A new document on commissioning will bring the SABC in line with broadcasting worldwide, provided internal resistance can be overcome. Eddie September reports
Independent television producers say the new SABC document on commissioning is bringing the broadcaster in line with the rest of the world, but they still have reservations about the SABC’s ability to enforce it.
The document, still under discussion by the SABC board, is called Terms of Trade for In- house and Independent Producers/Directors and seeks to rationalise the way the corporation commissions programming.
It looks to:
l systematise commissioning procedures;
l guarantee the intellectual property of the initiators of programming;
l secure a share in profits for the producer;
l grant producers a share in any profits the SABC might make on programmes;
l negotiate contracts around the requirements of individual programmes rather than simply pay flat fees per minute of broadcast time as the SABC has done in the past and;
l ensure that reasons be available for rejecting proposals and that appeal could be made to heads of programming.
“Basically it brings broadcasting here into line with the way it works in the rest of the world,” said producer Mark Newman. “In principle it’s a wonderful document, but it can all go wrong if it is not implemented in the right way.”
Black Film Makers’ Association’s Eddie Mbala described the document as the “best ever to have come out of the SABC”.
But he too warned that unless careful monitoring was applied and a greater transparency enforced, “we could end up with the same old boys club we had in the past”.
Even before implementation though, the proposals could run aground on internal resistance within the SABC.
Technicians and in-house producers have rejected what they believe is a deal which unfairly favours the outsiders, and which – in not setting limits to how much work can be commissioned from outside – could take work away from them.
Sources involved with the document noted, however, that if adopted it will merely bring the SABC into line with broadcasting and copyright practice throughout the developed world.
It will also allow the corporation to fulfil the mandate contained in the Independent Broadcasting Authority’s recommendation that 25% of all public broadcast programming be commissioned out to independent producers.
In the past, commissioning by the SABC has been criticised for being both excessively bureaucratic and excessively whimsical. Financing has been subject to inflexible rules, whereby the commissioned producer is given a fixed sum of money per broadcast minute (varying according to the type of programme from around R8 000 to around R3 000), and sundries are read off against a checklist.
On the other hand, few such rules have applied as regards what actually gets commissioned in the first place, with such decisions having been almost entirely at the discretion of heads of programming.
But more than this, producers seldom retained rights over their work. Once the project had been accepted, it was characteristically taken over by the SABC and the initiators employed merely to execute the work.
In the new deal, special commissioning editors will be appointed, along with teams of script- readers. At least three of these will read each script submission before contracts are entered into and the project is shaped via negotiations between the producer and director and the SABC.
Budgets and rights will be negotiated by both parties and for its part the role of the SABC will be that of a paying partner.
Thus, a production budget might include funding to develop an idea or script; production costs, as well as a contingency budget of up to 10% of the total budget. In addition, production fees of between 10 and 25% of budget will also, for the first time, be payable to the producer, thus guaranteeing some financial reward over and above what can be squeezed out of the film budget.