With
Sandra Levy moving to the Nine Network, the TV production industry will be
looking for some certainty and consistency from the Network on commissioning new
programs. For
example what will be the status of pilot programs which are usually financed by
Nine and the producer to get an idea to a stage where it is viable and a
decision can be made one way or another?

The
Seven Network made a collection of pilot stories which were whipped together,
topped and tailed with links and trotted out to viewers as the very successful
four part first series of True Stories in August.

Next
year True Stories will go to air in two blocks of 10 to 13 programs, with higher
production values and other cosmetic changes.

At Nine
however there’re suggestions that pilots have not been wanted: that the idea is
considered, batted about and the programs made: the Makeover celebrity series of
shows is an example.

The
advantage to Nine of this is cost savings: the development money is retained and
spent on the programs: but this does open Nine to expensive lessons when
programs that fail, do so in production and not in a
pilot.

That’s
if Nine is making programs because at the moment there’s been suggestions that
it has been slow in coming up with new ideas for 2006.

Sandra
Levy will no doubt be driving some urgent fix of product and ideas for
2006.

One of
the things she will have on her desk is the pilot (which was made several months
ago and commissioned in the dying days of the Gyngell
regime) of a ‘true stories’ style of program (probably more Australian Story)
from Andrew Denton’s production company, Zapruder’s Other Films.

It was
around Nine as an idea when Seven was preparing its
pilots of True Stories. Seven then put True Stories into a four part series and
got an average 1.4 million viewers in the 8pm timeslot, while Nine has fiddled.

It was Levy who commissioned Enough Rope for the ABC more than three years ago, so
Denton would no
doubt be hoping for an early answer.

The
pilot was submitted sometime in late May and has sat there, with some reaction
and request for more information, but basically Nine has been in such ferment,
that there’s been no way of making a decision. Andrew
Denton was very public in his praise for Sandra Levy yesterday, describing her
as a big loss to the national broadcaster and having “demonstrably” done a good
job.