More On Save Enterprise Donations

Malfourmed writes "TrekUnited.com today announced that three anonymous contributors from the commercial spaceflight industry have stepped forward with a $3 million pledge toward the campaign to ensure a fifth season for the recently cancelled Star Trek: Enterprise. The benefactors explained why they believe this campaign deserves such a substantial contribution: 'We think Star Trek and especially its latest incarnation, Enterprise is the kind of TV that should be aired more often. The people responsible at Paramount think this is just a show and we want to tell them, it is not. We are in the commercial space flight industry and would like to testify that at least one out of two of all the actual entrepreneurs involved in this industry has been inspired by Star Trek; and we are not only good at watching TV sci-fi , we are also good at writing checks, big checks. The people airing this kind of TV have a responsibility; inspiration.' " We reported on this a few days ago, but this is more info about the largest donors.

Comments

Re:Well

[PhotoBoy]

It's reckoned to be $1.6M per episode, so technically they need $36M to make a 22 episode season. But it all depends on how much Paramount want, they could accept $18M as enough to offset production costs or they could play hardball and raise the target to $50M.

Re:Well

[Malfourmed]

If a studio makes a TV show that costs $1.6M per episode then it might sell the first-run US broadcast rights to a network for (making up a number here) $1.2M.

The network in turn has to make that amount by selling advertising slots, which are of course ratings dependent.

The $400K (or whatever it is) difference needs to be made up by international sales, second-run syndication rights, DVD/video sales and maybe even the "halo" effect a currently running series can have on sales of merchandising tie-ins such as toys or books. Then there's the need to make a profit of course.

UPN apparently came close to covering Enterprise's production costs in the first three seasons but from what I understand reduced its payment to $800K per episode for season 4, due to low ratings. At the same time the show's budget was reduced (by moving to cheaper high-definition video), but still the gap between Paramount's costs and first-run revenues is now around $500K-$600K per episode, or around $10M per year.

Some of this will be made up by the secondary rights, but I believe the gap is now larger than it was before.

If the Save Enterprise campaign can close that gap by offering a substantial donation, then the financial equation for Paramount/Viacom could change from Enterprise running at a likely loss to a likely break-even or profit.

I don't know what the size of the gap is, but a $3 million contribution (assuming the full amount can be passed onto Paramount) has to be a substantial addition to the bottom line. It represents an extra 8% (approx) return on funds (based on a $36M budget), which is a mighty fine bonus in anyone's book.

But will it be a bonus big enough?

Re:Um... no.

[LordNimon]

We are in the commercial space flight industry and would like to testify that at least one out of two of all the actual entrepreneurs involved in this industry has been inspired by Star Trek

It's more than that. James Doohan, the actor who plays Scotty, was given an honorary degree in Engineering by the Milwaukee School of Engineering where over half of the students polled said they were inspired to study engineering by his role in "Star Trek".

Let me repeat that: half of the engineering students were inspired by one Star Trek actor. Granted, I don't think that anyone will be inspired by Trip, but it still speaks volumes to the power of Star Trek.