CEBU, Philippines – A production house has put “The Voice Kids” on blast for a partnership offer that would use its staff and resources for free.
Exposure Media Productions, a company based in Taguig City that specializes in web and TV commercials and branding videos, said it found the offer from ABS-CBN’s top-rating talent show “insulting” in a scathing blog post.
“Over the weekend, Exposure was asked if we’d like to become a partner for ‘The Voice Kids Philippines,’ a version of the hugely popular talent show, which has been a global success.”
“To become a ‘partner’ of the show, Exposure was asked to provide three cameras, three operators and sound and up to 14 hours of labor per person. Essentially producing a short three-minute behind-the-scenes video for each episode of the TV show. They also needed us to provide a photographer, and be ‘on-call’ expecting us to be available at a day’s notice,” narrated the blog post, presumably written by Exposure creative director Peter Carney.
However, the show offered no compensation — just exposure for Exposure’s logo as sponsor.
“We politely declined stating that we wouldn’t be able to work that long for free. The coordinating producer came back and asked us for our ‘maximum hours’ – how long we were willing to work for an ‘x-deal.’ When we sent him a figure for our services, he replied ‘Oh ok, I understand,’ confirming that they have no intention of paying for our services,” the blog post added.
“I went from being surprised, excited, and frustrated to angry all in the space of about 30 minutes. The more I thought about it the more consumed with rage I became. A billion dollar company ABS-CBN was asking us to essentially subsidize the production costs of a globally franchised show,” continued the blog post.
“I don’t believe we charge huge fees for our work, but this is about more than just a couple thousand dollars. It’s the arrogance that large corporations believe they can squeeze small companies into working for very little or for free.”
The writer of the blog post said the producer who had made the offer had asked that “any mention of the show [be] removed” from the blog post.
“I had a calm and fair discussion with another producer, not the same person who originally contacted us, and he said he would mention the practice and issue of x-deals to the senior staff. Fair play for reaching out and trying to resolve the situation and to make this issue be made aware to senior staff, but trying to censor people who speak up about bad business practices isn’t going to help the situation,” the post explained.
In the end, Exposure called on other companies to voice out their disapproval of such unfair practices: “When a large corporation with huge budgets approaches you to work for free, please make a stand.” – Interaksyon.com