‘Survivor's’ Burnett shows no signs of slowing

LOS ANGELES - excerpt from Hollywood Reporter interview with Mark Burnett:

THR: You've been a trailblazer since “Eco-Challenge” and “Survivor” in courting big-ticket advertisers to help fund your productions. How do you think the integrated marketing/branded entertainment trend will change the television business in the next few years?

Burnett: I thoroughly believe that only idiots are not looking for alternative financing forms in today’s market because the model can’t continue with TiVo growing and video-on-demand and everything. There’s got to be a different way of looking at it...There’s no reason to have this firewall between (producers and advertisers). We kind of broke that. We made some little chinks in armor in “Survivor.” With “Contender,” we can make maximum revenue possible by giving sponsors way more integration in an organic way. (NBC agreed to the unusual provision of selling some ad time in “Contender” back to Burnett and co-producer DreamWorks to resell on their own.)

THR: But does that ever frustrate you as a producer? Have you ever clashed with sponsors over a creative issue?

Burnett: I hear some producers say they really don’t want the advertising community involved in their precious creative work. What’s more creative than telling 30-second stories and seeing billions of dollars of product fly off the shelves? The advertising community is very creative and very willing to work together with producers. They have great ideas. As producers, you have to deal with studio or network notes anyway, and many notes you get are from people who haven’t actually produced a movie or TV show. You have to work hand in hand respectfully in that way. Sometimes the (advertisers’) notes have been the best help of all. It’s a fresh set of eyes.

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