Who makes money from fishing TV...And who pays the bill...?

[Captain Greg Sears]

In another thread this subject came up..... Why should the captain or charter boat pay the expenses for a TV show or a magazine article...?

In most cases when a celebrity fisherman books a fishing boat they ask for a free trip in exchange for advertising and a promise of more business....

Well I can tell you from experience things are not all its cracked up to be. you are better off spending the fuel money purchasing an add in the local news paper. Or spend the $1000 or so you would have gotten for a charter on that day, for a years advertising on SFC.

Some of these so called fishing shows are scamming people to get free fishing trips. They say they are filming for a fishing show and are going to make you famous. If you take them out for nothing ( Including no tip for the mate) You are going to get a lot of charters..... When was the last time you remembered the name of one of the charters Trev Goudy or Tred Barta went out on... Or when was the last time you booked a boat because you saw it on TV.

Who is making money from the film on your boat...? first of all not the boat Owner unless he gets paid for the day.

Why would a TV show spend (lose) money to be on TV...? Because the network makes way more money from the advertising and they need to fill up the time slots so they have 24 hours of potential business. If they pray on people eager to see themselves on TV or trying to move forward in the job market they can take advantage of human nature. It seems the small networks and production companies always look for the new guy who is a little blinded by the thought of becoming famous. And take advantage of the situation. If they need content they should pay for it..!!!

Here are a couple of examples that pissed me off.....

A magazine / fishing show.. called me and said they wanted to create a feature article and TV show about fishing with Mass Bay Guides... I had two phone conversations regarding how they thought this was going to be great exposure for me and great content for them and they picked me because they heard I had a good reputation... Then in the third phone call they told me they wanted $6000 for their premier advertising package... LOL they wanted me to pay expenses for the charter and pay $6000 for advertisement in their magazine... These people contacted me again regarding another story and they would not even trade advertisement in their magazine.

I have a very close friend who runs a charter business in a place where fishing is like no other place on earth. A celebrity fishermen who has a TV show called him and wanted to film for five days... My friend is kind of new to the business and agreed to pay the expenses of the boat... The celebrity said he was sending a crew with a new host for the show but they also needed a place to stay... My fiend told them they could stay in his house.. They stayed in his house for five days his wife made sure they had clean sheets and the comforts of home... They fished on the boat for five days and the mate waited on them hand and foot. The captain spent a couple of thousand in food fuel and expenses. The Mate worked his ass off... My friends wife cleaned their rooms and bathrooms after they left.... They did not tip the mate??? They did not leave a few dollars for the maid (my friends wife) they took complete advantage of the situation... They also did not have my friend sign a release for the use of his name and and information so what is going to happen on this video..? We will only see the star of the show and not the rest of the crew...?

I would love to tell you who these two instances where but this is industry standard and I am not going to badmouth even though I want to.

As far as the excuse of it is expensive to produce.... every business has expenses... Do you get free tools because you are building a bridge..?

What happens when you have a bad day and the fish do not cooperate..... Well I can tell you this.. It will not be very good publicity.. or you will have to give them more free days until you get some fish.

One instance that happened to me that I thought was fair... A large network contacted me and said they would pay everything as long as we got the film shots they needed. I said yes... we got the shots and they paid me that day and tipped the crew.

My Opinion ... If you want to use my boats you pay the bill... and you can film a porno movie for all I care......

Would you give a guy a free trip because he said he was going to tell all his friends..?

You are better off spending the expense money marketing yourself with your own adds or internet video and equipment... Unless you truly desire to be Famous .. Good Luck break a leg...

PS: not all celebrity fishing shows are bad this way...

[blackhullcharters]

I was told Riptide paid 10k + to have Jose Wejebe tuna fish on his boat.
Not sure if it's 100% true but it's what I was told by a few people.

[starrfish]

i agree, they call.. promise you the world in tv land, "great exposure" etc.. i usually tell them we`ll all bask in their greatness after.. for now ya gotta pay... i do it for a living, not a hobby.. that said, we do alot of charters actually for free..inner city "fresh air" kids, cancer benefits, boys and girls club, and other local community charities, they usually promise us nothing, dont have huge expectations, and are VERY greatfull just to go.
there usually the best trips !!

[stew]

Terry did not pay Jose to come fish with him. That is just not true. I disagree with some of this, Greg. The right exposure can be worth alot as long as the show gets good air time and multiple runs and is a national show not just regional. It's like any form of advertising, some works and some doesn't. You just have to pick the right show. I can't speak for Terry, but I know that Jose had such a good time fishing with him that he came back the very next year to film again with Terry. That doesn't happen too often with him and infact I don't think it has happend before. Those two shows were very well shot and produced and action packed and certainly have paid Terry back in charter business and exposure. Forget about making a life long friend out of the deal. But I agree not all shows are the same. Capt. Eric

[SteveH2112]

Having been on both sides of the table I think I can give you a pretty balanced answer.

What it all comes down to is you have to take your chance either way. For some who use it to their advantage, they make out well. For those that don't, well they don't get much out of it.

If you were to take a "show" out you should think of a few things.

#1. Where does the show air and who does it reach? For example if you feel you are in a destination where people will travel to and your not reaching that audience it may be a good deal.

#2. What can you do with the footage? Our show for instance gives our guests the rights to use the episode and even a promo we cut for them as advertising on their sight. Captains who think that just flming a show will do everything they need are fooling themselves. They will see something, but if they use the episode and or promo as a tool, they make out way better.

#3. What is the cost VS return? The cost of you taking out a TV crew means the possible loss of a day's charter. If that charter runs you say $1,000.00 then you should get three charters for that return as a minimum. Any time you can triple an investment especially these days that's a good deal. A real studio charges $150.00 per hour for editing for which alot of it is in real time. If you were to hire a freelance Camera guy it would cost you $350.00 per 8 hours on the average. Figure the cost of a show to do a "PROFESSIONAL" edit using a high quality program at about $3,500.00 on the average.

#4. What you catch is what you get! If the day doesn't turn out well or if you get skunked both of you are out! the TV show has nothing and you are out of a day's pay. It happens more than you think.

#5. Would you pay to have a personality on board? My answer is probably not, unless you are going to use it as a major marketing tool as a captain. Do you do sportshows etc? If you do it can be a great benefit, if not.....well not so much.

The way I look at it is if my show has to pay for a charter to shoot a show then it's fine. BUT, I won't mention the name of the captain or the boat, it's all about the fish. BUT, if a captain and the show are both putting out, then I look at it as a fair trade.

I'm really interested in what some others think, and if anybody has any questions feel free to ask.

Steve Horvath
Host Delaware Valley Outdoors

[F/V Kelley Anne]

Just because you might have had to pay you won't mention the captain or the boat it's all about the fish? That's pretty LAME as though you make it sound like punishment for not getting a free ride. It might be all about the fish, but the captain and boat are the ones that took you to and put you on the fish. It seems to me that if you want a quality photo op, you would seek out the most qualified captain to create the best show whether you got to pay him or not. But you should respect and want to pay him for doing his job well just like everyone else.

[Captain Greg Sears]

i agree, they call.. promise you the world in tv land, "great exposure" etc.. i usually tell them we`ll all bask in their greatness after.. for now ya gotta pay... i do it for a living, not a hobby.. that said, we do alot of charters actually for free..inner city "fresh air" kids, cancer benefits, boys and girls club, and other local community charities, they usually promise us nothing, dont have huge expectations, and are VERY greatfull just to go.
there usually the best trips !!

Exactly how I feel if I know I am doing something for a good cause I will do it for free... But if I think someone is benefiting from me I want an equal share or trade... I also think at the very least tipping the mate is in order weather its free or not or even if I donated to a good cause the mate still needs to make a living...

pS: Steve you make some good points on how someone could use this to their advantage... But as you said your taking a gamble on getting good footage and if it was not for the captain, mate and boat you would have no chance... I understand the expense of filming but I also understand the expense of marketing. look at it this way you spend nothing extra to make a promo for the charter but the charter has to pay for bait, fuel, equipment, the mate, the slip, breakdown expenses, etc.... And in my case give up a paying customer... If I used this money to pay for advertisement I could focus on a more targeted market for my business.

I can understand how a TV show could help if .... you are trying to break into a market and show that you are capable of catching fish.. If you want to meet some celebrity... But remember not everyone likes certain celebrities so you may be pissing people off when you name drop.. for instance I am sure if you dropped my name to a few people it may piss them off...LOL... always an awkward moment....

Our low budget production company has no money or a way of making money from our videos but we always pay for our trips and tips and our marketing has brought our fishing friends many charters.... And in return they have sent many charters my way too...

Steve if you were to film Mass Bay guides I am sure your ratings would reflect a local increase. Just from word of mouth when someone local is going to be on TV the Local people watch it does not mean I am going to get more charters though. so you see you get the best of both worlds. I also think content would be better if the TV shows hired the best not the cheapest.

[Captain Curt]

Popcorn anyone?????

[SteveH2112]

Kelley Anne, as I said before, it should be a trade off where both people are putting out (the captain puts out the boat and the day and the show covers the expense of producing the product) I just don't see the logic of paying for a trip, paying another several thousand to produce the show, and then the Captain gets free publicity and the opportunity to turn that into extra income? For us it's a fair trade (trip cost VS production cost which is way more out of our pocket than the captain) or nothing and that's just the way it is with our show. It's how the industry works and it's good business for both sides.

Like I said, it's not for everybody.

[SteveH2112]

Greg, a couple of points.

#1. Nothing is free! Cutting a promo correctly does cost money. The proper promo is more than just some action and loud music. A promo gives insight into the captain and who they are. It also tells about timing of fish runs, species they fish for and other info. Rarely can a captain get out in one take what they need to. When we cut a promo for a captain, it takes on the average of 45 minutes to an hour to get about 2 minutes of talk time. Then you can cut in the fish and music and stuff. Total edit time is about 2 hours or about $300.00 in cost to us. http://youtu.be/q0NYmJ2NQb0

#2. You're right about giving up a day of charter for the show. IMHO the WORST thing a captain can do is turn down a paying charter for a show. The BEST thing a captain can do is use a date or time they DON'T have a charter for that purpose. The down side is that those dates can be on the fringe of the season so fishing might not be that good.