In this book, esteemed television executive and Harvard lecturer Ken Basin offers a comprehensive overview of the business, financial, and legal structure of the U.S. television industry, as well as its dealmaking norms. Written for working or aspiring creative professionals who want to better understand the entertainment industry — as well as for executives, agents, managers, and lawyers looking for a reference guide — The Business of Television presents a readable, in-depth introduction to rights and talent negotiations, intellectual property, backend deals, licensing, streaming platforms, international production, and much more. The book also includes breakdowns after each chapter summarizing deal points and points of negotiation, a glossary, a list of referenced cases, and a wealth of real-world examples to help readers put the material into context.

This publication reflects the changes in television, both domestically and internationally and is a useful guide to the legal, economic, and production aspects of the industry.

"In this updated 2nd edition, esteemed television executive and Harvard lecturer Ken Basin offers a comprehensive overview of the business, financial, and legal structure of the U.S. television industry, as well as its deal-making norms. The Business of Television presents a readable, in-depth introduction to the basic structure and recent history of the television and streaming business, rights and talent negotiations, intellectual property, backend deals, licensing, international production, and much more. This expanded and updated second edition reflects the historic impacts of the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic and 2023 WGA and SAG/AFTRA strikes, features brand new chapters about streaming and negotiation, and a greater breadth and depth of technical material about a wide variety of common television deals. Written for working or aspiring creative professionals who want to better understand the entertainment industry - as well as for executives, agents, managers, and lawyers looking for a reference guide. The book also includes breakdowns after each chapter summarizing deal points and points of negotiation, a significantly expanded glossary, an extensive list of referenced articles and cases, and a wealth of real-world examples to help readers put the material into context"--

A practical guide to current entertainment laws peculiarities and "creative" practices. Includes two new chapters: Legal Remedies and Retaining Attorneys, Agents, and Managers.

From unraveling the confusion surrounding digital TV to revealing the inner workings of Nielsen ratings Broadcast Television: A Complete Guide to the Industry takes an impartial and in-depth look at the business of commercial television. Unlike many books addressing this topic, the purpose of this primer is not to support a partisan opinion about what is right or wrong with television but rather to provide objective information from which the reader can make his or her own judgments. To that end the organization and presentation style is also unique in that the industry is explained as a dynamic and interdependent system of technology, economics, and regulation. This systems approach to learning helps the reader understand better the interwoven parts of television business. As a concise and highly focused overview of the business of commercial television, Broadcast Television: A Complete Guide to the Industry can serve as a stand-alone text or as a supplement to other course readings addressing an array of topics involving television today.

Creating Television brings television and its creators to life, presenting fascinating in-depth interviews with the creators of American TV. Having interviewed more than 100 television professionals over the course of his 15 years of research, Professor Robert Kubey presents here the 40 conversations that provide the most illuminating insights about the industry and the people working in it. These interviews bring television's creators to life, revealing their backgrounds, work, and thoughts about the audience and the television programs they create. Each interview tells a compelling tale of an individual's struggles and successes within a complex collaborative and highly commercial medium, offering readers rare insights on the human component in television's development. Featured in this volume are actors, agents, writers, directors, producers, and executives, representing television's earliest days through to the present day. Spanning shows from I Love Lucy and The Tonight Show through to Seinfeld, The Simpsons, and The Sopranos, these creators share the stories of how they gained entry to the industry and built their careers, offering readers a rare opportunity to meet, up close, the people involved in creating many of the most famous and successful programs in the medium's history, and linking the creators' personal histories to the television programs they create. With its unique insights on the people responsible for making television, this volume will be of interest to scholars and researchers in television history, sociology of culture, human creativity, television production, media studies, and mass media ethics. It will also be a popular reader for undergraduate and graduate students in courses addressing television, mass culture, media and society, American Studies, creativity, television history, and media ethics.