[ecrea] CfP Media Mutations 9: "The Format Factor. Television Shows, Brands and Properties in the Global Television Scenario"

MEDIA MUTATIONS 9

The Format Factor: Television Shows, Brands and Properties in the Global 
Television Scenario

Bologna, Dipartimento delle Arti, May 23rd-24th, 2017


Confirmed keynote speakers: Jérôme Bourdon, Jean Chalaby


Organized by Luca Barra and Paola Brembilla, in collaboration with 
Andrea Esser, the Media Across Borders network and the ECREA Television 
Studies section


Media Mutations, the international conference of studies on audiovisual 
media hosted by Dipartimento delle Arti of Università di Bologna, comes 
to its ninth edition. This year’s theme is the cultural and industrial 
role of global formats in television production, distribution and 
viewing practices.

In the last fifteen years, following a long history that already started 
in the early years of the medium, television all around the world has 
been constantly and successfully broadcasting global formats: big brands 
and franchises, with a codified set of rules, sold at international 
audiovisual markets, distributed in many countries and on numerous 
networks and channels, and adapted and remade according to the tastes 
and needs of local audiences. Beginning with Big Brother, Survivor and 
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, and later with The X Factor, Masterchef, 
Peking Express, In Treatment, The Bridge, Pulseras Rojas and many 
others, formatted shows have contributed to creating a shared television 
aesthetics, spreading best practice in production, distribution and 
marketing, and establishing similar consumption habits. At the same 
time, differences and national specificities are still at work, and the 
success of global formats in individual national markets depends on 
successful localization. The process of formatization is now used in 
both TV fiction and entertainment productions, and it is relentlessly 
expanding, both at the economic and cultural level, and in a convergent 
media scenario.

Some classic and more recent studies have established the field of 
format research over the past 18 years, defining various format 
dimensions and analyzing their ability to travel across different 
countries and cultures (e.g. Moran 1998, 2007; 2009; Oren and Shahaf, 
2012; Chalaby 2016; Ellis, Esser and Gutiérrez Lozano 2016; Aveyard, 
Moran and Jensen 2016). The conference aims to expand the academic 
knowledge of this important phenomenon, establish new research 
perspectives in the field, and strengthen the understanding of national 
and transnational distribution and reception practices. The focus will 
not only be on cultural and linguistic format issues, but on the legal, 
economic and productive aspects of format development and format trade, 
and the different genres and types of formatted audiovisual products.


Media Mutations 9 encourages submissions that cover the following 
subjects and topics, favoring proposals and case histories that are able 
to intersect across different areas:

-        The economic/trade dimension of TV formats: rise and evolution 
of the format market; formats as commercial properties; format 
distributors and buyers; negotiation aspects; sales; format companies; 
mergers and acquisitions; trade rituals and habits; global buying and 
selling practices and national specificities; emerging production 
regions and established format centers.

-        The legal dimension of TV formats: intellectual properties, 
franchise and copyright issues; legal protection of formats, globally 
and nationally; protecting original ideas from copycat shows and piracy; 
forms of contracts and license deals; formats on digital platforms and 
as reruns.

-        The productive dimension of TV formats: advantages and 
disadvantages of making or buying formats; format development process; 
developing original programs vs. adapting international formats; 
professional skills and roles; production processes; branded content 
formats.

-        The distributive dimension of TV formats: circulation of 
formats across different countries and television models; national 
adaptations and mediations of global formats; remakes vs. ready-made 
programming; programming, scheduling and promotion practices; digital 
distribution of formats on over-the-top and on demand audiovisual platforms.

-        The aesthetic dimension of TV formats: formats as symbolic and 
narrative forms; formats as a set of fixed rules; formats as branding 
devices; aesthetic innovation vs. conservation; formats and television 
genres/texts (game, reality, talent, fiction, general entertainment, 
factual programming); scripted vs. unscripted formats; specificities of 
fiction formats; transmedia storytelling.

-        The audience dimension of TV formats: national appeal of global 
formats; limits and constraints imposed by local taste; format success 
and consequences on viewing habits and consumption practices; formats 
and convergent television/media; quantitative (ratings) and qualitative 
analysis of format audiences.

-        The historical dimension of TV formats: evolution of formats 
and markets; different steps/models; “formats” before the advent of 
licensed formats; formats on PSB, commercial TV and pay TV; role of 
national/transnational television cultures in creating successful formats.

-        The life-cycle of television formats: from development and 
broadcast in the first country to international circulation and national 
adaptations, to the “death”/re-birth of a format.

-        Theoretical and methodological approaches to television formats.

-        Transnational case histories: global formats and their 
adaptations; key brands and franchises; leading and upcoming format 
countries.


The official languages of the conference are English and Italian. 
Abstracts (250-500 words for 20-minute talks) should be sent to 
mediamutations.org [at] gmail.com by February 15th 2017. Please attach a 
brief biography (maximum 150 words) and an optional selected 
bibliography (up to five titles) relevant to the conference theme. 
Notification of acceptance will be sent by March 15th. A registration 
fee will be requested after notification of paper acceptance (€40 for 
speakers and professional attendants; free conference admission for 
students).

This Conference is financially supported by Centro Dipartimentale La 
Soffitta and Dipartimento delle Arti, Università di Bologna. For more 
information on the previous editions of Media Mutations, please check 
the conference website, www.mediamutations.org.

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