CHAPTER 18
Marketing
301
Introduction
A generalized guide to marketing follows. Markets and events come and go; they change
dates and locations from year to year. The industry changes. Marketing strategies vary. Each
country has its own unique marketing opportunities.
Major U.S. Networks
Television network programming routines seem to be in a constant state of flux these days.
Broadcasters buy a year or two ahead and develop shows all year around. It’s always easier to
sell a project that’s similar to one that’s just been successful than to sell a fresh idea, although
broadcasters say they’re looking for something new. The U.S. networks now have their own
production arms, and some programming is coming from these production companies. Some
of the networks have experimented with outsourcing their entire season’s children’s schedule
to a single entity. So in the United States, you may want to consider pitching projects to these
production companies instead of pitching directly to the networks themselves.
- August—traditionally the networks’ busiest month, with everything coming in for the
new fall season, scripts, storyboards, completed episodes, and so on. Occasionally, a
network will launch its fall programs early to get a jump on everyone else, an August
launch. Today programs might launch anytime during the year. - October—programmers with an early fall season get an idea of what’s working and
what’s not after the season’s launch. This is the classic start of development season. - December–February—the traditional, prime buying periods. Conventional thinking
put off buying as late as possible to see what was happening in the marketplace, how
shows at their own network and others were doing, and what hot trends were appear-
ing. Now many programmers realize that hurrying the development and production