discop link • #11

Transcription

discop link • #11

editorial
DISCOP LINK NEWSLETTER
Contents and Format Business in CEE
EDITORIAL
Publishers: Basic Lead & Media Art
Service International
Publishing Director:
Patrick JUCAUD
Basic Lead
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75007 Paris, France
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Executive Editor:
Rastislav DURMAN
Bul. M. Pupina 6/V,
21000 Novi Sad, Vojvodina, Serbia
T/F + 381 21 420 900
[email protected]
Contributing Editor:
Bob JENKINS
T + 44 203 22 00 188
M + 44 781 42 42 405
[email protected]
Contributors: Danica A]IMOVI], Nick
GILBERT, Andrej MATIJA[EVI], Jelena
MILOJKOVI], Anna NJEMOGA KOLAR,
Olivera POPOV-OBRENOV, Tijana PRODANOV, Spas SPASOV, Dragana STANI], Biljana TODOROVIK, Milica VASI]
(Deputy Executive Editor)
ART & DESIGN
Emil OTRUP^AK & Sr|an GULIN
ADVERTISING SALES
Booking Manager: Diana RABANSER
Basic Lead
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SUBCRIBERS MANAGEMENT
Vladimir GRAYVORONSKI
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© Basic Lead & Media Art 2007. All
rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information
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express prior written consent of the
publisher.
Printed by: Maxima Graf,
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ISSN 1452-1016
COBISS.SR-ID 204927751
04
DEAR FRIENDS,
THANK YOU ALL FOR
REGISTERING SO EARLY
FOR DISCOP 08!
lose to 750 participants have
already confirmed their participation out of the 2000 expected BUYERS and SELLERS of finished programs, scripted and unscripted formats, and packaged TV channels
expected to attend the 16th edition of
DISCOP.
C
Our team is already working hard
on next year's DISCOP program and
you will find enclosed in this issue of
DISCOP LINK our first list of registered
DISCOP 08 SELLERS, which, as I am
sure you will notice, includes the
world's most important suppliers of
television content.
Let me also take this opportunity
to announce the launch of our
"revamped" DISCOP.com web site
which has been redesigned to better serve our DISCOP community of BUYERS
and SELLERS of television content.
The new DISCOP.com is set to be fully operational by the 1st of February at
which time we will begin to assist DISCOP participants in the organization of
their meetings.
As always, our team is ready to help you so don't hesitate to contact us
should you need our assistance.
Thank you for your support!
Patrick Jucaud
General Manager
The DISCOP Organization
[email protected]
DISCOP LINK • #11 • NOVEMBER 07
portrait
A GOOD FRIEND: FERDINAND HABSBURG
By Bob Jenkins
Always impressed by the desire of the people of Central and Eastern Europe
to learn, Ferdinand Habsburg has backed his convictions, opening Da Vinci
Learning, a family educational channel set to roll out across the region.
erdinand Habsburg is a man deeply impressed by the people of
Central and Eastern Europe. Having
been one of the founding team members of German Pay-TV service
Premiere, Ferdinand spent many
years working with ECM, where he
gained a deep knowledge of, and liking
for, the region. After this he had a
spell working away from the DISCOP
area, returning to it a few years ago
when, in his words, he was, "simply
overwhelmed by the collective desire
for quality education and the thirst for
knowledge. People everywhere," he
recalls, "were learning on-line, doing
professional refresher courses, learning languages - it really was phenomenonal."
Ferdinand believes that, "the
region has always had a cerebral culture, especially countries such as
Russia, Poland and Hungary, and the
way in which this culture is being
revised impresses me very much. Of
course," he continues, "the region's
economic growth has also been very
remarkable, but, for me, it is this desire to learn and to go on learning that
is the most striking aspect of the modern CEE."
His observation of this desire to
learn was one of the key reasons
behind Ferdinand's decision to launch
Da Vinci Learning, a family learning
channel with the aim, says Ferdinand,
"of demonstrating that science is one
of the most exciting and compelling
topics around today."
The sincerity of his belief in the
desire of the people of the region to
take study seriously is perfectly underlined by the nature of the Da Vinci
Learning schedule. Presenters are
Nobel Laureates such as Nadine
Gordimer, or world-renowned experts
in their field, such as Sir Richard
Attenborough, and primetime is filled
F
Ferdinand Habsburg, 3 minutes before
the launch in September
with programming on mathematics
and genetics.
If that wasn't odd enough in the
modern television world, Ferdinand is
adamant that Da Vinci Learning is,
and will remain, a family Channel. "I
know that is a concept that is a bit
anachronistic," he accepts, "but," he
continues, "we believe that this type of
programming will appeal to multiple
family members, adults, teenagers,
and kids alike, and we also believe that
we have the ability to deliver a channel
that will meet all of these different
demands."
Although his observation of the
desire to learn was key to his decision
to launch Da Vinci Learning, which
debuted in September on Poland's N
platform, and which will launch in
Romania in November and on Turkey's
Dsmart platform in December, and
multiple platforms in Russia, The
Czech Republic, Ukraine and Slovakia
through the first quarter 2008, it was
not the only observation that prompted this move.
"I think there are three key trends
which will be seen to emerge in the
region over the next 18 - 24 months,"
says Ferdinand, as he goes on to list
them. "The first," he enumerates, "is
there will be an explosion in the number of niche channels on offer.
However," he cautions, "there will be
casualties. The region is becoming
very sophisticated both in terms of
business practices and also in terms
of audience demand and sub standard
offerings, of which there are bound to
be some, will fail."
The second observation which
gave him grounds for optimism, "is the
continued expansion of the region's
very impressive content sector. Three
obvious examples," he continues, "are
the ITI channels in Poland, whose content is just exceptional, especially
TVN24 which is probably the most
professional news channel in all of
Europe. The fascinating animation
which is coming out of The Czech
Republic and the hard hitting series
out of Russia, especially those produced by NTV, which are much more
exciting then anything currently produced in the West."
The third and final trend Ferdinand expects to see emerge is, "a lot
of movement and consolidation, in
both the DTH sector and also the cabsat sector."
All of these trends Ferdinand sees
as positive, and all played a role in his
decision to set up Da Vinci Learning,
but he cannot emphasise too strongly
that at the core of this move was, "my
observation of the regional desire to
learn and go on learning, and our willingness to back ourselves to deliver a
family channel that makes learning
fun."
}
07
event dossier
LE RENDEZ-VOUS: THE VERY BEST
OF FRENCH CONTENT
By Bob Jenkins
Every September, TV France International gathers
French producers together in the beautiful
seaside town of Biarritz on France's south
western coast for five days showcasing the very
best of the very latest French content.
his is not an event open to anyone
who wishes to attend. Attendance
is by invitation only and members of TV
France International (www.tvfranceintl.com) decide whom they wish to
invite in late spring in readiness for the
event which, in 2008 will be held 8-12
September.
In addition to allowing invited buyers to view the new offerings at their
leisure in a screening room made over
for that purpose, rather than on sellers stands, and to have quality networking time at the many social
events, and during the day in Biarritz's
conference centre, the event, known
as Le Rendez-Vous, is also an occasion for TV France International to
present the annual figures on French
content exports.
In 2006 French content exports
rose overall by 4.2% from 2005, hitting total sales of €157 million. But,
that headline figure hides a number of
interesting trends. For example, while
the overall figure for content exports
grew 4.2%, pre-sales grew 10.1%,
while sales of completed programmes
rose by a much more modest 2.3%.
Of the three main French export
genres, documentaries, animation
and fiction, documentaries was the
only one which saw a rise from 2005
sales of 2.1%, as against animation
and fiction sales which dropped 6.1%
and 1.6% respectively.
Despite the drop in sales of 6.1%
animation remains the largest of the
three main genres in terms of gross
sales, and CEE made a significantly
larger contribution to this sector in
2006 than in 2005, with year on year
sales rising from a 2005 figure of
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€1.7 million to hit €2.5 million in
2006. The majority of these sales
were made to trans-national satellite
services covering several of the
region's countries.
Overall sales of French content in
the region rose by €1.7 million, making it a larger market for French
exports than Asia. However, this rise
was almost entirely due to sales to
Russia, and also with pan-regional
broadcasters, with sales to many individual countries in the region declining
from the 2005 figure. Mathieu Bejot,
managing director of TV France International puts the dominance of Russia
in France's regional content sales
down to the Moscow Showcase for
French producers, which his organisation has held annually since 2004.
Pre-sales of fiction in 2006 were
down slightly at €2.1 million, although
noting that, "pre-sales of French fiction are more and more difficult to
make on the international market,"
Bejot went on to observe that, "the
exception to this are French speaking
territories and CEE."
Amongst French producers at
this year's event was leading animation house Alphanim, represented by
Anne Magnol, senior representative
UK. Amongst the shows attracting a
lot of interest in Biarritz for Alphanim
were SANTAPPRENTICE, and ZAP
JNR HIGH. It is a little known fact that
Santa has to retire every 178 years,
and that consequently, a trainee replacement is appointed once every 163
years so that he has 15 full years to
learn the job. Nicolas Barnworth is the
next Santa learning the job, and SANTAPPRENTICE is the story of his
adventures told over 52 x 13 minutes.
When Alistair Heath-Wilson, son of
the secretary of state for education
decides to snub the opportunity of a
privileged education in favour of Zap
Jnr High, a school definitely on the
wrong side of the tracks, anything
could happen. And did. In every one of
the 52 x 13 minute episodes.
Magnol told DISCOP.Link that, "for
Alphanim, the markets of CEE are definitely growing in importance, especially, Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan,
Croatia and Slovenia." And she believes, "DISCOP is a great way for us to
focus on these territories," noting, "at
DISCOP 2007 we were even visited by
Russians who did not come to see us
at the previous Moscow Showcase!"
These resentiments echoed by
Carole Brin, international sales manager Asia, Eastern Europe and Germany at Carrere Group. "CEE, and
especially Russia," reports Brin, "are
becoming increasingly important to
Carrere Group. This," believes Brin,
"is partly because the countries themselves are more significant on the
international stage, and also because
of a recent switch in emphasis here at
Carrere towards fiction."
Leading Carrere's move into
drama are six TV Movie adaptations of
novels by best selling thriller writer,
Patricia MacDonald. Four of these
titles are available now, and, says
Brin, "we got great feedback on these
at DISCOP." The other two will be ready
for delivery in the Spring of 2008.
The final representative of one of
the 'big three' of French content
exports was Doc & Co, where acquisition and sales manager Cristina
Moya, highlighted SIN CITY LAW as
one of the company's strong new
offerings. Directed by Denis Poncet,
helmer of HBO's Oscar winning MURDER ON A SUNDAY MORNING, each
of the four 2 x 1 hour programmes
revisits a famous and notorious crime.
}
focus on CEE
PROGRAMMING NEEDS
ARE SECRET IN MOST
CEE TV STATIONS
By Milica Vasic, Rastislav Durman and CEE Media Journalists Network
"Thanks for including us in your research," was written in the more than half
of the emails we received, "but, we cannot disclose any information about
programming acquired this year, nor what programming we plan to acquire
in 2008."
ack in Budapest, in June 2007,
we were planning the content of
future issues of DISCOP.Link and we
thought that a column highlighting current and future foreign programming
needs would be of interest to DISCOP
participants - both for content and format buyers and sellers. After eight
weeks of research in twenty Central
and Eastern European Countries' TV
stations, and more than two hundred
phone calls and E-mails, we have to
conclude that publishing information
about foreign programming needs is
something almost everybody would
like to see, but is something about
which very few companies were happy
to share information, whether for programming acquired this year or what
they plan to acquire next year. For
example, Juraj Madacky, our correspondent from Czech Republic informed us that he had contacted three
leading stations in his country; he had
called and mailed officers in programming departments, and done his best
to pick up information from insiders,
but found it a dead end.
Obviously, most TV broadcasters
in CEE take competition more seriously than they did only three or four years
ago, and they believe that silence
about their programming strategy will
B
give them a significant advantage in
the market.
Besides the hurdles presented by
such ‘classified info’, we were successful in finding out some facts about
programming strategies in CEE.
BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA REPUBLIKA SRPSKA PUBLIC
TV SERVICE, BANJA LUKA
RTRS is a public TV broadcaster
and has specific programming tasks,
but that doesn't mean the station isn't
involved in hunting for the maximum
audience share which it can achieve in
its broadcasting area. It should be
mentioned that RTRS has improved its
staff this year - among others, Mr.
Branko Lazic came from ATV to take
care of foreign programmes.
"We have bought a lot of programmes from Paramount this year,"
said Mr. Lazic. "We bought the serials
SOUS LE SOLEIL, CSI MIAMI, LEA
PARKER, EGMONT, TWEEN PEAKS…
We pay special attention to serial programmes made in the Serbian and
Croatian language and, generally, we
are interested in almost everything
produced in our region but, of course,
everything depends on quality and selling conditions. We bought BASKET-
BALL PLAYERS, MILE AGAINST
TRANSITION and STORKS WILL BE
BACK from Belgrade, programmes
which were recently broadcast in
Belgrade and have high ratings."
"As a public service," - continues
Mr. Lazic, "we broadcast lot of documentaries, more than 100 hours of
foreign documentaries per season.
Our last acquisition was from Discovery. As a public service, we also
have to care about children's programmes. Cartoons and TV movies
for children are usually bought from
distributors based in Belgrade."
According to Mr. Lazic, some genres - such as reality or licensed quiz
shows - are not in the programming
schedule at RTRS only because of
poor technical conditions, such as
small studios and dated equipment but these problems should be eased
when RTRS moves into its new building. The move is scheduled for the end
of next year.
BULGARIA - DIEMA
CHANNELS, SOFIA
There are three "Diema" channels
in Bulgaria. Presently they are owned
by the British consortium "Epase
media" and MTG - Modern Times
11
focus on CEE
Group Broadcasting. According to the
ratings, the Diema channels are the
most popular of the cable TV stations
in Bulgaria - right after the national
terrestrial channels.
Since the beginning of October,
they have been presenting and implementing a new programming scheme
together with new-look logos. The
Diema channels have a new programme manager as well - her name
is Olga Lozanova. She started her TV
career as part of the crew on the
most famous (and also the only one,
at that time,) political talk-show,
PANORAMA, on Bulgarian National
TV. Later Lozanova held the position of
programme manager at Nova TV and
for the last couple of years she has
been running her own small "boutiquetype" PR agency. Now she is back on
the TV trail.
"It has become much more difficult to develop good channels in
Bulgaria because there are more qualified players on the stage with a clear
vision of what makes the best TV for
Bulgaria" - she says. "What we are trying to provide is 'entertainment TV of
the highest class'. For now the production shown on Diema channels is
100 % foreign - films, sitcoms, telenovelas, animation and sport. For the
programming needs of autumn 2007
alone, two thousand (2000) hours of
new programmes and shows were
purchased.
The Diema channels are well positioned and each of them has its own
defined profile.
The Diema Family is, of course, a
family channel that focuses on female
viewers. Every day from 12.40 till
6.00 p.m. animations are shown such as TOM & JERRY, SCOOBY DOO,
DEXTER, SILVESTER AND TWEETY,
THE PINK PANTHER, as well as some
children's and teenage shows from
the 'communist' childhood of the generation who are presently 35-40
years old and are very happy and
thrilled to be able to show their kids
the shows they once adored (Bulgaria
is currently riding the crest of a wave
of nostalgia) - for instance, the hungarian animation MEIZGA FAMILY and
the Czech series ARABELLA."
The Prime-time schedule of Diema
Family is targeting 'mums' - this is the
first Bulgarian TV channel to broadcast soap-operas (telenovelas) from
12
6:00 p.m. till midnight with no interruptions. Among the first to be shown
are ANGEL REBELDE, THE WINGS OF
LOVE, and TWO FACES OF ANNA.
Diema 2 is just the opposite - a
pure ‘men's channel’ based on the formula ‘sports plus movies’. Future
strategies includes the more of the socalled ‘lifestyle component’.
The Third of the Diemas - in fact,
the original one - Diema is aiming on
becoming ‘the city channel’ by capturing the attention of the young audience by showing the best possible
selection of movies and programmes sitcoms being the key-word of Diema.
Some examples include: COLD CASE;
PROFILER; FATHER DOWLING MYSTERIES; MURDER, SHE WROTE; JAKE
AND FATMAN. Diema is more than
proud to present the premiere of SIXmade by the creators of LOST expected to become a real discussion point
in Bulgaria.
FYR MACEDONIA TV A1, SKOPJE
At one point - in the middle of
nineties - FYR Macedonia was the
European country with the largest
number of TV stations in comparison
to its number of inhabitans. Of course,
transition in the country reduced the
number of TV broadcasters, but the
number of on the market is still substantial enough to oblige those that
exist to actively compete.
Aneta Veterova, TV A1 Programme Director told DISCOP.Link that
when purchasing programmes she
was mainly oriented on titles which
give quick results and that they were
looking for new episodes of series
which already have an audience, such
as LOST, DESPERATE HOUSWIFES,
CSI NY, CSI MIAMI, CSI LA, THE
SOPRANOS, ACCORDING TO JIM, and
some other Sony packages.
Disney productions also have fans
among young audience in Macedonia,
so TV A1 bought MICKEY MOUSE
CLUB HOUSE and LITTLE EINSTEINS.
In sport, the main purchase was THE
PREMIER LEAGUE.
“This season we bought the
license for WHO WANTS TO BE MILLIONAIRE, which is one of our biggest
‘in house’ projects,” said Ms. Veterova. “We are also preparing our version of UGLY BETTY for next year. By
the end of December 2008 we should
have the rights to broadcast the Fox
series 24.”
Acording to Ms. Veterova, TV A1
is already looking for programmes for
next season. They should be titles
made for commercial TV stations and
titles that have already achieved big
ratings in other countries.
SERBIA - TV METROPOLIS,
BELGRADE
TV Metropolis is not amongst the
top three most watched TV stations in
Serbia (Serbian Public Service TV, TV
Pink and TV B92), but it doesn't mean
that it will not be in the future. According to its broadcast licence, TV
Metropolis covers only the teritory of
the capital city Belgrade and the suburbs (more than 2.5 million inhabitants), but including cities covered by
cable, the size of the potential audience is enlarged. It should also be
underlined that TV Metropolis has a
very clear idea about its target group
as well as an idea of how to attract it.
The entire TV Metropolis film and
serial range is diverse, both in genre
and in concept. The diversity of the
content includes a long list of titles
from the great and good of the film
industry, Hollywood productions, as
well as high quality European films, as
well as so called 'festival' and author
films produced by small and less
known production companies. Once a
week, our audience has a chance to
refresh their memories, by watching
some of the classics or some significant films produced in the past.
"By creating genre and author film
cycles, we hope for better and clearer
concept of our film programming,"
states Sasa Jankovic, Head of Film
and Serial Department for TV
Metropolis.
According to Jankovic, in 2007
TV Metropolis closed two remarkable
arrangements with domestic distribution companies DELTA VIDEO and
CENTAR FILM. The series programDISCOP LINK • #11 • NOVEMBER 07
focus on CEE
oped series. Singing and dancing formats have been successful for TV
Markiza recently,” Peter Chalupa,
Head of Acquisitions, MARKIZA-SLOVAKIA Spol s.r.o. told DISCOP LINK
TURKEY, GENERAL
ming addresses the younger part of
the audience. Firstly, they want to
emphasise good, old series that the
younger generation haven't had a
chance to watch, until now, such as
MARCO POLO (1982) and BONANZA
(1959); as well as some series produced more recently - BLUES (seven
separate episodes about the history of
the blues, directed by seven of the
most famous directors in the world
today); The documentary series
WORLD TOWNS (40 towns of the
world in 40 episodes) and MAFIA (the
history of the mafia in 10 episodes).
Strong old film titles will be in the focus
of the programme schedule in 2008
too. They have the pleasure of announcing a big cycle of western
movies, starting on December 15th
2007 which should last until June 15th
2008. Within this cycle, the viewers
will have a chance to watch some of
the most significant films of the western film genre, created in the second
half of the twentieth century. Primarily, there will be films directed by
John Ford, Sam Peckinpah, Michael
Curtiz and others, mostly starring the
greatest Western film actor of all
times- John Wayne.
In 2008, TV Metropolis plans to
continue its business cooperation with
the distribution company TUCK, from
which their station usually purchases
broadcasting rights for airing Hollywood and French films, as well as
small author and festival films. At
least once a week, TV Metropolis
14
broadcasts films produced by small
and lesser known cinematic traditions
(Bhutan, Argentina, Iceland, etc).
Once a week the audience can watch
cycles of famous directors (Luis
Bunuel, Jacques Renoir, John Ford,
etc) and actors (Jean Paule Belmondo, John Wayne, Alain Delon,
Marcello Mastroianni, Romy Schneider, etc).
As one of the few urban and musical channels in this region, TV Metroplis is doing its best to fulfil the expectations of its audience and to keep the
audience, but also to present some
new trends and content and attract
new viewers. Film and serial programmes, as an important part of its
schedule as a whole, are a very important means of achieving that, in trying
to indulge a wide range of viewers, but
also in understanding and penetrating
those specific prefernces of particlular small groups of the audience, concludes Mr. Jankovic.
SLOVAKIA - TV MARKIZA,
BRATISLAVA
TV Markiza is a leading commercial TV channel targeting wide audiences (12+).
“We are looking for commercial
content including action, crime,
thriller features, TV movies and
series, mainly for PT slots acquired
from US Studios, French, German and
Czech distributors and Independents.
We also air formats and locally devel-
In Turkey, for the last 2 years,
morning programmes aimed at
women at home, series and talent
shows on televisions have had really
high ratings. More than 300 private
television channels have tended to air
mostly series during prime time, and
talent shows at weekends.
The authorities in one of Turkey's
most popular channels claim that the
‘series fashion’ will go on during 2008
too. They mention that the producers,
the channels and the staff that work
for the series have benefited well
financially and there is no reason to
structure programming without them.
The series mostly made up of stories
related to the inner circle of a family or
a relationship. They tend to be structured around the leading actor and
actress, and their relationships (mostly regarding their lovelives). The programmers mention that they took
some foreign films and series' stories
and will adapt them for Turkish television. This has happened before.
Recently, a private channel, Star TV,
has shown a series called FEDAI which
is adapted from THE BODYGUARD.
CNBC-E is a channel that airs economic programmes during the day
and series in the evenings. At the beginning of this season they purchased
foreign series like HEROES, DESPERATE HOUSEVIWES and TUDORS. They
intend to follow that strategy in 2008.
Another important format also
with relatively high ratings is the talent
show. In the past few years the formats for BIG BROTHER on Show TV,
POP STAR ALATURCA on Star TV,
DANCE SHOW on Channel D and
DANCE ON ICE on Show TV have been
purchased from foreign companies.
The networks tell us that these shows
will go on past their 3rd seasons.
More or less as happens around
the world, television channels in
Turkey tend to invest in ‘easy going’
and ‘quickly consumed’ programmes.
During the 2008 season, Turkish
viewers will mostly watch love stories,
talent shows and foreign series.
}
new kid on the block
MTV HUNGARY
FOR SUCCESS
By Bob Jenkins
These days the opening of a new channel hardly
constitutes news, but the recent launch of MTV
Hungary throws a revealing light on the group's
channel plans for the entire region. Bob Jenkins
talks to Bhavneet Singh, managing director and
senior vice president, emerging markets, MTV
Networks International, to find out more.
havneet Singh is managing director and senior vice president,
emerging markets, MTV Networks
International. As such, he heads up
the division responsible for channel
operations in Russia, Central and
Eastern Europe and the Middle East.
And, reveals Singh, "our channel
strategy is always the same; that is, to
build a portfolio of channels serving
the demographic they are designed to
serve. We have," he continues, "three
different demographic groups we
serve; kids with the range of Nickelodeon brands, youth with brands such
as MTV and Viva, and older audiences
with channels such as VHI, Spike, and
Comedy Central."
Although Singh insists,
"we do put a lot of research
effort and work into deciding which channels are right
to launch next, and in which
territories," he also accepts
that, "there is, however, no
denying that sometimes it
happens more naturally,
and MTV Hungary is a case
in point." He goes on to
explain, "When we bought
Viva, we bought a well
established and successful
Hungarian music channel.
And so, for a time, we felt
B
16
there was neither room nor demand
for MTV."
Several factors combined to
change that perception. "Firstly," says
Singh, "the ad market in Hungary is
stable, not growing that quickly, but
stable, and research told us that
there was a gap in the youth music
market for something that looked and
felt more edgy and Western - but in
Hungarian!" The killer observation
though, was, he reveals, "the digital
market was growing quite quickly,
offering important ancillary opportunities for our businesses."
Outlining the importance of this
observation to the decision to launch
Bhavneet Singh, Managing Director &
Senior Vice-President, Emerging Markets
Group, MTV Networks International
MTV Hungary, Singh explains that,
"we see ourselves as a content business, not just a channel business.
Consequently, we want to be everywhere the audience is, everywhere
our consumers are. In Hungary,
broadband penetration is increasing
steadily, and the penetration of 3G
mobile is also showing good growth,
and these were all," acknowledges
Singh, "important factors in the decision to launch MTV Hungary."
Although the research showed
that localisation would be an important element in achieving success with
MTV Hungary, and this market
demand has been met, not only by
dubbing US hits such as PIMP MY
RIDE, VIVA LA BAM, SOUTH PARK
and MADE into Hungarian, but also
with locally produced
shows such as MY MTV in
which famous Hungarian
artists discuss their
favourite music videos,
and MTV ID with uploaded
videos and clips, the
launch, says Singh, "is
close to the end of our
localisation programme
for our portfolio of music
channels in Central and
Eastern Europe, as we
are just about to start on
a localisation programme
for our kids and entertainment channel brands." }
content report
60 YEARS AFTER, THE
VOICES OF THE EXODUS
By Françoise Lazard
As the 60th anniversary of the creation of Israel approaches, two young
Israeli film makers are getting ready to release a unique film on the three
heroes of the tragic odyssey of the EXODUS 1947 boat and its 4,515
refugees. Co-produced by Israel's Channel 8, DISPLACED is distributed
throughout Central and Eastern Europe, and Central Asia by Paris-based
IDEAS FOR FILMS who will be represented at DISCOP 08.
t the end of World War 2, the fate
of the quarter of million ‘Jewish
Displaced Persons’ living in camps in
Germany, Austria and Italy was still
unclear. Many of them were at the
very end of their strength, dying every
day from exhaustion and diseases.
Some Jews were able to reach
Palestine, many by way of dilapidated
ships. Between August 1945 and the
establishment of the State of Israel in
May 1948, 65 ‘illegal’ immigrant
ships, carrying 70,000 people arrived
from European shores despite increasingly harsh immigration policies
imposed by the British.
From August 1946, Holocaust
survivors caught in ‘illegal’ ships were
deported to Cyprus and interned there
on the basis of considerations of
Palestine's economic absorptive capacity, but very quickly, the British
authorities strengthened their position against the partition of Palestine
into two states and decided from then
A
DISPLACED will be available for
mid-April 2008 delivery, in time to be
programmed on any TV channel interested in commemorating the 60th
anniversary of the creation of Israel.
More information and a trailer can be
obtained by contacting Françoise
LAZARD / IDEAS FOR FILMS
[email protected]
T + 33 1 45 51 42 54.
18
Ike AHARONOVICH
on to send ‘illegal’ immigrants back to
their port of embarkation in Europe
instead of deporting them to Cyprus.
The 4,515 passengers of the
EXODUS 1947 (a worn out boat sold
as scrap) including 655 children,
most of them German and Polish survivors, were the first group of Jewish
refugees to be shipped back to Europe
under this new policy.
As the heroic commanders of the
EXODUS 1947, Ike AHARONOVICH,
Yossi HAREL and Mordechai ROZMAN played a significant role in the
creation of Israel and in the diplomatic
swing of sympathy towards the tens of
thousands of ‘Displaced Jewish Refugees’ with no ‘future’ in sight.
60 years later, DISPLACED is the
filmed account of a formidable intimacy carefully built over two challenging
years between these three solitary
‘heroes’ and two young, award-winning, Israeli filmmakers, both of them
descendents of Holocaust survivors,
who found, thanks to these encounters, a chance to tell the important
story of the EXODUS in a different way.
At a time when historians wonder
whether there is really anything of sigDISCOP LINK • #11 • NOVEMBER 07
content report
nificance left to say about the creation
of Israel, DISCPLACED is all the more
remarkable as the film concentrates
on the inner thoughts and the constant self-examination and soulsearching processes of these three
heroes on the Eve of Israel's 60th birthday, rather than providing a documented account of the EXODUS
odyssey.
DISPLACED also provides an
amazing account of the unique lessons that were learned in these powerful, but terrible times.
Nevertheless, throughout the
film, billboards appear at times to
underline and simply explain the chronology of the events that took place.
This is a voluntary understatement of
the historical facts in order to better
enter the lives and minds of Yossi,
Mordechai and Ike as they approach
the end of their lives.
Frontal interviews have not been
privileged. Rather, the camera follows
their respective day to day routine and
soon enough, the personal tragedies
to which they are still confronted, the
questions related to the faith of the
EXODUS that continue to haunt them,
the gap between their dreams as
young immigrants and the hardships
that current day Israel holds, emerge
as the retaining backbone of this film.
At 84, Ike, the captain of the EXODUS, looks likes a character out of
PRIZZI'S HONOR. Three years ago, his
wife passed away after severe depression. He made fortunes and lost them
Yossi HAREL
Mordechai ROZMAN
all, and today, Ike lives alone in a house
built as a ship. He spends most of his
time dreaming about the love of his
youth whom he has not seen in 60
years.
Mordechai, 89, was the leader of
the EXODUS refugees. He is half paralyzed and has difficulties breathing,
but his speech and his witty mind are
still fascinating. Mordechai lives
alone, penniless, in an abandoned Kibbutz, far away from one of his sons
who left Israel many years ago to
become a Silicon Valley entrepreneur.
Yossi, 88, the man in charge of
the entire EXODUS operation, was the
healthiest of the triumvirate until very
recently. He made millions dealing
with Art and now lives in a beautiful
house that overlooks the Mediterranean sea.
After keeping away from each
other for many years, Ike, a chain
smoker weighing less than 45 kilos,
and Mordechai, nicknamed ‘The
Orator’ on the EXODUS, started to
meet again as if no time had passed,
ready to argue again!
Yossi prefers to stay afar from the
other two. However, he is often immersed in lucid self-examination processes, somehow expecting Ike and
Mordechai to fuel the ‘discussion’ with
their numerous conflicting points of
views!
All images of Ike, Yossi and
Mordechai have been shot in Israel
exclusively and no more than 10 interviews of key witnesses based in
France and in the United States will be
intertwined with these images.
The simple structure of the film
enhances the feel of intimacy as these
interviews punctuate DISPLACED with
a simple and chronological account of
the EXODUS odyssey.
No archival material has been
used, except at the end of the film:
The grainy black-and-white footage
of DISPLACED JEWISH REFUGEES
aboard the EXODUS that will be used
will look like any other home movie
taken on a cruise ship with passengers waving and leaning on the boat
railing, despite the fact that this was
no ordinary cruise.
}
19
event announcement
EARLY BIRD CATCHES
THE SUITE
500 international suppliers of finished programmes, scripted and
unscripted formats and packaged TV channels are expected at DISCOP 08!
With 7 months left before the next edition of DISCOP, the following SELLERS
have already agreed to take part in next June's market. Meetings between
BUYERS AND SELLERS will be organized from 1 February on.
2WAYTRAFFIC
Erna SCHMIDT, Manager Events
Richard JAKAB, Managing Director
4 KIDS ENTERTAINMENT
Brian LACEY, Executive Vice President
AARDMAN INTERNATIONAL
Sian-Elin DAVIES, Sales Executive
ABS-CBN GLOBAL LIMITED
Reena DE GUZMAN GARINGAN, Head of Int. Sales &
Distribution
ABSOLUTELY INDEPENDENT
Erik DE WINTER, Sales Manager
AETN INTERNATIONAL
Jonathan SOUTH, Director of Content Sales
ALFRED HABER DISTRIBUTION
Chris BROUDER, Director of Intl. Sales
ALL3MEDIA INTERNATIONAL
Paul CORNEY, Sales Executive
Stephen DRISCOLL, VP International Sales
AMERICAN CINEMA INTERNATIONAL
Chevonne O'SHAUGHNESSY, President
George SHAMIEH, CEO
ARTIST VIEW ENTERTAINMENT
Jay JOYCE, Vice President of Sales
BASIC LEAD / HOT LEAD
Christophe AUDRAN, New Business Manager
BAVARIA MEDIA TELEVISION
Helge KOEHNEN, Head of Eastern European Affairs
BBC WORLDWIDE
Christina MULLER, Sales Executive EMEIA
Hannah MCNEISH, Senior Sales Executive
Suzanne KENDRICK, Sales Executive
BOLLYWOOD OPTION
Arun KUMAR, General Manager
Cherian CHACKO, Director
CARACOL TV
Alexander KOCHEN, Sales Executive
CBS PARAMOUNT TELEVISION
Amelia PLANT, Sales Manager
Michelle PAYNE, VP Regional Sales
Stephen TAGUE, SVP Europe
Tim WRIGHT, Director of Sales
CHANNEL 4 LEARNING
Tricia HUGHES, International Sales Director
AP TELEVISION NEWS
Tobias OSMUND, Head of Entertainment Sales
CHANNEL ONE RUSSIA WORLDWIDE NETWORK
Anna KREMENETSKAYA, Head of Sales Europe and CIS
Masha RUBAN, Programme Sales Manager
ARMOZA FORMATS
Avi ARMOZA, CEO
CHELLO ZONE
Tim MACMULLEN, Programme Sales Manager
20
event announcement
CHINA INTERNATIONAL TV CORPORATION
Chunli CHENG, Marketing Director General
Qiaoqiao WANG, Intl Sales TV Marketing Manager
CINEFLIX INTERNATIONAL
Kate LLEWELLYN-JONES, Sales Manager
EUROPRODUCCIONES TV
Marco FERNANDEZ DE ARAOZ, Head of Sales
FAPAE
Maria Jose VADILLO, Director
CINETEL FILMS
Eric BERNSTEIN, Vice President
FILM UA GROUP
Evgeniy DRACHOV, International Operations Manager
Igor STORCHAK, Head of Distribution
COOKIE JAR ENTERTAINMENT
Wiebke HOEFER, Director of European Sales
FINZIONI ENTERTAINMENT
Dorothea Silvia SCHMIDT, CEO
CZECH TELEVISION / CESKA TELEVIZE
Alena MULLEROVA, Editor in Chef Marie
Magdalena NOVAKOVA, Sales Manager
FREMANTLEMEDIA
Anna MASON, Events Assistant
DARO FILM DISTRIBUTION
Michael WOLTER, Sales Executive
Pierre-Andre ROCHAT, President
Razvan ENACHE, Sales Manager
DEUTSCHE WELLE
Eva SEEBERGER, Distribution Executive
Ulrich WARTMANN, Head of Distribution Europe
DIC ENTERTAINMENT
Clive JORDAN, VP International Home Entertainment
DISCOVERY COMMUNICATIONS DEUTSCHLAND
Saevar LEMKE, Manager Program Sales
DORI MEDIA GROUP
Aurelia FURNARI, Regional Sales Manager Latin America
Elena ANTONINI, Regional Sales Manager Eastern Europe
Michal NASHIV, VP Marketing
Nadav PALTI, CEO and President
Silvana D'ANGELO, Head of Intl Sales & Marketing
Tali FINK, Marketing Director
DORI MEDIA INTERNATIONAL
Conrad HEBERLING, General Manager and CEO
DPM INC
Dominique MOUGENOT, Production Consultant
Sophie VIDAL, Sales Assistant
GERMAN UNITED DISTRIBUTORS
Elina KEWITZ, International Sales Manager
GLOBO TV INTERNATIONAL
Andre MEIRELLES, Sales Executive
Claudine BASTOS BAYMA, Marketing Department
Victor TEIXEIRA, Sales Executive
GRANADA INTERNATIONAL
Dorit SCHILLING, Sales Executive for CEE
GUANGZHOU BEAUTY CULTURE COMMUNICATION
Alice LAN, Sales Manager
GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS
Rob MOLLOY, TV Sales and Licensing Manager
Simon GOLD, Development Producer
HIGH POINT MEDIA GROUP
Lisa GIFFORD, Territory Manager
HIT ENTERTAINMENT
Alex GODFREY, Rights Syndication Manager EMEA
Thekla ORFANOS, Programming Distribution Executive
EMEA
HOLLYWOOD CLASSICS
David LLEWELLYN-JONES, Director of Sales
ECHO BRIDGE ENTERTAINMENT
Daniel MARCH, Head of International Sales
ICEX - SPANISH INSTITUTE FOR FOREIGN TRADE
Paz ALVAREZ, Head of Dept. Promotion of Culture
Related Ind.
Pilar DE LLANO, CEO
EM ENTERTAINMENT
Patrick PHELAN, Sales Manager - Eastern Europe
IDEAS FOR FILMS
Francoise LAZARD, General Manager
ENDEMOL INTERNATIONAL
Maaike BIJSTERVELD, External Markets Coordinator
IMAGINA INTERNATIONAL SALES
Barbora SUSTEROVA, Sales Executive
22
event announcement
IMG MEDIA
Richard TULK-HART, Head of Business Development
Richard WISE, VP DVD
Victor BLUNDELL, Head of Acquisitions Eastern Europe
ISTITUTO COMMERCIO ESTERO
Maria Gisella DE PACE, Consumer Goods Division
NTV BROADCASTING COMPANY
Maxim POGIBELNY, Deputy Head of Sales
Vitaly SHEVCHENKO, Head of TV Rights
OASIS INTERNATIONAL
Prentiss HOLMAN, Director of International Sales
KOREAN BROADCASTING COMMISSION / KBC
Eunice PAEK, Deputy Director Intl Affairs Division Broadcasting
ORF - OESTERREICHISCHER RUNDFUNK
Beatrice RIESENFELDER, Head of Sales
Monika NEUBAUER, Sales Executive
Sabine GRUBER, Sales Executive
LAKESHORE ENTERTAINMENT
Elisabeth COSTA DE BEAUREGARD, SVP Intl Sales
PHOENIX SATELLITE TELEVISION
Linda WAN, Programme Distribution Manager
LIONSGATE
Amanda CORDNER, Vice President, Sales
PORCHLIGHT ENTERTAINMENT
J.D. BEAUFILS, Vice President Worldwide Sales
MARC DORCEL
Gregory DORCEL, General Manager
Jean-Charles LAISNE, Export Sales
Michael AFLALO, International Sales
PREMIUM MEDIA
Luciana EGURROLA, Sales Executive
MARVISTA ENTERTAINMENT
Beatrice MCMILLAN, VP of International Sales
MGM TELEVISION
Georgina CULME-SEYMOUR, Manager
MONDO TV
Matteo CORRADI, Sales Executive
Roberto FARINA, Sales Coordinator
MTV NETWORKS INTERNATIONAL
Helen CURTIS, Sales Manager
Louisa TRIGG, Assistant
NATIONAL FILM BOARD OF CANADA
Nancy MARIE, Sales Manager
NBC UNIVERSAL TELEVISION DISTRIBUTION
Eliza MILBANK, Liaison Manager
Maxim MIKHAILOV, Liaison Manager
Nadia PORRATI, Liaison Manager
Warren SMITH, Director of On Demand Licensing
NBD TELEVISION
Lauren MARRIOTT, Sales Executive
PRIME ENTERTAINMENT GROUP
David FREYDT, General Manager
PROFOUR FILM KFT
Andrew SEBESTYEN, CEO
RCTV INTERNATIONAL
Juan FERNANDEZ, Vice-President of Intl. Sales
RDF RIGHTS
Naomi BIGGINS, Sales Executive
RIGEL ENTERTAINMENT
Bryan HAMBLETON, International Sales
Johannes VON MALLINCKRODT, Executive Sales
Assistant
RIVE GAUCHE ENTERTAINMENT
Gary MACKINNEY, Sales and Acquisitions
RTBF
Victoria METZGER, Sales Manager
RTI SPA
Clare MCARDLE, Sales Manager
Patricio TEUBAL, Head of Sales
NEPTUNO FILMS
Alba SANI, Sales Manager
RTL2 FERNSEHEN
Anabell KORNMANN, Junior Project Manager Program
Sales Juliane RAUNO, Head of Sales and Acquisitions
NEW FILMS INTERNATIONAL
Nesim HASON, President
RUSCICO / RUSSIAN CINEMA COUNCIL
Yelena GOROKHOVA, Head of Sales
24
event announcement
SANDRA CARTER GLOBAL
Daniella KILIM, VP, New Media
Sandra CARTER, President
SESAME WORKSHOP
Jennifer MONIER-WILLIAMS, VP / Intl. Distribution
Renee MASCARA, VP / Intl. TV Distribution
SEVENONE INTERNATIONAL
Axel BOEHM, Sales Manager
Jens RICHTER, Head of Sales
SONY PICTURES TELEVISION INTERNATIONAL
Rob FELDMAN, Vice President, Int'l Production
SONY PICTURES TELEVISION INTERNATIONAL EUROPE
Alex ELLIOT, Executive Director
TOEI ANIMATION EUROPE
Akira YAMAGUCHI, Video Manager
TV AZTECA
Adela VELASCO, Sales Manager
Marcel VINAY, Vice President Sales
TV FRANCE INTERNATIONAL
Catherine CHARMET, Markets Manager
TV2 WORLD
Anne KOEHNCKE, Sales Executive
Katrine HERFORTH, Sales Executive
TV3 - TELEVISIO DE CATALUNYA
Oriol BAQUER, Head of Sales
Victor CARRERA, Head of Intl. Relations
SPORTSBRAND MEDIA GROUP
Andrew MULCAHY, European Sales Manager
TVE TELEVISION ESPANOLA
Mar LUCERO, Sales Executive
Milagros GARCIA MAYI, Head of Sales
STAR MEDIA LTD
Olesya SLAVOVA, Sales Manager
TVN
Aneta ZAREBA, Sales Executive
STRANA DISTRIBUTION GROUP
Julia KOZHEVNIKOVA, General Producer / Director
VENEVISION INTERNATIONALAND AFFILIATES
Cristobal PONTE, Exclusive Authorize Representative
Tamas IZSO, Business Manager
TARGET ENTERTAINMENT
Chris BLUETT, Senior Sales Executive
TELEFE INTERNATIONAL
Michelle WASSERMAN, Head of Sales
TELEMUNDO INTERNATIONAL
Maria Alicia PARKERSON, VP Sales Europe & Middle East
Melissa PILLOW, Sales Manager
VISION FILMS / VISION MUSIC
Andre RELIS, VP of International Sales
WARNER BROS INTERNATIONAL TELEVISION
DISTRIBUTION
Nicky WOOD, Vice President, Scandinavia & Eastern
Europe
TELEPOOL
Irina IGNATIEW, International Sales Manager
WORLD WIDE ENTERTAINMENT
Kylie SEAMAN, International Business Manager
Sam THOMPSON, International Business Manager
TELEPRODUCTIONS INTERNATIONAL - TPI
Larry HIGGS, President Ron ALEXANDER, Marketing and
Sales Manager
WORLD WRESTLING ENTERTAINMENT
Dominic HAYES, Vice President, International Television
Sophie STONE, Manager International TV
TELESCREEN BV
Theo VAN DER SCHAAF, General Manager
ZDF ENTERPRISES
Barbara FEKETE, Sales Executive
Christian MASSMANN, Sales Manager
TELEVISA INTERNATIONAL
Beatriz RODRIGUEZ, Sales Manager Eastern Europe
Claudia SAHAB, Director of Sales Europe
Jose Luis ROMERO, Director of Formats
Manola MARTIN, Sales Manager, Eastern Europe
Patricia PORTO, Sales Manager Western Europe
26
ZODIAK TELEVISION WORLD
Agnes MBYE, Sales Executive
Jorg ROTH, Managing Director
DISCOPRO 08
THE ENTERTAINMENT MASTER CLASS
COMES TO DISCOP
By Bob Jenkins
Most area of expertise has its special, academy. An institute whose
graduates have instant acceptance everywhere. One area of expertise that
has lacked such a venerable seat of learning has been the entertainment
industry. Until now. Germany's Erich Pommer Institut has now launched
The Entertainment Master Class - and it's coming to DISCOP.
he Entertainment Master Class is
a first of its kind, a school of excellence for talented young professionals
in the field of entertainment. The first
course will run from May 2008
through to February 2009, and will
consist of five modules, each five days
in duration, and each held in a different city.
The Master Class is organised by
the Eric Pommer Institut, founded by
the famous German film producer,
whose name it bears, and regarded
as one of Europe's leading media think
tanks. The course is also run in association with a select group of partners
including Canada's CBC, BBC Worldwide, Nordisk, The Rose D'Or, Prosieben, Medienboard and C21 Media.
Professor Klaus Klein of the Eric
Pommer Institut says, "ideally we are
looking to recruit young professionals
aspiring to work in the international
format business," adding, "and it is
vitally important that candidates have
a real determination to succeed and
excellent spoken and written English."
The Institut has put together an
impressive 'Advisory Board', including
giants of the entertainment industry,
many of whom will be teaching then
modules, such as Peter Bazalgette,
CCO Endemol UK; Daniela Matri, senior vice-president formats and production, ProSiebenSat.1; Paul Jackson,
director of entertainment and comedy, ITV; Julie Bristow, executive director, factual entertainment CBC Canada; Gary Carter, president, creative
networks and CCO, FMX FremantleMedia and many more.
T
28
CBC's Bristow says, "I think we are
all agreed that the ideal candidate is
someone with good skills and some
experience, but not so set in their
ways that they are only looking to tick
a set of boxes. I think we are looking
for someone with talent, and also with
their finger on the pulse of what audiences are looking for; someone in
touch with the popular zeitgeist."
ITV's Jackson agrees. "I think the
course will best suit someone who
already has some experience but
probably not yet at a managerial level,"
he speculates, going on to suggest, "I
think a majority will come from markets where the origination of formats
is not as well developed as it is in some
other countries." Although he is quick
to assert, "of course I am not ruling
out Americans, Brits or Canadians."
The timetable for those wishing to
participate in the first course is tight.
The deadline for applications is 17
December 2007. All applications
must also be accompanied by a full CV.
Of those applying some will be asked
to supply a written statement of motivation, those selected to progress to
this stage will be notified no later than
15 January, and the deadline for
return of the statement will be 15
February. Based on this, a further
selection will be made, and those chosen will be invited to take part in a telephone interview, which will be held in
February or early March and the final
selection will be announced 15
March.
Once the successful candidates
have been selected the course on
which they will embark will be as follows.
Module 1, covering sitcoms,
sketch comedy and panel comedy
shows will be held in Lucerne,
Switzerland from 2nd - 7th May 2008.
The second module, covering
game show formats, will be held in
Toronto, Canada from 17th - 22nd June
2008.
The third, covering entertainment, variety and event show formats
will take place from 2nd - 7th September
2008 in Berlin.
The fourth in Danish capital
Copenhagen will cover factual entertainment and reality show formats,
from 3rd - 7th December 2008.
And the fifth and final module will
take place in London 3rd - 8th February
2009 and will cover format distribution, exploitation and new media.
The cost of this course, including
didactic material, hotel accommodation and full board is €15,000, but it
should be noted that travel costs are
not included.
ITV's Paul Jackson sums up the
course this way. "I think the course
could well be seen as analogous to
Robert Kee's writing course. People
used to tell Kee that you can't teach
people to write, to which Kee would
reply, I am not saying I will teach anyone to be Beethoven, but I can show
them where the notes are on the keyboard. In the same way, there are elements of the creative and business
process that do operate to well
defined rules and I do think that is
something we can usefully teach." }
DISCOPRO 08
DISCOPRO 2008:
A VERY SELECT EVENT
By Bob Jenkins
2007 saw the launch of DISCOPRO immediately before the main event of
DISCOP. Next June in Budapest will see a revamped and expanded version of
the co-production event. Not all the details will be available until late January
or early February. But in an exclusive interview with DISCOP.Link,
Patrick Jucaud, DISCOP's General Manager gives a sneak preview of
some of the extensive changes he and his team are lining up.
atrick Jucaud begins, "the first
thing that should be emphasised
is that DISCOPRO 08 will be targeted
exclusively at Central and Eastern
European producers wanting to get
involved in pan-European co-productions." Jucaud goes on to explain that,
"one of the consequences of this is
that the DISCOPRO 08 programme
will be limited to companies from
countries that lie within the CEE and
which are also member states of the
EU" This means that there will be no
companies from any countries outside
the CEE attending DISCOPRO 08.
Explaining the reasoning behind this
decision, Jucaud noted, "this is the
main difference between DISCOPRO
2007 and DISCOPRO 2008." Adding,
"our goal with DISCOPRO 2008 is to
nurture content suppliers from within
the CEE, and then to offer them
access to CEE buyers through the DISCOP Market."
That geo-political restriction is by
no means the only change from
2007's inaugural event. "We are designing DISCOP 08," reveals Jucaud,
"as a training programme as distinct
P
Panel discussion at DISCOPRO 07
30
from last year's event which was much
more of a networking and conference
programme. Our aim," he continues,
"is to bring together, probably not
more than about twenty companies
from within the CEE which are ready,
willing, and able to get involved in coproductions with EU partners."
The training programme at the
heart of DISCOPRO 2008 is being codesigned by Jucaud and his team with
Germany's world renowned Erich
Pommer Institute, and will provide
participants with first-hand case studies on such important topics as, legal
frameworks, government subsidies,
production financing and rights clearance mechanisms. This will include
detailed information on all the benefits
available from the Media Plus Programme of the European Union.
The cost of attending the two day
event will be €500 per company, and
each company will be permitted a
maximum of two delegates. Jucaud is
keen to stress, however, that, “we are
limiting the number of companies to
twenty, giving a maximum attendance
of forty people," adding, "the qualifica-
tion procedures will begin in January
2008, with the final DISCOP 08 programme of workshops and social
events published at the end of that
month or early February at the latest."
For those companies selected for
DISCOPRO 08 who also wish to attend
DISCOP 08, there will be a DISCOP 08
reduction of 50% of the non-exhibiting
sellers fee, representing a saving of
€400 per person on the usual fee of
€800.
Although full details of qualifying
criteria, application procedures and
conference schedule will not be available until the New Year, Jucaud was
willing to give DISCOP.Link some exclusive insights into the factors that will
play a significant role in determining
selection. "Firstly, as stated before,"
Jucaud reminds us, "DISCOPRO 08
will only be open to companies from
countries that are both within the CEE
and also the European Union. After
that," he continues, "we will be greatly
influenced by the project itself. For one
thing, it must be at least partly funded. Projects with no funding at all
attached will not be given a place.
Also," he adds, "we will limit each participating company to just one project." Having laid out these restrictions
Jucaud is, however, at pains to stress
that, "our aim through DISCOPRO 08,
and with the help of the Media Plus
Programme of the European Union, is
to stimulate TV content production in
Central and Eastern Europe, and
through DISCOP to stimulate panregional licensing opportunities."
}
business opportunity report
THE BENEFITS OF UNION
By Bob Jenkins
There are many financial benefits available in the form of subsidies and loans
available to companies located in and individuals who are citizens of the
European Union, via the MEDIA Programme. Members of the office of the
MEDIA Programme will be at DISCOPRO 08 to inform producers of the
opportunities. But ahead of that, DISCOP.Link has been talking to Matteo
Solaro of the Education, Audiovisual and Cultural Executive Agency,
to find out what is on offer and how to access it.
he overall aim of the MEDIA programme is to facilitate collaboration between European broadcasters,
producers and distributors in the making of programming with both a distinctly European flavour, and an international appeal. In order to achieve
these goals the MEDIA programme
sets out a number of parameters to
the awards and eligibility criteria that
have to be met before a project will be
considered.
Awards are made for the financing of fiction, animation, and creative
documentaries. The award is in the
form of a subsidy, which therefore has
to be repaid, and for fiction and animation can cover a maximum of 12.5%
of the budget up to a maximum
amount of €500,000. For documentaries the award may cover a maximum of 20% of the budget, but no
more than a total of €300,000.
Criteria which must be met before
a production becomes eligible for consideration include a requirement that
at least three European broadcasters,
from different European countries,
are involved and that a minimum of
50% of the budget already be confirmed in writing before the application
is made. Of this sum, at least half
must be from EU sources. There is,
however, no requirement that production should already have started. Additionally, the licenses sold to broad-
T
32
casters must allow for the return of
the rights to the producers after
seven years in the case of a pre-buy,
or ten years in the case of a co-production.
Finally, the applicant company has
to be the majority producer, and must
be registered in an EU country, or in a
country participating in the MEDIA
scheme, which, in addition to EU countries, also includes Norway, Iceland,
Liechtenstein and Switzerland.
Every year, the MEDIA programme makes a 'call' for proposals for
funding under this scheme, and that
'call' is published on the web site
(http://ec.eurpoa.eu/media) around
the middle of November. Following the
issuing of this 'call' there are two deadlines for applications. In 2008 the first
is 22nd February, and the second the
13th June.
Provided all of these criteria are
met, and the application is made on or
before one of the two deadlines, all
proposals will be considered on individual merit, in the light of the MEDIA programme's desire that proposals receiving backing should have as great a
potential for international distribution
as possible.
Matteo Solaro admits that, "in the
past, this has favoured big production
companies from big European countries as they are more likely to produce projects with international poten-
tial. However," he continues, "companies from smaller countries have been
financed in the past, and we will shortly be publishing new guidelines which
should make it easier for producers
from smaller countries to access
MEDIA financing."
While it is rare for a project to
receive backing from the MEDIA
scheme, and for it to then be abandoned before completion, "because,"
Solaro points out, "we insist that at
least fifty per cent of the budget be in
place before committing funds," he
does accept that this has occasionally
happened in the past. "If a project is
selected, a contract signed, and it is
subsequently abandoned before completion, a producer must explain the
situation, and justify the project's
abandonment. If the producer presents a cost report showing all the
costs incurred prior to the abandonment then the MEDIA programme will
write off the maximum permitted percentage, 12.5% for fiction and animation, and 20% for documentaries."
Although at the time of writing
Solaro revealed that, "our exact activities at DISCOPRO 08 have not yet
been defined," he did insist that, "we
will definitely be there as DISCOPRO is
the perfect place to inform producers
of the possibilities offered to them by
the MEDIA Programme."
And we all look forward to welcoming Matteo and his colleagues to
Budapest next June, but before then,
anyone interested in applying should
look for the new call and guidelines
which will be published shortly on the
web site
http://ec.eurpoa.eu/media.
}
late-night programming
LATE NIGHT'S
WAKE UP CALL
By Bob Jenkins
Research by Piotr Socha & Andrej Matijasevic
Long regarded as the schedule's wasteland, late night is starting to be more
properly valued by advertisers. DISCOP.Link discovers why.
obert Blagman, managing partner, Media Ops Inc, says, "all over
the planet, people are living in a 24/7
society." This, believes Blagman, is the
main reason why late night television,
long seen as an advertising wasteland, is beginning to develop real
value. Although this is by no means
the only reason he holds this view.
"Late night is suddenly becoming
much more important," explains Blagman, "not just because people are
staying up later, but because they are
moving all over the schedule, and it is
becoming much harder, if not to say
impossible, to get a critical mass of
any one demographic in any one slot.
The time," continues Blagman, "when
you could rely on getting a good female
audience in the afternoon, or hoards
of 18 - 25 year old males for the news
are gone. Audiences are all over the
place, and so advertisers have to be
as well, including late night, and that
inevitably makes it more valuable."
Blagman also believes that late
night is enjoying something of an advertising renaissance because, "while
it is an area of the schedule that has
R
POKER AFTERDARK Logo
34
always offered cheap advertising, it
has traditionally not offered efficient
advertising, and has, therefore largely
been overlooked by both advertisers
and broadcasters." However, Blagman believes that is about to change.
"It is no longer the case," he insists,
"that it is necessarily now inefficient. If
handled properly, late night can be
very much more efficient than had
previously been the case, while still
remaining a cheap advertising option."
Croatian journalist, and media
commentator, Andrej Matijasevic,
agrees with Blagman that, "late night
programming is becoming much more
interesting to advertisers the world
over, and its value is definitely closing
the gap on other day parts." However,
Matijasevic does not believe that Croatian broadcasters are properly exploiting the opportunity this part of the
schedule offers.
"When schedules went 24/7,
and the country was still Yugoslavia,"
he explains, "everyone was delighted.
Then it offered the opportunity, for the
very first time, to watch foreign
drama, comedy, sports and entertain-
ment content. In a word, everything
that was chronically lacking in the
daily, primarily political, schedule." Nor
were foreign programmes the only
new delight offered by broadcasters in
the hours of darkness. "This part of
the schedule," recalls Matijasevic,
“became known as Programme Plus,
and, in addition to the foreign programming, it also offered, again for
the first time, low budget, soft porn
content, which, refreshingly, was presented as it was, and not under a spurious cloak of artistic intent."
Such content is also a key element
of the Austrian late night programming, although Ina Bauer, assistant to
the CMO of Austria's ATV, is at pains
to stress that, "it is important to make
clear here that ATV is not responsible
for the content or the advertising in
this part of the schedule." Bauer goes
on to explain that, "from midnight until
between 2 am and 2.30 am we play
regular programming, often repeats
of primetime series, as well as movies, sitcoms and dramas. However,
the hours from the end of this time
slot through to 5.30 am are of no real
interest to mainstream Austrian advertisers and so we effectively 'sub let'
this part of the schedule to a third
party who is then responsible for organising all of the content and advertising. The content that does run here
is mainly erotic movies and short clips
acting as interstials."
In Croatia, however, Matijasevic
believes that this area of the schedule
has either stagnated or actually deteriorated. Although he does acknowlDISCOP LINK • #11 • NOVEMBER 07
edge that," a few years ago RTL made
the only serious attempt at innovation
in the late night schedule, when they
allowed the cameras from their version of BIG BROTHER to keep running
through the night so that viewers
could peep into bedrooms in the early
hours. Presumably in the hope of seeing something that was sadly missing
from the reality of their own lives. But
even that small innovation," says Matijasevic, "has now been abandoned
and, although RTL still does show
some extra BIG BROTHER footage, in
line with their competitors they now
mostly show repeat movies and series
until 1 am when they start KUNOLOVAC, a two-hour quiz show in which
viewers call in trying to win a big
money prize, although this has recently attracted criticism from both the
regulator and also consumer groups
who think that callers do not always
get fair treatment."
Matijasevic says much the same
is true of the late night programming
of other Croatian broadcaster such as
HTV who broadcast repeat movies
and American series until 3 am after
which they switch to a schedule of
magazine shows and political shows
until regular morning programming
resumes at 7 am. Nova TV is very similar with late news followed by imported comedies and drama until 4 am
when the station runs a low budget
feature or TV movie.
However, these examples are not
the real low point of Croatian late night
programming, that dubious distinction
Matijasevic awards to NET, a local
broadcaster operating out of Kutin,
"who invited viewers to send, via SMS,
nude photos of themselves, or, better,
or worse depending on your viewpoint,
clips of them having intercourse."
After being reprimanded by the
Broadcasting Council, the body
responsible for the issuing of Croatian
broadcast licenses, the station toned
down the requests and now, says
Matijasevic, "only show still photographs of male genitalia alongside the
owner’s telephone number!"
And when not plumbing the
depths of poor taste and indecency
many local stations, reports Matijasevic, "fill much of their late night
schedules with direct response television, urging you to 'call now and you
could be the first on your block to get
36
the very sharpest knife in history. Ever.
Honest.' Or premium rate phone lines
offering to tell your fortune by reading
cards or beans or crystal balls."
This is also the situation in the
Czech Republic where Pavel Krumpar,
commercial director at state broadcaster Ceska Televize says, "most of
our late night slots are filled with
direct response television," but Krumpar defends this situation, explaining,
"the amount of spot advertising Ceska
Televize is allowed to show is very
strictly limited, and therefore we prefer to use spots in the daytime and
prime time when they can command
Robert Blagman, Managing Partner,
Media Ops Inc.
much greater sums." By way of illustrating the significant differences in
revenue generated by spot as opposed to DRT, Krumpar estimates
that spot advertising, "generates
around €5.7 million a year, while the
direct response of late night generates slightly over one quarter of this,
at €1.5 million."
Krumpar believes this basic economics is at the heart of the current
malaise with regional late night schedules. "Certainly," he insists, "growth in
late night income, and therefore improvement in the content shown, will
only come with competition, which will
force stations to look for new sources
of revenue." And on that score he is
optimistic, "I believe this will happen as
digitalisation takes hold over the next
two years, and more and more channels are launched, then, not only will
competition increase, but we will see
the emergence of new forms of late
night programming such as downloading, competitions and advertiser generated content."
This is a view shared by ATV's
Bauer who says, "there has not been
any significant change in the level of
advertising in late night as mainstream Austrian advertisers are mainly interested in the time period from 1
pm through to 12 am. Hence the
alternative income formats such as
teleshopping, call in programming and
the erotic flat fee deal for providing airtime."
However, this is not necessarily
the situation throughout the DISCOP
region. Piotr Socha, a producer at
Poland's TVP Rzeszow says, "until
quite recently late night television in
Poland used to be associated with
endless repeats of series and films,
except on public service stations
which played opera and other programming of a high culture nature,
which they were obliged to play, but
which would not have rated well in
stronger slots," although he accepts
that, "this did offer an opportunity for
those who missed the original transmission to catch up," he also believes
that it was not the best possible use of
airtime. And, he says, "recently, Polish
stations began to realise that late
night might not be the hopeless part
of the schedule that had always seen it
as being. Over the past few years,"
explains Socha, "a number of ideas
have been imported from the USA and
Western Europe, based on interactive
participation of viewers in competitions, quizzes or game shows." However, there were initially problems
since the companies hired to produce
such series had little or no experience
of them and this lead to a quick turn
around as show after show failed and
was replaced with another doomed to
the same fate.
"The turning point," reports
Socha, "came with the introduction of
the CALL TV system, mastered by
Hungary's Telemedia InteracTV." The
company, which Socha describes as,
"a global phenomenon," produces programming for fifty countries worldwide
operating out of twenty studios. For
Poland alone it produces thirteen
hours of programming daily, including
late night programming for each of
Poland's three largest terrestrials,
Polsat, TVN and TVP.
By far the most successful of
these programmes is NIGHT RIDDLES
which Telemedia produces for TVP2.
The show, which transmits from 2
am, attracts between sixty thousand
and one hundred and sixty thousand
viewers but, says Socha, "for this
show ratings are not what really matter. What really matters," he goes on,
"is that people, sometimes as many as
ten thousand, call in during the hourlong show in an attempt to win a prize
of €150, and each of those calls generates around 1 Euro per minute."
Nor is TVP alone in Poland in capitalising on the power of interactive to
invigorate Late Night. Polsat has
recently entered into an agreement
with 4Fun Media which sees the private group producing shows which
allow viewers to communicate with
other viewers during the course of a
programme, influence the outcome of
shows. Viewers can also vote for their
favourite tunes, develop play lists,
download ring tones, wallpapers and
other mobile applications.
Generally speaking, profits generated in this way are split three ways.
The Polish telephone operators take
fifty percent and the remaining half is
divided between the producer and the
broadcaster.
These developments go some of
the way to addressing the shortcomings described earlier, but, Blagman
believes, much more is possible.
"There are," he enthuses, "so many
different strategies an advertiser can
use in late night. The most straightforward one," he goes on, "is to do just
that - advertise. However, a more sophisticated version of this has been
around for sometime - the 'infomercial'. This typically lasts a half-hour
and, in the US, has been especially
successful in late fringe." There are
many advantages from an advertiser's
perspective to the infomercial, as
Blagman explains. "An infomercial," he
points out, "allows an advertiser to
create their own content complete
with their own product placement.
Additionally, it allows them to buy
chunks of air-time from various broadcasters in different markets and
thereby effectively to create their own
'unwired network'." Despite these
advantages Blagman accepts that
38
another truth about infomercials is
that, "the majority of the audience
watching one are there by accident.
They came across it while channel
hopping and stayed. Very few will have
tuned in specifically to watch the
infomercial."
This realisation has led to the development of what might be termed,
'entertainment infomercials'. Essentially, these shows, which can be
either one-hour or half-hour, are entertainment shows which offer all the
commercial opportunities of infomercials but, because of the inherent
entertainment values, draw significantly greater audiences. Blagman
takes up the story. "Among the first
examples of this genre were shows
such as POKER PARTY and POKER
STARS," he recalls, adding, "not only
do they allow the advertiser to put
their logo all over the show, and put
their own ads in then break, they also
are a very efficient tool for driving audiences to the appropriate poker web
site."
In January 2006, NBC played a
show called POKER AFTER DARK from
2 am to 3 am Monday to Friday and 1
am to 3 am Saturday. In America, the
time between 2 am and 5 am is known
as 'overnight' and, says Blagman,
"networks have traditionally not understood the value of this time period and
have only used it for direct response
shows." However, POKER AFTER
DARK was both a revolution, and a revelation, not only did it deliver ratings
of between 1 and 1.5 in key demographics, but in some markets it was
actually beating the TONIGHT SHOW.
But, as Blagman explains, the raw
numbers are not the whole of this
exciting story. "People who were not
up at 2 am were recording the show
to watch later and that's a great
bonus," he enthuses, "as an audience
watching what it wants to watch,
when they want to watch it, have a
very much stronger focus."
Blagman is almost evangelical
about the potential offered by this previously neglected part of the schedule.
NIGHT RIDDLES, Telemedia
So much so that his company is, in his
words, "putting all of these opportunities together in a drive to help broadcasters in both the CEE and Western
Europe maximise their ability to monetize late night."
In addition to utilising the scheduling opportunities he has already outlined, there are other advantage on
which Blagman hopes to capitalise,
particularly what he describes as, "the
increasing presence of global buyers."
He goes on to outline what he means
by this. "There was a time," explains
Blagman, "when ad agencies had a
presence in all the major advertising
markets, but these days there is an
increasing tendency for them to have
one global buyer, typically located in
New York or London who buys for territories all over the world. What we
are doing," he continues, "is saying to
these individuals, instead of making
twenty-seven different deals in twentyseven different countries, why don't
you make one deal with us and we will
deliver all twenty-seven territories." In
addition to this offer, Blagman and his
company are also setting up full backoffice services, including fulfilment, in
all appropriate countries opening the
door in these countries to new products and commerce not previously
available in these countries. "There is
an enormous amount of local differences in matters such as customs
regulations, as well, of course, as language and culture," observes Blagman, noting, "therefore, one of the key
attractions of our offer is that we can
deal with all the issues raised by these
local differences, right down to altering, not just dubbing, the ad to comply
with local tastes and customs if need
be."
There are three types of content
which Blagman identifies as currently
working particularly well in late night,
and these are, Interactive, in which
viewers call in to participate in some
sort of a competition, Poker and
Gaming. But he does not believe that
trinity is necessarily set in stone, "I believe," asserts Blagman, "that the
really great advantage late night offers
advertisers is the opportunity to try
things they would not try in other day
parts because the direct competition
is different and the cost is less. It is,"
he asserts, "time we all woke up to
late night."
}
CEE dossier
THE YOUNGEST, BUT NOT THE WEAKEST
By Milica Vasic
Only a year and half was enough time for TV Atlas to establish itself in the
market and become one of Montenegro's more popular channels, mostly
because they have chosen their programmes according to the needs
of the audience.
tlas TV, from Podgorica, is the
youngest commercial TV network
in Montenegro. In merely year and a
half in business, they managed to position themselves reasonably high and
with the fastest rating increase.
The marketing manager, Srdjan
Filipovic, says that the licenced programmes fit into the Atlas TV programme concept perfectly. The main
criteria which must be met when
choosing programmes are their quality and their attractiveness for the
audience, and in establishing partnerships with copyright owners, they
chose assertive subjects with good
references, such as, Filipovic says,
Croatian Television (HRT) and Motion
Avenue.
According to Filipovic, "Radio TV
Atlas has a clearly defined path ahead
of it, and that is toward the leading
position in the market. According to
our goal, our main priority is not making profit, but investing in high tech
equipment, innovations and creating
capable personnel, which after all are
our network's most valuable asset."
The secret of success is, according to ATV management, in good programming strategy. There are a few
programmes which stand out and
should be mentioned. We should start
with the most popular one.
The game-cum-talk show PIRAMIDA (PYRAMID), cretaed by Dubravko
Merlic, the manager of the Croatian
independent film company Castor
Multimedia, is the most popular show
in the region for the second year running. In May 2007 at the KKL hall in
Lucerne, Switzerland, PIRAMIDA won
the Golden Rose in the category of
Shows, one of the world's most prestigious TV awards, the equivalent of an
Oscar in the TV industry.
A
40
In short, the PYRAMID is an interactive game-talk show, with a competitive structure and rules that provide
the participants with equal opportunities of vying for viewer votes through
being original, concise and interesting
in their treatment of topics.
There are three participants on
each show, all three public figures,
and while time is strictly measured
they talk about five topics from the
past week as selected by the editors.
The events are not limited to any one
field, but are selected according to the
main criterion of their interesting and
topical nature. It is aired weekly and
during the show, viewers vote for their
favorite and their votes decide the winner who moves to the next level of the
PYRAMID, namely the next round of
shows that bring together winners
from other PYRAMID shows from the
same level.
SAVRSEN PAR (THE PERFECT
COUPLE) is a new reality show on TV
Atlas in which everyone is a potential
participant: the young ladies and men
who apply for the show, the audience
in the studio cheering and supporting
the contestants, and the audience
watching at home who can send sms
messages with questions for the contestants. In doing so, they are eligible
to win one of numerous prizes. The
show is hosted by Silvija Vucinic.
Another show worth mentioning is
FIGHT CLUB. An hour long quiz TV
Atlas considers to be suitable for all. It
is produced and hosted by Verica
Ljesevic and Darko Prascevic. During
the one hour long programme, the
audience themselves have a chance to
win prizes, as well as the various contestants.
In November of this year, TV Atlas
has started broadcasting another
attractive show - TELEFON (THE TELEPHONE). The biggest and the most
complex reality show we've ever had a
chance to watch in this region. The
production company Rikoset, in cooperation with Dutch Park Lane Productions, has started filming the first season of the show TELEFON throughout
the cities of Montenegro.
Rikoset, production company
from Belgrade, plans to bring this reality show to life on the territory of five
former Yugoslavian republics.
TV Atlas also aims to make their
film and series programming rich and
diverse. The main sources of Atlas
TV's film content are Paramount and
Universal, which guarantees them
with long-term top quality film programming with high ratings. The
schedule includes blockbusters and
classics, comedy, science fiction, horror, thriller and drama.
The series broadcast on TV Atlas
include BBC sitcoms such as MEN
BEHAVING BADLY, a forty four episode long comedy premiered in 1992,
which had great success in the territory of the former Yugoslavia. There is
also Dick Wolf's LAW & ORDER:
CRIMINAL INTENT, the popular, Emmy
Award-winning legal crime drama, and
THE HUNGER, a TV series produced
by the Scott brothers' Scott Free company.
TV Atlas' schedule is also enriched
with the Hallmark mini series, FURTHER TALES OF THE CITY and A GIRL
THING, and Hallmark/Carlton films,
such as THE CASE OF THE WHITECHAPEL VAMPIRE, MURDER IN THE
RUE MORGUE, and so on, as well as
with the light drama series SOUS LE
SOLEIL, produced by the Centre
National de la Cinematographie
(CNC).
}
CEE dossier
TV MARKET PATTERN IN
BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA
By Dragana Stanic
t the moment, in the territory of
Bosnia and Herzegovina some
forty televisions broadcast their TV
programming. Interesting enough,
the Public Broadcasting System in
B&H also operates well. It comprises
three public radio and TV stations two entity broadcasters, the RadioTelevision of Republika Srpska and the
Radio-Television of the Federation of
B&H, and the third one being the
leader on the federal level, the Public
Broadcasting Service of Bosnia and
Herzegovina. Competition for audience share in B&H goes on two levels.
On the second level are small TV stations from the beginning of this report. The first level is occupied by the
big ones. In the struggle for audience
share, beside the above RTV systems
and TV stations like ATV Banja Luka,
NTV Hyatt, TV PINK, TV BN, and OBN
only the strongest survive. Also, there
is a growing number of competitive television stations from Serbia and
Croatia, which viewers in B&H watch
via a cable network.
Elvir Svrakic, director, NTV Hyatt
says that they broadcast satellite programming via the cable network in
Austria, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, France, Slovenia, and
Macedonia, but not in Serbia and Croatia. “On the other hand, cable networks in B&H illegally broadcast
HTV1, 2 and Nova TV, which is proved
by the contracts signed with content
distributors. From Serbia only RTS
broadcasts, based on settled rights,"
maintains Svrakic. "We have done our
best to protect our legal rights, however, we failed. They keep broadcasting the same content as we do, and in
the same language."
For those who want to better
understand the media situation in
B&H and the neighbouring countries,
A
42
the important fact is that some content distributors treat Serbian, Croatian and Bosnian languages as the
same language. "If you ask me how to
keep our viewers, I will tell you that in
B&H we and Nova TV broadcast the
same sports events. The audience
share, however, is on side of Nova TV,"
says Svrakic. "Our own production is
what differentiates us from our main
competitors. In addition, we acquire
top quality world programming. By the
end of this year we expect to become
No. 1 TV station in B&H," Svrakic is
determined.
The situation in the public broadcasting sector is slightly different. The
position of the Public Broadcasting
Service of Bosnia & Herzegovina does
not depend on commercial televisions.
"The difference between commercial
and public televisions," explains Ines
Mrenica, PR PBSB&H, "is most obvious in terms of broadcasting global
events. Every TV station may acquire
quality content or buy a feature blockbuster, but only the No. 1 Public Broadcasting Service may get the Euro
Song Contest or the Olympic Games”.
One of the great problems the
Bosnian media market has to tackle is
the fact that neighbouring televisions
interfere in their television market
thus decreasing the advertising time
fees. Mrenica says that PBSB&H has
made a deal with the Association of
Cable Operators according to which
the signal of the neighbouring television station is being coded during exclusive sports live broadcasts (Champions League, FIFA WORLD CUP).
Jasmin Durakovic, general manager, RTVFB&H, says that RadioTelevision of the Federation, being the
part of the Public Broadcasting System, is the most influential electronic
media in B&H. "During the past
years," explains Durakovic, "we had
the greatest share in our primary territory (B&H Federation), and certainly
the greatest market share on the
B&H television market. Our domination on the Federation TV market is
the result of our investments into
domestic (local) production which
made us the leaders in the production
of news and fiction programming. FTV
is the major producer of successful
documentaries, arts and culture content and programmes targeting children and youth in B&H. As for entertainment content, we keep our ground
relative to commercial televisions, in
particular to Pink B&H being our main
competitor on the market."
Durakovic also stresses out that
the development of cable networks,
arrival of regional and world TV stations, and new forms of TV content
distribution will further fragment the
media market, which will lead to further rating decrease of domestic TV
stations. "Regional markets (particularly in Croatia and Serbia) are considerably stronger than ours. Also, televisions from these countries have
greater production potentials and are,
therefore, stronger than B&H TV stations in terms of finances and advertising. FTV tries to tackle this problem
by producing the best possible local
content, and to offset the influence of
the neighbouring TV stations by entering regional co-productions. Consequently, FTV is now producing several
programmes in co-operation with the
Croatian private TV stations (RTL and
NOVA TV). I believe that these forms
of co-operation should also be developed between public service broadcasters in the region, because this will
be the only appropriate response to
global TV companies penetrating this
market," concludes Durakovic.
}
CEE dossier
NEWS CONTENT IN HUNGARY & CEE
By Istvan Bodzsoni
One of the major problems Central European broadcasting systems are
dealing with after the break-up of the former Soviet Union is to provide
reliable and technologically advanced information sources.
n the first years of transition, broadcasters covering domestic issues
primarily drew their information from
national news agencies which continued their operation under the new
management, although their obsolete
technology and not quite professional
editing personnel remained. Of
course, the greatest change was the
arrival of foreign, first of all Western
news agencies which earlier could not
be used as information sources.
Reuters, AP, WTN, CNN and many
others flooded the new markets and
bombarded editorial offices hungry for
various alluring and not too expensive
video packages. Small and medium TV
stations could daily acquire 30-40
video reports about the main world
events for only 20-30 thousand ponds
a year. The reports included everything, from the Middle East crisis,
through uniting of the two Germans to
the typhoon in the Caribbean, but
were filtered by the taste of various
editors-in-chief. Soon, a strange situation occurred. The news programming of the 'liberated' Central European state televisions included the
events in South Africa or Hong Kong,
but not those happening in the neighbouring countries. Their lazy and easygoing editors-in-chief preferred readymade video footages received by
renowned world news agencies
instead of searching for interesting
information in their own neighbourhood. And the renowned news agencies also seldom dealt with the said
neighbourhood. The exception were
wars, natural catastrophes, elections
coverage and political crises as were
the news about protocol meetings
with European politicians and businessmen in power.
No major agency was dealing with
the Central European region. Additionally, technological connections between the news agencies in the region
I
44
were a catastrophe. In Budapest it
was easier to get some video material
from Washington D.C. than from
Bucharest or Subotica across the
state border. Old analogue terrestrial
links had not been repaired or were
completely destroyed, as was the
case in Serbia. Optical cable system
was advancing very slowly and could
not be used for video signal distribution. Majority of TV stations could not
afford the expensive satellite equipment. EBU and some other companies did offer some video material
delivery arrangements, but the service was too expensive. Ten minutes of
satellite time cost almost €3,000,
which was too much for most TV stations.
As a result, people in the transitional countries knew little about the
situation in the neighbourhood. They
were perfectly briefed about the
American election campaign, yet they
were quite unaware of the names of
the people in power in the neighbouring countries. Western news agencies in a way colonised former socialist countries. That was, certainly, also
facilitated by the fact that people in
Central and Eastern Europe have been
information-hungry for over forty
years, and those who managed to
watch the Western media had been
punished.
National news agencies, however,
failed to adapt to the new market
demands. The Hungarian Telegraph
Agency (MTI), for example, has not yet
introduced video reports in their offer.
Despite that, over 75% of people in
Hungary regard television as their
main information source. There were
some efforts in MTI to master this
segment of informing as well, but they
had neither personnel nor equipment
for such type of information gathering.
Potential clients want semi-finished
video material that need be only slight-
ly adapted, depending on the taste of
their editors-in-chief. They demand latest news and attractive video footages
about interesting events, quick delivery, option to choose and strict
instructions on the footage usage.
MTI could never meet such demands.
Consequently, efforts were made
to found smaller news agencies, but
due to the lack of appropriate financial
support, they could not survive on the
market. That was the case of CENA
which, after ten months of operation
and quickly established correspondent
network in over 30 countries had to
close down because its founders and
investors overlooked the fact that
such an investment cannot pay-off in
only one year. Currently, in Hungary
there is only one news agency that has
all the chances to survive on the market, with video footages in their offer Fuggetlen Hírugynokseg, an independent news agency. Behind it is RTL
Media Company which is powerful
enough to keep such a company alive.
In the meantime, some Western
news agencies became interested in
Central Europe as the source of information. For example, Reuters has
introduced for its clients so called
CEEF (Central and Eastern Europe
Feed) service, which provides several
video reports from the region. But
they primarily include interesting
items instead of ordinary daily
reports.
Regretfully, EBU reports on latest
events may be used exclusively by
state televisions. Internet, as yet
another space for distributing video
material is a very promising platform,
but has not yet reached the required
speed and quality in the region.
The bottom line is that former
socialist countries are still waiting to
be discovered, and it is up to news
agencies and investors whether they
will use the opportunity.
}
CEE dossier
FREQUENCY SWITCH IN BULGARIA
By Lilly Goleminova
n Bulgaria, in order to be able to
broadcast, TV networks need two
types of licenses - a programming
license issued by Bulgarian Council for
Electronic Media and a license for the
frequency, which is given under the
authority of the Commission for
Regulation (Broadcasting Council).
But due to the lack of clarity in media
law in Bulgaria and because of the lack
of activity from the UEM and Commission mentioned above those players who are more flexible and reactive
have the space to maneuver and to
make various combinations with the
licenses they possess. Quite a good
example would be the recent 'frequency switch' performed between BBT
and 7 Days TV. BBT had a programming license for cable broadcasting, 7
Days - a frequency for the over-the-air
broadcast for the territory of the capital Sofia. The two TV stations made a
deal - so BBT can now be watched
without relying on cable distributors,
whilst 7 Days became cable only. Both
networks changed their formats - BBT
I
This fall seems to be quite a dynamic season for
Bulgarian TV. A new big player is entering the
stage - TV 2.
went towards being the "TV of the capital" with more and more news emissions (the new manager of BBT is the
former Head of News for Bulgarian
National Television, Simeon Vassilev, a
man with a strong European background). 7 Days moved to a new complex with totally new studios and much
better equipment. "Entertainment,
lifestyle, games, quizzes and some
politics" is the new motto of 7 Days as
opposed to the idealized image of TV
as a socially engaged media that voices the opinion of different facets of
society.
TV2 will start broadcasting on
October 26th. The length of the daily
schedule will be between 6 and 8
hours, in the first 3 months. The content will be entirely and purely commercially oriented - some say that is
just a 'bait' to draw a larger audience.
Who knows? For now, the only thing
that is certain is that there will be a
special evening show (Monday to
Friday) hosted by one of the most popular - others would use the word "notorious" - people in Bulgaria. His name is
Azis, he is of a gypsy origin. By combining his open homosexuality (assumed by some just as a "commercial
trick"), his eccentric outlook and
strong vocal abilities, he has become
the biggest pop-folk star, even "icon" in
Bulgaria. So THE SHOW OF AZIS will
do its best to rival bTV's SLAVI'S
SHOW (as featured previously in DISCOP LINK).
Such is the eagerly anticipated
accent of TV2. Beside that, movies
and sitcoms will be aired as well as
some very provocative foreign show
such as OKNA, the famous and controversial Russian talk-show.
}
EASY WAY WITHOUT AIR
By Rastislav Durman
he battle for frequencies and broadcasting licenses in Serbia will
have its victors nowadays considering
that the Broadcasting Council is about
to end a several-years long licensing
process. The number of licenses is
extremely high for a country with less
than 8 million viewers - four channels
of public service, plus 6 channels with
national coverage, 34 with regional
coverage and 148 channels which
could be seen locally. Despite a relatively poor market, high competition
and huge operation costs over 400
companies have applied for frequency
license.
What is the innovation on the broadcasting market in Serbia is the
emergence of TV companies which
had not even applied for a licence, but
T
46
Not all TV companies in Serbia are interested in
terrestrial broadcasting.
decided to broadcast their programming via cable operators. By doing this
they both decrease their operating
costs and avoid an extremely complicated licensing process for terrestrial
broadcasting.
According to the current regulations in Serbia, the Broadcasting
Council issues a license for cable or
satellite broadcasting not based on
public bids but solely upon the request
of the operator who is obliged to present complete documentation, the
same that is also presented during
bids, yet he is not obliged to meet spe-
cific requirements which broadcasting
license applicants have to meet.
In addition to the existing, primarily specialised TV channels on the cable
network which cannot be seen on terrestrial television (F Travel, LT, TV Navigator, and Health Channel), TV companies which have not won the terrestrial broadcasting licence will come
out with their programming offer on
the cable network. Since the network
covers all major cities and towns in
Serbia, the potentials of cable TV by
far surpass the potentials of terrestrial TV operating on the regional level. }
news
FULL OF WESTERN PROMISE
By Bob Jenkins
he classic opera is the newest
offering from NBDtv, now a part of
the DCD group, and features HD recordings of spectacular opera recorded at such prestigious locations as
Opera National de Paris, Grand Theatre Geneva and the Festival d'Aix-enProvence.
Verdi's UN BALLO IN MASCHERA,
based on the life of King Gustav 111 of
Sweden is the offering from the Opera
National de Paris. Recorded in June
2007, Verdi fills his opera with such
power, passion and intensity that the
audience is transfixed from the very
first note to the very last. Featuring
the Orchestre de l'Opera de Paris, and
the Choeur de l'Opera de Paris, the
production is directed by Semyon
Bychkov and stars Marcelo Alvarez
and Ludovic Tezier.
From the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, NBDtv has DIE WALKURE, the
second of four operas in Wagner's
DER RING DES NIBELUNGEN cycle.
The production, recorded in July of
this year is conducted by Sir Simon
Rattle and features Sir Willard White
as Wotan and Robert Gambill as
Siegmund.
T
ZORRO: THE SWORD AND THE ROSE,
Telemundo
Telemundo has a classic offering
of a very different nature. Classic
adventure with ZORRO: THE SWORD
AND THE ROSE. And, as it is a telenovela, you can bet it also has a liberal
helping of tangled love! The 120 x 60
minute episodes are based on an original script by renowned writer Hum48
DISCOP.Link takes its usual look at what's new on
offer from outside our region, and this time we
have a very varied selection from classic opera
through to classic adventure via a magical island,
and one very stressed out modern mum.
berto 'Kiko' Olivieri, and boasts an
internationally renowned cast including, Christian Meier (THE STORM),
Marlene Favela (GATA SALVAJE,
RUBI), Natasha Klauss (THE STORM,
HIDDEN PASSION) and many more.
With pedigree like this one would
expect ZORRO to slash its way to the
top of the ratings and so far the
swashbuckling hero has not disappointed. Produced by RTI and Sony
Pictures International for Telemundo,
it debuted in Spain on Antena 3
August 20th in a 5.15pm slot averaging 19.8% share, with a peak of
24.1%.
A dashing, handsome, romantic
adventurer Zorro may be, but it cannot be denied that he is prone to leaving a trail of corpses in his wake.
Germany's ohm: tv has a show just
right for anyone anticipating a visit
from the masked man. DIE ANOTHER
DAY is their new format, created by
Casey Parsons, which could equally
have been titled, 'All You Ever Wanted
To Know About Dying - But Were
Afraid To Ask!' In each one-hour episode, one individual gets to live
through the experience of planning
their own funeral. Each week, the individual concerned has to address the
universal difficulties of confronting
one's own death and its aftermath.
From doubts, or certainties, about the
afterlife to inheritance tax and will writing. Distressing and tedious it may be,
but, as Benjamin Franklin observed,
"in this life one may be certain of only
two things. Death and taxation!"
And, having dealt with one, ohm:
tv has another new format to address
the other. MONEY SPINNERS is a
'making money reality show', which
first premiered on the BBC in 2006.
In each episode a financial expert lives
with participants and guides them
through a total 'money makeover',
showing them how to earn more,
learn new skills, save more and sell
everything they don't need. Each episode ends with the family concerned
collecting the dream cash reward for
their efforts.
Spain's BRB has just launched
PAPAWA, a 104 x 7 minute series set
on an island of the same name. If you
go there with dreams anything can
happen. The island is inhabited by a
strange race of creatures, who have
the uncanny ability to turn dreams into
nightmares - or not, depending on the
mood they are in! Shot in HD and a
one-of-a-kind, 'cut out' style, the Hispano-French co-production will be
available from autumn 2008.
Also shooting now for delivery in
2008, this time in February, is POLLY
ADLER a 4 x 45 minute comedy
drama from Austrian state broadcaster ORF. Based on the hit newspaper
column of the same name, telling the
life and trials of Polly Adler, society
journalist, and full-time single mother.
The writer of the inventive and fast
paced comedy is Polly's alter ego, real
life society journalist and full-time single mother Angelika Hager, who, with
Uli Bree invented the character in a
regular newspaper column twelve
years ago.
If she had a moment, which she
almost certainly does not, Polly could
probably benefit from some quiet time
on the sofa with Portfolio's CHEF AT
HOME. In each of the 131 x 30 minute
episodes, chef Michael Smith invites
audiences into his own kitchen and
shows how easy it is to create simple,
wholesome meals for the whole family
from whatever happens to be in the
fridge.
}
news
DISCOP.Link brings you
all the news of the
latest 'done deals'
throughout the DISCOP
region.
ETN International's director of
international content sales, Jonathan South, has been busy in the
region lately. Recently closed deals
include over one hundred hours with
Romania's Antenna, including DECODING THE PAST, a look at the great
prophecies, signs and wonders of the
past from Nostradamus to Da Vinci to
The Bible, and CRISS ANGEL MINDFREAK. The latter starring the eponymous Criss Angel, a master provocateur who demonstrates a new breed
of modern mysticism that will amaze
audiences everywhere.
A
outh also wrapped up twenty
hours of history programming
with Russia's Kultura channel including a look at the architectural triumphs of the ancient world in ENGINEERING AN EMPIRE.
S
mphatically in the modern world is
Russia's CTC Network, which
debuted 3rd September with a local
version of Telemundo's hit telenovela
LOS TREINTA. Telling the story of four,
thirty something, couples LOS TREINTA focuses on four men, all partners
in El Aire, a very modern restaurant,
and the common problems they face
of money, routine, success, jealousy,
infidelity, lack of desire and debts.
Well, common in telenovelas anyway.
Produced for CTC by A Media, one of
Russia's leading independent production companies, LOS TREINTA has
already been a big success in Romania for Zone Romantica as well as
Ecuador, Chile, Nicaragua, Panama,
Cyprus and Portugal where it got a
33% primetime share.
E
nother telenovela, STORM OF
LOVE, this time from Bavaria Media Television, stormed has through
the DISCOP region. So it is hardly surprising that the sequel, TEMPEST OF
LOVE, is, reports Bavaria's head of
Eastern European Affairs, Helge
A
50
WHEELER DEALER
By Bob Jenkins
Kohnen, "generating strong competition in almost all CEE countries." In
some that competition has been
resolved with Bavaria closing deals
with Slovak TV, Estonia's TV3, Latvian
TV, and TV3 Lithuania.
e all know that telenovelas are
about star-crossed lovers who
do have their problems. However, we
also know that, in the end, everything
always manages to find its way to a
happy ending. Fremantle's LOVE YOU
TO DEATH tells the story of starcrossed lovers whose sorry tales end
with one of them murdering the other.
Starring John Waters (PINK FLAMINGOS, HAIRSPRAY, CRY-BABY) the
series recounts the ill-fated, and real
life, cases of spouses deciding to take
what they thought would be the 'easy
way out.' Veronika Gracher, FME's
vice-president sales, German speaking Europe & Eastern Europe has
recently sold LOVE YOU TO DEATH to
TV3 Russia, RTL Klub Hungary,
Lithuania's LNK, Fox Life Bulgaria and
Balkans, and Ukrainian distributor
Carmen Films.
W
ove didn't feature much in the lives
of England's Tudor royal dynasty.
Sex did though, as did intrigue, murder and betrayal, which probably
explains the popularity of Sony Picture
Television's THE TUDORS, which features in a major multi-year content
deal the company has just struck with
Croatia's Nova TV. The deal also
includes major movie hits such as SPIDERMAN 1+ 2, the Antonio Banderas
and Catherine Zeta Jones vehicle,
THE LEGEND OF ZORRO and
XXX:STATE OF THE UNION, as well as
new TV series such as DAMAGES,
starring Glenn Close, Lloyd Owen's
VIVA LAUGHLIN, CANTEBURY'S LAW
starring Julianna Margulies and Lucy
Liu vehicle, CASMERRE MAFIA. Also
included in the deal are classic favourites such as the SEINFELD SHOW and
L
the hugely popular soap, DAYS OF
OUR LIVES.
nother huge package has been
struck by MTV in Albania where
Digit-Alb has acquired 263 hours of
programming including 69 half-hours
of PIMP MY RIDE, 26 half-hours of
TAK AND THE POWER OF JUJU, 63
half-hours of JIMMY NORTON, 68 of
CAT DOG, 40 half-hours of THE HILLS,
and 42 half-hours of teenage soap
LAGUNA BEACH, and two one-hour
specials. As well as many episodes
from AVATAR, REN & STIMPY, ANGRY
BEAVERS and MY LIFE AS A ROBOT.
A
different MTV, this one Hungary's
state broadcaster, has acquired
ELIZABETH I from British distributor
All3Media. The 2 x 120-minute miniseries stars Academy Award winners
Helen Mirren as the ageing Elizabeth
and Jeremy Irons as her lover the Earl
Of Leicester, exposes the conflict
between her sense of duty and the
instincts of her heart. All3Media have
made another recent sale in Hungary,
to Cool TV, and it could hardly be more
different. SKINS, of which Cool has
acquired 19 hours, is a cutting edge
youth drama set in Bristol and telling
the story of an engaging group of
teenagers with attitude and humour.
A
inally, in a sign of the growing
importance of the DISCOP markets in the international content business Zodiak Vostok has announced a
deal with French producer A Prime
Group to co-produce two pilot episodes of the hit daily format, TO
UNDERSTAND & FORGIVE. The series, which has been a huge success
of Russia's First Channel, for whom it
has been produced by Zodiak Vostok
100% owned subsidiary, TeleAlliance,
is a daily drama revolving around psychotherapists trying to solve real life
issues ranging from adultery to blackmail and rivalry.
}
F
news
BENEATH THE RADAR
By Bob Jenkins
kraine's growing importance has
been underlined by two recent
deals. In the first of them Ukrainian
entrepreneur Igor Kolomoisky took a
€76 million stake in Central European
Media Enterprises (CME) representing approximately 3% of CME's outstanding common stock. Mr Kolomoisky also took a seat on CME's
board of directors. Mr Kolomoisky is a
prominent businessman in the Ukraine, being a controlling shareholder
and supervisory board member of
PrivatBank, one of the country's
largest commercial banks, and a
major shareholder and member of the
supervisory board of Ukrnafta, Ukraine's largest oil and natural gas company. The country's growing importance was further underlined by
Michael Garin, CME's CEO who welcomed Mr Kolomoisky's investment by
commenting, "this investment by Mr
Kolomoisky should confirm CME's view
that Ukraine will be a powerful growth
engine for the future."
U
he second deal underscoring the
rapid growth currently being experienced by the Ukrainian content business was the acquisition of a 75%
stake in YS Films, by Sweden's Zodiak
Group. YS Films is currently the second largest Ukrainian production company. Routed through Zodiac's Russian subsidiary, Dixi Media the acquisition is seen by the Swedish group as
an important step in its plans for
expansion into former Soviet states.
Zodiak currently owns 100% of Zodiak
Vostok, which in turn owns 51% of
TeleAlliance, with the brands TeleFormat and TeleRoman, and Dixi
Media with the brands Dixi and Rytm.
Commenting on the acquisition of
a stake in YS films, Zodiak president
and CEO, Patrick Svensk said, "my
expectation is that YS Films growth
will be similar to the very positive
development our Russian subsidiaries
are currently enjoying, and I am convinced that Ukrainian growth will be
very strong over the next couple of
years."
T
52
DISCOP.Link takes a look at some of the key events
that have happened recently in the region.
n a move that will raise eyebrows in
some quarters billionaire Georgian
businessman Badri Patarkatsishvili
has turned to Rupert Murdoch to protect the editorial independence of
Imedi, Georgia's largest privately
owned broadcaster. Mr Patarkatsishvili, who is currently financing the
opposition to President Mikheil Saakashvili, said of Mr Murdoch, whose
News Corp has owned a 49% stake in
Imedi for over a year now, "I have
known Rupert Murdoch for many
years. I trust him. He is a man of his
word and he will try his best to keep
the channel independent." News
Corp, which is known to have plans to
expand into Europe's emerging markets will increase its stake to 51% and
take temporary control of the remaining 49%. Marty Pomadur, executive
vice-president News Corp, and chairman of News Corp Europe commented, "this is not a political move as far
as we are concerned."
ed towards corporate expansion,
increasing the company's acquisition,
development and co-production activities. As part of the planned expansion
the company has re-organised into
three distinct groups all operating
under the Rive Gauche Entertainment
banner. Rive Gauche Television will be
dedicated to production and distribution of original television programming; Rive Gauche Motors & More will
supply quality men's lifestyle programming, while Rive Gauche Films will
assume responsibility for the distribution of the company's film library of
close to one hundred films.
et more merger and acquisition
activity, this time between Poland
and The Czech Republic with Polish
mobile content company One-2-One
announcing the completion of the
acquisition of its Czech counterpart
ATS for €3 million in cash. One-2-One,
which lists MCI Management S.A.
(29.69%) and Tomasz Dlugiewicz
(19.57%) as its two main shareholders says that it plans to greatly expand
ATS' activities in both The Czech
Republic and Slovakia with a close
focus on the convergence between
mobile and the Internet.
T
I
Y
lso planning an expansion of its
activities is L.A. based Rive
Gauche. The company recently announced the completion of a multi million dollar capital increase from private investment fund Cedar Lane. Rive
Gauche chairman Jon Kramer promised the new funding would be allocat-
A
he expansion also sees the
appointment of two senior sales
executives; Gary MacKinney joins as
vice-president international sales and
Robby Amar as international sales
executive. Both report to Dorothy
Crompton, senior vice-president international sales and administration.
T
here are new appointments too at
the emerging markets division of
MTV International. Alex Chien joins as
head of Nickelodeon Emerging Markets with responsibility for managing
Nickelodeon's existing portfolio of
channels in the region as well as further expanding the Nickelodeon brand
presence and developing the brand as
a multi-platform kids' entertainment
brand. Chien will report directly to the
division's managing director and senior vice-president Bhavneet Singh.
wo others join the department,
Erinn Thompson joins in the newly
created role of Program and Acquisition Manager with responsibility for all
acquisitions and scheduling in the region, Lisa Wakefield joins as marketing executive with responsibility for all
marketing activity across the region.
Both are based in London and report
directly to Chien.
}
T
tools of business
THE ART OF THE PRE-SALE
By Bob Jenkins
There are two distinct types of pre-sale and negotiating, each has a very
different psychology. Bob Jenkins talks to some experts and discovers that
the one thing they have in common is it helps if you like playing poker.
ccording to Sandra Carter, president of Sandra Carter Global and
an experienced producer / distributor, "there are two distinct types of
pre-sale. The first," she expounds, "is
when the producer / distributor needs the sale in order to complete the
programme's funding. The second is
when the seller has a programme that
everyone knows, or at least believes,
will be a big hit, and everyone wants it.
Both situations have interesting, although subtly different nuances," she
explains. "In the first," continues Carter, "two things will almost inevitable
be true. The first is that a substantial
part of the funding will already be in
place, and the second is that the
buyer knows that if you don't get the
sale, there will be no programme to
buy, and, for the same reason, they
also know that there is a minimum
amount they have to pay."
Carter's point about the amount
of funding that would already have to
be in place is echoed by Anita Barnard, sales manger Asia, Central and
Eastern Europe at 3DD. "Usually,"
believes Barnard, "where a pre-sale is
part of the funding of a programme
then it is almost always more of a coproduction then a pre-sale, and that is
a different ball game." This is a sentiment echoed by George McGhee, controller, programme acquisition at the
BBC. "We would not normally acquire
something just to get it made," reveals
McGhee, "unless we really believed in
it, and/or the talent involved. And," he
cautions, "one of the pitfalls of such an
acquisition from a buyer's perspective, is that you are told one thing
about the property, especially in regard to talent, and then it all changes,
leaving you with a very different property. As a result," says McGhee, "in
the rare instances where we do make
such an acquisition, we would general-
A
54
Sandra Carter, President, Sandra Carter
Global
ly use caveats requiring any changes
to 'key' elements, especially casting,
to be agreed with us."
The second situation in which the
possibility of a pre-sale might be envisaged is where there is a general perception that the property concerned
will be a huge hit. "The over arching
factor in this instance," says Carter,
"is who started the process. If the seller is utterly confident they have a wildly strong property," she goes on, "it is
possible that they will instigate the
process, typically by calling for sealed
bids. But," warns Carter, "this is a high
risk strategy. It is possible, especially if
one or more buyers decide not to
make a play, that the seller will end
with a low bid at which point, unless
they are themselves a major player,
they are in big trouble. If, however, a
buyer approaches the seller with a
Anita Barnard, Sales Manager for Asia
and CEE, 3DD
high offer conditional on immediate
acceptance without the property
being offered to others in the market,
that sets up another fine call."
3DD's Barnard agrees that, welcome though high offers are, "when
you are selling a hot show, it is very
important," she insists, "to be very
careful that you do not damage your
relationship with other broadcasters.
This," says Barnard, "is especially true
in Central and Eastern Europe where
new channels are being opened all the
time."
Sandra Carter concurs. "If you sell
what turns out to be a hit against
other broadcasters, without even letting them have a shot at getting it,
then clearly, they are not going to be
very pleased with you," she observes
dryly. But that is not the only potentially negative consideration that has to
be factored into any final decision.
"Additionally," explains Carter, "at the
time at which the offer is made you
have no way of knowing whether that
is, in fact, the best you could achieve
in that market, and, the only way in
which you can establish that is by offering the property to other broadcasters that will see the original offer
withdrawn, and it might be that this
was indeed the best and it will then no
longer be possible to resurrect it."
Underlining this dilemma, the
BBC's McGhee says, "every project is
different and the circumstances are
never the same. Sometimes a pre-buy
will be cheaper and have better terms
and sometimes it won’t."
Ultimately, Sandra Carter probably sums up the truth most succinctly.
"In the end," says Carter, "there is no
'right thing' or 'wrong thing' to do, it all
comes down to how strong you believe
your property to be, how much you
have been offered and how much you
enjoy playing poker."
}
event dossier
IBC 2007
By Sinisa Isakov
In early September Amsterdam in The Netherlands hosted yet another
edition of IBC. Between September 6th-11th, at the conference and the
technical exhibition, as well as at the accompanying events, almost
50,000 people passed through the Amsterdam RAI Centre.
lthough this was IBC's 40th anniversary, there was neither any
particular celebration nor retrospection to its past. Thanks to new technologies, the industry is spreading into
new fields, and IBC does its best to
maintain its importance as the related
annual event. There were a total of
1,360 exhibitors, an increase of 5%.
The number of visitors also increased
when compared to last year, and what
pleases the organisers most is the
fact that, after many years of stagnation, there was a significant increase
in visitors from Central and Eastern
Europe. Although their share in the
total number of visitors is still under
ten percent, there are indications that
broadcasting will develop more quickly
in the forthcoming period.
And what is the name of the industry today? Not long ago, IBC itself
abandoned its full title - the International Broadcasting Convention - and
replaced it with IBC. 'Electronic media'
is a term that was for some time quite
appropriate, as was the term 'multimedia'. Recently, there has been a
growing number of supporters of the
system 'media and entertainment'
promoted, among others, by IBM and
Microsoft. Currently it seems to be
the best description of the industry
which, in addition to one-way terrestrial broadcasting, also includes IPTV
and Mobile TV, together with the innovations that will follow the convergence with IT technology.
The twenty pavilions in the RAI
Centre were not enough to host all the
interested exhibitors. Therefore a separate pavilion was dedicated to IPTV
devices. The Mobile and IPTV Zones,
on the other hand, were located on
the premises of the former IBC
Restaurant. The success of these
A
56
zones heralded the era to come. Let it
be noted that IBC launched the zones
in order to promote future technologies which are partially available and,
to varying degrees, still in the development phase. At numerous microstands the producers were given the
opportunity to present prototype
devices, to meet end users and
exchange ideas and attitudes with
them and maybe to make agreements
regarding testing and trials. The
result was something half way between a conference and an exhibition,
something which has proved to be a
success.
IPTV technology is used by device
producers both small and large, but a
paradox is that interest in the IPTV
Zone is even greater. In fact, the interest has shifted from the technology
itself toward the development of a
business model, that is to say, towards the application of technology in
practice. Apart from broadcasters
and content creators, important partners also include cable operators and
the telecommunications industry. The
common topic of all discussion and
the IPTV business model development
process is the creation of the content
itself: How to create a sufficient quantity of top quality content, particularly
interactive content which is appropriate for IPTV distribution, is a challenge
shared by all of the parties involved.
IPTV technology is, to a large
extent available, both for SD and HD
video quality distribution, to the end
user over a broadband network.
Further development of compression
techniques will make the increase in
the number of channels within the
same cable possible, not to mention
the improvement of the video signal
quality. It is inevitable that HDTV will,
apart from satellite distribution, soon
find its place within IPTV distribution
as well, and that will happen even
before complex regulations are adopted to enable HDTV distribution via terrestrial broadcasting.
A similar scenario was seen with
the Mobile Zone. As many as three different technologies are available,
each of them having their advantages
and disadvantages, and all three are
mature and ready for application. In
recent years dozens of trials have
been performed, one even during IBC
2007 in Amsterdam, so there are no
technological uncertainties. However,
one large question has been posed:
How do mobile users actually consume video and TV content today? The
answer to that question should be of
great help in finding a perfect content
for Mobile TV. Together with the content creators, broadcasters also seek
the answer to this question, that they
might open their archives to Mobile
TV. Telecommunication operators and
receiver device manufacturers are
also standing by, ready to plunge into
Mobile TV.
CONFERENCE
The IBC Conference opened with
the "Broadcasting by Broadband"
theme day. Sessions included "Wired
and Wireless Technologies and IPTV",
"The Future of Broadband BroadDISCOP LINK • #11 • NOVEMBER 07
event dossier
casting", "Multimedia Delivery, Anytime, Anywhere", and in association
with the IEEE BTS, IPTV Tutorial: the
technology behind broadband broadcasting. Under "Digital Lifestyles"
theme day, the participants examined
"Implications of IPTV and Internet
Video for Marketing-Led Businesses"
and "Connecting Content with Consumers: What to Deliver". A full-day
tutorial in association with IET and
World DMB "Digital Delivery: the Essentials" covered IPTV and Mobile TV.
During Mobile and IPTV business
briefings participants observed "FixedMobile Convergent TV Services:
Unleash the Revenue Potential", "Pay
TV vs. Free-to-Air Mobile TV Business
Models" and "Fully Automated Reframing of Video for Mobile Viewing - a
Marketing Myth or a Product Reality?"
Recordings of all business briefing
sessions can be downloaded as mp3
files at www.ibcsessions.com.
The following topics drew great
attention: "Are you being YouTubed?",
"The rise of user-generated content
and its impact on TV professionals"
and "Copyright or right to copy? Are
present regulations dysfunctional?"
The IBC Innovation Awards celebrate both technology and its application.
The winner in the content creation
category and the recipient of the
Judge's Award, was CNN for its remarkable digital newsgathering project, first rolled out in the IsraeliHezbollah conflict in July 2006. CNN
reporters filed hundreds of live
reports, using portable IP transmission gear, from remote locations close
to the action, bringing viewers close to
the story as it unfolded.
"This is exactly the sort of project
that deserves recognition," said
Michael Lumley, chair of the judging
panel. "A major broadcaster had a
clear idea of what it wanted to achieve
HDTV
AWARDS
The IBC 2007 International
Honour for Excellence went to Steve
Wozniak, founder of Apple. A guru
behind hardware in the past and a
great evangelist for technology today,
he is also deeply involved in educating
the next generation of scientists and
engineers.
IBC also presented a unique anniversary award, marking its own 40th
birthday and the 50th year of the recipient: the BBC Natural History Unit.
The world's leading wildlife documentary maker, it has pushed manufacturers and their products to the limit and
beyond in order to be able to bring
remarkable scenes to our living
rooms.
"Throughout our 50 years of programme making, innovation in technology has been absolutely critical to
our success in bringing new perspectives and fresh insights to our audiences," said Neil Nightingale, head of
the Natural History Unit. "I am absolutely delighted that, with this
award, IBC has recognised our contribution to broadcasting the wonders of
nature."
58
Arena, Las Vegas, to an invited audience across town in the Mandalay Bay
Hotel.
The experiment was so successful
that it was repeated in June with a
game from the season's finals between the San Antonio Spurs and the
Cleveland Cavaliers, and beamed from
Texas to 14,000 fans in the Quicken
Loans Arena, Cleveland, watching on
four special screens.
This was the first time a live game
in professional sports was shown to
the public in 3D HD, and according to
Josh Linkner from the Cleveland Plain
Dealer it was, "Unbelievable - you feel
like you're there. It wasn't television,
and it certainly wasn't movie-like. It
really felt like we were sitting about 20
rows up from the corner of the court.
People around us were joking about
asking folks to sit "down in front" when
the actual arena fans stood up."
Neil NIGHTINGALE, Head of the BBC
Natural History Unit
and brought together a team of technical partners to make it happen."
Winner of the IBC Innovation
Award for content management was
RTL-TVi for its instant tapeless project, on which it worked with server
specialist EVS. The content delivery
prize went to UK news provider ITN for
NeMeSys, an application designed to
remove the chore of formatting stories for multiple delivery platforms by
automating the whole thing using
Telestream Flip Factory.
In addition to IBC Innovation
Award for Content Creation, CNN was
also highly commended by the judges
for a project that could not have been
more different: basketball in high definition 3D.
With the help of its main technical
partner Pace HD, the NBA produced
its All-Star Saturday night game in
February 2007 in 3D HD, relaying it
from the Thomas & Mack Centre
For HDTV production users have
available all required equipment, wireless slow-motion HD cameras included. HDTV distribution via satellite was
launched in Europe only a couple of
years ago, which was late when compared with other parts of the world,
but just in time to utilise the benefits of
the freshly developed production technology. Each equipment purchase,
just like each content production or
acquisition should already anticipate
HDTV as the eventual replacement for
SDTV. Also, broadcasters should already consider how to broadcast content created or purchased today as
HDTV content via IPTV or Mobile TV,
even in the countries where currently
only analogue SDTV is used. Rapid
changes in, and implementation of,
digital, IT, broadband (IPTV) and
mobile technology continue to surprise even those in the industry.
Exactly as in the old saying, things are
'going from strength to strength'. The
great success of the Internet and
mobile telephony in the nineties literally pushes telco operators and Internet
Service Providers to plunge into a new
adventure, this time with television.
Today, broadcasters and content creators have an historic opportunity to
combine their knowledge and professional skills, and of course their
archives, with the emerging multimedia, multi-platform business.
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