Broadcasting Telecasting (Oct-Dec 1957)

BROADCASTING THE BUSINESSWEEKLY OF TELEVISION AND RADIO Vol. 53, No. 17 OCTOBER 21, 1957 TALENT AG They're taking $50 million a year from tv. Are their services that valuable? The talent agent, a ten percenter with a license, has emerged as one of the dominant forces in television programming today. Alternately praised and damned (usually by the same people, often in the same breath), he controls the No. 1 commodity in today's programming market: The Big Name. With that lever he is able to control, with singular frequency and effectiveness, entire programs and program series on which his star talent appears. Ninety per cent of the performers and a good share of the writers, directors and producers working in big-time television are represented by agents. Nearly 40% of the network programs in prime evening time are packages under some degree of talent agent control. By conservative estimate, talent agents are drawing $50 million a year from their clients' labors in syndicated films, network programs and local shows on big-city stations. Of the $50 million which agents are taking from tv, a substantial part comes from program packages on which agents draw 10% of the gross price. Say you are a network or advertiser and want Miss Big as regular hostess and occasional performer in a television series. You approach her agent. Before you know it the agent has blueprinted a package for you. This may involve wmmmmm a corporation to be owned by the star and such other stock f§ holders as the agent and the || star deem appropriate in the || circumstances, including you || (if you are bankrolling the ij venture). Or instead the §| agent may propose to run the f| package himself, casting and || supervising it but selling it §| to you. !| There are infinite varia i|j tions, but in any case, de Broadcasting pending on your agility as a negotiator and on how bad you are hurting to get this particular piece of talent for your program. Production of the series may be supervised by you, by the star's corporation, by an independent packager or by the agent, or by some combination of these possibilities. This much is sure: For his services the agent takes down 10% of the gross cost of the package, or, more precisely, adds 11.1% to the other costs so that his 10% becomes part of the gross which the buyer has to pay. It doesn't always happen that way and perhaps it doesn't happen that way most of the time. But the network's fall schedules are loaded with programs where it has happened that way. "Television today is a matter of personalities, not ideas," said a key program official at one network. "On programs that don't usually feature top-name stars, the producer can pick and choose. But there aren't as many shows like that this year. Now you have the Frank Sinatras, the Perry Comos, the Pat Boones, the Patti Pages, the Gisele MacKenzies, the Polly Bergens, the Patrice Munsels. . . . where personalities dominate, talent agents control." Some network authorities estimate that at least 50% of the programs to be seen in The tv network packages that agents own: Page 36 The biggest talent agents and their clients: Page 46 prime time on the networks this fall are controlled in one way or another by talent agents. This figure probably is high, especially if "controlled" is used in its most authoritative sense. But network officials have little doubt that more programs come through talent agents now than from any other single source, including those produced by the network, those bought from independent packagers, or — a relatively small minority nowadays — those produced by advertising agencies. Certainly the number in which a talent agent figures prominently— prominently enough to collect commission on the whole package — can scarcely be described as less than impressive. The network nighttime box-score (see page 36) shows that there are 1 1 such ABCTV shows where the talent agent takes commission on the entire package. These 11, amounting to 12 half-hours, represent about 25% of ABC-TV's prime evening time each week. On CBS-TV there are 17 half-hours out of 47, meaning that more than 35% of the time is filled by programs available only through talent agents. On NBC-TV there are 26Vi half-hours, representing around 55%. These obviously do not include many programs where the star is practically the entire budget and where the star's agent therefore is only a little short of commissioning the entire cost of the I; show. Nor does the list include the many, many other shows on which various talent agents, individually, collect on the pay of the performer, || writer, producer and director jif clients, individually. Nor the |f daytime package and nonpackage shows. Nor the specials or spectaculars where October 21, 1957 Page 33