There is often talk in our comments about a broadcast network favoring shows produced by its own (i.e. "in house") corporate production company. There's at least anecdotal evidence that happens.
One of our readers (known to TVBTN commenters as The_GodfatherSJP) took a look at the numbers to see if there was a trend towards increasing numbers of shows produced by the big 4 broadcast corporate production houses aired on their sister networks and this is what he found.
A few things quickly became apparent:
1) ABC seems to be highly variable year to year. I should probably look at years previous to see if this is a recurring trend. But it seems like they actively decided to counterbalance a trend starting in 2007, namely using more and more of their own shows. If you look at chart 2 the reason why the "percentage owned" has dropped is because they replaced a substantial number of their own shows with shows from other studios
2) Sony Studios has no luck. I've yet to see any TV show they produce last longer than 2 years outside of Til 'Death. It explains why they bribed FOX to keep it, Til 'Death is their most successful show over the past 5 years!
3) FOX doesn't really like other studios outside of WB. Except for House (NBC) and Til Death (Sony), all their other shows come from that studio. I guess they don't want to help their competitors.
4) I think there is a trend with NBC and CBS "owning" more of their own shows. In CBS's case this might be something of a fluke, we'll have to see next year, but if you look at the charts you'll see there's a substantial jump from last year to this one. As for NBC, looks like they already decided to start this in 2008. There's a sustained increase starting in the 2008-2009 season. I don't think it's a matter of choosing to retain their own series either. Rather, I think most of their pilots in NBC and CBS' case for the past few years have been coming from their own studio. They've been choosing their own stuff instead of pitches from other studios.
Couple of notes before you look at the spreadsheet:
1) Touchstone pictures is a division of ABC. Anything they produce, ABC owns. Same thing with Universal and NBC. I assume you already know that but it's an important point.2) Paramount didn't merge its TV production studio until after the 2005-2006 season. I kept the two separate for that season, afterwards a Paramount produced show is a CBS owned one (which is born out on IMDB.com, my main resource).
3) Some shows have multiple networks involved, for example Life On Mars was a FOX/ABC co-production. I'm assuming that means both corporations receive any additional revenue in such a situation, so counted such a show twice, once in the "network owned" and once in the "unaffiliated" column. Not sure if that's the correct thing to do and I would appreciate advice on this.
4) I discounted any reality or game shows here, and took only scripted shows into account.
Chart 1 shows the percentage of network owned shows every season (meaning of course that a network is involved in the production of a show and therefore sees syndication and dvd revenue). 12/8 Update: chart replaced with corrected version.
Chart 2 is the actual number of network owned shows. 12/8 Update: chart replaced with corrected version.
Dollhouse was a Fox production and that didn’t help it.
Poor Sony, Til Death is their longest staying show?
What freshman shows are they producing this season anyway?
CBS studios does not have any show produced now outside CBS and CW, right?
Warner Brothers is a prolific studio, I must say.
thats all they can afford right now unless ratings go up
Parenthood, as I said in the post above, I don’t think it’s a matter of axing less of their own shows. Rather, I think it has more to do with greenlighting pilots from their own studio, and, in CBS’s case in particular, saving their own show in Medium. Basically, if you axe 2 of your shows and 2 of an unaffiliated studios, and replace these shows with 3 of your own and just 1 of another studio, over time you “own” more and more of your lineup. I think that’s what NBC is doing, and what CBS is starting to do. And they’re basically following FOX’s lead on this.
If you look at the graph, FOX and ABC don’t seem to be doing anything abnormal. NBC and CBS on the other hand, not so much. Now, when you see a company list a major corporation as headed for bankruptcy http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2207075/analysis_what_affect_will_a_cbs_bankruptcy.html?cat=2), this move, to use their own series, makes sense in this context. They’re trying to squeeze every penny they can.
Again, it’s a one year spike, and we’ll have to see if this continues. But it is much larger than what we’ve seen previously with the other networks.
One other thing: as for FOX, the only show they have from a rival studio is House. Every other show over the past 5 years has basically been from Sony or Warner Brothers. Other than those 2 studios, FOX makes all its own shows. And in the case of NBC and ABC it also sells shows to other networks.
So saving Dollhouse because it was a FOX owned show, frankly, probably wasn’t as much of a factor as we think. The majority of FOX’s lineup is FOX owned. I’m sure it mattered, certainly, but not to the extent of, say, saving it from the axe of another network.
And if any of you are wondering why I didn’t include the CW, well, that’s a CBS/WB owned network. So they basically make all the shows for that network.
The-Godfather, I think the only time that a network would try to save a low rated show that they produce in-house is when that show is close to syndication. Doll House was nowhere near syndication so of course FOX didn’t worry about saving it because that wouldn’t benefit them financially to do so.
Sorry, but this is a case where the numbers start out being so small that it’s very hard to say there’s a “trend” without fairly wide swings. There is no forest, and there probably aren’t even any trees.
FOX owns one less show than it did in 2005.
ABC owns exactly the same # of shows it did in 2005
CBS is indeed an odd case, but it had Medium put back on it with no real choice but to air it, so it’s really sort of +3 +1 over 2005, not sure there is really much to make of it given last year. But it is the only network of the four that has more than a +/- 1 variance from 2005.
I don’t look at NBC’s 12, 13, 11, 14, 13 and have sustained increase on the brain with +1 vs. 2005. The percentages got skewed particularly this year because Leno took 5 slots. On the other hand, that they have +1 with fewer slots now might make more of a case. Or not. On the surface it looks like 5 Jay Lenos replaced NBC-owned shows, so it was a wash.
The Closer was a CBS production that aired on A&E, but it was axed
crap I meant The Cleaner :p
tdot, I think you mean The Cleaner. And CBS doesn’t own A&E so that doesn’t really apply to this article anyway.
Robert, it’s kind of hard for there ever to be large numbers. CBS and ABC lately put on the most scripted programming, usually 22-25 shows a season. NBC and FOX and now about tied, with 16-18 shows a season. NBC’s been gradually dropping the amount of scripted programming they’ve aired for the past 2 years.
The actual difference year to year with NBC isn’t much, and if the percentage of “owned” shows had come down, I’d agree and say it’s a temporary spike. But it’s not. It’s like I told Parenthood: the pattern with NBC is axe the same number of NBC and non-NBC shows, then replace it with a preponderance of NBC owned material. It’s not 3 to 1, but it’s definitely weighted in NBC’s favor.
There’s a 3rd chart which ought to be added, tracking the number of scripted shows total on a network, which I’ll get to you guys tomorrow. Thing is, you’ve got a network that’s part of a corporation (CBS) and a network that’s falling in the ratings (NBC) and both seem to be favoring their own shows over unaffiliated studios.
With CBS, we won’t be able to tell anything until next year, but watch the pilot crop from both studios. If I’m right, the majority of greenlit pilots will from their own studios.
Yeah, guys, it’s just the major broadcast networks here. Nothing else.
Sorry Godfather, I agree, the numbers will never be big.
There’s only 22 hours to work with, and that’s if you count Saturdays which hopefully you didn’t, because it would skew CBS and FOX (vs. the other nets) who are the only networks to air any non-sports original programming on that night excluding burn-off.
Following the % increase trend on a net variance of 1 (ONE!) four seasons down the road and attaching any meaning to it is folly to me, no matter how it is sliced. If it isn’t folly for you, so be it, but nonetheless, the net variance is 1!
Query – isn’t American Idol also not made by Fox studios? What about Hell’s Kitchen or Kitchen Nightmares? Is this supposed to only refer to scripted shows – if so, it kind of misses a lot of shows. I could be wrong on these points but Futoncritic doesn’t mention these as Fox studios productions. They are also not WB or Sony.
LOL now I see point four. Um yeah, kind of pointless not taking reality shows into account, especially considering they make up a large part of Fox’s schedule. I mean it makes sense for Fox not to have many other studio productions as it only has a few scripted shows (that it doesn’t own itself)!
“3) Some shows have multiple networks involved, for example Life On Mars was a FOX/ABC co-production. I’m assuming that means both corporations receive any additional revenue in such a situation, so counted such a show twice, once in the “network owned” and once in the “unaffiliated” column. Not sure if that’s the correct thing to do and I would appreciate advice on this.”
Maybe partial ownership should count only as a partial show. In the Life on Mars example ABC could just get 1/2 credit as producer if we assume it was a 50/50 partnership. But we may not know the exact percentages of the partnerships to fill in the charts and that’s why God invented asterisks.
But does the chart reflect the overall time difference of one hour network-owned shows relative to half hour shows? Would it be more clear to see the nets’ investment of time and resources to track the network owned hours of programming instead of shows which may have different running times?
I noticed that with Sony
I guess they need their own network
Over on ABC, most of the dramas that it airs are produced in house. In fact, of all of them, only Eastwick and The Forgotten are not owned by ABC and not surprisingly, one is cancelled, and the other is near dead. That may explain why ABC chose Ugly Betty instead of trying to save Eastwick.
Doug, V is not owned by ABC, neither is Desperate Housewives.
I stand corrected: Desperate Housewives is filmed at Universal. but is owned by ABC.