Join Sundance award-winner Philip Shane for our 4-part Live class, Boost Your Documentary Productions with AI. Philip is a global authority on how to use ChatGPT and other AI tools to revolutionize our filmmaking processes. His classes and panels have earned rave ratings from industry professionals in sessions hosted by Documentary Business, DOC NYC, The D-Word, World ..read more

The saga of astronauts Butch Wilmore and “Sunny” Williams, waiting for rescue on the International Space Station until February 2025 highlights the risks and challenges of space exploration. We look back at a tragic space-themed story that dominated headlines in 1986: the Challenger Disaster. Tom Jennings Productions‘ signature use of the archive brought the story ..read more

Good News! Natural History programs continue to enjoy demand from buyers worldwide. What topics and formats are preferred? What budget levels are earning green lights? How important are European public broadcasters to the financial health of the Wildlife genre? Anne Olzmann (Albatross World Sales) explores these and other market trends with veteran programming exec Dan ..read more

There’s nothing quite like an election campaign to add stress to an already high-pressure documentary production. In 2020, Pat McGee uncovered America’s election fever in BERNIE BLACKOUT: THE REVOLUTION WON’T BE TELEVISED. His fast-track documentary for Vice confronted the systemic media bias that boxed in Bernie Sanders’ 2020 campaign. Our Bernie Blackout Case Study is a highlight among my ..read more

By Ed Hersh. It’s no secret to readers of Documentary Business that despite the seismic and often chaotic shifts in the business models of non-fiction content — new platforms and technologies, mergers, the flight from linear TV, acquisitions, divestitures, massive layoffs – there’s one genre that continues to survive and thrive above all others: True ..read more

Todd Hofmann is the former Head of the Media Rights Group at ICM Partners. In 2018, he created StoryScout, the online marketplace that “uses technology to help create efficiencies for producers who need access to stories.” In this series of post and webinars that focus on story development, Todd explains how StoryScout provides producers with access to over four thousand stories, with more added every day. Read last week’s detailed post here: StoryScout: Delivering Efficiencies to the Story Development Process Watch our Webinar (22′) Timecode: [1:00] What is StoryScout? [4:10] How does Story ..read more

Liz Levenson was a first-time attendee at NATPE Budapest, which took place June 24 – 27 at the Intercontinental Hotel in Budapest, Hungary. Liz was at the market as a global distributor of finished content and formats, with a goal of meeting Eastern European network buyers and production partners. Here are her Takeaways: by Liz Levenson Excitement! The television market in Central & Eastern Europe (CEE) is like stepping back in time ten years compared to the US market, in the very best way possible. CEE is a rapidly developing region It is comprised of approximately 27 countries And a po ..read more

I’m always on the hunt for solutions that create efficiencies – and therefore take costs out of our ever-tighter production budgets. That’s what STORYSCOUT delivers to the development process for documentary and factual producers. I first met Todd Hoffman, StoryScout Founder and CEO at MIPDOC ’24 in Cannes. In this first of a series of posts and webinars, Todd explains how StoryScout finds and brokers the rights to stories. The Challenge: Content Discovery The conventional development process for unscripted producers is stacked with inefficiencies. Producers and their development teams scour ..read more

Find in the transcript the detailed data and strategic analysis shared by Dan Salerno and Liz Levenson in their webinar covering programming strategies by three major unscripted platform groups.: Nat Geo / Disney+, Discovery / Max, and A+E Networks. Watch the webinar here. One unsettling trendline they weigh in on: Original Hours Discovery+ 2021: 1,200 Discovery+ 2022: 400 Max 2023: 46 Max 2024 ytd: 43 Following is the transcript for Discovery and A+E Networks.  Dan Salerno and Liv Levenson – June 13th, 2024 DISCOVERY / MAX L:  I’d love to hear from you, how ab ..read more

Legacy networks and streamers are still buying programs despite all the chatter about “tough times” for unscripted and documentary producers. What do the buyers want? What’s the scale of their greenlights this year compared with prior years? Who gets them? Liz Levenson (Cactus Tree Entertainment and GRB Media Ranch) hosts a revealing conversation with veteran programming exec Dan Salerno. Working off Dan’s unique tracking data, they focus on: Nat Geo Channel / Disney+ Discovery Networks / Max / Discovery+ A&E Networks Liz and Dan analyze how these unscripted giants balance three strate ..read more