Category Archives: Communications

Nancy Glass: The Business of TV Productions

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Nancy Glass of Nancy Glass Productions, has taken quite a lead in cable TV programming  in Philadelphia. Her company’s profile speaks for itself: Nancy Glass has produced: Dangerous Grounds, Tanked, R.V. 2015, We Move Animals, Footsteps in the Snow, to name but a few. Having brought in Argle Bargle Films and Rearrange Media earlier this year, Nancy Glass Productions has been able to “diversify content and leverage facilities.” With this arrangement, Nancy Glass Productions takes a 50% profit, and Argle Bargle Films/Rearrange Media, the other 50%.

Running a TV business in Philadelphia – over New York or LA – Glass has found comes with pluses and minuses. In terms of benefits, overheads are definitely cheaper but then being away from central TV locations means that travel is involved as Glass seeks to sell her “sizzle reels.”

Still, overall, given the way the world is moving increasingly into web-based operations, being a little further out shouldn’t be too much of an inhibition for companies such as Nancy Glass Productions.  As Glass herself pointed out: “We go to everybody. We talk to online platforms; we talk with cable; we talk with broadcast networks…You take a risk on things you like. That’s what you do. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t.”

So far, though, things seem to be working out pretty well for Nancy Glass Productions.

New Department at Nancy Glass Productions

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A new department has opened at Nancy Glass Productions. The Advertising and Commercial Division was launched a couple of weeks ago “in response to an expanding commercial client mix.” It will offer a wide array of services, spanning both digital content and traditional advertisements. This includes: digital short-form videos, social media content, long-form episodic formats, etc.

Ben Fetterman – who until now has been Director of Business Development at Nancy Glass Productions – will head the new department. He explained that the team will be trying to “…identify the best solutions to take a concept from script to screen, no matter how large or small the display.”

Philadelphia-based Nancy Glass Productions was established by Nancy Glass in 2000, specializing in unscripted TV and media content. Since that time it has created 2,000+ hours of prime time reality programming. Collaborating with their partners, one of the goals of the company is to “bring their creative ideas to life.” The firm uses standard and HD and has full post production facilities and a special effects studio. Some of the clients that the firm has worked with over the last decade-and-a-half include: HGTV, DIY, A&E, Veria, Animal Planet, Travel Channel, Food Network.

 

Madoff: How You Could Have Known

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Before the Madoff story broke, a research and portfolio advisory firm called Aksia issued a statement warning clients to avoid doing business with his investment fund, citing several red flags which it uncovered during an investigation. A review of these indicators offers insight into due diligence as well as warning signs to look out for prior to doing business with a firm. Aksia picked up on the following patterns and inconsistencies, and the fund’s concerns were quickly validated:

  1. The firm utilized an especially volatile investment strategy, but was still able to garner stable returns of 8-10% over an entire decade.
  2. A financial advisor who claimed to have studied the firm’s operations issued a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2005 stating that Madoff was running a Ponzi scheme.
  3. The firm was run by family members, and the strategy was erratic and undocumented.
  4. The firm’s comptroller wasn’t based in the United States, but in Bermuda. The “feeder funds” were audited by reliable auditors, while the primary investments were not.
  5. Accounting statements were sent via mail, as opposed to email, as is commonly practiced in the industry.
  6. The firm had been looked into previously.

Copyright Alert System Hopes to Gently Reduce Illegal Downloading

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Downloaders Beware!
Downloaders Beware!

It’s been about ten years since the entertainment industry tried to aggressively to end illegal downloading of movies, music and TV shows with huge lawsuits that attacked everyone from children to seniors, ending from time to time in huge monetary payouts.

Noting that the lawsuits had little effect on halting the copyright infringement which is still rampant, a new tactic is about to be launched on internet pirates who share their downloaded files. Anyone illegally sharing their files online will receive warning notices from their internet providers, telling them bluntly that they are in violation of federal laws prohibiting the copy and use of protected intellectual property. If the warnings go unheeded those in violation can be subjected to a 48-hour internet slowdown. Those who believe they are being falsely accused can file a protest, but it will cost them.

The hope is that the implementation of the Copyright Alert System, which uses warnings and education, will be enough to curb much of the abuse, while giving violators multiple chances to make amends will reduce the number of lawsuits.

“There’s a bunch of questions that need to be answered because there are ways that this could end up causing problems for Internet users,” such as the bureaucratic headache of being falsely accused, said David Sohn, general counsel for the Center for Democracy and Technology, a Washington-based civil liberties group. But he added: “There’s also the potential for this to have an impact in reducing piracy in ways that don’t carry a lot of collateral damage.”

The program begins this week, and is being implemented by the five biggest internet service providers in the country: Verizon, AT&T, Time Warner Cable, Comcast and Cablevision; plus two key organizations that represent the entertainment industry: the Motion Picture of America and the Recording Industry Association of America.

Blockbuster Owner Dish Planning Massive Layoffs

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Layoffs from Blockbuster on the Horizon

In an effort to improve profitability of the US-based video rental store Blockbuster, parent company Dish Network Corp is planning on closing down as many as 300 outlets across the country.

Dish just recently began administering Blockbuster, and would like to unload the unprofitable Blockbuster stores whose business model has been eroded by such online retailers as Amazon and download sites like Apple’s highly popular iTunes store. The closure of 300 stores would mean the laying off of as many as 3,000 workers, representing about 40 percent of Blockbuster’s total workforce of 7,300 in the United States.

“We continue to see value in the Blockbuster brand and we will continue to analyze store-level profitability and, as we have in the past, close unprofitable stores,” Dish said in a statement.

The exact locations of the outlets bound for the chopping block have not yet been revealed.