spent your time on one thing, it should be making a terrific tape for your reality show idea.

That said, DON’T GO BROKE .

There’s no good reason to spend thousands of dollars on a pitch tape or sizzle reel. It’s not necessary to hire a company who specializes in “sizzle reels.”

You certainly shouldn’t waste months of time putting a sizzle reel together. That’s not how to pitch a reality show, either.

Here’s the short list of things you want to have together to pitch any kind of reality show:

Great Tape (2 to 5 minutes, shorter is better).

  • On the down-and-dirty side, your pitch tape should at least show off your great characters and what they do. Doesn’t have to be perfect. We’ve sold shows using Skype footage taped off of a computer screen. After all, if your characters don’t pop on Skype, they won’t pop when you put a $20,000 camera in their face, either.
  • On the high-end side, your tape should feel like a television promo for the main networks that make sense for your reality show pitch. Go to their websites and watch promos for new shows. Think of your tape as having that kind of energy, but longer interviews.
  • You can also consider creating a ripomatic – an industry term for borrowing footage from other projects and re-editing it to present your new vision. While this is very commonly done in the entertainment industry, and has sold many shows, it’s important to keep copyright laws in mind. Technically, you need permission to use any borrowed footage (so no posting your ripomatics to public websites!)

Short Write-Up

(1 or 2 pages max.)

No one’s going to read it at first. Probably won’t even give it a glance. Just make sure it’s a super tight, fun read. If people want more, they’ll ask you for it, and you can give them exactly what they need.

Anything Extra That Brings Your Reality TV Show to Life.

  • If you were pitching Duck Dynasty, give the people in your meeting a duck call. It’s fun and shows what these guys built their fortune on.
  • Going out with a gold prospecting show? Might be cool to bring some real gold and fool’s gold to the meeting. See if the exec can guess which is which.
  • Selling a magic show? Make sure your magician’s in the meeting with some great tricks ready to go. ( Andrew did a whole routine for A&E execs after we showed them our pitch tape.)

You should NEVER film a full TV pilot if your intention is to sell a show. The only reason to produce a full pilot is because you can learn a lot doing it. But if selling a show is your end goal, a full pilot doesn’t help you (and usually hurts you.)

We break it all down in this series of posts: Should I Produce My Own Reality TV Pilot?

A few helpful resources related to this section:

Check out What Goes In a Pitch Tape? Should You Make One? to learn more about pitch tapes and sizzle reels.

Don’t spend too much money creating shows: 5 Steps to Develop Shows without Going Broke .

We discuss editing tapes that feel like TV promos in Steal This Editing Secret .

Here’s exactly what we like to see in reality TV and documentary series paper pitches (and it’s probably a lot less than you think you need).

2i How To Protect Your Reality Idea While Building Your Career

Many aspiring producers and filmmakers freak out about pitching their ideas. Why?

Because they think those ideas will get stolen.

Screenwriter John August’s Blog has a great post about this topic , and we followed up with Did My Idea Get Stolen? Focus on This Instead .

Please understand we are not lawyers and are not offering reality TV legal advice.

Our goal with this section is to explain the day to day reality of how our business works, especially when it comes to “ideas.”

We hope these insights will give you a more practical approach to protecting yourself, while at the same time increasing your value to your own pitches.

When in doubt, always consult a lawyer.

Similar Reality Shows On TV at the Same Time

First of all, consider this: Wife Swap and Trading Spouses. Pretty much the same show, right? Subtle differences, but essentially the same idea. They were on the air, at the same time, on two different networks.

Another example:

One of our mentors went around all over town pitching “Survivor set in the business world.” Instead of getting voted off the island, people would get fired. No one bought it. Mark Burnett sold the same idea, called The Apprentice, with Donald Trump a few months later.

Well, as you now know, it’s not about the idea. It’s about the execution of the idea.

Our old mentor was pitching words on paper. Burnett was pitching Donald Trump hiring somebody for a dream job. See the difference?

When people freak out about their idea getting stolen they’re missing the big picture.

Bottom line — professionals don’t want to steal your idea. We have enough of our own ideas to worry about. But if all you’re pitching is words on paper, your reality TV pitch is not going to be that unique. Chances are someone else is pitching (or has pitched) the same thing.

Remember, Survivor premiered in 2000. Amazing Race in 2001. American Idol in 2002.

Well over a decade for each of those shows to seep into our brains.

Over those years someone has already pitched permutations of every “big idea.”

In fact, at RealScreen a few years back we visited a panel with network executives. The moderator asked if they’d received any truly unique ideas in the last year.

Every executive said “no.”

Every one of them.

Over the course of a year, a handful of top network executives had not seen a single idea that was truly original.

It’s all been pitched.

Again, the only thing that makes your show different is how it’s packaged up. The base idea? It’s been around.

So what’s the lesson here?

The best way to make yourself valuable to a pitch is also the best way to protect yourself:

Build your reality pitch around someone or something real.

Fifty other people might pitch reality shows about restaurant makeovers. Only you are pitching a show following the wild restaurateur you connected with.

Your good relationship with the talent or assets you bring to a project protects you. So do your own filmmaking abilities. That’s what makes you valuable.

Those things are worth far more than any service you pay to “prove” you wrote something down on a piece of paper. (Use those services if they make you feel better, but be real about what you’re trying to “protect.”)

Now, that’s our opinion. You need to do what’s right for you, but we believe worrying about ideas getting stolen is a waste of time.

When it comes time to make a deal (after a production company or network is interested in your show), that’s different. You should have an entertainment attorney look things over.

Just please…for heaven’s sake…hire a real entertainment attorney who specializes in unscripted television, documentary series, and reality TV.

Do NOT hire a local general practice lawyer who’s never worked in reality TV.

Nothing is more disheartening than having a deal fall apart because of an inexperienced attorney. They have no idea how the reality TV business works, what to ask for, or what’s standard practice in our industry.

3 Where and How to Pitch a Reality Show

In section 3, “Where and How to Pitch a Reality Show” we share:

  • Overcoming challenges of pitching reality TV shows early in your career
  • What a “soft pitch” is and when to use one
  • What happens when a reality TV network says, “I want your show.”
  • Pitfalls of pitching directly to networks
  • How we broke into the unscripted television industry (you can take the same steps)
  • How production companies can speed up your TV career plans

Okay, so you’ve taken our advice. You’ve stopped focusing on simple reality TV ideas and started thinking about your reality TV pitch package.

You’ve found some amazing real-life characters, and put them on tape (whether a rough video or elaborate promo).

You’ve pulled some photos, written up a short treatment, and are aching to pitch your reality TV package.

And you don’t know anyone in the TV industry. Now what?

3a Pitching Reality Shows Early in Your Career

Pitching reality TV Early in Your Career.

Back in the day when VHS was still a thing and there was no Twitter or Facebook, the two of us, Joke and Biagio, had no one to pitch to. (That’s about the same time our diet consisted almost exclusively of Ramen noodles.)

So we told a lot of white lies (more like stretching the truth). Snuck into some places where we shouldn’t have been allowed. Accidentally fooled a former president of NBC into giving us a job.

It all turned out okay because we worked our butts off and made sure we delivered on the big promises we made.

Today’s World Is Different.

You’re not going to lie your way into a production company or a big agency. (Social media and the web have pretty much killed that. Too easy to find out who you really are!)

So what are your options?

3b Should You Ever Pay to Pitch?

The common way new producers and filmmakers pitch their projects is at pitch pits, classes, and seminars.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with going to these types of events. You just have to prepare to do your best, and make sure you get your money’s worth.

The problem with paying to pitch is that it’s like speed dating. The people hearing the pitches are slammed with one meeting after the next. By the end, they’re bleary-eyed, and even good projects can be forgotten.

We’ve Been on Both Sides of the “Speed Pitch” Table

At times it can be disheartening.

When you’re pitching it’s fast and furious and exciting in the moment. Later, when you don’t hear anything back, it’s frustrating.

Receiving pitches at a pitch pit is also hard. There’s no real time to course-correct somebody if their pitch is off. Certainly no real time to build a relationship. Later, it’s hard to remember who exactly pitched what.

So it’s not ideal for people on either side of the table. Still, there are success stories that com out of pitch pits, so we’d never say, “don’t do it.” Just know what you’re getting into.

3c The Soft Pitch

How to Pitch a Reality Show - The Soft Pitch

NOTE: Only “soft pitch” to those buyers and sellers with whom you have a relationship.That means network execs and production companies you know well.

Do not soft pitch agents, managers, or the guy who does craft service on Master Chef. They won’t be helpful in this stage.

You can soft pitch us through our portal (learn how to pitch to us here ), but please read this entire section before you do, or check out our podcast episode Soft Pitch Blueprint .

A soft pitch is probably different than what you imagine.

Most soft pitches we get are no more than the seed of an idea. As you’re about to see, a simple idea never qualifies as a soft pitch.

What Is A Soft Pitch

A soft pitch is a conversation about a project you’re thinking of investing more time into.

A soft pitch works best after you’ve discovered a great asset to build your show around, but before you film with them.

Why Give a Soft Pitch?

The reason you soft pitch is to gather important information. You want to find out if there’s any reason that your show would be impossible to sell.

For instance, you might have discovered great characters in a world that recently bombed on TV — no one will buy that. (Has happened to us more than once.)

Or your idea might be a M.O.P. (Most Often Pitched.) For instance, right now ghost hunting shows are a M.O.P. (There are so many being pitched that networks sent out word they don’t want to see them right now. It would take some pretty amazing ghost hunters to overcome this issue.)

Soft Pitches: Before and After

Here are some examples of good and bad soft pitches:

Bad: “We’re going to travel the country and find real life witches. We’re not just looking in the spookiest corners, but in every day places, too. We’ll even see that witches are normal people. How’s that sound?”

Good: “I discovered these young witches who run a shop selling witchcraft products. They’re up for doing a show. Here are some photos I pulled off Facebook. Would you like to see some tape?”

Bad: “How about an extreme survival show starring people who insist on living like cave men? What do you think?”

Good: “I met this crazy survival dude who insists on living naked and eating only what he kills. But he lives the middle of New York City. Here’s a YouTube video of a news story done on him. Should I put together some more tape?”

Bad: “What about a show that follows a public defender working gang crimes?”

Good: “My brother-in-law is a public defender specializing in gang-related crime. Here’s a letter saying we have permission to film with him and his department, and a list of cases he’s working on. What do you think?”

Notice how the bad soft pitches are nothing more than ideas, whereas the good versions have real people and places in mind.

This is a common mistake

Fact is most soft pitches we get are like this:

  • “How about a show in an Italian restaurant?”
  • “I want to make a weight loss show that’s really, really real.”
  • “We get a bunch of guys who are friends and follow them from city to city doing interesting things.”
  • “It’s a cooking show about healthy food that tastes great.”
  • “A reality show set at The White House — I’m sure if we can get a network on board we can make this happen.”

Throwing out a bunch of reality TV ideas to see what happens is not soft pitching — it’s a rookie mistake.

It’s definitely NOT how to pitch a reality show.

So instead base your soft pitch on something or someone you’ve already connected with. By doing so you instantly make yourself valuable. After all, you’ve made a discovery and connection with something that might be a show (way better than a simple idea).

Plus, it allows us (or other pros) to give you better advice on how to proceed. No matter how great the characters or the world you discover, there’s no sense spending all your resources packaging it up if no TV network wants it.

3d What Happens When A Network Wants Your Reality TV Show?

Are you a third-party approved reality TV production company (like us?) Or are you teamed up with a production company?

Then the network usually starts a multi-step deal, under the umbrella of a “development phase.”

Development Phase

Development can involve any one or several of the following stages.

There can be a lot of overlap between these phases as well. But here’s a general breakdown of the steps we go through once a network is interested.

Paper Phase

The network likes the show in general, but wants to develop a more specific take for their air. This phase could involve delivering:

  • series budgets
  • a series bible (document explaining how a show works).

Casting Phase

Casting periods can exist for several kinds of shows.

For instance, say your show is a self-contained format built around a big character, like Kitchen Nightmares. Then you would need to find potential kitchens to go in and fix.

If you’re doing a big competition show you might have to find the contestants before the show gets picked up.

Reality TV Presentation Tape

Non-airing reality tv pilot.

Full length reality TV pilot. About 22 minutes for a half hour show. About 44 minutes for an hour show.

Since it’s non-airing, you can skip expensive “quality control.” (Broadcast standard color correction and sound mixing. Though you should still do what you can in-house to make your pilot look and sound great.)

An Airable Documentary Series or Reality TV Pilot

If all of the above goes right, you get…

A Series Order

Yay! You made it. Your reality TV pitch is now a reality television series.

And now the excitement really begins.

3e What If You’re Not Third Party Approved?

Then the network will pair you with a third party approved reality TV show company .

Sometimes, they’ll introduce you to several, and let you choose which one you like the best. Sometimes they’ll pair you with just one company and say, “go.”

For example, many networks bring us shows that producers have pitched to them.

Recently, we’ve been brought shows by VH1, Oxygen, MTV, and Lifetime.

All are in various stages of the “road to series” cycle. Some will make it all the way, some won’t. That’s how the game works.

It took us a long time to get to the point where networks would also bring projects directly to us (as opposed to us always pitching them).

3f Will Networks Meet With You?

If you’re a new producer and don’t have an agent, probably not.

If you do pay to pitch at a seminar or pitch fest, you might be pitching to lower-level execs. They may or may not have the power to move your show up the ladder. However, that is one way to get a network “face to face.”

Also, if you pitch to a network first, you might have less choice over which production company you end up with. (Network politics can be crazy.)

3g The Problem With Pitching to Networks Directly

If you don’t have an agent and can’t just pick up the phone and get a network on the line, your options are limited. You’ll be “hacking” your way into whatever meeting you can manage to land.

So say you get a meeting with someone at History, but your show is also right for Discovery, NatGeo, and Spike.

You don’t have anyone in your corner to call those networks and make sure they’re also seeing your reality show pitch at the same time.

This eliminates any chance that there will be a competitive bidding situation on your show.

It also means the single network you met with won’t be in a hurry to get back to you. They know you’re not pitching anywhere else.

Finally, all things being equal, you’re at a disadvantage. Networks choose projects from established production companies over pitches from new producers.

This was the dilemma we faced when we were starting out.

3h How We Broke In

Joke Productions - A Reality Television Production Company

What finally opened the doors for us was teaming up with bigger reality television production companies we trusted to take care of us.

Some production companies want you involved in the production of the show. Some don’t.

We wanted to team up with those reality TV production companies who would let us work on the shows, learn, and grow. We were lucky enough to do that.

That’s how we got to where we are today:

  • TV Shows On Air
  • A Powerhouse Agent
  • Relationships with networks who both buy our shows and bring us shows

Clearly, we benefited from teaming up with seasoned professionals along the way.

It’s good for everyone.

3i Benefits of Pitching to a Production Company First

Are you looking to build your career, stay involved with your show as much as possible, or learn the unscripted TV business from the inside out?

Nothing beats teaming up with an established production company who is willing to mentor you along. (Again, that’s how we came up.)

True, not every production company is the same, and we wouldn’t want to represent that. But speaking for us, a big part of the reason we team up with aspiring producers on shows is because we like the people pitching to us.

We love sharing the thrill and excitement of someone’s first show with them. (As well as being there to console them during the times things inevitably go wrong.)

Every time we team up with an aspiring producer, our goal is for them to learn as much as possible, and feel that their creative input is valued along the way.

Why Do We Care?

It’s not just that we’re “great people” (though we try!) Of course, we get something out of doing this, too.

When producers have a good experience with us, they pitch us more shows. Plus, they tell other aspiring producers we’re great to work with, and that brings even more potential shows our way.

It’s a win-win for everyone.

Our goal is always to be fair, easy to work with, and an open book about the process of making a TV show.

So at Joke Productions, it’s a simple conversation when we do team up with someone who pitches us.

We want you to be as involved in the production of your show as you want to be. We want you to take on as much responsibility as your experience allows.

You should learn a lot, enjoy the process, and come out the other side a much better and more experienced producer, able to handle even more responsibility on your next show.

If you have a look at our testimonials page , we think you’ll see that we live up to that statement.

4 Pitch Your Ideas To Us

In section 4, “Pitch Your Ideas To Us” we discuss:

  • The value of mentorship
  • Working on the shows you pitch
  • What happens if you don’t want to work on your reality shows
  • How to pitch yourself to star in your own reality show

We started this outreach so aspiring producers had a legitimate place to pitch their reality TV concepts without having to lie to people or pay to pitch.

We remember how impossible it was to get our pitches heard. But why did it have to be so hard? We were talented back then.

If we could find the Joke and Biagio of ten years ago walking around today, we’d snap them up in a heartbeat.

That’s why we love discovering talented new producers.

Maybe you’re one of them.

4a We Believe in Mentorship

The reason we started Producing Unscripted is to teach you the right way to create, pitch, sell, and make unscripted television, documentary series, and reality TV shows, and to encourage you to pitch to us.

No, we won’t team up with everyone who pitches to us. And not everyone who reads this will want to pitch to us.

When things do work out, we’ll be working in hand with those new producers. “How to Pitch a Reality Show” is just the beginning of the journey. We like to help aspiring producers build their careers.

Over the years we were lucky to have had great mentors. They were the rare producers secure enough in their own talent to share their knowledge.

Working with them was invaluable. Those experiences allowed us to launch our own production company. Today, those mentors are still in business, making plenty of TV shows. We’re thrilled to be their colleagues in the unscripted television industry.

It’s their example we’d like to follow as we help new producers come into their own.

4b What if You Don’t Want to Work On Reality Shows You Pitch?

This guide, “How to Pitch a Reality Show” is aimed at people who want to pitch and also make reality TV shows and documentary series.

But not everyone wants a full-time career in reality TV. Some people want to take a credit and a small check and keep on living their lives.

4c How to Get Your Own Reality Show

What if you want to star in your own reality show?

Are you an expert in an unusual field?

Do you have a TV friendly life packed with drama, comedy, action, adventure? (Or any other descriptive word that would make your life a TV show?)

Do you think you’re the next Gordon Ramsay, or that your family is even better TV than the Kardashians?

Good news: If you want to be in front of the camera, not behind it, no one expects you to put together a pitch tape.

To pitch to us, just sign up for our newsletter , and follow the instructions on how to pitch us a show. When you get to the submission portal, at some point you’ll get a question. “Are you submitting as a Producer (behind the camera) or Talent (in front of the camera)?” Choose Talent.

Submit links to some short video clips telling us about you, your family and/or business. Make sure to tell us why you think you’d be great TV. (If you post these on YouTube, be sure to make it either a Public video or Unlisted video, not a Private video.)

These can be shot on any camera that’s handy, including your mobile phone or web cam. Just make sure we can see and hear you.

You can still follow our tips on putting together your short paper pitch , but your short videos are what matter most.

5 What Have You Learned About How to Pitch a Reality Show?

Okay, you’re over 9000 words into this article…good for you!

It’s a lot to process, we know. But making it this far has put you miles ahead of most who pitch to us and other industry professionals.

5a 15 Things to Remember about How to Pitch a Reality Show

Your checklist.

In a nutshell, here’s what you now know about how to pitch a reality show

  • Watch TV so you understand what kind of reality show you’re pitching.
  • Use the Five Magic Words of Pitching Reality TV.
  • Starting out? You want to pitch a self-contained hybrid or self-contained format built around a real person or people.
  • Avoid pitching arced competition. Too hard unless you have major connections to some incredible talent and assets.
  • Ideas are never enough, you always have to attach someone or something real that you have access to film.
  • Ditch all that bad advice from the web that tells you to waste time writing in-depth treatments. They will never make it to air the way your write them up anyway (the network will change it all).
  • You can’t pitch what you don’t have, so no more shows set at The White House (unless the First Lady and her husband are on board).
  • Make yourself valuable by bringing assets and filmmaking skills to the table.
  • You’re never pitching a simple reality idea, you’re always pitching a reality television package.
  • Your most useful pitch material is great tape. Everything else is secondary.
  • The best time to soft pitch is after you discover a great reality TV asset and before you decide to film. If you’re going to soft pitch a reality TV idea, it has to be based on something real you’ve already found.
  • That said, if you’re just starting out, you might as well make some great tape anyway. You’re going to need the practice.
  • The best way to protect your idea is also the best way to make yourself valuable. Attach something real to your reality TV project and forget about leaning on “paper” so much.
  • Pitch pits and seminars are places you can pay to pitch your projects…
  • But remember, you can pitch your shows to us for free – and we will seriously consider them.

5b 5 Step Action Plan: Pitch a Reality Show The Smart Way

  • Find a real person, place, or thing to attach to your show
  • Develop that concept into a self-contained hybrid or self-contained format
  • Shoot some video to give a sense of the characters and their world
  • Write a short paper pitch to describe how the show works
  • Team up with a production company ( like ours ) and begin building your career.

5c 7 Steps: How to Pitch a Reality Show to Us

tv show business plan

Creating a business plan for a television studio is an essential process for any entrepreneur. It serves as a roadmap that outlines the necessary steps to be taken to start or grow the business, the resources required, and the anticipated financial outcomes. It should be crafted with method and confidence.

This guide is designed to provide you with the tools and knowledge necessary for creating a television studio business plan, covering why it is so important both when starting up and running an established business, what should be included in your plan, how it should be structured, what tools should be used to save time and avoid errors, and other helpful tips.

We have a lot to cover, so let's get to it!

In this guide:

Why write a business plan for a television studio?

  • What information is needed to create a business plan for a television studio?
  • What goes in the financial forecast for a television studio?
  • What goes in the written part of a television studio business plan?
  • What tool can I use to write my television studio business plan?

Having a clear understanding of why you want to write a business plan for your television studio will make it simpler for you to grasp the rationale behind its structure and content. So before delving into the plan's actual details, let's take a moment to remind ourselves of the primary reasons why you'd want to create a television studio business plan.

To have a clear roadmap to grow the business

Small businesses rarely experience a constant and predictable environment. Economic cycles go up and down, while the business landscape is mutating constantly with new regulations, technologies, competitors, and consumer behaviours emerging when we least expect it.

In this dynamic context, it's essential to have a clear roadmap for your television studio. Otherwise, you are navigating in the dark which is dangerous given that - as a business owner - your capital is at risk.

That's why crafting a well-thought-out business plan is crucial to ensure the long-term success and sustainability of your venture.

To create an effective business plan, you'll need to take a step-by-step approach. First, you'll have to assess your current position (if you're already in business), and then identify where you'd like your television studio to be in the next three to five years.

Once you have a clear destination for your television studio, you'll focus on three key areas:

  • Resources: you'll determine the human, equipment, and capital resources needed to reach your goals successfully.
  • Speed: you'll establish the optimal pace at which your business needs to grow if it is to meet its objectives within the desired timeframe.
  • Risks: you'll identify and address potential risks you might encounter along the way.

By going through this process regularly, you'll be able to make informed decisions about resource allocation, paving the way for the long-term success of your business.

To get visibility on future cash flows

If your small television studio runs out of cash: it's game over. That's why we often say "cash is king", and it's crucial to have a clear view of your television studio's future cash flows.

So, how can you achieve this? It's simple - you need to have an up-to-date financial forecast.

The good news is that your television studio business plan already includes a financial forecast (which we'll discuss further in this guide). Your task is to ensure it stays current.

To accomplish this, it's essential to regularly compare your actual financial performance with what was planned in your financial forecast. Based on your business's current trajectory, you can make adjustments to the forecast.

By diligently monitoring your television studio's financial health, you'll be able to spot potential financial issues, like unexpected cash shortfalls, early on and take corrective actions. Moreover, this practice will enable you to recognize and capitalize on growth opportunities, such as excess cash flow enabling you to expand to new locations.

To secure financing

Crafting a comprehensive business plan for your television studio, whether you're starting up or already established, is paramount when you're seeking financing from banks or investors.

Given how fragile small businesses are, financiers will want to ensure that you have a clear roadmap in place as well as command and control of your future cash flows before entertaining the idea of funding you.

For banks, the information in your business plan will be used to assess your borrowing capacity - which is defined as the maximum amount of debt your business can afford alongside your ability to repay the loan. This evaluation helps them decide whether to extend credit to your business and under what terms (interest rate, duration, repayment options, collateral, etc.).

Similarly, investors will thoroughly review your plan to determine if their investment can yield an attractive return. They'll be looking for evidence that your television studio has the potential for healthy growth, profitability, and consistent cash flow generation over time.

Now that you understand the importance of creating a business plan for your television studio, let's delve into the necessary information needed to craft an effective plan.

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Information needed to create a business plan for a television studio

Drafting a television studio business plan requires research so that you can project sales, investments and cost accurately in your financial forecast, and convince the reader that there is a viable commercial opportunity to be seized.

Below, we'll focus on three critical pieces of information you should gather before starting to write your plan.

Carrying out market research for a television studio

Carrying out market research before writing a business plan for a television studio is essential to ensure that the financial projections are accurate and realistic.

Market research helps you gain insight into your target customer base, competitors, pricing strategies and other key factors which can have an impact on the commercial success of your business.

In particular, it is useful in forecasting revenue as it provides valuable data regarding potential customers’ spending habits and preferences.

You may find that there is a growing interest in online streaming content for your television studio. Additionally, market research could reveal that there is an increased demand for interactive content, such as interactive shows or quiz programs, that could be potentially beneficial for your studio.

This information can then be used to create more accurate financial projections which will help investors make informed decisions about investing in your television studio.

Developing the sales and marketing plan for a television studio

As you embark on creating your television studio business plan, it is crucial to budget sales and marketing expenses beforehand.

A well-defined sales and marketing plan should include precise projections of the actions required to acquire and retain customers. It will also outline the necessary workforce to execute these initiatives and the budget required for promotions, advertising, and other marketing efforts.

This approach ensures that the appropriate amount of resources is allocated to these activities, aligning with the sales and growth objectives outlined in your business plan.

The staffing and equipment needs of a television studio

As you embark on starting or expanding your television studio, having a clear plan for recruitment and capital expenditures (investment in equipment and real estate) is essential for ensuring your business's success.

Both the recruitment and investment plans must align with the timing and level of growth projected in your forecast, and they require appropriate funding.

A television studio might incur the costs of hiring staff, such as camera operators, audio technicians, lighting technicians, and directors. Additionally, they might need to purchase equipment such as cameras, lighting equipment, microphones, and other audio-visual equipment.

To create a realistic financial forecast, you also need to consider other operating expenses associated with the day-to-day running of your business, such as insurance and bookkeeping.

With all the necessary information at hand, you are ready to begin crafting your business plan and developing your financial forecast.

What goes into your television studio's financial forecast?

The financial forecast of your television studio's business plan will enable you to assess the growth, profitability, funding requirements, and cash generation potential of your business in the coming years.

The four key outputs of a financial forecast for a television studio are:

  • The profit and loss (P&L) statement ,
  • The projected balance sheet ,
  • The cash flow forecast ,
  • And the sources and uses table .

Let's look at each of these in a bit more detail.

The projected P&L statement

Your television studio forecasted P&L statement enables the reader of your business plan to get an idea of how much revenue and profits your business is expected to make in the near future.

forecasted profit and loss statement in a television studio business plan

Ideally, your reader will want to see:

  • Growth above the inflation level
  • Expanding profit margins
  • Positive net profit throughout the plan

Expectations for an established television studio will of course be different than for a startup. Existing businesses which have reached their cruising altitude might have slower growth and higher margins than ventures just being started.

The projected balance sheet of your television studio

The balance sheet for a television studio is a financial document that provides a snapshot of your business’s financial health at a given point in time.

It shows three main components: assets, liabilities and equity:

  • Assets: are resources owned by the business, such as cash, equipment, and accounts receivable (money owed by clients).
  • Liabilities: are debts owed to creditors and other entities, such as accounts payable (money owed to suppliers) and loans.
  • Equity: includes the sums invested by the shareholders or business owners and the cumulative profits and losses of the business to date (called retained earnings). It is a proxy for the value of the owner's stake in the business.

example of projected balance sheet in a television studio business plan

Examining the balance sheet is important for lenders, investors, or other stakeholders who are interested in assessing your television studio's liquidity and solvency:

  • Liquidity: assesses whether or not your business has sufficient cash and short-term assets to honour its liabilities due over the next 12 months. It is a short-term focus.
  • Solvency: assesses whether or not your business has the capacity to repay its debt over the medium-term.

Looking at the balance sheet can also provide insights into your television studio's investment and financing policies.

In particular, stakeholders can compare the value of equity to the value of the outstanding financial debt to assess how the business is funded and what level of financial risk has been taken by the owners (financial debt is riskier because it has to be repaid, while equity doesn't need to be repaid).

The cash flow forecast

As we've seen earlier in this guide, monitoring future cash flows is the key to success and the only way of ensuring that your television studio has enough cash to operate.

As you can expect showing future cash flows is the main role of the cash flow forecast in your television studio business plan.

example of projected cash flow forecast in a television studio business plan

It is best practice to organise the cash flow statement by nature in order to show the cash impact of the following areas:

  • Cash flow generated from operations: the operating cash flow shows how much cash is generated or consumed by the business's commercial activities
  • Cash flow from investing activities: the investing cash flow shows how much cash is being invested in capital expenditure (equipment, real estate, etc.) either to maintain the business's equipment or to expand its capabilities
  • Cash flow from financing activities: the financing cash flow shows how much cash is raised or distributed to financiers

Looking at the cash flow forecast helps you to make sure that your business has enough cash to keep running, and can help you anticipate potential cash shortfalls.

Your television studio business plan will normally include both yearly and monthly cash flow forecasts so that the readers can view the impact of seasonality on your business cash position and generation.

The initial financing plan

The initial financing plan - also called a sources and uses table - is an important tool when starting a television studio.

It shows where the money needed to set up the business will come from (sources) and how it will be allocated (uses).

initial financing plan in a television studio business plan

Having this table helps understand what costs are involved in setting up the television studio, how the risks are distributed between the shareholders and the lenders, and what will be the starting cash position (which needs to be sufficient to sustain operations until the business breaks even).

Now that the financial forecast of a television studio business plan is understood, let's focus on what goes into the written part of the plan.

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The written part of a television studio business plan

The written part of a television studio business plan plays a key role: it lays out the plan of action you intend to execute to seize the commercial opportunity you've identified on the market and provides the context needed for the reader to decide if they believe your plan to be achievable and your financial forecast to be realistic.

The written part of a television studio business plan is composed of 7 main sections:

  • The executive summary
  • The presentation of the company
  • The products and services
  • The market analysis
  • The strategy
  • The operations
  • The financial plan

Let's go through the content of each section in more detail!

1. The executive summary

The first section of your television studio's business plan is the executive summary which provides, as its name suggests, an enticing summary of your plan which should hook the reader and make them want to know more about your business.

When writing the executive summary, it is important to provide an overview of the business, the market, the key financials, and what you are asking from the reader.

Start with a brief introduction of the business, its name, concept, location, how long it has been in operation, and what makes it unique. Mention any services or products you plan to offer and who you sell to.

Then you should follow with an overview of the addressable market for your television studio, current trends, and potential growth opportunities.

You should then include a summary of your key financial figures such as projected revenues, profits, and cash flows.

Finally, you should detail any funding requirements in the ask section.

2. The presentation of the company

As you build your television studio business plan, the second section deserves attention as it delves into the structure and ownership, location, and management team of your company.

In the structure and ownership part, you'll provide valuable insights into the legal structure of the business, the identities of the owners, and their respective investments and ownership stakes. This level of transparency is vital, particularly if you're seeking financing, as it clarifies which legal entity will receive the funds and who holds the reins of the business.

Moving to the location part, you'll offer a comprehensive view of the company's premises and articulate why this specific location is strategic for the business, emphasizing factors like catchment area, accessibility, and nearby amenities.

When describing the location of your television studio, you may emphasize its potential for growth and access to a wide range of available resources. The region surrounding the studio could be described as an area with a diverse population and a variety of businesses and attractions. It might be home to a number of universities and cultural institutions, which could provide a reliable source of creative talent and resources. The region could be well-connected with access to major highways, airports, and other transportation networks, making it easy for potential partners and clients to reach the studio. Additionally, the region could be an attractive place to live with its vibrant culture, diverse entertainment options, and diverse range of restaurants and other amenities. All of these factors could make the studio's location an attractive investment opportunity for a third party financier.

Lastly, you should introduce your esteemed management team. Provide a thorough explanation of each member's role, background, and extensive experience.

It's equally important to highlight any past successes the management team has achieved and underscore the duration they've been working together. This information will instil trust in potential lenders or investors, showcasing the strength and expertise of your leadership team and their ability to deliver the business plan.

3. The products and services section

The products and services section of your business plan should include a detailed description of the offerings that your company provides to its customers. 

For example, your television studio might offer customers pre-production services such as scriptwriting, casting, and location scouting. Additionally, you could offer production services like camera and sound equipment rentals, and in-studio filming and editing. Lastly, you could offer post-production services such as sound mixing, color correction, and digital delivery of the final product. These services provide customers with a complete package, from the initial idea to the finished product.

When drafting this section, you should be precise about the categories of products or services you sell, the types of customers you are targeting and how customers can buy them.

4. The market analysis

When you present your market analysis in your television studio business plan, it's crucial to include detailed information about customers' demographics and segmentation, target market, competition, barriers to entry, and any relevant regulations.

The main objective of this section is to help the reader understand the size and attractiveness of the market while demonstrating your solid understanding of the industry.

Begin with the demographics and segmentation subsection, providing an overview of the addressable market for your television studio, the key trends in the marketplace, and introducing different customer segments along with their preferences in terms of purchasing habits and budgets.

Next, focus on your target market, zooming in on the specific customer segments your television studio aims to serve and explaining how your products and services fulfil their distinct needs.

For example, your target market might include young adults between the ages of 18 and 24. This age group is likely to be tech-savvy and more likely to adopt new streaming services. They are also more likely to be risk-takers and socially engaged, making them more likely to try out new TV shows and formats.

Then proceed to the competition subsection, where you introduce your main competitors and highlight what sets you apart from them.

Finally, conclude your market analysis with an overview of the key regulations applicable to your television studio.

5. The strategy section

When writing the strategy section of a business plan for your television studio, it is essential to include information about your competitive edge, pricing strategy, sales & marketing plan, milestones, and risks and mitigants.

The competitive edge subsection should explain what sets your company apart from its competitors. This part is especially key if you are writing the business plan of a startup, as you have to make a name for yourself in the marketplace against established players.

The pricing strategy subsection should demonstrate how you intend to remain profitable while still offering competitive prices to your customers.

The sales & marketing plan should outline how you intend to reach out and acquire new customers, as well as retain existing ones with loyalty programs or special offers. 

The milestones subsection should outline what your company has achieved to date, and its main objectives for the years to come - along with dates so that everyone involved has clear expectations of when progress can be expected.

The risks and mitigants subsection should list the main risks that jeopardize the execution of your plan and explain what measures you have taken to minimize these. This is essential in order for investors or lenders to feel secure in investing in your venture.

Your television studio may face the risk of financial hardship if viewership ratings drop. This could lead to the studio not being able to afford the equipment and staffing needed to produce shows. Additionally, the studio might face the risk of a cyberattack. Hackers could potentially gain access to the studio's data or broadcast feeds, leading to disruption of the studio's operations and potential damage to its reputation.

6. The operations section

In your business plan, it's also essential to provide a detailed overview of the operations of your television studio.

Start by covering your team, highlighting key roles and your recruitment plan to support the expected growth. Outline the qualifications and experience required for each role and your intended recruitment methods, whether through job boards, referrals, or headhunters.

Next, clearly state your television studio's operating hours, allowing the reader to assess staffing levels adequately. Additionally, mention any plans for varying opening times during peak seasons and how you'll handle customer queries outside normal operating hours.

Then, shift your focus to the key assets and intellectual property (IP) necessary for your business. If you rely on licenses, trademarks, physical structures like equipment or property, or lease agreements, make sure to include them in this section.

You could have a range of key assets and IP that a television studio might possess. This could include the physical infrastructure, such as cameras, equipment, sound systems, lighting rigs, and editing suites. Additionally, the intellectual property associated with a television studio could include copyright for any shows they produce, as well as the database of scripts, talent, and resources they may have access to.

Lastly, include a list of suppliers you plan to work with, detailing their services and main commercial terms, such as price, payment terms, and contract duration. Investors are interested in understanding why you've chosen specific suppliers, which may be due to higher-quality products or established relationships from previous ventures.

7. The presentation of the financial plan

The financial plan section is where we will present the financial forecast we talked about earlier in this guide.

Now that you have a clear idea of what goes in your television studio business plan, let's look at the solutions you can use to draft yours.

What tool should I use to write my television studio's business plan?

In this section, we will be reviewing the two main solutions for creating a television studio business plan:

  • Using specialized online business plan software,
  • Outsourcing the plan to the business plan writer.

Using an online business plan software for your television studio's business plan

The modern and most efficient way to write a television studio business plan is to use business plan software .

There are several advantages to using specialized software:

  • You can easily create your financial forecast by letting the software take care of the financial calculations for you without errors
  • You are guided through the writing process by detailed instructions and examples for each part of the plan
  • You can access a library of dozens of complete business plan samples and templates for inspiration
  • You get a professional business plan, formatted and ready to be sent to your bank or investors
  • You can easily track your actual financial performance against your financial forecast
  • You can create scenarios to stress test your forecast's main assumptions
  • You can easily update your forecast as time goes by to maintain visibility on future cash flows
  • You have a friendly support team on standby to assist you when you are stuck

If you're interested in using this type of solution, you can try The Business Plan Shop for free by signing up here .

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The Business Plan Shop does the maths for you. Simply enter your revenues, costs and investments. Click save and our online tool builds a three-way forecast for you instantly.

Screenshot from The Business Plan Shop's Financial Forecasting Software

Hiring a business plan writer to write your television studio's business plan

Outsourcing your television studio business plan to a business plan writer can also be a viable option.

These writers possess valuable experience in crafting business plans and creating accurate financial forecasts. Additionally, enlisting their services can save you precious time, enabling you to concentrate on the day-to-day operations of your business.

It's important to be mindful, though, that hiring business plan writers comes with a cost. You'll be paying not just for their time but also for the software they use, and their profit margin.

Based on experience, a complete business plan usually requires a budget of at least £1.5k ($2.0k) excluding tax, and more if revisions are needed after initial meetings with lenders or investors - changes often arise following these discussions.

When seeking investment, be cautious about spending too much on consulting fees. Investors prefer their funds to contribute directly to business growth. Thus, the amount you spend on business plan writing services and other consulting services should be negligible compared to the amount you raise.

Another aspect to consider is that while you'll receive the output of the business plan, you usually won't own the actual document. It will be saved in the consultant's business plan software, which will make updating the plan challenging without retaining the consultant on a retainer.

Given these factors, it's essential to carefully weigh the pros and cons of outsourcing your television studio business plan to a business plan writer and decide what best suits your business's unique needs.

Why not create your television studio's business plan using Word or Excel?

Using Microsoft Excel and Word (or their Google, Apple, or open-source equivalents) to write a television studio business plan is a terrible idea.

For starters, creating an accurate and error-free financial forecast on Excel (or any spreadsheet) is very technical and requires both a strong grasp of accounting principles and solid skills in financial modelling.

As a result, it is unlikely anyone will trust your numbers unless - like us at The Business Plan Shop - you hold a degree in finance and accounting and have significant financial modelling experience in your past.

The second reason is that it is inefficient. Building forecasts on spreadsheets was the only option in the 1990s and early 2000s, nowadays technology has advanced and software can do it much faster and much more accurately.

And with the rise of AI, software is also becoming smarter at helping us detect mistakes in our forecasts and helping us analyse the numbers to make better decisions.

Also, using software makes it easy to compare actuals vs. forecasts and maintain our forecasts up to date to maintain visibility on future cash flows - as we discussed earlier in this guide - whereas this is a pain to do with a spreadsheet.

That's for the forecast, but what about the written part of my television studio business plan?

This part is less error-prone, but here also software brings tremendous gains in productivity:

  • Word processors don't include instructions and examples for each part of your business plan
  • Word processors don't update your numbers automatically when they change in your forecast
  • Word processors don't handle the formatting for you

Overall, while Word or Excel may be viable options for creating a television studio business plan for some entrepreneurs, it is by far not the best or most efficient solution.

  • Using business plan software is a modern and cost-effective way of writing and maintaining business plans.
  • A business plan is not a one-shot exercise as maintaining it current is the only way to keep visibility on your future cash flows.
  • A business plan has 2 main parts: a financial forecast outlining the funding requirements of your television studio and the expected growth, profits and cash flows for the next 3 to 5 years; and a written part which gives the reader the information needed to decide if they believe the forecast is achievable.

We hope that this in-depth guide met your expectations and that you now have a clear understanding of how to write your television studio business plan. Do not hesitate to contact our friendly team if you have questions additional questions we haven't addressed here.

Also on The Business Plan Shop

  • How to write a business plan to secure a bank loan?
  • Key steps to write a business plan?
  • Top mistakes to avoid in your business plan

Do you know entrepreneurs interested in starting or growing a television studio? Share this article with them!

Guillaume Le Brouster

Founder & CEO at The Business Plan Shop Ltd

Guillaume Le Brouster is a seasoned entrepreneur and financier.

Guillaume has been an entrepreneur for more than a decade and has first-hand experience of starting, running, and growing a successful business.

Prior to being a business owner, Guillaume worked in investment banking and private equity, where he spent most of his time creating complex financial forecasts, writing business plans, and analysing financial statements to make financing and investment decisions.

Guillaume holds a Master's Degree in Finance from ESCP Business School and a Bachelor of Science in Business & Management from Paris Dauphine University.

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Entertainment Industry Business Plan Sample

JUL.12, 2016

media production business plan

Sample Business Plan for Entertainment Industry

Starting up a media and entertainment industry business doesn’t only mean to start the production house for producing a variety of different items to simply earn the capital, but it requires a concentrated plan that can lead to the fulfillment of your vision. You must know that you are not just starting an entertainment industry business plan but a center that would provide professional services and a showbiz business. Here your business skills and performance decides your success.

You can take help from consulting services or agencies as they will guide you how to start and promote your entertainment industry business plan in media and entertainment industry. Consult magazines and internet to learn about the recent trends in the production and business. Information related to laws and taxes is another significant aspect that you should know before starting the production business. A sound knowledge and effective planning would help you to start a new business and grow it efficiently.

In the entertainment industry, media production is not the production of a single product. Entertainment and media is a very vast field and the productions options available are variable. You should select one or more productions like promotional products, educational television, news, dramas, films documentaries, music, etc. that you would like to work on before starting any entertainment or media entertainment business plan. You would then write a separate media production business plan for each intended production. Generally, your media entertainment industry business plan should include the answers of following questions:

  • What is the purpose or the goal of the production and objective of your entertainment industry business?
  • Which is your intended audience or your production will be watched or listened to by whom?
  • Is the production related to electronic or print media?
  • Does the production include correspondence with other production or media production business plan ?
  • Is the content is new, or the production will reproduce already existing content?
  • Is the production being produced for the Internet, Cable, Satellite TV or TV?
  • Do you have the script for production? If yes, describe the script for the production briefly.
  • What is the total estimated time for opening and closing of production and its anticipated location?
  • How will be the selection of talent done for the production?
  • What are the specifications for the technical equipment and the requirements for the professional knowledge of technical crew for the new production?

Sample Entertainment and Media Entertainment Industry Business Plan

Entertainment and media production and entertainment industry business is not an easy task, but you should think the industry you would like to work like news industry, music industry, the entertainment industry or any other. Think about your budget and time and select according to that. You may start with low cost consuming business and earn more budget and then spend it on any other business. You must build contacts in the media industry and other media related business. A good relationship with other media houses would help you to grow positively. Also, set your ethical standards for your business.

Below are some sample entertainment industry business plans for Video and Film Production, TV production and Music Production. Review the following sample entertainment business plans and tailor your own entertainment industry business plan as per the sample plans described.

Sample Music Entertainment Industry Business Plan

business plan for a production company

The music recording and entertainment industry business is the cornerstone of the entertainment and media industry. Setting up a recording and production business is equally demanding as well as require money and time. Having ample knowledge about the business is important. Music Recording and production is the very tricky part of the entertainment industry because it requires heavy equipment. In the recent decade music production and recording witness a steady growth.

By setting up a music recording and production studio, you cannot only attract solo singers, bands but also large scale entertainment industry like drama industry, etc. It is important to write a good business plan for the entertainment industry before setting up the recording or production studio.

Which services will your Music Production and Recoding company provide?

Firstly, you need to finalize the services you are going to provide along with the vision of the music entertainment business.

  • Vision and Mission of your Studio: Clearly, think about the vision of your music studio as it would direct you to understand the scope of your studio. Your vision must be defined in a way that you want to excel in this business and become the best choice for the media houses. Your mission must be to equip your studio with the best equipment in the world for recording and production of music to provide excellent services to the clients. Good vision and mission will enhance your morale and attitude towards success.
  • What services you would provide? : Think and write clearly about the services you would like to provide in your studio e.g. song recording or production, production of either jingle, soundtracks and audio books, studio sessions, selling of musical equipment and music consultancy services. You should decide what would be the scope of your studio and then enlist the services. You may start with less but don’t compromise on the quality of your entertainment industry business.

How to write the business plan for the music entertainment business?

After the vision and services have been finalized the following should be analyzed:

  • Analysis of Market Trends : Analysis of current market trends is important for developing the entertainment industry business plan. It should include current trends in the music industry and potential target clients in the media. Analysis of current trends will help you to identify the important equipment for your studio. You may enhance your services to the music artists, authors, advertising agencies, etc.

You should keep in mind about the level and competence of you competitors to excel in the media production business plan . You should take care of your employees to avoid any resignation from the professionals.

  • Market Strategy : You should identify and make proper salary packages for your employees to attract them and perform their best. It is very important to understand the nature of work of each employee and set salary according to that. You can also look at the salary packages of your competitors to get an idea. Further, incentives and bonus can also improve your credibility in business. Also, consider your estimated sales projection.

It is also important to develop the pricing strategy of you music studio.  Some Music studio often charges by the hour and some of them charge a flat fee. You can develop different pricing packages for your clients.

  • Advertisement Strategy: Publicity of your music recording and production studio is very important to attract the clients from the media and entertainment business. Adopting can cost effective advertisement strategy would help you to promote your studio effectively. You can place an advertisement on billboards, electronic and print media, by using social media and sponsoring a TV or radio show.
  • Finance strategy for setting up a music recording and production studio: You should estimate the price of all the equipment’s needed for your studio. Look for the prices of different brands and select the ones that fulfill your requirements in the best way. List the items and prices. You should also look for the pricing of liability insurance, license, rents, gadgets, additional expenses like advertisements and promotions. Choose cost-effective ways to equip your studio without compromising on the quality of the products. You should conduct a market survey before finalizing the financial strategy. Headphones, mixing consoles, microphones, digital audio workstation, music workstation, preamps. Computers, CD duplicator, and printer, etc. are some important equipment for the studio. This business require excellent sound system for better results.

Well defined Business Structure of the Music Entertainment Company

You should understand the business structure of the studio to achieve your entertainment industry business plan. Also clearly define the responsibilities of the personnel engage in your business structure. Your entertainment industry business structure may include the following:

  • A chief executive officer who would be responsible for the recruitment, selection, training of the staff, developing strategies, planning, organizing and monitoring of the activities or projects.
  • A lawyer or legal secretary who would be responsible for legal documentation of your studio and more responsibilities like drawing up contacts.
  • A Studio Manager who would be responsible for tracking hours of the studio session and billing client, management of recording studio and handling of other main responsible.
  • Music Producer would be responsible for recording and producing of music tracks, ordering of tracks in the album.
  • The recording engineer would be responsible for sound effects in the recording, mixing and adding beats, etc. and selecting good songs to earn money.
  • Admin and HR officer would be responsible for administrative tasks, hiring and training of professionals, appointments of the client and last but least arrangements of travel and meetings.
  • Marketing and sales executive would be responsible for the promotion of music albums, creating new business opportunities, looking for new partners and last but not least responsible for the growth of the studio.
  • An accountant must be the part of your music strategy as he would be responsible for looking after you financial reports, budget, financial analysis and business conditions. He can guide you to make necessary changings in the financial policy.
  • Front desk officer handles the duties assigned by the manager, receive and greets the clients, receive important documents and handles phone calls and emails on behalf of the studio.

A good business structure in important for any business. Also, focus on the work environment. A good family and collaborative work environment would help you to avoid workplace conflicts and improve the quality of production and business. You can get this by proper application of rules and regulations.

Thus, setting up a music production and recording studio needs proper well-defined paperwork. This sample entertainment industry business plan will help you in writing an effective plan that will act as a roadmap for future. An effective media production business plan is a key to your success in your business in the media industry. You can develop your entertainment industry business plan yourself or hire consultancy services. The entertainment industry is incomplete without music houses and in recent decade advancement in sound technology has opened new directions for the artists. Following the above-given sample plan will help to achieve your better results in your entertainment industry business plan.

Sample TV, Film and Video Entertainment Business Plan

Film and video production is another pillar of the television entertainment industry and a good business opportunity for the new comers. These days different TV channels have launched their private drama channels as well as making their films thus increasing chances of business.

Sample Video and Film Entertainment Business Plan

business plan for a music production company

If you are thinking of starting your video entertainment business, it’s a brilliant idea to earn, but have you done all paperwork for this? Do you understand the financial and legal issues related to film production? You also need to know that selection of film and video to be produced by you will be closely linked with the growth of production house and business. Here is a sample of what you should include in your business plan for video production.

Your entertainment industry business plan should cover all the key elements that are necessary for setting up a film production house. Following key points should be included in the business plan for the Video Production:

  • Non-Disclosure agreement : Confidentiality of the information is the most important thing in the media and entertainment business and should be well maintained. Confidentiality of the script of the production, film recordings, profiles of the actors working in the production, gadgets that are or will be used in the production, etc. should be well maintained. Any leakage of the important and crucial information may hamper your film success before release. Non-disclosure agreement should be done with all related parties that information related to video will be kept confidential and secret.
  • Executive Summary: The executive summary should be well written in the entertainment industry business plan. It should include the brief overview of the project (Name, script, key roles) and most importantly the capital required for the video. Capital can be both in terms of money and other physical resources like camera, recording chips, etc. Shooting details should be mentioned. Tentative dates of the film/video shooting and locations where the film/video is likely to shoot should be mentioned. It will help you to have information of your business at a glance.
  • Market analysis: The most important thing is to assess the market and industry before starting your business. You should understand the current trends of the market before signing for video production. Produce what actually is demanded by the market and the audience. Select the story or script that can help you to grow as a business and production house. Also evaluate the pay ranges and select pay scale according to that to attract good faces of the industry.
  • Production Plan: The media production business plan is the trickiest thing to be done in business before investment. You should estimate the production each and everything properly and try to follow this. Estimated time frame, dates of production, the release of the film/video, legal requirements, screening issues, bookings of the shooting sites and location, contracts with the concerned people should be properly written in the production time. It would save your time and money.
  • Hiring of professionals for production: Setting up a production house require hiring of certain professionals like executive members, HR officers, accountants, managers, recording engineers, sound engineers, video engineers, cameraman, photographers, composers, scriptwriters and editors specifically related to video production. Professional dress designers and makeup artists are needed to be hired. The hiring of good and competent employee is the key to the growth of your production house. You must pay market competitive salary to attract good professionals. You must also have list of other professionals or resumes of other possible candidates to call if any current employee suddenly resign.
  • Publicity and Advertisement for promoting the production: You must think about the promotion of your video production house and the film/video in the entertainment industry. Think of the dates of the releases of trailer and promos to publicize the. You can also use other methods of promoting movies like billboarding of promos, given tickets, publicity through live programs and media campaigns. You should also estimate the required budget for this. Advertisement in colleges, schools, and universities is also the excellent opportunity. Cost-effective advertisement strategy would help to gain more in less. You can attract the audience through Unique and creative advertisement, discount options on tickets, by arranging concerts, etc.
  • Information related to the release of the information and distribution methods of the production: You must decide the issue related to the release of video/movie to the audience. You must schedule date of release and trailers or promos release of the film or video. You should decide the patterns of release like local release worldwide release and modified wide release etc. Methods of potential distribution of the films/ video like airline, VOD, DVD or theatrical should be decided. Specifically, write down the names that are actually good for your production team and best fitted for you. The release of video and promos on the special occasion like festivals, local holidays, etc. would increase the chance of success and more earning.
  • Production budget of the film: Evaluating the total cost required in the film production and business is important. It would include all tax credits, rebates, return on investments for business , loss prevention strategy, distribution of profit, salary and all legal issues related to film production and business. You may hire a specialist to help you in making film budget. Other expenses may include legal. Brochures, Stationary, Rent, furniture, etc. Create a comprehensive video budget detailing each and every expense.
  • Understanding the requirements of travel : Film production often requires local and outside country traveling. You must know legal and other requirements of the traveling. Passports, visas, duration to apply for a specific visa for the actors and other crew members. You must know the cost-effective reservations to the airlines, hotel, etc. to save your budget.
  • Selection of the Cast: Selection of the cast for the production of the video is another major task. Sometimes a good script but wrongly selected cast would end up in a loss. You must select the cast appropriate for the roles and those who are liked and demanded by the society. You must decide how you want to pay your actors. Some actors demand payment per scene and other want per episode. Sign a proper agreement with the actors and have it as a part of movie entertainment business plan.

Thus, business related to film and video production is a difficult task. A proper business plan for video production indicating each detail can help you to avoid any many challenges. A good story to well execution demand a well paper work.  You must remember that providing entertainment to the audience is your key responsibility, so your media production business plan is key to your success.  This video production company business plan would help you to customize your plans for the future and get more customers from the media and entertainment industry.

Sample for TV entertainment business plan

video production company business plan pdf

TV production is a brilliant idea for the business. Small investors can easily manage to start this business. You can reach many people in a short time via TV and can also convey your thoughts to local people and also to the people living across the border. TV can communicate your message through sight, sound and motion to have an immediate impact on the audience. You can package good programs and earn millions of dollars from the show sponsors. Successful TV production is a creative work, and most of our entertainment programs are broadcasted through TV. TV production is not only the source of entertainment but also a source of information in the electronic and digital world.

These days many TV stations and channels are working in the TV business and trying to compete. They are launching many different channels on various types of content like news, sports, dramas, etc. and looking for content and production. Firstly you need to decide which TV shows you would like to produce. The production option for the TV shows are as follows:

  • News related programs: You can produce exclusive content for the news TV channels. Be creative in what you are going to build and sell it and grow your business. You can start special documentary programs, interviews with the great leaders which will share positive aspects of their family. You can also give a chance to newcomers in the industry by introducing them through your production. You can share news and information of what happening across the broader and internationally. News related to fashion and sports can be produced.
  • Health Related Programs: It is the most important and often neglected part of our TV industry. You can start with the production of informative programs related to different diseases such as AIDS, tuberculosis and other life-threatening and lifestyle diseases. Production of programs that help people to prevent diseases and give knowledge related to health, exercise, and fitness can also be started. It can attract a large number of audience. You can look for the advertisement of individual hospitals or pharmaceutical industries to grow your business. You can also take an initiative by taking short interviews of the health professionals. Further, the production of videos of other health related practices like herbalists, yoga, traditional health practices, etc. can also be done. You can also create a show on new health-related discoveries to attract people.
  • Production of Tourism and enhancement of culture shows: Very few programs are on aired these days to promote your local culture. You may take the initiative by producing programs on historical places of your country, natural and beautiful sites of the country to attract the tourists. Further, you can promote the local culture of your country. Beautiful production may help to achieve success. The production of different culture related programs by showing different traditions, customs, and values can also prove beneficial. For this, you may to travel both locally and internationally and you may take assistance from the embassies, traveling agencies and guides.
  • Production of Economics and Real Estates programs: You can attract the businessman and real estate agents through production of valuable programs on current economic conditions, forecasting of the economic situation of the country, stock exchange, etc. Production of the programs related to selling and purchasing of houses and property listings, etc. by collaborating with real estate agents, economists, etc. can also be done. This will give new directions to your business.
  • Film and Drama Production: You can earn money and fame through video and drama production because it targets a large audience. A good story with good direction and production is the key to your success. Choose those film and dramas for production that their target audience wants to watch. You can also make the film, documentary and short telefilms on social issues and become a social change agent. Try to produce content out the common locations.
  • Production of Fashion shows: The entertainment industry is nothing without fashion and fashion shows. Designers are focusing on both Eastern and Western fashion and also a blend of both. Fashion shows earned a lot of fame these days. Many fashion designer have started their own brands and becoming the part of big fashion industry. Many fashion shows are under production these days. You can also introduce new fashion designers and fashion magazines.  Production of programs on personality developing or makeup tutorials can also attract audience.
  • Advertisements: These days many brands are looking for the production of advertisements. You can also produce novel and unique advertisements. Look for the brands and offer a good package to them and earn money.

UK Start-Up Visa Business Plan

Here is a step by step guide to writing business plan for tv entertainment:.

  • The idea with concept and knowledge: Each program on aired on the TV has an idea and concept that reflects your knowledge. So start with programs of your interest, professional background, and orientation. A good idea that is consistent with your passion will help to tailor the program brilliantly.
  • Think about what you want to produce: There are many types of content available for the TV production like dramas, short films, documentaries, advertisements, etc. you should have a clear idea about what your production will be based on before planning for the business.
  • What would be the number of people required for the production?
  • The production will go live or would be recorded?
  • What type of advertising would the production require?
  • Will you collaborate with the TV station or go for independent sponsors for the production?
  • Estimate the budget: It is important to estimate your budget before finalizing anything. Remember that you would probably have to pay to the crew members along with the show directors and the production studio. Your contacts may help you to select a good production house in a cost effective way. A good estimated budget is key to your business growth.
  • Production stage: Production stage is the main phase of recording your play/drama/video etc. You need to be very careful at this stage especially if the program is going live. Careful preparations are also necessary and might require traveling locally or internationally. You can take help from other consulting or advertising agency. Try to be perfect at this stage. It would take more than one shooting or recording of a single scene to gain a perfect production in Put your time and effort for good results.
  • Editing Stage: It is the most important and crucial stage of production. It is probably the what you want your audience to see and listen out of many other programs. If your recording is of more than an hour, you probably have to cut it short to thirty minutes. In this stage you have to lay the music to mention the names of crew members and other important things.

The above Sample   business plan for TV production would help you to learn the following:

  • How to earn money by becoming successful TV producer?
  • How to get a partnership with the TV stations?
  • How to start a successful TV career in the media and entertainment industry?

So, you can start a good business through TV production. A good production would increase your chances of getting hired by big TV stations and grow business. Think of creative and new ideas to produce TV programs related to the new idea.

Sample Promotional Products Business Plan

audio production company business plan

Business in media and entertainment industry is all about production and promotion. Both print and electronic media try to compete with each other regarding production and promotion.

How to start a Promotional Products Business?

If you have money and want to start a new business, spending in the media and entertainment industry is worth spending. This industry would broaden the chances of your success and fame. Entertainment  and media industry operates through news, documentaries, films, advertisements and marketing items. You can make capital and enhance revenue of your business through starting investing in either production or selling of the advertisement items

Promotion of any business involves

  • Production of the product
  • Pricing of the production
  • Placement of the production
  • Promotion of the production

Promotion is what how you communicate about your business to others. Promotion of the production further includes advertisements, developing and building relations along with sale of the production. It is good to work on the promotion of the production to earn more. The best ways to promote business is through the marketing items. The trend of the promotional product is growing day by day.

Billions are invested on the production of promotional products these days in America on items like T-shirts, pens, hats, etc. These products are given away along with the other main products to increase the value and business. Spending a small amount on the production of promotional items for your media production business plan will actually help to earn more. In actual, manufacturing and production of promotional products is not a big game, but to market, these promotional products are the real one. This business requires good communication, sales and marketing skills. Attracting attention through effective communication, making people recognize your brand and sticking with your brand is what you can do with the effective promotion of products. You can promote a favorable image of your production and brand and grow business. After the successful promotion of any product, you can increase your target audience and expand your products.

Ways to start promotional product business

To start your business of promotional products you should where you are exactly located and take advantage of your locality. You can enter the promotional product business for media and entertainment industry in two different ways. Here are these two options.

  • Start production of inexpensive products for sale: To become the manufacturer, you need to establish a production station or shop. You can import items from other cheaper stores or establish your own manufacturing plant. You can also import items from other countries where the products are manufactured for much lesser prices. You must have a plan according to your budget to start your manufacturing factory. Do not forget to take care of your regional climate and laws. It is important to join promotional products associations to increase the chances of getting distributors. Hire sale force who will promote your products. They can be hired through online employment sites too.
  • Become the product distributor and Imprinter: You can also start earning through contacting those manufacturers looking for distributors to sell their production. Look for those products you are interested and create a list of potential customers. Understand your client needs first and then select the promotional products.

Entertainment Industry Business Plan Sample

Sample Business Plan for Promotional Products

The right entertainment industry business plan will be a guideline for you to follow through each step of your business. The right plan is essential for making the business success. Here is a sample entertainment industry business plan for promotional products:

  • Firstly write down the executive summary of your promotional company. Introduce your company. Decide and write products to be promoted. To increase the value of their main business entertainment, many companies hold various products for promotion. Your business can supply logo imprinted items and products to distributors or work as a distributor itself. You should write a brief description of the nature of work of your production Company and products and services in detail.
  • Understand the market trends. Many industries deal with the promotional products. These products can be of daily usage with imprinted logos or message or slogan.
  • Write how you would expand your business. You must know that you have to compete with the larger products industry and for this, you must have to keep on adding your unique promotional products. Similar products can reduce your chance of profit.
  • Decide duration of the promotion. You must decide when and how long the promotional product will be offered. You should estimate the target profits, client’s needs, and your location. You promotional production business will be dependent on the quality and on time delivery of your products. Bring originality to your business, not imitation.
  • Decide how you would market your products. Successful marketing strategy is the key to your success in promotional products business. Look for those distributors with the good record. Secondly, focus on the marketing where the item is necessary to attract the client. You can also hire dealers or outsource your distribution of the products. Distributors spend a good time for your business so a proper compensation would attract more dealers. Develop a strategic alliance with your distribution.
  • Define appropriate milestones. Media industry heavily depends on entertainment sector. Your business can earn more in the media but select real appropriate milestones to help you to achieve target quickly. Always keep track of your sales, starting and closing dates, etc., would help you to achieve growth on your success.
  • Your entertainment industry business plan must have a management summary. The proper management of your business is key to your success. Often one business is divided into three to four areas which assist each other in product sourcing, marketing, production, and finance.

Tips for starting a Promotional Product Business

Here are a few tips for starting a promotional product business:

  • Choose small size products that are easy to deliver at a low cost. You can also opt to send coupons.
  • Decide whether you will offer promotional services round the year or once or twice. Make your budget plan prior.
  • Choose and effective promotional strategy and reevaluate your promotional strategy.

Whether you are producing news, dramas, films, etc., you must keep in mind few general guidelines. Equipment takes the time to setup and similarly break down of equipment. You should estimate this time before going to any locations. Electronic devices need a power supply like lighting and cameras. You should keep this in your mind when going for outdoor shooting. You need to take prior permission from the government of local governing body for outdoor shooting and agreements needed to be done. You should select places without ambient noises. Site surveying is a good option as you can resolve any sight issues before production.

About OGScapital

Check out the credentials of our media production business plan consultants and read through our library of sample entertainment industry business plans. One of the main attributes that set OGSCapital apart from the crowd is that we are a team of professionals who are not only focused on making money but helping our clients succeed in establishing their businesses. When you contact us, we will carefully listen to your needs and expectations and come up with an ideal strategy on how to craft the media production business plan or improve your business operations. To meet diverse clients’ needs and maintain a high quality level, we do not use templates. Instead, we take our time and use our resources to create a customized entertainment industry business plan for each of our clients. We have excellent time management skills, so you can be sure that we will complete writing the business plan on time. You can count on OGSCapital to scale your business to greater heights by providing you with professional business consultancy and business plan writing services. Fill out the form below to get in touch with our able and trusted customer care support team.

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OGS capital professional writers specialized also in themes such as bowling alley business plan , business plan for bouncy castle , nightclub business plans , starting paintball business , business plan for hotel and resort , roller skating rink business plan and many other business plans.

OGSCapital’s team has assisted thousands of entrepreneurs with top-rate business plan development, consultancy and analysis. They’ve helped thousands of SME owners secure more than $1.5 billion in funding, and they can do the same for you.

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Film & Television Business Plans

Did you know each of these plans was created in LivePlan? Learn More

Independent Video Store Business Plan

Independent Choice Flicks video rental specializes in art, foreign, and alternative genre films.

Video Production Business Plan

Michael's Video Service is a start-up company providing video production services on a freelance basis to television stations, companies, high schools, and families.

Video Television Production Business Plan

Evergreen TV Productions produces digital video scrapbooks from photographs, travelogues for cities and special interest clients, and video resumes for college communications degree students.

Have you ever dreamed of breaking into the film industry? Now we’re not talking about becoming a famous movie star, we’re talking about those behind the scenes, production companies. If you have a knack for filming, graphics, and editing you may be interested in opening your own film and television production company. Check out our assortment of sample plans to turn your talent into a successful business.

If you’re looking to develop a more modern business plan, we recommend you try LivePlan . It contains the same templates and information you see here, but with additional guidance to help you develop the perfect plan.

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tv show business plan

Sample TV Station Business Plan

Here is a sample business plan for a TV station.

The media industry is huge, with loads of opportunities for investors seeking to launch their operations. For persons interested in starting a TV channel, a lot of groundwork is necessary.

Such would include writing a plan of action for your TV station. This is what we’re going to be discussing.

TV STATION BUSINESS PLAN PDF SAMPLE

If you’ve wondered how to put together a comprehensive and implementable media production plan , we welcome you to read on. Here, you’ll find information on what it takes and how to go about it.

This template is a guide and targets persons with limited knowledge of TV business plan writing.

Organizing your TV Station Business Plan

To do a good job at writing your plan, you’ll need to have different aspects of your plan systematically written.

Here, we’re talking about including basic sections without which your TV station business plan won’t be adequately and comprehensively covered.

These sections include the executive summary, company description, products & services, as well as market analysis sections.

Others include the strategy & implementation section, organization & management team, and the financial plan & projections.

This outline also applies to a radio station business plan .

i. Executive Summary

Consider the executive summary section as being the summary of your plan. Why do you need a summary? To give your audience a concise overview of your TV station business plan.

With a well-written executive summary, your readers get to know what the plan is about and what it stands for.

Usually, the executive summary gives an idea about the viability of your business idea. You should also be able to hold the reader’s attention to make them interested.

Key additions to the executive summary include the business name & location, as well as the services and/or products offered.

Other subsections to be discussed include the mission & vision statements and the specific purpose of your TV station business plan.

Business Name & Location

Every serious business idea should have a name. This is where you introduce or unveil your TV station business idea by giving its identity. What is it going to be called? Also, providing its location also matters.

As a broadcast business, it should be strategically situated for better reception of its signals.

Services and/or Products

What niche area will your TV station business be focused on?

How does such serve the needs of your clients? Are there any products you wish to offer? These are key points that must be discussed within your executive summary.

However, you won’t have to elaborate on these points as your executive summary needs to be limited to a few pages. All such information will be discussed in greater detail within the products and services section.

Mission & Vision Statements

Anyone going through your executive summary section can know what the business stands for and where it’s headed. This is only possible when your mission & vision statements are well written.

Your mission statement should clearly define the purpose for which your business exists.

It should capture your goals as a business. In the case of your vision statement, such should state your dream for the TV station. It’s written in a general sense and highlights the company’s goals.

Specific Purpose of the Plan

Without a clear purpose, your business is bound to fail due to a lack of clarity.

State the specific purpose for which your plan is written. Do you wish to attract funding? Is it written for the sole purpose of strategizing? Whatever it is, have the purpose written down.

ii. Company Description

The company description section is where you provide a comprehensive breakdown of what your TV station does, or plans to achieve, its goals as well as its legal structure.

What demands do you intend to fill? This has a lot to do with your preferred niche area.

Also, provide an overview of services and products to be offered in addition to critical partnerships to be forged.

What more? The company description section should include a summary of company growth with financial or market highlights. What are your goals as a business, and how do you intend to make profits?

iii. Services and/or Products

The products and services section takes a closer look at what your TV station sells and how such benefits your clients. What’s the market role of your service(s), and how does it measure up in terms of its competitive advantage over those offered by your competition?

iv. Market Analysis

The market analysis section is crucial to the successful launch of your TV station. Here, you’re expected to show an appreciable understanding of the broadcast industry.

For that to happen, thorough market research needs to be conducted.

Such research covers target customer segments, including industry outlook. Provide any supporting statistics for such. Also include data on historical, current, and projected marketing trends.

A key inclusion you shouldn’t leave out has to do with an assessment of your competition.

Having identified your competitors, you’ll need to highlight their areas of strength and weaknesses.

v. Strategy & Implementation

Your marketing strategy and implementation plan should explain how you intend to promote your TV station business. Also, it should include information on how you plan to enter the market.

Provide details about costs, pricing, and promotions for your services.

vi. Organization & Management Team

The successful launch of your TV station business won’t be possible without an organized and efficient management team.

Under this section, you’re to identify and describe your management team with roles played and departments headed.

Begin with an organizational chart describing key employees and departments headed by them. Business owners aren’t left out as their profiles need to be added.

This includes names, level of involvement, percentage ownership, and the likes.

Provide detailed information on your management team with names, positions, departments headed, and past experiences.

vii. Financial Plan & Projections

The financial plan and projections section covers the financial aspects of the business. It will be beneficial to use the services of a financial expert such as a professional accountant when writing this section.

Here, three key areas are considered;

They include historical financial data (mostly applies to established businesses) and also realistic prospective financial information.

Another vital inclusion is a brief analysis of your financial data.

SEE: How Do TV Shows Make Money?

With these details provided, your TV station business plan is set for implementation. It’s important never to rush the process but take the time needed to put down everything necessary for a successful takeoff carefully.

Related posts:

  • Sample Gas Station Business Plan
  • Sample Radio Station Business Plan
  • How Much Does It Cost To Open A Gas Station?

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Start A Tv Show Program - Business Ideas

Please note that the data provided in this article are estimates and may vary depending on various factors, and should not be considered as perfect or definitive.

The television show program business idea involves creating and producing original television shows for networks or streaming platforms. This business requires a lot of creativity, and a strong understanding of the entertainment industry and what types of shows will appeal to audiences.

To start this business, you must have a team of creative professionals, including writers, directors, producers, and actors. You will also need a budget for production costs, including equipment, locations, and salaries. Marketing and promotion will also be essential to ensure that your show gets noticed by the right people.

For success in the business, staying up-to-date on industry trends and what types of shows are popular will be essential. It will also be crucial to have strong relationships with networks or streaming platforms and to be able to pitch your show effectively. Continuously working on new ideas and developing a strong brand will also be crucial to success in this business.

Starting a tv show program requires a great deal of effort, dedication, and most importantly passion .

If you're interested in how to sell tv show program, or selling tv show program online, you can use this page as a guide for everything you'll need to know.

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TV Pilot Business Plan Template

Hi! I'm looking for a TV pilot business plan template. I need a Business Plan Template to raise funds from investors for a TV show pilot and pitch it to a network. Can you help me ? Thank you! - Tim

TV Pilot Business Plan Template? Filmproposals Answer

Hi Tim: This is a great question! While we don't specialize in TV, we have had a few customers who have successfully adapted our Film Financial Projections for TV Execs. However, these were TV industry folks with some experience and not someone totally new to the game.

For example, read what " TV Producer now Consultant " had to say about using our Business Plan Tools. I will email him and see if he is available to help you.

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Finished my deck on Friday. Got it into a few potential investor’s hands over the weekend, and by Monday had 3 out of the 10 available memberships spoken for at $160K each. The revenue projections and film comparable services by NASH, along with the business plan and pitch deck templates were instrumental in presenting the project in such a way that financially minded potential investors could understand the movie business, the market and how my project could possibly give them a substantial ROI. Melissa was amazing throughout the entire process. Always there to answer any questions. Couldn’t have done it without you guys. Can’t thank you enough. Best money I’ve ever spent. - Michael F, Executive Producer, Inside Sportfishing ( Gold + Financials Bundle )

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FilmProposals Business Plan Templates

tv show business plan

It should be noted that there is no special software required to use these templates. All business plans come in Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel format. Each business plan features:

  • Excecutive Summary
  • Company and Financing Summary
  • Products and Services Overview
  • Strategic Analysis with current research!
  • Marketing Plan
  • Personnel Plan
  • 3 Year Advanced Financial Plan
  • Expanded Financial Plan with Monthly Financials
  • Loan Amortization and ROI Tools
  • FREE PowerPoint Presentation for Banks, Investors, or Grant Companies!

1.0 Executive Summary

The purpose of this business plan is to raise $1,800,000 for the development of a TV program production company while showcasing the expected financials and operations over the next three years. TV Program, Inc. (“the Company”) is a New York based corporation that will provide develop and distribute television programs produced by the business to customers in its targeted market. The Company was founded by John Doe.

1.1 Products and Services

As stated above, the Company will be actively engaged in the development and distribution of TV programs produced by the business. Once the Company “green lights” a production, the business will aggressively produce, distribute, and market the TV Program(s) to networks or cable companies that will showcase the TV Program to the general public. The Company will earn substantial income from the distribution and licensure fees from the TV program productions coupled with ongoing royalties from DVD, Blu-Ray, and merchandising sales. The third section of the business plan will further describe the services offered by the TV Program.

1.2 The Financing

Mr. Doe is seeking to raise $1.8 million from an investor or group of investor(s). On a preliminary basis, Mr. Doe intends to sell a 50% interest in the business in exchange for the capital sought in this business plan. The investor will also receive a seat on the board of directors as well as a regular stream of dividends from the royalties earned on the TV programs produced and distributed by the Company. The financing will be used for the following: • Development of the Company’s initial TV Program production. • Financing for the first six months of operation. • Capital to purchase production equipment.

1.3 Mission Statement

To produce quality TV Programs and other media that provide the Company’s audience with enjoyable entertainment.

1.4 Mangement Team

The Company was founded by John Doe. Mr. Doe has more than 10 years of experience in the entertainment industry. Through his expertise, he will be able to bring the operations of the business to profitability within its first year of operations.

1.5 Sales Forecasts

Mr. Doe expects a strong rate of growth at the start of operations. Below are the expected financials over the next three years.

1.6 Expansion Plan

The Founder expects that the business will aggressively expand during the first three years of operation. Mr. Doe intends to implement marketing campaigns that will effectively target quality screenwriters that can provide the Company with extensive materials that the Company can produce and distribute as TV Programs to television networks and cable TV companies.

2.0 Company and Financing Summary

2.1 Registered Name and Corporate Structure

TV Program, Inc. The Company is registered as a corporation in the State of New York.

2.2 Required Funds

At this time, the TV Program requires $1.8 million of investor funds. Below is a breakdown of how these funds will be used:

2.3 Investor Equity

At this time, Mr. Doe is seeking to sell a 50% equity interest in the business in exchange for the requisite capital sought in this business plan. The investor will receive a seat on the board of directors and a share of the ongoing royalties generated by the Company’s productions

2.4 Management Equity

Once the requisite capital is raised, Mr. Doe will retain a 50% ownership interest in the business.

2.5 Exit Strategy

If the business is very successful, Mr. Doe may seek to sell the business to a third party for a significant earnings multiple. Most likely, the Company will hire a qualified business broker to sell the business on behalf of TV Program, Inc. Based on historical numbers, the business could fetch a sales premium of up to 10 times earnings if the Company earns substantial royalty income.

3.0 Products and Services

Below is a description of the TV Program production and distribution services offered by the TV Program.

3.1 TV Program Revenues

The bulk of the Company’s revenues will come from the sale of advertisements to businesses that are seeking to reach the demographics that the Company targets. These advertisements will be primarily placed by national advertising agencies that source demographic profiles on behalf of national level companies and sponsors. The business will also generate revenues from the sale of network and segment sponsorships that will predominately display the advertiser’s logo on the screen while the programming or segment is running. Approximately 95% of the business’ revenues will come from televised advertisements.

3.2 Licensing of Intellectual Property

As the Company develops its TV Program portfolios, Management fully intends to license and develop strategic relationships with publishers that want to participate in license the Company’s database of developed TV services and programs.

4.0 Strategic and Market Analysis

4.1 Economic Outlook

The business of providing televised content with the ability to generate revenue from advertising sales is a complicated business that has many operating facets. Typically, entertainment media content is immune from general changes in the economy, as the content is provided for free, and if people continue to watch the program, the business will consistently be able to sell advertising space. As such, much of the following market analysis is geared towards the entry plan of the business and the expansion of its customer base.

4.2 Industry Analysis

Within the United States there are more than 7,000 television program production companies that operate among several thousand markets within the United States. Each year these companies aggregately generate $57 billion dollars a year of revenue while providing jobs for more than 280,000 people. Aggregate payrolls in each of the last five years have reached $9 billion dollars. Television is a mature industry, and the future expected growth rate will equal that of the general economy. One of the current issues facing the industry is the decline of people watching television in the United States. The advent of the internet and several other forms of media has caused a dramatic shift in how media companies do business. One of the most common trends among television stations is to develop content that can be concurrently streamed on the Internet.

4.3 Customer Profile

As each TV Series production will target a different demographic, TV Program, Inc. will conduct an extensive demographic and marketing profile before each TV series or production is developed and distributed.

4.4 Competitive Analysis

This is one of the sections of the business plan that you must write completely on your own. The key to writing a strong competitive analysis is that you do your research on the local competition. Find out who your competitors are by searching online directories and searching in your local Yellow Pages. If there are a number of competitors in the same industry (meaning that it is not feasible to describe each one) then showcase the number of businesses that compete with you, and why your business will provide customers with service/products that are of better quality or less expensive than your competition.

5.0 Marketing Plan

TV Program, Inc. intends to maintain an extensive marketing campaign that will ensure maximum visibility for the business’s developed TV series among its targeted market. Below is an overview of the marketing strategies and objectives of the TV Program.

5.1 Marketing Objectives

• Establish a strong presence in targeted domestic markets.

• Establish connections with entertainment advertising agencies and marketing firms.

• Build a large network of financial backers.

5.2 Marketing Strategies

Management intends on running a number of advertisements within the United States that feature images of the show, its stars, and descriptions of the nature of the TV program. Once TV Programs or series developed by the firm is picked up by cable stations and television networks, Management expects that these firms will use their internal promotional departments to create additional visibility for the program. In this section, you should expand on how you intend to implement your marketing. List publications, local newspapers, radio, and other outlets that you will use to promote your business. Discuss how much money you intend to spending on marketing.

5.3 Pricing

In this section, describe the pricing of your services and products. You should provide as much information as possible about your pricing as possible in this section. However, if you have hundreds of items, condense your product list categorically. This section of the business plan should not span more than 1 page.

6.0 Organizational Plan and Personnel Summary

6.1 Corporate Organization

6.2 Organizational Budget

6.3 Management Biographies

In this section of the business plan, you should write a two to four paragraph biography about your work experience, your education, and your skill set. For each owner or key employee, you should provide a brief biography in this section.

7.0 Financial Plan

7.1 Underlying Assumptions

• TV Program, Inc. will have an annual revenue growth rate of 16% per year.

• The Founder will acquire $1.8 million of equity funds to develop the business.

7.2 Sensitivity Analysis

The Company’s revenues are sensitive to the overall condition of the economic climate. Advertising revenues have a tendency to decline in an economic recession, as content providers compete for small amounts of advertising dollars. However, as long as viewers continue to tune in to the Company’s programming (both via television and Internet), the business will be able to effectively place advertisers within its promotion spots.

7.3 Source of Funds

7.4 General Assumptions

7.5 Profit and Loss Statements 

7.6 Cash Flow Analysis

7.7 Balance Sheet

7.8 General Assumptions

7.9 Business Ratios

Expanded Profit and Loss Statements

Expanded Cash Flow Analysis

Reality Show Start – Sample Business Plan Template

Do you want to start a reality TV business from scratch? Or do you need a sample reality TV business plan template? then I advise you to keep reading.

Until now, reality TV was considered a trend. But now they are the main product of television; they have become the norm and everyone is jumping up and down to get their point across to viewers.

Why reality TV has become so popular ? Indeed, hosting a reality show is a smart and proven way to promote yourself, your brand, your product or service, or a particular reason.

Launching a reality TV show, while not easy, is not beyond the reach of those who want it in the first phase. It’s about developing your concept, going through the production process, and then airing your show. The key word here is uniqueness. If you want to start a reality show, this article is for you. Read on to find out how to make your dream come true.

How to Start a Live TV Show – Sample Business Plan Template

  • What makes your idea unique?
  • What do you think of your show that will fascinate your audience?
  • What sub-genre of reality shows does your show idea fit into? Is it going to be a competition and qualifying series, or a relationship series, or a lifestyle series, or something?
  • What do you want to achieve with the show?
  • How long will the show last ?

These are the questions you should answer when coming up with an interesting idea for your reality show.

2. Write your scripts: … the next step is to create a full synopsis, guide to future episodes, and story guide script for a host or voice pilot script. In the wings. Make sure you break down your script and decide how to go through the filming process.

Protect the copyright of your idea by registering with the appropriate copyright agency in your state or country. When writing a summary, the key is to describe items and actions effectively, and to create enough detail to be original.

4. Shoot your reality TV show: … Depending on the shooting schedule you would have created earlier, film your reality show as planned. Don’t forget to hire a professional editor to review your images and edit them together in exciting and fun entertainment. If you want everything done according to your preferences, sit down with an editor who reviews and edits your images.

Your main objectives are to lead manufacturing companies, which are always looking for new interesting projects for investment. If you can strike a deal with one of these companies, your work stops at that point, as the company will be responsible for the broadcast of the show on the network and you will be generously rewarded according to the agreement you have made with the company.

Please note, however, that most chains and manufacturing companies will not accept your submission for verification unless it is received by an agent. Therefore, if you are going for the traditional route of broadcasting your show on TV, you should consider providing an agent who is connected to the broadcaster or broadcaster.

You can also post your video online on sites like YouTube. Then advertise the show to build a huge following. It’s a cheaper and less exhausting option if you want to forget about the traditional way of delivering your show on TV.

6. Continue to film additional scenes. Once you’ve made a good deal with the TC network or production company, or managed to garner a large audience online with your first episode, keep filming additional episodes and promoting shows until that your audience grows enough to be noticed by major networks, advertisers and studios. … You can end your show as soon as you reach the goals you wanted to achieve.

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Anna Cornet - Author

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Talk Show Business Plan

Talk show business plan presentation, free google slides theme and powerpoint template.

Every company needs the right management in order to operate properly. When we think of "company" we imagine big companies with their men in suits and big offices. However, a business is any company that carries out a productive activity in exchange for capital. In short, your talk show is also a business! So you can use this illustrative template to help you manage it, as we have included sections for different analyses, marketing plan or financial plan. And you will even find templates to organize your data!

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These are the biggest challenges in the TV and film market, according to top agents

UTA partners Rich Klubeck (left) and Dan Erlij.

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United Talent Agency partners Rich Klubeck and Dan Erlij are used to the rough-and-tumble nature of Hollywood. They have to be in order to push for more original voices and stories on-screen.

Erlij, co-head of UTA’s television literary department, represents such risk-taking talent as “ Succession ” creator and showrunner Jesse Armstrong. Klubeck is a partner in the Beverly Hills agency’s motion picture group, with clients including “The White Lotus” creator Mike White .

Clients at UTA, Hollywood’s third-largest talent agency , have received nearly 60 Primetime and Creative Arts Emmys in roughly 30 categories and nearly 30 Academy Award nominations this year. One of its clients, comedian Ali Wong, was the first woman of Asian descent to win an Emmy lead acting award for her role in “Beef.”

But there are challenges ahead. Studios including Paramount Global are laying off hundreds of workers, killing nearly finished projects and becoming more cautious . All the more reason why agents need to have their clients’ backs.

“I wouldn’t paint a rosy picture of the exact market we’re in right now, but things are still selling,” Erlij said. “You can still cut through the noise.”

The two agents spoke to The Times earlier this month. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

The double-arch entryway to Paramount Pictures with palm trees visible in the background

Company Town

Paramount to lay off hundreds of staffers in cost-cutting effort

About 800 jobs will be cut. Paramount’s controlling shareholder, Shari Redstone, has been evaluating potential deals to sell or merge the media giant.

Feb. 13, 2024

What has the market been like after last year’s dual Hollywood strikes? What are studios interested in buying?

Erlij: On the TV side, there’s a somewhat conservative approach in the marketplace right now. People are looking for what they’re seeing across the board as commercially appealing, somewhat escapist, somewhat fun stuff. There’s been some shows that have succeeded in the last six months that have led to some of this perspective. Things like [the Apple TV+ thriller] “ Hijack ,” the “ Reacher ” series that has succeeded for Amazon.

There’s a just a real fight for eyeballs right now in a way that’s been different. The buyers are less willing to take risks than prior to the strike. I think it’s going to be a momentary thing. If everybody’s looking for the same thing, at a certain point, you’re gonna have a saturation of those kinds of shows and the audience is going to be looking for something different.

We are committed to following our clients as artists in supporting those visions. Of course, we’re going to tell them what the market is telling us, but we don’t want them just to be followers. We want them to be able to do what they really want to do.

Klubeck: There’s similarities on the motion picture side. I wouldn’t say it’s quite as extreme but there’s definitely the feeling that buyers are looking for material they feel will be global, or that will have an instant broad appeal. And that’s a starting point.

There’s still an enormous appetite for original artists with original voices, artists who’ve done work with a strong point of view, who really set a unique target and nail it.

Issa Rael holds her long braided hair in the middle of a street while wearing a bright green patterned outfit

Issa Rae eyeing indie move as Black stories get sidelined: ‘I can’t force you to make my stuff’

Issa Rae is happy to get back to work after Hollywood’s labor strikes but is pessimistic after ‘seeing very clearly’ that Black stories ‘are less of a priority.’

Jan. 30, 2024

There have been concerns raised by actors that studios are shifting away from taking risks on original stories . For example, Issa Rae has said Black shows are getting canceled and are becoming less of a priority. How does this line up with what you’re seeing?

Erlij: We went through a period in this country, post-George Floyd , where the focus was so strongly on that in a very important way. Unfortunately, this town also has a short attention span. Things happen, they get focused on a strike, get focused on other issues, and so I can definitely see that there is less of a focus than just a few years back.

I believe that there is still real intent and desire to have representation, and all the executives I’m talking to are still talking in terms of that. I think it’s to a lesser degree, and this idea of being concerned with profitability and safety affects those decisions. But I don’t believe we’re ever stepping backwards in a way where we’re going to be where we were pre-George Floyd and before the way people are looking at the idea.

The globalization of television, the willingness of audiences to watch TV shows in their original languages with subtitles — that’s not going to go away.

Klubeck: There’s a lot of there’s a lot of focus on just finding what can work like what can really galvanize an audience. I think that the diversity of voices and representation of voices is part of that. That’s how broader audiences are being reached.

What has been the business impact of UTA clients’ recent awards season success ?

Erlij: A lot of the wins, whether it’s “The White Lotus” or “Beef” or “Succession,” these shows are really defined by people who have an unbelievable point of view that is their own, and they’re creating a world that people haven’t seen before. What has resonated in a marketplace that has so many shows is to have that strength of authorial vision, because these shows are all commercially successful. For an agency that’s defined itself by representing strong artists, it reinforces that we’re on the right path.

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What does ‘Anyone But You’s’ box office success mean for rom-coms? We asked the director

The Sydney Sweeney-Glen Powell rom-com’s director Will Gluck talks about the film’s surprising viral success and that Natasha Bedingfield song.

Feb. 6, 2024

What are the factors filmmakers consider when choosing whether to go with a streamer like Netflix or a traditional theatrical distributor?

Klubeck: There was a time when it was a binary choice: Streaming was a choice in lieu of theatrical and seeking different economics. Today, the marketplace for streaming versus theatrical is much more complex. It’s much more varied.

Apple has partnered with studios and is building its own theatrical and Amazon is doing the same.There are still real differences between traditional studios and streamers, but they’re no longer mutually exclusive. It really becomes much more about the specific needs of the filmmaker and the project.

Erlij: A movie like “ Anyone but You ” that was very intentionally a theatrical release — that’s a movie where we represent the director [and co-writer] Will Gluck. It’s become a sleeper hit. It’s gotten word of mouth in a way that if it had dropped on a streamer it probably would not have gotten that same impact.

Klubeck: It’s different to have to be dependent on theatrical success as the key driver of the life of the movie. It has downstream success for all the ancillary markets and there’s a real upside to a movie like that. That is unique to a theatrical release.

Bela Bajaria, the global head of TV at Netflix.

Netflix’s foreign-language shows are booming. Meet the executive behind the streamer’s global push

Netflix’s Global Head of TV, Bela Bajaria, discusses the company’s programming strategy and why foreign-language shows are taking off on the platform.

Sept. 20, 2021

What would it have been like if it was on a streaming service?

Klubeck: I think you would have still gotten a substantial audience for it. Of course, it still would have resonated in the culture, but you probably wouldn’t have had the kind of group experience you have in a theatrical release where it’s both the quality of the film and the enjoyment of the film itself in terms of the collective experience.

Erlij: Just from an economic perspective, the sale to streaming would have guaranteed a specific premium, but it would have been capped. Right now, because this has become a hit and because it was made for a certain price, the upside to the participants is going to be much higher.

What types of movies would make sense to release first on a streamer rather than in theaters ?

Klubeck: There are categories where you can see the advantages, like documentaries. We recently sold [the Will Ferrell Sundance Film Festival hit] “ Will and Harper ” to Netflix. While that film could clearly have done business theatrically — there’s no question — the reach of a streamer with a documentary is extraordinary. Same can be said about foreign-language films where you’re seeing streamers reaching audiences with non-English language movies.

Erlij: I think there’s a sort of big-budget ... about $125 million, $150 million movie that has a certain kind of star in it, that has original IP like “The Gray Man.” That’s a huge bet for a studio to release theatrically. If it doesn’t work, it’s a huge hit financially and there’s a much greater risk to them because it’s an original idea. Going on a streamer assures talent their pay day and reels a result apparently that those streamers want in terms of getting a known talent in front of a globally appealing kind of movie. So I think that there’s a safe area around those larger budget original movies.

LOS ANGELES, CA - FEBRUARY 10: Voice actor Victoria Grace as "On-jo" looks to the control room during a demonstation of the dubbing process for the Netflix show, "All of Us Are Dead." (THIS WAS A DEMONSTRATION OF THE PROCESS. THE EPISODES HAVE ALREADY BEEN DUBBED). Photographed at Netflix on Thursday, Feb. 10, 2022 in Los Angeles, CA. (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

Why dubbing has become more crucial to Netflix’s business

As Netflix aims to grow abroad, dubbing accurately and authentically has become crucial to widening the appeal of its local language programs to global audiences.

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How has cost-cutting and consolidation at the studios affected your clients and how you market their projects?

Erlij: That’s part of the choppy waters that we’re facing. We’ve seen a lot of places that your shows that were ordered to series have been taken away. Rooms that were ordered that literally were shut down on the day they were supposed to start or a few days before. It’s just tough. The problem is, you have people who are coming up with great ideas, putting them together with great material, and what you have to do is just believe in the product and go out there.

It’s going to be a little bit harder for the moment. We do think that once this consolidation moves through the system, there’s going to be a moment when the rubber band snaps back and people are going to be aggressively buying. And so we just have to steer through this moment.

Behind the scenes of "Yu Yu Hakusho."

Why Netflix is turning ‘Yu Yu Hakusho,’ ‘One Piece’ and other manga series into live-action shows

As it looks to build its global audience, Netflix in the last five years has released more than 10 TV and film adaptations based on popular Japanese manga or anime.

Jan. 2, 2024

When do you think that moment will happen?

Erlij: That’s the million-dollar question. At the start of the year, I would have said the summer. I think it’s going to be a little bit later than that. When you’re talking about real recovery, it might not be until the following year.

More to Read

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These entertainment workers could barely make rent. A Hollywood housing complex offers relief

Feb. 21, 2024

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Talent agency A3 to shut down on Monday

Feb. 9, 2024

El Segundo, CA - November 19: Hollywood Executives left to right - Sam Register, President, Warner Bros. Animation, Jonathan Glickman, Founder, Glickman Media Group, Roy Lee, CEO, Vertigo Entertainment, Nicole Brown, President, TriStar Pictures, Fred Anthony Smith, VP of Non-Scripted, SMAC Entertainment, Chris Hart, co-head of talent, United Talent Agency pose for a portrait on Sunday, Nov. 19, 2023 in El Segundo, CA. (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

Strikes, streaming and AI: Hollywood executives debate the issues that defined a wild 2023

Inside the business of entertainment

The Wide Shot brings you news, analysis and insights on everything from streaming wars to production — and what it all means for the future.

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tv show business plan

Wendy Lee is an entertainment business reporter, covering streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV+. She also writes about podcasting services, digital media and talent agencies.

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The Booming Business of Cutting Babies’ Tongues

One family’s story of “tongue-tie release” surgery on their newborn..

This transcript was created using speech recognition software. While it has been reviewed by human transcribers, it may contain errors. Please review the episode audio before quoting from this transcript and email [email protected] with any questions.

From “The New York Times,” I’m Sabrina Tavernise, and this is “The Daily.”

A “Times” investigation has found that doctors are increasingly performing unnecessary medical procedures that generate huge profits while often harming patients.

Today, my colleague Katie Thomas — on the forces driving this emerging and troubling trend in American health care and the story of one family caught in the middle of it. It’s Monday, February 19.

So Katie, tell me about this investigation.

So I am a health care reporter who writes about the kind of intersection of health care and money. And I was working with two other colleagues, Sarah Kliff and Jessica Silver-Greenberg. And together, the three of us had long been interested in, are the medical procedures and the tests and other things that we get when we go to the doctor or into a hospital — are they always necessary?

But what we were really interested in exploring was not just are these procedures and are these tests, et cetera — are they necessary, but in some situations, could they actually be harmful to patients? And so that’s what we decided to try and take a look at. And so we had gotten started in our reporting when we got a tip. And it was from a mom in Boise, Idaho. And her name was Lauren Lavelle.

Nice to meet you.

Hi, how are you?

And my colleague Jessica Silver-Greenberg and I went to her house to meet with her.

And where does her story start?

I am a mom of two. I live in Boise. My daughter, June, is four, and I have a 17-month-old, Flora.

Her story starts when Lauren gets pregnant with her daughter, June.

So by the time we got pregnant with June, November of 2018, about eight months after we had the miscarriage, I think I was just more hesitant and nervous than anything.

Lauren and her husband had trouble conceiving, and so they were so happy when they learned that they were going to have June. And like most first-time parents, they were also a little bit nervous.

But being type-A and super prepared, I did all my homework. We hired a doula. I wanted an epidural. Having a natural childbirth absolutely was not for me.

And Lauren is very organized. She’s always on top of everything, and she makes all sorts of plans. And she gets a lot of different providers lined up ahead of time —

I didn’t know anything about breastfeeding, like zero things.

— including one that she has hired to help her with breastfeeding.

Where did you find out about her?

So I asked our doula for a list of recommendations, and she gave me a very short list. At the time, there were very few lactation consultants in the Valley. And Melanie was one of them.

She ended up deciding to work with Melanie Henstrom, who was a local lactation consultant in Boise.

She sold this package at the time. I don’t know if she still did, but it was like prenatal visit breastfeeding class. And then, she’ll come to the hospital and help you latch, and then she’ll come to the house a couple of times after. And I thought, well, this sounds perfect. Great. You know, I’m covered there.

So one week after her due date, she gives birth. And it was a difficult labor. It took 24 hours. Lauren was completely exhausted. But once June arrived, the family was very, very excited to have her.

And I remember June coming out and that surreal feeling have when you see your first baby for the first time, like oh, my God, there’s a baby in the room.

And June was a healthy baby, but she was having trouble breastfeeding.

She would not latch. Like, she wouldn’t even attempt. She would scream. It was the only time she ever cried — if you tried to make her to breastfeed.

And so as her pediatrician was making the rounds, they noticed that June was having trouble and said that June’s tongue is really tight.

We can clip it if you’d like.

And that they could clip it.

What does that mean exactly, Katie — clipping her tongue?

What it means is that there’s a small percentage of babies whose tongue is very tightly tethered to the bottom of their mouth. And for a very small percentage of babies, their tongue is almost tied so tightly down that they can’t nurse well.

So it makes breastfeeding very difficult if a baby has a tongue like this.

Exactly. If you bottle-feed your baby, the baby can basically adjust and make do. But if you want to breastfeed, some babies have trouble, basically, latching on to their mother when they don’t have that tongue motion. And so some version of clipping these tongue ties has been done for centuries. Midwives have been doing it. Pediatricians do it.

And traditionally, what it’s been is a very quick snip right underneath the tongue just to loosen up the tongue. And traditionally, that procedure is extremely straightforward. There’s little to no follow-up care. And basically, the baby naturally heals as it learns to breastfeed.

And so we said, OK. They explained that it was completely painless. They’d do it with scissors. She wouldn’t even feel it. And all of that was true. They clipped it. I don’t even think she woke up.

But in June’s case, it didn’t seem to help much, and she and Lauren were still having problems breastfeeding afterwards. So while she’s still in the hospital, she calls up the lactation consultant that she had hired — Melanie Henstrom — just to let her know what was going on. And from talking to her on the phone, Melanie said that the situation was actually much worse than Lauren had thought and that Lauren’s baby needed another tongue-tie procedure — a deeper cut under the tongue.

How did she make this diagnosis, Katie? Was it over the phone? How did she know this?

Yes, Lauren told us that it was from a phone conversation. And in addition to that, she also warned her that, basically, Lauren and her husband should really take this seriously and consider getting it done, because if she doesn’t get it fixed, it could lead to a whole host of problems beyond just problems breastfeeding.

She’ll have scoliosis, and she’ll suffer from migraines, and she’ll never eat, and she’ll have a speech impediment, and she won’t sleep — I mean, just, like, the long list of things over the phone.

And Lauren starts panicking.

I mean, first of all, I felt — I’ve never felt more terrible in my life than that first day or so after giving birth. Like, the comedown from the hormones, the drugs — all of it — the sleep deprivation. And then, here was this baby we’d wanted, we were told we probably would never have after one miscarriage. And she’s so perfect, like, the most beautiful baby I’d ever seen. And you think that she has some deformity that’s going to ruin her.

But Melanie says it’s OK. She has a solution. And she tells Lauren that there’s a dentist in town who can handle cases that are as severe as June’s.

A dentist? Why a dentist?

Well, there’s a procedure that’s done in a dentist’s office that’s a laser surgery. And dentists use this high-powered laser machine that can quickly cut the flesh that connects the lips and the cheeks to the gums. So according to Lauren, Melanie tells her that by chance, this dentist has an opening, because she said a family coming in from Oregon had just canceled their Saturday appointment.

So I thought, OK, wow, people are coming in from Oregon to see him. So we talked about it. We both felt unsure. But we said, well, let’s at least take the appointment, and then we can at least meet with the dentist, and also, someone can look at her mouth and assess.

And so Lauren agrees to go in and meet the dentist.

Like, I think some people, when they hear this story, think, like, why would you believe that? It just sounds so scammy. But to me, there is a lot of things that you hear in the hospital that sound insane. Like, it’s no different than someone saying, like, your baby’s orange because their bilirubin levels are too high, so we got to go put them under these lights. Like, that sounds insane. That sounds more insane than, your baby’s having a hard time eating because their tongue is too tight and it needs to be cut. Like, that seems rational, actually.

And all of this seemed really weird to Lauren at the time. But in the context of the hospital and having a baby, lots of things about health care are weird.

So one day after they got back home from the hospital, Lauren and her husband pack up the car and go to the office early in the morning.

You know, I was wearing my hospital diaper and an ice pack, took the elevator up to his office, and —

And what happens?

So Melanie greets them at the door. They sign some paperwork, and pretty soon, the dentist, Dr. Samuel Zink, arrives.

And then, he, like, very briefly — very briefly — looks in her mouth and is like, yeah, she’s got whatever — however he classified it — grade 4 or whatever he says — class 4 — and she has a lip tie, which — that had never been mentioned to us before, so it’s very much on the spot, this new piece of information.

You know, pretty quickly, the dentist diagnosed June as having a couple of ties. He confirmed that she had a tongue tie, and he said it was severe. He also said that she had tightness under her top lip, called a lip tie. And so the baby actually needed to get two cuts. And again, Lauren said that the dentist and the consultant told her how important it was for her to do this for her baby.

One of us says, like, what happens if we don’t do the procedure? , Like what are our alternatives? And it was basically like, there’s no alternative. Like, you have to do this. Otherwise, again, long —

So Lauren and her husband decided to do it. But before the procedure starts, Melanie actually stopped Lauren from coming into the room.

Melanie turned around and put a hand on my shoulder and said, oh, no. And I said, oh, am I not going with you? She goes, well, we can’t tell you no, but if you hear her cry, it’ll impact your milk supply, like, adversely.

What do I know? So I said, oh, OK. And she pulled out the white-noise machine and said, what do you want to listen to? And I had no idea what she was talking about. I had no idea what it was. And so then she just turned it on — white noise — and left.

What happens next is, Melanie turns on a white-noise machine in the room.

And that was the moment that I was like, get your baby and get out of here. And I didn’t listen to it. It was like all of my mom intuition firing, being like this isn’t right, you know. It’s like, I don’t know how to describe it, but your full body — you have to get your baby and get out of here. And I just ignored it.

She said her maternal instincts really kicked in, and she just had this instinctive fear about the procedure and whether June would be OK. But the procedure itself was very quick. Within just a couple of minutes, Melanie returns with June.

And she was screaming. Like, screaming, and so worked up. This was, like, hysterical, inconsolable. And she was also choking on something, like, gagging.

And June was so worked up. Lauren had only had her for a couple of days, but she said that this was on a different level than any other way she had ever seen June crying. And June just wouldn’t stop crying.

And she looked over to Melanie, and Lauren said that she remembered Melanie saying this was very typical. And so they pay the dentist. They pay $600 for the procedure, and then they go home.

Over the next several days, June did not get better as Melanie had assured them. You know, she was basically inconsolable, Lauren said — just crying hysterically. And Lauren and her husband — they don’t know how to comfort her. They’re new parents. They’ve only had a baby a couple of days. And they’re almost beside themselves.

There was nothing we could do. And I remember finally, I said, like, this is not normal. We’re going to an emergency room.

And they decided to go to the emergency room, where a doctor looks inside June’s mouth and finds a large sore in her mouth that he says is probably causing her so much pain.

And so he said, you know, it breaks my heart to see a sore that big in a baby this small. It was like the floodgates opened, and there was nothing but guilt and shame. Like, unmanageable guilt and shame.

Like, what have we done? Who are these people? What have I done to my baby? Will she ever be the same? Like, what did I do?

So at this point, Lauren is really understanding that her intuition about this surgery was probably right and that she and her husband may have really made a mistake with this. What does June’s recovery look like?

So June never did end up breastfeeding successfully, which was the main reason why Lauren and her husband had decided to do this procedure.

That was the whole point, right?

That was the whole point. Right. And over the next couple of years, June had a number of issues that there’s no official medical diagnosis for, but Lauren has attributed a lot of her behaviors to what had happened to her when she was just a few days old.

I mean, you couldn’t close a fridge door too loud, or else it would set her off. Or, we would attempt to take her for a stroller walk on the Greenbelt, which is the walking path, and she’d be asleep in her car seat, you know, stroller, and someone would try to pass us on their bike and ring their bell, and it would startle her, and it would just set her off. So she just was very, very, very fragile.

So Lauren just wanted to get answers, and she really wanted to hold Melanie and the dentist accountable. So she gathered all of the paperwork that she had — texts, emails, other correspondence — and she went to the Idaho Board of Dentistry, where she filed a complaint against the dentist. And then, she also went to a professional organization that certifies lactation consultants and filed a complaint with them as well.

And did she get anywhere with either of them?

At first, no. The Idaho dentistry board didn’t want to investigate, and Lauren appealed, and she lost her appeal. And she didn’t initially hear back at all from the lactation board.

No one wanted to take responsibility. That’s the thing. No one wanted to stick their neck out there. What’s the alternative? The story never gets told?

And that’s when she decided to reach out to us. And after our story came out, the lactation board finally told Lauren that they were investigating Melanie.

And Katie, you guys were reporting the story. I’m assuming you reached out to both the dentist and to Melanie. What did they say?

Beyond a very brief phone conversation that I had with Melanie in which she defended her work and she said that she had a number of very satisfied customers, she didn’t respond to detailed questions about Lauren’s story or the stories of her former clients. And Dr. Zink did not respond to our requests for comment, but he did tell the dentistry board that Lauren’s baby’s procedure was uneventful and that an extremely small percentage of patients do not respond well to the procedure.

And how big of an issue is this, Katie? I mean, how common is it for mothers to have an experience like Lauren’s?

So after we got the tip from Lauren and we dug deeper into her story, we found ourselves really surprised by how big this industry was for tongue-tie releases. And in part, it’s been driven by this movement for breastfeeding and the Breast is Best campaign and a growing number of parents who are choosing to breastfeed their children.

In turn, that has sparked this big boom in tongue-tie releases. One study that we found showed that these procedures have grown 800 percent in recent years.

Yeah. And also, as we started talking to other parents around the country, we learned that some of them had similar stories to what Lauren had told us. There’s plenty of instances where there’s no harm done to the baby at all when they get these procedures.

But we also found cases where babies were harmed, you know, where they developed oral aversions, which basically means that they don’t want to eat because they fear having anything put in their mouth, including a bottle. We found cases where babies became malnourished, had to be hospitalized. We found more than one instance in which babies had to be given a feeding tube just weeks after the procedure.

So these sounds so painful and awful for a newborn — these problems. But I guess there’s always a risk, Katie, in any medical procedure, right? I mean, how much of this is just the risk you sign up for when you agree that your baby should have a surgery?

Well, that’s true. I mean, there’s always a risk. But what you’re supposed to do is weigh the risks against what the potential benefits of a procedure are. And when we really started drilling down into what those benefits were and into the medical research, we found there just wasn’t a lot of potential benefit for these procedures, if at all, in many cases.

Really? So the procedures don’t have a medical reason to exist?

That’s right. We reviewed all of the best-quality medical research on this. And other than that old-fashioned snip under the tongue, which does show that in some cases, it can reduce pain for breastfeeding mothers, but otherwise, all of this growth and all of these other more invasive procedures — we found there just wasn’t good evidence that they helped babies. And the more we looked into tongue ties and started to connect it to the other reporting we were doing, we started to realize that it was driven by some really big forces in our health care system that really had the potential to harm patients.

We’ll be right back.

So Katie, we talked about this new surge in a procedure that surgically unties infants’ tongues from the bottom of their mouths, often needlessly, sometimes even harmfully. And you said your reporting found that this surgery was actually part of a broader trend. Tell me about this trend and what’s driving it.

So that’s what this investigation was really about — to find the procedures that are doing unnecessary harm to patients and to really understand why this is happening. You know, like, what’s driving the prevalence of these procedures? And there’s just a lot of unnecessary surgeries out there, but we decided to center our reporting on three particular surgeries that had the potential to harm patients, in addition to tongue ties. We focused on a particular hernia surgery, a bariatric surgery, which can be overdone and cause harm, and a vascular surgery done on patients’ legs to help us understand the forces that were at work that were driving all of this.

And what did you find when you dug deeper into those surgeries?

Well, it’s very complex, but we ultimately found three main drivers that were underlying all of these. First, there’s a financial incentive for the doctors to perform these surgeries. There’s also a real push from the medical device companies that make these surgeries possible. And last, there’s a huge information void for solid medical advice that a lot of these doctors and companies take advantage of in order to push the surgeries.

OK, so let’s start with the money, Katie. How exactly is that incentivizing doctors to perform a lot more of these procedures? Like, what are the mechanics of that?

So the reality of our health care industry today is that in many places, even in places like non-profit hospitals, the doctors who work there are not getting a salary, a straight salary that’s just kind of, you get paid for showing up to work that day. Instead, they’re actually getting paid based on the procedures that they’re doing, how complex those procedures are, or possibly how lucrative.

And it’s not every doctor. There are still doctors that get paid salaries. But it’s increasingly the case that doctors have — at least a part of their pay is tied to the procedures that they’re doing.

Interesting. So the procedure is growing in importance in terms of actual compensation for doctors.

Right. I mean, in part, it’s kind of baked into the health care system that we’ve always had. You can even think about it as the small-town doctor who operated his own independent practice or her own independent practice. It’s essentially a small business, and they would get paid based on the patients that they saw.

But increasingly, even in, for example, large hospital systems where you might think that a doctor is just getting paid a salary to work in a hospital, in fact, a chunk of their bonus, for example, can sometimes be tied to the procedures that they’re doing, and that is increasingly the case.

Interesting.

And so one particularly egregious example of this was at a hospital that’s in New York — Bellevue Hospital. And basically, what my colleagues found there was that they had basically turned their surgery department into an assembly line for bariatric surgery, which makes your stomach smaller and can lead to weight loss. But what we found was that they were greenlighting patients that, basically, didn’t meet the qualifications for the surgery, which is a serious surgery. And what they found was that there were several situations where people had very serious outcomes as a result of getting the bariatric surgery there.

OK, so this is an extreme case of a hospital turning to a particular surgery to drive profits. And it wasn’t uncommon in your reporting, it sounds like.

No, it wasn’t the only example, but it was the most striking. And when we reached out to Bellevue, they defended their work, and they said that their practices were helping patients who wouldn’t otherwise get care. But our reporting was pretty conclusive that the program was churning through a record number of surgeries.

So what else was driving this increase in harmful surgeries that you guys found?

So we found it wasn’t just the hospitals who were benefiting. The other major player that benefits are these companies that are making the tools and the products that doctors are using during the procedures. And in order for them to sell more of their products, a lot of time, what they end up doing is promoting the procedures themselves.

So like medical device makers, like the company that made the laser in June’s surgery.

Right. And they do this in a number of ways. They’re giving them loans to help them buy the equipment, and in some cases, they’re even lending them money to help set up those clinics where the procedures are performed.

So they’re really underwriting these doctors so that they can perform more surgeries and, ultimately, sell more machines.

Yes. And the other things that they do is — the laser companies, for example — they will host webinars where they will have dentists who frequently perform these procedures show other dentists how to do the procedures. We even discovered this conference that was created by one of the laser companies, and it had kind of a wild name. The name of the conference was Tongue Ties and Tequilas.

(CHUCKLING) Right. It brought in dentists to talk about how to make money off the procedures. You know, how to promote themselves on social media, how to actually perform the procedures, and of course, when they were all done, they got to celebrate with an open tequila bar.

OK, so a lot of this really amounts to these companies trying to popularize these procedures, basically, like, to get the word out, even if the procedures don’t really work or, in some cases, cause harm.

Right. But they also play a big role in the other factor that’s driving a lot of this, which is the information that they put out there about the surgeries. These companies often sponsor research, which doctors often rely on to guide their practices. And part of what we’ve found is that it can create this echo chamber where doctors feel more comfortable and justified in doing these procedures when they have this whole alternate universe that is telling them that it’s OK to do these procedures, and in fact, it’s beneficial to patients.

So tell me about this echo-chamber effect.

The best example of this we found was a doctor in Michigan named Dr. Jihad Mustapha. He calls himself “the Leg Saver.” And what we found was that he and several other doctors do these procedures called atherectomies, which is basically like inserting a tiny roto-rooter inside an artery to get the blood flowing.

And Dr. Mustapha in particular was not only a very prolific performer of these procedures, but he actually founded his own medical conference, and he even helped start a medical journal that was devoted to using these procedures. And you know, tongue ties — there’s really no good evidence that these are actually beneficial to patients. And in fact, despite his nickname as “the Leg Saver,” one insurance company told Michigan authorities that 45 people had lost their limbs after getting treated at Dr. Mustapha’s clinic over a four-year period.

45 people lost their limbs?

I mean, that is the ultimate version of harm, right?

Right. Now, he did speak to us, and he defended his work and said that he treats very sick people. And despite his best efforts, some of these patients are already so sick that they sometimes lose their limbs.

And how much did he receive for each procedure?

Doctors like him typically receive about $13,000 for each of these atherectomy procedures.

But we found that misinformation, or poor information, also applied when doctors were learning new types of surgeries.

Really? Like how?

So one of the areas we looked at was the area of hernia surgery that I mentioned. And there’s a particular type of surgery. It’s a very complex version of a hernia surgery, called component separation. And the expert surgeons that we spoke to said that it’s difficult to learn, and you have to practice it over and over and over again to get it right. But one recent survey of hernia surgeons said that one out of the four surgeons had taught themselves how to perform that operation.

Yeah, not by learning it from an experienced surgeon but by watching videos on Facebook and YouTube.

I mean, how unusual is that? I guess, to me, it strikes me as very unusual. I mean, I think of learning about how to take my kitchen faucet apart on YouTube, but I do not think of a doctor learning about how to perform a surgery on YouTube.

Right. And it has actually become increasingly popular in recent years, and there’s not good vetting of the quality of the instruction. We even found videos on a website run by a medical device company that was intended to be a how-to for how to do these surgeries, but the video contained serious mistakes.

Wow. And Katie, all of these videos — some of them with serious mistakes — I mean, is this something that would be subject to medical regulators? Like, is there any kind of rules of the road for this stuff?

You know, there’s less than you would expect. Sometimes hospitals have rules about what sort of education their doctors need before performing a surgery. But we were surprised that there was a lot less regulation than we thought there would be and much less vetting of these videos than we anticipated.

So essentially, what you found was this complex, oftentimes interconnected, group of forces — device companies pushing their products, hospitals bolstering their bottom line, and rampant misinformation that, as you said, all really trace back to the same motivating factor, which is money. But wouldn’t the fear of being sued for medical malpractice prevent a lot of this behavior?

You know, this kept popping up during the course of our reporting. I do think we have this idea that any time a doctor does anything wrong, they’re going to get sued. But it just wasn’t always the case in our reporting. There’s a lot of statutes of limitations, time limits on when somebody can file a lawsuit, and other ways that make it somewhat hard to really hold a doctor accountable.

One example is the regulatory organizations that oversee doctors. The one doctor that I mentioned earlier — Dr. Mustapha — state investigators had found that his overuse of procedures had led people to lose their legs. And yet, he ultimately settled with the state, and he was fined $25,000. That actually adds up to about two of these atherectomy procedures.

So it sounds like malpractice is not necessarily going to be the route to rectifying a lot of this. But I guess I’m wondering if the federal government could actually rein some of this in before the patients are harmed.

It’s possible. But this is just a very difficult issue. Some of the themes that we explored in this reporting are really just firmly embedded in our health care system in the way that it works. The fact is that we have a for-profit health care system, right? So everyone, from doctors to hospitals to the device companies, benefit when more procedures are done. All of the incentives are pointing in the same direction.

And so trying to find one or two simple solutions will probably not easily fix the issue, as much as we all hope that it could.

So is the lesson here, be much more discriminating and vigilant as a patient? I mean, to get a second opinion when you’re standing in front of a doctor — or a dentist — who’s telling you that you or your baby needs a procedure?

Yes. I think that is one of the takeaways. But look, we understood that even reporting on all of this was risky, because people could hear about these harmful surgeries and start wondering if everything that their doctors tells them is a scam. And of course, while some of these procedures are harmful, a lot of procedures are lifesaving. But ultimately, for now, patients are kind of left on their own to navigate what’s a pretty complex and opaque health care system. When you have somebody standing in front of you saying, you should do this, it can be very confusing.

And this is something that Lauren talked a lot about — just how confusing all of this was for her.

There’s a lot of information that you’re getting that is truly like someone is speaking a foreign language. And because they do it all day long, it’s not user-friendly. Like, it isn’t designed for the comfort or understanding of the person receiving the information.

There is so much blind trust and faith that you have in the system, in the providers who are giving you this information. You trust, like, this is what they do all day long. So there is no real reason to question. That is the system that we have in this country.

Katie, thank you.

Here’s what else you should know today. On Friday, the Russian authorities announced that opposition leader Alexei Navalny died in prison. He was 47.

Navalny, a charismatic anti-corruption activist, led the opposition to Vladimir Putin for more than a decade. His popularity was broad, extending far outside the realm of liberal Moscow. And that proved threatening to the Russian authorities, who attempted to poison him in 2020.

Navalny survived and later extracted a confession from his would-be assassin on tape. Navalny believed that Russia could be a free society, and he had the extraordinary ability, through sheer force of his personality, charisma, and confidence, to get others to believe it, too. Though he had been in prison since 2021, his death still came as a shock.

[SPEAKING RUSSIAN]

His wife, Yulia Navalnaya, made a surprise appearance at a security conference in Munich shortly after the Russian authorities announced her husband’s death.

She received an emotional standing ovation.

In Moscow, my colleague, Valerie Hopkins, spoke to Russians who were placing flowers in his honor —

— and expressing disbelief that he was gone.

Then I asked them if they believe in the beautiful Russia of the future that Navalny talked about. And they said, yes, but we don’t think we will survive to see it.

At least 400 people have been detained since his death, including a priest who had been scheduled to hold a memorial service in Saint Petersburg.

Today’s episode was produced by Asthaa Chaturvedi, Diana Nguyen, Will Reid, and Alex Stern, with help from Michael Simon Johnson. It was edited by Michael Benoist, with help from Brendan Klinkenberg, contains original music by Diane Wong and Dan Powell, and was engineered by Alyssa Moxley. Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk of Wonderly.

That’s it for “The Daily.” I’m Sabrina Tavernise. See you tomorrow.

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A Times investigation has found that dentists and lactation consultants around the country are pushing “tongue-tie releases” on new mothers struggling to breastfeed, generating huge profits while often harming patients.

Katie Thomas, an investigative health care reporter at The Times, discusses the forces driving this emerging trend in American health care and the story of one family in the middle of it.

On today’s episode

tv show business plan

Katie Thomas , an investigative health care reporter at The New York Times.

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Inside the booming business of cutting babies’ tongues .

What parents should know about tongue-tie releases .

There are a lot of ways to listen to The Daily. Here’s how.

We aim to make transcripts available the next workday after an episode’s publication. You can find them at the top of the page.

The Daily is made by Rachel Quester, Lynsea Garrison, Clare Toeniskoetter, Paige Cowett, Michael Simon Johnson, Brad Fisher, Chris Wood, Jessica Cheung, Stella Tan, Alexandra Leigh Young, Lisa Chow, Eric Krupke, Marc Georges, Luke Vander Ploeg, M.J. Davis Lin, Dan Powell, Sydney Harper, Mike Benoist, Liz O. Baylen, Asthaa Chaturvedi, Rachelle Bonja, Diana Nguyen, Marion Lozano, Corey Schreppel, Rob Szypko, Elisheba Ittoop, Mooj Zadie, Patricia Willens, Rowan Niemisto, Jody Becker, Rikki Novetsky, John Ketchum, Nina Feldman, Will Reid, Carlos Prieto, Ben Calhoun, Susan Lee, Lexie Diao, Mary Wilson, Alex Stern, Dan Farrell, Sophia Lanman, Shannon Lin, Diane Wong, Devon Taylor, Alyssa Moxley, Summer Thomad, Olivia Natt, Daniel Ramirez and Brendan Klinkenberg.

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Katie Thomas is an investigative health care reporter at The Times. More about Katie Thomas

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Money latest: Hidden tax on British workers leads to huge rise in income tax receipts

UK government finances saw a record surplus in January due in part to a big rise in income tax receipts, with more Britons forced into paying tax. Read this and more in the Money blog, your place for consumer and economic news, and leave a comment on the stories we're covering below.

Wednesday 21 February 2024 20:51, UK

  • Stealth tax behind jump in income tax receipts
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Aldi has revealed a big step up in its recruitment plans for 2024 through the creation of 5,500 new jobs .

The German-owned discounter had initially announced the creation of 1,500 jobs but said on Wednesday that the figure was being expanded to cover roles across the business.

Aldi, which is now Britain's fourth-largest supermarket chain after overtaking Morrisons in market share terms last year, said it is seeking store assistants, managers and cleaners at new stores opening this year.

Read the full story here ...

Average household disposable income has risen to the highest level since March 2022 , according to new figures from Asda's income tracker.

A typical UK household had £230 of disposable cash per week in January - a 6.1% rise year-on-year.

Weaker food price inflation and national insurance rate cuts contributed to the improvement, Asda said.

However it noted that while middle income households had the most "robust growth", it was a different picture for the lowest earning families who saw a decrease in their spare cash.

Britons spent more in discount stores last month as higher living costs continued to hit people's pockets.

Nationwide's latest spending report reveals households spent 41% more at budget outlets in January than in the same month last year.

Low-cost supermarkets Lidl and Aldi saw annual spending increases of 10% and 3% respectively, Nationwide said.

But despite Britons turning more to discount stores, its figures also show an increase in "discretionary" spending on holidays, health and beauty, gardening and subscriptions and digital goods.

The UK winners of a £61m EuroMillions jackpot have been revealed as Richard and Debbie Nuttall - who at first thought they had only won £2.60.

The lucky couple, both 54, from Colne,  Lancashire , won a £61,708,231 share of the £123m jackpot prize from the draw on 30 January - the other winning ticket having been purchased in Spain.

Speaking to the media today at Mitton Hall Hotel in Clitheroe, Lancashire, Mr Nuttall said: "We are dazed, it's surreal, it's a huge amount of money. You dream of winning the lottery but you never think it's going to be you, but it is."

He revealed he was checking his emails while on holiday in Fuerteventura, in the Canary Islands, earlier this year when he found a message from the lottery saying he had a £2.60 win in his account and told his wife.

She responded: "Woo hoo, we can get a bacon butty with that."

He then went out for the day and came back to the room. Then he checked his emails and found a message from the lottery saying he needed to check his account again.

Two new suppliers will be allowed to restart involuntary installations of prepayment meters, Ofgem has announced.

E.ON and Tru Energy have met strict criteria imposed last year amid concerns vulnerable people were being exploited.

EDF, Octopus and Scottish Power were the first suppliers allowed to restart in January.

It remains the case that suppliers cannot force prepayment meters on people aged over 75 with no support in their house or homes with children aged under two.

An Ofgem spokesperson said: "We've made clear that suppliers must exhaust all other options before considering forced installation of a prepayment meter, and consumers can help themselves by reaching out to their supplier as soon as possible if they think they won't be able to pay their bill, so payment options can be discussed. 

"Our rules on when, and how, a prepayment meter can be installed are clear and we won't hesitate to take action if suppliers act irresponsibly."

You can find out your rights on Ofgem's website  here .

As we reported earlier, UK government finances saw a record surplus in January thanks to a big rise in self-assessed income tax receipts and lower interest payments on the national debt.

The surplus was £16.7bn -the highest since records began in 1993, but still lower than expected.

These are the last set of public finance figures before the chancellor's budget in March - so what does it mean for the economy and people's pockets?

Why was income tax up?

Simon French, chief economist at UK investment bank Panmure Gordon, told business presenter Ian King that income tax receipts were up 11%.

This is largely due to a huge stealth tax imposed by the government in freezing income tax thresholds (instead of raising them in line with inflation) since 2021, dragging many more Britons into paying tax (this is known as "fiscal drag") and raising the amount the rest us pay significantly. The freeze will last for six years.

Jobs growth has also helped increase income tax receipts.

During the first 10 months of the financial year, the government borrowed £96.6bn. That was down £3.1bn on the same period last year and was below forecasts.

Stamp duty receipts down

"Stamp duty down 21% tells you about the very becalmed nature of the UK housing market," says Mr French.

This chart illustrates which receipts are up, and which are down...

But the surplus is good for the chancellor ahead of his 6 March budget, right?

Mr French points out that the increase in tax receipts is being outstripped by promised rises in benefits and pensions in April.

"In pounds, shillings and pence, benefit spending went up by even more than tax receipts, which is not great news for the chancellor," he said.

"The overall deficit is still... it's going to be £110bn for the year. That's still right on a knife edge of the fiscal rules.

"The idea that, in the round, this is now a very favourable public sector finance backdrop is just not true."

But the fact the government's energy support scheme has ended means there could be some leeway for tax cuts in the budget.

"You've got the potential to do that [but] I think the real challenge for the prime minister and the chancellor... they've talked very much about long-term decision making," said Mr French, adding that investing in the economy "might be the better strategic decision".

(Graphics: iStock)

While we make an effort to keep our focus UK-wide, we've had some interesting data on the London rental market from Zoopla.

It shows a £1,800 difference in average rents between the cheapest and most expensive boroughs - and illustrates the scale of rent increases over the last decade, from an average of £1,529 in 2013 to £2,119 now.

Average rent in London is now almost double the UK as a whole - but inflation is starting to slow as prices in the capital near an "affordability ceiling", Zoopla says.

Here's a look at how rents have risen across London's 32 boroughs in the past year...

Zoopla says rental growth has slowed the most in inner London boroughs - those which typically have the highest monthly rents.

But for those in the capital's outer areas it's a different story, with many areas seeing double-digit inflation.

In the slightly more affordable areas of Havering, Redbridge and Barking and Dagenham, rents have risen by more than 13%, according to the property portal's figures.

On what's next for London's rental market in 2024, Zoopla says annual inflation is predicted to slow to around 2%, with demand continuing to drop as many renters struggle to afford the mammoth prices.

The news of slowing inflation may come as little comfort to those trying to make their way in the capital, however, as this table shows just how much rents have increased in the past decade...

Virgin Media is giving people £75 in bill credit if they sign up to a specific broadband deal.

Anyone who picks the Virgin Media M250 plan  will get the cash towards their monthly bill - covering the first two months.

The plan has download speeds of 264Mbps and costs £36 a month across an 18-month contract. It's one of the cheapest deals offered by Virgin Media (their lowest is £29)

It's not clear how long the offer will last.

Meanwhile, sister company O2 is offering new and existing customers £150, £200 or £250 on a prepaid Mastercard when purchasing a mobile contract from O2.

And Sky, the owner of Sky News, has dropped prices on two of its broadband packages by up to £8.50 a month .

It's clearly a time for offers - ahead of annual prices hikes across the industry in April.

Generally, broadband and mobile providers use either December's inflation rate (4%) or the January RPI rate (4.9%) to calculate annual April price rises.

They then add 3.9%. 

So, most Virgin Media and some O2 customers are looking at an 8.8% rise from April as the companies use RPI.

Providers including BT, EE and PlusNet have all calculated their rises by using the lower CPI inflation figure (so, 7.9% in total). Sky announced this month its broadband and TV customers would see an average 6.7% hike.

This tweet from commentator and historian Tanja Bueltmann has gone viral overnight.

The professor described the "terrible experience" of overreach from a security guard...

Her tweet went on: "In case you missed it: there is still an airborne virus out there that is having a detrimental impact on millions, esp those more vulnerable. On what grounds do you think it is ok to not allow a customer to wear a face covering?"

The Money blog got in touch with Tesco, who quickly replied saying: "Customers are welcome to wear face coverings in our stores and it is absolutely not our policy to ask for them to be removed.

"We're really sorry that in this case the customer was given incorrect information, and we will ensure that store colleagues and guards are reminded of our policy."

It is unclear which store the incident happened - though, according to her X account, Professor Bueltmann is based in Scotland.

Banknotes with the King's face on them will be issued for the first time on 5 June, the Bank of England has revealed. 

The portrait of the King will appear on all banknotes with no other changes to the existing designs. 

However, polymer banknotes featuring the Queen's portrait will remain legal tender. 

The new notes will only be printed to replace ones that are worn or to meet any overall increase in demand. 

"Our approach is in line with guidance from the Royal Household, to minimise the environmental and financial impact of this change," the Bank said. 

"This means the public will begin to see the new King Charles III notes very gradually." 

Images of the new notes were first unveiled in December 2022. 

The iconic BT Tower in London is set to become a hotel, if its new owner gets its way.

BT Group revealed on Wednesday that it had agreed to sell the 177 metre-tall (581-ft) tower in the West End to MCR Hotels for £275m.

Read the full breaking story here ...

Apple has told iPhone users to stop putting their wet phones in rice.

The theory goes that dry, absorbent rice sucks out the moisture, rescuing your device.

But in new guidance , Apple says: "Don't put your iPhone in a bag of rice. Doing so could allow small particles of rice to damage your iPhone."

Other things not to do include using an external heat source (a hairdryer or radiator) - and definitely don't "insert a foreign object, such as a cotton swab or a paper towel".

Instead, Apple recommends...

Tap your iPhone gently against your hand with the connector facing down to remove excess liquid. Leave your iPhone in a dry area with some airflow for up to a day.

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Install the Sky News app for free

tv show business plan

Hollywood Reporter

SkyShowtime CEO on "Megahit" ‘Yellowstone,' Ad Plan and How the Rules of TV "Still Apply"

European streamer SkyShowtime just unveiled the addition of an advertising tier in late April. The Standard with Ads plan will roll out across all of the more than 20 markets served by the joint venture of Comcast and Paramount Global.

The news of the ad tier comes around a year after the streamer finished its launches across its European markets at the end of February 2023.

SkyShowtime CEO Monty Sarhan said the cheaper ad-supported service will ensure that the streamer provides consumers with "an even more affordable entertainment choice for the entire family."

In a conversation with The Hollywood Reporter , Sarhan discussed SkyShowtime's first full year, its original content strategy, recent distribution deals and, of course, the decision to debut an ad tier and what it means for the streamer.

SkyShowtime just unveiled that it will launch an advertising tier, a cheaper ad-supported service plan in April. How does that fit into your business strategy and mix?

It is a new exciting chapter for SkyShowtime. We're going to be launching a new ad-supported plan on April 23. So SkyShowtime will offer two plans to consumers, one that has ads, and we will continue offering our current plan without ads. For us, it's a big moment, because when we first launched 18 months ago, we did so with a focus on the consumer. We wanted to make sure that SkyShowtime stood for value, and we still stand for value. That's really what this new ad plan is all about. Our vision is to provide great entertainment at a great price. That's our value proposition.

In the early days of streaming, there was a belief that advertising would put off consumers because they were too much like traditional TV. Now, many streamers have launched ad tiers. What do you see in terms of consumers' appetite for ad tiers in your European markets?

Fundamentally, we believe in providing consumers choice, options and flexibility. If you look at streaming, and how it's evolved, all of the same business models and rules of television still apply. There are consumers who want a subscription service without ads – that's existed in television for the past 50 years. There are people who want a subscription service with ads – that's also existed for over 50 years. There are people who want a completely free experience and are okay with ads. And that's also existed for a long time. So for us, this is a natural evolution to give consumers what they want. Anytime you're providing more choice, more options to consumers, it's a good thing. It's a win-win for consumers. The world is not one-size-fits-all. People want different things, different experiences at different price points. We want to serve everybody, we want to serve all segments of the market and make sure that SkyShowtime meets their needs.

We talk a lot about value. I don't hear other streamers talking a lot about value. And our launch of the ad tier is a commitment to that. We're doing something that no one else has done: we're launching an ad plan across all of our 22 markets. That's something that neither Max, Netflix or Disney+ are doing. We're doing something that's not been done and something that our competitors are not doing.

You mentioned value and the competition. With the ad tier launch, the price for your plan without ads will go up. Is the ad tier offering a way to reduce the impact that has on subscribers? And how do you feel about SkyShowtime's pricing in the broader market?

We launched 18 months ago at a price that was cheaper than Netflix, cheaper than Max, cheaper than Disney+. So we were priced below all of the other major streaming services. We did that intentionally. And when we thought about the rising content costs, the investment that we're making in local originals, which is only increasing, clearly, there was a need to look at the pricing for our standard plan. But we also want to continue leading on value. So we wanted to give consumers an option that was at a lower cost.

Our ad plan has a lower entry-level price point than Max and Netflix in nearly all major markets. That's significant. So we're still providing the most value of any major streaming service. Consumers of SkyShowtime can keep the experience they have which is ad-free, or they can choose to subscribe to the ad plan. The ad plan will be priced either at the same price point as our current standard plan or below our current standard plan. So this is really almost a price cut for new consumers. They're going to be able to access all of the same great content that we have on SkyShowtime at a great headline price. And that's all of the same great content – there is no difference between the content catalog on our ad plan versus our non-ad-supported plan.

Do you have any forecasts for what percentage of people will have the ad tier versus the non-ad tier a year from now?

We're excited to see what the consumer response is going to be. There are going to be consumers in the marketplace who want to come and experience ads and pay a lower price. And there are going to be consumers that are going to still want that premium experience. We haven't shared any projections for how that breakdown is going to be, but we're very excited about giving consumers more choice. And we believe that there's going to be great demand for both plans.

We have a really strong content proposition. We're the proud and exclusive home for the Yellowstone universe. In our markets, we are the only place to watch all five seasons of this megahit. And we're the only home for [ Yellowstone spin-offs] 1883 and 1923 . So at Sky Showtime, we've dubbed 2024 to be the year of Yellowstone . [We also have] all these big global shows like Halo and Pokerface , both of which are returning for season 2, Yellowjackets is coming back, we have The Tattooist of Auschwitz that's very moving. So it's a lot of great content for consumers for a great headline price.

That's just on the series side. We've spoken about this in the past, but we have nearly 50 percent of Hollywood box office. That's more box office than any streaming service in our markets. And we superserve fans. If you look at Star Trek , we have so much of this amazing franchise from Paramount. We have Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and Voyager , Deep Space Nine , Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek The Original Series , we have Enterprise – all of that, and we have almost all the movies. So if you're a Star Trek fan, SkyShowtime is the place for you.

You have never broken out subscriber figures. Any insight you can share on that? And do I understand you right that the ad tier is also a way for SkyShowtime to expand its addressable market?

Absolutely. We believe in reaching all segments of the market, especially because many of our markets are price-sensitive. Even in markets that aren't price-sensitive, consumers feel that the cost of streaming has gone up. And so at a time when people may be hesitant to subscribe to new services or feel that streamers keep increasing prices, we're sending a message that we hear you, we care, and here's an amazing service at an amazing price – here's great content, great entertainment at a great price. We do think it increases the total addressable market for us in our markets, that we are bringing more people to SkyShowtime by giving them more options.

We don't release subscriber numbers, but 2023 was a big year for us. It was still a launch year, we launched in some of our biggest markets, including Poland and Spain. We're live and operational across all of our markets. We saw such a great response to our launch and have just continued to grow. We are still very much in growth mode. We're continuing to scale in our markets. And these are markets where streaming is only growing.

We're continuing to add new subscribers, we're continuing to hire, and we're continuing to invest in content. So 2024 for us is a year where we truly, really scale this business even more. We're extremely happy with how the business is doing, how the business has performed, and our shareholders are really happy with it.

SkyShowtime is also serving up local content, including original programming, offering 10 originals last year, in addition to all the Hollywood titles. What can you tell us about your local and original content strategy and how much of an opportunity that is?

Local content is incredibly important. It's part of our value proposition. We are a European streaming service.

In September , we had Kai Finke join us from Netflix as our chief content officer. He's been ramping up both acquisitions and putting things into development. Original programming is an important part of our overall content strategy, and we will continue to invest in local content, both catalog content as well as originals in our key markets.

We've already announced some originals for 2024. There are more on the way. We have announced Veronika , which is coming in March and is a Nordics original [starring Alexandra Rapaport as a police officer and mother of two in a small town who struggles with her complicated family life and a secret pill addiction]. We also have Los Enviados (The Envoys) season 2, a Spanish-language original, which just premiered that's doing exceptionally well. And there's more on the way.

SkyShowtime has in recent months struck several partnerships with distributors, increasing its reach. What's your distribution strategy now that your direct-to-consumer service has been available in all your markets for at least a year?

It's always been important for us to be wherever consumers want us to be. And business-to-business partnerships are incredibly important. As you're scaling a service, you're going onto platforms that are subscriber-rich platforms, where people want to consume video. We landed a landmark deal with Ziggo in the Netherlands, with MEO Portugal. And then right at the end of the year, we launched with Movistar Plus+ in Spain. In fact, with Movistar, we're part of their Ficción miMovistar package. Those partnerships are great because we're building a business together.

You've seen other streamers adjust their strategy, but partnerships were part of our strategy from day one. We've always said we want to be the best streaming partner in the b2b space. And we've delivered on that. Our partners are really happy with our content. And there's more on tap, we are in advanced negotiations with several distributors in multiple territories right now.

A lot of other streamers have been reducing spending and become more selective about originals. Why are things different for SkyShowtime?

In an age where other streamers are cutting back on content, we benefit from being a joint venture, we have the combined content pipeline of two of the biggest entertainment companies in the world. And that positions us well for success, it positions us well versus our competitors. And it's why we continue to provide great value to consumers. That's why we're able to say that we have nearly 50 percent of Hollywood box office, we have Oppenheimer coming just in a few weeks, we have Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves , Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning , The  Super Mario Bros . Movie all of those big global shows that come to us. So being a joint venture is a huge advantage. It's one of our superpowers.

The second thing I will say is that the U.S. narrative is not our narrative. We are in markets, where streaming is still growing. It is still early days. So the addressable market and the number of people who are coming into streaming is only growing, and that provides us with a unique opportunity that doesn't exist in other parts of the world.

There has been all this chatter about whether Paramount Global, one of the joint venture partners behind SkyShowtime, could be sold or do some kind of other deal, possibly even with Comcast. Does that in any way affect the work of SkyShowtime at this stage?

I can't comment on anything going on with our shareholders. All I'll say is this: we remain focused on super-serving consumers in our markets. We're focused on that every single day. How can we provide more value at a great price to our consumers? How can we deliver more great content to all of our existing members.

We've got this great combined content pipeline that's coming to us for years to come, and we're making big investments in local programming. So that's what we're focused on. We feel really good about the future.

Anything that has happened or popped in recent months that has particularly surprised you and your team?

Yellowstone , Yellowstone , Yellowstone . That is a mega-hit. It has surprised us and surpassed all of our expectations. We started seeing it really overperform starting late last year. We've invested more money to market SkyShowtime to expand the audience, to bring more people in to watch Yellowstone and to experience the Yellowstone universe because this is exclusive to us. All five seasons are only on SkyShowtime, and we're the home for [spin-offs] 1883 and 1923 with Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren.

We have the biggest show in the world today on Sky Showtime. It's really unique. It's really special. And it has been a very pleasant surprise for us and for viewers who come in and experience the show. They're really drawn to it. There's independent research from Parrot Analytics that shows that the demand for this show is off the charts. It's got 15 times greater demand than the average television series in markets like Spain, Poland and Sweden. We're extremely proud to be the home of that show and we're happy that our members are loving it so much.

More from The Hollywood Reporter

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SkyShowtime CEO on "Megahit" ‘Yellowstone,' Ad Plan and How the Rules of TV "Still Apply"

ProfitableVenture

Internet TV Station Business Plan [Sample Template]

By: Author Tony Martins Ajaero

Home » Business ideas » Media Industry » TV Station & TV Shows

Do you want to start an internet TV and need to write a plan? If YES, here is a sample internet TV station business plan template & FREE feasibility report.

It is no longer news that the advent of internet has paved way for unlimited business opportunities that one can easily start and run from a location and have clients all across different locations from different countries. One of the businesses that can easily be started by leveraging on internet technology and of course financial expertise is an internet television business.

It is important to mention that starting up an internet TV station business also needs a significant investment capital, solid planning, and concentration to detail in order to keep your business profitable.

A Sample Internet Television Station Business Plan Template

1. industry overview.

Television stations operate studios and facilities that program and deliver audiovisual content to the public via over-the-air transmission. The types of programming offered can be made by broadcasters or by affiliates that exist outside the industry.

It is important to point out that within the context of internet television, a channel might be:

  • A broadcast or cable TV station / network (e.g. CBS or CNN) which posts videos or live streams to its website or a video hosting website
  • A user or group who live stream or upload videos to a video hosting website such as YouTube or Twitch (e.g. The Young Turks)
  • A video on demand website (such as Netflix or YouTube) which is assigned a channel number by cable/satellite TV providers.

Some video on demand services (e.g. Hulu, Viki or DramaFever) have channels on YouTube, but their own apps or websites would probably not be considered channels in and of themselves.

No doubt, the Television Station industry is in the mature phase of its life cycle and luckily for the industry, the advent of digital media has provided an opportunity for the industry to explore and experience vibrant growth. Of course, the industry is becoming more concentrated, as seen by a few large global firms dominating the market and gaining huge market share of the available market.

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations, once the primary barrier to entry into the Television Broadcasting industry, have steadily declined in recent years. The marketplace for broadcast TV has changed drastically since its inception; according to market research, GfK, 17.0 percent of US households rely solely on over-the-air broadcasts for their television needs.

Cable and satellite now dominate the industry, and according to eMarketer’s latest survey on digital consumption, an estimated 50.8 percent of Americans watch at least some of their TV from online services. The FCC, rather than create protectionist measures that limit new types of media from competing against major broadcasting companies, has instead welcomed this competition.

The Television Stations Industry is indeed a very large industry and pretty much thriving in all parts of the world especially in developed countries such as united states of America, Canada, United Kingdom , Germany, Australia, France and Italy et al.

Statistics has it that in the United States of America alone, there are about 2,250 licensed and registered television (strictly online television stations inclusive) responsible for employing about 133,170 employees and the industry rakes in a whooping sum of $67 billion annually with an annual growth rate projected at 2.7 percent.

It is important to state that the establishments with lion shares of the available market in this industry are Fox, NBC Universal, The Walt Disney Company and Viacom Inc.

A recent report published by IBISWorld shows that over the five years to 2017, the Television Broadcasting industry has struggled somewhat to attract viewers and generate advertising revenue, though industry revenue has increased. Companies have continued to invest in advertisements for certain programs, such as professional and collegiate sports.

Yet, as consumers quickly adopted mobile devices, thereby increasing their ability to subscribe to online streaming platforms, advertisers lowered their spending on broadcast television and increased their efforts on digital and online media.

Over the five years to 2022, television broadcasters will respond to a shifting media environment by restructuring their business models to better integrate programming with digital platforms.

Over and above, TV stations cannot be phased out despite the change in visual technology approaches and the emergence of new media (YouTubes et al).  It is easier for television stations to leverage on modern technology to reach – out to their target market.

2. Executive Summary

Max Scope™ Internet TV Station, Inc. is a U.S based and world class strictly internet television station that will operate from in New Haven – Connecticut. We have been able to secure a standard and well – positioned office facility in a central business district in New Haven.

We are a strictly internet television station that is set to compete in the highly competitive television stations industry not only in the United States market, but also in the global market because our clientele base will not be restricted to just businesses and organizations in the United States but in the international market who would want to advertise on our internet TV station.

Max Scope™ Internet TV Station, Inc. will air live news and sports events from all across the United States and other live news and sport events. Our business goal is to become one of the leading internet – based TV station in the United States of America with high profile corporate and individual clients scattered all around the globe.

Our workers are going to be selected from a pool of talented and highly creative broadcasters and media experts in and around New Haven – Connecticut and also from any part of the world as the business grows.

We will make sure that we take all the members of our workforce through the required trainings that will position them to meet the expectation of the company and to compete with leading internet TV stations in the United States and of course throughout the globe.

At Max Scope™ Internet TV Station, Inc., our client’s and viewers best interest will always come first, and everything we do will be guided by our values and professional ethics. We will ensure that we hold ourselves accountable to the highest standards by meeting our client’s business needs precisely and completely.

We will cultivate a working environment that provides a human, sustainable approach to earning a living, and living in our world, for our partners, employees and for our clients.

Max Scope™ Internet TV Station, Inc. is founded by Jude Williams and his friend and business partner for many years Victor Carson. They both graduated from University of Connecticut, Beckley with BA in Mass Communications and they have a combine experience that revolves around journalism, new media, broadcasting, and business management et al.

3. Our Product and Services 

Max Scope™ Internet TV Station, Inc. was established with the aim of maximizing profits in the TV station industry. We want to compete favorably with leading strictly internet television stations in the United States and of course throughout the globe which is why we have but in place a competent team that will ensure that we meet and even surpass our customers’ expectations.

We will work hard to ensure that Max Scope™ Internet TV Station, Inc. do not just air news and sports events in the United States of America, but also from other parts of the world. Our products and services are listed below;

  • Operating internet broadcasting studios and facilities
  • Producing television (sports) programming content for online audience
  • Transmitting programming to affiliated broadcast stations
  • Advertising services
  • Creative services
  • Public relations services for sport clubs
  • Media planning, buying & representation
  • Creating news and sports related advertising campaigns
  • Disseminating advertising campaigns through our TV station
  • Other related media and advertising advisory and consulting services

4. Our Mission and Vision Statement

  • Our vision is to establish a standard and world class strictly internet television station whose programs will not only be viewed by audience in New Haven – Connecticut but also throughout the United States of America, and other parts of the world.
  • Our mission is to provide professional internet television broadcasting services that will provide platforms for businesses, individuals and non-profit organizations in promoting their brands and reaching out to a wide range of potential customers all over the globe.
  • We want to build a strictly internet television station that can favorably compete with other leading brands in the industry.

Our Business Structure

Max Scope™ Internet TV Station, Inc. is a world class strictly internet television station that intend starting small in New Haven – Connecticut, but hope to grow big in order to compete favorably with leading strictly internet television stations in the United States and of course throughout the globe.

We are aware of the importance of building a solid business structure that can support the picture of the kind of world class business we want to own. Which is why we are committed to only hiring the best hands within our area of operations.

At Max Scope™ Internet TV Station, Inc. we will ensure that we hire people that are qualified, hardworking, and creative, result driven, customer centric and are ready to work to help us build a prosperous business that will benefit all the stake holders (the owners, workforce, and customers).

As a matter of fact, profit-sharing arrangement will be made available to all our senior management staff and it will be based on their performance for a period of five years or more as agreed by the board of trustees of the company. In view of the above, Max Scope™ Internet TV Station, Inc. have decided to hire qualified and competent hands to occupy the following positions;

  • Chief Executive Officer
  • Creative and Technical Director

Advertising cum Digital Marketing Specialist

Human Resources and Admin Manager

  • News Casters and Sport Presenters
  • Sales and Marketing Executive

Content Creator

Client Service Executive

5. Job Roles and Responsibilities

Chief Executive Officer – CEO:

  • Increases management’s effectiveness by recruiting, selecting, orienting, training, coaching, counseling, and disciplining managers; communicating values, strategies, and objectives; assigning accountabilities; planning, monitoring, and appraising job results; developing incentives; developing a climate for offering information and opinions; providing educational opportunities.
  • Creating, communicating, and implementing the organization’s vision, mission, and overall direction – i.e. leading the development and implementation of the overall organization’s strategy.
  • Responsible for fixing prices and signing business deals
  • Responsible for providing direction for the business
  • Responsible for signing checks and documents on behalf of the company
  • Evaluates the success of the organization

Creative and Technical Director:

  • Serve as project manager of the organization; works directly with employees
  • Responsible for designing programs, advertising concepts and winning business proposals for the organization
  • Accomplishes subsidiary objectives by establishing plans, budgets, and results measurements; allocating resources; reviewing progress; making mid-course corrections.
  • Maintain a reliable system for providing technical support for all programs and events
  • Monitor audio and mixing as well as audio recordings throughout productions
  • Oversee proper lighting as predetermined in team production meetings
  • Ensure all productions are distraction free and technically well-supported by various support roles
  • Produce technical drawings and communicate with scene supervisors to determine the effectiveness of planned processes
  • Recruit and train exceptional employees to fulfill required positions within the technical field
  • Update and maintain all production technologies ensuring proper maintenance and installation
  • Keep detailed and reliable records regarding warranties and licensing agreements.
  • Responsible for handling media planning, buying & representation
  • Responsible for creating advertising campaigns
  • Responsible for disseminating advertising campaigns through available mediums, such as TV, Radio and periodicals et al
  • Handle other related media and advertising advisory and consulting services
  • Responsible for overseeing the smooth running of HR and administrative tasks for the organization
  • Updates job knowledge by participating in educational opportunities; reading professional publications; maintaining personal networks; participating in professional organizations.
  • Enhances department and organization reputation by accepting ownership for accomplishing new and different requests; exploring opportunities to add value to job accomplishments.
  • Defining job positions for recruitment and managing interviewing process
  • Carrying out staff induction for new team members
  • Responsible for training, evaluation and assessment of employees
  • Oversee the smooth running of the daily office.

Sales and Marketing Manager

  • Manage external research and coordinate all the internal sources of information to retain the organizations’ best customers and attract new ones
  • Model demographic information and analyze the volumes of transactional data generated by customer
  • Identifies development opportunities; follows up on development leads and contacts; participates in the structuring and financing of projects; assures the completion of development projects.
  • Writing winning proposal documents, negotiate fees and rates in line with organizations’ policy
  • Responsible for handling business research, market surveys and feasibility studies for clients
  • Responsible for supervising implementation, advocate for the customer’s needs, and communicate with clients
  • Develop, execute and evaluate new plans for expanding increase sales
  • Create new markets cum businesses for the organization
  • Empower and motivates the sales team to meet and surpass agreed targets

Accountant / Cashier:

  • Responsible for preparing financial reports, budgets, and financial statements for the organization
  • Provides managements with financial analyses, development budgets, and accounting reports; analyzes financial feasibility for the most complex proposed projects; conducts market research to forecast trends and business conditions.
  • Responsible for financial forecasting and risks analysis.
  • Performs cash management, general ledger accounting, and financial reporting for one or more properties.
  • Responsible for developing and managing financial systems and policies
  • Responsible for administering payrolls
  • Ensuring compliance with taxation legislation
  • Handles all financial transactions for Max Scope™ Internet TV Station, Inc.
  • Serves as internal auditor for the organization.

News Casters and Sports Presenters

  • Present news and other current affairs
  • Present sports program for the organization
  • Responsible for developing catchy sport programs
  • Interview guest in the studio and in the field
  • Responsible for creating contents for the organization as it relates to sports program and advertising
  • Responsible for creating content / buzz words that will help attract viewers
  • Liaising and working effectively with other staff members to generate sales for our clients
  • Operate motion picture or television camera as you record scenes for motion pictures, advertising or television broadcasts.
  • Know and apply the technical aspects of lenses, film, filters, light and camera settings to each shot to ensure the director gets the effect he or she wants.
  • Adjust printers, camera controls, and any related equipment to find the right lighting, exposure and focus.
  • Work with other film professionals, including electricians, lighting technicians and directors to determine desired effects, lighting requirements, camera movements and filming sequences.
  • Arrange studio sets to best suit the settings on the camera, and control the lighting equipment, film stock, audio and cameras to get the result the director desires from the film.
  • Maintain, clean and test all broadcasting equipment and cameras to ensure every tool is in good working order each day before filming starts.
  • Watch filming sets closely to determine if problems are present in regards to camera angles and lighting and notify the director about issues before filming starts.
  • Remain updated on new technology and current industry trends to ensure you bring the latest methods to the job.
  • Welcomes clients and potential clients by greeting them in person, online or on the telephone; answering or directing inquiries.
  • Ensures that contacts with clients (e-mail, walk-In center, SMS or phone) provides the client with a personalized customer service experience of the highest level
  • Through interaction with clients on the phone, uses every opportunity to build client’s interest in the company’s products and services
  • Manages administrative duties assigned by the creative director in an effective and timely manner
  • Consistently stays abreast of any new information on the organizations’ products, promotional campaigns etc. to ensure accurate and helpful information is supplied to clients when they make enquiries.

6. SWOT Analysis

Max Scope™ Internet TV Station, Inc. engaged the services of a core professional in the area of business consulting and structuring to assist our organization in building a well – structured strictly internet television station that can favorably compete in the highly competitive TV broadcasting industry in the United States and the world at large.

We know that if we get things right before starting our sports TV station, we will not have to struggle before attract loyal clients and building our clientele base cum viewer base to a level where we can easily breakeven in record time. We hired the services of Dr. Edwards Christopher, a HR and Business consultant with bias in business structuring to help us conduct SWOT analysis for our company and he did a pretty good job for us.

Here is a of the result we got from the SWOT analysis that was conducted on behalf of Max Scope™ Internet TV Station, Inc.;

Our core strength lies in the power of our team; our workforce. We have a team of creative, result driven and highly proficient journalists and broadcasting experts, a team with excellent qualifications and experience various niche areas in the strictly internet television station industry and other related industry.

Aside from the synergy that exist in our carefully selected workforce, we have some of the latest internet broadcasting equipment and our services will be measurable, result driven and guided by international best practices in the industry.

As a new internet TV station with bias in news and sports broadcasting in New Haven – Connecticut, it might take some time for our organization to break into the market and gain acceptance especially from top profile clients in the already saturated and highly competitive internet television broadcasting industry; that is perhaps our major weakness.

  • Opportunities:

Although competition for advertising dollars is expected to remain fierce over the five years to 2024 and shifts in consumer viewing habits will continuously prompt adjustments by broadcasters, the industry is expected to continue growing during the outlook period.

Digital distribution will likely remain an important component of the industry’s strategy as consumers’ relationship to TV content continues to evolve. As a standard and world class strictly internet television stations we are ready to take advantage of any opportunity that is available in the industry.

The major threat that we are going to face as a business that operates strictly on the internet is the growing threat from hackers and perhaps a down – time from the world wide web.

7. MARKET ANALYSIS

  • Market Trends

If you are conversant with the television stations industry, you will agree that in the bid to reach out to a larger viewer base, television stations are now leveraging on internet broadcasting and mobile apps. This goes to show that the television stations broadcasting stations will continue to evolve due to the advancement of computer technology and software applications designs et al.

The Television Broadcast industry recently underwent structural changes and dealt with a sharp drop off in advertising revenue. Industry revenue declined at an average annual rate of 2.1 percent over the past five years to $36.1 billion in 2011. Advertising revenue was depressed when disposable income levels decreased and consumers gradually shifted to cable TV, online channels and other media.

According to IBISWorld, total advertising spending decreased at an annualized rate of 0.2 percent over the period, including a drastic 11.3 percent decline in spending in 2009 alone. As consumer sentiment improves and the industry continues to negotiate retransmission fees from cable companies, revenue is expected to grow 2.5 percent in 2011.

Lastly, investments in new technology, including the costs of transition to digital transmission, squeezed profit margins over the past five years. In 2009, specifically, the industry was hard pressed to maintain profit margins with the costly switch to digital and a revenue drop of 9.9 percent.

As a result, the Television Broadcasting industry earned a profit of just 9.1 percent of revenue in 2009, a drastic fall from a peak profit of 16.4 percent two years prior. With advertising revenue rebounding slightly and negotiations with cable companies contributing to income, the industry is projected to earn a 13.2 percent profit in 2011, totaling $4.8 billion.

8. Our Target Market

Prior to starting our strictly internet television station, we are certain that there is a wide range of viewers, corporate and individual clients who cannot successfully run their businesses without the services and support of a standard strictly internet television stations; a company that can help them reach out to their target market and effectively promote their corporate brand and image.

In view of that, we have created strategies that will enable us reach out to various corporate organizations, non – profits, government agencies and individual who we know can’t afford to do without our services. We have conducted our market research and survey and we will ensure that we meet and surpass the expectations of our clients.

Aside from viewers from all across the world, below is a list of the people and organizations that we have specifically market our PR and advertising services to;

  • Banks, Insurance Companies and other related Financial Institutions
  • Blue Chips Companies
  • Corporate Organizations
  • Manufacturers and Distributors
  • Real Estate Owners, Developers, and Contractors
  • Research and Development Companies
  • The Government (Public Sector)
  • Schools (High Schools, Colleges and Universities)
  • Celebrities, Politicians, Public Figures and Public Speakers
  • Sport Organizations
  • Religious Organizations
  • Political Parties
  • Branding and Advertising agencies
  • Entrepreneurs and Start – Ups

Our Competitive Advantage

Surviving in the business world as a sport television station requires more than, your expertise, knowing how to conduct your business but also how to network with key people that matters; decision makers that can decide who will get an advertising contract or a business deal.

We are quite aware that to be highly competitive in the television broadcasting industry means that you are not only expected to be able to deliver consistent and excellent programs cum services, but you must be result driven and able to meet the expectations of your target audience.

No one would want to continue to place adverts in your station if don’t always meet up with the target sales the organization intends to generate when they place adverts in your television station. Our competitive advantage lies in the power of our team; our workforce.

We have a team of creative, result driven and highly proficient television experts, a team with excellent qualifications and experience various niche areas in the strictly internet television stations industry and other related industry.

Aside from the synergy that exist in our carefully selected workforce, we have some of the latest internet broadcasting equipment and our services will be measurable, result driven and guided by best practices in the industry.

Lastly, all our employees will be well taken care of, and their welfare package will be among the best within our category (startups strictly internet television stations in the United States) in the industry. It will enable them to be more than willing to build the business with us and help deliver our set goals and achieve all our business aims and objectives.

9. SALES AND MARKETING STRATEGY

We are mindful of the fact that there is stiffer competition in the television stations industry, hence we have been able to hire some of the best marketing experts to handle our sales and marketing.

Our sales and marketing team will be recruited based on their vast experience in the advertising agencies industry and they will be trained on a regular basis so as to be well equipped to meet their targets and the overall business goal of Max Scope™ Internet TV Station, Inc.

Our corporate goal is to grow Max Scope™ Internet TV Station, Inc. to become one of the leading strictly internet television stations in the United States of America which is why we have mapped out strategy that will help us take advantage of the available market and grow to become a major force to reckon with not only in the United States of America but also in other parts of the world.

Max Scope™ Internet TV Station, Inc. is set to make use of the following marketing and sales strategies to attract clients;

  • Introduce our strictly internet television station by sending introductory letters alongside our brochure to sports organizations, corporate organizations, government agencies, non – profits, religious organizations and key stake holders in and around New Haven – Connecticut.
  • Promptness in bidding for advertising contracts from the government and other cooperate organizations
  • Advertise our business in relevant business magazines, newspapers, and radio station.
  • List our business on yellow pages ads (local directories)
  • Attend relevant international and local expos, seminars, and business fairs et al
  • Create different packages for different category of clients in order to work with their budgets and still run their adverts or program in our station
  • Leverage on the internet to promote our business
  • Engage direct marketing approach
  • Encourage word of mouth marketing from loyal and satisfied clients

Sources of Income

Max Scope™ Internet TV Station, Inc. is established with the aim of maximizing profits in the television stations industry and we are going to go all the way to ensure that we do all it takes to meet and surpass the expectations of all our clients. Max Scope™ Internet TV Station, Inc. will generate income by offering the following services;

  • Producing online television (sports) programming content for clients
  • Creating online sports related advertising campaigns
  • Disseminating advertising campaigns through our online TV station
  • Other related online sports media and advertising advisory and consulting services

10. Sales Forecast

One thing is certain, there would always be sports organizations, corporate organizations, government agencies, non – profits and individuals who would need to advertise in internet television stations to help them increase sales or promote their brands and corporate image.

Max Scope™ Internet TV Station, Inc. is well positioned to take on the available market in the strictly internet television stations industry and we are quite optimistic that we will meet our set target of generating enough income / profits from the first six month of operations and grow our strictly internet television stations to enviable heights.

We have been able to critically examine the strictly internet television station marketing space and we have analyzed our chances in the industry and we have been able to come up with the following sales forecast. The sales projection is based on information gathered on the field and some assumptions that are peculiar to similar startups in New Haven – Connecticut.

Below are the sales projections for Max Scope™ Internet TV Station, Inc., it is based on the location of our business and of course the wide range of sports programs we offer and our target market (viewers);

  • First Fiscal Year (FY1): $300,000
  • Second Fiscal Year (FY2): $1 Million
  • Third Fiscal Year (FY3): $2 Million

N.B: This projection is done based on what is obtainable in the industry and with the assumption that there won’t be any major economic meltdown and there won’t be any major competitor offering same services as we do within same location. Please note that the above projection might be lower and at the same time it might be higher.

11. Publicity and Advertising Strategy

We have been able to work with our in – house brand and publicity consultants to help us map out publicity and advertising strategies that will help us walk our way into the heart of our target market.

We are set to become the number one choice for both corporate clients and individual clients in the whole of the United States and beyond which is why we have made provisions for effective publicity and advertisement of our strictly internet television station.

Below are the platforms we intend to leverage on to promote and advertise Max Scope™ Internet TV Station, Inc.;

  • Place adverts on both print (newspapers and magazines) and electronic media platforms
  • Sponsor relevant community based events / programs
  • Leverage on the internet and social media platforms like; Instagram, Facebook, twitter, YouTube, Google + et al to promote our strictly internet television stations
  • Install our Bill Boards on strategic locations all around New Haven – Connecticut
  • Engage in roadshow from time to time in targeted neighborhoods
  • Distribute our fliers and handbills in target areas
  • List Max Scope™ Internet TV Station, Inc. in local directories / yellow pages
  • Advertise Max Scope™ Internet TV Station, Inc. in our official website and employ strategies that will help us pull traffic to the site.
  • Ensure that all our staff members wear our branded shirts and all our vehicles are well branded with our company logo et al.

12. Our Pricing Strategy

At Max Scope™ Internet TV Station, Inc. we will keep the prices of our advertising services below the average market rate for all of our customers by keeping our overhead low and by collecting payment in advance from corporate organizations who would hire our services.

In addition, we will also offer special discounted rates to all our customers at regular intervals. We are aware that there are some one – off live PR and advertising contracts which are always lucrative, we will ensure that we abide by the pricing model that is expected from contractors or organizations that bid for such contracts.

  •  Payment Options

The payment policy adopted by Max Scope™ Internet TV Station, Inc. is all inclusive because we are quite aware that different customers prefer different payment options as it suits them but at the same time, we will ensure that we abide by the financial rules and regulation of the United States of America.

Here are the payment options that Max Scope™ Internet TV Station, Inc. will make available to her clients;

  • Payment via bank transfer
  • Payment with cash
  • Payment via credit cards
  • Payment via online bank transfer
  • Payment via check
  • Payment via bank draft

In view of the above, we have chosen banking platforms that will enable our client make payment for our PR and advertising services without any stress on their part. Our bank account numbers will be made available on our website and promotional materials to clients who may want to deposit cash or make online transfer for services rendered.

13. Startup Expenditure (Budget)

It is a known fact that, in setting up any business, the amount or cost will depend on the approach and scale you want to undertake. If you intend to go big by renting a place, then you would need a good amount of capital as you would need to ensure that your employees are well taken care of, and that your facility is conducive enough for workers to be creative and productive.

This means that the start-up can either be low or high depending on your goals, vision and aspirations for your business. The materials and equipment that will be used are nearly the same cost everywhere, and any difference in prices would be minimal and can be overlooked.

As for the detailed cost analysis for starting a standard strictly internet television station; it might differ in other countries due to the value of their money. However, this is what it would cost us to setup Max Scope™ Internet TV Station, Inc. in the United of America;

  • Business incorporating fees in the United States of America will cost – $750.
  • The budget for Liability insurance, permits and license will cost – $3,500
  • Leasing / renting an office space in a good location in New Haven – Connecticut that will accommodate the number of employees and our studios (Re – Construction of the facility inclusive) will cost – $250,000.
  • The cost for furnishing and equipping the office (internet broadcasting devices, cameras, computers, printers, projectors, markers, servers / internet facility, furniture, telephones, filing cabinets, and electronics) will cost – $30,000
  • The amount required to purchase the needed software applications – $ 3,500
  • Launching an official Website will cost – $500
  • The amount needed to pay bills and staff members for at least 2 to 3 months – $180,000
  • Additional Expenditure such as Business cards, Signage, Adverts and Promotions will cost – $10,000
  • Miscellaneous – $20,000

Going by the report from the market research and feasibility studies conducted, we will need about five hundred and fifty thousand (550,000) U.S. dollars to successfully set – up a small scale but standard strictly internet television station in the United States of America.

Generating Funds / Startup Capital for Max Scope™ Internet TV Station, Inc.

Max Scope™ Internet TV Station, Inc. is a business that will be owned, financed and managed by Jude Williams and his friend and business partner for many years Victor Carson. They are the sole financier of the business which is why they decided to restrict the sourcing of the start – up capital for the business to just three major sources.

These are the areas we intend generating our start – up capital;

  • Generate part of the start – up capital from personal savings and sale of his stocks
  • Generate part of the start – up capital from friends and other extended family members
  • Generate a larger chunk of the startup capital from the bank (loan facility).

N.B: We have been able to generate about $200,000 (Personal savings $150,000 and soft loan from family members $50,000) and we are at the final stages of obtaining a loan facility of $350,000 from our bank. All the papers and document has been duly signed and submitted, the loan has been approved and any moment from now our account will be credited.

14. Sustainability and Expansion Strategy

It is an established fact that, the future of a business lies in the numbers of loyal customers that they have, the capacity and competence of the employees, their investment strategy and the business structure. If all of these factors are missing from a business (company), then it won’t be too long before the business close shop.

One of our major goals of starting Max Scope™ Internet TV Station, Inc. is to build a business that will survive off its own cash flow without the need for injecting finance from external sources once the business is officially running.

We know that one of the ways of gaining approval and winning customers over is to offer our advertising services and other related PR services a little bit cheaper than what is obtainable in the market and we are well prepared to survive on lower profit margin for a while.

Max Scope™ Internet TV Station, Inc. will make sure that the right foundation, structures and standard operating processes are put in place to ensure that our staff welfare are well taken of. Our company’s corporate culture is designed to drive our business to greater heights and training and re – training of our workforce is at the top burner of our business strategy.

As a matter of fact, profit-sharing arrangement will be made available to all our management staff and it will be based on their performance for a period of five years or more as determined by the board of the organization. We know that if that is put in place, we will be able to successfully hire and retain the best hands we can get in the industry; they will be more committed to help us build the business of our dreams.

Check List / Milestone

  • Business Name Availability Check : Completed
  • Business Incorporation: Completed
  • Opening of Corporate Bank Accounts various banks in the United States: Completed
  • Opening Online Payment Platforms: Completed
  • Application and Obtaining Tax Payer’s ID: In Progress
  • Securing a standard office and studio facility in a good location in New Haven – Connecticut: Completed
  • Application for business license and permit: Completed
  • Purchase of All form of Insurance for the Business: Completed
  • Conducting Feasibility Studies: Completed
  • Generating part of the start – up capital from the founders: Completed
  • Writing of Business Plan: Completed
  • Drafting of Employee’s Handbook: Completed
  • Drafting of Contract Documents: In Progress
  • Design of Logo for the business: Completed
  • Secure trademark for our company: In Progress
  • Graphic Designs and Printing of Packaging Marketing / Promotional Materials: Completed
  • Recruitment of employees: In Progress
  • Purchase of the needed internet broadcasting and studio equipment, cameras, furniture, office equipment, software applications, electronic appliances and facility facelift: In progress
  • Creating Official Website for the business: In Progress
  • Creating Awareness for the business: In Progress
  • Health and Safety and Fire Safety Arrangement: In Progress
  • Establishing business relationship with vendors and key players in various industries: In Progress

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  16. Start A Tv Show Program

    Businesses Pros & Cons Please note that the data provided in this article are estimates and may vary depending on various factors, and should not be considered as perfect or definitive. The television show program business idea involves creating and producing original television shows for networks or streaming platforms.

  17. TV Pilot Business Plan Template? Filmproposals Answer

    I need a Business Plan Template to raise funds from investors for a TV show pilot and pitch it to a network. Can you help me ? Thank you! - Tim. TV Pilot Business Plan Template? Filmproposals Answer. Hi Tim: This is a great question! While we don't specialize in TV, we have had a few customers who have successfully adapted our Film Financial ...

  18. TheFinanceResource.com

    The purpose of this business plan is to raise $1,800,000 for the development of a TV program production company while showcasing the expected financials and operations over the next three years.

  19. Reality Show Start

    1. Find an idea: Your first step in starting a successful reality show is coming up with ideas for your show and choosing the best ones. Think about what your episode will be like. What makes your idea unique? What do you think of your show that will fascinate your audience? What sub-genre of reality shows does your show idea fit into?

  20. TV Station Business Plan [Sample Template for 2023]

    A business plan will an road show for your small business's growth and development. Use this business plan template to pick your tiny business up used performance. TV stations cannot be phased out despite the change to visual technology approaches and the emergence of new media (YouTubes et al).

  21. Talk Show Business Plan

    However, a business is any company that carries out a productive activity in exchange for capital. In short, your talk show is also a business! So you can use this illustrative template to help you manage it, as we have included sections for different analyses, marketing plan or financial plan. And you will even find templates to organize your ...

  22. The biggest challenges in the TV and film market, say these agents

    These are the biggest challenges in the TV and film market, according to top agents. Rich Klubeck, left, partner in UTA's motion picture group, and Dan Erlij, right, partner and co-head of UTA ...

  23. Cable TV Network Business Plan [Sample Template]

    Based on thorough market research and analysis, we anticipate steady growth and profitability for Galaxy® Cable TV Network, Inc. Our projected revenues for the next three years are as follows: First Fiscal Year (FY1): $450,000. Second Fiscal Year (FY2): 800,000. Third Fiscal Year (FY3): $1.4 million.

  24. The Booming Business of Cutting Babies' Tongues

    transcript. The Booming Business of Cutting Babies' Tongues One family's story of "tongue-tie release" surgery on their newborn. 2024-02-19T06:01:22-05:00

  25. Money latest: Britons are not using all their holiday days

    They show the largest budget surplus for any month since records began in 1993. The Treasury raked in a net sum of £16.7bn in January, according to the Office for National Statistics.

  26. SkyShowtime CEO on "Megahit" 'Yellowstone,' Ad Plan and How the ...

    SkyShowtime CEO Monty Sarhan said the cheaper ad-supported service will ensure that the streamer provides consumers with "an even more affordable entertainment choice for the entire family."

  27. Internet TV Station Business Plan [Sample Template]

    Miscellaneous - $20,000. Going by the report from the market research and feasibility studies conducted, we will need about five hundred and fifty thousand (550,000) U.S. dollars to successfully set - up a small scale but standard strictly internet television station in the United States of America.

  28. Here's how to stream the Super Bowl on Paramount+

    It's still that way, but for cord-cutters that don't have a TV package or antenna, it's a little more complicated. This year, CBS is showing the game on Sunday and also streaming on its ...

  29. How Jack Dorsey's Plan to Get Elon Musk to Save Twitter Went South

    Dorsey and Musk kept an open dialogue as the acquisition was coming together, and Dorsey ultimately retained his nearly $1 billion stake in Twitter when Musk took it private. When the terms of the ...