Anyone in TV production or know about it?

So I get a call last week from a guy who says he's a producer for a TV series about motorcycles and such. Since we make motorycle products, he said they wanted to do a segment about us that would be airing on SpeedTV, ESPN, Fox Sports, and The Outdoor Life network. He said they were doing a 5-part series about motorcycles and it was scheduled to run 50 times during peak viewership hours, and he said they were the largest TV production company around. They were based in Miami FL.

The guy seemed real skechy on details. Didn't want to tell me the company name, or the name of the show. Dropped a lot of big names he said were going to be on this show. Said he'd talk to the sr. producer and see if he can get his approval, then if we were approved they would send a crew up to our offices to spend 1-2 days shooting, which would be condensed into 10 minutes of footage.

The kicker... they wanted $20g's for it. I said he was basically advertising and the cost was $20k, but he kept saying it was a "licensing fee" and they were paying for production, network time, advertising, etc, etc and we just paid the licensing fee. Now to me, if you have 3 "bits" per 1/2 hour segment, and each of those featured folks pay $20k, that's $60k per show, and $300k for the 5 part series.

Then I would presume they go and "sell" this to the networks (or maybe it's sold). To me, it seems like they're making money on both ends. Maybe I'm wrong, but it reeked of a scam to me, or at least a shady deal.

My experience is when someone is asking for a boatload of cash, they make a formal and professional presentation. Not "I'll talk to the producer and see if I can get you in, and once we're approved it will be $20k but we'll need to move quick".

I told the guy we've already allocated 95% of our advertising budget for next year but he could send me a proposal including viewship, demographics, show content, etc. He wanted to get off the phone at that point so I just ended it.

Anyone in the biz? Were my instincts right - or is this really how TV spots work? We were interviewed for "Wind Tunnel" on SpeedTV before and it was 100% on their dime. This just felt really strange to me. I felt like I was getting conned.

 

Thanks guys - any more comments?

Writer, they didn't claim to be doing an interview... I just recall when I was interviewed for "Wind Tunnel" and they just asked a bunch of questions, wanted a release signed and that was that.

These guys claimed to be doing a 5-part "documentary" on the aftermarket bike business. Sounded OK, but when he mentioned he wanted $20k to start, I presumed he was either trying to get the subjects to finance the deal because he was short on cash, or at the very least it was the furthest thing from a "documentary" considering it would have to be biased (they even said I could review the script and get it changed if I wanted - not much of a documentary!).


Kenny, I will PM him - thanks for the tip!