The Sad State of the Outdoors Television Industry Today – November, 2009

I get a lot of people asking me these days why we haven’t produced any new shows recently. Some people are getting tired of the reruns and I don’t blame them. There are several reasons for the lack of new shows and there is one main reason why the show is not currently on the air on any large, national networks in the United States like it was last year and for the seven years prior.

First, we do have some new episodes coming out... a few that we taped over the last year or so and we’re working on them now. We’re way behind, no doubt. In 2007, I was injured and busted myself up pretty good and ended up in a wheelchair for six months or so… then rehab for another few months. That’s part of the reason we’re behind. But, it’s not the only reason.

The way the hunting and fishing television industry operates these days might really surprise you. If you’ve ever wondered why there is so damn much commercialism in a typical hunting or fishing show these days, it is simply because the shows all have to actually PAY the CHANNEL or network to play their show. The shows do NOT get paid for their programs nor do the channels buy the shows from the producers and there are no royalties. In the odd occasion where channels buy shows, the price is maybe, maybe … a whopping $500 per episode. That’s what WFN quoted me last year. Actually, they told me between $300 and $500. Sorry, my bad.

The scenario where the producer (show) must buy the airtime from the network is called a “time buy” business model. As far as I know, one of the very few genres of television that works this way is in fact, the hunting and fishing TV market. Most networks like Food Network, HGTV, A&E, Spike TV or The Discovery Channel all buy the shows from the producers. A "time buy" is pretty much like buying time on a network to play your infomercial and believe me, I hate it!

Yes, we were paying big bucks for The Men’s Channel (Dish Network, DirecTV, cable across the US) before they went bankrupt in 2007 and we also paid many other channels in order for them to put our show on the air. Even the tiny channel in Kenora, Ontario – KENORA – with a whopping population of 15,000 people was charging us $75 a week! Holy shit...

You have to work your ass off to sell the 30 second spots during your show. We went through a string of in-house sales people and we even had an agency in Florida for a while. Sponsorship packages are TOUGH to sell! Any hunting or fishing TV show host or producer will tell you that 90% of the work is in selling your ads. It's a year round effort.

Normally, the show only gets about half of the 30 second spots (ad avails) to sell during their show. Believe it or not, the in-house sales people at the network also sell the ads during your show and compete directly with you. I often hear stories from other producers complaining that the network's in-house sales guy under-cut them and sold an ad on their show for less money than they were asking. That is so stupid because they are competing directly with their own customer; me, the show producer, who is buying time on their channel. I don't get it. That's like going to Home Depot and buying something, then selling the item in the parking lot for less money.

At one point, we were paying around $5000 USD, per week just for our collective time buy. That’s about $260,000 per year… just to be on the air. This is absolutely retarded. The Outdoor Channel is much more than that per week… And, here’s the big problem… producers like me know that in order to pay for the airtime, we need sponsors, LOTS of sponsors with deep pockets. In order to get sponsors and keep them happy, you must basically turn your show into a damn infomercial. They know that if you don’t - the next show that calls them up or sends them a media kit, gladly will.

Another problem with having sponsors is you end up bringing marketing guys on free hunting and fishing trips so they can appear on the show and plug the living hell out of their products… How many times have you heard something like this on a show? “Well, Steve, this is our great new rifle for this season and they’re available at www. blah, blah, blah.” As a host or show personality, you'll likely also have to go to the sportshows, wear a stupid "Pro Staff" shirt with all the badges on it and hang around at the sponsor's booth like you're some kinda big shot. It's such a bunch of ass-kissing bullshit, if you ask me. And, if another archery company, for example, offers more money to the host for the following season, then all of the sudden, that company makes the "smoothest, quietest fastest bows in the world."

In the last two years or so, I have seen a HUGE increase in the level of commercialism and selling out, or as I call it, “ass kissing” on virtually all of the fishing and hunting shows in both Canada and in the US. Even the veteran shows are feeling the pressure now. There are just so many shows these days. Every time I turn on my Wild TV channel, there are a handful of new shows and each broadcast quarter there seems to be another 50 – 60 shows across Canada and the states. Cameras are cheap these days and so are home video editing systems. A decent camera used to cost $20,000. Now, they’re $3000, or less. An editing system used to be $100,000. Now they’re $2000, or less.

The production quality of many shows has gone way down the tubes. There are some hunting and fishing shows that are very well produced, like either “Gettin’ Close" or "The Crush" with Lee and Tiffany” … “Arrow Affliction" with Chris Brackett, shows made by Wolf Creek Productions in Michigan, Hank Parker's shows or anything by Terry and Mark Drury, but many shows are nothing more than home video garbage. Cameras are set to run on "automatic" so it's no wonder half the footage is out of focus. I constantly hear terrible audio and some shows don't even use wirless mics. There's brutal editing... terrible lighting. Holy shit... very few shows use actual qualified camera operators. Normally, it's someone who is "runnin' the camera." It seems that everyone wants to be the next fishing or hunting celebrity. I wish them all the best of luck…

Here is another big problem for independent producers like me. There is a huge increase in the number of hunting and fishing companies who are producing their own shows these days. Muzzy Broadheads, Primos Game Calls, Excaliber Crossbows, Mojo… on and on and on. Most of these shows even go as far as to have their company name and slogan in the title of the show. The show produced by Muzzy is called, "Muzzy's Bad to the Bone TV."

I actually like the show by Muzzy. Michelle Eichler is fun to watch, she's real, she comes across like a pro and she's a very good hunter. And, I like her husband, Fred, who has a show too. But these shows are there to promote the brands, period.

Obviously, the main purpose of these company-owned shows is to promote their brand and products. The show is only a small part of their overall business, so they don’t really need the show to be profitable and stand on its own. It’s basically an advertising vehicle. Well, my situation is very different. I am an independent producer and I am trying to actually make a living at this and I cannot compete with major companies when it comes to buying airtime.

You’ve probably noticed that a lot of shows have segments (sometimes as long as five minutes) that are nothing more than commercials embedded into the content of the show. This pisses me off more than I can tell you and as a viewer, I just turn the channel. I'd rather watch Opra, which is one of my least favourite shows.

All of these segments are outright advertisements for products that the show’s sponsors make. They're often called, "Product Reviews" and sometimes there are segments taped and produced AT the factory where the products are made. I promise you, you'll never see a "Product Review" of a product that ISN'T made by one of the show's sponsors.

There are billboard ads all over the place on the shows these days (I counted 26 full screen billboards on one show) and every time you turn around you hear “This segment is brought to you by this company or that company.” Every second sentence out of the host’s mouth, they’re mentioning a brand name. They can’t just simply say “bow.” It has to be “My Mathews bow.” It can’t be simply a trolling motor. It has to be “My Motor Guide trolling motor.” It can't just be a treestand, it has to be "my Ameristep treestand." He or she has a million logos all over their shirt, boat and truck - and there is more product placement than you could shake a stick at. I will NOT stoop to this level just to bring in enough money to BUY the airtime from the networks, period. I’d rather work as a really, really ugly and bald, cheap male escort. I'd probably make more money.

So, until a major shake-up happens within the industry, you won’t see my show on any large networks like we were on last year and as far back as 2002. And, a shake-up is coming. Mark my words, something has to happen. Like I said, there are way too many damn shows these days and the sponsor contracts are about a third of what they used to be. There are too many shows and they’re all calling the same companies chasing the same shrinking dollars.

The competition is fierce and many shows are so desperate that they’re even accepting a pile of product from the sponsors in lieu of cash. I know of a show that recently accepted 60 tree stands for 13 weeks worth of 30 second spots. Holy shit! Now, they have to sell the stuff on their website or out of the back of their truck and they never get any decent money for the product. To get a decent sponsor contract these days, you almost have to get on your knees and … well, you know. I am not doing it.

I simply refuse to ever pay for airtime again, even one dollar per show, just out of principle. The channel should be paying ME! Without programming, they’d have no friggin' channel! The problem is that there are way too many people who will do anything just to be on TV. Not me, sorry.

If ALL the shows would get together and AGREE to stop paying for airtime, the channels would have no choice but to buy the shows from us (for a decent amount, but not for a lot of money because at the end of the day, it’s still just a fishing show and I am aware of that) and then THEY would have to sell the ads. This way, you’d have better quality shows without all the commercialism that we see today. I promise, you’ll never see this happen because there are way too many “young guns” these days who will do anything to see their face on TV. Giant egos, anybody?

If you’ve ever wondered how some of these shows got on the air in the first place, even though the production quality is brutal or the host has zero personality… well, as long as they have the cash to pay for the airtime, the channels don’t normally give a shit. The shows buy their way onto the airwaves.

At the very least, if the channels would play the shows for zero airtime fees and give us a few of the ads to sell I’d be happy with that. This is how it was “back in the day” before the recent explosion of all the new shows.

So, I’m not sure what the future holds for me in the outdoors TV biz… I am seriously thinking about producing a new show and playing it just on my own website. I won’t have to worry about network airtime fees or kissing anyone’s ass either. We’ll see.

I hope you can at least try to understand this big mess. I am truly sorry to all of my hard-core rugged fans who have stuck by me over the years. I’m still here and there are plenty of smaller channels all over the US and Canada who are still playing reruns of my show. Do I get paid when they play a rerun, you ask? Are you nuts?

Yours Ruggedly Pissed Off,