Development Fees For Writers On The Rise Amid Depressed TV Buying: “We Call It Schmuck Insurance”
A strong pitch is key to selling a show, which is why TV writers put so much effort in preparing one. Now they want to get paid for that — and increasingly are. In a trend that started after the pandemic and took hold after the strike, many writers are earning a fee ranging from $5K-$25K to develop a pitch for a series.
Traditionally, production companies and studios make “if come” deals with writers for a project, guaranteeing them a script fee, typically in the low six figures, which is only paid if the project sells. Writers spend time to prepare what is referred to as “development material,” which they use during the pitch meetings to better present their vision for the series with the goal of securing a buyer. If that does not happen, they don’t get any money.
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This was not a major issue during the golden age of broadcast when the five networks would order a combined 100 pilots a year, purchasing several times as many scripts, and during the feeding frenzy era of Peak TV that followed, which kept 500-600 scripted series going at any time. There were always buyers looking for content, giving writers and studios plenty of options.
That started to change after the pandemic. And with the Hollywood contraction accelerating post-strike, selling a show has become extremely difficult, making the preparation of a pitch a high-risk proposition.
“Everyone feels so depressed by the environment right now; I’ve never seen it like this,” one veteran TV executive-turned-producer said of the current state of the TV business. “Other than Netflix, which is doing its thing, no one is really buying a lot.”
Fewer scripts selling has led to writers putting more work into their pitches to make them stand out in hopes to boost their chances of success. And, with overall deals also drying up and staffing jobs harder to find amid a decline in U.S.-made original scripted series post-Peak TV, there are lot of writers struggling to support their lifestyles with house, car and private school tuition payments who are no longer willing to spend a considerable amount of time developing pitches for free. So their agents started asking for development fees.
“Pitches sometimes take as much work as writing an outline for a script or writing a full script. If a writer is spending the time and putting in the work, they should have something to show for it,” one agent said. “We call it schmuck insurance.”
Further exacerbating the problem is the proliferation of the so-called “bake-offs” where studios sometimes have three or so writers all develop pitches for a series based on the same idea/IP before choosing one of them to take out.
“Writers keep doing free work, and it kind of gets old,” one manager said. While more prevalent in features with free rewrites and other unpaid assignments — something the WGA has been pushing back on in contract negotiations — free work is largely frowned upon in TV, which is likely why the development fee asks have taken hold.
Smaller production companies and independent studios such as Fifth Season, Skydance TV, A24, A+E Studios and Future Shack have been early adopters as they have less leverage to land pedigreed writers while also having more leeway to be creative with deals.
The major studios, which have more clout as sellers and rely on large volume where development fees would add up, have been less receptive to the trend, with such payments for pitch development considered rare exceptions. Still, at least one major is known to have paid writers $10K development fees. Observers believe others would follow.
Sometimes, the development money a writer gets is applied toward the script fee if the pitch sells. There are tussles over that too, with agents asking for the development fee to be separate and studios pushing for it to be considered an advance toward the script fee if the project sells. Because a production company pays for writers to work on pitches, the company owns the development material that is created even if the pitch doesn’t find a buyer.
Lit agents, who can no longer take a packaging fee on projects they sell, get a cut too. While not substantial, the development fee business has created a new revenue stream for agents who commission them.
One bit of good news for writers amid the dearth of pitch sales and studios’ pullback on overall deals is the fact that script prices have gone up, with premium scripts going for $300K-$400K. We’ve also seen the rise of what some refer to as “super blinds,” blind script deals for A-list creators that can pay $400K-$500K or even more. Employed by top streamers like Netflix, they are essentially a blank check aimed at enticing high-caliber creators to write something new with no specific idea attached to it.
That is still cheaper than an overall deal, which would pay $1.5M-$2M a year to an established showrunner and yield 1-2 scripts. Traditional studios and streamers have been pulling away from expensive overall pacts in favor of cheaper — and less restrictive for talent — first-look deals. Premium script deals — $300K-$350K for comedy, $400k-$450K for drama — are considered another financially advantageous alternative to overalls for top talent.
Ironically, the proliferation of overall deals over the past decade had kept script fee levels artificially depressed at around $150K-$200K for experienced writers under overall deals as those fees are being applied toward the deal amount. If the combined script, episodic and other fees for work under a deal surpass its total, the studios have to shell out fresh cash, something they have been avoiding by charging off less for script fees.
With overall pacts on the decline, the script market has now normalized, with seasoned writers consistently landing script fees north of $200K, I hear.
Also, because the script fees are not guaranteed in “if come” deals, some production companies and studios put some premium on them, sweetening the offers to writers in lieu of upfront money. If the pitch sells, writers get that amount regardless what price it sells for.
At the end of day, development fees are one of many “innovative ways” people are approaching the business but it is not a game changer, one agent stressed. “You can’t make a living off development fees; it’s not going to replace a script sale or a staffing job. It’s just a placeholder.”
The fees are also a validation of writers’ self-worth and a way for studios to show that they appreciate the work put into pitches, the person added.
Said another rep, “It’s a way to get some money in writers’ pockets and to incentivize them, give them a little more skin in the game.”
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