Helping You To Run TV As You'd Like It

If you are a broadcasting executive, and suffer from a nervous disposition, turn the page now because this article could seriously damage your health, or at least, give you some sleepless nights.

Let us start by quoting Professor Parkinson: "Work expands to fill the time available."

This means top management should continually evaluate the relationship between staff numbers, hours worked and results required to ensure that the most efficient balance between these three principal components is always maintained at an optimum level.

A classic example of existing differences can be found in the programme scheduling department where we know for certain that some broadcasters employ several schedulers per channel whilst others have one scheduler planning multiple channels. On a purely channel basis, the difference can be 1000%. No matter what the local differences may be, this level of disparity cannot be justified financially.

Clearly, there will be circumstances where variations must exist, e.g. outside broadcasting of live events which obviously requires higher levels of control and contingency planning to cater for cancellations, overruns, etc. But nevertheless, the above range of 1000% in productivity requires serious analysis of workflows and the most modern management tools to keep everything on track.

"History informs us that only a few years ago, programme scheduling was a manual, paper-based workflow consuming forests of trees and years of schedulers' lives. Then, along came computer-based solutions which took over the processes and managed them in exactly the same way as the old paper-based system had done, thus helping to save our planet, but improving very little in the final output quality. The time has come, therefore, to re-evaluate the actual processes and to upgrade all operations to more effectively meet the varying artistic and financial demands of both viewers and top management," Daniel Stourac, Business Development Manager at Provys said.

Exactly the same considerations apply in the field of content production where a vast range of resources, experts, venues, finances and time need to be meticulously coordinated in order to achieve the desired results within budget and by the deadline. Just remember how many times you have seen the stars and the whole production crew standing by, idling their time away, waiting something almost insignificant to arrive.

Costs continue to escalate whilst many members of the crew treat this as a normal and everyday occurrence. Perhaps today's enviable budgets and projected incomes permit this sometimes casual approach, but, future incomes are under increasing pressure from professional competition or even young bloggers and a total re-evaluation of budgeting procedures is now called for, more than ever. The whole production process must be viewed as project management operation ensured by the latest software tools.

Ad sales is another critical element in the private broadcasting sector and requires powerful software to optimise income streams from agencies and advertisers. This requires efficient management of not only the traditional advertising campaigns, but also proper planning of the new methods of promotion including product placement, sponsored messages, banners, secondary graphics, etc. All these new methods can now be managed within one sophisticated solution ensuring that critical incomes are maximised in order to support all the other departments within the broadcasting station. In a nutshell: no income means no business.

If you have not turned the page yet, we respectfully suggest that the solution to these problems lies in an advanced software solution, designed to offer the flexibility, potential for continual upgrading, and the sheer power to drive the sophisticated operations which exist today in 21st century broadcasting.

Needless to say, foremost amongst these solutions is Provys, and in order therefore, to run their channels exactly as they wish, and guarantee their peaceful night's sleep, broadcasting managers would be highly recommended to give this their careful attention.

Author: Martin Junek

Image: A visit to a typical programme planning department.

provys.com