Welcome to IPO

Members of the IPO attended a critical meeting with Mvuzo Mbebe, and key SABC executives on Tuesday 10th April. The meeting was organised by Content Hub head, Yvonne Kgame, in response to a demand from producers to find solutions to problems they are confronting on a day to day basis.

IPO Chairperson, Desiree Markgraaff, made the following presentation on behalf of the IPO and the TPA.

On behalf of the independent producers we would like to thank Yvonne Kgame and her team for the quick response and action taken to the serious concerns raised at the drama imbizo last week.

For the past 18 months, we (independent producers either via organizations such as IPO and TPA, or individually) have been meeting the SABC on various levels to try and arrest what we have labeled as an "impending or looming Crisis".

Whilst the SABC has shown willingness for dialogue, and various forums have been set up for conversation, the problems are not being solved. Instead we have found ourselves spending enormous amounts of time talking, mostly with people who do not have real decision-making power, whilst the problems articulated 18 months ago have grown to an untenable situation.

We believe that the independent production industry is NOW in crisis and that this will soon have serious repercussions on ourselves and on the broadcasters.

There may be some at the SABC asking "what crisis" or 'which crisis". And that is the crux of the issue.

It is almost impossible for the SABC to meet with us, your primary stakeholders in content, on any one issue without it descending into producers voicing a myriad of problems and complaints, as was so clearly indicated at the drama imbizo last week. The reason for this is simple. There are numerous pressing issues that daily affect the very livelihood of a producer or production company that meeting on something like Sithengi, SAFTA, EVAM or Sediba (for example) seems superfluous without there being first a holistic acknowledgement and resolution of the compounded problems.

The Silo style structure of the SABC departments has led to no one realizing the Net Effect of the combined problems. And more significantly no one believes they are responsible or accountable in any way to producers. If a contract is late - the buck is passed, if a payment is missed - the buck is passed. Etc. Producers are constantly chasing some chain of command. And while they chase, Producers carry the can - mostly financial.

We find ourselves subjected to the whims of a myriad of individuals working in different silos, and are apparently accountable to all of them - ranging from the content hub, to the channels, to the budget evaluators, to airtime sales, to legal, and on occasion, even to the Board - and yet no-one in the institution is responsible or accountable to us - for any of the circumstances we have to endure.

The net effect is that producers currently find ourselves in a situation where we are unable to effectively do our jobs. We are currently unable to build our businesses, or grow our industry; young producers are struggling to pursue a career and make a living because our biggest client, the SABC, appears unable to create conditions conducive to us doing this.

The crisis is that it is not just one problem or one issue, it is the collective problems compounded that create a CRISIS.

The independent production industry cannot plan and build sustainable businesses with an unpredictable public broadcaster.

On the one hand Government has recognized our industry as a growth sector and earmarked it in ASGISA, on the other hand we find our terms of trade with our main client, the public broadcaster is suffocating growth and development.

Yes, we acknowledge the increase in local content...and the mushrooming of new production entities - we welcome this. But our current terms of trade make it unfeasible to sustain many of these entities.it is retention and sustainability that is paramount to real growth.

We believe that the SABC process of "dialogue and conversations" has to include a commitment for action and change.

The SABC CEO in a meeting with industry leaders in November last year agreed to 2 critical task teams - one to interrogate rights ownership and negotiate a new terms of trade regarding this, and a second task team to interrogate and resolve the many growing operational problems.

To date the IP task team has had no decision-makers as part of its process and we are in a stalemate. In good faith we have negotiated with Eddie Manzingana (whom we thank for his contribution) but it has become clear that what was agreed in principal with Dali cannot be implemented by the task team when there are no decision makers present.

There has been no movement on any operational issues (other than the meeting with Yvonne and her team last week sparked off by EVAM, which again we thank Yvonne for her constructive engagement and action). Nothing on contracting, budgets, micromanagement, and the many other issues raised on many occasions.

Here are some examples of the kinds of operational problems we are referring to.

In 2006 after raising the problems around contracts, budgeting and payment turn around times the matter was brought to a head around a slate of films celebrating June 16. Because there were a slate of films (10 or so) with multiple producers and a very clear TX schedule it was a perfect example of the problems producers were facing. The SABC saw the crisis and took emergency steps to resolve - still not meeting the TX schedules or payment dates. A year later we still face the same problems with contracts, TVR and late payments.
Slow turnaround with contracts - this directly affects the producers ability to deliver on the commissioned promise - when the contract is delayed, the pre production time gets concertinaed, producers working time is reduced, we loose key crew and cast and cannot meet our promises. Also delays in contracts crush our sustainability whilst waiting. (EG: If we know we get a contract in November then we can plan other work between April and November to sustain and earn. However if we are told a contract is coming at end April and it does not materialize till November - We have effectively been starved and small companies will close down.)
Budgets and TVR - Production budgets remain unreasonably low and take no account of reasonable professional rates, nor the effects of inflation. The evaluating of budgets has no sense of an evolving competitive market nor of the real conditions that we currently work under.
Increasing Micromanagement of line items impede our ability to deliver. This is forcing producers to be dishonest. Would you expect to pay Zakes Mda the same as a soapie writer - of course not. Yet TVR caps what they allow us to pay people - thereby driving talent away. If perfecting ones craft is not to be rewarded, why bother. And this has nothing to do with race or experience - it has to do with talent. An example closer to home. You are entrusting a producer with multi-million rand contracts, expecting us to take responsibility for content, budget overages, timeous delivery, meeting AR's, nation-building etc. Yet in the same breath you are saying we are not worth paying more than R1000 per day - less than a make up artist, or one of your own studio camera operators earns.
Production fees are too low to sustain a business, let alone promote growth. Producer's rights to profit from well-run productions are inherently questioned. They are expected to survive on an archaic "service-provider" model, which makes a mockery of common business principles.
Current development and production contracts are inadequate. The current practice of 'take it or leave it' contracts that are simply standard for all and have no space for negotiation or to allow for the needs of a project are untenable. Contracts allowing NO time for negotiation - often include incorrect info and we sign them as we cannot afford further delays.
Producers have repeatedly raised the issue of training and development - this is critical to growth and sustainability. SABC's response is to engage outside consultants to design and implement processes - but do not turn to your key stakeholder in content, the producers - to jointly seek solutions. Sediba and EVAM are examples of this.
We understand your difficulty in cultivating Commissioning editors and therefore many are inexperienced. Their skills directly impact on producers. Again SABC does not turn to us, the CE's key interface, to support you in developing people who have an understanding of the SA production landscape and challenges. Instead they fly across the world learning how the Brazilians, Canadians and Brits do things without knowing the basics of what the challenges are that face local production.
Commissioning - the turn around time from "Call for proposals" to "Green Light" is totally unpredictable - often very long, sometimes outrageously short, some briefs simply not commissioned. We all spend incur great expense and time to respond to briefs.
Development and Scripting - this is increasingly prescriptive, increasingly time consuming without payment, over invasive and patronizing. Increasingly we feel the processes infringe on the dignity and respect of creators.
AR's and Marketing - Producers expected to deliver on AR's, but with little or no support from marketing or discussion with the channel on a plan. Channel sponsorship is often relayed very late and not realistic to implement - this affects financial viability of programmes.
Trade Exchanges are critical to making some productions possible, but trade exchanges cannot be determined at budget stage. The current situation has meant that budgets are even more onerous.
AR's - must be open and transparent. If producers are to take responsibility we must be empowered to make our own diagnostics. It is not helpful to discuss Ar's in a vacuum and to be held accountable to them without transparency.

The list can go on. However what we want to achieve here today is not to set out yet another list of all the gripes and problems, what we want to do is simply and clearly articulate that there is a compounded effect of the many issues - some small and others large - across a range of the SABC departments that has reached critical mass.

This crisis has a direct impact on producers and the sustainability, stability and growth of a viable film and television industry.

Solutions - that we are part of creating and accepting. We want a relationship with the broadcaster in which we feel re-assured that SABC is responsible and accountable to its partner, the production community.

Deadlines - we want an agreed timetable within in which real solutions will be sought and implemented.