Description
Book SynopsisSince the late 1990s, when broadcasters began adapting such television shows as Big Brother, Survivor and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? for markets around the world, the global television industry has been struggling to come to grips with the prevalence of program franchising across international borders. In TV Format Mogul, Albert Moran traces the history of this phenomenon through the lens of Australian producer Reg Grundy’s transnational career.
Program copycatting, Moran shows, began long before its most recent rise to prominence. Indeed, he reveals that the practice of cultural and commercial cloning from one place to another, and one time to another, has occurred since the early days of broadcasting. Beginning in the late 1950s, Grundy brought non-Australian shows to Australian audiences, becoming the first person to take local productions to an overseas market. By following Grundy’s career, Moran shows how adaptation and remaking became the billion-dollar business they are today. An exciting new contribution from Australia’s foremost scholar of television, TV Format Mogul will be a definitive history of program franchising.
Trade Review'Moran has pioneered the study of television programme franchising...and his new study shows how format adaptation enabled one television producer to punch well above his weight in the global programme-making industry'
-- The late Manuel Alvarado, publisher, educationalist and Associate Professor in Journalism and Media at the City University of London
'Though in many ways Australian, the story spreads its relevance and interest well beyond Australia, casting light on protagonists, flows and processes of transnationalization that concern contemporary television everywhere. The unique requisite of being the fruit of a long-lasting passionate research, the analytical clarity and the broadly contextualizing narrative, make Moran's book an essential reference and a model for future works of comparable ambition.'
-- Professor Milly Buonanno, Dipartimento di Comunicazione e Ricerca Sociale, Sapienza Universitα di Roma, Italy
'The career of the Australian media mogul Reg Grundy is one of the great, untold stories of contemporary media history. ... While Grundy began in Australia his influence was truly global. This fascinating and immensely readable study will be of great interest to students, scholars and researchers of media. '
-- Associate Professor Michael Keane, Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation, Queensland University of Technology
'This book is essential reading for understanding the global market in television programs and how it might develop'
-- Media International Australia, Vincent O’Donnell
Table of ContentsForeword by Toby Miller
Chapter 1: The TV Format Mogul
Chapter 2: Early Years: 1923–47
Chapter 3: Apprenticeship I: Learning About Broadcasting, 1947–53
Chapter 4: Apprenticeship II: Quiz-show Schooling, 1953–59
Chapter 5: Apprenticeship III: Mastering Television Formats, 1959–64
Chapter 6: Domestic Consolidation, 1964–70
Chapter 7: Transnational Ambitions I: First Moves, 1969–74
Chapter 8: Transnational Ambitions II: Retooling for Domestic and Off shore, 1974–79
Chapter 9: Transnational Ambitions III: Australia, the United States and South-East Asia, 1979–85
Chapter 10: Transnational Ambitions IV: Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States, 1985–89
Chapter 11: Transnational Ambitions V: Worldwide, 1989–95
Chapter 12: Buyout and Beyond: Since 1995
Chapter 13: A TV Format Mogul Among TV Format Moguls
Appendix: Grundy’s Television and Film Output
