Television

TSG TV is an alternative to the movie portion of The Showbiz Game. It allows players to create their own TV station in any of the over 200 TV markets currently available and allow them to grow from a local station reaching thousands of viewers to a national network reaching millions. Like the movie portion of TSG, players have numerous paths that they can pursue including Network President, Producer, Actor/Actress, Agent, etc. Many of these roles can be played across both movies and TV. If you are interested in playing the TV portion of the game, this section sets to lay out the information you need to start and hopefully be successful in the TV business.

HOW TO PLAY
Brand new TV networks in TSG will receive a small, basic office which includes a marketing department, main office and a scheduling department. In addition to the office, you will also begin with $50 Million. While you can't actually "lose" the game and you will never close unless you close the network yourself, being in debt will cause you to be restricted to what you can do. It can decrease your reputation which can lead to the big name talent not working with you until you increase it. But you can always seek a bank loan or new investors if times get really tough.

ACQUIRING PROGRAMMING
Once your TV network is established, you need to start acquiring programming to show your viewers. This is done a couple ways. You can either acquire already existing, unaired series or you can purchase a series from one of the production companies in the game.

If you choose to acquire already existing programs, you can do so by checking out the TV Vault section on the website. Here, you will be able to search for programs by genre, length, number of episodes, etc. These programs already have scripts written and a set purchase price. You, as the network president, will just need to hire the cast and production company. This is a good way to get started if you don't wish to go through the entire process.

For those who wish develop a series from the beginning, they can acquire a concept from any of the production companies in the game. Production companies can either be human controlled or controlled by the game itself. A production company may pitch a concept to the game and any networks that are interested can purchase the show. Once a show concept is purchased, the development process begins.

SCRIPTS
Once you have purchased a concept for a TV show, you should hire up to 3 writers to write the scripts for the following season. Writers will keep writing scripts until the number of episodes for the season are completed. In TSG TV, the scripts are written by in game writers one episode at a time and once they are written, the writers move on to the next episode and the script is final. Their is why hiring the best writers for the shows genre is so important. You don't want to hire a comedy writer for a drama as the script will not be very engaging for the fans which can lead to low ratings and less money.

CASTING
Casting for Television works the same way as for the movies with the exception of the timeframe. Since TV series are expected to premiere the following season, and tv episodes take time to produce, the cast must be finalized prior to the start of the season. A tv series can have up to 10 regular on-screen talents and 3 guest stars per episode. Much like the movies, TSG TV has a salary cap. If your total on-screen cast goes over this cap, you will be warned that you are over the cap and will have the option to re-cast. This is in place to help studios control some of their costs and also to allow every studio or production company a fair shot to cast top tier talent providing a more competitive atmosphere. If a film is put into production while over the cap, the studio will have their cap decreased for the next three films. The default casting cap for TV is $20 Million.Talent can be cast on one TV series at a time but they may be cast in a TV show and a movie at the same time.

Talent may decline a role for a number of reasons. They may feel they are too big to star in a tv series or they may not want to work with a director. If a network has a bad reputation, the talent may also decline the role.

HIRING CREW
Once the script is written and your cast is finalized, you should hire a production crew. This is done by hiring one of the production houses in the game. Every production company in the game will have a skill attribute in the categories and a hiring cost. Some are better than others....and more expensive. It is important to know what production company will work best for your film. If your TV series is a comedy with no special effects, you don't want to hire a company that is highly rated in special effects as it will do you no good.

PRODUCTION
Ok, so you have a script, talent hired, and a production company hired. Now your TV series is ready to be produced (provided your talent are all available). Put your series into production and let the magic happen. The film will remain in production for the duration of the Length of Production. During this time, the users involved don't really have anything to do when it comes to the production of the showThe performance scores and episode quality will be calculated throughout the duration of production.

The quality for TV series is on an episode by epsiode basis with each episode ranging from 1-100 with 100 being the best.

PROGRAM SCHEDULE
As the network president, you are responsible for creating a program schedule for your tv network. Program schedules run from 6 PM-Midnight Central Time with Prime Time being from 7 PM-10 PM.

MARKETING
Studio presidents can access the marketing department through the marketing office and here they can develop a marketing plan for their film. This includes setting a marketing budget and developing a marketing plan. Films can be marketed through different methods such as Local TV ads or a Fast Food Promotion. Each method has a positive and negative effect. This is one of the main factors used to determine box office success or failure. Each method has a cost associated with it which is added to your films final expense. Marketing effects only the first weekend (Fri-Sun) of release.

POST-PRODUCTION
Once a film is completed, the Executive Producer (Studio Rep) will receive a notification which will include a production report. A production report will layout the quality details of the film. It includes Talent performance scores, production quality scores (set design, art design, etc), final film quality, etc. At this point, the Studio can decide to keep the film the way it is or send it back into production to try and improve a films quality. If a film is sent back to production, it adds an extra month (in game) to the production length and costs an extra $1 Million per week to the films production cost. It could pay off with a better quality film or it could be worse.

DISTRIBUTION/RELEASE
If a studio is happy with a films quality and decides to release it, they can then go to their distribution department and set up the release details for the film. Before a film is released to theaters, they can be entered into a film festival. Film Festivals allow a studio to increase a films hype prior to a films release. Each film festival has an entry fee that the studio must pay and each one has a max number of films allowed to be shown. Each film festival also has a max film quality that they will accept with the top tier films usually not being included.

When a studio is ready to release a film, they can decide how many screens they wish to show their film on. The max number is based on the quality of a film with the maximum being 4,500. The game world consists of 40,000 screens. The distribution cost of a film is determined by the format (Non 3D or 3D) and the number of screens to show the film on. Films can be show in theaters for a maximum of 3 months and as new films are released to theaters, the oldest films will have their screen totals decreased. The number of screens a film shows on will automatically decrease weekly in game time after a film has been in theaters for three weekends.

BOX OFFICE
Once a film is released, the box office numbers will be released every day in game time. Box Office charts will be updated in numerous categories including Opening Weekend, All Time, etc. A studios finances will be updated once the box office results are calculated.

HOW TO PLAY
Players choosing to start their own tv station must choose which city they will begin their station in. They have over 200 U.S cities to choose from. The cities include actual TV markets in the U.S. Each city has its own number of TV viewers and monthly cost.

Once a tv network is started in a city, the network will begin with $50 Million that they can use to purchase or develop programs for their network. Programs come in a wide range of genres, formats, and lengths. Everything from 30 minute sitcoms to special events. More information on developing and producing a tv series can be found here.

Once a tv network has acquired enough programming to fill their schedule, they must then create a program schedule. This lists what shows are airing on what day and time.