First Sale = Break-Even

Once we gave up on selling MotorSport Ranch to a major network (ABC, NBC, CBS or FOX) we quickly realized that selling the HD rights in the United States would be a break-even affair. Our goal was to attempt to recoup production costs by selling the U.S. HD rights for 2-3 years. The deal with VOOM would just cover the ‘budgeted cost’ of 13, 60-minute episodes. The only catch was that VOOM would only pay once we delivered all 13 episodes. It took almost ten months after general photography wrap to get VOOM to accept delivery and another two months to get paid. Of course, we exceeded the budget by around 15%, which at the end of the day, isn’t that bad. So how do you make money? The real money is in international sales.

In the case of MotorSport Ranch we still own the standard definition (SD) rights worldwide and the HD rights for everywhere by North America. Your first step will be to find a distributor. I wrote about how to pick a distributor in my blog back in February here:

My partner in the project, Robert Bennett, gave me some interesting insight that I thought might be worthwhile for any of you looking to sell your a television show (i.e. one that you already have in the can).

Robert likes John Mclean Media, a solid and reliable distributor with a deep library and a set of established clients. He also suggested that we could talk to Defianace Distribution (they sell to HDNET) or Behr Entertainment. Robert explained that two of the most important factors are a) the length of time they have been in business and b) whether or not they exhibit at MIP and MIPCOM (i.e. both conferences are expensive).

Robert also explained that our existing distributor, Rainbow Media, is a real player not to be discounted. Specifically, he suggested that they can get in networks that most distributors can’t touch including top tier cable, DBS or television outlets in most of Europe. Based on my own research it would there are three tiers of distributors:

• Tier One: Giants like Sony Pictures
• Tier Two: Rainbow, Discovery and various cable outlets
• Tier Three: Mclean, Behr and Defiance

One last bit of advice from Robert was to ask a potential distributor what current titles they are representing. If they are focused on Three’s Company or I Love Lucy you might be in trouble.

Ultimately we selected John Mclean Media who presented MotorSport Ranch at MIPS in Paris this Spring. Assuming he is successful, each incremental dollar of revenue is pure profit!