Top Gear Australia to Channel 9

Just out of interest Stiggie, where did you get that production costs figure from?

I'm surprised actually, I would've guessed 200k upwards per ep, but maybe they leveraged some in-house production facilities so some of the cost was 'internalised'. Either that of they ran it like a guerrilla skate video. :O)

I spoke to a soundie a while back who told me that the UK TG was costing out at about 900,000 pounds per episode. So if Stiggie is correct, TGA cost about 5% per episode of what the UK version does.

Hmmm.
 
Anyone know when TGA starts on Nine?

Now with Discovery Turbo playing Top Gear seemingly endlessly, I'm kinda wanting new material, haha...

Curiously you make a really interesting point about the industry in general.

Specialist 'Providers' like D-Turbo are gagging for content, and the upshot of that is they will have no choice but to 'play stuff endlessly'.

If Channel Nine were fore-thinking (which they're not) they would invest now in producing a decent version of Top Gear Australia which they could show now for meagre return, but also license out for years to come to the Hungry Beast which is pay TV. But they won't look that far ahead.

Remember, in chaos there is profit.
 
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I spoke to a soundie a while back who told me that the UK TG was costing out at about 900,000 pounds per episode. So if Stiggie is correct, TGA cost about 5% per episode of what the UK version does.
Which certainly makes it seem very good for how much it cost, and I'd suggest it also means, a modest amount extra would be able to get them near perfect. That said I doubt the $100,000 an ep. I'm sure I saw a figure saying that it costs Ten $60,000 to show a Simpsons repeat (where Two and a Half Men fits on that scale would be interesting).

I wonder where Fifth Gear fits in there.
 
Which certainly makes it seem very good for how much it cost, and I'd suggest it also means, a modest amount extra would be able to get them near perfect. That said I doubt the $100,000 an ep. I'm sure I saw a figure saying that it costs Ten $60,000 to show a Simpsons repeat (where Two and a Half Men fits on that scale would be interesting).

I wonder where Fifth Gear fits in there.

I'm sure Mark Pesce quotes $70k for an ep of Desp. Housewives in his presentation on Torrents and the future of broadcasting.

Watch this VERY interesting keynote here...

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1720068211869162779#

Edit:

Watched the vid and in 2005 7 we're paying between $50k and $80k for an ep of Desperate Housewives and selling $1.5M of advertising PER EP!!

And that was 5 years ago. Interesting. :)
 
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If I was on the board of Nine it'd take a lot of convincing to get a new series of TGA through to production. The risk would be phenomenal at this stage and Nine don't really do risk, they like proven formats.

I assume that committing to the production of at least one more series of TGA was part of the deal that won Nine the rights. BBC Worldwide is serious about its plans to set up international spin-offs. America failed, Australia and Russia are both off and running and the United Arab Enirates is rumoured to be next.

Just out of interest Stiggie, where did you get that production costs figure from?

From a newspaper interview that came out early in the first series of TGA.

Anyone know when TGA starts on Nine?

No news on TGA. No date has been set for TGUK yet, but it should be showing up after the winter olympics end in early March.

If Channel Nine were fore-thinking (which they're not) they would invest now in producing a decent version of Top Gear Australia which they could show now for meagre return, but also license out for years to come to the Hungry Beast which is pay TV. But they won't look that far ahead.

BTW, TopGear Australia is produced by Freehand Productions, an Australian-based production company that is now majority owned by BBC Worldwide. I'm not sure how much Nine would have the right to licence it out. Those rights may belong to Freehand.
 
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BTW, TopGear Australia is produced by Freehand Productions, an Australian-based production company that is now majority owned by BBC Worldwide. I'm not sure how much Nine would have the right to licence it out. Those rights may belong to Freehand.

It's never been really clear here who's budget the original TGA production came from.

All I know is that Ch Nine will be doing anything to get out of shelling out on production costs. Commercial broadcasters hate to make when they can simply buy.

I also wouldn't assume that Ch Nine agreed to a local production as part of the TG deal. And if they did, they'd only have to make one 'flop' so they can 'bone' the whole thing.

They fact they haven't started ANY long-lead promotion for TGA is a very bad and telling indicator.
 
I'm surprised actually, I would've guessed 200k upwards per ep,

I would imagine that $200K is much closer to the real figure. Insurance on the production would cost an enormous amount by itself, let alone all the regular production costs. Either way, I don't imagine anybody has made the genuine budget figure public knowledge.
 
All I know is that Ch Nine will be doing anything to get out of shelling out on production costs. Commercial broadcasters hate to make when they can simply buy.


All of the networks (including the commercial ones) are required to broadcast a minimum of 55% Australian produced programming. They are always looking for any possible show that could help them meet that quota. That is why we have so many Australian versions of foreign shows. Masterchef Australia, Australian Idol, Big Brother, So You Think You Can Dance, Dancing With The Stars, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, Wipeout Australia, The Biggest Loser were all adapted from overseas programmes to help their networks meets the Australian content standards and have been very successfull shows in their own right.

Nine will be hoping that they can turn TopGear Australia into a popular Aussie show that will not only gain audience share for them, but also relieve some of the pressure they are always under to broadcast local content.
 
All of the networks (including the commercial ones) are required to broadcast a minimum of 55% Australian produced programming. They are always looking for any possible show that could help them meet that quota.

Surely sport takes care of most of that. Add in games shows, then news and current affairs and you're sorted.


;)

Nine will be hoping that they can turn TopGear Australia into a popular Aussie show that will not only gain audience share for them, but also relieve some of the pressure they are always under to broadcast local content.

I tend to disagree. I reckon TGA has a terrible track record and at this stage would be an expensive high-risk project. There's much cheaper ways of meeting local content quotas if that's what they need to do.
 
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Not really. The 55% has to be further broken down into sub-quotas for different types of programming (drama, documentaries, news, childrens, etc).

TGA is still too expensive to produce for a questionable return. As a business case they'd be better off contributing in making the Car Show for the same number of viewers and a better dollar for dollar return.

Let's face it, Freehand killed it by doing a crap job.

I even saw The Car Show on DVD the other day. Something TGA was never worthy of.
 
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TGA is still too expensive to produce for a questionable return. As a business case they'd be better off contributing in making the Car Show for the same number of viewers and a better dollar for dollar return.

Let's face it, Freehand killed it by doing a crap job.

I even saw The Car Show on DVD the other day. Something TGA was never worthy of.

Who the hell would buy that?
 
Not me.

I'd have bought TGA though if it wasn't unreasonably-priced.

Icedvovo: I'm fairly confident that we will see a third series of TopGear Australia later this year. Whether we see a fourth will depend on how it goes.
 
Not me.

I'd have bought TGA though if it wasn't unreasonably-priced.

Icedvovo: I'm fairly confident that we will see a third series of TopGear Australia later this year. Whether we see a fourth will depend on how it goes.

I really hope so. It's good for everyone. I just hope the momentum hasn't been lost.

Who the hell would buy that?(CarShow on DVD)

No-one apparently, it was in the bargain bin.

;)
 
There's much cheaper ways of meeting local content quotas if that's what they need to do.

Last time I checked, NZ shows counted as 'local content'. That probably explains why we get so many NZ reality/doco shows. That's not a bad thing, it's just an observation.
 
You're right tone76, though there is a push to change that.

Also, the local content quota doesn't yet apply to the digital multi-channels such as GO!, but that may change eventually too.
 
Last time I checked, NZ shows counted as 'local content'. That probably explains why we get so many NZ reality/doco shows. That's not a bad thing, it's just an observation.

Ha. Interesting cuz.

That would be why we're getting all the police pursuit shows over here aye bro?

:)
 
They should have made a reality show out of Bana and his friends rebuilding The Beast.
 
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