Television Production in Post-Network Era: Changing Strategies of CBS, HBO, and Netflix an Analysis on the Big Bang Theory, Game of Thrones, and Sense 8
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Television Production in Post-Network Era: Changing Strategies of CBS, HBO, and Netflix An Analysis on the Big Bang Theory, Game of Thrones, and Sense 8 MA Thesis Television and Cross-Media Culture Miribanguli Abudureheman Student Number: 11783095 Supervisor: Dr. Mark Stewart Second Reader: Dr. Jan Teurlings Date: 2018-06-29 1 Table of Contents Chapter 1: Introduction 3 Chapter 2: Stories So Far: The Growing Competition 5 2.1 The Network Era 6 2.2 Multi-Channel Transition 6 2.3 Post- Network Era 9 Chapter 3: Same Game, Different Rules 12 3.1 Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) 12 3.1.1 The Advertising Business Model 13 3.1.2 The Challenges for CBS 16 3.2 Home Box Office (HBO) 17 3.2.1 The Subscription Business Model 18 3.2.2 HBO’s Original Programming and the Branding Strategy 19 3.2.3 The Challenges for HBO 21 3.3 Netflix 23 3.3.1 Netflix’s Technological Features 24 3.3.2 The Subscription Business Model and Netflix’s Branding Strategy 25 3.3.3 The Challenges for Netflix 26 3.4 Findings and Discussion 26 Chapter 4: The Changing Production Practices 29 4.1 The Big Bang Theory 29 4.1.1 The Financing of TBBT: Deficit Financing 30 4.1.2 The Creation of TBBT: High Production Costs and a Spin-off 31 4.1.3 The Distribution of TBBT: Scheduling and CBS All Access 33 4.2 Game of Thrones 35 4.2.1 The Financing of GOT: Self-Financing 35 4.2.2 The Creation of GOT: High Production Costs 36 3.2.3 The Domestic Distribution of GOT: Scheduling, HBO Go and HBO Now 38 2 4.2.4 The International Distribution of GOT: Licensing, Simulcasting and HBO Go 41 4.3 Sense 8 43 4.3.1 The Financing of S8: Cost-Plus to Self-Financing 43 4.3.2 The Creation of S8: High Production Costs and Global cast 45 4.3.3 The Distribution of S8: Exclusivity, Simultanous Whole Season Release, and Infrastructural Features 48 4.4 Findings and Discussion 49 Chapter 5: Conclusion 52 Bibliography 54 3 Chapter 1: Introduction The U.S. television industry has witnessed profound changes, and the contemporary television landscape is more competitive than ever. Observing the changing conditions in the industry, many overtly claim that traditional television – broadcast networks and cable channels – are dying (Cardinal; Yarow). Titles such as “TV’s Death by a Thousand Streaming Apps” (Lachapelle), “Why Traditional TV Is in Trouble” (Maheshwari and Koblin) perpetuate online, labeling label traditional television as “old-fashioned, irrelevant, and dying industry” (Enli and Syvertsen 143), while describes newly- emergent television portals as “world-dominating” (Katz) and “unstoppable” (Morgan). These claims rises many questions: Are traditional broadcast networks and cable networks total victim of this competition? Are they not taking any action to respond to these challenges? Are television portals really not facing any challenges? The changes and the competition in the industry also have attracted many scholars’ attention. Some authors focus on the transformative changes in the production and consumption of television (Turner and Tay). Some recent works have focused specifically on the increasing competition and corresponding changes on industrial structure, practices, and businesses (Curtin et al.; Landau; Steemers). Wildman argues that traditional television and content suppliers should adjust their financing and distribution strategies in order to overcome challenges and maximize revenue (Wildman 91); On top of that, observing the changes in current U.S. television industry, Amanda Lotz argues that the transformation and current challenges has necessitate the reconsideration of production processes – “the practices involved in the creation and circulation of television – including how producers make television programs, how studios finance them, and how audiences access them” (Lotz, The Television 4), in other word, the financing, creation, and distribution of content. This thesis aims to explore how U.S. traditional television – broadcast networks and cable channels – as well as relatively-new television portals are adjusting their television production practices in order to respond to challenges in current competitive television industry. To do so, Based on academic journals, industry and trade documents, 4 audio-visual materials and interviews (accessed from articles and online podcasts, etc.), this thesis conducts case studies on the broadcast network CBS, the premium cable network HBO, and television portals Netflix, and analyzes the production practices of one of their signature television series, namely The Big Bang Theory, Game of Thrones, and Sense 8. The analysis in this thesis consists of three parts, each with an accompanying research question. The following chapter explores why U.S. television industry is said to be competitive than ever. By briefly overviewing the history of U.S. television industry, and comparing contemporary television industry with earlier periods, I argue that today’s U.S. television landscape is competitive because comparing to television’s earlier days, there are numerous platforms, abundant content, and alternative ways of watching television, which fragmented once national mass audience across different platforms, and changed their behavior and expectations. Chapter three analyzes the general and specific challenges that CBS, HBO, and Netflix are facing in current television industry. Here, the main differences between them - the business models, technological features, and business strategies - are identified, and then the challenges that are threatening them are examined. I argue that they are all threatened by audience fragmentation, and the specific challenges vary due to the differences between them. Chapter four analyzes the financing, creation, and distribution of The Big Bang Theory, Game of Thrones, and Sense 8 to explore how CBS, HBO, and Netflix are adjusting their production practices in response to the challenges identified in chapter two. I argue that all three networks are actively adjusting their production practices in order to overcome the challenges, and traditional television networks, in particular, are aggressively launching their studio portals to overcome challenges and expand their markets. Finally, this thesis ends with a concluding discussion on the main findings. Chapter 2: Stories So Far: The Growing Competition The purpose of this chapter is twofold. Firstly, this chapter briefly overviews the 5 development of the U.S. television in order to illustrate how the industry has gradually become more competitive, and how different television distributors adapted to the changing environment; Then, it demonstrates the dynamic changes in the current television landscape, and their impact to different distributors. Amanda Lotz, in her book The Television Will Be Revolutionized, categorizes the major developments of U.S. television into three periods, namely the network era, multi-channel transition, and post-network era (7-8), and demonstrates key changes within the three periods. Roberta Pearson took a similar approach, and summarizes the development of U.S. television as: “In the United States, TVI, dating from the mid-1950s to the early 1980s, is the era of channel scarcity, the mass audience, and three-network hegemony. TVII, dating from roughly the early 1980s to the late 1990s, is the era of channel/network expansion, quality television, and network branding strategies. TVIII, dating from the 1990s to the present, is the era of proliferating digital distribution platforms, further audience fragmentation, and, as Rogers, Epstein, and Reeves suggest, a shift from second-order to first-order commodity relations.” (107). I began with this quote because it illustrates the main characteristics of the U.S. television industry in different periods. While both authors admit that the linear periodization of television history into three distinct eras is likely to obscure the complex operations and considerable overlaps between them (Lotz, The Paradigmatic Evolution 127; Pearson 107), these frameworks are useful in illuminating the main industrial shifts of each era and providing comparisons between them. Therefore, in the text follows, these frameworks will be considered as broad guideposts to understand the development of U.S. television, and used to demonstrate the competition in each era, and corresponding changes in production practices. 2.1 The Network Era The network era dates from the mid-1950s to the early 1980s, and is characterized by “channel scarcity, the mass audience, and three-network hegemony” (Pearson 107). 6 For audiences in the network era, the television meant the Big Three networks, namely ABC, CBS, and NBC. Although there were some local independent television stations for choice, their programming could not compete with the three big networks due to the financial limitation (Lotz, The Television 23-24). The television set was the only device to watch TV (22), and the remote control was not available until the early 1980s (24). Watching television in this era meant “a limited range of genres, certain types of programming scheduled at particular times of day, the television ‘season’, and reruns” (24), which offered the viewers with little control over program schedules, and limited options of content. The networks’ shows, on the other side, were distributed to the massive national audience, and the three networks generate revenue by selling the thirty-second advertisements to advertisers (22). In network era, the television industry was dominated by the Big Three, and the competition was mainly limited