← All guides

Gantt Chart for Broadcast and TV Production

Plan TV and broadcast production with a Gantt chart—scripted series timelines, overlapping episodes, post-production sequences, and live sports planning included.

Gantt Chart for Broadcast and TV Production

Television production is not sequential—it is overlapping. While episode 3 is in principal photography, episode 2 is in the editor's room, episode 1 is getting its VFX completed, and episode 4 is in prep with its director. A production coordinator who thinks about one episode at a time is not a production coordinator who lasts long in episodic television. A Gantt chart for broadcast production makes the overlapping episode lifecycle visible, tracks the simultaneous threads of development, production, and post-production, and prevents the one thing that stops a series: missing a delivery deadline to the network or streaming platform.

This guide covers how to build production Gantt charts for scripted series, unscripted/reality content, and live sports broadcasts.

Scripted Series: The Overlapping Episode Model

The defining scheduling challenge of episodic television is overlap. At any given point in a season's production, multiple episodes are in different stages of the pipeline simultaneously. Each episode has its own Gantt; the series Gantt stacks them with offset start dates.

Development Phase (pre-green light)

Before a single frame is shot, the development phase establishes the creative and business foundation:

  • Concept and pitch: The showrunner (or creator) pitches the series to a network or streaming platform. This may involve a written document (premise, pilot script, character breakdowns) or a verbal pitch.
  • Script commission: The platform commissions a pilot script or a writers' room.
  • Writers' room: 8 to 20 writers develop the season's story arcs, break individual episodes, and write the scripts. A 10-episode season in a full writers' room typically requires 6 to 12 months.
  • Network/studio notes: Scripts go through multiple rounds of network or studio notes before being approved for production. Note cycles add 2 to 6 weeks per round; allow for 3 to 5 rounds per script.
  • Green light: The platform commits to produce the series. This is the milestone that gates pre-production.

Pre-Production Phase (per episode and series-wide)

Pre-production runs at two levels simultaneously: series-wide setup and per-episode episode prep.

Series-wide pre-production:

  • Showrunner, executive producers, and key department heads (director of photography, production designer, costume designer, location manager) are attached
  • Production company and studio deal finalized
  • Union and guild agreements confirmed (WGA for writers, DGA for directors, SAG-AFTRA for performers, IATSE for below-the-line crew)
  • Production office opened
  • Series budget finalized

Per-episode prep (approximately 8 days for a network hour-long drama):

  • Director attached to episode (episodic shows use a rotating director pool—rarely the same director for consecutive episodes)
  • Director's prep begins: scout locations, review storyboards, tone meeting with showrunner
  • Cast deal memos for guest and recurring cast in this episode
  • Location agreements signed for episode-specific locations
  • Department heads finalize episode-specific requirements (special effects, additional props, costume builds)
  • Production meeting (department heads review every scene in the episode)
  • Tech scout (directors, department heads, and key crew walk every location)
  • Day-out-of-days (DOOD) breakdown: each cast member's days on set per episode

Principal Photography Phase

Production schedules are measured in shooting days. Industry standards:

  • Network one-hour drama: 7 to 10 shooting days per episode
  • Premium cable or streaming drama: 9 to 12 shooting days per episode
  • Half-hour comedy: 4 to 5 shooting days per episode
  • Feature film (for reference): 40 to 80 shooting days

Each shooting day has a call sheet—issued the night before—listing every scene to be shot, the scenes' locations, the cast called, the time each cast member is needed on set, and the equipment required. The call sheet is the operational document; your Gantt is the strategic document.

WGA and SAG-AFTRA minimums that affect the schedule:

  • SAG-AFTRA minimum turnaround: 12 hours between wrap and next call. A late night wrap means a late call the next morning.
  • SAG-AFTRA consecutive workday limits: After 6 consecutive shooting days, performers are entitled to a rest day (though deals often provide flexibility).
  • DGA minimum prep days: Directors have minimum contractual prep periods that must be honored before their shooting days begin.

Post-Production Phase (per episode)

Post-production for a one-hour drama typically runs 10 to 14 weeks per episode—but since episodes deliver on a rolling schedule, post runs simultaneously with photography on earlier episodes.

The standard post sequence per episode:

  1. Assembly cut (editor's cut): Editor assembles all footage in scene order from the dailies. Duration: 2 to 4 weeks (often completed by the time production wraps on that episode)
  2. Director's cut: Director has contractual time (DGA minimum: 10 days for one-hour drama) to complete their cut before showing to producers. Duration: 10 to 14 days
  3. Producers' cut: Showrunner and producers refine the director's cut. Duration: 1 to 3 weeks
  4. Network/platform cut: Network or streaming platform provides notes; another round of revisions. Duration: 1 to 2 weeks
  5. Picture lock: The final edit is locked—no more editorial changes. This milestone gates all downstream post work.
  6. Visual effects (VFX): VFX shots are replaced with final rendered versions. VFX-heavy episodes may require 4 to 8 weeks after picture lock.
  7. Color grading (DI—Digital Intermediate): Colorist grades every shot for aesthetic consistency and technical compliance. Duration: 1 to 2 weeks
  8. Sound mix: Dialogue editing, ADR (automated dialogue replacement—actors re-record lines in a studio), Foley (footsteps, cloth, props), music score spotting and delivery, final mix. Duration: 1 to 2 weeks per episode
  9. Online (conform): Final picture files assembled at full broadcast resolution matching the locked edit, VFX, and color grade. Duration: 2 to 5 days
  10. QC (Quality Control): Technical verification that the delivery file meets the platform's specifications. Failed QC requires fixes and re-QC.
  11. Delivery: Final master delivered to the network or streaming platform in their required format (see delivery specifications section below)

The Simultaneous Track Challenge

In a 10-episode series shooting back-to-back, the post-production pipeline must handle multiple episodes simultaneously. A typical state at week 15 of a drama production:

  • Episode 1: In QC or delivered
  • Episode 2: In final mix
  • Episode 3: In color grade
  • Episode 4: In VFX
  • Episode 5: At network cut
  • Episode 6: At producers' cut
  • Episode 7: In director's cut
  • Episode 8: Assembly cut being completed
  • Episode 9: Production wrapping
  • Episode 10: Final week of photography

Each of these tasks requires different facilities (color suite, mix stage, VFX vendor) and different human resources. The post-production supervisor's job is to ensure no two episodes are contending for the same resource at the same time. A Gantt chart that shows all episodes' post tracks simultaneously is the only way to see these conflicts before they happen.

Delivery Specifications: The Technical Deadline

Every network and streaming platform has a technical delivery specification that master files must meet before they accept a deliverable. Common requirements:

  • AS-11 (UK DPP): Broadcast delivery format used by BBC, ITV, Channel 4, and other UK broadcasters. Specific codec requirements, audio channel assignments, and closed caption standards.
  • IMF (Interoperable Master Format): MXF-based format used by Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and other streamers for international versioning. Allows language versions and edit versions to share essence (video/audio files) to reduce storage.
  • Closed captioning: Legally required in the U.S. under the FCC's CVAA rules for broadcast content; required by most streaming platforms regardless of regulatory mandate.
  • Audio description (AD): Required by Ofcom for UK broadcasters above a threshold; increasingly required by major streamers for accessibility.
  • HDR and Dolby Vision: Streaming platforms increasingly require HDR deliverables (HDR10, Dolby Vision) in addition to SDR. If HDR is required, the color grade must be done twice (in HDR and SDR) or with a simultaneous HDR/SDR grade workflow.

Delivery date is the hard deadline that drives the entire production schedule. Work backward from delivery to picture lock, then backward from picture lock to photography wrap. Every decision about shooting schedule, post schedule, and VFX scope must be tested against this deadline.

Reality and Unscripted Production

Unscripted production is faster in some phases, slower in others:

Production: Faster—no script, no director's prep, faster shooting days (often 12 to 16 hours of footage per episode day). But coverage ratio (footage shot to footage used) is 30:1 to 100:1, compared to 5:1 to 10:1 for scripted drama.

Post-production: Slower—the story must be found in the edit room. Reality post is editorial-intensive; the editor and producer spend weeks finding the episode's narrative structure from hundreds of hours of footage. Reality post typically runs 8 to 12 weeks per episode.

Documentary series: similar editorial challenges to reality, but with the addition of archival research, clearances for archival footage and music, and narration recording.

Live Sports Production: The 6 to 18-Month Planning Cycle

Live sports broadcasts look spontaneous on air. Behind the screen, a broadcast of a major sporting event requires a planning cycle that dwarfs most scripted productions:

Venue and rights: Broadcast rights negotiations for major leagues (NFL, NBA, EPL) happen years in advance. The rights agreement defines the production commitment (number of cameras, technical standards, production value requirements).

Facilities planning: Mobile production unit (truck) booking 6 to 12 months in advance for major events. Satellite or fiber venue connection arrangements. Power requirements, parking, and compound layouts for remote truck parking.

Technical infrastructure: Camera systems, cabling, replay servers, graphics systems, and transmission equipment must be spec'd, ordered, and tested 3 to 6 months before airdate.

Staffing: Director, technical director, statisticians, on-air talent, and production staff contracted and confirmed.

Rehearsal: Facility walkthrough and technical rehearsal 1 to 2 days before airdate for major events.

The game day production itself is a sub-24-hour compressed version of all of this planning—your game-day Gantt covers arrival, setup, testing, air, and teardown, all within a single day.

Building Your Broadcast Production Gantt at gantt-chart.io

At gantt-chart.io, create one task group per episode, staggered with offset start dates matching your production schedule. Within each episode group, add sub-tasks for development, prep, photography, assembly cut, director's cut, producers' cut, network cut, picture lock, VFX, color, mix, online, QC, and delivery. Mark delivery as a fixed milestone with a hard date.

The overlapping view—all episodes' Gantts on one timeline—is what distinguishes a production Gantt from a shooting schedule. It shows you not just when one episode is in VFX, but when all six episodes are simultaneously demanding VFX resources, which is when you need to negotiate VFX vendor capacity or adjust the delivery schedule.

Free to start. No install required. Export to PDF for network delivery commitments and production company reporting.

Television production is controlled chaos—but it is controlled. A Gantt chart is the instrument that makes the chaos legible and the deadlines survivable.