TV Real MIPCOM 2013

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Docudramas Travel Shows Brian Greene Scripps’ Jim Samples

MIPCOM EDITION

www.tvreal.ws

THE MAGAZINE OF FACTUAL PROGRAMMING

OCTOBER 2013

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CONTENTS FEATURES

Nonfiction’s Makeover

16 Let There Be Drama A look at how docudramas are affecting the business of factual content.

24 Travel Takes Off Producers are putting a new spin on the always-indemand travel genre.

If you turn on any number of the world’s leading factual channels, you’ll notice the programming has been looking a little different as of late.

Ricardo Seguin Guise Publisher Anna Carugati Editor Mansha Daswani Executive Editor Kristin Brzoznowski Managing Editor Joanna Padovano Associate Editor Simon Weaver Online Director Victor L. Cuevas Production & Design Director Phyllis Q. Busell Art Director Meredith Miller Production Associate Cesar Suero Sales & Marketing Director Vanessa Brand Sales & Marketing Manager Terry Acunzo Business Affairs Manager

Ricardo Seguin Guise President Anna Carugati Executive VP & Group Editorial Director Mansha Daswani Associate Publisher & VP of Strategic Development TV Real © 2013 WSN INC. 1123 Broadway, #1207 New York, NY 10010 Phone: (212) 924-7620 Fax: (212) 924-6940 Website: www.tvreal.ws

There are sleek sets, highly stylized scenes and even a bevy of beloved Hollywood stars gracing the screen. The rising popularity and prevalence of the scripted docudrama has, indeed, changed the face of factual television today.

HISTORY’s scripted mini-series Hatfields & McCoys, which boasts such big-name talent as Kevin Costner and Bill Paxton, was a watershed event in a trend that was already well on its way. The program set ratings records and received 16 nominations at the 64th Primetime Emmy Awards, the most since HISTORY began its operations. The network followed that up with the epic docudrama The Bible, produced by Mark Burnett, and its sequel is in the works for the U.S. broadcast network NBC. HISTORY scored another hit with the historical drama Vikings, and National Geographic Channel is on a roll with its Killing franchise, which started with Killing Lincoln and will soon include Killing Kennedy, starring Rob Lowe. Discovery, too, is making moves in the genre, with its upcoming mini-series Klondike. The list of examples goes on and on. One of the features contained in this issue of TV Real probes further into the trend.

The lines between fact and fiction have also been blurred in the series space. A number of reality shows have taken to scripting elements and/or structuring certain story lines.

These so-called hybrid reality programs have drawn the ire of many documentary purists, though their popularity with audiences isn’t up for debate.

But fear not—for those who still love their straightforward factual fare, there’s no dearth of content in the marketplace. Travel programming remains a fan favorite, as a feature later in this issue explores. Character-led docuseries, featuring larger-than-life personalities or individuals with unique occupations, also continue to be popular picks around the world.

In the documentary space, the upcoming 50th anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy has sparked a slew of doc pieces about the former U.S. president and his family legacy. Coming up in 2014 is the 100-year anniversary of the start of World War I and the 70-year commemoration of D-Day. These historic mile markers, along with other global current events, will continue to provide documentary filmmakers, broadcasters and audiences with plenty of fresh material.

—Kristin Brzoznowski

16 24

INTERVIEWS 30 Physicist Brian Greene

32 Scripps Networks’ Jim Samples

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A+E Networks • Big History • Modern Dads • Pretty Wicked Moms Following on the success of Duck Dynasty, A&E has again delivered a family-viewing experience combining real life and comedy in Modern Dads.The series follows a group of stay-at-home dads as they try to navigate the world of fatherhood. A+E Networks is offering the show alongside Pretty Wicked Moms, which looks at what happens when former “mean girls” grow up to become ultra-competitive moms. “Buyers are looking for bold, entertaining content with larger-than-life characters that can captivate their audiences,” says Marielle Zuccarelli, the managing director of international content distribution at A+E Networks. “We have one of the richest catalogues covering the most-watched genres on TV and that makes A+E Networks [positioned] to meet every buyer’s needs.” The company is also bringing out Big History.

“All of our content has highend production values, strong story lines and larger-than-life personalities.”

—Marielle Zuccarelli Modern Dads

APT Worldwide • Finding Your Element with Sir Ken Robinson • The Kennedy Half-Century • The Cooking Odyssey

In this 50th-anniversary year of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, APT Worldwide is presenting buyers with The Kennedy Half-Century. It is also showcasing FindingYour Element with Sir Ken Robinson, with the English author and speaker Sir Ken Robinson, and the new cooking/travel series The Cooking Odyssey, featuring chef Yannis Mameletzis and co-host Eva Tsoureka. “Each of these programs brings something new to viewers,” says Judy Barlow, the company’s VP of international sales. “Sir Ken Robinson is known worldwide as a guru of creativity. The Kennedy Half-Century takes the Kennedy legacy further than most documentaries, covering his influence on the U.S. Presidency over a 50-year period. And The Cooking Odyssey has mouthwatering recipes and showcases spectacular places in the Mediterranean, which everyone can enjoy.”

“We are looking for opportunities in Latin America for documentaries, lifestyle and business programs.”

—Judy Barlow The Cooking Odyssey

Avalon Distribution • The Three Day Nanny • The Crane Gang • Dave Gorman: Modern Life is Goodish Feeding the current appetite for character-led factual series, Avalon Distribution is offering The Crane Gang, which follows the U.K.’s largest crane company. Avalon is also presenting a new factualentertainment series produced for Channel 4, TheThree Day Nanny.

Isobel Hughes, Avalon’s director of distribution, says the series is “appealing in its authenticity and emotional depth.” There’s also Dave Gorman: Modern Life is Goodish, which provides a mischievous look at modern life. It uses “a unique blend of stand-up and documentary comedy with universal themes,” says Hughes. “Avalon Distribution has in its catalogue almost 3,000 hours of comedy, entertainment and factual programming, of which over 2,000 hours are factual, with a focus on formatted factual entertainment, long-running series and authentic, character-led programming.”

“We are looking to build on our global success with strong new factual series and to open up new opportunities for formatted factual entertainment.”

—Isobel Hughes The Three Day Nanny 448 World Screen 10/13

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Breakthrough Entertainment • Lost & Sold • Naked News: Uncovered! • David Rocco’s Dolce India In Lost & Sold, a new offering from Breakthrough Entertainment, dealers buy unclaimed and lost-in-transit items at auction and then reveal their surprising value. “Lost & Sold will appeal to the curiosity of audiences worldwide, as the thrills and misadventures of finding the hidden value of items lost and sold are addictive, funny and onthe-edge-of-your-seat exciting,” says Nat Abraham, the president of distribution at Breakthrough.The company is also introducing Naked News: Uncovered!, about the group behind the news and infotainment organization that features fully naked presenters. Chef David Rocco continues his journeys in the brand-new David Rocco’s Dolce India. “The David Rocco brand continues to appeal to audiences worldwide, so much so that David has now expanded his culinary reach into beautiful and exotic India,” says Abraham.

“The growth of OTT, VOD and IPTV platforms has increased the overall demand for our content in all territories.”

—Nat Abraham Lost & Sold

Canamedia • Air Boss • Dog Dancing School • Wham, Bam, Thank You Scam

Canamedia has a diverse roster of new factual programming, covering genres such as adventure, science, animals, crime and arts.

“We are especially proud of Air Boss, which goes behind the scenes of exclusive and dangerous air shows and delves into the secret lives of aviation stars with world-renowned ‘Air Boss’ Wayne Boggs,” says Andrea Stokes, the managing director of international sales and acquisitions at Canamedia. “Dog Dancing School is a humorous and heartwarming film that follows two amateur dog-dancing enthusiasts and their teacher at a small dog-dancing school on the outskirts of London as they train and prepare for various local shows, ultimately leading up to their first big professional show.” Wham, Bam,Thank You Scam is about a man who tracks down fraudsters who scammed him out of more than $100,000.

“Intriguing and engrossing stories with strong protagonists work well across genres and in multiple territories worldwide, and this is what we are bringing to the market.”

—Andrea Stokes Dog Dancing School

New Dominion Pictures • FantomWorks • A Haunting • Drum Heads Restoration expert Dan Short and his team share their knowledge about bringing automotive classics back to life in FantomWorks.

Kristen Eppley, the senior VP of international distribution at New Dominion Pictures, says, “FantomWorks is a reality car show that will appeal to viewers who are passionate about classic cars.” New Dominion is also presenting the docudrama A Haunting. “It’s universal—everyone loves a good ghost story,” says Eppley. “But what makes A Haunting so popular is the fact that the stories are real.” New to the company’s catalogue is Drum Heads, a reality mini-series about two brothers operating a drum-kit business from their grandparents’ basement. Eppley believes this trio of highlights will appeal to international buyers because they all have “authentic characters, great storytelling and high production values.”

“Our programs have high production values and are highly repeatable.”

—Kristen Eppley FantomWorks 450 World Screen 10/13

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NHK Enterprises • Legends of the Deep • Robot Revolution: Will Machines Surpass Humans? • Design Ah! The two-part Legends of the Deep uses cutting-edge scientific technology to shed light on the ecologies of mysterious deepsea worlds. “We’ve enhanced our Legends of the Deep offerings by complementing our documentary about the giant squid (a creature whose world-first filming in the wild was the culmination of a ten-year NHK project) with a documentary about another creature whose filming was a world first: the megamouth shark,” says Fumio Narashima, the senior corporate officer for international sales at NHK Enterprises. The company is also presenting Robot Revolution: Will Machines Surpass Humans?, which takes viewers to the forefront of humanoid robot development. The second season of Design Ah!, meanwhile, will show children the joys of design.

“Japan is famous for its advanced technologies, and Robot Revolution shows what’s happening at the forefront of humanoid robot research.”

—Fumio Narashima Robot Revolution: Will Machines Surpass Humans?

NordicWorld • Exit Afghanistan • Mission Northern Norway • The Green Planet

When Exit Afghanistan aired on the Norwegian public broadcaster NRK in May, it pulled in one of the largest audiences of the summer season. NordicWorld’s CEO, Espen Huseby, has high hopes that it will perform equally as strong in other parts of the world.

The company is also highlighting Mission Northern Norway. “It’s a visual feast and we believe it will become a must-see series for anybody who loves pushing the limits—even if only from the safety of an armchair,” says Huseby. Next up is The Green Planet, which looks at various environmental issues. “This is no finger-wagging eco-rant,” says Huseby. “It’s a compelling and balanced examination of the problems that confront us all—and how we, the most advanced and intelligent species on the planet, have contributed to this dangerous state of affairs.”

“This year, we are particularly focused on Latin America, where we believe there is a huge, untapped demand for the sort of quality content we offer.”

—Espen Huseby Exit Afghanistan

Passion Distribution • John Torode’s Australia • Dynamo: Magician Impossible • Expensive Eats A buzzword in the marketplace as of late has been “talent,” according to Sally Miles, the CEO of Passion Distribution. “Buyers want on-screen talent to help promote and associate with their channels,” Miles says. She points to John Torode’s Australia, which features the well-known chef and TV personality John Torode as host. Another huge talent in the Passion portfolio is Dynamo.The magician returns for a fourth season of his hit entertainment series Dynamo: Magician Impossible, which has seen previous seasons sell to more than 190 territories. “A firm favorite the world over, the stunts and illusions are mind-boggling and the series continues to push the envelope surrounding modern-day magic,” says Miles.

Passion also has a brand-new food series, Expensive Eats, led by the well-known British host James Wong.

“We are extremely excited to be coming to MIPCOM with a number of really strong, talent-driven series, targeting the key genres that appeal to our buyers: food, travel and entertainment.”

—Sally Miles Dynamo: Magician Impossible 452 World Screen 10/13

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Peacock Alley Entertainment • Money Moron • High Tech Rednecks • Brave New Girl A relative newcomer to the marketplace, Peacock Alley Entertainment was established in spring 2012, and has been building up momentum ever since. “We have three shows in production and launched our distribution division this June,” says Craig McGillivray, the company’sVP of distribution.At MIPCOM, Peacock Alley is offering High Tech Rednecks, a fast-paced documentary series that follows a group of redneck mechanics and the enormous custom vehicles they create for their wealthy clients. Money Moron is a formatted reality series that follows couples as they face up to their money mistakes. It is currently airing on Slice in Canada. Brave New Girl, which is airing on the E! network in Canada, spotlights a transgender beauty queen. “All three shows hit the sweet spot for their respective genres,” says McGillivray.

Money Moron

“At MIPCOM, we’re looking to establish our company on the international scene, with a strong focus on co-productions.”

—Craig McGillivray

Shine International • The Burrowers • King of Speed • MasterChef Junior

Idris Elba may be best known for his roles in such dramas as Luther and The Wire, but in King of Speed, this self-confessed adrenaline junkie gets behind the wheel to explore whiteknuckle racing. Shine International is presenting the doc along with The Burrowers this MIPCOM. “The Burrowers offers a brand-new perspective on the underground world of water voles, rabbits, badgers and moles, capturing their habitats through the camera lens with spectacular never-before-seen footage,” explains Georgia Brown, the company’s director of acquisitions.

Shine International is also showcasing for buyers the new FOX culinary competition MasterChef Junior.The series, which extends the MasterChef brand to a younger age group, is also hosted by Gordon Ramsay.

“King of Speed is a story packed with an incredible and unexpected history.”

—Georgia Brown King of Speed

TCB Media Rights • Hairy Bikers’ Restoration Road Trip • Heavy Metal Monsters • Hustling America The mission of TCB Media Rights, according to its founder and managing director, Paul Heaney, is to deliver a “fresh approach to distribution.” He says, “I genuinely believe that the distribution market, certainly in terms of factual, needs freshening up. It needs something different. I’m not saying I’m the answer, but certainly the approach is right. It’s been successful so far.” TCB Media Rights is headed to MIPCOM with the factual-entertainment series Hairy Bikers’ Restoration Road Trip, featuring the bearded duo Si and Dave as they travel the U.K. to fix up lost treasures from the industrial age, and Hustling America, which sees Alexis Conran journey across the U.S. in the footsteps of history’s greatest conmen.

There’s also the factual series Heavy Metal Monsters, which looks at some of the most impressive machines on the planet.

“We have series that are fastmoving, that can move around the schedule from daytime to late night and can hit both male and female demos.”

—Paul Heaney Hustling America 454 World Screen 10/13

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Terra Mater Factual Studios • Plants Behaving Badly • Namibia’s Desert Kingdom • The Mona Lisa Mystery From the creators of Genius of Nature, the two-part Plants Behaving Badly is being released by Terra Mater Factual Studios (TMFS) at MIPCOM. “From the rainforests of Borneo and Central America to the roadsides of northern Europe, this special captures the extraordinary beauty of orchids and the strikingly bizarre world of carnivorous plants,” says Sabine Holzer, the head of TV at TMFS.The company is also presenting Namibia’s Desert Kingdom, which features camerawork by the renowned talents Martyn Colbeck and Richard Matthews. This blue-chip program has been filmed over the course of a year in the sand rivers of the Kaokoland in Northern Namibia, documenting the animals that survive in this remote region. Also, coming up towards the end of the year from TMFS is The Mona Lisa Mystery.

“Exceptional camerawork and a scenery beyond words, Namibia’s Desert Kingdom has it all, depicting life in the Namibian desert as it has never been seen before.”

—Sabine Holzer Namibia’s Desert Kingdom

Terranoa • Brazil Coastlines • Picasso, The Legacy • +/- 5 Meters

Just in time for Brazil’s turn as the host of the World Cup, Brazil Coastlines is set for delivery in February 2014. “We are in discussions with a number of prebuyers on this series, which reveals the appetite for this kind of timely content with great visual impact,” says Isabelle Graziadey, the head of international sales and acquisitions at Terranoa. Another timely delivery is Picasso,The Legacy, which commemorates the 40th year since the death of the iconic artist as well as the reopening of the Picasso Museum in Paris in 2014. A number of broadcasters have already prebought the piece, says Graziadey.Terranoa is expecting the blue-chip wildlife series +/- 5 Meters to attract interest for prebuys as well.The project, currently in production for a September 2015 launch, is based on an original idea from the undersea photographer Joe Bunni.

“We are keen to meet with the new DTT channels and VOD platforms that want to attract new viewers while developing their factual programming offer.”

—Isabelle Graziadey +/- 5 Meters

Tricon Films & Television • HitRecord on TV! • Raising McCain • Jersey Strong Tricon Films & Television is highlighting its factual and lifestyle shows from Pivot, Participant Media’s newly launched U.S. channel for Millennials.There’s HitRecord on TV!, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, which spotlights artists from his open-source online community; Raising McCain, a docu-talk series featuring Meghan McCain, the daughter of senator John McCain; and Jersey Strong, a docu-soap about two families with very different backgrounds. “Pivot has a fresh approach to programming that has drawn an exciting lineup of young talent whose work will resonate with a young generation of viewers who are the prime consumers of media today,” says Lia Dolente,Tricon’s director of international sales and communications. “These shows are all original Pivot productions which will appeal to an 18-to-34 demo worldwide.”

“This will be Tricon’s biggest market to date in terms of new product and relationships.”

—Lia Dolente Jersey Strong 456 World Screen 10/13

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One Three Media’s The Bible.

Let There Be Jay Stuart looks at the trend toward scripted factual fare and what it means for the documentary business.

F

act, fiction or something in between, the latest hot trend in television programming is big-budget scripted factual programs on channels whose brands have been built on straight documentary fare, with or without reenacted sequences.

The A+E Networks-owned channel HISTORY stunned the American market a few months back when its epic series The Bible, the first scripted show from Survivor’s Mark Burnett, drew a bigger Sunday prime-time audience than anything on the broadcast networks (with 13.1 million viewers for the premiere).The same channel also racked up big numbers for the scripted history drama Vikings (6.2 million for the opener).

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National Geographic Channel pulled one of its biggest audiences of the year with Killing Lincoln and is now completing Killing Kennedy, which, like the Lincoln assassination saga, is based on a book by Bill O’Reilly. Ridley Scott’s Scott Free Productions, which made Killing Lincoln and produced the two-hour doc Gettysburg for HISTORY, is now producing Discovery Channel’s first scripted series, Klondike, with Entertainment One and Nomadic Pictures.

The growth of “fictionalized” fact might raise some eyebrows among purists, who fear that the trend could be offset by a reduction in traditional documentary programming and docudramas on core channels for the factual genre and lead to a dumbing-

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Iconic images: National Geographic’s Killing Kennedy, starring Rob Lowe, is set to air this November in time for the 50th anniversary of JFK’s assassination.

down of the market. Such fears are probably an overreaction at this point. But there is no question that big-budget scripted fare will be very hard, if not impossible, for more traditional factual programming to match in the ratings.

JUST THE FACTS

For most people, putting the new scripted series—at least some of the ones mentioned above—into the factual category is confusing apples and oranges. Docudramas are understood to be documentaries with dramatic elements; these are clearly a new species.

“It’s easy to see why The Bible would be put into the docudrama category,” says C. Scot Cru, the senior VP of international distribution and production at One Three Media, which markets the program. “I would tend to think of it as a dramatic documentary. It’s a drama series based on a wellknown text.” He adds, “There is a huge amount of research that goes into a project like this—literally years.”

Isabelle Graziadey, the head of international sales and acquisitions at the Paris-based documentary specialist Terranoa, sees the blurring of genres as part of the ongoing “hybridization of formats.” She notes, “Docudrama has followed on from the trend toward reenactments. I think ‘docudrama’ is a slightly pejorative term. Programs such as HISTORY’s Vikings are pure fiction based on real events.This is the latest change in the market, the switch toward pure fiction.”

Fred Burcksen, the executive VP and COO of ZDF Enterprises, agrees a line has been crossed into fiction. “The Bible 460 World Screen 10/13

and Vikings are dramas. They are based on research and real people, but they are simply dramas.”

He makes a distinction between them and “fully reenacted documentaries,” adding that “there is a great demand” for the latter type of programming.

The rise of the scripted historical program is definitely having a significant effect on the market, according to Danny Tipping, the head of programming and development at Sky Vision.

“The impact is twofold,” he says. “First, it is raising audience expectations and it means that we have to work harder on the drama elements that are contained in traditional docudramas.

Second, it is allowing us to introduce full scripted passages in docudramas where we would have had more basic reenactment. Broadcasters would probably not have supported this in the past.The success of these new shows is definitely changing the way we are developing shows and making them.”

In programs with large drama components, for example, the raising of the bar means casting actors instead of extras or reenactors to make the history sing.

The possibility of adding more drama opens up the documentary market,Tipping says. “People are always attracted to historical series, and TV has recycled the great stories endlessly. There are only so many documentaries you can make about them. Drama enables producers to have another go-round with some of these stories in a different way, as long as the broadcasters support it....

Audiences have high expectations when it comes to historical accuracy. Producers will need to toe the line historically. Hopefully, they will not get too carried away.”

For many years reenactment, or docudrama storytelling, has been a significant element in mainstream documentary production alongside other more traditional techniques such as expert or eyewitness interviews.The use of reenactment has also been expanded to comprise the entirety of many factual productions, adding visual elements to tell a story together with voice-over narration. More recently, reenactment has become more fully dramatic, with scripts and actors instead of a narrator.

ZDF Enterprises’ Saving the Titanic, which aired last year, is a good example of the evolution of the market.

Tile Films of Ireland originally wanted to do a traditional documentary about the crew of the Titanic.They found out that most crew members decided to stay on board and go down with the ship, concentrating on helping other people.The producers decided to make a drama to tell the story instead.

“The program attempts to tell the true story,” Burcksen says.

“Obviously there’s no way of knowing what people really said or did, but the intention is to be accurate. In a program likeVikings you have relationships and individual behavior. You have characters.This one does not go into that space. It’s a thin line. It’s always a gray area.”

SLOT DILEMMAS

“We actually get the question from buyers: Shouldn’t this be in a drama slot?” continues Burcksen. “We had to think about whether it was a documentary or a drama or a docudrama.We decided to call it a docudrama. It appears in our catalogue as a factual program.The determining factor in whether it qualifies as a documentary might be that the budget was more like a documentary budget than a drama budget. Unlike Vikings, which cost in the order of $4 million per episode.”

The BBC, world renowned for factual probity, by no means turns up its nose at the docudrama genre.

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Out in the cold: ZDF Enterprises’ Shackleton's Captain is a docudrama that tells the story of a doomed 1914 expedition to Antarctica.

“As long as it’s clear to the audience what is being done, it’s not a problem,” says Mark Reynolds, the director of factual at BBC Worldwide. “Is the drama loosely based on historical events or much closer to the facts? It’s a matter of how you set it up with the audience.”

DRAMATIC LICENSE

A BBC program that is “closer to the facts” is The Challenger, a scripted drama starring William Hurt, Brian Dennehy and Joanne Whalley. Its director, James Hawes, is known for directing dramas.

The show was commissioned by the BBC’s factual department.

“We meshed the key skills and experience from drama with the factual department’s rigorous factual accuracy,” Reynolds says.

The 120-minute program, co-produced with Discovery, will air on the Science Channel in the U.S. this fall (as 73 Seconds:The Challenger Investigation). As happened on the BBC, it will be accompanied by a 60-minute documentary, The Genius of Richard Feynman, also narrated by Hurt.

“Sometimes subjects lend themselves to dramatic treatment,” Reynolds says. “It’s a good way to open up a subject to younger viewers and audiences that might not be interested in a documentary.”

Killing Lincoln, directed by Adrian Moat and starring Regen Wilson and Billy Campbell, with narration by Tom Hanks, was similarly factual in intent. “The program was fully fledged factual drama, as accurate as possible,” says Hamish Mykura, the executive VP and head of international content at National Geographic Channels International (NGCI). “It’s possible to be accurate and dramatic. You don’t need to meddle with history. The aim is to be historically accurate.The further back you go, the harder that is.With something like Vikings, you have to speculate.”

As BBC Worldwide’s Reynolds puts it, “If you go too far back, there’s a line you cross.”

Reenactment actually broadens the reach of factual programming into new parts of the past. “The drama format has unlocked whole periods of history,” says Mykura. “You can tell a World War II story in a traditional documentary. You have the eyewitnesses and the archive material. But you can’t do the Norman Conquest, for example. Docudrama is the way you can tell stories you couldn’t really tell otherwise.”

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Whether or not to move in the direction of doing more factual drama is not a question that everyone can afford to consider. Drama is a luxury good. “How many channels can afford huge budgets?” asks Terranoa’s Graziadey. “It may be that these fictional programs sell in territories where there is a weakening of traditional documentaries. But they cost more. You have Nat Geo, HISTORY, BBC, maybe France Télévisions. But there aren’t a lot of players. The big shows are linked to branding. They want to make a splash.

“These big new programs will sell in Europe. And there may be efforts to emulate them. But there can’t be a lot of copycats. Finance is a problem.

And even if you can afford it, how can you make something without looking like another brand? It might appeal to smaller cable channels that want to be Discovery. But the bigger players need to differentiate themselves,” says Graziadey.

“The limiting factor is that dramatic content is more expensive,” NGCI’s Mykura notes. “The bigger the dramatic component, the stars, the script, the setting, the more expensive the show.

You are never going to get a complete transfer away from documentaries in a traditional sense because the cost is prohibitive.”

PRESERVING THE PAST

Sky Vision’s Tipping agrees that fully scripted historical programming is unlikely to squeeze out more traditional docudramas because the budgets and the timescales for full scripted programs mean there can only be relatively few of them.

Nor is there really the will to move away from traditional forms.The growth of more drama in documentaries, to the point of fully dramatic factual programs, is not pushing out what has gone before.

“I see it as a trend, a fashion,” says ZDF Enterprises’ Burcksen.

“I remember that five or six years ago there was huge opposition to reenactment. Now people expect it. It will stay around as a device, but it’s a storytelling fashion. There will be new techniques and things will move on. A few years ago, CGI was all the rage. Reenactment is a similar trend.”

Graziadey agrees. “When a trend like this comes along there is always worry that what has existed before will be swept away,” she says. “But it doesn’t happen.The phenomenon is different in the U.S., where the traditional documentary has vanished. Public broadcasters in Europe still have a mandate to make documentaries. But it requires more work and it is harder to make them stand out.”

Moreover, channels leading the way in factual drama, such as the BBC and Nat Geo, are fully committed to traditional styles. BBC Worldwide’s Reynolds notes, “We still want to represent that spectrum of content with a mix of traditional and reenactment.”

“We still have traditional documentaries,” says NGCI’s Mykura. “Most of our content is traditional or observational programming.You need to get the mix right. Not all shows can be fully dramas or have lots of drama sequences, and we don’t

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Looking back: Sky Vision’s Jesus: Rise to Power is presented by Dr. Michael Scott and features reenactments to chart the rise of Christianity.

want all of them to be that way. Different techniques add variety to the channel.Variety keeps things interesting. It also allows us to focus on the big events and big dramas. You push the right moments that can make an impact. Major scripted series are at the heart of the overall Nat Geo strategy. Having a star and a drama brings audiences. As the centerpiece it drives viewing, and you can run other programming, including traditional documentaries, on the same subject alongside.”

GLOBAL TONGUES

On their own, traditional documentaries are not always accessible around the world.

“The biggest challenge is non-English-speaking markets,” BBC Worldwide’s Reynolds says. “The buyer understands the credibility of the presenter but the voice is an issue. We often create two versions, one presented and one without the presenter to be locally versioned.”

Great subjects can work across borders, according to Graziadey.

She says the market may need to see the development of a circle of co-producers coming together in order to produce documentaries beyond their local markets—for example, partnerships involving entities in Germany, France, the U.S. and the U.K. Increasingly, big documentary projects, not only docudramas, are becoming “event” programming, promoted as special viewing occasions. For one thing, they are tied in to anniversaries of actual historical events.

ZDF Enterprises’ Burcksen acknowledges that the hook for Saving the Titanic was the subject and the year of the disaster.The centenary of the sinking of the Titanic was in 2012.

This year, for the 50th anniversary of the JFK assassination, Nat Geo is doing Killing Kennedy, with Rob Lowe, to air in November.

“The anniversary will be on the front pages,” Mykura says.

“A big drama will be a television event.” Nat Geo is also making JFK: Seven Days That Made a President, a major documentary that will act as a sidebar to Killing Kennedy. It will be a combination of traditional documentary and scripted elements.

Beyond television, big documentary projects can actually have the profile of bona-fide public events. Terranoa has distributed 464 World Screen 10/13

Gedeon Programmes’ Paris, the Great Saga, co-produced with Planète+ and Dassault Systèmes. The program is a history of the city that tells stories through a combination of classic documentary, CGI and 3D, with some fictional segments. For the launch there was a public screening at the Hôtel de Ville in Paris, in partnership with the city of Paris and the Carnavalet Museum.

Now Gedeon Programmes is doing Rio, the Great Saga, with ARTE, for delivery at the end of 2014. For Rio, there is the connection with all the attention focused on the FIFA World Cup in 2014 and the Summer Olympics in 2016.

ZDF Enterprises seems to be thinking along similar lines. Burcksen says, “We are looking for what we call super docs.That’s the way we refer to them internally.We are talking about high-budget documentaries of two or three parts combining all the elements, traditional and CGI and reenactment.

An example would be Update: The World in 50Years, produced in partnership with National Geographic. It was very expensive and very successful.We are looking at a few super-doc projects and looking to develop more of these ‘event’ documentaries.”

CREATIVE STORYTELLING

“It’s always about finding the right subject for the right audience,” Graziadey says. “Developing franchises beyond television, you need to invest a lot in development of 360-degree projects.

Or do something radically new. We will probably see more hybridization; perhaps using more fiction, or more and better fiction. Or perhaps producers will take a totally new position with some radical alternative in storytelling.”

For the BBC, CGI continues to have its place.The company is now looking at 4K as the next step beyond HD. “But techniques must not be used just for the sake of technology,” Reynolds says. “They must convey information. We are always developing new ways of telling stories. Sometimes you look at a story and you think it’s best to do it simply. Other times you think of doing it a new way. It’s all about trying to find different audiences with a new angle. We always have to ask, What is the reason for telling this story now?”

The BBC’s next big scripted factual program will be the 90-minute The Whale, to air in the U.K. this autumn, starring Jonas Armstrong in the true story behind Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick. Commissioned by the history department, the drama is a co-production with Discovery.

Nat Geo is continuing its Killing… franchise with Killing Jesus in 2014. The book on which the show will be based, again by Bill O’Reilly, came out in September.

The Bible’s Mark Burnett is moving beyond the death of Jesus historically. His next project will be A.D.: Beyond the Bible, telling the story of the Apostles. NBC outbid HISTORY for the new series.

“Mark has been a good steward for the stories in the Bible, and that stewardship will carry over into any new projects,” One Three Media’s Cru says. “He doesn’t want to revamp the factual reality.You don’t need to enhance the Bible. All the elements of drama are in there.”

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BBC Worldwide’s The Moaning of Life.

By Juliana Koranteng

G

enerating revenues of more than $1 trillion globally, tourism is very big business. And it’s not just hotels, tchotchke makers, restaurants and tour guides reaping the benefits of the universal desire to see the world and all its wonders (and, for some adrenaline junkies, its horrors). Program producers are too, reinventing a genre that dates all the way back to travelogues produced for the Movietone News Reels shown in British and American theaters from the ’30s through the ’60s.

Proof that travel programming makes for gripping TV was confirmed in mid-July by the endless obituaries for Alan Whicker, the British TV presenter who pioneered travelogue as spellbinding entertainment in the 1960s and 1970s. Described by the Brits as “the first man to bring the world into our living rooms,” the irrepressible Whicker and his camera crew made travel shows more than just guides to foreign lands.Trips to Hollywood or on the luxurious Orient Express turned into scoop interviews with celebrities of the day like Peter Sellers, Joan Collins and Liza Minnelli; coverage of the Kentucky Derby in the U.S. in 1967 466 World Screen 10/13

turned into reportage of civil disobedience protesting racial segregation and included an interview with Muhammad Ali.Thanks to Whicker, the average viewer for the first time gained access into the private lives of the rich, famous and infamous.

Groundbreaking as travel programming was then, the genre has progressed into a flexible, ubiquitous format that fits into broadcasters’ various needs worldwide.

“Viewers expect more from travel programs than a straightforward education about a destination nowadays,” says Lisa Honig, the senior executive VP of international distribution for the Americas at FremantleMedia International. “People want to watch shows with a strong sense of adventure and discovery. If viewers can’t get away themselves, a travel show is an opportunity to explore the world from the comfort of their living rooms and experience the feeling of escapism from day-to-day life.”

The growth of low-cost airlines means the average viewer no longer considers international travel the domain solely of the jet set.The challenge for today’s broadcasters is to retain the attention of these well-traveled viewers. As such, travel shows today are

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often much more than TV versions of touristy guide books— they encompass food, anthropology, survival, adventure, history, religion, the paranormal and more.

SPICING IT UP

FremantleMedia International’s travel-themed catalogue includes Spice Trip, produced by the U.K.’s Alchemy TV Production; Great British Railway Journeys by FremantleMedia U.K. subsidiary Talkback; and Great Continental Railway Journeys from FremantleMedia U.K.’s Boundless.

“Having a presenter tell us about the world in general is very old-fashioned,” observes Patrick Holland, Boundless’s managing director. “The viewers have usually already been all

He points to Michael Palin, an original member of the famous British TV surreal-comedy ensemble Monty Python. Palin, who also starred in a variety of big-screen movies, has evolved into a highly respected travelogue TV presenter and journalist. Between the late 1980s and now, he has fronted a host of well-researched programs that have taken him across the globe. In Michael Palin: Around the World in 80 Days, he followed the route in the Jules Verne classic by air. Pole to Pole took him from the North Pole to the South. In Michael Palin’s Hemingway Adventure, he retraced the famed novelist’s footsteps around the world.

Sahara with Michael Palin and Brazil with Michael Palin do exactly what the titles say.

Travel Producers are innovating the always-popular travel genre.

TakesOff over Europe, places that television might explore. But TV has to give them the things they would not find in a travel guide.”

Engaging the modern viewer means pushing boundaries in production, notes Nat Abraham, the president of distribution at Breakthrough Entertainment. “Travel formats in the more traditional sense do not have the demand they once did.Today, the genre is masked in adventure- or food-based programming where there are big characters leading the way to exploring new worlds,” he says. “There is either a competitive or adventurous element to making a travel series more appealing, with the destinations more of a backdrop to the story lines.Through characters we can be transported to exotic destinations and introduced to fascinating people, culture and cuisine, all in 30 minutes.”

Capturing the essence of faraway lands requires presenters with character, charisma and journalistic curiosity. “It’s about taking the audience to places where they cannot go themselves in the form of a personality they are familiar with,” says Mark Reynolds, the director of factual at BBC Worldwide.

Indeed, industry observers have noted that the “Palin effect” triggers a rise in tourism in the regions featured in his shows. “Someone like Palin is well known internationally,” Reynolds says. “He’s also well-versed as a traveler and able to handle the quirky and more out-there aspects of travel.”

No template exists for what makes for effective travelprogram hosts. “For some TV presenters, there is humor; for others, it is about bringing the rest of the world to the audience,” Reynolds adds. “What unites them is the passion to discover the new and the wondrous in different cultures.”

Like Palin, Michael Portillo is a broadcaster who has used the travel genre to reinvent his career. Portillo, a former British government cabinet minister, is the star of Great British Railway Journeys and Great Continental Railway Journeys.

For the latter, Portillo intrigued viewers by rediscovering the European continent using the 1913 Bradshaw’s Continental Railway Guide, a handbook that offered early 20thcentury readers a rare glimpse into regions only the very wealthy and enlightened were likely to ever visit back then.

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is in some sort of mid-life crisis, so he’s already contemplating those key moments in life. He uses travel to see how other societies deal with those matters.”

HOT TIPS

Eat. Travel. Snark: FremantleMedia International represents Anthony Bourdain’s The Layover.

In some travel programs, the content, theme or format is the star, not a famous personality. As FremantleMedia International’s Honig points out, “It doesn’t always need to be fronted by established TV talent to be successful. Our show Spice Trip features award-winning chef Stevie Parle and spice expert Emma Grazette.

The duo’s enthusiasm for cooking with different spices sees them sampling everything from chili peppers in Mexico to cloves in Zanzibar.

The result is a show that is primarily about food but set against a backdrop of the world’s most exciting and unspoiled destinations.”

Coach Trip is described by Mike Beale, the director of international formats at London-based ITV Studios, as a “travel soap opera.” The travel-meets-reality format, originally produced for Channel 4, follows seven couples from all walks of life who have never met before.They are stuck with each other during a very hectic Europe-wide coach trip for six weeks. As the vacation progresses, they are asked to air their grievances about each other and vote for the couples who must return home.

“It is about doing something you cannot find in Lonely Planet,” Beale says, referring to the world’s most famous travel guide.

“Some people like to go to the same places. We take people who would not normally explore wider Europe and make them do interesting things. We call it a travel soap because of the potential conflict that could build up during the trip.”

But even if the personalities covered are unknown, they must be compelling, states Breakthrough’s Abraham. In the Breakthrough series Boundless, two highly competitive friends participate in grueling ultra-marathons, open-ocean paddle boarding, canyon bike races, triathlons and kayak races worldwide. “To make the genre interesting, there has to be a unique hook,”

In addition to finding a host who will deliver insider information, producers often seek out famous faces to front travel shows. In The Layover, the fast-paced, adrenaline-driven travelfood show that has been sold by FremantleMedia International across 100-plus territories, American chef and TV personality Anthony Bourdain is challenged to discover the unexplored during 24- to 48-hour stopovers in well-known cities.

American adventurer Megan McCormick’s credentials as a host on the British series Globe Trekker made her an ideal choice to lead Sea Nation, distributed by Breakthrough Entertainment.

McCormick and a friend take their families away from the comforts of their homes and head off around the world, with no planning or specific purpose.

It is Jody Ness’s reputation as one of Canada’s leading restaurateurs that has lured viewers to watch him in The Luxury List.

Distributed by Canamedia, the series follows Ness as he spotlights luxury cars, jewelry, expensive wines and restaurants.

Travel shows are also turning unknowns into household names. An Idiot Abroad started out as an experiment in which British celebrity comedian Ricky Gervais monitors how his friend Karl Pilkington, who hates international travel, fares when he is forced to hit the road. The series, distributed by Passion Distribution, debuted on Sky in 2010 and has been sold worldwide. Me & You Productions has made the now well-known Pilkington the center of an off-shoot called The Moaning of Life, a five-part series distributed by BBC Worldwide in which he travels the globe to learn how other cultures cope with life’s big issues, such as happiness, death, careers, funerals, marriage and parenthood.

“Pilkington now has his own following and the show is taking a new angle,” says Adventure seekers: In Breakthrough’s Sea Nation, Megan McCormick journeys on water to a range of Reynolds. “He’s turned 40 and destinations, encountering Richard Branson along the way.

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Abraham says. “Viewers must be attracted by the more exotic locations and unusual experiences.”

Andrea Stokes, the managing director of international sales and acquisitions at Canamedia, notes that the unhosted Planet Luxury is among her company’s best-selling travel series. The stars of the show are the opulent goods that only the very affluent can afford; the series travels worldwide to find out how they are made and who is buying them.

It proves a point made by Andrea Olsson, BBC Worldwide’s head of factual entertainment and lifestyle—viewers are still entertained by learning about the lives of the rich and famous. “A little bit of the glossy lifestyle, set in posh homes and hotels and where the rich and famous reside, is appealing more and more to broadcasters.”

Broadcasters that buy travel shows range from public broadcasters like Australia’s ABC, PBS in the U.S. and Finnish network Yle to commercial networks such as Germany’s RTL, the Netherlands’ RTL 5 and France’s M6, not to mention the niche lifestyle platforms, such as Travel Channel.

“Breakthrough has been licensing travel-based series to panterritorial broadcasters such as National Geographic and Discovery, along with smaller territory broadcasters such as RTL Televizija,TV4 Fakta in Sweden and Canada’s TLN,” Abraham says.

“The target audiences tend to skew among the 18-to-35 age group and appeal equally among men and women.”

Canamedia’s Stokes says the demand for travel programming is consistent enough for the company to find new clients to join existing ones. “We deal with the larger travel broadcasters, such as Travel + Escape and Travel Channel U.K., and the smaller niche channels. We’re also always

searching for new start-up channels that focus on travel as they pop up internationally.”

Additionally, networks like to have travel shows that would appeal to viewers of other lifestyle genres. Travel-culinary is one popular hybrid, according to Emma Simpkins, Passion Distribution’s director of sales. “Many of our clients have wanted to get away from kitchen-studio [cookery] shows.

They now have more choices.”

Passion Distribution distributes Man v. Food Nation and Ghost Adventures. The first, a reality series in which American food enthusiast Adam Richman travels around the U.S. to take part or help others take part in food-challenge competitions, could meet a broadcaster’s need for a food show or a travel show. Ghost Adventures adds a novel twist to the hybrid genre, with ghost hunters checking out reportedly haunted places in different parts of the U.S. and the U.K. “The fact is, the travel genre has moved into the entertainment realm where you can find comedy, cuisine, survival themes and even the paranormal,” adds Simpkins. “Where a broadcaster feels Ghost Adventures does not have enough travel elements, it would find another slot for it. Consequently, our client base has broadened and we’re therefore not dependent on just one or two channels for our travel titles. That has kept the genre fresh for broadcasters, who can be creative about what they are buying.”

As Holland at the production company Boundless declares, “There’s no prescription for what makes the travel genre work. But you need to surprise the audience and, as the program maker, you also need to surprise yourself. And, because the world is now a smaller place thanks to low-cost travel, there’s a much bigger job to do.”

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TV REAL: Years ago, scientists tended not to want to write

books or make TV programs for the general public. Why is it more accepted nowadays?

GREENE: If you go way back in time, there was actually a tradition of scientists stepping out and bringing science to the general public. In England in the 19th century, crowds of people would come to hear physicists talk about the latest research in electricity or magnetism and things of that sort. There was a period, though, when scientists retreated back into the cave of academia and there was a sense of, if you want to bring science to the general public you have to water it down to a point where it’s just not worth doing. There’s been a massive tide change where scientists have realized that you can talk about real science, the real ideas, but you have to make it accessible, and you have to translate it into ordinary language. People are hungry to know what is happening, and since scientists realized that, they have become enormously excited about the possibility.

TV REAL: What drove you to write books and make TV shows?

GREENE: What drove me to try to bring science to the gen-

eral audiences in some sense was happenstance. I gave a lecture at the Aspen Center for Physics some years ago, and ordinary people who don’t do science were so excited to know about space and time and extra dimensions and string theory and relativity. It emphasized for me something which I already had a sense of before, that people want to know. If you bring the ideas across in a way that is not intimidating—people don’t speak math unless they are trained—people will meet you [halfway] and will work hard to understand the ideas, and that is enormously exciting to a scientist.

TV REAL: Would you give some examples of metaphors you use in your books to explain complex scientific ideas?

GREENE: The only way you can communicate the most abstract ideas is by building a kind of bridge between things that people are familiar with and cross that bridge to things that are unfamiliar. It has to be step by step. It can’t just be some sort of rapid leap from the familiar to the unfamiliar, and metaphors are great tools for building those kinds of bridges. I have dealt with thousands of them in the course of writing books. In quan-

BRIAN GREENE

By Anna Carugati

Brian Greene can be described as a modern Renaissance man. A physicist and proponent of string theory, he can delve into the most abstract scientific concepts using mathematics as the gateway to 11 dimensions and other secrets of the universe. Not content to keep these discoveries about the source of, well, everything, to himself, he has written books to share his enthusiasm and boyish wonder about our world with the general public. These works have become not only bestselling books, but have also been made into TV series, The Elegant Universe and The Fabric of the Cosmos. And if teaching at Columbia University, researching string theory and working on an online educational project were not enough, Greene is co-founder of the World Science Festival, an event that makes the marvels of science accessible, thought-provoking and entertaining to a broad audience.

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tum mechanics I love to invoke a metaphor that involves currency, money, because money comes in discrete chunks—nickels, dimes, quarters—and so does energy in quantum systems. Using money as a metaphor helps people grasp an idea that otherwise can be really opaque and strange. In string theory we deal with things in 10 or 11 dimensions. Who can picture that kind of stuff? But we can all picture one dimension and two dimensions and three dimensions. So you look at lower dimensional versions where you can use pictures to describe them. That is an enormously powerful tool for communicating the ideas.

TV REAL: How do you work with the producers and take the concepts in the books and make them visual?

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GREENE: We begin by sitting around the table and we’ll go through the ideas that we’d like to cover. My charge in those meetings is to, number one, get the producers to understand the ideas. If they don’t understand the ideas, then we are sunk. And they are really smart people, and they have read the books, and I help them through the final step to fully grasp what we are talking about. Then we try to describe the visuals. Because now we have the power of moving images, which you don’t have with ordinary books—you do now with e-books and we are just beginning to do that.The choices that we make are in some sense guided by,What is going to be the most powerful visual? What are going to be the ideas that we can now describe using the visual landscape? We want to do something that really leverages the medium.

TV REAL: Are you working on anything now that is TV related?

GREENE: We’re not working on a television program per

se, but we are working on a massive video project.We are creating a new kind of digital course for people who may watch a NOVA program but want to go deeper, or for high school kids who want to soar ahead but don’t have the resources.

There is a great movement afoot to bring education to the digital space, but so far I haven’t seen anybody really make use of the digital space in a way that leverages all its capacity. So we are taking the first steps in that direction.

TV REAL: What is so perplexing about quantum mechanics?

GREENE: Quantum mechanics forces us to rethink every-

thing that our intuition, everything that our experience, tells us is true about the world. When you look around the world, what are the basic ingredients that describe reality? You say, where things are and how they are moving—that’s it. Every physical process can be broken down; for example, I’m moving my hands, so where are they and how are they moving? I’m blinking my eyes.Where are my eyelids and how are they moving? Everything can be placed in that language. Quantum theory says that that’s the wrong language. It tells you that you can’t actually specify where something is and how fast it’s moving. Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle [German physicist Werner Heisenberg determined that scientists’ observations have an effect on the behavior of quantum particles] says the data is actually inaccessible. It’s not real. It’s not part of the real description of the world. And that means that we have to completely change our intuition about how reality evolves.

TV REAL: Would you explain string theory for our readers?

GREENE: There are two key things to string theory. One is an

attempt at a unified theory, which is what Einstein was searching for during the last 30 years of his life. We want to have one framework that describes the physics of big things, small things and everything in between. That’s the goal of string theory. In terms of what string theory says, it says that at the heart of matter is a new kind of ingredient. We know about molecules and atoms; we know atoms have electrons going around the nucleus, which contains neutrons and protons.There are quarks inside the

neutrons and protons.That’s where the conventional ideas stop.

String theory says that there is another layer that so far we have missed. Inside those particles are something else, little tiny stringlike filaments of energy—that’s why it’s called string theory— that vibrate in different patterns. And when that string vibrates one way, it would be a quark. If it vibrates in a different pattern, it would be an electron. So everything is unified, if you will, under this rubric of vibrating strings. That is the basic idea of the theory. It’s speculative—we’ve never seen these strings, and we don’t have any evidence that they are there—but the mathematics points to this as a possibility that we take very seriously.

TV REAL: I would be really surprised, given all the evidence, if it’s not a correct theory.

GREENE: It’s very hard to determine—if you allow me to use the word “faith”—what faith you put into mathematics. On one hand, the last 150 years have shown us that well-thoughtthrough mathematical ideas can absolutely light the way to the next step in our understanding.We’ve seen this with electricity, magnetism, gravity, black holes, cosmology, quantum mechanics and particle physics. Mathematics has played a vital role pushing the frontier every step of the way. Does that mean that all mathematics needs to be taken seriously as lighting the way to our next phase of understanding? No. How do you pick which math is the right math? How do you pick which math you should put your faith in, in that sense? And that almost comes down to an aesthetic judgment. My feeling, based on years working on the math of string theory, is that I’d be pretty shocked if the universe doesn’t make use of some or all of these ideas. But that’s just a feeling and feelings don’t amount to anything. At the end of the day, it’s data; it’s evidence. So we hope to one day have evidence that tells us these ideas are right.

TV REAL: At what point did you realize you had this gift

for communicating?

GREENE: I don’t know that I would frame it as a gift, but I would

say there was an experience a long time ago in high school.We had a course that was called Hygiene, of all strange names, where they taught you how to put a tourniquet on, and how to do CPR and things of that sort—pretty useful stuff, but not enough to fill a whole semester. So they made the kids teach half a semester and you had to pick your own topic to teach. I picked the neuroscience of dreaming.When I gave that lecture to the class, I just felt that I was connecting in a way that was getting them really excited about a subject they had never heard of before, and that was exciting to me.That was really the first experience where I felt, hey, this is something that I think I’d like to do more of.

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Life of Brian: In addition to writing The Fabric of the Cosmos, which became a series for PBS’s NOVA, Greene teaches at Columbia and is behind the World Science Festival.

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Scripps Networks’

TV REAL: What advantages does Scripps have that allowed you to gain headway in such a crowded market?

SAMPLES: The thing that we bring to the table that is very helpful—I think it’s our single most important competitive advantage— is that we’re producing nearly 2,000 hours of original programming each year in the food, travel and home categories. There’s no other program group in the world that is so focused on those three categories. And we own almost all of that content and all of the rights associated with it in high definition.

We’re able to bring that to the distributors and be very innovative in the way we’re providing them with HD content and giving them ancillary rights for digital, for video on demand and so on. We don’t have to have those internal negotiations to seek out those rights—we can act quickly.

Jim Samples

By Mansha Daswani

A relative latecomer to the global channels business, Scripps Networks Interactive has made rapid headway in the international market over the last few years. Since 2009, when Scripps took Food Network to Europe, the Middle East and Africa, the American lifestyle giant has picked up a 50-percent stake in UKTV, taken ownership of Travel Channel International and Asian Food Channel and stepped up its original content-creation initiatives.

Jim Samples, the president of international at Scripps Networks Interactive, shares with TV Real the company’s successful strategies for navigating the crowded global pay-TV landscape.

TV REAL: When you took on oversight for Scripps’s international business, almost two years ago, what were the key areas you felt needed to be addressed in order to expand the company’s reach?

SAMPLES: The most important thing was we needed to have organizational readiness. You have to have very experienced people on the ground in each of the key regions in order to really build a business. Scripps had begun that, certainly in London, but wasn’t very far along. Since then we have established management teams in Europe, Asia and in Latin America.

The second piece was that Food Network had good traction in the U.K., but we needed to expand in EMEA [Europe, Middle East and Africa] and Asia. Over the last year or so we’ve launched Food Network in Poland, Thailand, Taiwan, the Philippines and Indonesia. We’ve made very good progress.

We also knew that acquisitions in our space would be important to our growth strategy. Within the first 18 months, we acquired Travel Channel International and Asian Food Channel.

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TV REAL: What did Travel Channel International bring to the portfolio?

SAMPLES: We believe both Food Network and Travel Channel are perfectly suited to being big global brands. We had acquired Travel Channel in the U.S., but Travel Channel International was a separate company based in London; it was natural bringing the company into the fold. They had some successful original productions and acquisitions, but to be able to infuse that network with all of the programming now coming out of Travel Channel U.S. and to rebrand it with a fresh look just seemed to be an immediate and obvious opportunity. We have Travel Channel distributed in Europe and Asia, but not yet in Latin America.

TV REAL: What are your plans for cracking the Latin American market with your portfolio?

SAMPLES: It’s a huge opportunity for us. It’s one of the fastest-growing markets in the world. Our shows are already known there because of program licensing and there is a high affinity for U.S. lifestyle programming. We hired Márcio Fonseca, who is an experienced, well-respected leader with great relationships with operators. He’s had senior positions in Brazil and Mexico, so he’s well known in those markets. We have seen interest in Food Network and HGTV from the operators, so we’re actively pursuing opportunities with an eye towards launching there sometime next year.

TV REAL: You’ve had tremendous success with Food

Network in the U.K., which is a very competitive market.

How were you able to achieve this?

SAMPLES: We had confidence in our programming from the U.S., but I never expected that shows like Diners, Drive-Ins and

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TV REAL: How has business been for you in other parts of

Europe?

SAMPLES: We’re excited about [the launch in] Poland, which is a fast-growing market. Under Jon Sichel’s leadership in EMEA, we are working hard to expand our presence into the larger European markets where we don’t have as much of a presence, like Italy, Germany, France and Spain. Most of our strength these days is in the U.K., Eastern Europe and some of the smaller Western European countries.

TV REAL: What growth opportunities do you see in Asia under

your new managing director for the region, Derek Chang?

SAMPLES: Food Network Asia was very robust even with-

out us having a physical presence there. We have good distribution in Singapore and Malaysia and we’re expanding in Thailand and the Philippines. That’s been without having a big team in place in our Singapore office. The Asian Food Channel provides us with a real hub from which we can invest further in local productions, as well as have strong affiliate-sales and ad-sales teams in place to build out, not only Asian Food Channel, but also Travel Channel and Food Network Asia. I’m eager to expand our presence in Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines, and to expand into Hong Kong, Taiwan and Vietnam. We have also had some very good conversations in India as we’re beginning to look at opportunities there.

TV REAL: How has your ad-sales business been?

SAMPLES: It varies by market. The U.K. is very ad-sales

Carving a niche: Food Network has been investing in original content for its EMEA feeds, including Siba’s Table with the South African chef Siba Mtongana.

Dives would be the hits that they have become! Our combination of programming from the U.S., local productions, and a strong brand is working. Nick [Thorogood, senior VP of content and marketing for EMEA] has done a good job with scheduling the network and giving it a very U.K. flair. Getting onto the Freeview platform was key. We’re the leading lifestyle network in the U.K. and just going gangbusters.

driven, and we’ve done well there as we’ve had ratings successes. A lot of opportunity for growth on the ad-sales side will come from continuing to move in the direction of country-specific national feeds rather than regional feeds.

Like many other programming groups, we launched with regional feeds and then have moved more toward national feeds as we’re maturing. We have to go through that process in an accelerated fashion. Some markets are more subscriptiondriven because there’s not yet been much of a migration of ad dollars to pay television. We have some markets that are going to be entirely ad-driven. Our strongest ad-sales markets are the U.K. and some in Asia with Asian Food Channel, often in partnership with the distributors.

TV REAL: What led to the investment in UKTV? SAMPLES: People say, “Why UKTV? They’re not exactly in

TV REAL: Are you looking at any other acquisitions?

SAMPLES: The short answer is yes. We’ll be looking at

your space.” We saw it as an opportunity to invest in a company that was clearly very successful, reliable, with a strong management team. We felt like it was important to put a stake in the ground and to demonstrate our commitment to investing and growing internationally. That was Scripps’s first big international move.

those opportunities in our space—home, food and travel— where we think we can continue to create leadership.

TV REAL: With your UKTV investment, you co-own Good

Food, a competitor of Food Network.

SAMPLES: In the U.S. we have Cooking Channel and we

have Food Network. They’re positioned differently. They have different audiences. We feel the same way about that approach in the U.K. Our goal is to be the leading television group in food, home and travel. That will often mean having two networks in the same category. Just as in Asia we have Food Network Asia and Asian Food Channel.

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TV REAL: You spent a number of years at Turner Broadcasting

before joining Scripps. What have been the biggest changes in the international channels business?

SAMPLES: I was there through the ’90s, and at that time it was all about growing distribution very quickly. And it was all financed through subscription revenue. There were lots of pan-regional feeds. Today, the winning networks will be those that can be very focused, have access to reliable and strong content, be able to deliver multiplatform experiences and local productions, and, frankly, be good partners to distributors in such a way that they can help them migrate through rapidly changing consumer behaviors.

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