Who needs a second take? Producer Sergio Alfaro built his way to running his own TV production company by working his way up the ranks on live TV events.
Alfaro, who is CEO of Invent.TV, tells the story of his rise, fall and rise again as an entertainment industry entrepreneur on the latest episode of Variety podcast “Strictly Business.” He explains how building up a strong reputation in the close-knit world of live event production allowed him to expand into unscripted TV. He’s been partners in Invent.TV with producer and investor Jeffrey Soros for nearly 10 years.
Alfaro’s backstory is inspiring in a modern-day Horatio Alger sense. He grew up in a home that didn’t have a television set — only a radio that was always tuned to Spanish-language radio. Today, his company produces dozens of hours of TV a year, delivering such series as TLC’s “Dr. Pimple Popper” and Bravo’s “The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” and numerous specials such as the annual Miss Universe competition.
Alfaro got his start in the 1990s stocking dressing rooms with beverages and towels for performers on NBC’s “Motown Live” — and cleaning up messes after the show. Within a year he was promoted to coordinator and his paycheck ballooned. That’s when he realized that entertainment could be a career, even for someone with his background.
“I said to myself ‘Oh my God, if I’m this young working here, where will I be in 10 years?’ What does the next person [in the production hierarchy] do? And what does the next person do,” Alfaro recalls of his epiphany at the time.
In his work as a producer, Alfaro and his company have enjoyed boom times and less-boom-y times. At present, the industry is dealing with a sharp contraction in the volume of unscripted and scripted series ordered by major networks and streamers. Alfaro notes that the consolidation in the industry among executives who now hear pitches for multiple networks has some benefits for sellers.
“It’s like anything else — is a relationship,” Alfaro says. “I feel like we are trying to sell something like a real estate agent — ‘Let me show you a couple of homes.’ It’s not always going to be the first home you see. Let me show you another one. And they go, ‘That kind of works, but put a pool in it.’ OK, sure, but we can afford the pool?’ “
For producers, “it’s much better because you don’t have to pitch to a bunch of different teams, and it doesn’t have to go through so many more layers. There’s still plenty of layers, don’t get me wrong, but you’re going to one person that can actually think about multiple options,” Alfaro says. He adds that he has new sympathies for executives who are juggling more shows and more responsibilities than ever before.
“The workload for them, that’s tough. The amount of hats that they’re wearing now and the things that they’re juggling,” he says. “In my opinion, they have a really hard job.”
“Strictly Business” is Variety’s weekly podcast featuring conversations with industry leaders about the business of media and entertainment. (Please click here to subscribe to our free newsletter.) New episodes debut every Wednesday and can be downloaded at Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Spotify, Google Play, SoundCloud and more.
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