sending $ support for SG1?

[GMTalkingdeer]

It seems to me that something happend more than ratings and cost.
Why would the channel want to enforce the part of the contract that lets them stop the show from being picked up by another US channel and keep going. Either air it or let it go.
Looks like revenge to me. Maybe my logic is in error. I just cant belive it is all about the cost. The outlook of... If I cant afford it, Then nobody is going to have it is like something children would do and we have to teach them better. Oh I forgot nobody ever said big networks acted like adults did they?

With this in mind, If it is a cost issue with the show for the channel...All Fans can send money to the channel to help them pay for SG1 . Just mail it to the channel with letters of what it is for. Or to MGM to lower the cost to produce it.

What do you think?

[PG15]

No, the studio execs cannot take our money because that's illegal.

Believe me, we know this. We've seen it happen with other shows.

[GMTalkingdeer]

Oh well, It was just a thought. MAybe like public tv and npr do fund raisings.
I Dont really think a petition will help. I and others on the BBoard on scifi.com tried to get ecw removed from the channel. never even got a response from anyone ...not the sci-fi channel, not NBC...No one would listen. when they make up their mind its a done deal. Nothing but the chosen few with those black boxes from the ratings company have a voice that means anything to the business.

[prion]

No, the studio execs cannot take our money because that's illegal.

Believe me, we know this. We've seen it happen with other shows.

NEVER SEND MONEY to a studio. Cripes, they've got millions! If you feel you must spend money to save a show, invest in an ad in variety or hollywood reporter.

[Sci-Fi]

If you feel you must spend money to save a show, invest in an ad in variety or hollywood reporter.

Actually those are considered the wrong publications to place an ad. They only reach people in the industry. Variety and the Hollywood Reporter will be glad to take your money in any case. A nationally available newspaper like the L.A. Times, N.Y. Times, USA Today, etc etc could potentially reach millions of people, including Hollywood industry types, at a much lower or same cost. It all depends on what you are trying to accomplish or who you are trying to reach. I've seen some fan campaigns where they felt they accomplished something by raising the money and placing an ad in Variety. But in the end, how effective was it and did it change anything? Unless there are fans that are in the industry, nobody will really know what kind of buzz or insider comments that result from reading that ad.

Placing/buying full or half page ads in a local newspaper or a weekly local publication or even the freebie neighborhood papers, promoting SG1 or raising public awareness that the program exists and why people should tune in and watch may be more effective. Local fan groups can raise/pool their money and buy such ads and everybody would know where their money went because you tend to know who the person(s), a real face and name, handling the ad buy is and the funds can be accounted for. If the cost is low enough, several ads can be bought over the next few weeks, preferably printed before the next episode airs. Somebody would need to design an ad or several ads that any local group can use. Any campaign needs to build momentum and gain supporters outside of the fanbase.

In the past, a few campaigns tried to air their own commercials on cable tv as part of the discounted local advertisement most cable companies offer to small businesses. Unfortunately a lot of the airtime was during the midnight hours because the funding wasn't enough to buy a few daytime or primetime slots. Saving a show may not qualify for using one of the local cable channels that are set aside for public/local programming. One could get 30 mins to an hour on those channels, enough time to make a case. But one would need to get permission to use clips from the show or use any official materials (ad slicks, logos, etc) and the group would need to find a host(s) that is/are comfortable in front of the camera and speaks with an interesting voice that keeps viewers tuned in until the program is finished.

[Oreo]

If it makes you feel better you can send money to me and then I would start supporting a season 11. I could use the money for books.

[Unamed]

Actually those are considered the wrong publications to place an ad. They only reach people in the industry. Variety and the Hollywood Reporter will be glad to take your money in any case. A nationally available newspaper like the L.A. Times, N.Y. Times, USA Today, etc etc could potentially reach millions of people, including Hollywood industry types, at a much lower or same cost. It all depends on what you are trying to accomplish or who you are trying to reach. I've seen some fan campaigns where they felt they accomplished something by raising the money and placing an ad in Variety. But in the end, how effective was it and did it change anything? Unless there are fans that are in the industry, nobody will really know what kind of buzz or insider comments that result from reading that ad.

Placing/buying full or half page ads in a local newspaper or a weekly local publication or even the freebie neighborhood papers, promoting SG1 or raising public awareness that the program exists and why people should tune in and watch may be more effective. Local fan groups can raise/pool their money and buy such ads and everybody would know where their money went because you tend to know who the person(s), a real face and name, handling the ad buy is and the funds can be accounted for. If the cost is low enough, several ads can be bought over the next few weeks, preferably printed before the next episode airs. Somebody would need to design an ad or several ads that any local group can use. Any campaign needs to build momentum and gain supporters outside of the fanbase.

In the past, a few campaigns tried to air their own commercials on cable tv as part of the discounted local advertisement most cable companies offer to small businesses. Unfortunately a lot of the airtime was during the midnight hours because the funding wasn't enough to buy a few daytime or primetime slots. Saving a show may not qualify for using one of the local cable channels that are set aside for public/local programming. One could get 30 mins to an hour on those channels, enough time to make a case. But one would need to get permission to use clips from the show or use any official materials (ad slicks, logos, etc) and the group would need to find a host(s) that is/are comfortable in front of the camera and speaks with an interesting voice that keeps viewers tuned in until the program is finished.

exactly news paper ads are relitivly cheap and instead of one ad in one magazin we could put lots of ads in lots of different papers

[pattirose]

Please correct me if I'm wrong but didn't the fans of Star Trek Enterprise raise 2 million and another season STILL didn't happen??

[Sci-Fi]

Please correct me if I'm wrong but didn't the fans of Star Trek Enterprise raise 2 million and another season STILL didn't happen??

Actually, TU raised about $140,000 in real donations. The additional "3-million" figure came from a "Pledge" by un-named donors. Some fans thought it was a publicity stunt and the timing was unusually convenient since it was announced on the day of the L.A. Save ENT rally at Paramount Studios. Whether or not the 3.14 million would have been a real number or not, many had told the TU organizers that it was a waste of time and effort and pointed to the Farscape effort, which raised $400,000 from a vastly smaller fanbase, and they discovered early on that it wasn't worth it and promptly refunded the money. Of course that advice fell on deaf ears, as far as anybody knew, TU never contacted the Farscape effort to find out why it wasn't worth it, and it took public announcements from Paramount to explain why they won't/can't accept fan money and cautioned fans about contributing. Just FYI: 32 million was TU's fundraising goal.

A 5th season of ENT wouldn't have happened even if fans raised 100 million dollars. It would have turned a lot of heads but no studio would accept even that amount of cash. The head of Viacom, Les Moonves, and Paramount Studios, UPN, etc were divisions of Viacom at that time, announced the cancellation and it was a done deal with no recourse. The 4th season ratings were averaging a horrific 1.2 and the cost per episode was well above SG1's. UPN actually wanted to cancel ENT after the 3rd season, but it was rumored that Paramount basically bankrolled the series in the 4th season to make enough episodes for syndication and ENT was moved to Fridays. There was no way another network could justify picking up ENT either. If ENT moved to a cable network, the typical ratings drop (from a national over-the-air network) would be ~30% and that would translate into a 0.84 avg rating...not good for any 1st run cable program. Plus the historical ENT ratings data was pretty much a straight line downwards from 12 million viewers to under 2 million viewers. There was no indication the ENT would attract and keep new viewers to raise the Nielsen numbers to acceptable levels. To put it in perspective, "Repeats" of Next Top Model was avg a 2.8/4 on UPN. If ENT ratings had stabilized in the 4+ range, we would still be watching new episodes of ENT.

ENT syndication package has been picked up by the SFC recently. Let's see what Nielsen numbers ENT generates in syndication. Firefly posted better than average numbers when it aired in the Friday 7pm ET/PT slot. ST:TNG and ST: DS9 are doing fairly well on Spike TV and G4.