www.broadcastnow.co.uk
23 August 2013
Edinburgh bumper issuee
HOT SHOTS 2013 Meet TV’s rising stars in our 36-page supplement
INTERVIEW Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan p34-35 PRODUCTION Penny Woolcock and grass-roots film-makers p32-33 COMEDY FOCUS C4’s Phil Clarke; producer Lisa Clark; Inside No. 9 p25-30
Commissioning flaws exposed ■ Indies slam culture of cancelled meetings ■ Inconsistency revealed as major problem
The midjourney turn-back is now part of our working lives
BY CHRIS CURTIS
Indies’ lives are blighted by commissioners from the BBC and Channel 4 cancelling their meetings, and they claim the quality of input they receive from commissioners at C4, Channel 5 and Sky is very inconsistent. These are among the findings of a comprehensive survey of commissioning carried out by Broadcast and GfK for the Edinburgh International Television Festival. The survey, which generated contributions from 76 of the UK’s top 100 indies, illuminates a widespread culture of cancelled, rushed or interrupted commissioning meetings, with multiple respondents claiming to have been sat in reception when told that their meeting had been called off. Almost 60% of respondents had had meetings cancelled in the past 12 months; of those, half had experienced it at the BBC and 65% at C4. That contrasts strongly with ITV and C5, which were responsible for cancelling only 6% and 3% of meetings respectively. One respondent summed up the complaints: “The BBC and C4 regularly cancel or change meetings at the last minute, or even on the way over for a meeting. The midjourney turn-back is now part of our working lives.” The subject was among the most emotive in the survey, with one respondent branding C4’s behaviour “hopeless and inexcusable” and another calling it a “perennial BBC bad habit”.
Survey respondent
Twenty Twelve: industry suffers from meetings from hell
FIVE-YEAR PATTERN INDIES RATE COMMISSIONING 67% 49%
47%
38% 20%
16%
14% 24%
20%
ITV
Sky
BBC
23% Other
44% 61% C4
But the BBC fared better in terms of the quality of input its commissioners deliver. Some 43% of indies scored the corporation 8-10 out of 10 for the quality of its input after commission, compared with just 7% scoring it 1-3 out of 10. ITV performed even better, with 49% of respondents rating it 8-10 and 8% 1-3.
Channel 5
A lot or a little better A lot or a little worse
Both broadcasters significantly outperformed their major rivals. The data showed indie experiences with C4 are very inconsistent, with 26% scoring it highly (8-10), but 24% of indies who work with the broadcaster awarding it 1-3 out of 10. C4’s commissioning team also came in for anecdotal criticism, with a typical comment suggesting
it suffers from “inexperienced and nervous commissioners, with unclear guidance both internally and externally”. A Channel 4 spokesman said: “C4 has gone further than any other broadcaster in expanding its supply base and this survey only reflects a very small proportion of the 460 suppliers we worked with last year. “We topped both the Broadcast and Pact surveys as best broadcaster for indies to deal with and have introduced industry-leading measures to improve the process for our suppliers. If we’re not getting it right in every instance, we want to know – we have introduced the role of indie advocate and would encourage producers to use it.” There was also an inconsistent picture at C5 and Sky, where the split between positive and negative feedback was 30% to 30% for the former, and 21% to 17% for the latter (see page 8). The BBC and ITV also outperformed C4 and C5 when judged over five years in terms of the overall commissioning process (see graph). The findings will be discussed in detail on 23 August at 3.15pm at a Guardian Edinburgh International TV Festival session called We Need to Talk About Commissioning.