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Originally Posted by fotno
I think you're correct. They've been told it wont be profitable, so they never try: which makes no sense to me. The statistic based marketers are wrong as much as they're right, and that gets proven again and again, when shows that don't do all that well in the first season, subsequently develop a rabid and growing fan base later. NCIS is a perfect example. The first two seasons the show was on the verge of cancellation, and currently the show ranks consistently in the top 10.
If there's a large enough market in this country for a Horse racing, Golf or even a Romance channel then there's money to be made on a channel that is just as tightly focused on Sci-Fi or Horror. A huge library of films and shows are out there already, there's a proven market for those goods, and no one needs to look any further than the profitability of genre films and books to see there's money to be made. One example I've seen quoted often: Saw I cost 1.2 million dollars to make and earned 55 million domestically, and that's before DVD sales and rentals are counted in.
Ultimately I believe the problem is that the industry considers itself in the money making business, not the entertainment industry. They have no pride of purpose in their product, and don't care what they produce as long as it makes money.
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Having been involved in marketing for the last decade I can tell you that it works great 50% of the time. What I can't tell is which 50% actually works.
On the rest, you nailed it. We usually tend to be USA focused on films & shows when we start discussing them. What I would like to see is Cold War era Eastern-Bloc sci-fi from the Czechoslovakia, Hungary, & USSR. Also films from Mexico, Korean, India, or anywhere there was a film industry. In the 60's & 70's Mexico was cranking out vampire & sci-fi films so why does it always need to be Tarrantino that rediscovers some forgotten gem? Geez, Sci-Fi barely mined the surface of what is out there. How about a regular show on propmaking and another on special effects? How about one one the background work in making a specific film, director interviews w/ Ridley Scott or the Wachowski brothers? Further, make Saturday mornings nothing but sci-fi cartoons. I would have believe that any of this would be in the wheelhouse of their fanbase. From my comfortable armchair I conclude they truly need to put someone who loves the genre in charge of their programming. That is not the marketers & brand specialists for damn sure.
When you try to stand for everything you ultimately stand for nothing. Again, SyFy hasn't rolled out anything and they could have the most brilliant program schedule ever with carefully considered shows under development and tightly defined demographic data that..................Bwaaaaaaaahaaaaaaaaahaaaaaaa aaahaahhhhh! I can't go on. I've sat through too many of those kinds of meetings and there is only one Apple.
