Comment Re:Awesome... (Score 1) 406
It is about economics. For a network to make money on a show the budget
Adtervisting = ratings. The price for an ad is set based on the ratings, unrelated to the type of show, time it airs, etc. That is why you find the effect of prime time, ie when most people have the time to watch = highest possible ratings. It is why Friday and Saturday night, when lots of people go out, have lower potential ratings than Sun-Thurs.
The difficultly with making SciFi shows successful is exactly why realtity shows are so prevelent. Reality shows are about the cheapest to produce, Sci-Fi some of the most expensive. So even if a Sci-Fi program gets better ratings than Joe Millionaire, it make not be making a profit.
The Sci-Fi channel has rarely had the money to make their own series. Stargate started on Showtime so they had a fan base and a good sense of where the ratings would be before committing to it. BSG was a mini-series first, which is a whole different set of economics. Then, the mini-series did well enough to show that there would be ratings to support the show. Also, I'd bet that the mini-series put in place a lot of the effects that they can now reuse to save money on the production now.
As someone else noted, Farscape was a different animal. They had some money and took a chance. Plus, you can't really say it was a success because it was canceled for the same reason Firefly was in the end. It got a much better run is all.
All the contracts, etc aside, Firefly has done very well on DVD, showing it has an audience. That got the movie bankrolled. If the movie does well, that shows that the audience will continue and that there is new interest. If the reruns on SciFi do well, I'm sure there will be some effort made to bring more episodes to the screen since a certain amount of ratings can be expected. Plus, with the film in the can, they can probably reuse effects from that to give the TV episodes some budget savings.
However, note that Joss Wheadon is commited to the Wonder Woman film next. Tim Minear, the other creator of Firefly has a new series on TV now, so if that takes off, a new Firefly season might be subject to schedules.
Adtervisting = ratings. The price for an ad is set based on the ratings, unrelated to the type of show, time it airs, etc. That is why you find the effect of prime time, ie when most people have the time to watch = highest possible ratings. It is why Friday and Saturday night, when lots of people go out, have lower potential ratings than Sun-Thurs.
The difficultly with making SciFi shows successful is exactly why realtity shows are so prevelent. Reality shows are about the cheapest to produce, Sci-Fi some of the most expensive. So even if a Sci-Fi program gets better ratings than Joe Millionaire, it make not be making a profit.
The Sci-Fi channel has rarely had the money to make their own series. Stargate started on Showtime so they had a fan base and a good sense of where the ratings would be before committing to it. BSG was a mini-series first, which is a whole different set of economics. Then, the mini-series did well enough to show that there would be ratings to support the show. Also, I'd bet that the mini-series put in place a lot of the effects that they can now reuse to save money on the production now.
As someone else noted, Farscape was a different animal. They had some money and took a chance. Plus, you can't really say it was a success because it was canceled for the same reason Firefly was in the end. It got a much better run is all.
All the contracts, etc aside, Firefly has done very well on DVD, showing it has an audience. That got the movie bankrolled. If the movie does well, that shows that the audience will continue and that there is new interest. If the reruns on SciFi do well, I'm sure there will be some effort made to bring more episodes to the screen since a certain amount of ratings can be expected. Plus, with the film in the can, they can probably reuse effects from that to give the TV episodes some budget savings.
However, note that Joss Wheadon is commited to the Wonder Woman film next. Tim Minear, the other creator of Firefly has a new series on TV now, so if that takes off, a new Firefly season might be subject to schedules.
