The Sentient TV Series – Business model
A global franchise
Sentient features the same story, played-out all over the world.
It is a disruptive approach to development, production, sales and marketing of TV content.
Fine tuned
Whilst global, Sentient is created locally.
Creation in local markets, for sale into those markets, enables the work to be culturally fine-tuned, featuring heroes and themes, most relevant to those cultures.
Rights
Any version of the franchise can be sold into any market worldwide however a master franchise owner, such as the U.S, may choose to limit access to their market in their language.
What is the Sentient story?
Humanity is wiped-out overnight.
Alien life forms wear humans like suits.
Small pockets of human survivors face the frightening reality that another life form is better at being human than we are.
The survivors fight-back, seeking-out the Sentient and ruthlessly exterminating them. The Sentient become radicalised. They adapt the human body in new and terrifying ways then take the battle to us.
War rages across the planet, leading to the potential of the extinction of humanity but there is hope and a reason for all of this happening.
The surviving humans will discover what it is to become, truly sentient.
The Sentient discover what it is to be truly human.
A third way will be revealed.
The offspring of humanity and the Sentient will become the next step in the evolution of the species.
Sydney leads the way
Sydney, Australia leads the way with the foundation of the story.
Story strands from other Australian cities will be woven into the first or second season.
Why create a global story?
As in the case with ‘Real Humans’ and ‘Human’ it’s possible to sell the same story in different languages all over the world because people like the idea and want to see different versions of it.
See how a Swedish sci-fi became a global hit.
Pay day
Pay day comes from:
- Sale of the content to the local market
- Sale of the content to any market
- Sale of the franchise for remake to a master market such as the U.S.
- Ancillary rights
Funding development
Our objective is to raise funding via sponsorship, crowdfunding, Government support and investment to fund development.
Where there is no funding or part-funding for development, team members participate by having points assigned to them, for their work, on our Leaderboard. This entitles the most pro-active in the community to payment when we go into production.
Who gets what?
Production Investors
Production investors receive first-out capital return then one third of profits from their franchise. Where a fund is created for a slate of works in a number of countries, first-out capital return will apply, followed by an amortised profit return based on the entirety of that slate.
Development team
One third of profits are returned to the leading fifty members of the development team, based on participation registered on the Leaderboard. We may extend this to a greater number subject to participation and the will of the community.
Presence Global Entertainment
One third of profits are returned to P.G.E.
Sale of the Franchise
Where there are no production investors to pay-out, Presence is in a position to make a greater disbursement to the development team. That said, we believe that allowing the same, one third allotment to all production investors or key production investors may incentivise them to participate.
This approach gives production investors many bites of the cherry. It minimises risk and maximises potential return.
Legal
We’re poised to create a suite of contracts to ensure fair and transparent outcomes for all development team members. Until then, the Leaderboard will be employed to track our team’s participation and support.
Funding production
Production may be funded exclusively by one party but more than likely a number of parties will be involved including;
- Commissioning by a network or subscription company
- Employing the Australian Producer Rebate or equivalent in your country
- State and Federal grants
- A structured offer to service a region such as Europe or Asia
- Through a small scale or 20/12 offering to the market
- Sponsorship
- Crowdfunding
- Philanthropy (we can dream can’t we?)
Why is the story of Sentient so important?
Beyond the themes of colonisation and radicalisation played out in the Australian franchise, Sentient poses the question, what will happen to our species and the planet if we do not turn away from our current path?
Even when the arrival of the Sentient completely disrupts humanity’s way of life, the human survivors still choose to employ the most confrontation way of doing things and it leads to the potential extinction of the species.
The Sentient challenge us to question, how shall we live and what it is to be human.
In a fictional way, Sentient allows us to dream of rebooting the human franchise but tasks us, not to wait too long to make the changes we must, to ensure the survival of our planet and our species.
Contact
Are you a media professional seeking to participate?
Are you a potential sponsor or investor?
Do you work for a funding body and wish to learn more?
Contact the Head of Development – David Steinhoff.
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