Cutting the deal

When Bob and I talked about the idea of creating an HD television show we considered various options.  There are several ways you can market your television show idea including:

1.  Create a treatment and market it to various television networks (this works well for Mark Burnett, but not for first time producers like me). Check out Dane’s Blog.

2.  Create a screener (a short 3 to 5 minute version of the show costing $10K to produce).

3.  Create a 30 to 60 minute pilot (actually shorter without the commercial time costing $25K to produce). 

The treatment option was not really an option.  The screener option was appealing due to lower cost, but at the end of the day you could not sell it - i.e. you could never sell the screener - it was a sales tool.  Creating a stand along show - having it “in the can” is a great way to show a network you are serious - this is not just an idea - it is a product - one that you can actually watch.  So we decided to develop a low cost, one hour, HD documentary/pilot designed to sell to an HD network. 

Along with a partner I run a fairly successful IT outsourcing business called Architel - http://www.architel.com.  Making a television show seemed like a fun project, but it was likely to consume quite a bit of my time and a significant upfront investment.  I decided that it might be a good idea to bring him in as a partner - he was thrilled (his wife was not so thrilled - that is a story for another time).    Scott and I sat down with Bob at Starbucks and cut a very simple deal:

   • Partnership created to hold show called MSR Partners

   • Scott and I would own 50% of the partnership

   • Bob’s company, HD Republic, would own 50% of the partnership

   • Scott and I would fund the first $25,000.00 of the production costs in the form of a note

   • Show costs over $25,000.00 would be split equally between the partners

   • First Revenues go to pay note plus return

   • Next Revenues go to pay 25% profit margin for HD Republic on production costs

   • Final Revenues split equally

Whether or not this was a good deal remains to be seen.  Stay tuned…

Total Budget: $25,000.00

Possible Revenue (from sale of pilot): $40,000.00

Possible Revenue (from sale of series): $600,000.00 per year

Now we had a deal and we needed to figure out how to get the show in the can.