TV Middle Easy & Africa MIPTV 2011

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Abu Dhabi Embracing Formats

www.tvmea.ws

MIPTV EDITION THE MAGAZINE OF MIDDLE EASTERN & AFRICAN TV

APRIL 2011

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FremantleMedia Enterprises www.fidtv.com

IN THIS ISSUE Arabian Appeal

• Laconia • The X Factor U.S. • Work of Art: The Next Great Artist • Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations • Merlin

FremantleMedia Enterprises (FME) views the Middle East and Africa as regions ripe with opportunity.

“These are the fastest growing territories in the world,” says Jamie Lynn, the VP of regional sales.“The level of activity has grown exponentially, in many cases rivaling more established and developed markets.” Lynn says that many of these shows are proven hits. Laconia launched earlier this year on BBC Two and outperformed the channel’s prime-time average by 64 percent. Work of Art:The Next Great Artist is in its second season, while Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations is still going strong in season seven and Merlin is in its fourth season. FME is also offering The X Factor U.S., which Lynn calls “one of the most anticipated programs of the year.”

Abu Dhabi’s media scene is growing

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Embracing Formats

“There is a huge

growth in the media industry in the Middle East and Africa, so there’s a big appetite for quality content across all genres.

”

Laconia

—Jamie Lynn

The Middle East has increased its focus on formats

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Ricardo Seguin Guise

Publisher Anna Carugati

Editor Mansha Daswani

Executive Editor Kristin Brzoznowski

Managing Editor Morgan Grice

Editorial Assistant Matthew Rippetoe Lauren Uda

Production & Design Directors Simon Weaver

Online Director Phyllis Q. Busell

Televisa Internacional

Art Director Cesar Suero

Sales & Marketing Manager

www.televisainternacional.tv • Rafaela • Triumph of Love • A Fortunate Family • With You, Without You • The Power of Destiny

Televisa has begun to hone its strategy for expanding its presence in the Middle East. “We’ve been very conservative in that area so far, trying to figure out what we want to do,” explains Ricardo Ehrsam, the general director for Europe, Asia and Africa. The company has been much more aggressive about prospects in Africa, however. “We are participating in every single trade fair or market there, that we never used to visit,” Ehrsam says.Titles Televisa is focused on for sales include the telenovelas Rafaela, about a young doctor; Triumph of Love, centered on a successful fashion designer; and With You, Without You, a romantic comedy.The comedy A Fortunate Family is about worlds of the rich and poor colliding, while the novela The Power of Destiny tracks a man of humble origins.

Terry Acunzo

With You, Without You

Business Affairs Manager Alyssa Menard

Sales & Marketing Coordinator

Ricardo Seguin Guise

President Anna Carugati

Executive VP and Group Editorial Director Mansha Daswani

“ [Africa] has

become a key region for us to penetrate.

”

—Ricardo Ehrsam

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

www.tvmea.ws

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Abu Dhabi.

An Arabic proverb states, “If a wind blows, ride it”—major Western companies are riding the potential of Abu Dhabi’s growing media scene.

By Chris Forrester

ast November, the city of Abu Dhabi hosted the tense, allimportant final race of the year’s Formula 1 Grand Prix championship. It was a truly glittering occasion, with kings and presidents present, plus an impressive array of celebrity faces at the spectacular Yas Marina complex. Also present were Phil Kent, the chairman and CEO of Turner Broadcasting System, and Philippe Dauman,Viacom’s president and CEO, as well as other VIPs from the world of TV. They, like every other visitor to Abu Dhabi, must have been amazed at the investment made on the brand-new racetrack.

They might have been told about plans for building extensions of Paris’s Louvre and New York’s Guggenheim Museum, each designed to draw new visitors to the oil-rich capital city of the United Arab Emirates, justifiably described by Fortune magazine as the “richest city in the world.”

Dauman and Kent both held discussions with the production facility twofour54, the latest addition to Abu Dhabi’s imaginative investment portfolio. Turner Broadcasting is active at twofour54—it has an animation training academy for Cartoon Network, which was announced at MIPTV 2010 and launched last September, as well as a major CNN news bureau.Viacom’s MTV Networks International is busy at twofour54 with its Comedy Central Studios Arabia joint venture.Wayne Borg, twofour54’s COO, explains that, as with other international broadcasters, “there is already the firm basis of a relationship. When Mr. Dauman was in town we had further discussions on how collaboration might evolve, and they continue. I’d say watch this space because both sides are very positive.”

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Borg says that the VIP visitors left the discussions wholly recognizing the concept. “We can tell them, of course, but there’s not a PowerPoint [presentation] on earth that can present the breadth and imagination of Abu Dhabi’s scheme for the future.”

Dauman and Kent are not the only media executives interested in Abu Dhabi. “Everyone’s looking at this region,” continues Borg. “Historically it is an area that they haven’t focused on and now they are starting to see its potential. High-profile events like the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix just help us showcase what we have on offer here in Abu Dhabi and the region generally. The vitality, the dynamism here is fantastic, and a huge willingness to achieve and get things done. A fresh visit is sometimes needed just to show what has already been achieved in order that impressions are not outdated.”

Rupert Murdoch, the chairman and CEO of News Corporation, along with his son James (the company’s chairman and CEO for Europe and Asia), visited Abu Dhabi last March.

They were shown the city’s breathtaking development plan for 2030, which anticipates an Arab “supercity” of some 3 million people. A key component in this master plan is twofour54.

“You have set a high bar for your ambitions,” Murdoch told delegates to a high-level media conference. “By unlocking the creativity of your people, you can diversify your economy [and] provide millions of jobs for a rising generation,” he said.

Indeed, Murdoch’s statements embraced the complete vision for twofour54. Abu Dhabi recognizes that new skills have to be developed in the region’s youngsters; that is a firm part of twofour54’s brief via its skills and training academy, called tadreeb, which in the past year has seen more than 2,000 people 4/11

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attend various courses. Borg explains that while short vocational courses are available, and have been very popular, the overall strategy is to place talented youngsters into scholarships and internships with twofour54’s content and production partners. “We now have more than 100 companies working here and more than 1,000 people on site,” Borg says.“All of our partnerships, including this latest Cartoon Network agreement, add to the twofour54 ecosystem. The training academy is raising standards and producing talented individuals who are able to fill the new jobs being created. Cartoon Network is one of the world’s most recognizable brands and will provide tremendous opportunities for talented young Arabs to create animation relevant for the region.”

Borg says that in its first year of operation the training academy saw 55 courses delivered by the likes of the BBC, and around 30 percent of participants were from outside the region, proving the overall need and the difficulties of acquiring new skills in the Middle East. Moreover, demand for skills, and now Abu Dhabi’s supply, has meant a near-explosion of new facilities being provided, not least the addition of two dozen new postproduction suites, plus an additional pair of all-HD studios added to the five already in place.

Television is booming in the Middle East, but the sector needs investment in training, new locally produced programming and the hundred-and-one craft-based skills that flow from broadcasting and new media. Today, excluding

Israel and Turkey, there are more than 600 channels transmitting mostly on free-to-air networks supported by advertising or premium-rate tele phony income. That growth, especially with HDTV and 3D developments, continues.

Indeed, Abu Dhabi is also backing a new satellite operator, Yahsat, which will launch this spring to provide extra transmission capacity for the Middle East and North African (MENA) region.

At least one new channel will come—a Sky News-inspired “Sky News Arabic.” The 24/7 service, a fifty-fifty joint venture of the British pay-TV giant BSkyB and Abu Dhabi Media Investment Corp (ADMIC), was announced a few weeks after Murdoch’s visit. The new business will be based at twofour54’s Abu Dhabi facilities.

SKY-HIGH AMBITIONS

Adrian Wells, previously Sky News’s head of international news, has been appointed to work with the ADMIC team to launch the new channel, and a director of news will be named later this year to lead the venture on a permanent basis. “The joint venture with ADMIC provides Sky News with an opportunity to enter the large and fast-developing MENA marketplace with the support and expertise of a respected local partner,” Sky said in announcing the channel.

Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, the chairman of ADMIC and of the new venture, said,“The new channel will be an important, independent voice for the Arab world, providing accurate and in-depth reporting of all the interesting developments in the region.We intend to set a new standard for broadcasting in the Middle East and North Africa by combining the best practice, expertise and reputation for impartiality of global news leader Sky News with our regional knowledge and the world-class infrastructure offered by Abu Dhabi and the twofour54 media zone.”

Borg, speaking about the Sky News Arabia scheme, and CNN’s existing presence within the twofour54 campus, said both operations were very important in their own way, and are a testament to where Abu Center for learning: With tadreeb, a training academy, twofour54 is offering some 200 courses Dhabi sits within the region. in media production to individuals and businesses.

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Content hub: Several media companies are setting up shop at twofour54’s campus, where it is establishing a local content community.

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The lion’s share: twofour54’s ibtikar division is investing in content like Driver Dan’s Story Train.

The bigger question perhaps is whether this Sky News deal is a natural extension of News Corp.’s increasingly robust commitment to the Middle East.

News Corp. is already extremely active via its partnership with Prince Alwaleed bin Talal’s Rotana channels, and its FOX channels have widespread distribution throughout the region.

As Murdoch noted in his speech, the television market is still young in this part of the world. “The potential, however, is huge,” he pointed out. “If you want higher-quality television, you need a transparent market that helps ensure Cultural preservation: Abu Dhabi’s Veritas Films, one of twofour54’s local media partners, that people receive a fair price for the recently released the documentary Teta, Alf Marra (Grandma, a Thousand Times). value they create.”

It was the Abu Dhabi Media Corporation (ADMC) that ADMC’s $1 billion joint venture with Warner Bros. for picked up the tab for the March 2010 talk-fest co-chaired by movies and video games is reported to have slowed, with just Rupert Murdoch. In February of this year it was announced that one film made (Robert Rodriguez’s Shorts), while a $100 ADMC’s CEO, Edward Borgerding, was stepping down imme- million package of films with National Geographic Enterdiately. CFO Frank Mooty was appointed acting CEO. It will be tainment is making more steady progress. In December 2010, interesting to see how this extremely ambitious company, with ADMC announced it would be making Djinn, a horror flick, interests in print, radio, free and pay TV, films, gaming and conas part of a comprehensive production slate including Peter tent creation, now moves forward. But the initial signs are that Weir’s The Way Back and Jodie Foster’s The Beaver. the powerhouse company has barely missed a beat. The deals still come fast and furious. For example, February saw ADMC LOCAL FLAIR announce a new division, Karkadann Games, to tap into the fast- Borg explains that twofour54 will also take an investment position, via its funding and investment arm, ibtikar, when a project growing gaming sector. makes sense. One demonstration of this is the co-production “ADMC is a sister company, and is a disseminator of content, while our role at twofour54 is a facilitator for the industry,” deal with the U.K.’s 3Line Media on Driver Dan’s Story Train.“We used Driver Dan and its inherent IP to kick-start animation here, explains Borg.“We do not ourselves produce content, nor are we and we’ll [invest] strategically when necessary,” he says. a broadcaster. Our role is to help develop the ecosystem which Today, twofour54 is operating from two significant facilities: will allow a sustainable industry to emerge here in Abu Dhabi.

We are also broadcast agnostic and will happily work with its brand-new Khalifa Park business park suite of buildings, as broadcasters and producers in the market and on any platform. well as the ADMC compound downtown. The overall plan calls for a totally new training, production and creative camWe rent out studio space to all comers here in the region and pus to be built out of town. Borg says that potential internationally. Today, we are based partly within the sites have been identified, and a decision will be ADMC compound, but that will soon change as made later this summer, following the usual due part of the wider plan.” diligence studies.“The plan for the purpose-built campus and precinct is proceeding well. As to the overall vision, we are well out of the gate.

The number of companies looking to locate here continues to grow almost daily. We have now contracted to take a 10-story office block for extra production offices. Four of our five buildings are at full capacity, while forward bookings for the studios are very healthy indeed.”

Borg continues, “Our industry is changing, and fast. We know this. People might just as likely talk to us about helping them produce an iPhone or iPad app as well as an online presence for this or that project. We have set up AppsArabia just for this purpose. But from a commercial perspective we just want to reach out to the creative community and show them what we can do. Basically, as we all know, it’s about raising everyone’s game and producing the best content possible that can connect with audiences.”

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Armoza’s TLV.

Embracing

Formats Broadcasters across the Middle East are increasingly looking at international concepts, while also coming up with their own exportable ideas.

By Mansha Daswani From pan-Arab broadcasters’ penchant for big international brands to Israel’s rising prominence as an originator of concepts that can be successfully adapted across multiple territories, the Middle East looks set to be one of the hot markets for the format business this year.

“The broadcasters more than ever are actively looking for and buying international formats,” says Karoline Spodsberg, the managing director of Banijay International, which has announced a flurry of deals in the region as of late. Most recently, IF was picked up by the pan-regional broadcaster MBC, which will air 20 hour-long local episodes produced by In Media Plus. This follows the fifth-season renewal of Taratata by Abu Dhabi TV and the signing of an exclusive output deal in Egypt with Media life that includes 71 Degrees North and Sold!

“Last year we decided to say, Let’s focus on the Middle East—let’s invest, go down there, spend some time, meet all the right people and get to know the market,” Spodsberg says.

“It’s a great region. The format market is enlarging. More and more [channels] are starting to take in formats for prime time.”

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Banijay is not the only distributor that is seeing increased activity in its Middle Eastern business.Turkey’s Global Agency, for example, sees strong potential in the region, after having sold its Perfect Bride format to Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation (LBC). “As Turkey has many cultural similarities and connections with the Middle East, there is a huge demand for Turkish formats,” says Izzet Pinto, the CEO of Global Agency.

Others that have built a solid business in the territory include FremantleMedia, whose Got Talent recently rolled out on panregional MBC Group’s MBC4—which is also airing its own version of TV Azteca’s Men Wanted. John de Mol’s Talpa Media announced in November a tie-up with Sony Pictures Television that will see its shows being adapted in the Middle East and Africa. And this year two new versions of ITV Studios Global Entertainment’s Come Dine with Me make their debut in the region, on Cyprus’s CyBC and Iran’s Marjan Television Network.

While there are some terrestrial broadcasters acquiring formats in the Middle East, much of the demand is coming from two big pan-regional players: MBC and LBC. The latter, for 4/11

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example, recently scooped up La Presse Télé’s A Star’s Life in Lyrics and NBC Universal International’s Top Chef.

Randa El Daher, the deputy CEO of LBC, notes that formats have had a role on the broadcaster’s schedule since 1999. “As a general-entertainment channel looking for diversity and catering to a wide audience that we want to please, formats are part of our programming strategy to complete the grid offering,” she says.

El Daher adds that LBC has a broad view when acquiring international concepts, and is willing to look outside of the traditional markets in North America and Europe for compelling ideas in both the scripted and unscripted arenas. “It’s about satisfying our viewers and ensuring the highest share of audience. We are interested in any typology as long as the concept is good and appealing.”

Talent shows, in particular, appear to be working well in the region, along with light-entertainment formats, notes Banijay’s Spodsberg. Global Agency has also seen a demand for talent shows, particularly those that target young-adult demographics.

Looking ahead, Pinto sees a new trend emerging: “In the last three years, Middle Eastern networks have imported dozens of Turkish drama series that they have dubbed into Arabic. We believe that in the near future, they will be producing their own versions using local talent. Forbidden Love has done incredibly well as the finished version. I think that local versions of this scripted format will perform even better. Since advertising budgets are rising in this region, formats will be produced with bigger budgets; therefore we will see higher-quality productions.”

While being more open to ideas from across the globe, Middle Eastern broadcasters are also developing their own concepts that they can take to the international market.

ISRAELI CREATIVITY

A wealth of potential: Global Agency expects Mideast networks to start producing their own versions of Turkish soaps like Forbidden Love.

The most prolific exporter in the region thus far has been Israel, which has seen a slew of locally developed ideas make it onto networks in North America, Europe and elsewhere. The Naked Truth, for example, from Armoza Formats, is in development by Dexter’s showrunner, Clyde Phillips, for HBO. Armoza has also sold its shows The Bubble to the BBC and Still Standing to NBC. For Avi Armoza, the CEO of the company, one of its strengths has been that it is a boutique distribution outfit in a small market where broadcasters have not been afraid to take

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risks.“The fact that we are not a huge conglomerate with production companies in all territories means that we are able to be flexible and can work with the right production companies in each territory,” he says.“Also, as a boutique company, we pick up very few formats to launch every year. We don’t go for quantity. Instead, we are able to give our formats all the attention and creative and marketing support they need.”

A number of the hit formats being exported out of Israel hail from Keshet Broadcasting, including The Successor and Deal with It! The latest Keshet title making waves worldwide is the International Emmy–winning Traffic Light, which premiered this winter on FOX in the U.S. Another Keshet show getting an American treatment is the dramatic thriller Prisoners of War. “We have very creative TV executives who are not afraid to experiment and take risks,” says Keren Shahar, the head of formats and acquisitions at Keshet, of the appeal of Israeli formats globally.

“Our schedules are not as ‘set’ as most territories’. We do not have dedicated slots for a specific genre and it really is all about the content itself. If it’s a fresh concept, or a new way of storytelling, it will get made and we will air it. The fact that we work with tight budgets also forces us to be more inherently creative.”

Several international companies are seeing the potential of the Israeli market. “There does seem to be an edge and an outsidethe-box thinking to Israel in terms of the humor that catches hold,” says Jan Frouman, the group managing director of ProSiebenSat.1’s Red Arrow Entertainment.The company has a development partner in Israel, Omri Marcus, who is working on titles that can be adapted globally by Red Arrow.

Strix Television recently set up shop in Israel. Michael Rothschild, the country manager for the local operation, says the new office intends to tap into this “exciting market with a huge pool of talented and creative people who are passionate about TV.” Asked about the creative strengths of the Israeli production sector, Rothschild notes that it has had to “think outside of the box.…I think that, much like the Scandinavian countries, Israel is too small for the large number of ideas in circulation.

As a natural consequence of the claustrophobic notion that can easily grow on you here, people tend to pursue success outside the borders of Israel. The Israeli society is made up of citizens with roots from every corner of the world; it’s in the Israeli DNA to think with an international perspective.”

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