Starting a Television show could be a very great business that anyone can do, as it is a very lucrative business to venture into. With the fact that there is a huge Television viewership in Nigeria. Even th
Smart phones and internet have made it a lot easier to download and watch video content but this has not really hampered on TV viewership, to watch any online video content requires data therefore making it impossible most of the time for people to watch online videos, this is a major challenge for online video content producers. You are reading this because you want to start a TV show business, this article will help you a great deal. It will give you an insight on how to go about the business.
What is a TV show? A Television show is any content produced for broadcast via over the air satellite, cable or internet and typically viewed on a television set. A TV show airs weekly on a particular station and has a specified time that it is aired. A TV show can be episodic. It can be live or recorded. TV shows are most often scheduled well ahead of time and appear on electronic guide or TV listing. It can also be called Television programme. Starting a TV show requires careful planning. The functions of Television include information, entertainment and education, and any good TV show must be doing any of above or all. Examples of TV shows in Nigeria. Some examples are, The Teju Baby Face show, Inside out with Agatha, You and I with Monalisa, Take a step, Super story, Binta and Friends, Flatmates, Under40 CEOs, The Ogbonge show with ogbono Etc.
How To Make Money In The Television Show Business
The chief goal of any entrepreneur or investor, the goal that made him/her start business or want to invest in any venture is to make money (profit oriented). He couldn’t have started his business or invested just to lose his money. In fact entrepreneurs don’t want to go into any business that will attract loss of their money. So on that basis I will talk about how to make money from this business.
Is either the entrepreneur has money to buy airtime from the Television stations with which to air his show/program and then get people, companies, organisations, schools small businesses etc. to advertise on the show. Any money paid by advertisers is he’s alone, but in a situation where he has produced his show and don’t have resources for TV airtime he can approach the programme’s director (PD) of any TV station of his choice and then talk to him/her about his show if the discussion goes down well the PD will collect his show and air it free of charge and the two party will now have to agree on the sharing percentage of the advert proceeds. Weather 50/50, 40/60 or 30/70.
Another way to air your show without paying is by selling it off, you can produce about 13, 26 and 52 episodes depending your capacity and you sell it, you can sell to African Magic, before they finish airing those episodes you sold to them, produce more episodes, in this case you have to ensure that your show has continuity. It has to be a very interesting show or storyline.
Your TV show will have a value proposition to reach millions of people, thus creating advert opportunity for advertisers such as MTN, 9MOBILE, AIRTEL, PROMASIDOR, BANKS, SCHOOLS etc. You can also advertise small businesses on your show. This also means that you will have to do marketing for your business, however you want to do it just look for advertisers to advertise with you. Then you start smiling to the bank. I don’t need to talk about how much adverts cost, it’s quite expensive, you can ask other TV producers.
Things Needed To Start Your Own Television Show/ Program
Here are the important steps and things needed for the production of a TV show.
Pre-production stage. This is before you go into production proper. Everything that is put in place with a view to finally go into production.
1. Niche: -
Before starting out a TV show or program the first thing to put into consideration is niche, in fact it’s probably the most important of all the steps. Because your show won’t focus on everything that there is to talk about, it must have a particular and a unique niche. Niche simply means a segment of the Television industry or market. Your show will have to deal or base on a particular segment. You may want to go into fashion and lifestyle show, entertainment and celebrity gossip, business, aviation, commerce and industry, etc. let’s take for example you may want to start a TV show on the area of school quiz or debate, quiz on any subject e.g. mathematics, English, Government, physics etc. you can decide to have your quiz focus on the history of Nigeria and so on. If you are going to tailor your show around quiz it means you’ll need to have different schools that will partner with you, secondary or primary schools depending on which you want. Remember you will bring different students from different schools every week to the show for the quiz competition.
Your show can also be on entrepreneurship where you bring different successful entrepreneurs, like Akin Alabi, Jason Njoku, Linda Ikeji, Augustine Amaechi etc, to grace the show and you have them interviewed on their business and principles that made them successful, thereby encouraging, motivating and inspiring budding or would be entrepreneurs to also pursue and fulfil their business destinies. You’ll also be portraying entrepreneurship in a positive light. This type of show is referred to as personality interview show. The key thing is to make sure you have a good show idea or storyline. That is what the PD will be looking out for as well as the audience. Nobody wants to waste time watching a show or soap opera that is not interesting.
2. Write your script: -
The next thing you will need is a script for the proposed Television show or program. Script is very important in anything TV and film or video production. A script is the narration, audio (music and background or natural sound), and visual directions (shot selection, on-screen text) that will be used in your video production. It is a written document that outlines everything about the show or program. Which direction the show will go, how many presenters or anchors will be on the show, would there be an in-studio-audience, and how many would they be, would there be a panel and all that. The script will also state if it is a recorded or live show.
3. Recording studio or hall:-
This is where you’ll do the recording of your show. If it’s going to be a recorded show. You need a studio or a hall.
4. Anchor/ Presenter:-
This is the person that will stand in front of the camera to moderate the show. You need someone that is creative in front the camera as your show presenter. If you are going to hire someone, ensure to hire the very best. Note: A show is as good as the presenter or the anchor. A bad presenter will produce a bad show but a good presenter will also make for a very good show.
5. Audience (studio audience):-
This is the people that will be in the studio, cheering, clapping etc. this adds colour to the show.
If you are going to have audience in your show, ensure to have arranged with them before hand, make a very strong arrangement with them to eschew disappoints on the recording day.
6. Director: -
You will need a very good director for the production. A director is usually responsible for directing the artiste (anchor, audience, set designer, camera man, guest etc.) and every other aspects of the recording or production. The director is also responsible for all the creative aspects of the production. Director manages all the shots during the recording.
7. Guest:-
This is the interviewee, depending on the type of show you are putting up. Personality interview show, quiz show, talk show, you must have booked and arranged with your guest beforehand. I will talk about how to book high profile guest for your show in this article just read on.
8. Camera:-
You need a very good and standard HD camera. If your picture quality is poor TV stations might not want to put that kind of poor video on their screen. TV stations will out rightly reject your content if the picture quality is low no matter how good your show idea maybe. To record you need at least two cameras. If you have the ability to buy your own camera is best, if not hire camera for your recording.
9. Director of photography (D.O.P):-
This is also called cameraman. You need a D.O.P to record your show. Most D.O.Ps have their camera, you just engage them and they charge you for workmanship and camera. NOTE: it is helpful to record at least three episodes in a day. That way you maximise cost.
10. Set designer:-
This is the person that arranges the set where recording will take place. He / she collaborates with the director to create appropriate environment for recording.
Post-production:- This is all the activities that is done after the production, after you have finished recording all the episodes of your show 13, 26 and/ or 52 episodes as the case maybe. It is now time to do the post production operation which includes the following.
1. Editing:-
This is the removing of unwanted part, proper arrangement of the scenes as well as adding effect, background music or sound and text. The person who does the job is called an editor. It is an extremely long process to edit a TV show, it also requires total carefulness and patience. After editing your content is now ready to be aired on Television.
2. Marketing and promotion:-
You will have to market your show to companies and organisations that can advertise their business on your show. You might want to employ marketer or do the marketing yourself. But it is said that you are the best marketer of yourself as well as your products. Take your pilot episode to firms or organisations that might be interested in it for sponsorship or advert placement.
How To Book And Interview High Profile Guest On Your Television Show
If you are going to run an interview based show, it is important to map out a strategy for booking and getting guest to your show. This aspect is very vital to any interview based Television show. If there’s no strategy in place you might just be struggling or scrambling for guest to record your next episode.
Here are ways to find, book guest for your Television show.
1. Seminars and convocation events.
This is still one of the best ways to meet and bring a guest to your show. When you attend seminars maybe on entrepreneurship and business, at the end of the conference get to network with other business man and woman, professionals or even the speaker at the event, those in the area you would like to discuss or talk about on your show, introduce yourself tell them you are the host of xyz show and that on your show you discuss x topic, once you do that you will capture their attention, once they show interest, ask them for permission to send more details about your show to them and then agree on a means of communication (email, phone, social media etc.) give a follow up call or message to them. (Tip. Never try to book them immediately). By the time you know it you have them as your guest.
2. Send Messages Using Social Media.
This is another way you can bring guest to your show. Look out for the person you want to bring to your show on social media, once you find them send a message across, introducing yourself and your show ensure that the message is brief. Something like this will be fine. ‘‘Hi my name is Augustine Amaechi, I’m the host of XYZ show. I would love to have you on my show’’. That is good enough to get a reply from someone. Once they reply you can move the conversation to email and there you go.
3. Contacts:-
People on your contact list may know someone you will want to bring to your show or know someone that knows the person you might want to bring. So scan your contacts see who can be of help to you in finding guest for your show.
4. Referred guests.
I always research my guests before I interview them for my blog post, and in that process I often discover that they are connected to or close friends with other people that I would love to interview for my show. Obviously, a warm introduction to that person increases the chances that they will agree to an interview, but there is definitely an art to asking for that introduction.
Never ask the person you are about to interview for an introduction to someone else before you begin the interview. This could lead them to believe the only reason you wanted to interview them was to get the introduction to that other person, which pretty much ruins your rapport with that person right from the start. Wait until after you’ve finished interviewing them, and if (and only if) you feel a strong rapport with that person and they are willing to chat with you for a few minutes after the interview, then it is appropriate to ask them for an introduction. If there isn’t any one specific person that you want an introduction to, you can simply invite your guest to introduce you to anyone that they think might be a good fit for your show.
Conclusion
When it Television show business it is very lucrative. The major challenge will be getting a good TV show idea as well as get advertisers, but advertisers is not really a problem when once your idea is sizzling, it will get to a time that they would be the ones coming to you to advertise them.
As I summarise let me also say recording video you have to record at least 3 episode per day, because you are going to paid for camera, DOP, Boom mic operator etc. daily. Use each recording day to achieve as much as possible because of cost implication.
Please feel free to add your comments, suggestions and contributions
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