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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

DOCUMENTARY—Growth of Cable TV Helps Documentary Group Prosper

MPH Entertainment Inc. has learned it isn’t just movies about sex that sell. The documentary film production company has managed to make a few dollars off of Napoleon Bonaparte too. And Las Vegas. And ghosts, space exploration and even the Loch Ness monster. Thanks to an insatiable hunger for product fueled by the cable television industry, MPH is one of several production companies in the San Fernando Valley that has ridden the recent wave of growth in the documentary film business, making made-for-cable documentaries. In taking advantage of that need for programming, MPH has grown from a three-person operation in 1996 to a busy production company that employs 35 people today in an office complex in Studio City it is quickly outgrowing. The company had $2 million in revenues its first year and topped $10 million last year. “I don’t think anybody 10 years ago could have foreseen the growth of this business,” said Jim Milio who, along with Melissa Jo Peltier and Mark Hufnail, owns MPH. “It’s been incredible to see how far things have progressed.” Richard Propper, director of international licensing for Santa Monica-based documentary film distributor Solid Entertainment Inc., estimates U.S.-based documentary film production for television has gone from about 2,000 broadcast hours five years ago to about 5,000 hours this year, due mostly to the growing demand from cable broadcasters. Networks like the Discovery Channel and Lifetime have been filling their lineups with documentaries, and even broadcast networks can’t seem to get enough “reality” programs. “Because of the expanded reach of cable, there are more channels and a bigger need for documentary programming,” Propper said. While business for MPH has grown from a handful of projects in 1997 to 20 last year, the company like others in the documentary industry has remained a bargain for the television industry. With budgets averaging between $100,000 and $150,000 per broadcast hour (by comparison, a half-hour episode of “Frasier” costs $8 million), the company has gained a reputation for efficiency and cost-effectiveness. MPH has produced 125 hours of programming since its inception five years ago, now averaging between 15 and 25 documentaries broadcast on television each year. But it wasn’t always like that, Peltier recalled. One of its first projects, “Las Vegas: Gamble in the Desert,” became one of A & E;’s highest rated programs, earning MPH a Golden Eagle Award in 1996 from Cine, a Washington D.C.-based documentary filmmakers organization. “We sold this ‘Las Vegas’ project to A & E; and, based on that, we got another project and it slowly started,” she said. Propper said cable systems are under pressure from subscribers all the time to provide more channels. Consequently, once overlooked networks like Animal Planet, The Learning Channel, the Court Channel and even the History Channel are attracting more viewers and, consequently, requiring more programming to satisfy them. “It’s a cheap source of material for them,” he said. Alexandra Middendorf, executive producer of documentaries for Discovery Networks Inc., said the growing cable viewership has prompted her company to order more and more product from companies like MPH. “With Discovery Channel, we had 52 million viewers three years ago and now it’s up to 89 million,” she said. “That means you have to show more original programming.” Amitai Adler, a spokesman for the International Documentary Association in Los Angeles, said it’s hard to document the growth in the industry because there isn’t an organization that keeps track of overall documentary film production. “No one can agree on what a documentary is,” he said. “Anyone shooting a home video can call it a documentary, not to mention things like ‘Survivor’ or ‘Big Brother.'” Veteran Santa Barbara-based documentary filmmaker Gordon Forbes said that, even while the industry is growing, it remains highly competitive. “It’s a tough business any way you look at it. Television needs product, but the price isn’t always right and there are more and more people competing,” he said. Reba Merrill, a Woodland Hills-based documentary filmmaker, credited increased demand for the wide range of documentaries now being produced, everything from profiles of forgotten TV actors to traditional wildlife features. Veteran Valley-based documentary filmmaker Suzanne Bauman said she’s encouraged by the rapid growth of the industry. “It shows that documentaries are being more accepted and that more people want to watch them,” she said. Woodland Hills-based documentary filmmaker Harry Gantz, who with his brother Joe, produces HBO’s acclaimed “Taxicab Confessions” series of documentaries, said the popularity of so-called reality shows has brought about more opportunities for documentary filmmakers. “It came out of necessity when fiction programming had prices going through the roof and the talent demanding astronomical fees,” he said.

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