Smithsonian Hands Over TV Contract

SMITHSONIAN HANDS OVER TV CONTRACT
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Jacqueline Trescott]
The Smithsonian Institution is locked into its semi-exclusive television contract with Showtime Networks for 30 years, Smithsonian Secretary Lawrence M. Small told a House oversight committee yesterday. Small disclosed several other details about the deal: 1) The Smithsonian is guaranteed $500,000 a year, and can earn additional money if Smithsonian on Demand, Showtime programming based on Smithsonian holdings, is popular with cable subscribers. 2) Showtime invested "tens of millions of dollars upfront" to start Smithsonian on Demand. 3) The Smithsonian can do six television programs a year with other filmmakers outside the Showtime contract. With the deal, the Smithsonian said, researchers and scholars would continue to have access to the archives and other Smithsonian resources. But commercial filmmakers could make only "incidental" use of the materials unless they were working with Showtime or got special approval. Smithsonian officials have said only a very small number of filmmakers would be affected. Small said that of the 900 media contracts signed between 2000 and 2005, only 17 had more than an incidental use of Smithsonian resources. Small explained that the Showtime project was one way that Smithsonian was trying to bring in extra revenue. It receives 75 percent of its money from Congress. Its other funds come from a private account that includes an $800 million endowment. Small said yesterday the Smithsonian had raised $1 billion from private sources since 2000. But he also reminded the panel that the Smithsonian has a backlog of repairs that would cost billions of dollars.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/25/AR200605...
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