After a planetarium show has its final per-formance, its components are removed fromthe theater to make way for the next feature.Slides are packaged in boxes and placed backon the shelf, the soundtrack finds its homein the CD rack, laserdiscs and DVDs return totheir cases, and the script, production notes,

and research are filed away. The investmentof time, money, and resources put into creat-ing a feature-length plan etarium show hasfor now served its purpose and the show hasbeen archived. But what if that purpose wasex tende d? What if t hos e sam e ma terial scould be used to reach yet more people on awid er scale or t hrough dif fere nt ve nues ,thereby increasing t he return on t hat sameinvestment of time, money, and resources?

The idea of c hanging and adapting c on-tent to fit new and dynamic business modelsis quickly becoming the norm in the broad-casting in dustry. Faced with rising pr oduc-tion costs, producers were forced to find andtake a dvantage of new revenue oppor tuni-ties – new ways of making mon ey fr om thesame content – in order to maximize theirreturn on investment. This idea was furthersupp orted by c hanges in me dia in du strystructure, as massive fir ms like Disney andViacom became vertically integrated, own-ing both content production businesses (stu-dios) with the dist ribut ors (television andcable networks, film distributor s, et c.). ABC,for example, reuses programs from its broad-

cast network on its cable properties , such a sABC Family, and Soa pNet . Se gments fromNBC News programs are often seen on vari-ous a irlines as in-flig ht e ntertainment andCNN now allows users to pay a small fee tod ow nlo ad te le v is io n segm e nts vi a theInternet.

A 19 98 article in The Economist q u o t e df in ancia l analy st Chris Dix on as s ayin g“[media companies] no longer make films orbooks, they make brands.” Th e a rticle goeson t o explain theidea: “The brand isa lump of content… a whe e l, w it hthe b rand at t hehub and each ofthe spo ke s amea ns of ex plo it -in g it .” Eve n le g-endary cartoonistC harl es S ch ul z,creato r o f thePe anuts cartoo ncharacters, recog-nize d this mo delof media franchis-ing. He notes in a1999 in terview: “Iregard the comicstrip as t he centerof the wheel, a ndall the spokes thatgo out are the var-ious p rojects thattake place.” Th us,if w e co nsi de r a

planetarium show in a similar context – as abrand or f ranchise, a s oppose d t o simply aprodu ction fo r a d omed t heater – we c anbegin to ide ntify and e xplore various non-traditional distribution mechanisms.

While a plan etarium show c an arguablyonly be shown effectively in a planetarium,there are a number of ways in which the ideaof content repurposing can be used by showpro ducers to get e xtra mileag e out of theire xis tin g content and hard w ork. For thepla netarium, the goa ls of repurpos ing aretwofold: to increase revenue streams to im-prove the viab ility o f p roduction proj ectsand to expand the reach of the planetarium’soffer ings beyond t he plan etarium itself, inkeepin g with the educational mission t hatmost planetariums subscribe to.

Wit hin the plan etarium in dustry there

September 2003 Planetarian 7

Exploring New Avenues for ContentDistribution: Lessons from Broadcasters

Christopher S. ReedCSR Media, LLC

12106 West 75th LaneArvada, Colorado 80005-5306

(1) 720-236-3007(1) 954-212-5936 faxcreed@csrmedia.com

Faced with rising product ion costs over the past severalyears broadcasters have been forced to find new ways ofmaking money from the ir programming. Some of thesesame principles can be applied to the planetarium industryto help maximize returns on production investment.

Chris Reed is the president of CSR Media, LLC, amedia desi gn and consult ing firm in Denv er,Colorado.

Figure 1: Examples of repurposing projects as spokes extendingfrom a planetarium show hub.

exis t four bro ad categories of repurposingo pp ortunit i es – in the p arl an ce o f T h eEconomist, four primary spokes on the plane-tarium show hub from which various pro-jects offshoot. They are shown in Figure 2.

Research orient ed repurpos ing in volve susin g the vast q uantitie s of research andin fo rmation acqu ir ed d urin g t he show’ sdev elopmen t process. Because o nly a frac-tion of the available information ever makesit in to a f inis hed p rodu ction , ad dit ion almaterial can often be used to create productswhich extend the informational reach of theshow.

Concept orien ted projects take t he showas a whole, along with its brand identity, andcre ate sp in-of fs . E xam ples mig ht inc lud evideos or DVDs of the show or distributingthe s how to other inst itutions. Merchandis-ing based on the show’s logo, brand, or over-all concept would be included in this catego-ry.

Au d io orie nted and v is ually orie ntedrepurposing involves taking certain visual oraudio material from a presentation and for-matting it . This migh t include soundtracks,posters, and the like.

What follows is a serie s of more sp ecificsuggestions for ways that a program produc-er might consider leveraging materials creat-ed for a particular program beyond the showproduction. They a re, howeve r, just that –ideas. This list is by no means exhaustive andis meant to serve only as a starting point forbrainstorming and developing other innova-tive ideas.

Show -spec ific art -w o r k can b e u sed ona variety of media tocre ate salea ble me r-chandise that lev er-age b oth the show ’scontent a nd b rand.At the right reso lu -tio ns , certain d az -z lin g s cene s c an b eused on po sters ,p rin ts , te e-shi rts ,m ugs , mo use p ads ,and v ir tual ly any -thing that might typ-ically carry a logo orpie ce of art. Tha nksto a dvances in tech-nology, one no long-er nee ds t o comm itto la rge -scale p ro -du cti on runs whe nbuying these types ofproducts, as web siteslike Zazzle (www.zaz-z le .com ) and Ca f ePress (www.cafepress.com) allow users to

generate creative p roducts a nd produce a smany or as few as desired.

Companion web sites may not generate re-venue, per s e, but help to expand t he reachof a given show and allow visitors to delvede ep er in to s om e of the show’ s content.

Pu blic b roadcasters have be en u sin g thismodel for a number of years, creating com-plex and dynamic web sites that use pieces ofthe broadcast as a fr amework for deliveringmore in-depth material. These sites can alsoope rate as a lau nch pad to an e-commer cesite that sells ot her show-relat ed materialsthat a re discus sed in this a rticle. For exam-ples of how these can be put together, checkout t he web site of t he popular PBS s cienceprogram N o v a (www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova) orfo r the Minneso ta Public Radio docu men-tary series American RadioWorks.

S how s yndica tion is a fair ly tradition alm ethod b y w hich sho w pro du cers havesought to recoup some of their inve stment.By packaging and distributing a program toother facilities, planetarians not only estab-lish a new revenue stream but a reputationas a content producer, analogous to flagshipPBS produce rs, like WNET in New Yo rk orWGBH in Boston. With the transition to dig-ita l p roduction techniques , t he p ackagingand distribution process becomes easier andless expensive.

Videos and DVDs have been employed forsome time by various br oadcast entities toe xtend the life of their pro grammin g andgenerate new reve nue. Mos t of the maj ortelevision news operations sell videotapes oftheir magazine programs via mail order, PBS,the Discovery Channel, A&E, and other doc-ume ntary-drive n programming s ources s ellvideos via mail order and through retail out-

8 Planetarian September 2003

Figu re 2: Four p ri mary categori es of p lane ta rium sho wrepurposing.

Figure 3: A meric an Rad ioworks screen shot. Copyright 2 003, Mi nnes ota P ublicRad i o. R epro duced wi th per mi ssio n of Mi nne sota Publ ic Ra dio. Ame ri canRadioWorks is the documentary uni t of Minnes ota Public Radio. The Ame ricanRadioWorks web site is http://www.americanradioworks.org.

September 2003 Planetarian 9

lets. Oth er informal education venues haveex ploite d this opp ortunity a s we ll; m anypopular lar ge-format f ilms are a vailable onvideo and DVD. As more and more planetari-um production involves video, and produc-tion techniques start t o embr ace the digitaldomain, re-developing show content for thiskind of mass distribution becomes more fea-sible. Moreover, as DVDs become more com-monplace, a nd standards become more uni-versal, the cost of authoring and duplicationwill almost certainly go down.

Co mp anion b ook s allow p rodu cers toshowcase both the artistic and creative com-ponents of t heir programming while simul-taneously delivering more in-depth informa-tional content. These books can feature art-wo rk and grap hic s from t he program fo rvisual appeal interspersed with content fromthe show a s well as more detailed materialculled from the research done while dev el-oping the script. Full four-color printing canbe expensiv e, but s ponsorship can often beob tain ed t o he lp fu nd the p roje ct in e x-change f or a logo p laceme nt on the book.Companion books might take the form of apro gram s old a t a sporting ev ent or Broad-way s how, or a full coffee-table-style refer-ence book like Evolution: The Triumph of an

Idea p ubl is he d toco in cid e w it h thebro adcast of the PBSseries E v o l u t i o n. Th eCa f eP ress we b s i te ,me ntio ned earli er ,cl ai ms it w ill o ff e rshort-runcustom pub -lis hin g in the ne arfuture, though at thetime o f this w rit ing,no details were a vail-able.

While the prospectsfor gene rating addi -tion al r ev enue fromexisting show contentare strong, a few cau-tio nary not es are i nord er. Firs t and fo re-mos t, it is c rit ica l t orem em be r that anyco m po ne nt of theshow that may havebe e n create d b y athird-party is protect-ed un de r vario usco p yrig ht la ws . Al -though a discussion ofthe spe cif ic l egaliss ues is be yond t hescope of t his artic le,suffice it to say thatalmos t certain ly theri ghts granted to a

planetarium to include creative content in ashow for p ublic performance a re diffe rentthan t he rights needed to package and d is -tribut e that content. Anything c reated in -house by planetarium staff members is mostlikely owned by the planetarium as a work-mad e-for-hire, and thus c an be used freely.The presence of these issues, however, makesit impera tive that befor e any new contentrepurposing venture is launched careful con-sidera tion of the lega l issues t hat ma y a risefrom the re-use of certain material.

S hou ld c o py rig hted co ntent be use d,agreements w ith the creators oft en call forongoing royalt y payments w hic h requir eimpeccable recordkeeping on the number ofunits sold, makin g the p eriodic p ayme ntsand issuing reports to the rights holders, andgenerally just administering the licensing. Inma ny content-d riv en organiz ation s thisamounts to a full- time job , if not a wholede pa rtme nt. Is suing regula r r oy alt y pa y -ments also has tax implications that must beunderstood b y bot h pa rties such that theappropriate filings can be made, not the typeof work for which many non-profit account-ing departments are familiar with.

Finally, the time and energy needed to re-wo rk s how ma teria l int o diff erent f orm s

m ay so me tim es se em fa ir l y d auntin g .Pr ogrammin g created for the plan etariumenvironment is extremely u nique a nd mayoft en require s ignifican t rework to tailor itfo r differ ent m edia platf orms. Despite thistime commitment, the benefits and rewardsf rom of fering creative c ontent t hrough avariety of media oft en outweigh t he smalladded c osts of further molding it int o n ewfor ms. A number of plane tarians consultedwhile writing this article cited lack of institu-tio nal suppor t as the prima ry reason whyrepurposing projects have not yet been pur-sued. Such s uppo rt de ficits m ay ve ry we llprov e t o be the harde st part of launching acontent repurposing endeavor.

If done consistently and c orrectly, repur-pos ing content can b e an exc ellen t way ofcontinuing to generate r eve nue a nd exp o-sure for a p lanetarium show long af ter thelast ticket is sold. It is fulfilling both for t hein stitution that stands to increase its rev-enues and for t he produ ction staff who a reable to see t heir content last m uch longerthan exp ected. Broadcasters realized s omeyears ago that in their pr ogramming vaultse xiste d stacks and stacks o f pote ntial rev-enue just waiting to be developed. Most plan-etarium operations are in a similar position,and with a little cultivation, existing contentcan become a fountain of new opportunity,expanding the reach of the plane tarium farbeyond the dome.

ReferencesA me ric an Radio wo rks – ww w.am eric an

radioworks.orgCafePress – www.cafepress.comC harles M. S chulz Mu seum (19 99). S p e a k

Softly and Carry a Beagle: The Art of CharlesSchulz, [Traveling exhibition].

Horner, W., & Ludera, R. (1999). The Producer’sGuide to the H ereafter, [Website]. Corpora-tion for Public Broadcasting, SmithsonianIn stit utio n. Av aila ble: ww w.produ cers-guide.cpb.org [2003, 26 March].

NOVA – www.pbs.org/wgbh/novaSize does ma tter. (23 May 1998). The Econo -

mist, 347, 57-59.WGBH Television. (2002). Enhan cing Educa -

tion: A Producer’s Guide, [Website]. Corpora-tio n f or P ub li c Bro ad casti ng, W GB HTelevision. Av ailable: enhancinged.wgbh.org [2003, 26 March].

Zazzle – www.zazzle.com C

Figure 4: Evolution: The Triumph of an I dea by Carl Zim-mer, published as a companion to the PBS series of the sametitle. Courtesy Harper Collins.

… repu rpo sing conten tcan be an excellent way ofcontinuing to generate re-venue and exposure for aplanetarium show long af-ter the last ticket is sold.