NBC - "No hiring of Freelancers until 2008"

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ED Scott

Member
Reining In Year-End Costs at NBC News

TVNewser has obtained an email that was sent from the NBC News coverage desk to the network's news bureaus:

Guys — I am sending this out with a heavy heart... Steve Capus has asked us to forgo the hiring of all Daily Hire & Freelance camera and audio crews for the next three weeks starting tomorrow. The Crews that were scheduled for tomorrow Dec 5th will remain as scheduled, however, beginning Friday Dec 6th all shoots will be considered on a case by case basis. Breaking news will be covered on a case by case basis. This is a company wide mandate that all the bureaus will have to follow. Chip
 
F

freedom

Well-known member
I was watching CNBC yesterday. They were interviewing the head of the second largest ad agency in the world. He said TV ad revenue was down 8% this year. That's pretty significant. He also said he is having trouble getting his clients to realize the growing trend in internet use. That is where the money is heading. That means less & less for TV. I shoot mostly cable network stuff & this was a bad year. My clients are telling me they are doing more reruns and also doing more local programming to avoid travel costs. I'm seeing more 1 man instead of 2 man crews.

Funny thing is, my corporate work got wacked after 9-11 and they switched to internet; power point type stuff. So I started doing more cable and now it's getting wacked by internet.

The internet is taking over the world. For anyone under 40, you'd better be looking for internet focused work, whatever that is. TV is a shrinking business and it's compounded by the growing number of outlets.
 
Baltimore Shooter

Baltimore Shooter

Well-known member
Well, according to what I've read, ratings for basic cable have been on the rise, even before the writer's strike and even more since. According to CTAM Smartbrief.

Warren
 
R

Run&Gun

Well-known member
I don't know if that translates to ALL (cable/satellite)networks necessarily cutting way back. It all depends on the network and show. One of my sales reps told me about one of their other clients that shoots for a cable network show and he just bought a second HDX-900 package. I'm actually seeing HD productions starting to ramp up even more(there are more HD productions on the cable/satellite side than broadcast side). There's a client that I shoot for occasionally that is going HD next year and we did HD for them on Monday and they booked us for two days of HD next week. They're looking down the road, not at just this week.

We all know it's a volatile business that can change at any minute, but it seems that things usually come back around. There are always budget cuts, then after a while they loosen the reigns and things level out again.
 
dhart

dhart

Well-known member
Just booked on a two camera CNBC shoot in Detroit for this coming Tuesday. I believe it's for financial news side. Maybe this producer hadn't gotten the memo yet :)
 
M

Mike

Well-known member
dhart,

CNBC is its own entity and, thus, does not operate as part of NBC's news operation. There are times when they work together and contribute to each other, but they are not one in the same.
 
M

must-c-tv

Well-known member
NBC News is in financial trouble - that's public knowledge.

Talk of millions in cuts is constantly tossed around.

The foreign desk took an axe to theIsrael bureau last month - chopping the guts out it.

Constant rumours about GE looking to offload NBC after the 2008 Olympics.
 
Macro

Macro

Active member
NBC does not work under a very efficient model most times. This is good for us, until they count the wasted money spent...then they panic. I was recently on a breaking news event for them and they had four crews working the coverage. Three of them were on stand-by and one was tied to the MSNBC wheel for most of the day. It didn't seem like money well spent (except the money they were spending on me!!). It's a good thing that news works in cycles. We're in a down trend now, but with the election coming in '08 it will all balance out.
 
D

dtm

Member
Macro said:
It's a good thing that news works in cycles. We're in a down trend now, but with the election coming in '08 it will all balance out.
Click to expand...
Don't bank on that...they have these little things called mini pools now. Between those and the APs with mini dv embedded with the campaigns there are a lot fewer crew days on the campaign trail.

Up here in the Northeast, we used to be able to count on the NH primary for 2 months of good solid work every four years. That started shrinking last time around and this cycle we'll be lucky to see 2 weeks.

Thank God my wife is working now!
 
D

dazapper

Well-known member
Word is that yesterday there was a big layoff at the Today Show, once the cash cow of the network. A producer I know went walking through the halls and said it was like a morgue. I haven't heard who was affected but it sounds like the cuts went deep. Merry Christmas!
 
INLANDNEWS

INLANDNEWS

Well-known member
Letters were also sent to daily hires and freelancers at KNBC Los Angeles, but as far as I know everyone will still continue work as normal. Bad timing during the Holiday season!
 
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