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Documentary Business

Peter Hamilton Consultants, Inc

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 US Premieres consist of: Attack of the Giant Jellyfish (Discovery) produced by Story House Productions; The Haunted (Discovery) produced by Picture Shack Entertainment; Into the Deep 3D (IMAX); and Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon 3D (IMAX)
  • 3D Theatrical Films from Sony include the recent Monster House and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

The channel is scheduled to launch early in 2011. Read the full press release here.

3D Costs
Click here for DocumentaryTelevision.com’s early days analysis of 3D production budgets.

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NETFLIX SOARS
Read Will Richmond’s VideoNuze commentary on Netflix stunning Q3 results:

  • Netflix reported that 1,932,000 net subscribers signed up in Q3, compared with 510,000 in Q3 ’09
  • Netflix has nearly 17 million subscribers, almost double in 2 years
  • Revenue was up 31% to $553.2 million
  • The company reports that its success is due to the addition of streaming to its traditional red envelope delivery model

Soon in DocumentaryTelevision.com: What does the rapid expansion of Netflix mean for Factual filmmakers?

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BBC CUTS
This week, the UK government announced that the BBC will lose about 16% in licence fee funding over 5 years, and take on additional commitments amounting to £340 million. We will report soon on the likely impacts of these cuts on the BBC’s Factual commissions.

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Speaking Engagements

Sheffield Doc / Fest
 PANEL
What Do U.S. Broadcasters Want?
How Much Do They Pay? Who? When?
Lisa Heller, HBO Documentaries
Alex Graham, Wall-to-Wall Productions
Dawn Porter, AETN
Tom Koch, PBS International
Moderator: Peter Hamilton, with unpublished research findings from DocumentaryTelevision.com
Saturday, 06 November, 10:00AM

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WCSFP
World Congress of Science and Factual Producers
Tuesday, 30 November, 2:00PM, Dresden, Germany
Panel: Profiles of U.S. Science & History Commissioners
Details soon

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RealScreen Summit
Workshop with Peter Hamilton and AETN’s Stephen Harris
January 31, 2011, 1-3 PM, Washington DC

Getting Your Concept to the Side of the Bus:
A Network Insider’s Guide to the Steps to
Greenlight a Factual Program
Improve your chances of success by learning what’s inside the minds of network executives as they take pitches, buy in to them, promote the strongest concepts to their colleagues, budget productions, and fight for the final sign off. 
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AIDC
Australian International Documentary Conference
1 – 4 March 2011, Adelaide, Australia
Documentary Edge
25 – 27 February 2011, Auckland, NZ
Watch for details

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