The Pacific, a "sequel" to Spielberg's & Hanks's Band of Brothers, premiered on HBO last Sunday. On Monday, HBO started airing it here in Hungary as well. I cannot recall any TV show that arrived to our country with such a small time-gap, so I was really happy about it, even though I never watch Hungarian television. The reason why I always admired HBO is because they produced the most unusual and most intelligent dramas on television until the end of The Sopranos three years ago. Since then, they were trying to find their place. After two years of unsuccessful attempts, I can honestly say they've found what they were looking for. Bored to Death, How to Make It in America, the long-awaited Treme and The Pacific, also the upcoming Boardwalk Empire, all feel worthy of following the footsteps of Entourage, Six Feet Under, The Wire and The Sopranos. The other thing I find respectable about HBO's business decisions is that they're never afraid to take risks or to keep shows that only attract a small audience alive.

The Pacific had a budget around $200 million, which made it the most expensive show to be ever created for television. HBO also did a lot to market it properly; they even bought a 30 second Super Bowl spot for about $3 million. However, the ratings of the first episode, with a little over 3 million viewers tuning in on Sunday night, were disappointing. It cannot be compared to the Band of Brothers' 10 million, because we live in the age of DVRs, VOD, and the internet. Some might ask: Why did HBO want to air this expensive series then? Well, cable channels do not hope to earn money from the number of viewers tuning in each week, since they are not turning profit from commercials. In this sense, viewership doesn't even matter to them. The reason for ordering highly-anticipated shows is to boost the number of their subscribers because that's where their money lies. However, based on the number of viewers, they didn't succeed in doing so this time. Nevertheless, HBO is going to turn a profit on it eventually by DVD or Blu-ray sales and licensing, just like they did with Band of Brothers. This is the reason why cable channels can order a whole season of a new series; whereas, national channels only order a pilot at first. Their money comes from commercial spots, which they cannot sell for high prices if nobody watches a program, because it means that nobody is watching the commercials either.

You can watch the Super Bowl ad for The Pacific below:



But how can a series end up with such a huge budget? Well, in the case of such war-centered series as The Pacific or Band of Brothers, it's the explosions and the huge cast, including a significant number of extras that cost a lot. There are several things that an executive of a show has to consider when drawing up an estimated budget that he will present to the network executives. Expenses fall into two categories: above-the-line and below-the-line. Above-the-line means the licensing of songs, actors and scripts. Below-the-line means physical elements, such as sets, props, transportation, equipment, graphics, editing and technical personnel. Creators also have the choice of renting or buying equipment. Renting equipment is useful for small duration takes, while buying equipment is the more profitable choice if you plan on using the equipment for several years. This is what most of the series use, since they have to cover several years of recording. For example, The Sopranos and The Wire have used the same equipment throughout their production. This is observable from the quality of the recording, since, in 2007, the dawn of HDTV, the camera used for Sopranos recordings was clearly outdated.

The production of an episode for an average series is far more expensive than it is for a reality show or a late night talk show. National televisions have shown a tendency towards putting reality shows in the place of drama series increasingly often. Audiences seem to be attracted to these types of shows more than to original series, and their production costs are more less, so, based on these facts, television is unstoppably turning into a reality-centered entertainment, which, I consider to be a shame really. However, I hope that with like-minded people, we can still find refugee and joy in television channels like HBO, FX, or USA.

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