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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
Using a wide range of e-commerce tools, 'Scapers have collected money for a variety of purposes. There's the "Farscape": Beyond Hope fund, which financially supports the advertising initiatives to promote the show and garner higher ratings. This fund has raised about $9,000 to fund press kits for the media, newspaper ads, and a traveling promotional kit distributed at sci-fi/fantasy conventions. Fan sites devoted to Ben Browder and Claudia Black, the actors portraying "Farscape's" lead characters, collected donations to pay for ads in USA Today, Variety and the Hollywood Reporter to gain public and media attention.
Other funding drives for the show have been even more innovative. In a radio appearance last Sept. 20 on "Interstellar Transmissions," a science fiction radio call-in show in Florida, Kemper discussed a radical idea with listeners: Could "Farscape" viewers actually find a way to finance the show themselves? Energized fans formed a task force to formalize the idea and bring it to fruition.
Matt Sampsell, a research scientist at the Fusion Research Center at the University of Texas, was so inspired that he started the "Farscape" Fund and an online "viewer financing" petition on his own, and later joined with other "Farscape" fans to form the Viewer Consortium, a nonprofit advocacy group designed to develop viewer-financed programming.
Sampsell, now managing director of the Viewer Consortium, says, "I started doing some math in my head. "Farscape" attracts at least 2 million to 3 million people as a regular audience. Even if 1 percent of them were avid enough fans to spend $15 on mailing letters, setting up rallies, and funding advertisements, that adds up to $3 million to $4 million. And it made sense that we would be willing to spend more money for relatively direct participation in the show's production. Writing letters is a good strategy, but you can never be sure if anyone reads them. There is no interaction."
The Viewer Consortium aims to raise more than $750,000, about what Sci Fi pays to broadcast each episode, to fund a new episode of "Farscape"; it has gotten as far as discussing its idea with the Jim Henson Co. Nicole Goldman, a spokeswoman for Henson, acknowledges that the company is aware of the Viewer Consortium's efforts, but declined to discuss the matter further.
"Farscape" supporters admit it's an ambitious goal. But they also point out that such a sum amounts to less than a dollar from each Farscape viewer in the U.S. alone, and that the consortium has already gathered some $260,000 in pledges. But fans have still greater ambitions. Staffed by about 25 volunteers all over the country who work together via telephone and the Internet, the consortium hopes to establish a stronger voice for television viewers by converting viewer passion into financial and marketing assistance for their favorite creators and distributors.
Industry observers remain skeptical. "The odds for viewer-funded financing are pretty remote," says the author Jack Lechner. "They'd have to come up with millions" to really make an impression on producers, he argues.
Organizers of the Viewer Consortium also want to develop alternatives to the current ratings systems and broadcasting structures. Unlike the now defunct Viewers for Quality Television, the organization takes a pragmatic approach toward the structure of the television industry. "The idea here is to have mechanisms for the consumer to affect the industry beyond just lobbying [a network or other distributor]," Sampsell says. The consortium plans to distribute a publication that educates viewers about television industry business practices so that they can frame their ideas and prospective production deals appropriately.
On the one hand, it's heartening to see the do-it-yourself ethic of the Internet applied to the sick-unto-death broadcasting industry. It's also sad to reflect that no one even considers involving government agencies -- like the Federal Communications Commission or the Federal Trade Commission -- that once upon a time were meant to help safeguard the rights of consumers and the public interest in broadcasting.
Unless ratings dramatically improve, this incarnation of "Farscape" will soon come to an end. Sci Fi will broadcast its last episode on March 21. The sets have been dismantled; cast and crew members have moved on to other projects. But the television industry should beware that this is just the beginning of a new level of fan-based direct action. What if the sophomoric narrator of Nick Hornby's novel "High Fidelity" was right, and what really matters is what you like, not what you are like. The Save "Farscape" campaign shows that people can organize a resistance and work together, based on a commonality of pop culture sensibility. Once they've refashioned the broadcasting industry, maybe they'll move on to politics.
