TV Formats MIPCOM 2011 Edition

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Feel-Good Formats Creative Partnerships Nigel Lythgoe FremantleMedia’s Gary Carter www.tvformats.ws

MIPCOM EDITION THE MAGAZINE FOR THE FORMAT BUSINESS

OCTOBER 2011

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Banijay International www.banijayinternational.com • Tempted • Celebrity Stand-Up • We’ll Always Be Mum & Dad • Love Games

This marks Banijay International’s fourth MIP market, and the company is heading in with a bigger team and wider catalogue than ever before. “A key goal is to meet with clients from new territories and new types of broadcasters, as well as to continue exploring innovative ways to form creative partnerships in order to grow our catalogue further,” says Karoline Spodsberg, the company’s managing director. Tempted is the company’s big format launch. “It’s one of the most exciting formats we’ve ever worked with,” she says. Celebrity Stand-Up meets the trend for shows about stand-up comedy but has a personal feel. We’ll Always Be Mum & Dad is a relationship-driven factual-entertainment format. “We’re really excited to represent this acquisition on behalf of Keshet; Israel is really exploding creatively right now and it’s great to get a partnership there,” says Spodsberg. Though Love Games is an older title in the Banijay catalogue, Spodsberg says, “There are many more places for this format and finished series to go.”

Tempted

“ We are always looking for shows that meet current programming appetites in terms of genre and tone but offer a new twist.

”

—Karoline Spodsberg

Mediaset Distribution www.mediasetdistribution.com • Follow Your Dreams • Beyond the Lake • Girlfriends • The Mall • Police District

After three years of activity in the scripted-formats business, Mediaset Distribution has managed to close deals for options and adaptations in 11 different markets, including the U.S. and France. “In a few years we have reached many markets with our scripted formats and are the first company in non-English speaking Europe to have closed deals for a U.S. adaptation (four options with three different companies),” notes Patricio Teubal, the head of sales.“We will work hard in order to maintain this trend.” Girlfriends, featuring contemporary women in their late 30s, has been optioned in the U.S., as have Antimafia Squad and Intelligence. Mediaset is also pitching the scripted family titles Follow Your Dreams and Beyond the Lake. Further highlights include The Mall, which has been adapted for Poland and Russia. Police District has also been adapted for Russia.

IN THIS ISSUE Girlfriends

Feelin’ Good Shows with a feel-good factor are winning over audiences 12 A Match Made in Heaven Distributors are using creative partnerships to secure new formats 24

“ Our company has proved to be not only a

Interviews Nigel Lythgoe FremantleMedia’s Gary Carter Armoza Formats’ Avi Armoza Global Agency’s Izzet Pinto

supplier of ready-made programs, but also a provider of successful and profitable stories and ideas for producers.

—Patricio Teubal

Case Study Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

”

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ohm:tv www.ohmtv.com • I Want to Have a Million Friends • The Impostor • Sell Me Your Style

Ricardo Seguin Guise

Publisher Anna Carugati

Editor Mansha Daswani

Executive Editor Kristin Brzoznowski

Managing Editor Marissa Graziadio

Editorial Assistant Simon Weaver

Online Director Craig Brown Michelle Villas

With I Want to Have a Million Friends, ohm:tv is offering a true cross-media format, with 24-hour online coverage, a daily half-hour TV show and a weekly live gala. “It’s a show that explores the concepts of traditional friendship versus virtual friendship,” says Joris Eckelkamp, ohm:tv’s CEO and co-founder. Eckelkamp also points to The Impostor, saying it’s “a great new idea and one that is easy to produce.” Sell Me Your Style is another easy-to-produce show, according to Eckelkamp. Contestants win money, then hit the streets and approach unsuspecting passersby to literally buy the clothes off their backs. The company is heading to MIPCOM looking to build out its already well-established network by forging new contacts, particularly in the cross-media sector. “With our overall approach to combine traditional TV with other platforms, we would like to continue to develop new cross-media ideas that we are bringing to Cannes,” Eckelkamp says.

The Impostor

“ These shows are innovative, fun and engaging, and will appeal to everyone.

”

—Joris Eckelkamp

Production & Design Directors Phyllis Q. Busell

Art Director Cesar Suero

Sales & Marketing Director Terry Acunzo

Business Affairs Manager Vanessa Brand

Sales & Marketing Assistant

Ricardo Seguin Guise

President Anna Carugati

Executive VP & Group Editorial Director Mansha Daswani

VP of Strategic Development TV Formats © 2011 WSN INC. 1123 Broadway, #1207 New York, NY 10010 Phone: (212) 924-7620 Fax: (212) 924-6940 Website:

www.tvformats.ws

Sparks Network www.sparksnetwork.com Phenomenon

• Speed Dancing • Hurricane • Wanted • Phenomenon • Bedtime Stories

With a global network of international production companies, Sparks Network has offerings that come from all corners of the globe. From its France-based partner, Elephant & Cie, comes Speed Dancing. The format shows hopeful singles using dance to get to know potential mates. Hurricane, about people wrongfully convicted of a crime, is from Amygdala of Italy.Trio Orange of Canada has brought to the Sparks catalogue Wanted, a dating show that uses police sketches to match ideal partners, and Bedtime Stories, featuring famous singers and their children. Along with its member companies, Sparks has a growing base of producers worldwide that it represents through third-party distribution, notes Fredrik af Malmborg, the managing director. Among them is Kuul Productions of Slovakia, which has brought to the Sparks slate the studio game show Phenomenon.

“ A production company that is not developmentfocused is stagnating.

”

—Fredrik af Malmborg

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TVN www.distribution.tvn.pl • • • • •

Diamond Deal Recipe for Life Marked Crime Detectives Face to Face

The long-running series Crime Detectives, which has eight seasons produced, is being offered by TVN for local production. In each installment of the detective series a new criminal case is presented that draws upon the common fears of modern-day urban life: insecurity, indifference surrounding victims, and the impunity of the offenders. “TVN’s offer during this year’s MIPCOM not only does include our trusted formats such as Crime Detectives, but also the second season of our tasty drama series Recipe for Life and a brand-new crime series with a touch of humor, Diamond Deal,” notes Renata Mecina, the head of acquisitions. Recipe for Life tells the story of a woman who is trying to balance her dreams, passions and freedoms. Diamond Deal is a comedic drama that also has a detective spin. TVN is also offering format rights for Marked, a mystery series; Face to Face, a crime drama; and Magda M., a modern drama.

“ [TVN has] a growing library of scripted formats covering all genres of the entertainment spectrum, with the focus on modern drama, crime and mystery TV series.

Recipe for Life

”

—Renata Mecina

Twentieth Century Fox Television Distribution www.foxfast.com • • • • •

Modern Family How I Met Your Mother Bones Prison Break Marchlands

The comedies Modern Family and How I Met Your Mother have been hits in the U.S., and through Twentieth Century Fox Television Distribution the shows can be given an international treatment for local markets. The company also offers the crime drama Bones, which airs in the U.S. on FOX, for global treatment. The drama serial Prison Break aired on FOX for four seasons, ending its run in 2009. International broadcasters can now pick up the show for their own adaptation. The supernatural drama Marchlands is available as a format after having aired with just one season.

“At Twentieth Century Fox, our goal is to bring the storytelling and creative powerhouse that is Twentieth Century Fox Television to our clients and provide them the opportunity to produce exciting local hit series for their audiences,” says Marion Edwards, the president of international television.

Bones

“

Our goal is to bring the storytelling and creative powerhouse that is Twentieth Century Fox Television to our clients and provide them the opportunity to produce exciting local hit series for their audiences.

”

—Marion Edwards

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’ n i l Fee

d o o G

ood factor es g le fe a h it w Shows over audienc g in n in w n e e have b casters with d a o r b g in id v and pro ographic m e d e id w , s g big ratin nsorship o p s in til u b reach and . By Kristin Brzoznowski opportunities It’s a tough world out there. Between the doom and gloom of the economy, high worldwide unemployment rates and the current state of the housing market, many people are left looking for a pick-me-up. It’s no wonder, then, that consumers are flocking to their TV sets for feel-good shows that can whisk them away to a happy place.

“Viewers like to see uplifting stories where people who deserve a break get what they need,” says Trish Kinane, the acting president of worldwide entertainment at FremantleMedia. “That can be cash, romance, or the support of their family and friends.”

FremantleMedia has seen demand for shows with a feel-good factor, says Kinane. Welcome Home, for instance, is a family-oriented format about community, friendship and giving back to the ones we love. “It’s filled with all the emotion of life’s good deeds, as those in need of a special treat leave for a weekend away, while their willing band of friends work tirelessly to reinvigorate their homes for them,” explains Kinane. “What is particularly moving are the reactions of the families as they come back to their surprise welcome-home party, and see what their loved ones have done for them.”

Kinane also says viewers like to see people working passionately to make the world a better place—whether by volunteering, as is the case in Do the Right Thing, or through education and access to opportunities, as in Dream School.

Televisa’s Singing for a Dream.

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of hope and future success makes this a touching program.”

BBC Worldwide’s Tonight’s the Night, meanwhile, surprises deserving members of the public with a one-night-only opportunity to perform in front of millions of viewers. “It’s truly a format that can make you laugh and cry at the same time,” says Thomas.

The performance angle ups the entertainment factor, and adding in competition elements provides another exciting twist. Such is the case with Televisa Internacional’s Dancing for a Dream, Singing for a Dream and Dancing for the Wedding of My Dreams.

THE WINNER’S CIRCLE

Going hog wild: Try Sleeping in My Bed, sold by Banijay, has recently been renewed for a second season on TV2 in Denmark.

In the U.K., Dream School was the highest-rated program of the day when it launched on Channel 4, with 2.9 million viewers tuning in to watch Jamie Oliver help students who have failed in the traditional school system.

“The main purpose of these shows is to win a competition in order to obtain the prize: change the life of a loved one through very specific help—health issues resolved, financial crisis support, special medical therapies for people in need,” says José Luis Romero, the director of formats and new content at Televisa.

“They help people who don’t have the chance to solve their many problems by themselves.”

SevenOne International’s You Deserve It, born from the partnership between Red Arrow Entertainment Group and Dick de Rijk, also plays off the emotional elements a competition brings.

The hybrid format—part reality series, part game show—sees individuals playing on behalf of someone else who could use the extra help.

Jens Richter, the managing director of SevenOne, says the show engages viewers by presenting a strong back story at

STARGAZING

Banijay International’s Star Save Our School also sees celebrities giving back. Launching at MIPCOM, the format features a star joining his or her former classmates to restore their school to a place where the current students feel safe, enthusiastic and ready to learn.

“There is a sense of joy that comes from seeing children rediscovering their pride in their school, and it is touching to see how happy they are to receive things that should be basic for any schoolkid, such as well-maintained buildings, furnishings and facilities, a range of modern, functional sporting and audiovisual equipment,” says Karoline Spodsberg, the managing director at Banijay International.“It’s also always heart-warming to see stars using their celebrity status to do good in the world and to give back to the community they came from.”

Also launching at MIPCOM, BBC Worldwide’s Home Is Where the Heart Is offers disadvantaged people the chance to be mentored by a well-known personality. Elin Thomas, the VP of format licensing for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at BBC Worldwide, says, “This format is full of touching moments, as celebrities realize the hardship some people have to face, while the [person being mentored] is offered life-changing opportunities.” She adds, “The contrasting lifestyles, personal kindness and the lingering sense 414

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Looking for love: FremantleMedia’s The Farmer Wants a Wife has been a hit in more than 20 countries, including Australia.

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ITV-owned 12 Yard Productions. “There are heroes all over society doing their little bit to help, and Holding Out for a Hero reflects this. The show is fresh, relevant and combines the best moments of tense quiz shows with the excitement of big entertainment formats, combined with moments of stunning generosity and heart-warming emotion.”

TRUE TRANSFORMERS

Primed for success: ohm:tv’s lifestyle format The Baroness Takes Over has been on the air for three seasons in Denmark on SBS’s Kanal 4.

the top of the program. “My engagement as a viewer is much higher from the beginning,” he notes. “I’m not only watching the show because the game play is catchy and smart, but also because at the beginning of each episode there is a link built up between the viewer and the person the contestant is playing for, and therefore there’s a link between me the viewer and the contestant who actually plays.”

Adding to the format’s allure is the element of surprise.The worthy recipient doesn’t know until the end that they are even part of a game show or that someone has been playing for their benefit. Richter says this keeps viewers glued till the end, since they want to stick around for the finale.

The emotional end to Holding Out for a Hero, a new format from 12 Yard Productions that ITV Studios Global Entertainment is launching at MIPCOM, also sees a winner handing over a life-changing amount of money. “Holding Out for a Hero is a fresh twist on the quiz-show format and in many ways reflects what we are seeing in societies around the world,” says Andy Culpin, the managing director of the 416

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The idea of winning a large sum of money that changes your life is something nearly all viewers have fantasized about. And there are other types of transformations that audiences are touched to witness as well.

ALL3MEDIA International has shows that focus on personal changes, with Too Fat to Fight, Expat Seeks Love and The Fairy Jobmother, as well as makeovers for an entire community, as seen in Desperate Neighbours, The Village, Wa$ted and Village on a Diet.

“There’s a lot of takeaway for the viewer,” says Stephanie Hartog, the executive VP of formats at ALL3MEDIA. “If you look at something like 8 Weeks to Happiness or Desperate Neighbours, there’s potential for you to learn [lessons] that you can take away and apply to your own life. Same as in The Fairy Jobmother—there’s a lot of that.”

Witnessing someone else’s personal transformations can provide great practical tips that viewers themselves can use, especially when it comes to getting financial advice in these cash-strapped times. For example, ohm:tv’s The Poorhouse watches a group of people who’ve lost their jobs, had their credit cards cancelled by their bank or their houses sold in forced auctions. Through coaching, education, training, makeovers and lifestyle changes, the families are given new opportunities to develop their potential.

Another ohm:tv show is The Baroness Takes Over. “If a mother can’t cope with everyday life and the family situation anymore and needs some recovery time, then the Baroness takes over and the mother moves into the Baroness’s castle for a well-deserved and luxurious break away from the family,” explains Joris Eckelkamp, the CEO and a co-founder of ohm:tv. “With a very positive mindset, the Baroness then redecorates the house and improves the family’s sense of togetherness and well-being and sets the family back on track. The feel-good element involves the Baroness offering help and making a real difference in peoples’ ordinary lives by giving them a taste of luxury, downtime and counseling.”

The human stories behind these transformations give the shows a personal feel. Armoza Formats has tapped into the power of human storytelling with its feel-good title The Package. “In a way, it’s a format that created a formula for human storytelling,” says Avi Armoza, the CEO of Armoza Formats.

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Help wanted: The ALL3MEDIA format The Fairy Jobmother helps the unemployed get back on track.

son there is a story that’s worthwhile telling. You can look back two years, or go back 30 years, and something happened that you want to tell the story of. The Package created a formula for that.”

UNIVERSAL TRUTHS

Armoza explains that there’s much flexibility in the format, giving each territory the ability to do its necessary adaptation.

“In some territories, like Israel, Finland and Poland, it worked very well just as documentary storytelling. In the Netherlands they were able to combine a host. In Greece, their culture is based on big studio-based shows, so they were able to bring The Package into the studio.”

ALL3MEDIA’s Hartog, too, has found that the feel-good genre travels easily, though some tweaks are needed to satisfy the emotional tone of various cultures.

“If you look at Undercover Boss in the U.S., it’s got this big finale, with a presentation to the workers where the boss talks to them all about [the experience] and shows highlights,” Hartog says. “We don’t have that in the U.K. show at all, which is the original version. It doesn’t feel right for the U.K. audience, which is naturally much more cynical anyway. It’s a much smaller way of dealing with it, and is much more personal.” She adds, “Those sort of things are market-led, and we have to be very respectful of the cultures we’re working with and their needs and requirements.”

Hartog has also recognized the added value for broadcasters that feel-good shows bring, as viewers form a positive association between the network and the contributions being made in the series.

Televisa’s Romero echoes that sentiment. “The broadcaster gets a good perception from the audience,” he says. “Being involved in a good-will project is always a great way for the broadcasters to say, We care about our audiences. The audience recognizes when the broadcasters care about helping, making them sensitive about different issues that need to be solved.”

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Another benefit for broadcasters, Romero points out, is that they can attract several audience targets with these shows. While some feel-good programs skew slightly female, most are aimed at providing a co-viewing experience the whole family can enjoy.

FremantleMedia’s Kinane also acknowledges the broad demographic appeal, as well as the big ratings these series can draw. “The Farmer Wants a Wife in particular [garners] huge ratings,” says Kinane. “In many cases it’s the number one show on the channel and sometimes in the whole country. For instance, the latest series in the Netherlands broke new audience records on Ned 1, and it’s the highest-rated entertainment show in the country since 1995! The show is also breaking records in France—its current season is the most watched to date and the highest-rated entertainment program for broadcaster M6. It’s also hugely popular in Germany, where it’s one of the top entertainment shows for RTL, and it’s a similar story elsewhere.”

Banijay’s Spodsberg is also quick to point out the ratings success of feel-good shows as a definite pull for broadcasters.“Audiences obviously feel powerfully drawn to positive messages that reinforce values they may feel are lacking in some other kinds of programming,” she adds.“Very often there are also easy sponsorship tie-ins for these formats as well, which, as we all know, is a real bonus for commercial broadcasters in this climate.”

A BOO$T FOR BROADCASTERS

The use of giveaways and makeovers common to these shows offers many promotional opportunities. “Star Save Our School could be easily tied in with a building and/or decorating materials supplier,” says Spodsberg.“My Big Fat Parents could be sponsored by a gym chain, sports-gear manufacturer or diet-food brand; Honestly, Mum and Dad requires audio-visual equipment, so that is an immediately relevant sponsorship opportunity. I really think the possibilities are endless and that this genre presents a fantastic opportunity for commercial broadcasters.”

Spodsberg says Banijay pitches these sorts of formats as prime-time shows, but a plus point is that they can easily be adapted to fit an access prime-time or weekend night slot, too.

Likewise, while most of these formats have been developed to air as weekly stand-alone episodes, there is potential to create serialized shows that could be stripped. Budget-wise, they can be produced for daytime as well, Spodsberg says.

ALL3MEDIA’s Hartog says that most of these programs are dealing with such important issues that broadcasters want to put them in prime time to have the biggest possible reach.

“The prime-time slot and positive skew to these shows certainly make them very appealing to possible sponsors and advertisers,” says BBC Worldwide’s Thomas.

Given the potential for added revenue from sponsors and advertisers, along with the good-will association these shows can bring, broadcasters around the globe are certain to continue giving coveted prime-time slots to feel-good programs.

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A Match

Made in Heaven Format distributors large and small are looking at creative pacts as a smart, flexible way to develop ideas that will travel. By Mansha Daswani

In the elusive quest for the next big global hit, format distributors are using a variety of methods to secure access to the best new ideas out there. For the last few years, consolidation seemed to be the go-to route, with the likes of Endemol, FremantleMedia, Banijay Group, Zodiak Media Group and ALL3MEDIA, among others, snapping up production houses—and their libraries— worldwide. For smaller boutique distributors, meanwhile, there have been plenty of committed independents to sign piecemeal third-party representation deals with.

In between those two extremes are a variety of partnerships that can involve equity, joint development, first-look pacts or output deals—or a hybrid of some or all of the above.

“Intellectual property is the fuel of all of our growth and therefore of our ambition,” says Gary Carter, the COO of FremantleMedia, which owns a broad network of production companies worldwide. “Creative allegiances with third parties are very much part of that strategy, so we are always looking to form relationships that would generate intellectual property for both sides’ benefit.”

AN EXCHANGE OF IDEAS

“There is a gap if you continuously just develop for your own local needs and what your direct broadcaster clients immediately need,” notes Michael Schmidt, the group director of creative operations and business development at Red Arrow Entertainment Group on the need to sometimes look outside of your own network. “You do seem to have a harder time [finding] the big shots that travel the world instantly.”

FremantleMedia is no stranger to spotting and developing concepts that will translate well to multiple territories. Historically, the company’s library has been generated largely from

Sparks’s Brides on a Bus.

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The key, says Carter, was developing a new working relationship with Fuji that would go beyond a distribution alliance and leverage each of the companies’ strengths. “It’s a true exchange of creative talent,” Carter says of the pact.

In the first year of the relationship, a producer at Fuji, So Fujinuma, spent three months within FremantleMedia’s various global production offices, primarily in the Los Angeles base. “We then sent three different producers—one from Holland, one from Australia and one from Los Angeles—to Tokyo at different stages last year and they all worked on different programs,” Carter says.

The first title to emerge from the collaboration was Total Blackout, which was launched at MIPCOM 2010 with presales in three countries already secured. “It went to air with spectacular ratings and has since been among our mosttraveled shows, launching in seven markets in the first half of this year alone,” Carter says. “So far it has been in Denmark, Belgium, Norway, the Netherlands, Sweden, Ukraine and Indonesia, it’s aired in Japan, and there are a significant number of upcoming launches on the way.”

Emboldened by that format’s rapid rollout, FremantleMedia is introducing at MIPCOM the Fuji TV format Body Bowling.

Meanwhile, another set of producers is set to take part in the creative exchange. One of Fuji’s producers spent time at talkbackTHAMES’s comedy-entertainment department this year, while someone from that team will soon be heading off to Tokyo.

TARGETING TALENT

Feeling the heat: Zodiak complements its portfolio of productions from its own companies, such as Restaurant Race, by partnering with thirdparty producers.

Europe and North America, but among its most recent hits is a format that originated as a segment on a variety show in Japan.

“On the Internet we spotted a little fragment of people jumping through a wall and we tracked it back to [the Japanese broadcaster] Fuji Television Network and we redeveloped it as a single program that went on to become one of the world’s fastesttraveling formats,” Carter says.“Hole in the Wall has now been sold to more than 40 countries.” The show, Carter notes, “proved that it was possible to have a great deal of format success in the Asian region and then use that success as a springboard for Europe.”

On the heels of that experience, Carter says that FremantleMedia “believed that the time was right for more Japanese shows [to be available in the international marketplace] and that we could bring them to the world. I think our partners at Fuji also realized the enormous potential and indeed commercial benefits in transforming Japanese content into entertainment that appeals to the international market.”

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A newer entrant to the format business, Red Arrow Entertainment Group—formed by ProSiebenSat.1 Media in 2010— has spent the last two years building a portfolio of wholly owned and joint-venture production outfits, while also lining up a string of deals with well-known producers in various strategic markets.

The willingness to team up with top-level talent is part of the DNA of the company, says Schmidt, noting that the alliance with the Dutch creator Dick de Rijk was in the works even as Red Arrow was in its infancy. At the time, the creator of Deal or No Deal had just ended his relationship with Endemol. The partnership with him would serve as a “cornerstone for the strategic development” of Red Arrow, Schmidt says.

“There are not that many creators in the world who can say they created a worldwide hit that still is contributing to Endemol. That spoke for itself, quite frankly. Dick is very creative; he has a very high output. [The deal with him] is about identifying the ideas that can work for the global market, [while] also helping us as a group to grow and further the capabilities of our producers.”

Red Arrow and its distribution arm, SevenOne International, have already seen the benefits of the pact with de Rijk; his creation You Deserve It has clinched deals in several major territories, including the U.S. with ABC and Spain with Antena 3. Five other de Rijk concepts are in active development, Schmidt says, and three are in the presales phase.

Another key creative partnership for Red Arrow is with Omri Marcus, a well-known writer and producer in Israel.

“With Dick we focus on broad properties, things that can travel far quickly,” Schmidt says. “With Omri we focus on the more edgy ideas that fit to what the cable space needs, that are interesting for the U.K. market, and also the scripted reality shows that dominate German daytime programming.”

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ers, Shingleton explains, “While we don’t necessarily co-develop formats, we certainly provide input to producers who want to ensure their show will make an impact on the international market. This may be as simple as helping to refine a development slate to make it more distributable to a more detailed discussion around the development of specific elements within a format which will add value to that show’s IP. This type of input can provide a valuable additional perspective in a development process that may otherwise be dominated by a single broadcaster.”

SPARK OF CREATIVITY

Rest stop: Global Agency is working with Miditech to convince broadcasters to film The Big Challenge format in India.

While those relationships exist on what Schmidt calls “the holding level” at Red Arrow, there are other partnerships that have been entered into by the company’s individual production outlets. Its German production company Red Seven, for example, has a co-development pact with the American producer Phil Gurin. “They collaborate on creating ideas and they also look for ideas that work in both of their markets. If you have two producers crazy about an idea in two markets, [it may be easier to] roll it out strategically into other territories” than if it were targeted to just one market, Schmidt says.

Also in the U.S., Red Arrow has signed a first-look deal with the Los Angeles-based Genetic Entertainment, set up by Lincoln Hiatt, David Wyler and Curt Northrup. “When we pick [a title up] for our territories, we create sales materials and together with them go out and [pitch the concept to] our broadcasters.”

These relationships complement the third-party distribution deals that SevenOne International has been doing for years now, scoring the rights to formats like Benidorm Bastards, which is slated for a U.S. debut on NBC this year.

Unlike many of its major competitors, Sparks Network has decided to stay out of the consolidation frenzy, sticking to its original mission of developing a formal network of top independent production companies worldwide. For Fredrik af Malmborg, the managing director of the company, Sparks Network offers producers similar kinds of benefits they would gain from being part of a larger conglomerate.

“Instead of developing for broadcasters in your territory, you are developing for the world,” says af Malmborg. “You’re also getting access to all the other development companies in the network.” Sparks members, af Malmborg says, benefit from access to the group catalogue as well as joint development initiatives, while still being able to remain independent.

Sparks’s distribution operation has a first-look deal for the output of member companies, and also represents third-party product, including the Wedding TV catalogue. “We will work hard to get [a format] sold to anyone in the countries” that are part of the Sparks network, af Malmborg says. “The big [format] companies, they’ll pick something up and they sit on it. They have no interest in selling it to someone other than their own entities.”

Recently, Asia has been a key growth area for Sparks, particularly since the creation of its Hong Kong office at the end of

SPOTTING A HIT

Like SevenOne International, Zodiak Rights, the distribution arm of Zodiak Media Group, has a long history of aligning itself with production houses not owned by its parent company.

“The reality of our distribution-and-production business means we constantly have to look outside the Zodiak Media Group for new formats,” says Barnaby Shingleton, the head of entertainment. “Unfortunately, we don’t yet have a monopoly on great ideas!”

The company is currently looking into tie-ups with third-party entities “outside the traditional format-export markets,” Shingleton says.“We are particularly interested in exploring opportunities in Asia. It feels [as if] there is untapped potential in a number of territories in the Far East, not least because producers and broadcasters there are open to different types of relationships.”

Describing the alliances Zodiak Rights has with external producers as well as broadcast428

Hole in one: FremantleMedia began its collaboration with Fuji with Hole in the Wall, which has rolled out in 40 markets.

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The issue of the onscreen presentation is quite different than in the West—there’s lots of text on the screen, lots of exclamation marks, animation.There’s also a sense in which certain Japanese entertainment can be quite extreme in cases, going to the edge of how people squirm in quite uncomfortable positions.While this can work very well for Japanese viewers, it perhaps does not translate as well to other cultures. So the challenge becomes about holding true to the inherent concept— capturing the humor, the fun, the energy and entertainment in Japanese programming—but refining the flavor of the content for global audiences.The other thing is, a lot of Japanese programs are very long and we Westerners can get very lost in the structure. From our point of view, the programs are often bouquets of smaller programs, as we would see them, so they may need to be tightened and more clearly formatted for the international market.”

The success of the relationship with Fuji rests on three points for Carter, beginning with the constant presence of a translator. “Additionally, there has to be a sense of mutual creative or professional respect between the individuals involved.The third thing is that one has to be very precise about what you’re looking for, what the parameters are.We want a clear format.We want one that is repeatable, transferable and scalable.”

At Zodiak, Shingleton believes that developing successful cross-border creative partnerships boils down to “reconciling objectives; both parties have to pull in the same direction even if they have different pressures placed upon them in the short term.

Balancing the needs of a local audience versus the desire to produce an international hit can be particularly challenging, and that’s as true of partnerships with producers in your own territory as it is with producers on the other side of the world. But a good distributor should be able to distill the international value from local hits.”

Senior moment: Betty White’s Off Their Rockers for NBC is adapted from the SevenOne format Benidorm Bastards.

last year. Another distributor that has looked to the Asia Pacific for expansion opportunities is Turkey’s Global Agency, which last year entered into an alliance with India’s Miditech. “I’m representing their formats, they are representing mine,” says Izzet Pinto, the CEO of Global Agency, on the nature of the relationship, which began with Miditech adapting Perfect Bride for the Indian market. For Pinto, the relationship is not just about having his own formats produced by Miditech for Indian broadcasters. He believes that the Indian production company can produce Global Agency’s own travel reality format The Big Challenge for channels worldwide. “Sending contestants to India for a reality show would be very colorful,” Pinto says.“India is a great place for production—the crews are so creative, and at the same time, the budgets are low compared with Europe or America.”

LOST IN TRANSLATION

Whether co-producing, co-developing or just working with third-party producers to sell their titles, distributors often have to overcome cultural differences in order to make these relationships work. FremantleMedia’s Carter points to the differences in tone and style between content from Japan and what comes out of Europe or the U.S.“Typically, in Japan, they work a lot with semiprofessional reality performers and they’re very celebrity-driven.

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PERFECT PARTNERS

In a market where competition for ideas is intense, distributors are keen to showcase their sales abilities to potential production partners. “We are in the format-and-production business as a broadcasting group,” says Schmidt. “We have a certain reputation having been, especially in Germany, people who picked ideas up early off paper, even from American producers. That’s the spirit we want to continue with: we respect the idea, we respect the creativity.We are not trying to hide what we acquire in a drawer; we put it out there. We do not necessarily buy as much as others. We focus on things we believe in and we can put on a pedestal. It’s helpful that we have a broadcasting group that’s backing us—you can make clever and intelligent deals across all genres, not only in the format space, but in the end it’s that we have a very good distribution engine where things don’t fall through the cracks, and that’s something that creators respect.”

Schmidt says that Red Arrow is particularly keen to develop more relationships in the U.S., the U.K. and Scandinavia. From a content-acquisition perspective, however, “I don’t care if [a creator] comes from Hungary or from the U.K. or from Mexico.You need to have an understanding of the international format market, you need to have some credibility and a track record.”

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Nigel Lythgoe has been a pioneer of the modern talent-competition show. Starting with Popstars and Pop Idol in the U.K. and then American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance, whether as a judge or an executive producer, Lythgoe has shaped the genre. He began his career as a dancer, a discipline so dear to his heart that he is actively involved in promoting and supporting dance.

By Anna Carugati

TV FORMATS: American Idol will go into its 11th season next year. What has contributed to its success and longevity?

LYTHGOE: I think it’s the very strong talent that is here in America. It’s the fact that we’ve grabbed an audience that loves to feel that they are a part of giving somebody the break of their life and turning them into a star. Obviously, Simon Cowell was a major part of it when we originated the show and the new judges now have energized it in the tenth season.

Nigel Lythgoe

TV FORMATS: When you knew

Simon was leaving, how did you maintain the core features of the show and come out with a very strong show?

LYTHGOE: It needed reenergizing; it had been around nine seasons. So we wanted to change things around. We had wanted to do that for a long time, but of course while anything is successful nobody wants you to touch it! So this gave us an opportunity to relook at the middle rounds of the competition; it also gave us the opportunity to sweeten the show up. If we had found another baddy like Simon it would have only been a pale imitation of Simon, so what we ended up with was two artistic judges [ Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler] that could see the contestants from a different angle and who were much warmer and much kinder.

TV FORMATS: So You Think You Can Dance is also very successful, and it has won much critical acclaim. What are the secrets to that show’s success?

LYTHGOE: It is about the art of dancing. People have come to realize just how wonderful dance is and how it has progressed over the years. It has a new integrity to it, it’s athletic, and I think people are actually loving the fact that choreographers are creating these wonderful numbers as well. So it comes from different angles. It comes from obviously a judging angle. It comes from the young dancers attempting stuff that is not in their genre, and succeeding most of the time, and it comes from the artistic choreographer.

jumping up and down for weeks, saying, “Hey, I did three pirouettes!” Now they can do 10, 11, 12 pirouettes and not think anything about it. Dance has grown technically. Boys are much more relaxed now going into dance. Fathers now accept the fact that boys are going to dance and realize that it’s tougher than being a quarterback in football here in America. Physically it is so much more demanding than it was in my day. My idea of a warm-up was to sit on a radiator with a hot cup of chocolate and a cigarette.

TV FORMATS: And a cigarette, I love that! I actually danced

in my early years, too, and I remember the saying “Not all athletes are dancers, but all dancers are athletes.” But nowadays that has been taken to the nth degree, hasn’t it?

LYTHGOE: Hasn’t it? So did you used to do a morning class to warm up or did you used to sit on the radiator with a cigarette, too?

TV FORMATS: I did a lot of sitting on the radiator, too, but leg warmers were great—they could do the warming up for you!

LYTHGOE: Yeah, leg warmers were great!

TV FORMATS: How have live talent-competition shows

TV FORMATS: Early in your career you choreographed for

Shirley Bassey and Gene Kelly. I certainly agree that dance has become more athletic. How else do you think dance has evolved over the years?

LYTHGOE: It’s evolved so much I would hate to be a dancer now!

It’s just become so much more technical. I was a dancer when I first started in the business and if I did three pirouettes I’d be 434

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evolved in the last ten years? What has the audience come to expect from these shows?

LYTHGOE: They’ve come to expect the very best talent and the very worthiest talent.They still enjoy those auditions that show the deluded contestants that come along and have been told all their life that they are a good singer and they are absolutely tone deaf! The audience enjoys that in the first part 10/11

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of fun; even if one or two of them start dancing through that, then it’s all been worthwhile. But the idea is to use the initiative to raise money for different charities. As well as that I’ve started the Dizzy Feet Foundation with [director] Adam Shankman, Carrie Ann Inaba from Dancing with the Stars and Katie Holmes. That is to try to give young, very talented students scholarships so they can remain in school and continue their work. We call up Juilliard, Alvin Ailey, the American Ballet Theatre and other schools in ballroom and tap dancing and ask what students they have who need a scholarship, who need money to continue, and we’ll supply that money.

TV FORMATS: That must make you

feel very good.

LYTHGOE: It does make us feel very Dance fever: So You Think You Can Dance, created by Lythgoe and Simon Fuller, recently wrapped season eight on FOX in the U.S., while the format has been adapted in a number of territories worldwide.

of the competition, but at the end of the day, they just want really great talent. It’s a bit like horse racing: you bet on your favorite and you continually vote for that person; you are invested in them and you are invested in how they develop across the series. It’s also just the same as following a soap opera, or following a drama. The characters on dramas have been written by somebody, while the characters on reality television are real—that’s the only difference, but it’s just as appealing. People ask me all the time, “Will reality television remain?” Absolutely, it’s part of our television diet.

proud. We gave something like 200 pairs of tap shoes to a school down in New Orleans, which was really important as well. I remember as a little kid doing English country dancing and it just allowed me to hold the girl’s hand and dance around with her and know how to treat her and not punch her! It just gives you social skills, it gives you confidence, it improves your rhythm, which we all need in our lives, and whether you go on to be a dancer or not, that doesn’t really matter to me, the fact that you’ve accepted dance into your life does.

TV FORMATS: Later this year you will be receiving the

TV FORMATS: And there is an emotional investment that is

made between the viewers and their favorite contestants.

LYTHGOE: It really is an acutely emotional investment. And when the judge is tough or harsh on that person, goodness me, viewers weigh in on those judges. If you read Facebook or Twitter or websites, you see they are very, very heavily invested.

TV FORMATS: As a viewer, I feel the pain of that contestant when he hears that harsh judgment.

LYTHGOE: Yes, and it’s also that we would all like to be in a position to be given an opportunity, because there are a lot of talented people out there; many of them are never given the opportunity to better themselves. And I think we as an audience see the opportunity that’s being given and we can associate it with our own lives. If I had been given the chance I would have done it. Mind you, I would have never gone on So You Think You Can Dance because I would have never thought I could dance with these kids.

International Emmy Founders Award. What does this acknowledgement mean to you?

LYTHGOE: It means a great deal. I would very much like an Emmy for either American Idol or So You Think You Can Dance, too! I’ve received the Primetime Emmy Governors Award for Idol Gives Back, and I will receive the Founders Award in November. I’m delighted. With the Founders Award they’ve recognized not just my work in television, but also the charities I’m involved in and being the chairman of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) here in Los Angeles.

TV FORMATS: There certainly is a ton of British talent on American television these days. It’s like the Brits want to recolonize!

LYTHGOE: We’re playing the long game! They thought they had won back in 1776, but no, we thought we would come back a couple hundred years later and start to take over!

TV FORMATS: What can you tell us about season 11 of

American Idol?

TV FORMATS: No, I think you would have done fine.Tell me

LYTHGOE: We are not making any huge changes that we’ve

about your dedication to keeping dance and the arts in general at the forefront of the public’s attention.

LYTHGOE: I started National Dance Day, that got picked up

by Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton. She put it through the House of Representatives and now every last Saturday in July we are going to have a National Dance Day in America. Hopefully that will just get people up having a bit

thought about at the moment.We are continually talking about what we can do, what we can improve and what new ideas we can bring. Last year we did away with all those middle rounds. We did a shoot in an aircraft hanger. We did a shoot at Cirque du Soleil’s The Beatles LOVE in Las Vegas, and we will need to replace those this year.We are being very creative every time we sit down and talk with the entire team.

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By Mansha Daswani

While perhaps best known for its mammoth entertainment brands, FremantleMedia is the biggest producer of daily drama in Europe—an expertise that the company is keen to export into other regions. With long-running hits like Gute Zeiten, schlechte Zeiten, which has been on the air on RTL in Germany since 1992, under its belt, FremantleMedia continues to develop its scripted-drama business, most recently announcing a commission for the daily series The Clan to launch on RTL Croatia this fall. Meanwhile, FremantleMedia’s powerhouse entertainment brands—Idols, Got Talent and The X Factor—remain among the world’s top-rated shows. One of the company’s newest hits is Total Blackout, created as part of an alliance with the Japanese broadcaster Fuji Television. Securing top-notch intellectual property from across the globe is at the heart of FremantleMedia’s strategy, its COO, Gary Carter, tells TV Formats. With oversight for the creative networks division—combining the worldwide drama and entertainment departments—as well as serving as chief creative officer of FMX, the digital-content arm, Carter is working to ensure that FremantleMedia builds quality brands across multiple platforms.

FremantleMedia’s

Gary Carter

TV FORMATS: What led to the recent restructure of your European and Asian operations, and what are the opportunities for growth in these regions?

CARTER: We’ve restructured in order to redirect our focus in regional Europe and Asia Pacific. The growth has been considerable, and our new structure will better enable us to continue developing our business in these regions. The Asian countries are now being managed by our former Australian managing director [Ian Hogg]; he spent a good decade working in television from India to Singapore, and he is now our Asia Pacific CEO. The opportunity for us is a mixture of our own productions [in countries] where we have companies, like in Indonesia, and licensed formats. In particular we see a lot of opportunity for our Enterprises division.The growth in production driven by brand relationships—advertiser-funded programming or sponsorship of various forms—is very big.

We’ve already started to explore that in recent years. Thailand’s Got Talent was fully funded by brands and we supervised the production. Their brands were very integrated and the show was very successful for the local broadcaster.

[We’re making a] big strategic push into India [where] we’ve had a presence in various guises over the last 15 years.

We’re producing The X Factor and India’s Got Talent, and Idols has also aired in the country.

We believe that scripted [drama] is a big way forward in the Asian region. Most people don’t know this about FremantleMedia, but a significant part of our business is in scripted in Europe.We’re the largest producer of daily dramas across the European continent. We have that expertise. [In Asia] we’ve been pushing what we call soft scripted, the kind of scripted reality shows that have been so big in Germany.

Europe, with the exception of Germany and a few territories like Switzerland and Hungary, reports to me. Our European businesses are very mature, most of them, and very stable, but we have two big important focuses from a strategic point of view. The first is Spain and the second is Italy, where we’re big in drama but we need to move further into entertainment. France is a key European business for FremantleMedia, and one with a considerable amount of corporate focus. The French business has grown enormously over the last couple of years. We have working relationships, not just with M6 but with TF1 and with other broadcasters.

Shows like The Farmer Wants a Wife and the French version of Idols have been very successful for us. We have The Price Is Right on air. The French operation, led by Monica Galer, is an important company for FremantleMedia. We are proud of its performance in recent years, and we will be focused on further growth in the next few years.

We’re very focused at the moment on the Scandinavian territories. We’ve been doing a lot of format licensing successfully all across Eastern Europe and into Russia and we’re launching a daily drama for one of the Croatian broadcasters in October, and that’s important for us because we want to introduce more scripted programming into Eastern Europe.

TV FORMATS: Is it tougher to roll out scripted-format

ideas than entertainment concepts like Got Talent or The Farmer Wants a Wife?

CARTER: The way I look at it is, the daily dramas tend to be cousins of each other as opposed to brothers and sisters.

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Good times: One of FremantleMedia’s biggest scripted format hits is Gute Zeiten, schlechte Zeiten, produced for RTL.

al sole in Italy, all daily dramas produced by us, all have essentially the same starting point. But as soon as you produce a daily drama and it gets beyond the first 100 episodes, things start to take on a life of their own. If you looked at them now you’d say, “What do you mean they’re related?” but if I showed you them 15 years ago you would understand that they were. The key to developing daily drama is to get what the Americans call the precinct right—the circumstances in which it’s happening, the locality, what keeps this group of people together. European daily dramas tend to be far closer to real life than the American big-shoulder, big-hair traditional daily soaps.

TV FORMATS: You’ve been working with Fuji Television in Japan to develop new concepts. How do you negotiate cultural differences and differences in working ethics?

CARTER: It’s really not easy but it’s a fascinating challenge.

In the case of the Fuji exchange, the producers work with a translator all the time, as language is the biggest barrier.

Additionally, there has to be a sense of mutual creative or professional respect between the individuals involved and that’s very important. When we select the individuals to do this exchange from our side, we are very careful that we match the Japanese side in terms of status and experience.

Our experience is that what keeps the individuals in the room working on the idea is their sense of learning and respect in the process. The third thing is that one has to be very precise about what you’re looking for, what the parameters are. We want a clear format. We want one that is repeatable, transferable, and scalable.

TV FORMATS: What gains have you seen in your digitalcontent division over the last year?

CARTER: I think it’s fair to say we were quite far-thinking as a company—we got into digital from a corporate point of view about six years ago and we’ve used our entertainment television formats and our drama formats to capitalize on some of the most important trends in this field. We cemented our relationship in the digital space and in working closely with 440

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brands when we acquired @radical.media last year, the commercials and content company based in New York.

They’re very strong in branded online entertainment.

Additionally, we’ve moved into other kinds of digital activities, so last year we acquired the Canadian digital games company Ludia, with whom we’d enjoyed a very fruitful partnership developing games for some of our key brands, and because of that we’ve made strong inroads into the world of social and mobile games. Our television game-show brands have shown again how strong they are on any platform. If you look at the Price Is Right social game on Facebook, among others, you’ll see how those brands have started to live again on emerging digital networks. The other activity is really trying to cement the relationship and future-proof the relationship between our big talent shows and their core audiences. The X Factor, Idols and Got Talent are inherently social formats in the sense that there’s a high level of audience control over the outcome and a high level of emotional investment in the shows themselves.Things like [the popularity of] Susan Boyle are very indicative of that connection. So we’ve worked hard to leverage some of the social buzz. On America’s Got Talent and Britain’s Got Talent, we run auditions on YouTube, The X Factor launched a second screen app in a number of countries, and Idols has been the pioneer of Facebook voting and iTunes musical downloads.

We also continue to produce web originals; these are shows that have nothing to do with our existing television brands.This year I’m happy to say we won an Interactive Rockie Award at Banff for SORTED, which is a fast-growing cooking community aimed at 18- to 34-year-olds. It’s our second win at Banff—our online drama Freak was named the best online program at the 2010 awards. And we won [an International] Digital Emmy [nomination] for PrintFriends last year as well. We also launched Scoreboard, our first Facebook show/game, and our German subsidiary launched an exciting, truly 360-degree drama on ZDF called Wer rettet Dina Foxx?

TV FORMATS: Can you give us an example of online content that has enhanced an existing television brand?

CARTER: We make Take Me Out, a dating show developed by FremantleMedia France, and in the U.K., the digital team produced an online companion program called The Gossip, which has become an integral part of the main show. It was a shoulder program on digital and online, and it’s been enormously successful in its own right, while also enhancing the fan’s experience of the main program. We’re doing that more and more.

Another example is The X Factor U.K.’s spin-off series The F Factor.Where we have those big shows we tend to produce digital [companion] programming so that fans can immerse themselves even further in the experience.

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The fall and mid-season schedules of two major U.S. broadcasters feature titles from Armoza Formats: NBC with Who’s Still Standing? and The CW with The Frame. The Tel Aviv-based company has secured a string of commissions and recommissions recently, demonstrating the strength of Israel as a hotbed of creative concepts that can travel globally. Avi Armoza, the CEO of Armoza Formats, discusses how the boutique outfit’s emphasis on innovation with its multiplatform “Armoza 3.0” formats has contributed to its success.

our best every few months to come up with new products to feed our markets and our clients and to place them on the air.We were able to do two direct-to-license deals—one with NBC for Still Standing, or, as it’s called in the U.S., Who’s Still Standing?, and then another show that was commissioned by The CW, The Frame, which is on the reality side.

TV FORMATS: How important was it for you to get U.S. commissions on these shows?

ARMOZA: Although the U.S. market is important financially, from our point of view it’s one of many markets. We try to create and distribute good formats, and at the same time as Still Standing can do well in the U.S., it has also launched successfully in Spain, winning the evening there and doing great, with a new season commissioned immediately after the launch. At the end of the day, you need to be creative and you need to make good television, and you will make it both in the U.S. and elsewhere as well.

TV FORMATS: What do you look for when adding new formats to your catalogue?

ARMOZA: Our goal is to bring to the market shows that we can brand strongly enough and independently enough to stand as solid international brands. The formats that we select to bring to each market—The Bubble, The Package, Still Standing or Connected—we bring because we are able to use our knowledge and strength as a distribution company to successfully brand the formats as unique properties in the market. We pick very few shows to add to the catalogue every year, and these are the shows we strongly believe in creatively and we know have a solid independent brand that can be placed in any territory.

Armoza Formats’

Avi Armoza

By Kristin Brzoznowski

TV FORMATS: What’s been the approach to incorporating multiplatform elements into your formats?

ARMOZA: Our cross-platform philosophy begins with a strong content brand. Once that is in place, you need to create a presence on every possible platform with the goal of generating traffic from one platform to another. The brand needs to have a solid, independent presence on each of the platforms, giving the viewer the ability to watch the show or follow the brand wherever they are and on whichever device they choose.

TV FORMATS: What have been some of your best-performing multiplatform titles?

ARMOZA: What we found out within this market is that you need to go parallel. On one hand, you need to start with a solid, existing format, and then enhance it by exploring new content areas. One of our most successful models was The Frame, our 24/7 reality show, but we also tried to use this model within both the scripted and game-show genres. 7-Question Millionaire is one of our game shows that exists both online [and on television]; the way for contestants to get into the prime-time television show is through first participating in the online game.We also have Restart, our Facebookgeneration scripted drama that has a daily presence on the Internet and on cell phones, and at the end of the week accumulates to a half-hour television show.

TV FORMATS: Are scripted formats still selling well?

ARMOZA: Scripted is selling well, notably The Naked Truth,

which we have in development at HBO with Lionsgate and Clyde Phillips. It’s very tough to tell a good story and in the scripted world it’s not so much that you sell the format, you sell the script. If you have a show that’s been successful on the air and the story is strong, you can still sell the scripted show. It’s an ongoing business and there’s always a need for new shows—game shows, reality shows—and we try and do 442

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TV FORMATS: What has contributed to Israel’s strength in

the creative sector?

ARMOZA: It’s a combination of two key elements. One is the

maturity of the market. It is, in television terms, quite a young market. Commercial television in Israel was only launched in 1993, so in the last few years the market has matured and become very sophisticated. Also, Israel is a melting pot of creativity. It’s a country of immigrants and this all contributes to being a very creative society.

It’s also a small country with very limited television budgets, and when you operate with a limited budget, it calls for added creative value because the demands for production quality are still high. It’s an open Western society and everybody’s looking at the American level of television and trying to meet that level. What makes us different is really that limited budget, which renders all formats relatively cost-effective to reproduce. What we can’t pay for in production costs, we can make up for in creativity, so we need to focus on the story and the characters and creative elements, making each unique because you can’t just spend money and make it big.

The other element that is part of our work at Armoza Formats is that we were able to create a distribution platform to bring this Israeli creativity into the international market and make it known.

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Celebrating its fifth anniversary this year, Global Agency is keen to put Turkey on the global content map. The company made its foray into the format business when it picked up the local hit Perfect Bride, which has been adapted in markets around the world. It has since assembled a portfolio of unscripted formats as well as Turkish soaps and feature films. Izzet Pinto, Global Agency’s CEO, tells TV Formats what his company has to offer the worldwide market.

By Mansha Daswani

TV FORMATS: How did you get into the format business?

PINTO: Before I got into the TV business I was a literary agent,

representing some of the well-known writers in Turkey. And at that time my cousin suggested to me, why don’t you represent TV formats? And I said, what does a format mean? [Laughs] I said OK, why not? I was introduced to the owner and creator of Perfect Bride, which was a big success in Turkey.The owner said, try it! So I took a tiny stand at MIPCOM and it worked really well. I licensed the show to production companies in Italy and the Middle East.And I closed many option deals with other territories.Then I saw the potential of Turkish TV series. I wanted to export them, especially into the Balkan countries. I found 1001 Nights and I focused it on [Central and Eastern Europe].

I sold it to Bulgaria, where it was such a huge success. With this [deal] I was then able to license [the series] to Serbia, Greece, Bosnia, Croatia, all over Central and Eastern Europe.

Global Agency’s

Izzet Pinto

Then I started representing Turkish films and sold them as packages in territories where the Turkish series had performed well.

In Turkey there are a couple of companies who sell TV series, but I am the only company selling formats, films and series.And Global Agency is the one and only company in Turkey that sells formats internationally. This has brought us a very good reputation, so when people have good ideas they come to us. If we feel excited about it, we represent it.

TV FORMATS: How are Turkish dramas selling as formats?

PINTO: The Turkish series are doing very well as finished

episodes, but it’s not that easy to exploit the rights as scripted formats. It is possible. We represent Forbidden Love, which was one of the biggest series in Turkey. We were able to option it to Mediaset in Italy and recently we closed a deal with Telemundo, so hopefully there will be a Spanish version very soon.

TV FORMATS: What can Global Agency offer producers who are looking for a home for their ideas?

PINTO: If I were a creator, I would not give my stuff to the big companies. At each market they have 50 to 100 new things and only 25 minutes to make the perfect pitch to a client. How many projects can you pitch in that time? Maybe three or four? If you as a creator give your [show] to the big companies, it could [end up in their] library.With us, there are eight people on the sales team, so that’s eight people pitching the same thing to hundreds of clients. It has a higher chance of getting sales. It makes sense for a creator to work with a smaller, boutique-style agency.

TV FORMATS: What are your goals for the company in the

next year?

PINTO: My plan is to focus on acquisitions and sales. We are

searching for great formats from Croatia, Serbia, Australia, the U.K., all over the world.

We have a slogan, “Content That Creates Buzz.” We want to stick to our image and to our slogan, so we are looking for formats that everyone is talking about.We would like to have more clients, more product, more sales—this is how I want to progress. I want to keep growing 100 percent a year. In the past my dream was to sell my company to a big company, but now, the more I grow, the more passion I have for my company. I want to stay independent for quite a long time. I want to become a $100-million company in the next couple of years.Our goal is to become a much bigger distributor, but always be a boutique, where we have not too many ideas but at each market we have four or five great formats and a couple of series.We want to focus on quality and giving the best service to our clients.

TV FORMATS: What new shows are you offering?

PINTO: One of my highlights is Paparazzi Academy, which is

the search for the company’s best paparazzo.The second highlight is Social Exposure. Each week there’s a theme: for example, stories about being caught cheating. The whole nation sends their best stories and we choose the best five and then we film them. People vote for the best story and whoever sent it wins a weekly prize. At MIPTV we achieved great success with the Magnificent Century series and the Shopping Monsters format. We are hoping to achieve similar success with our latest formats.

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Case study:

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

By Kristin Brzoznowski With countless international iterations and a slew of brand extensions, the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (WWTBAM?) format has been a massive hit for Sony Pictures Television’s 2waytraffic. It’s among the most well-known titles in the format business, and for good reason; it’s been more than a decade since the show first launched and the brand is still as strong as ever, and is constantly growing.

“Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? was conceived by David Briggs, Steve Knight and Mike Whitehall—who used to work together at London’s Capital Radio—over a pub lunch,” explains Ed Louwerse, the managing director of 2waytraffic International. “The original title they came up with was Cash Mountain and they took the idea to U.K. production company Celador. Managing director Paul Smith saw the potential in the format, but had to face enormous challenges in getting the show on air, and took huge financial risks to do so.”

He continues, “The show was first pitched by Paul to Claudia Rosencrantz at ITV in 1996 who liked the idea, but it wasn’t until David Liddiment joined in 1997 that the show was finally commissioned. It began broadcasting in 1998 and the rest is history.”

The first international version launched in Holland in 1999, and since then, the show has been formatted in more than 116 countries, with 83 productions in different languages.

The simple game play of WWTBAM? lends itself quite naturally to brand extensions. Board games, quiz books and in-show competitions surrounding the show first launched in 2000. The same year, a deal was signed with Ceefax to host the game, marking the first deal of its kind for the British teletext service. The brand has since expanded to include interactive DVDs, console games, Internet games and mobile apps in more than 39 territories.

Louwerse says that selling the canned versions of a game show is usually a challenge, but WWTBAM? “has broken the mold and sold successfully around the world.” Completed versions of the show have been licensed to the U.K. (on Challenge), Africa, Poland, Russia, New Zealand and Ireland.

“The concept is simple yet gripping and aspirational, striking a chord with viewers from all walks of life and all around the world,” says Louwerse.“We also manage the brand very carefully.”

He says the team works constantly to refresh and update the show in each territory while always staying true to the brand values. The updates vary from simple changes, such as 446

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introducing a new lifeline, to a more complex rollout of a faster-paced version of the format.

“In Australia, following years of success as the classic format, the Hot Seat version of WWTBAM? launched on Nine Network in 2009 and was an instant hit, boosting the audiences of its weekday slot by around a third,” Louwerse explains.

“With an average share of 23 percent, Hot Seat became one of Australia’s top game shows and now regularly outscores the slower-paced Network Ten rival Deal or No Deal.

“Likewise, the introduction of Hot Seat on RTP1 in Portugal refreshed interest in the show,” he continues. “Its 2010 run peaked with 1 million viewers and a 31-percent share, 40-percent above the prime-time channel average.”

THAT FRESH FEELING

The show is in its 13th year in the U.K., and innovation and adaptation have helped keep it fresh and interesting for viewers, says Louwerse. “In 2010 a number of changes to the show were introduced, such as the introduction of a ticking clock. This increased audiences by 13 percent among individuals and by 23 percent among the key commercial group, 16- to 34-year-olds.

The first-ever live broadcast of the show in the U.K., at Christmas 2010, attracted nearly 7 million viewers, a 26-percent share.

This year, ITV has scheduled a number of live celebrity WWTBAM? specials. The last one, in which celebrities played with their children, drew an audience of 4.6 million (a 22.51percent share) for ITV1.”

On average, WWTBAM? is airing in at least 30 international territories at any one time. New countries continue to sign up for the format as well, including recent deals in Ghana, Ivory Coast, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka (two different language versions) and Ecuador. It also gets recommissioned constantly, says Louwerse. “Even in markets where the format has taken a break, we see it come back and [get] relaunched,” he adds, pointing to recent examples in Romania, the Netherlands,Turkey, Hungary, Switzerland and India.

“The brand is already very strong, but we’re continuing to secure new territories and will soon be in a position to announce even more new deals,” says Louwerse.“We have our eye on rolling out the finished U.K. show in more markets, but we’re always careful not to jeopardize the local format opportunities, as our ultimate goal is to maintain WWTBAM? as one of the most successful locally adapted game shows in the world.”

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