Its hard to believe that December will mark our 12-year anniversary here at Broadcast Management Group. First and foremost, I am grateful for each of our clients, our staff, and vendors who have made this milestone possible. I am also grateful for finding such a great business partner 9 years ago in Andrew Ryback, who shares my passion and excitement about the industry. I have been fortunate to have built Broadcast Management Group around an industry I enjoy so much. Over these last 12 years, our projects have taken us everywhere – from Times Square to Pakistan, SXSW to ComicCon, music festivals to film festivals, the Republican and Democratic Conventions to Election Night. To commemorate this upcoming milestone, I decided to look back on what caused me to launch the company 12-years ago, and how we’ve evolved and refined our service offering along the way. 12 years in the making.
There’s no better way than learning by doing
Looking back on these last twelve years, I realize that it was a culmination of my career experience and my passion for live production that gave birth to BMG. Growing up in this industry, I have learned – hands-on – virtually every aspect of the business. This is especially true of the 17 years prior to starting BMG, during which I headed up four production companies owned by others. But it was my last position, serving as president of Atlantic Video, that proved a turning point.
Having been hired by Atlantic in a “turnaround” capacity, I developed a new business model that took the company from solely a production facility to a full production management and development company. And we enjoyed plenty of success – launching series and specials for well-established networks like ESPN, MTV, ABC and CNN. We also had success in creating hit shows, like “The Pet Psychic” on Animal Plant as well as several shows for a variety of other networks. Despite the success, however, our growth remained anchored to our three physical locations, our production facilities and the equipment we owned in Los Angeles, New York and Washington, DC.
Breaking free to explore (and conquer) new horizons
The desire to build an international production company not constrained by physical locations and equipment was a huge part of what drove me to start BMG. My goal was always clear: Each project would be 100% driven by the needs of our clients. As much as I love technology and physical production facilities, it was liberating not to be tied down and to be focused solely on the client’s goals and objectives. My team and I proceeded to develop four business units, each built to handle a wide range of production needs.
Live Production Services
Our initial focus was producing live and live-to-tape programs. This included music, news and entertainment specials and events. Our first project was for ESPN in Los Angeles – a show called “ESPN Hollywood”. Over the years, our services expanded to providing turnkey solutions, which include assembling the creative and technical teams, location selection, budgeting, event logistics and technical engineering and transmissions.
Broadcast Consulting
Early on, BMG was hired to provide broadcast consulting services for the design and construction of a large television facility. We were kept on board to advise on the ongoing operations, marketing and management. This lead to the creation of our broadcast consulting division. The experience gained by building dozens of physical production facilities around the world has been a big asset to each of BMG’s business units. Today, our broadcast consulting services have expanded to include launching OTT networks and advising networks and companies on operations, budgeting, staffing, technology, facilities, distribution, content, revenue streams and strategic alliances.
Long-Term Production Staffing
With any project, you must begin by assembling the right team. It’s something I learned early on in my career, so our full-time production staffing division was a natural extension of my earlier experiences. BMG has built our expertise and relationships, both domestically and internationally, to assemble and manage the best teams. We now provide full-time production staffing and management for ongoing television series, studios and networks.
Creative Services
It was almost inevitable that we would eventually expand into content format development for series and events. Our creative services division team is grounded in years of experience working with networks to develop and launch fresh new programs and specials. Today, we work with domestic and international broadcast, cable, digital media and OTT clients to create show formats as well as produce shows.
Ready and eager for the next twelve years
I have always believed in staying 100% focused on our client’s needs. By doing so, BMG has continued to grow, expand and produce a top-quality product for our clients. Our industry is at a very exciting place right now, and I am excited to see where the next twelve years may take us. Again, a huge thank you to our clients who have entrusted us with their projects, the BMG team who all share the same passion, and our vendors who have supported us along the way.
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