Here’s The Pitch….

OK. Well how about this one…..

Pitching a show to a network is a pain…

You get the meeting, and when you walk into the room, the VP for Programming sits behind his or her desk, hands clasped behind the head, leans back and says “OK. What have you got”.

If television has a limited attention span, VPs for Programming have even shorter ones. They have heard it all. About a dozen times a day. There isn’t much that is new.  And, it seems, no matter what you pitch, they always say:

“Naahhh”

“We’ve got that one in development already”

“We piloted that last year. Didn’t rate”

or

“VH1 is doing that already”.

It’s a tough business, but it’s tough for the VP of Programming too, because if they pick wrong, they are out of a job.  And its all done in a very old way.  The call. The meeting. The pitch.  Generally, its hard to even get a meeting unless you have a great track record and generally also an agent (who will not only set up the meeting but also take a percentage of the show for doing so).

The web has changed so many businesses – maybe it can also change the way shows are pitched.

Let’s try.

Here’s a link to a series I am currently pitching around town.

As you can see, I built a website/blog to pitch the show.

This has lots of advantages: I can rewrite and update it all the time. I can email the link to everyone. It has a viral aspect. I can embed videos. And best of all, I can track who has seen it and how often!

But, the best part of the web is the feedback – the ‘community’ aspect.

So here I open the pitch to anyone who has an opinion on this.

Todd Robbins, our host, is a great great talent.

His world would make a fantastic series.  And maybe if we build the pitch as an ‘open platform’, we can bypass the ‘focus group’ aspect of all of this and drill down to the heart of what people really would like to see.

And maybe, with the viral aspect, the link will wind up on the desk of, oh, the VP for Programming for Spike or TLC.  You never know.

Let’s see what the web can do.

It’s a different kind of ‘User Generated Content”. This time, it’s about your opinion.

Why should newspapers and local TV stations be the only ones who are going to change the way they do business?

Michael Rosenblum

For more than 30 years, Michael Rosenblum has been on the cutting edge of the digital video journalism revolution. During this time, he has lead a drive for video literacy, and the complete rethinking of how television is made and controlled. His work has included: The complete transitioning of The BBC's national network (UK) to a VJ-driven model, starting in 2002. The complete conversion of The Voice of America, the United State's Government's broadcasting agency, (and the largest broadcaster in the world), from short wave radio to television broadcasting and webcasting using the VJ paradigm (1998-present). The construction of NYT Television, a New York Times Company, and the largest producer of non-fiction television in the US. Rosenblum was both the founder and President of NYT TV, (all based on this paradigm (1996-1998). The President and Founder of Video News International, a global VJ-driven newsgathering company, with more than 100 journalists around the world. (1993-1996). Other clients include Spectrum News, Verizon and CBS News.

2 Comments
  • Jonathan Sarno April 14, 2008

    Good luck with you pitch.

    On another subject something interesting is happening on May 10 in regard to film, new forms of distribution, changing the world yadayaday,

    File it under high concept:
    Pangea Day – http://www.pangeaday.org/

  • Cliff Etzel April 12, 2008

    Why should newspapers and local TV stations be the only ones who are going to change the way they do business?

    This statement is right on the money.