David Perry—chairman of the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4A’s) broadcast production committee, and executive VP/ head of broadcast production at Saatchi & Saatchi, New York—has explained what he described as a statistical "anomaly" regarding overtime on spot shoots as reported in the 4A’s annual Television Production Cost Survey.
The apparent discrepancies surfaced when Matt Miller, president of the Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP), critiqued and raised questions about the 4A’s study covering calendar year 1999 (SHOOT, 12/1, p. 1). The 4A’s survey cited a 13 percent increase, from 1998 to ’99, in overtime hours on the typical :30 shot in studio, and an eight percent rise in overtime hours for the average :30 lensed on location. But the percentage increases didn’t jibe with the average overtime figures, which were the same in the 4A’s reports for ’98 and ’99: three-plus hours for studio shoots and five hours for location projects.
Perry related that "statistical rounding off" of the numbers (to three-plus and five hours, respectively) led to what on the surface looked like discrepancies. He said that when the actual numbers, which reflect fractions of overtime hours, are put into the equation for ’98 and ’99, the percentage increases reported in the 4A’s study are accurate.
Perry noted that research as extensive as that in the 4A’s study will contain certain "anomalies," which can often be explained when digging deeper into the actual numbers. He affirmed that he "believes strongly" in the value of the study and in the "overall" 4A’s finding that the average gross cost of producing a national :30 last year was $343,000.
Nonetheless, different sectors of the industry are skeptical of certain bottom-line findings reflected in the 4A’s survey. The AICP has perennially questioned the validity of the study. And, as reported in this week’s lead story, members of the spot music community have questioned the ’99 survey’s conclusion that music production costs have increased 35 percent from ’98 to ’99.
