CSTonline

**Television Shows, Brands and Properties in the Global Television
Scenario**

Bologna, Dipartimento delle Arti, May 23rd-24th, 2017

*Confirmed keynote speakers:* **Jérôme Bourdon, Jean Chalaby**

*Organized by Luca Barra and Paola Brembilla, in collaboration with
Andrea Esser,  
the Media Across Borders network and the ECREA Television Studies
section*

Media Mutations, the international conference of studies on audiovisual
media hosted by Dipartimento delle Arti of Università di Bologna, comes
to its ninth edition. This year's theme is **the cultural and industrial
role of global formats in television production, distribution and
viewing practices**.

In the last fifteen years, following a long history that already started
in the early years of the medium, television all around the world has
been constantly and successfully broadcasting global formats: big brands
and franchises, with a codified set of rules, sold at international
audiovisual markets, distributed in many countries and on numerous
networks and channels, and adapted and remade according to the tastes
and needs of local audiences. Beginning with *Big Brother*, *Survivor*
and *Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?*, and later with *The X Factor*,
*Masterchef*, *Peking Express*, *In Treatment*, *The Bridge*, *Pulseras
Rojas* and many others, formatted shows have contributed to creating a
shared television aesthetics, spreading best practice in production,
distribution and marketing, and establishing similar consumption habits.
At the same time, differences and national specificities are still at
work, and the success of global formats in individual national markets
depends on successful localization. The process of formatization is now
used in both TV fiction and entertainment productions, and it is
relentlessly expanding, both at the economic and cultural level, and in
a convergent media scenario.

Some classic and more recent studies have established the field of
format research over the past 18 years, defining various format
dimensions and analyzing their ability to travel across different
countries and cultures (e.g. Moran 1998, 2007; 2009; Oren and Shahaf,
2012; Chalaby 2016; Ellis, Esser and Gutiérrez Lozano 2016; Aveyard,
Moran and Jensen 2016). The conference aims to expand the academic
knowledge of this important phenomenon, establish new research
perspectives in the field, and strengthen the understanding of national
and transnational distribution and reception practices. The focus will
not only be on cultural and linguistic format issues, but on the legal,
economic and productive aspects of format development and format trade,
and the different genres and types of formatted audiovisual products.

Media Mutations 9 encourages submissions that cover the following
subjects and topics, favoring proposals and case histories that are able
to intersect across different areas:

- The **economic/trade dimension** of TV formats: rise and evolution of
  the format market; formats as commercial properties; format
  distributors and buyers; negotiation aspects; sales; format companies;
  mergers and acquisitions; trade rituals and habits; global buying and
  selling practices and national specificities; emerging production
  regions and established format centers.
- The **legal dimension of TV formats**: intellectual properties,
  franchise and copyright issues; legal protection of formats, globally
  and nationally; protecting original ideas from copycat shows and
  piracy; forms of contracts and license deals; formats on digital
  platforms and as reruns.
- The **productive dimension** of TV formats: advantages and
  disadvantages of making or buying formats; format development process;
  developing original programs vs. adapting international formats;
  professional skills and roles; production processes; branded content
  formats.
- The **distributive dimension** of TV formats: circulation of formats
  across different countries and television models; national adaptations
  and mediations of global formats; remakes vs. ready-made programming;
  programming, scheduling and promotion practices; digital distribution
  of formats on over-the-top and on demand audiovisual platforms.
- The **aesthetic dimension** of TV formats: formats as symbolic and
  narrative forms; formats as a set of fixed rules; formats as branding
  devices; aesthetic innovation vs. conservation; formats and television
  genres/texts (game, reality, talent, fiction, general entertainment,
  factual programming); scripted vs. unscripted formats; specificities
  of fiction formats; transmedia storytelling.
- The **audience dimension** of TV formats: national appeal of global
  formats; limits and constraints imposed by local taste; format success
  and consequences on viewing habits and consumption practices; formats
  and convergent television/media; quantitative (ratings) and
  qualitative analysis of format audiences.
- The **historical dimension** of TV formats: evolution of formats and
  markets; different steps/models; "formats" before the advent of
  licensed formats; formats on PSB, commercial TV and pay TV; role of
  national/transnational television cultures in creating successful
  formats.
- The **life-cycle** of television formats: from development and
  broadcast in the first country to international circulation and
  national adaptations, to the "death"/re-birth of a format.
- **Theoretical** and **methodological approaches** to television
  formats.
- **Transnational case histories**: global formats and their
  adaptations; key brands and franchises; leading and upcoming format
  countries.

The official languages of the conference are English and Italian.
Abstracts (250-500 words for 20-minute talks) should be sent to
mediamutations.org \[at\] gmail.com by February 15th 2017. Please attach
a brief biography (maximum 150 words) and an optional selected
bibliography (up to five titles) relevant to the conference theme.
Notification of acceptance will be sent by March 15th. A registration
fee will be requested after notification of paper acceptance (€40 for
speakers and professional attendants; free conference admission for
students).

This Conference is financially supported by Centro Dipartimentale La
Soffitta and Dipartimento delle Arti, Università di Bologna. For more
information on the previous editions of Media Mutations, please check
the conference website,
[www.mediamutations.org](http://www.mediamutations.org/).


Television Shows, Brands and Properties in the Global Television Scenario

Bologna, Dipartimento delle Arti, May 23rd-24th, 2017

 Confirmed keynote speakers:


 Jérôme Bourdon, Jean Chalaby


 Organized by Luca Barra and Paola Brembilla, in collaboration with Andrea Esser, the Media Across Borders network and the ECREA Television Studies section

Media Mutations, the international conference of

Messaggi di Rogue Scholar

CFP: MEDIA MUTATIONS 9 – The Format Factor. May 23rd-24th, 2017