TV formats
I’ve been thinking about “TV formats” recently. A format is a “specification” for a TV show that can be licensed and produced locally. Well-known formats are Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?, Survivor, etc.
I want to know how the formats are documented – that is, what licensees of the format obtain in terms of documentation. Sure, production companies that are about to “implement” a format could figure out a lot by simply watching existing productions, but I’m sure there must be very detailed manuals stating how the end result must “feel”. I saw a series of excerpts from various implementations of Who Wants, and they all were very similar – the only thing that differed were the host and the language used.
I want to know if there’s something here that could be applied to software architecture.