Sunny Side of the Doc | 19-22 June 2023

Documentary Business

Peter Hamilton Consultants, Inc

Documentary Production

Documentary Production by Peter Hamilton. Peter’s expertise is documentary production, documentary budgets, documentary funding & how to make a documentary.

NEH (U.S.) Awards Grants for Documentaries

NEH Bridging Cultures Through Film Grants Awarded By Michael Rose The first round of documentary filmmaker recipients of grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) new Bridging Cultures through Film initiative were announced today.  “They were made, for a total of $1,116,715– three for development, and two for production of documentary films,” said …

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U.S. Channels: Where are the Producers? 1/2

PIN-POINTING THE GREEN LIGHTS Where can you find the suppliers to U.S. Factual networks? New York? LA? London? Are there other centers of development and production? Are there different sourcing practices amongst: Established channels and digi-nets? Documentary and Reality channels? These questions matter: For networks: Where should you locate LBA, Development and other resources? For producers: …

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TLC’s ‘Sarah Palin’s Alaska’ / More Takeaways from Sheffield

TLC’s Sarah Palin’s Alaska The New York Times’ Alessandra Stanley reviews Sarah Palin’s Alaska. She says ‘it’s like The Sound of Music but without the romance, the Nazis or the music.’  Created by super-producer Mark Burnett Productions, it was reported that Palin asked for $1.2 million / episode for the 8-episode series. ———————————————— Sheffield Impressions ROSS …

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Netflix 2023 What You Need To Know Now


Wall to Wall’s Alex Graham at Sheffield Doc / Fest: What Do US Broadcasters Want? How Much Do They Pay? Who?

The Doc/Fest Session U.S. channels are spending more than $2.0 billion this year on factual productions. But how can producers get a sliver of that huge pie? They need useful tools to analyse the channels and then to pitch the programmes that networks are most likely to buy. This session focuses on the ‘business of …

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A Preferred Producer: Hoff Productions between Basement and Buyout (Part 2/2)

In this week’s DocumentaryTelevision.com – we continue our detailed profile of Hoff Productions’ path from freelancer to a leading supplier to U.S. factual channels, including Discovery and NGC. The story so far: Michael Hoff begins from a base in a spare room. He develops a respectable client list for Hoff Productions. But catastrophe always lurks around the …

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Discovery 3D Friends Wildlife; Netflix Soars; BBC Cuts

DISCOVERY’s 3D CHANNEL The 3D cable network, a joint venture between Discovery, Sony and IMAX revealed its initial wildlife-friendly programming lineup. Original Series include: Abandoned Planet from Flight 33 Productions; Africa in 3D from Aquavision Television Productions; China produced by Natural History New Zealand Ltd. (NHNZ); and Jewels of the World also from NHNZ Exclusive …

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Netflix 2023 What You Need To Know Now


A Preferred Producer: Hoff Productions between Basement and Buyout (Part 1/2)

The scale of factual producers ranges from basement operators to ‘Super-preferred Producers’ like Pilgrim Entertainment. We continue our case studies of the U.S. production sector by focusing on Hoff Productions, which represents the tier below the ‘Super’ category. Hoff Productions is based in the Bay Area, with a recently opened office in New York, and is …

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U.S. Cable Networks: Which Ones Commission Factual? How Many Homes Do They Reach?

      Commissions  Factual?    U.S. TVHH  Genre TBS  100,608 Entertainment   CNN / HLN  100,370 News Yes DISCOVERY CHANNEL  100,101 Factual/Reality Yes NICK-AT-NITE  100,064 Entertainment   NICKELODEON  100,064 Kids    THE WEATHER CHANNEL  100,054 News Yes FOOD NETWORK    99,934 Lifestyle Yes CNN CABLE NEWS NETWORK    99,640 News Yes TNT    99,630 Entertainment …

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