Let’s Talk About Telly…’How to Make a Hit Drama Series’

LONDON -

- ALCS Sponsors Debate at Edinburgh International Television Festival 2009

What does it take to make a hit drama? Is it luck, alchemy or design? The Authors’ Licensing & Collecting Society (ALCS) is sponsoring this high profile event at the UK’s annual international television festival. The line up on Friday, 28 August features some outstanding creative individuals behind television series such as ‘Being Human’, ‘Primeval’,’ Law & Order: UK’, ‘Hotel Babylon’ and ‘Survivors’.

“The UK’s creative writers have produced many world class television series over the years,” says Barbara Hayes, ALCS Deputy CEO. “Television scriptwriters have always been an important sector of our membership and we work hard to ensure they receive payment for the secondary use of their work as it is enjoyed around the globe. We are delighted to be sponsoring such an important and interesting event at the Edinburgh International Television Festival which we are sure will stimulate much debate.”

With freelance journalist Stephen Armstrong in the Chair, panellists include writers Adrian Hodges (’Primevil’ & ‘Survivors’), and Toby Whithouse (’Being Human’), Kate Harwood - Controller Series & Serials, BBC Drama Production, Laura Mackie - Director of Drama ITV London and Gareth Neame - MD of Carnival Films. The event is produced by the BBC’s Controller of Drama Commissioning - Ben Stephenson.

The panellists will debate the challenges, thrills and spills of launching a new series - what are the elements of a hit show and how do you sustain the audience after the first episode? They will also consider the impact of the recession on commissioning - does it mean fewer risks are being taken, how do you make content for less money and is the US model a better one?

ALCS GETS OUT & ABOUT TO TALK TO MEMBERS: NEWCASTLE & EDINBURGH

It’s part of ALCS’ policy to get out and about to talk to their members all over the UK. This August sees them visit Newcastle to hold a members’ focus group on 28 August and they will also be hosting a reception for members in Edinburgh to tie in with their EITV Festival sponsorship event.

The Newcastle members’ focus group takes place on Friday 28 August from 10.30-11.30 at The Grey Street Hotel. ALCS will be seeking members’ feedback on their new website launched earlier this month and on the various ways they keep in touch with their membership each year.

In Edinburgh, ALCS will hold a Members’ Summer Reception on Thursday 27 August, 18.30-20.30 in the Salisbury Suite at the Macdonald Holyrood Hotel.

ALCS - Protecting and Promoting Authors’ Rights

ALCS protects and promotes authors’ rights concerning their intellectual property and moral rights to ensure they are fully respected and fairly rewarded. ALCS is committed to fostering an awareness of the value of copyright issues amongst writers as well as the wider public who use, enjoy and benefit from the written word in all its forms.

Set up in the wake of the campaign to establish Public Lending Right in 1977, ALCS is a not-for-profit company that has distributed a total of GBP200 million to writers since its inception.

In its role promoting and protecting authors’ rights, ALCS consults regularly with policy makers in the UK and Europe over copyright, digital rights management and intellectual property matters.

ALCS - Sources of Income

ALCS has developed highly specialised knowledge and sophisticated systems which track writers and their work (both print and audiovisual) against various secondary uses for which they are due payment. The main sources of fees due are secondary royalties from: photocopying (through the Copyright Licensing Agency which is jointly owned by the ALCS and the Publishers Licensing Society); international Public Lending Right; cable retransmission; fees from the Educational Recording Agency (ERA) and sources such as blank tape and machine levies for private copying and small miscellaneous literary rights.

ALCS - The International Picture

The Society is recognised internationally as a leading authority on copyright matters and authors’ interests. It maintains a close watching brief on all matters affecting copyright both in the UK and around the world and makes regular representations to the UK government and to the European Commission. ALCS pays royalties to Member writers based in 137 countries around the globe. ALCS has reciprocal arrangements with over 50 collecting societies around the world.

Notes for Editors

ALCS contact information

ALCS, The Writers’ House, 13 Haydon Street, London EC3N 1DB Tel: +44(0)20-7264-5700; email: alcs@alcs.co.uk Website: www.alcs.co.uk

Follow us - ALCS is now ‘tweeting’ - twitter.com/alcs09

Source: ALCS

Media Contact (please do not publish these numbers): Becca Wyatt: +44(0)1798-867-117; +44(0)7801-061-420; ALCS, Alison Baxter: +44(0)20-7264-5700. ALCS, The Writers’ House, 13 Haydon Street, London EC3N 1DB Tel: +44(0)20-7264-5700; email: alcs at alcs.co.uk