The advent of the transnational TV format trading system: a global commodity chain analysis

Abstract

This is the accepted version of the paper.This version of the publication may differ from the final published version. Copyright and reuse: City Research Online aims to make research outputs of City, University of London available to a wider audience. Copyright and Moral Rights remain with the author(s) and/or copyright holders. URLs from City Research Online may be freely distributed and linked to. City Research Online: http://openaccess.city.ac.uk/ publications@city.ac.uk Permanent repository link: City Research OnlinePage | 1 Introduction: The TV format industry as a transnational trading systemThe first TV formats -programmes that are licensed for adaptation to local audiences -began to cross borders in the early 1950s. In the ensuing decades, the trade developed but at a slow pace. Most formats were US game shows such as ThePrice is Right and The Wheel of Fortune, which travelled across the developed world. No more than a handful of companies distributed these formats and the trade, confined as it was to a minor daytime genre, was largely unknown within the TV industry itself (Chalaby, 2012a;Moran, 1998).It all changed in the late 1990s when the TV format trade suddenly exploded and became a multi-billion dollar industry. The number of formats in circulation grew exponentially, as did the number of countries they travelled to, and the number of companies distributing and producing them. This revolution had multiple determinants. In developed TV markets competition was becoming intense, with a rash of cable and satellite channels on pay-TV platforms. TV executives opened up to the idea of buying into a concept with a proven track record that allowed them to offer local and original programming while managing risk. In the emerging markets, fledgling broadcasters were seeking local content but lacked the expertise to produce it. Formats offered solutions with a tried and tested recipe to follow. This article analyzes the TV format business as a transnational trading system organized around a global commodity chain. Focusing on the global TV format commodity chain, this paper first examines how economic agents strategize along the chain's four distinct segments; it then scrutinizes the chain's governance, studying the relationships between buyers (essentially broadcasters) and their suppliers. It also examines the chain's geographical configuration, identifying three tiers of format exporters and specific trade routes along which most formats travel.Finally, considering the chain's institutional framework, it shows that the transnational TV format trading system has begun to be protected by a fledgling Page | 3 international regulatory regime and that it stands on firmer legal grounds than ever before. The viability of this trade rests almost entirely on the recognition of intellectual property (IP) rights, which are increasingly acknowledged by courts of law around the world. World-system theory and global commodity chain (GCC) analysisApproaching trade as a system was instigated by the scholars studying the...

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“…As an answer to the growing demand for new, cheap, and low-risk content, however, companies in the 1990s started to sell programming templates, which enabled the production of local and seasonal variants of already successful programs. While first mainly applied to quiz and game shows and reality programs, it by now has become a tool for the circulation of scripted content as well (Chalaby 2016).…”

“…In the case of paper formats, it is rather contractual regulations, format information, and know-how "in the shape of a set of services designed to help in the production of the program elsewhere" (Moran 2009, 17). Characteristically, TV formats, while allowing for the flexible adaptation of content to local contexts, emerged together with a new global system of trade comprising, among other things, interdependent economic agents, global institutions, and copyright rules (Chalaby 2015). In this sense, TV formats clearly shaped the infrastructure they circulate on.…”

An introduction to Cultural Transduction

“…Related to the processes of cultural localization found in those texts was the process of trading the products and rights (Chalaby, 2015), the specific international fairs where those products are exchanged (see Bielby & Harrington, 2008;Havens, 2006) and the role of business people in those venues (Kuipers, 2012). These cases have provided valuable input in the development of the cultural transduction framework.…”

The commodification of television formats

“…Jean Chalaby (2015Chalaby ( , 2016bChalaby ( , 2017 is one of first scholars (see also Ndlela, 2017) to have analyzed the television format commodity chain by using the GCC approach. He analyzed the three dimensions of the commodity chain.…”

“…By adopting the typology, Chalaby (2015) argued that the format commodity chain is buyer driven. He argued that the broadcasters that buy television formats are in control and are most benefited in the commodity chain.…”