Being local, and ready to fly at a moments notice, is very valuable to the broadcasting community. The use of a drone in place of a traditional manned aircraft provides more flexibility in filming angles/altitudes, less insurance liability, and overall lower cost filming. Oregon Public Broadcasting’s Oregon Field Guide required some additional footage after they had wrapped on using a manned craft to capture aerial footage for OFG’s Unprepared.
If you’re not up on the latest episode of Oregon Field Guide, here’s the whole lineup:
http://www.opb.org/television/programs/ofg/