UCP & Blumhouse Enter ‘Micro-Budget’ Agreement for TV

UNIVERSAL CITY: Universal Cable Productions (UCP) and Blumhouse Productions have entered into a multiyear production agreement that will implement a "micro-budget" financial and creative structure for TV series.

The deal is the first to materialize from the first-look production agreement Blumhouse signed earlier this year with NBCUniversal and will focus on creating scripted and non-scripted programming leveraging the “micro-budget” model that Blumhouse has engaged in within the film industry. As part of the agreement, Syfy and USA Network have each given Blumhouse and UCP a blind series commitment.

Blumhouse is bringing its feature-film model to TV with a plan to create an entire season of a scripted series for the average production cost of a traditional cable pilot. The financial model involves low upfront production costs, including no fee for Blumhouse, coupled with performance-based incentives, which for TV will be triggered by a second season and subsequent season pickups.

Blumhouse is behind such productions as the Paranormal Activity, Purge, Insidious and Sinister franchises.

“Blumhouse has achieved tremendous financial and creative success with its production model in the feature film business and together, we figured out a way to adapt the model for television. It’s part of our studio’s strategy of being flexible with existing models and finding new ways to bring great ideas to market,” said Jeff Wachtel, the president and chief content officer at NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment. “And because real success is always in the execution, we would only do this type of deal with a company like Blumhouse, who we know can deliver the quality.”

Jason Blum, the founder and CEO at Blumhouse Productions, said: "When we launched our television business, one of our goals was to try and build on what we have done in film—keeping budgets low to give storytellers creative freedom and to increase profits. Jeff Wachtel and his entire team at Universal Cable Productions have been at the forefront of trying new models in television and we are grateful to be a small part of their process. We are excited to get going as we partner with both new and established show runners looking to tell their favorite stories."