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FX Networks CEO John Landgraf continued to beat the drum of “peak TV” at the Edinburgh TV Festival, telling attendees “it’s like winning a pie-eating contest every day … In some ways, we’re choking on our own abundance,” reported Deadline on Friday.
Those words echoed what Langraf said earlier this month at the summer gathering of the Television Critics Association in Beverly Hills, opining that 2015-16 TV season would represent “peak TV in America.” Viewers increasingly will look to brands to curate programs for them because there will be simply too much to choose from for viewers to figure it out on their own, Landgraf said.
His own core network, FX, has no plans to surpass the 20 original series it currently has on the air, Landgraf told TV critics and reporters on Aug. 7.
Other TV executives agree with Landgraf, although it’s doubtful that anyone making their way in the original series game has plans to back off.
A+E and History President Paul Buccieri, said on a panel: “Where I see a potential issue is these shows are supported by the international market and there’s so much in that market that somebody is going to be left holding the bag.”
Sean Cohan, EVP, international, for A + E Networks, followed that up with: “The phrase is ‘the death of the middle.’ The best will always be bought and continue to rise in price. In the U.S., there are 62 buyers for drama. There is a lot of demand for the best, but that middle goes away or drowns. It’s the best or the cheap and cheerful.”
Beyond whether or not there’s too much great TV on the air — certainly not the worst problem society has — the international TV festival was dominated by talk of how the conservative UK government is treating revered public broadcaster, the BBC, cutting its budget by 20% or $1.2 billion. Veep creator Armando Iannucci, who came up through the BBC and produced British hit political satire The Thick of It, gave a passionate speech defending the servce. One area that’s particularly come up for question is the BBC’s digital presence.
“It makes no economic or cultural sense to tell this country’s best online media presence, one that serves the public freely, that projects our cultural impact globally, to make itself a little bit worse. We deserve to be at the top of the table, but instead, we’re being told to break our table up for firewood,” Iannucci said, according to The Hollywood Reporter
Annuli also both supported and disagreed with Landgraf’s point of view.
”That’s the good news for creative. Everyone wants to make television. The bad news is, everyone wants to make television. Cheaper, user-friendly technology means we’re living in both the Golden Age of TV, and a global bucket of swill. For every Sherlock and Breaking Bad, there’s a billion more people filming their brother squirt baked beans from his nose and anus.”
Read more: Deadline, The Hollywood Reporter
Brief Take: Too much great TV is great for TV fans but probably not the best idea for business. Scarcity is the name of the game when you want to create value.
Cube image of Landgraf at this summer’s TCA courtesy of Deadline.
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