Is sci fi dieing ?

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Antar Bolaeisk said:
Unfortunately this isn't what counts, the only thing that matters is how many Americans watch the show (for American Network produced shows) live.

I think Netflix or something like it will have the next big Sci-Fi show.
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v0n said:
With very few exceptions aftersales, merchandise, immediate and even repeated syndication doesn't matter. Shows are picked up and sustained only on the base of very antiquated polling of US viewing figures. The time slot assigned for them has a certain advertising value vs cost of production and minimum viewing figure it needs to maintain.
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Neither of these posts matter, the post you were quoting was responding to piracy and lack of income due to piracy being the cause, to which he responded that people may pirate the episodes, but often buy the series when they can, neither of your points change that. It's basically the same daft argument that every single music download means a lost sale, even though a ridiculous number of people who download music then buy the music if they like it.

Likewise neither of your points are right, flat out, theres nothing else to it.

If a show makes a massive profit, it continues to get made, simple, if a show is borderline, its syndication potential, and merchandising potential WILL factor into if the show get's cancelled or not, that doesn't mean tv exec's will get the call right. Firefly would have made a killing with another few seasons, because its simply great tv and people worldwide, when they finally got to see it, loved it.

If a show bombs and costs way more to make than it brings in, likelyhood is it will get canned, if its a new series, almost always will, if its an older series again its potential to bring in syndication/merchandise comes into it, a show that only needs one maybe two more full seasons to hit syndication levels of revenue and the choice to cancel can go just about either way.

American viewing figures are usually the most important but definitely NOT the only factor.

As for good Scifi, or great scifi, its just too expensive, too much money can be made off complete tosh for someone to want to risk spending a lot more on a great show.

Too many great shows are based off expensive IP, which means to make the cost worthwhile of buying the rights to use it, exec's normally sell it as "worth it" by attaching big name stars and directors/producers, which turns it from an medium cost show to an ultra expensive one, at which point a show needs to both be epic and be loved immediately to show any profitability.

Still a few decent shows here and there, Charlie Jade was really excellent for what it was, and certainly had potential for more series but I assume once again viewing figures just weren't high enough :(
 
drunkenmaster said:
Likewise neither of your points are right, flat out, theres nothing else to it.
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... and then you continued to repeat most of my points. :eek:

if a show is borderline, its syndication potential, and merchandising potential WILL factor into if the show get's cancelled or not
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If I asked you for an example you would have a hard time finding one.

Viewers = advertising = money. Low viewing numbers = end of story. Network share in syndication and selling the franchise onto foreign networks is usually too low for it to matter or register. If the numbers aren't there, advertisers won't pay. no one is going to drop prices in a 100-200k per 30 second advertising slot on a primetime good night for entire season on an off chance that Sky in UK will eventually pick it up next year. And couldn't care less if a T-shirt or DVD will sell after even more time. If it doesn't add up, it's gone in blink of an eye. Probably the best example was Baywatch. We are laughing at it now, but there is no denying this was money making series. Viewer numbers and ratings however just didn't work for NBC. And they just canned it, despite the fact over 50 countries purchased broadcasting rights at the time and we all know how popular the "merchandise" was - those swimsuits and calendars were everywhere. Hoff saw the syndication potential and organised funds himself. And they made crazy money.

Firefly would have made a killing with another few seasons, because its simply great tv and people worldwide, when they finally got to see it, loved it.
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People say that, but this show is a classic example of a show where the target audience did not watch it on live TV. Everyone cried after it was cancelled and we all bought DVD and gone to cinema for a wrap up. But people just didn't watch it on Friday night during sport season breaks. Slot was bad. It had some other Buffy/Angel thing as a competition. Episodes were broadcasted out of order. It had massive several moth gap in the middle. And when the second half was being aired over July and August there was nothing unexpected about it being cancelled. no one watched it in that slot. And once again - no one cared what it could make a year later in UK. We don't even register in those calculations with Sky.

As for good Scifi, or great scifi, its just too expensive, too much money can be made off complete tosh for someone to want to risk spending a lot more on a great show.
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You'd think so but actually, 90% of recent sci fi shows were cheaper to produce than regular long runners. Main, regular cast of CSI used to cost over $2m per episode at some point in Petersen times, in salaries alone, before any of them even turned up to work. A fully finished episode of Stargate Universe would cost studio circa the same money. Atlantis apparently kept cost of most episodes under $1m.
 
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Nexus said:
That model can't work though, as I said in the piracy thread a few weeks back.

Shows that are produced for TV are designed around being sold to different markets around the world.
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I think I made the mistake of assuming that the advertising revenue for a show broadcast to essentially the world would be huge. (a bit like half time at the superbowl) and seeing as they would be the sole distributor of the show, all viewers would have to come to them, thus making their advertising slots invaluable.
Once they have sold a show to say sky, they wouldn't receive any of the advertising revenue from where it's broadcast, so is the price the selling the show at, worth more than the increase in viewers??
 
SPARC said:
scorza said:
And the cycle continues - everyone gets bored of a particular genre, and then Ridley Scott makes a film within that genre that spawns a resurgence in interest.
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I so hope this is what happens.
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Yeah I hope so. There is nothing much else of any serious interest at the moment - at least not in TV or films.

Mass Effect comes close, but it's reputation all hinges now on what happens with the ending.
 
Landy said:
someone really needs to contact peter f hamilton and get the commonwealth saga turned into a series now that would be popular!
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The Void Trilogy would be better IMHO, however I have no doubt that any attempt to turn this into either a TV series or films would do it a massive disservice. :(
 
Selekt0r said:
The Void Trilogy would be better IMHO, however I have no doubt that any attempt to turn this into either a TV series or films would do it a massive disservice. :(
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I'm not sure the world needs a series that lasts about 300 episodes. But the principle is sound. However, not necessarily Hamilton: his plots are average, his writing is workmanlike (trans: average), and his characters mostly only plot devices. But the general principle that SF shows should be at least partly written by proper SF writers is something I've been arguing for years. The main reason GoT is so much better than all the rest of TV Fantasy is that it's co-written (or at least heavy involved with) a proper Fantasy writer. Better yet, the bloke who wrote the stuff it's based on. But in TV (and film ), every last hack writer who once sold a script for Murder She Wrote thinks they can write SF. They can't. And just to really annoy people: most of the weaknesses of Firefly were in the SF end, not the character end: Whedon should have brought in a proper SF writer to share the duties.
 
ThundyCat said:
Source?
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It's called "Battlestar Galactica: Blood and Chrome", and revolves around the first Cylon war. There's plenty of info out there...

It seems that, right now, it will just be a "mini-series" - basically a 3hr TV movie that's split into two parts - much the same way that BSG started.

Originally it was intended to continue into a series, but it looks like those plans have now been dropped, so the TV movie / miniseries is all that we will get :(


Trailer made from some leaked footage:

 
Maybe there's not enough geeks watching TV anymore to make a 'proper' sci-fi series viable?

Any series is also likely to sit on pay TV, which will surely limit its audience still further.
 
Lunatic Dreyfus said:
Maybe there's not enough geeks watching TV anymore to make a 'proper' sci-fi series viable?

Any series is also likely to sit on pay TV, which will surely limit its audience still further.
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Hardcore Sci Fi on tv is dead, and i doubt it will be coming back. Digital distribution is the way forward.

TV is the realm of reality tv and drama now.
 
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