Hi.
Thank you kindly in advance.
How much does it cost to make a TV sitcom?
Quote: Roodeye @ October 23 2009, 9:11 AM BSTAmazing really, when you look at YouTube and see the sort of stuff talented people can produce for NOTHING.
Links, please.
Quote: Roodeye @ October 23 2009, 9:11 AM BSTIt varies but it can be up to £350,000 per episode in Britain.
In the USA, $1 million per episode is pretty much the STARTING point.
Amazing really, when you look at YouTube and see the sort of stuff talented people can produce for NOTHING.
Yes but it isn't nothing really is it.
They had to buy the equipment to shot it on and then their was their time, they had to buy the clothing that they were wearing, any prop items in in the shots say a chair..........
Quote: Roodeye @ October 23 2009, 9:11 AM BSTIn the USA, $1 million per episode is pretty much the STARTING point.
Didn't Friends get up to nearly $10 million per episode for its final season? Any idea whether any sitcoms have cost that much since then?
Quote: Kenneth @ October 23 2009, 10:56 AM BSTDidn't Friends get up to nearly $10 million per episode for its final season? Any idea whether any sitcoms have cost that much since then?
Yes, but with the American shows salary demands start getting bigger. Such as with Seinfeld. Not sure there's any American sitcoms around now popular enough for the stars to demand astronimcal salaries.
Comedies are having their budgets slashed to death now, as are performers' wages. I know of one highly-successful current BBC comedy that was told it would only get another series if its budget was halved, and it wasn't a particularly expensive show in the first place. One producer of a very well-known indie told me they're actually making some TV programmes at a loss, just to keep in the business. There is just no money around anymore. And then people call writers and performers "sell-outs" when they f**k off to America.
What puzzles me is exactly what the BBC is spending money on. The licence fee should make them near enough recession proof.
Quote: Timbo @ October 23 2009, 11:13 AM BSTWhat puzzles me is exactly what the BBC is spending money on. The licence fee should make them near enough recession proof.
Protection for Nick Griffin 
But it's a good point. The output of BBC programmes shouldn't be effected.
Unless they argue that the sales of DVDs and the sales of programmes oveseas has rapidly dropped.
Quote: Roodeye @ October 23 2009, 9:11 AM BSTAmazing really, when you look at YouTube and see the sort of stuff talented people can produce for NOTHING.
Yeah which means the writer doesn't get paid, and for that reason, I am out!
Quote: Timbo @ October 23 2009, 11:13 AM BSTWhat puzzles me is exactly what the BBC is spending money on.
The BBC's rewriting of Humpty Dumpty has upset the anti-PC brigade in Australia. Hopefully no money was spent on making nursery rhymes more saccharine.
I reckon if people are such good writers they can come up with a good comedy in one room with minimal actors like the Royle Family or Steptoe and Son.
Having read the BBC Commisioning Priorities it does seem that writing an amazingly cheap sitcom is a good way of getting your work considered.
Yes, I heard they will not even entertain the idea of location based sitcoms at the moment, which is a bit of a worry. So we're going to be fed a diet of stuff like Not Going Out and Reggie for the next three years or so till the recesion goes. Only that they've already axed one of them. BTW is that £350K per ep on average over all sitcom? There is just no way that NGO cost that much per episode, nothing near that.
Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ October 24 2009, 10:00 AM BSTwe're going to be fed a diet of stuff like Not Going Out and Reggie for the next three years
I hope so!
As mentioned on the last page, all you need is a camera (£200?) to produce a sitcom... however I guess you're talking about a professionally filmed sitcom.
A typical BBC1 sitcom costs £150,000 to £300,000 an episode to film in total. However, the sitcoms that feature big stars (e.g. My Family) cost considerably more than that because their wage bills are higher.
And you have to work with unions. Everyone on the show has to be a professional and paid accordingly. So you have to employ make up people/wardrobe/art dept/cameramen/caterers/transport etc etc or the unions kick off. You can't simply pitch up with your own stuff to save a few quid. Even small productions have quite large crews, but at least it means people being paid for the work they do.