Access to the world of TV
The hardest thing in TV is to win a broadcast commission, especially a long-running, or rolling commission. It’s the Holy Grail for an independent producer.
It’s the difference between lucrative work and no work, creative fulfilment and frustration, riches and penury, access all areas and all access denied, success and failure.
Without a TV commission (or contract), i.e. the money to make the shows and the means to get them seen, your ideas, however good, never see the light of day.
But once you have a rolling contract in the bag, you can put your ideas into screen action, improve, experiment, expand, hire top people, pitch projects direct to broadcasters who are now friends, live the good life, and generally make merry.
As Noel Coward said, “Work is more fun than fun”.
A TV series contract grants access to the kingdom of broadcasting. It’s the gateway to a fulfilling creative, professional and social life; the key to an all-costs-and-expenses-paid world of wonder.
Without it, as a producer, you are nothing. Your projects are forever “in development”, never in production.
It means writing this instead of making memorable TV programmes.