NEWSLETTER
At AMF Management business and industry education is one of the key success factors in client development. Below are articles selected to help clients develop in the business of entertainment:
The Personal Keys to Entrepreneurship
Coming up with the actual business idea is the easy part of starting your own business. The real challenge of entrepreneurship is the process of building your business - an exhilarating and challenging process that forces you to understand and develop every segment of your company. While this guide will take you through the basics of getting your business established, you should remember that your personal vision and aspirations will be the foundation of your new business.
The Business of Making Music
Becoming a rock star is not all it is cracked up to be financially once you account for all your expenses and splits. In this case study, analyze a mythical rock band's earnings and see actual figures compiled from industry sources. Learn where the money goes and why before you hit the studio.
Actors Seek New Scale for New Media
As advertisers shift their television focus to include more Internet and mobile forms of video advertising, what's an actor worth?
Revamping Payment Structures for Commercial Actors
Representatives of the advertising community met with executives of the two largest actors' unions to sort out just how performers will be compensated for ads delivered digitally on computers, MP3 players, cell phones, PDAs, DVRs, and video-on-demand.
PAYING NEW MEDIA ADS FORWARD: Advertisers will meet with two actors' unions this weekend to hash out a digital-age payment structure.
April 7, 2006
Representatives of the advertising community will meet this weekend with executives of the two largest actors' unions to sort out just how performers will be compensated for ads delivered digitally on computers, MP3 players, cell phones, PDAs, DVRs, and video-on-demand.
The ad industry's Joint Policy Committee on Broadcast Talent Union Relations (JPC) will meet with representatives of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) to hash out a new agreement as the old one will expire in October.
The two sides will not offer competing proposals. Instead they will consider retaining an independent consultant with expertise in TV, radio, labor relations, and perhaps technology to help develop a payment structure that acknowledges the complex realities of digital entertainment.
The negotiators will also discuss an extension of the current contract, scheduled to expire in six months, to give the consultant more time to complete the study and give the two sides time to review and agree or disagree on the proposed compensation structure.
The original payment scheme for actors in commercials was developed more than a half century ago and has been retrofitted over the years to meet the demands of new media.
Outdated Payment Scheme
The two sides kept adding "silos" to the old outdated compensation scheme, creating a kind of Frankenstein that is now so bogged down by misshapen and misplaced parts, it has lost its mobility.
The payment math has remained fairly stable over the years as actors are paid a percentage of media cost. But as the audience fragments into smaller and smaller segments, the payment to actors can be more than the real-world media cost, said Douglas Wood, the JPC's lead negotiator.
That is because the cost bears no relationship to the audience size. Gone are the days when the nuclear family sat around a single television set and watched the same shows. Now mom is watching Lifetime in the family room, dad is watching ESPN in the den, Junior is playing video games in his room, and little Lisa is watching music videos on her iPod.
The cost of reaching this increasingly fragmented audience is going up, according to Mr. Wood, and advertisers fear that absorbing the increasing costs and the incremental expenses of management of the system are getting out of hand.
TV Losing Ad Credibility
Advertisers are growing increasingly suspicious of traditional TV's audience metrics so they can't simply go back to basics. They must deal with the fragmenting audience.
A recent survey by Forrester Research found that advertisers are slashing their TV ad budgets and increasing the amount of money they are spending on online advertising. They are losing confidence in the audience metrics of traditional TV.
Ninety-seven percent of advertisers told Forrester that the TV industry will need new audience metrics, other than traditional program ratings for the advertiser, to truly measure the reach and effectiveness of their ads.
The two sides have a lot to talk about at this weekend's Ad Summit in Los Angeles.