World Screen NATPE 2012 by World Screen

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THE MAGAZINE OF INTERNATIONAL MEDIA • JANUARY 2012

www.worldscreen.com

NATPE Edition

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contents

JANUARY 2012/NATPE EDITION

Publisher Ricardo Seguin Guise

departments WORLD VIEW

Editor Anna Carugati

A note from the editor. UPFRONT

Executive Editor Mansha Daswani

New shows on the market. IN THE NEWS

New Films partners with Lionsgate-TISA. SPOTLIGHT

Managing Editor Kristin Brzoznowski

Contributing Editor Elizabeth Guider Special Projects Editor Jay Stuart

market trends

Dori Media Group’s Nadav Palti.

NETWORK SCORECARD 235

The chief content officer of the streaming and DVD-rental service talks about licensing programming for its U.S. and international platforms.

The top 50 shows in the U.S.

NETFLIX’S TED SARANDOS

Editor, Spanish-Language Publications Elizabeth Bowen-Tombari

—Mansha Daswani

WORLD’S END

In the stars.

238

special report

Online Director Simon Weaver Art Director Phyllis Q. Busell

ORIGINAL SPIN

Sales & Marketing Director Cesar Suero

Despite rising production costs, first-run drama series remain integral to the lineups of the major U.S. cable networks. —Bill Dunlap

Business Affairs Manager Terry Acunzo Sales & Marketing Assistant Vanessa Brand Editorial Assistant Marissa Graziadio

one-on-one

Executive Editor, Spanish-Language Publications Rafael Blanco

FOX BROADCASTING COMPANY’S KEVIN REILLY

Senior Editors Bill Dunlap Kate Norris

Under Reilly’s leadership as president of entertainment, FOX premiered some of the most critically acclaimed shows now airing on television. —Anna Carugati

Contributing Writers David Wood Chris Forrester Juliana Koranteng

Ricardo Seguin Guise, President Anna Carugati, Executive VP & Group Editorial Director Mansha Daswani, Associate Publisher & VP of Strategic Development

WORLD SCREEN is a registered trademark of WSN INC. 1123 Broadway, Suite 1207 New York, NY 10010, U.S.A. Phone: (212) 924-7620 Fax: (212) 924-6940 Website: www.worldscreen.com ©2012 WSN INC. Printed by Fry Communications No part of this publication can be used, reprinted, copied or stored in any medium without the publisher’s authorization.

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contents

JANUARY 2012/NATPE EDITION

These targeted magazines appear both inside World Screen and as separate publications. COMING TO AMERICA Buyers and programmers from Nickelodeon, Disney Channel, Cartoon Network, Vme Kids and CBeebies discuss their strategies for entertaining kids in the U.S. 52… INTERVIEW Hasbro Studios’ Stephen Davis 58

FREE TV New strategies are in place for the top terrestrial broadcasters 130…MADE IN SPAIN A focus on leading prime-time programming producers 144…MILESTONES: CANALE 5 The Mexican channel turns 60 162…INTERVIEWS Univision’s Randy Falco 140…Telemundo’s Emilio Romano 142…TVE’s Santiago González 150…RCN’s Fernando Gaitán 206…Globomedia’s Daniel Écija 228

SPAIN TOONS IN A look at the vibrant animation community in Spain 188…INTERVIEWS Dan Povenmire and Jeff “Swampy” Marsh 194…Zinkia Entertainment’s José María Castillejo 196

World Screen Distributors Guide 2012 Don’t miss out on being included in the most comprehensive guide to the top distributors in the entertainment industry. Bonus distribution at MIPTV.

Space Reservations . . . . . . . . . March 1 Ad Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . March 5

For more information, please contact Ricardo Guise (rguise@worldscreen.com)

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world view

A NOTE FROM THE EDITOR ANNA CARUGATI

Yesterday and Tomorrow A few weeks ago I traveled to Chicago and visited my alma mater—not the university I attended but the place whose people and standards shaped me as a person and a journalist more than any other—the newsroom of the CBS station WBBMTV, Channel 2. I worked at WBBM from 1980 to 1983. At the time, handheld cameras, or minicams, had recently revolutionized news-gathering, as had minicam trucks, vans with microwave discs that could transmit the camera’s signal straight into the newsroom, thereby making live coverage of events possible. WBBM was the number one station, its newscasts got the highest ratings in the third-largest TV market in the U.S. and Chicago was a hot news town. Home of Mayor Richard J. Daley and his (in)famous political machine, the Windy City served up political intrigue, corruption and ethnic tensions on a daily basis. With viewership high and advertising revenues plentiful, the newsroom had ample resources: plenty of reporters, many of whom had a special beat, politics or education or crime (the Mob—this was Chicago, after all); a consumer affairs unit; an investigative unit; two-man camera crews; editors; and THE PATH TO TOMORROW the killer app of the time, two seasoned, well-respected anchors for its main newsBill Kurtis, who had won Emmys for IS UNKNOWN. WHILE casts: breaking the Agent Orange story at the end of the Vietnam War, and Walter Jacobson, THAT MAY BE also an Emmy winner, whose “Perspective” commentary each night zeroed in on government corruption, waste and hypocrisy. UNNERVING, Thanks to top-notch reporting and coverage of breaking news stories (on most days), 2 was a powerhouse and its success OPPORTUNITIES ABOUND. Channel was reflected in margins of upwards of 40 percent. I was young and idealistic and I learned from some of the best reporters in the business. But it was baptism by fire. On the day Pope John Paul II was shot, I remember being grabbed by a senior producer and plunked down at a phone, with the instructions, “Get the number of the hospital in Rome where the Pope was rushed; ingratiate the hospital spokesman, get the name of the surgeon who is operating on the Pope, and get 15minute updates on his condition.” Yeah, right.Well, divine intervention was at work because I got through to some hapless nurse (I speak Italian) and I was able to deliver those updates faster than the news wires or Dan Rather’s team on the CBS Evening News. The irony of the situation was that I was perceived as too junior to be getting this information accurately and the producers wouldn’t pass it on to 12

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Bill and Walter on the air. So during a commercial break I went directly to Bill and told him how I was getting the updates. He believed me. Bill wound up scooping Dan Rather that day. (That was a really big deal!) As I caught up with former colleagues on a recent visit, we told many similar stories of scoops gotten and scoops lost, of great reporting and of moments of embarrassment. But we all acknowledged that we didn’t realize back then that we were riding a unique wave in the history of television news. This was long before the 24-hour cable channels, the multichannel universe and the Internet jointly created a tsunami that washed away local news operations as they then existed. Today, not only have computers taken the place of studio cameramen and numerous technicians, but viewers have myriad sources of information, sports and weather throughout the day. News directors no longer have the ratings, resources or margins they once had. It’s a completely different world, and on my way back home I mourned the loss of a type of news-gathering that no longer exists. More important, I worry that with local newspapers dying and local TV news greatly diminished, there will be no one to keep local politicians and elected officials accountable. But I choose to be more of a Candide than a Cassandra. Yes, technology has erased the world I used to know, but as rapidly as it is changing the media landscape, it is offering opportunities for those smart enough to spot them. Back in the ’80s, there were only three networks airing dramas and comedies to relax to after a hard day’s work. Today, plenty of channels provide scripted and non-scripted programming, and our main feature looks at what’s on offer.We also have so much choice and convenience in the way we enjoy programming: on TVs, computers, tablets, phones and, as Kevin Reilly, the president of entertainment at FOX, explains in this issue’s One-on-One interview, creative thinking will save the day in today’s varied, ever-evolving digital landscape. It used to be you had to work years before becoming an on-air reporter who could deliver news. In contrast, Twitter and Facebook are amplifying and disseminating the voices of anonymous individuals around the globe. Here’s the challenge we face now: when the media landscape was less complex the road map was clearer.Today, the path to tomorrow is unknown.While that may be unnerving, opportunities abound.

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Bandeirantes Communication Group www.band.com.br/distribution • Threedom • Dance Dance Dance • Brilhante F.C.

“Our innovative

Dance Dance Dance

programs use a dynamic and involving language, hitting young audiences that are often a challenge to attract.

Bandeirantes Communication Group heads to NATPE with a catalogue featuring the best of Brazilian audiovisual production, offering a variety of products, from telenovelas to comedy, reality and more. Elisa Ayub, the director of international content, says that NATPE is one of the most significant markets for Band in creating new business opportunities. Titles on offer at the market include Threedom, a series about young people learning how to live on their own, and Dance Dance Dance, about a country girl trying to make it as a ballerina in the big city. Additionally, the series Brilhante F.C., the story of five adolescent girls who form the first all-girl football team in a small town in Brazil, is up for sale. Ayub says that the company recently closed several important deals with TBS veryfunny, A&E, Netflix and TV Zimbo, and it aims to score more agreements with media companies around the world for new platforms, including video on demand.

”

—Elisa Ayub

BBC Worldwide www.bbcworldwide.com Absolutely Fabulous

• The Mystery of Edwin Drood • Twenty Twelve • Absolutely Fabulous • The Fades • The Body Farm

Celebrating the 20th anniversary of the iconic British comedy Absolutely Fabulous, Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley are reprising their roles as Edina and Patsy in three new “Ab Fab” specials. BBC Worldwide is offering up the half-hour specials alongside other comedy highlights that include Twenty Twelve. In the way of straight drama fare, the company is showcasing The Mystery of Edwin Drood, based on the unfinished Charles Dickens novel, as well as The Fades and The Body Farm. As the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic is sure to drum up interest in programs related to the tragedy, “BBC Worldwide’s catalogue offers a number of programs that commemorate this infamous event, including Titanic & Me,” says Helen Jurado, the VP of television sales and distribution at BBC Worldwide Latin America.

“We have something for every viewer and from every genre.”

—Helen Jurado

Video interviews with leading players in the media business, industry analysis and a recap of the week’s events—delivered to your in-box every Thursday. For a free subscription, please visit www.worldscreen.com

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ITV Studios Global Entertainment www.itvstudios.com The Jury

• The Jeremy Kyle Show US • The Devil’s Dinner Party • The Jury • Falcón

The NATPE slate for ITV Studios Global Entertainment provides prime-time drama, event entertainment, landmark factual and natural-history content and more. Highlight titles include the U.S. version of the hit British daytime talk show The Jeremy Kyle Show, which launched in syndication last September. Recently commissioned by Sky Atlantic HD in the U.K., the factual-entertainment format The Devil’s Dinner Party features a popularity contest with a twist. Fresh off its recent airing on ITV1, where it was stripped across five consecutive nights, The Jury is a prime-time courtroom drama starring Julie Walters and written by BAFTA Award-winning writer Peter Morgan (The Queen). Also on the drama slate is Falcón, based on a set of best-selling novels from Robert Wilson. Javier Falcón is a chief inspector in the Seville police, a brilliant detective whose life is compromised by dark secrets from the past.

The Jeremy Kyle Show

MarVista Entertainment www.marvista.net The Witches of Oz

• Seattle Superstorm • Power Rangers Samurai • Shattered Silence • The Witches of Oz • Dangerous Attraction

For broadcasters looking to add some thrillers to their schedule, MarVista Entertainment has Shattered Silence and Dangerous Attraction, among others, to fit the bill. If it’s a disaster film that buyers are after, Seattle Superstorm features action, mystery and more. Putting a modern twist on a classic tale, MarVista is offering up The Witches of Oz. The fantasy/sci-fi mini-series stars Christopher Lloyd (Back to the Future), Sean Astin (The Lord of the Rings, The Goonies) and Billy Boyd (The Lord of the Rings). MarVista also plans to use NATPE as a platform for continuing the sales success of the Power Rangers franchise, with the series Power Rangers Samurai. “MarVista continues to lead the industry as an independent distributor and producer by providing a growing catalogue that will offer buyers quality content across a variety of platforms,” says CEO Fernando Szew.

“ NATPE will be a great opportunity to present our catalogue to the Latin American market and extend our relationships with broadcasters and buyers in the region.

”

—Fernando Szew

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MediaBiz www.mediabiz.com.ar • • • • •

Killer Women Left on the Shelf Sleeping with My Boss From Bed to Living Room Coffee Stories

“ The extraordinary

Left on the Shelf

stories and great scripts of the series and telenovelas are attractive to audiences.

Selling the formats of its series and telenovelas is among the key goals MediaBiz has for NATPE, along with making deals from its completed catalogue of comedy, action/suspense and drama titles. Additionally, MediaBiz as an entertainment-business agent is keen to explore new opportunities for alliances, co-productions and other types of partnerships, through which it can offer projectdevelopment assistance for international companies that would like to produce in Latin America. MediaBiz has its own titles to shop, including From Bed to Living Room and Coffee Stories, along with several series from its representation deal with Pol-ka, among them Killer Women, Left on the Shelf and Sleeping with My Boss. “MediaBiz expanded its presence in the entertainment market in 2011, incorporating successful producers like Be-TV (Colombia) and Prodigo (Brazil) as part of our representation, as well as renowned script authors,” says CEO Alex Lagomarsino.

”

—Alex Lagomarsino

Muse Entertainment www.muse.ca • Bomb Girls • King Tut • The Kennedys

Most buyers are already familiar with Muse Entertainment’s television mini-series The Kennedys, which was nominated for ten Emmy Awards and won four. Because the historical drama starring Katie Holmes (Dawson’s Creek) and Greg Kinnear (As Good as It Gets) has successfully sold around the world, Muse is highlighting The Kennedys at NATPE, says Michael Prupas, the president and CEO of Muse Entertainment. Also being showcased is the six-hour dramatic miniseries Bomb Girls, which is set in 1941, when women were drafted into factories to make bombs and ammunition for the war effort on the European front during World War II. It stars Meg Tilly (Agnes of God, The Big Chill ), Jodi Balfour and Charlotte Hegele, among others. In addition, King Tut, a major new dramatic event mini-series, tells the world, for the first time, who King Tutankhamun really was. The company will soon announce two other mini-series it has in development with major U.S. networks, Prupas adds.

Bomb Girls

“ We offer dramatic event programs with huge international proﬁt potential.”

—Michael Prupas

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Novavision-MEG www.novavision.fr

“ Novavision’s programs

• Pop Corn TV • Crazy Hidden Camera • Bubble Comedy Show • The Prize of Surprise • The QuizZz

meet the viewers’ needs for laughter and the advertisers’ needs for visibility.

”

With content that is currently broadcast in more than 112 countries, including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Ecuador, Novavision aims to reinforce its presence across Latin America and the U.S. by presenting more shows, clips and new programs and by developing co-production opportunities, says François-Xavier Poirier, the company’s CEO. The content available for NATPE is non-dialogue, fully edited, family oriented and multicultural. A pilot for the game-show format The Prize of Surprise has been produced and is available for the market, and Pop Corn TV, Novavision’s main brand and hit series, comprised of 400 half-hours episodes, will be highlighted as well.Also on offer are Crazy Hidden Camera, a family-oriented show featuring candid-camera gags, and Bubble Comedy Show, which features compilations of video clips. Another highlight is the format The QuizZz, an interactive comedy and non-dialogue family game.

—François-Xavier Poirier

Record TV Network www.recordtvnetwork.com Rebel Rio

• Rebel Rio • Jackpot! • Samson and Delilah • Esther, the Queen • The Law and the Crime

São Paulo’s Record TV Network is heading to NATPE with a slate that includes Rebel Rio and Samson and Delilah. Samson and Delilah “greatly exceeded our expectations with a magnificent result thanks to major investments in new technologies, scenography, costumes and a great cast,” says Delmar Andrade, Record’s international sales director. “It scored 14 rating points across Brazil, which means that more than 2,590,000 households watched the series.” There’s also the novela Jackpot!, about a group of friends who become millionaires after winning the lottery on New Year’s Eve, and the mini-series Esther, the Queen, which centers on the Persian Empire. In addition, The Law and the Crime, starring Francisca Queiroz, is about a high-society woman who decides to become a police commissioner in charge of the most troubled police department in the region after her father is murdered in a robbery.

“ High-quality scenarios, casts with many stars and high-deﬁnition equipment make our productions synonymous [with] guaranteed success.

”

—Delmar Andrade

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RTVE www.rtve.es Isabel

• Isabel • To Love in Difficult Times • Remember When • Real Madrid: The World’s Best Football Club • April 14th: The Republic

Increasing the penetration of its TVE channel and expanding it to a 24-hour format in the markets of Mexico, Peru, Colombia and Venezuela are among the major objectives of RTVE for 2012. RTVE is also focused on sales for the new TVE drama Isabel. “Isabel, the gripping story of a woman who changed the direction of the country, is the biggest and boldest bet made by TVE for 2012,” says Rodolfo Domínguez, the commercial director at RTVE. The show has its own site through RTVE.es, where users can find reports and interviews with the actors from the series and more. “Once the series premieres, the website will offer more information about the characters, places and historical events that are mentioned in each episode,” Domínguez notes. Other key titles RTVE is highlighting include To Love in Difficult Times, Remember When and April 14th: The Republic. Real Madrid: The World’s Best Football Club, meanwhile, is sure to grab the attention of soccer fans.

“ These products are made [to be of] the highest quality.”

—Rodolfo Domínguez

SevenOne International www.71int.com Lilyhammer

• Lilyhammer • The Greening of Whitney Brown • You Deserve It • My Man Can • Betty White’s Off Their Rockers

Best known for his role as Silvio Dante in The Sopranos and from his work as guitarist in Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band, Steven Van Zandt stars in the new dramedy Lilyhammer. “Lilyhammer is great dark, funny television, marked by intelligent storytelling and outrageous culture clash,” says Jens Richter, the managing director of SevenOne International. “Netflix was immediately interested in the idea and licensed exclusive streaming rights for the first season without one finished episode.” Another SevenOne show with a well-known name attached is Betty White’s Off Their Rockers. The eponymous comedic icon hosts the U.S. version of the successful format Benidorm Bastards. Brooke Shields, Aidan Quinn, Kris Kristofferson and Sammi Hanratty are part of the all-star cast in The Greening of Whitney Brown, a family movie. SevenOne also has two game-show highlights to offer up: You Deserve It, from Dick de Rijk, and My Man Can.

“ SevenOne International had a great year in 2011 and we are positive that NATPE will be a great kickoff for 2012.

”

—Jens Richter

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Starz Media www.starzglobal.com • Magic City • Spartacus: Vengeance • Baby Geniuses • Dan Vs • A Christmas Wedding Tail

Spartacus: Vengeance

“ Starz has completely

established itself as a major provider of premium programming.

”

Broadcasters today are especially on the lookout for gamechanging content that can differentiate their channels from others, says Gene George, the executive VP of worldwide distribution at Starz Media. “Starz delivers that content,” he declares. Starz is looking to lock in broadcast partners for its new original series Magic City as it gears up for the April 2012 world premiere. The first episode will be screened to an exclusive group of buyers the night prior to the opening of NATPE, to be followed by a “Coffee with…” breakfast featuring key cast members and the series creator, Mitch Glazer. “This is an outgrowth of the relationship we built together with Spartacus,” George says. Spartacus: Vengeance, the second season and sequel to Spartacus: Blood and Sand, will also be showcased. The company is further highlighting the live-action series Baby Geniuses, the animated series Dan Vs and A Christmas Wedding Tail, a familyfriendly feature.

—Gene George

Telemundo Internacional www.telemundointernacional.com • • • • •

Dangerous Affairs I’m the Boss Dance! To the Beat of the Heart Maid in Manhattan Secret Garden

As the second-largest producer and distributor of Spanishlanguage content worldwide,Telemundo Internacional has a catalogue for NATPE filled with telenovelas sure to satisfy buyers’ needs.There’s Dangerous Affairs, which tells the story of a young woman on a bright career path who is forced to choose between reason and her heart’s desires. Maid in Manhattan, produced by Telemundo in association with Sony Pictures Television, is based on the film starring Jennifer Lopez and Ralph Fiennes.The novela follows a young Mexican woman who immigrates to the U.S. with her son and finds employment as a maid in New York City. The TV Chile production I’m the Boss tells of a separated couple, Sofia and Diego. Sofia’s busy career has forced them into an arrangement where Diego takes on all of the household duties and cares for their two daughters. Telemundo also has productions from SBS in Korea (Secret Garden) and Powwow Media Partners (Dance! To the Beat of the Heart).

Maid in Manhattan I’m the Boss

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The Licensing Machine www.thelicensingmachine.com Metal Hurlant Chronicles

• Metal Hurlant Chronicles • Signs • Inside F.D.N.Y. Training Center

The Licensing Machine (TLM) has taken the Panini Group’s 50-year legacy of being a leader in the collectibles and trading-card sector into the TV-distribution arena. Bruno Zarka, TLM’s TV, home video and digital sales and services manager, says that the com pany’s attendance at NATPE represents an important new step in its development. At the market, TLM is unveiling the new drama series Signs, produced by XII Tribes Entertainment. Michel Zgarka, the CEO and executive producer at XII Tribes, says the series is a reponse to the lack of shows with astrological themes in the current TV-drama landscape. He says that astrology is universal and therefore will translate well into a high-concept prime-time TV show. Also in the TLM catalogue, the sci-fi/fantasy series Metal Hurlant Chronicles has already been sold into more than 40 countries. From producer Doc Story comes Inside F.D.N.Y. Training Center, which goes inside the FDNY’s training center at Randall’s Island.

“ The media division of the Panini Group

is aiming to become a [truly] global familyentertainment company.

”

Vision Films www.visionﬁlms.net • • • • •

Lake Effects

Blood Money Seven Below Lake Effects 3D travel documentaries Biographies

Vision Films has recently expanded into 3D programming. The company is focused on meeting buyers from the U.S., Canada and Latin America at NATPE, with sales in those territories accounting for one-third of its overall business, according to Lise Romanoff,Vision’s managing director and the CEO of worldwide distribution. “We have an excellent selection of dramas and romantic comedies that are good for women, families and daytime television, and action films that are good for the late-night action male audience,” Romanoff notes. Films on offer at NATPE include Blood Money, starring Pitbull (Fast & Furious) and Chai Hui “Gordon” Liu (Kill Bill), and Seven Below, starring Val Kilmer. In addition, the family drama Lake Effects, starring Jane Seymour, will be available.The company is also showcasing a long-running celebrity talk show shot in HD in Canada, a series of 3D nature and travel documentaries and a slate of 50 biographies for VOD.

“ Our goals are to strengthen our relationships with our repeat customers and meet new buyers.”

—Lise Romanoff

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—Bruno Zarka

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market trends

A LOOK AT THE BUSINESS OF INTERNATIONAL MEDIA BY MANSHA DASWANI

Netflix’s

to monetize that content and it’s differentially attractive to consumers and we price it low enough that they don’t have to cancel or get rid of anything else to afford it. It’s bringing the efficiencies of the Internet to an otherwise slightly inefficient market and actually expanding the revenue for everybody and, more importantly, growing consumer excitement for content.

Ted Sarandos Gearing up for its U.K. launch and continuing its expansion across Latin America, Netflix has been notching up programming deals around the world for its streaming service. World Screen recently caught up with Ted Sarandos, the company’s chief content officer, about licensing programming for its U.S. and international platforms, the move into original series and the importance of the site’s recommendation algorithms.

WS: What’s your approach to acquiring con-

tent for Netflix’s diverse customer base? SARANDOS: The thing that we have done

to address the diversity of the audience on Netflix has been to algorithmically figure out [what subscribers want to watch]. If I had editors trying to figure this out they’d be wrong as often as they’re right, and people bring their own preconceived notions and prejudices to the way they program.This is a very democratized system of getting great content in front of viewers and it takes into consideration what you’ve watched, what you’ve loved. What’s beautiful is in [every international territory] it’ll work the same way. In Latin America right now, you can watch The Godfather on Netflix in English, Spanish or Portuguese, subtitled or dubbed and in any combination of the two. So you can just pick which language track you want, pick which subtitle track you want and enjoy.There are some people for whom subtitling is their preference, because they’re more purist about cinema—they want to hear Al Pacino’s voice when they watch The Godfather—and there are some people who just don’t like to read subtitles so they’ll take it dubbed. This way I don’t have to choose for them. WS: As much as you’re a great source of revenue to a lot of people, some platforms feel threatened by Netflix. SARANDOS: People should not be threatened by Netflix, they should embrace it and be excited about it.The revenue opportunity that will come from taking local content global is much greater than the local threat will be.We very actively don’t get into the crosshairs of cable operators.The thing that people most value on television is live events and sports; that’s what people pay the most for and that’s what has the highest ratings.We are completely out of that business—we don’t pursue sports licenses, we don’t do American Idol or The X Factor in any country. I’m not into results-oriented shows. I really am looking for long-shelf-life content.We stay out of the thing that’s most valuable to most suppliers, which keeps the existing food chain pretty stable.What we do is offer a different way 28

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WS: Your deal for House of Cards was seen as a competitive threat by some premium networks.What led to the move into original programming? SARANDOS: We charge a subscription, we don’t have commercials, we aggregate content in a very premium window and we try to present the content in a very premium way. Arguably we’re most similar to HBO, Showtime, Starz, EPIX in the U.S. The truth of it is, we don’t compete with HBO on any content in the same window at all. Nothing that’s on HBO is on Netflix. We compete with [HBO] the way that baseball competes with football for sports dollars—it’s a different pool of content. HBO is very specific about their brand around their original programming, so we certainly have none of their original programming.We’re trying to give our subscribers what they want.They like these highly serialized onehour dramas—shows like Breaking Bad, Mad Men, Weeds and Dexter. People love this connection with content in a way that they can binge and watch multiple episodes in one sitting. The economics for those shows are challenged: DVD sales have slowed dramatically on box sets and it’s difficult to syndicate a serialized show.These shows would not be made for commercial television and pay television—HBO, Showtime, Starz—is unlikely to want to sell to us. If we [are] going to bring this content to our customers, we have to develop the muscle to do it with producers instead.While I would’ve much rather had the last couple years of True Blood, we’re excited to jump in the fray and do a show like House of Cards. [It] would’ve been a perfect show to go to HBO in the first window, but instead we’ll spend a lot more bringing it to Netflix in the first window. It kind of forced us into a competitive space with them where I don’t think we needed to be, but if it turns out to be successful, then it’ll be an efficient way for us to spend programming dollars. WS: Has the TV industry moved past this conception of

replacing analogue dollars for digital pennies? SARANDOS: Absolutely. I think we’ve gotten to a place

where people stopped doing deals and holding their breath to see what happened. These deals are additive to the [content owners’] revenue streams.The money that we pay…it’s serious money, it’s competitive with the syndication market.We don’t necessarily want [content] exclusively, but to make sure we can secure it, we bought out the syndication window on a show like Mad Men.When it goes off the air on AMC, it will go off of television and only be on Netflix.We have to try to reinvent the wheel all the time to guarantee access to content and in that way we become additive, or at least we become just another buyer.

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in the news

MAKING HEADLINES IN THE MEDIA INDUSTRY BY KRISTIN BRZOZNOWSKI

Striking a Deal

New Films forms a partnership with Lionsgate-TISA

Movie magic: Nesim Hason (above) is the president of New Films International, which has a catalogue that includes movies such as Saving Grace B. Jones with Tatum O’Neal.

This past October, Lionsgate Television International announced it was teaming up veteran Latin American TV executive Maryann Pasante to launch LionsgateTISA Television International. Pasante, who was formerly MGM Television International’s head of distribution for Latin America, had launched TISA (Television Internacional Sur America) earlier in 2011. The resulting joint venture is dedicated to handling the sales of Lionsgate’s portfolio of series and film catalogue to TV outlets across Latin America. The outfit also distributes select new feature films from Pantelion Films, which is a joint venture between Lionsgate and Grupo Televisa. Lionsgate-TISA has continued to build on its initial success through the representation of other high-quality producers and distributors. Its newest partnership, with New Films International (NFI), brings a wealth of fresh titles to its catalogue. The genesis of the deal was an existing relationship Pasante had with NFI going back to her time at MGM, where she had represented the company’s slate for Latin America. “When I joined Peter Iacono [the managing director of international] at Lionsgate, one of the first clients to contact me was NFI. Nesim [Hason, NFI’s president] said, I would love for you to represent me now in Latin America as well,” recalls Pasante. “I presented this to Peter and he thought it was a fabulous idea. We are now the exclusive representatives for a slate of films from NFI and we’re just starting to offer them.” For Hason, the LionsgateTISA deal represents a great opportunity to get the company’s film slate out to a wider market. “Lionsgate is becoming right now one of the major studios,” Hason says. “I saw the opportunity to combine NFI’s Academy Awardwinning and nominated films with Lionsgate’s prestigious film catalogue.” 30

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Pasante recognized the deal as a win-win. “New Films International has a nice slate of current titles,” she says. “That’s very important in a market that’s growing so rapidly like South America, where you have your novelas and your institutional television networks producing locally, to offer an alternative of current new titles. New Films has concentrated on directors and stars. Why is this an advantage to Lionsgate-TISA? Because it increases our platform to offer broadcasters additional current titles in addition to our new series. That makes us very strong in the marketplace.” “We do high-quality and definitely cast-driven and director-driven movies,” notes Hason of the NFI catalogue. Titles covered under the pact with Lionsgate-TISA include Flying Lessons, which stars Maggie Grace (Lost); Saving Grace B. Jones, featuring a host of Academy Award winners and nominees, among them Tatum O’Neal and Piper Laurie; and Trophy, starring Michael Madsen (Sin City), among others. “We at NFI are confident that Lionsgate-TISA Television International will do an incredible job with our films in Latin America,” Hason says. “Maryann’s incredible relationships and knowledge of the dynamic Latin American market combined with NFI’s slate of new films is a surefire winning combination.” Hason continues, “Also, during Maryann’s tenure at MGM she represented almost 85 NFI movies and found wonderful homes in Latin America for them all while generating over $20 million in television sales.” “At Lionsgate, we’re wonderfully pleased to have this new partnership with Maryann and the wealth of experience and the close, personal relationships that she has across Latin America,” says Iacono. “Bringing together Maryann’s talent, experience and relationships, we’ve coupled that with Lionsgate and created this wonderful new entity. With this coming together, we’re creating something that actually builds on its own and attracts other programmers and suppliers like New Films. These are great producers and it gives us an opportunity to really start expanding what is Lionsgate around the world by finding the right partnerships, and with these partnerships, enhancing our program catalogue.” The deal with New Films started with Latin America, but has since evolved into a broader relationship with Lionsgate, Iacono says. “We will soon be representing films from New Films across Europe as well. Building relationships like ours with New Films International is what we’re looking to do all around the world. We’re really enthused about it and we think we’ve found a really great partner with New Films and we couldn’t be more pleased.”

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spotlight

PROFILING INNOVATION IN THE TELEVISION BUSINESS BY ANNA CARUGATI

Media knows how to distribute and is always associated with the best and most innovative stories that come to the market. We also represent In Treatment, the most famous Israeli format, which aired on HBO for three seasons.We are the international distributor and sold it to more than 35 territories.We have taken In Treatment to the next level.We are producing it by ourselves in Argentina as En terapia, which will air in the spring on the public broadcaster, Channel 7 TV Pública, and then we are going to distribute it in Latin America and Spain.

Dori Media Group’s

Nadav Palti Dori Media Group (DMG) has built its reputation in the international television market on providing sophisticated telenovelas and daily dramas, such as Lalola, and cross-platform series like Amanda O. With a constant focus on quality, DMG’s CEO and president, Nadav Palti, has begun to diversify not only the company’s catalogue but also its businesses, which already include production, distribution, channels and new media.

WS: Dori Media has been able to break into some very

important markets. PALTI: In Russia we have sold almost everything we have,

finished product and scripts for local adaptations. We sold Cupid:The Business of Love; it was produced locally and is successful. Split is also on the air.We sold two seasons of In Treatment to Channel One in Russia. We also work with CTC and all the channels and all the production companies in Russia. After two years in a recession, when buyers didn’t even answer the phone, Russia is now coming back big time, their economy is good and that is having a positive impact on our business.The same is true in Poland. In the U.S. we sold the format to Date Blind (Ciega a citas) to CBS Television Studios. They will produce it for The CW and are now working on the pilot. I hope Date Blind will be the same as Ugly Betty—the success in the U.S. will influence sales all around the world. In China we are doing quite well. We sold Amanda O, which we produce in Argentina. It’s the first cross-platform format for the Internet, mobile and TV.We sold 120 episodes of Mannequins, a show we produce in Israel.We also sold the format for uMan, and it will air as a local production next spring. After it airs in China it will help us sell it in Asia and worldwide. In Brazil, we sold Wrong Number to SBT and we are working on other formats like uMan. Our catalogue is very big and lucrative and focuses on quality content and we also produce a lot in Israel and in Argentina.We are starting to benefit from all the new-media formats we produced in the last two or three years and recently we diversified our catalogue to include game shows.This has helped us maintain our position in the market and break into new territories. WS: Making deals in major territories must have

enhanced your reputation and made it easier to open new doors. PALTI: We just signed a deal with The Bold and the Beautiful.We will be their sales agents in a lot of territories: all of Latin America, most of Central and Eastern Europe and a few countries in Asia. It’s an honor that this company that has had a show on the air on CBS since 1987 wants us to help them. It’s an indication that the market understands that Dori

WS: Tell us about diversifying your catalogue. PALTI: We came to the conclusion that since we are sell-

ing to more than 120 territories around the world and we have more than 700 clients, if we reach them with good drama, whether it’s daily, weekly or prime-time drama, then why not try to sell them new-media reality shows, which are both for Internet and TV, not just for TV. We also try to find new angles on the game-show genre. We have Wrong Number and The Money Pump, which are two innovative formats.We have more than 5,500 hours of drama, so why not offer other genres when we meet with buyers? WS: Despite the difficult economies in several ter-

ritories, what business opportunities are you seeing? PALTI: I am actually seeing opportunities all

over the world. We have learned from the last three years. The recession started in the last quarter of 2008 and we suffered two tough years in 2009 and 2010, even though we did very well. But because we are selling worldwide and because the Israeli economy was great, we were able to maintain good results. We cut costs, but when we cut we didn’t damage our revenue stream and part of that came from our TV channels, which during the recession proved to be very lucrative because we didn’t deal with advertising revenue, we only dealt with subscriber fees.We have 18 TV channels and we are launching another five HD channels to reach 23 channels.We try to maintain and constantly increase the fixed cash flow that we get every month, which allows us to then take risks and produce more new shows, because we know that we will regularly get a very good stream of revenue. We are getting into a new business. We just invested in a company that deals with in-flight entertainment. Airplanes today offer touchscreen video on demand and there are 5.5 billion passengers a year and that number increases by 6 percent every year. So we combine our expertise in media, including our experience as buyers—[for the telenovela channel alone] we buy about 3,500 hours from our competitors and we buy a lot of movies and series from the majors for the TV channels that we operate in Israel—and our expertise with airlines, to build an in-flight entertainment business. 1/12

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FX’s American Horror Story.

Original

Spin By Bill Dunlap

Despite rising production costs, first-run drama series remain integral to the lineups of the major U.S. cable networks.

or some years now, on basiccable television, scripted, original series have been the stars, the sine qua non, the buzz generators for top networks. They sit at the peak of the basic-cable programming pyramid, as Bob DeBitetto, the president and general manager of A&E Network and Bio, puts it. But lately there are increasing signs that the spectacular recent growth of first-run dramas and sitcoms on cable may be flattening out. Even though the big cable networks like A&E, FX, Syfy,TBS,TNT and USA Network are immensely profitable, rising production costs, a mature cable universe with slim prospects for subscriber growth and a paucity of real hits are combining to take some of the luster off firstrun series. Some circumstantial evidence to support that notion is as follows: A&E is adding only one new drama this year, Longmire, a ten-

episode mystery series. And while it is renewing The Glades and Breakout Kings for ten hours each, far more hours are going into unscripted series like the Storage Wars franchise, the new Shipping Wars, four recently renewed reallife crime and justice series—The First 48, Beyond Scared Straight, Dog the Bounty Hunter and Steven Seagal Lawman—and American Hoggers, which follows a Texas family that hunts wild hogs. AMC, which has a genuine hit with The Walking Dead, and the critically acclaimed Mad Men, Breaking Bad and The Killing, has no plans to launch new series this year and instead acquired its first off-net series last month: CSI: Miami. TNT expects to continue to air seven to nine scripted dramas each year, but at the same time is ramping up its unscripted-series business. The network observes that on cable and broadcast, unscripted storytelling has 32

become the preferred drama for a lot of viewers. Syfy, a major player in original series with around 350 first-run hours last year, plans to increase that to about 425 hours in 2012 with unscripted overtaking scripted with ten new titles. USA continued to have success with dramas like Royal Pains, Burn Notice and Covert Affairs, but is moving aggressively into unscripted this year with The Choir, a musical format series; The Moment, hosted by former NFL quarterback Kurt Warner; and two untitled series described as a social experiment and a reality soap opera. FX, a leader in scripted dramas like Sons of Anarchy and American Horror Story and comedies like Louie and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, declined an interview request to talk about scripted series, saying in an e-mail, “Nothing on the horizon as of now.”

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The Los Angeles Times last month ran a business page article saying that U.S. cable networks are beginning to feel the pinch of dramatically higher programming expenses, with rising costs for sports rights and the production of original series. The article reported that Nomura Equity Research had downgraded the entire U.S. media sector to “neutral” from “bullish” and quoted a Nomura analyst as saying,“Cable networks are more challenged than they have been in the last five to ten years. You have these rising programming costs, and the other core issue is that there are fewer new TV households being formed.” Those points notwithstanding, cable execs still see original firstrun series as a key component in audience- and brand-building. A&E’s DeBitetto says one of the reasons first-run remains attractive is that his network and others have seen erosion in the

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ratings of off-network dramas and movies. “Every off-network show has its life span,” DeBitetto says. “The problem is, certainly for the first time that I’ve been involved in this business, there is really nothing coming off the broadcast networks that is going to do me any good, or any of the other cable networks any good. Many of them are not designed to be repeatable; they don’t have the right aspect or the right storytelling to be rerun the way cable had been doing in the past. A good example of that is The Good Wife, which is a phenomenal show, but they haven’t sold it [into syndication] yet, and one of the reasons is that it’s quite serialized and makes it quite difficult to rerun.” ACTION REPLAY

The series that would work in reruns, like Hawaii Five-0 and NCIS: Los Angeles, are quite expensive, he notes. “It’s becoming clear to me that the future for us is going to be our ability to create original programming. A&E has always been a mix of original and acquired, but our challenge in the next 18 months to two years is that we need to transform A&E to a 100-percent original-programming network. And we are almost there already. I think [this] year most weeks we will only have one night, maybe, that is devoted to Criminal Minds and the other six nights will be devoted to our original programming franchises. As successful as our partnership with CBS has been on a show like Criminal Minds or CSI: Miami, they don’t really brand A&E the way that Intervention and Storage Wars brand A&E.” The reason DeBitetto puts his three scripted dramas at the top of the program pyramid is that they appeal to blue-chip advertisers. “Great scripted programming tends to drive pricing,” he says. “They tend to demand the greatest CPM base, and that essentially gives our ad-sales guys a great asset

to help in their sales strategy. So to me it’s a bit of a less-is-more strategy. I’d like to see in any given 12month period maybe three original scripted franchises on the network, as a great piece of the overall puzzle. As we earn success, [we can] maybe add to that. Said another way, the last thing I want to do is try to replicate the U.S. broadcast model, because I don’t think anybody thinks that is a good model.” DRAMATIC TURNS

Probably no network has built its brand on scripted hours more than the “We know drama” folks at TNT. Following the success of the off-network Law & Order franchise, TNT launched The Closer in 2005, followed by a series of police and legal procedurals. Lately, though, it has branched out into new genres, specifically targeting viewers of its weekend movies. “Falling Skies was our first effort to do that,” says Michael Wright, the executive VP and head of programming at TBS, TNT and TCM. “Falling Skies is full of hope and heart and humor. It’s an adventure story, not a nihilist drama. It was a good way to take that movieloving audience that comes to TNT on weekends and bring them to a series. It was our number one rated show in the demo.” The show premiered last summer and was renewed for a second season in 2012. Also going beyond the procedural genre are Gateway, a period western, and a more modern western with a strong pedigree, Dallas. “The significant thing about Dallas,” Wright says, “is that it is not a remake. As Michael Robin” (The Closer, Rizzoli & Isles, Nip/Tuck) “the director and executive producer of the show, said, ‘It’s as if the cameras left 20-some-odd years ago, but the Ewings went on with it. Now the cameras have come back.’ Dallas was always about those incredibly relatable familial conflicts taken to the nth degree. Cynthia Cidre” (The Mambo Kings, In Coun1/12

try), “who did a beautiful job writing the pilot and who is showrunning the series, and Michael embrace and celebrate what Dallas was, starting with bringing back Larry Hagman, Linda Gray and Patrick Duffy, the heart of the original series, playing vital roles along with a new generation.” Wright acknowledges that the show will attract an older audience at first, but he is confident the cast and writing will attract younger viewers too. “Gateway, like Falling Skies, is a big, fun genre piece,” Wright says.“We’re doing the smartpopcorn take on a western. It’s big and exciting and fun, infused with historical authenticity but its intention is to entertain you. It isn’t Deadwood.There’s room for both. All westerns are not equal.” In the more traditional TNT mold are two new procedurals: Perception, starring Eric McCormack as a scientist who helps the feds crack tough cases, and Major Crimes, essentially a continuation of The Closer, which ends its run this year after seven seasons, following star Kyra Sedgwick’s decision to bow out. “We have, in any given year, between seven and nine scripted series,” Wright says. “But TNT, like everyone else, is getting aggressively into the unscripted

World Screen

Strong leads: Covert Affairs has been renewed by USA for a third season.

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Making bad look good: One of AMC’s signature original series, Breaking Bad has been renewed for its fifth and final season, with Sony Pictures Television producing 16 episodes for broadcast this year.

business.You have to go there. We might go from nine scripted series down to seven at a certain point to allow for more unscripted on the network. The assumption in years past was that networks would engage in unscripted storytelling because it was cheaper. The reality today is that unscripted storytelling has become the preferred drama for a lot of viewers. To not be in that space, for a network branded as a drama network, is almost a sin of omission. I wish we’d been there a year ago, but we will be in that space aggressively starting next summer.” Wright hopes TNT will have the right balance of programming in two or three years, but he doesn’t claim to know just what that balance will be right now.

“Part of the fun of this business is you feel your way, you act and react, you learn as you go,” he says. “We know at TNT our brand is smart popcorn. We know the vibe of the network, so that we can find the proper mix of scripted to unscripted to acquired to movies to sports. As long as they all add up to a consistency of tone and appeal, we’re in good shape.” BANNER YEAR

Syfy, which is owned by NBCUniversal, had its best year in 2011 based on a mix of unscripted and scripted original series, the latter including Warehouse 13, Alphas, Eureka, Being Human and Haven. The network averaged 1.33 million viewers in prime time, up 10 percent from 2010. 34

“Scripted is at the heart of this brand,” says Dave Howe, the president of Syfy. “We have a record of scripted series and mini-series going back almost a decade. It’s what Syfy is about.” Of the top five scripted series, only Eureka will not be back in 2012. “Our total original hours [last] year was around 350, scripted and unscripted,” Howe says. “That goes up [this] year to around 425. In 2012, we’re going to overtake the scripted with the unscripted. We’ll be doing even more in the future.” Original programming is key to Syfy because there is so little available for acquisition in the fantasy/sci-fi genre it favors. The acquired series Merlin, from FremantleMedia Enterprises, and, new this year, Lost Girl, from

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Canada’s Showcase channel, are first-run in the U.S. UNSCRIPTED SUCCESS

“Our future is in original development,” Howe continues. “Scripted is more challenging because it is considerably more expensive. Unscripted is a great opportunity for us, which is why we’re going to add another 50 hours. We’ll be launching at least ten new titles. We really want to be much more risk-taking and experimental about the unscripted space. It skews younger and brings in more women. It’s a great way to grow the brand and bring in more viewers.” AMC has one of the best performing scripted cable series in The Walking Dead and one of the most

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honored and acclaimed in Mad Men. It launched Hell on Wheels in November, joining Breaking Bad and The Killing in its original-series roster. “We have an aggressive development slate, but in terms of launching new series, [there are] no plans for that in 2012,” says Joel Stillerman, the senior VP of original programming. Hell on Wheels has been renewed for a second season. The other confirmed shows for 2012 are Mad Men, The Killing, Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead. Stillerman says AMC doesn’t have quotas for scripted series on the channel. “Our attitude is that we’re on a slow build and we’ll add things when we think they’re right.There’s

no maximum or minimum. The win for us is when we make stuff we can stand by and nurture over time and build into a successful franchise. We’ve confirmed seasons five and six on Mad Men, two more years.” Stillerman expects to stick with dramas and he likes that AMC’s diverse lineup of movie titles gives it a flexible The next generation: A new iteration of the successful drama Dallas will debut this summer brand. “We have some- on TNT, with a number of original cast members returning alongside a set of fresh faces. thing unique in that we’re a network that is about an and The Walking Dead. It’s OK if makes sense for Sundance to tell, eclectic approach to drama,” he there’s not a ton of crossover which is to say a story that has a says. “We love the fact that we between those two shows. We really singular vision.” have a network with Mad Men know there are a lot of people Sundance will remain primarily a not inclined to watch zombie movie channel, Barnett says, but she shows who watched Walking hopes to add more original series Dead and loved it. Our feeling is and one-offs. “Now is the perfect we want to create pockets of pas- time.There is so much extraordinary sion and excel there. We’re more talent out there. I think there is about being bold than broad.” room for many players in the world The challenge is in the business of scripted quality television. As an model. “We’re all looking for a industry, we’ve only begun to model that allows you to scale scratch the surface.” the kind of success that we and some of the other net- TICKLING THE FUNNY BONE works have had on scripted Channels with a heavy comedy dramas,” Stillerman says. “The component have tended to gravitate more toward acquired series— holy grail is to not have it be a perhaps because sitcoms seem to loss leader. In some cases it’s terrific repeat better than drama—and because it brings people to your unscripted series. network, and in our case not just TV Land was built on off-network ratings success but critical acclaim. reruns, but has had success with But you have to build a better model, and that’s going to require Hot in Cleveland, now in its third season, Retired at 35, Happily more creative partnerships out Divorced and The Exes. there with all the entities—stu“I hope we’re just starting,” says dios and independent financiers—and looking for different Keith Cox, the executive VP of development and original proways to monetize.” AMC’s sister channel, Sundance gramming at the Viacom-owned channel. “The plan is to keep Channel, is adding the legal drama building and finding different voices Rectify this year to its lineup of and characters, move into the singleoriginal movies and mini-series, camera business.” acquired and unscripted content. Current shows are shot in the “We fell in love with the script,” traditional multi-camera mode, says Sarah Barnett, Sundance Chanmatching many of its off-net sitnel’s executive VP and general manager. “It was by Ray McKinnon, coms and appealing to a somewhat older target audience. “We’re really who is primarily known as an actor” (Sons of Anarchy, Deadwood,The Blind looking for strong voices, showrunners with something strong to Side, O Brother,Where Art Thou?).“It’s Ladies of the hour: TBS airs a number of series from producer Tyler Perry, representative of the kind of story it say,” Cox says. “We produce everyamong them the dramedy For Better or Worse. 1/12

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Mysteries unraveled: Originals like Alphas have been a key part in building up Syfy’s schedule, since the supply is somewhat limited for acquired series in the genres of science fiction and fantasy.

thing in-house, so we need people who can really run the show.” Late last year,TV Land shot a pilot for a series starring Cedric the Entertainer as a minister, a character developed for Hot in Cleveland. “He, as a comedian, has a very strong point of view,” Cox says. Turner’s Wright says that TBS, the comedy domain under his purview, is a few years behind TNT in developing scripted series. “We’ve had some very good shows that did fine for us, but we’ve never had the big breakout prime-time hit on TBS,” he says. “Part of the problem on TBS is we’ve never had that big lead-in that we had for years on TNT with Law & Order.” Wright is hoping that will change with TBS’s recent purchase of The Big Bang Theory, a Chuck Lorre CBS show with broad

appeal. “It’s exactly what you want as a lead-in. It’s not niche programming.To have that show now, just as we’re getting heavily into the half-hour scripted comedy space, which is what we’ve been focusing on, is terrific.” TBS premiered its new original comedy Tyler Perry’s For Better or Worse to 3.4 million total viewers in November.The sitcom, based on Perry’s Why Did I Get Married? movies, reached 1.8 million adults 18 to 49 in its 10 p.m. launch. At 10:30 p.m., another episode drew similar numbers. CUE THE QUIRK

IFC, which thrives on quirky comedy and independent movies, started new seasons of Portlandia, with Fred Armisen, and The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret, starring David Cross, earlier this month. 36

“Alternative scripted comedy is an area of focus for us,” says Jennifer Caserta, the executive VP and general manager of IFC. “We will continue to increase the commitment. We had six shows [last] year. It will be about the same [this] year. The intention is to grow it from there.” Furthermore, IFC is blurring the line between scripted and unscripted shows. One is based on “Comedy Bang Bang: The Podcast” by Scott Aukerman. “It’s a mix of celebrity guests, mostly comedians, variety sketches, all led by Scott,” Caserta says. “Pointless is a game show that isn’t really a game show. It’s comedy improv meets game show, part scripted, part improv, hosted by comedian Kurt Braunohler.” This summer will see the launch of the scripted show Bullet in the

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Face. “It marries two sensibilities,” Caserta says. “We call it a comedic action-thriller. It’s pulp stylized, with Eric Roberts and Eddie Izzard as guest stars.” For a cable channel building toward full distribution, as IFC still is, originals remain a way to attract viewers and new distribution. “Original programming defines a network and its brand better than anything else you can do on your air,” Caserta says. “We have a very rich development cycle, the most robust we’ve ever had. We’re looking at everything from sketch to single-camera to animation.” The key for all the major U.S. cable networks will be finding business models that allow them to produce high-quality originals amid a competitive and fragmented landscape.

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one on one t is fair to say that Kevin Reilly has a good instinct for what makes a hit TV show. He has proven this in every job he’s had and he has certainly displayed this skill since he was appointed president of entertainment at the Fox Broadcasting Company (FOX) in July of 2007. He has overseen a network that has consistently scored high ratings among the much coveted young demographic. Early in his career, while at NBC Entertainment, Reilly was part of the development team that created ER, Homicide: Life on the Street and Law & Order. Later, as president of Brad Grey Television, Reilly was responsible for shepherding the pilot of the groundbreaking series The Sopranos. He then joined FX and as president of entertainment helped transform it from a fledgling channel into a profitable one

and a destination for cutting-edge series like The Shield (which broke cable ratings records and earned a Golden Globe for best drama series and an Emmy for outstanding lead actor for Michael Chiklis), Nip/Tuck and Rescue Me. Reilly then returned to NBC, where he was appointed president of entertainment and oversaw the development of shows in every genre: the comedies The Office and 30 Rock, the reality show The Biggest Loser and the futuristic drama Heroes. After joining FOX, Reilly introduced the industry’s first year-round programming-anddevelopment system, a way of developing and rolling out new shows that is more efficient than the traditional way of premiering all new shows in the fall. Under his leadership, FOX premiered some of the most critically acclaimed shows now airing on television, including the hits Glee, Seth MacFarlane’s The Cleveland Show, and New Girl, the breakout comedy hit of this season. Besides coming up with cost-effective business models, Reilly is particularly keen on constantly stimulating the creative process and encouraging his team to think differently. As he tells World Screen, it is precisely this out-of-thebox thinking that will allow traditional broadcasters to successfully navigate today’s complex digital landscape.

Kevin Reilly

Fox Broadcasting Company

WS: How does an executive walk the line between nur-

turing creativity, understanding the creative process, and coming up with business models that can monetize content in today’s digital world? REILLY: More and more those lines should be blurred. Traditionally, there’s been the creative on one end and the money guys on the other—but our media landscape now requires a lot more creative thinking from both sides. That’s a very easy thing to say, but it’s what gets inside your thinking, whether you’re an executive or a creator, that is going to prevent you from considering something that may in fact be the answer. That’s the challenge of it. So you either encourage that inside an organization, you either encourage that inside a creator, or you put it down.There are a lot of things that are fairly successful in walking a conventional line, but the things that are really successful and the business challenges today call for some inspiration and encouraging what may be on the other side of that. WS: In general, FOX has never been scared of pushing

the envelope, has it? REILLY: No, that’s actually what I really love about the

company. The corporate culture at FOX has always rewarded risk.The nature of the organization wants you to innovate and push forward. I’ve never been chastised for making a bold bet on something. If you make five of them in a row that don’t work, you’re probably not going to be invited to stay around! [Laughs] But I can tell you last year we premiered a show on FOX that lasted 1/12

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Opening new doors: One of the breakout hits from the 2011 fall season is the freshman comedy New Girl, which premiered to 10.1 million viewers.

one episode, Lone Star, and nobody said to me, “How did that happen?” They said, “OK, let’s move on.” A success and a failure are only separated by a few strands of DNA. WS: You have started a program called the Innovators Group,

which encourages creative thinking, where small teams explore ideas and then provide insights to the larger organization. How did that come about? REILLY: You can have retreats and seminars with speakers and consultants who can tell you what they are doing, and what I find is that everybody leaves the room nodding yes, but then they get back to their office and they’re overwhelmed with their responsibilities. There’s just not enough time in the day, and what most people end up pushing aside is

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creative thinking—anything that could be stimulating to you as an individual and that you can bring into the organization and just say, “I’m excited by this!” That’s where the fertile environment comes from and you have to almost bake [creative thinking] into the day. So that’s what we’re trying to do with our Innovators Group—we want to allow employees to take time out of their day-to-day jobs to pursue projects that they find creatively stimulating or inspiring. We actually even want to reward it. Some digital businesses have done this famously, such as Google. If people can say they followed something that got everybody excited, even if it doesn’t lead to an immediate product, I think that should be rewarded. WS: When I interviewed Rupert Murdoch in 2005 we talked about the importance of creative thinking, and that was when the world wasn’t as complicated technologically as it is today. REILLY: That is the spirit; it starts from the top. It’s a curiosity to explore. Now granted, there’s no free pass on your day job, but what’s expected is that your end results will only be better by being curious about what could be done new and differently, in addition to what we are already doing. WS: As the television experience becomes more personal, with viewers watching programming on demand on TV, laptops, iPads and other portable devices, what does a linear network have to do to maintain its relevance? REILLY: Well, that’s one of the big questions.The [network business] can create a very split personality because some days you come in [to work] and look and there it is, the old-fashioned business is alive and well, the viewers showed up [the night before to watch your shows]. Other days you look and ask,Well, where did the viewers go? Sometimes they manifest themselves in different places. There’s a discovery down the line. It turns out [there’s] this online viewing experience that hasn’t yet resulted in a live daily rating, but all of a sudden, critical mass is reached and there they are. What we have to [start realizing is that] this is not going to happen overnight. But the bottom has not dropped out.The business is not dead. All those proclamations people were making even five years ago: “This is dead!” and “That’s over!” and “You don’t get it” and “This is a thing of the past.” I just found that silly. It was frustrating because I knew the business wasn’t dead, it is transforming. But just because it’s not dead doesn’t mean you can be in denial. It is transforming and our content is moving on all of these different platforms. Facebook can see how much dialogue is taking place around our content and people want to immediately be a part of it. They want to discover it and build it up. They’d like to have extensions when people are passionate about a show. I’m amazed at just how much more they’d like to either consume or participate in. With Glee, I couldn’t believe the stuff I was seeing. People were [singing and dancing] in their own living rooms. The question is, how do we feed that? [Social media] now has to be a very, very important part of our business. Our companies were not structured that way, so we’ve done a lot of [experimenting]. We’re trying to figure out how we can feed [social media] and get that to scale the same way we do with a television show. WS: Are you seeing the possibility of spending less on traditional pro-

motion because of what social networks can do for your shows? REILLY: That would be nice! [Laughs] We haven’t seen that yet. I

can talk about being courageous all I want, but I’m not yet so con-

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one on one fident in my job that we can say, “Let’s put something out without any marketing.” But I can say this: it’s way more efficient because, again, it’s not either-or. Marketers of our advertising partners are just as challenged and have made some very fumbling, ill-advised moves in trying to be in a conversation with their consumers. Now a lot of them have gone back to network television realizing that you simply can’t drive the same level of brand equity without television. So how do we win on both fronts? How is television a part of that digital experience, part of a brand, but not just embedding 30-second spots in between the shows? I think the 30-second spot still endures and will endure, but it needs to go hand in hand with other elements.

WS: The theme of the upcoming show Touch is interconnectivity. How are you incorporating this into the series’ online presence? REILLY: Well, that was one of the things I was really excited about. I just thought it was a timely theme. In the entire world there’s no country you can look to and say, “Oh, they seem to have it easy.” Everybody [is facing challenges and] wondering, “What’s going on here?” So there’s a comforting aspect to this show even though we’re going to deal with some challenging drama. I feel from an entertainment perspective it’s the right timing. And we have some pretty big ambitions in the digital space. We want to encourage the show’s idea of interconnectivity and the global nature of a lot of its stories. I would love to see it literally connect peo-

ple around the world. I would love to see people say—I know it sounds corny but—“I found my long-lost sister through this” or “I made a connection with somebody that I never thought I would see again.” These things can happen around the show in the digital space. WS: How has the TV season been

so far for FOX? REILLY: We’re off to a good start.

I really felt going in this year that we had a lot of things that had tremendous potential. Terra Nova got off on a bit of a soft start in the U.S. and yet we looked at the DVR numbers and all of a sudden they jumped up. I’m very heartened by New Girl too; our comedy in the U.S. is so important. I knew that show was a winner. That’s another great thing, when you think, “God, I feel this could really be it,” and

Walk on the dark side: J.J. Abrams’ new series, Alcatraz, debuted as part of FOX’s mid-season lineup. 42

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then the audience is there.The oldfashioned audience response is still alive and well! WS: You love what you do. REILLY: Some days. [Laughs] It’s

just torture other days! WS: Is programming what excites you the most? REILLY: Yes. I love it. You’d think, it’s television, it should be fun, but because it never stops, that is the hard part of it. If you want to make good shows and you want to make shows that can really move people, the pace just never stops—now more than ever. That is the hard part of it. Sometimes you’d like to just slow down and say, We need a little more time, but there just isn’t any. But it’s fun; I wouldn’t trade places with anybody.

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american network scorecard Source: The Nielsen Company, September 19, 2011, to December 25, 2011 A rating point represents 1,147,000 TV households; shares are the percentage of sets tuned to a particular program or station. Courtesy of ABC.

Rank Program

Network

Distributor

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 10 12 13 13 13 16 17 18 19 20 21 21 23 23 25 25 25 28 28 30 31 31 33 34 34 36 37 37 37 40 41 42 43 44 44 45 46 47 48 49 49

CBS ABC CBS ABC CBS CBS CBS CBS ABC ABC CBS CBS CBS CBS CBS CBS CBS CBS CBS ABC CBS CBS FOX FOX ABC ABC ABC CBS CBS ABC CBS CBS FOX ABC ABC NBC FOX FOX NBC ABC FOX FOX ABC ABC CBS CBS NBC ABC ABC FOX FOX

CBS Studios Intl. BBC Worldwide Warner Bros. BBC Worldwide CBS Studios Intl. Warner Bros. CBS Studios Intl. Warner Bros. Disney Media Distribution Twentieth Century Fox Disney Media Distribution Sony Pictures Television CBS Studios Intl. CBS Studios Intl. Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Warner Bros. CBS Studios Intl. CBS Studios Intl. Disney Media Distribution CBS Studios Intl. CBS Studios Intl. FremantleMedia Enterprises FremantleMedia Enterprises Disney Media Distribution Disney Media Distribution Disney Media Distribution Twentieth Century Fox CBS Studios Intl. Disney Media Distribution Sony Pictures Television Disney Media Distribution Twentieth Century Fox Disney Media Distribution Disney Media Distribution NBCUniversal Twentieth Century Fox NBCUniversal Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Twentieth Century Fox Twentieth Century Fox Sony Pictures Television Warner Bros. CBS Studios Intl. CBS Studios Intl. NBCUniversal Sony Pictures Television Sony Pictures Television Twentieth Century Fox Twentieth Century Fox

NCIS Dancing with the Stars Two and a Half Men Dancing with the Stars: Results NCIS: Los Angeles The Big Bang Theory 60 Minutes The Mentalist Grey’s Anatomy Modern Family Criminal Minds Unforgettable Hawaii Five-0 CSI Person of Interest Mike & Molly 2 Broke Girls The Good Wife Blue Bloods Castle Survivor: South Pacific CSI: Miami The X Factor (Wednesday) The X Factor (Thursday) Once Upon a Time Desperate Housewives Body of Proof How I Met Your Mother CSI: NY Last Man Standing Rules of Engagement Amazing Race 19 Bones Private Practice Revenge Law & Order: SVU Glee House Harry’s Law The Middle New Girl Terra Nova Pan Am Suburgatory A Gifted Man How to Be a Gentleman Parenthood Happy Endings Charlie’s Angels Family Guy The Simpsons

Average Share 12.9/20 12.2/18 11.2/16 10.9/16 10.6/16 9.6/16 9.3/14 9.1/15 9.0/14 8.9/14 8.9/14 8.5/14 8.3/13 8.3/14 8.3/13 8.2/12 8.1/12 8.0/12 7.9/14 7.7/12 7.5/12 7.5/13 7.3/11 7.3/12 7.2/11 7.2/11 7.2/12 7.0/11 7.0/12 6.9/11 6.7/10 6.7/10 6.6/10 6.4/10 6.4/11 6.1/10 6.0/9 6.0/9 6.0/9 5.9/10 5.8/9 5.7/9 5.6/9 5.5/9 5.5/10 5.4/9 4.8/8 4.7/7 4.6/7 4.5/7 4.5/7

Kids

Teens

M18–49

F18–49

M25–54

F25–54

M50+

F50+

1.2 1.6 1.4 1.4 1.0 1.3 0.9 0.6 1.0 1.7 0.8 0.6 0.8 0.6 0.7 0.9 1.1 0.6 0.6 0.5 1.4 0.7 2.4 2.3 2.0 1.0 0.4 1.0 0.6 1.3 0.8 1.2 1.0 0.6 0.5 0.5 1.5 0.9 0.3 1.4 1.2 1.2 0.4 1.1 0.5 0.7 0.6 0.7 0.7 1.7 2.2

2.1 1.5 3.1 1.4 1.8 2.4 1.0 1.5 1.4 3.3 1.6 1.1 1.7 1.2 1.4 1.7 2.2 0.9 0.8 1.2 2.0 1.0 2.9 2.9 2.8 1.7 0.7 1.9 0.8 1.6 1.5 1.6 2.2 0.8 1.0 0.9 4.2 1.8 0.5 2.2 3.3 2.3 0.9 1.9 0.5 1.1 0.7 1.3 0.9 3.7 3.2

4.0 2.0 6.2 1.9 3.6 5.3 3.1 2.7 2.6 5.4 3.2 2.2 3.3 2.8 3.0 3.8 4.6 1.8 1.7 2.1 3.4 2.1 3.4 3.2 2.9 2.2 1.4 4.6 1.6 2.8 3.4 2.7 2.6 1.5 2.0 1.8 2.6 3.7 1.2 2.5 3.6 3.7 1.8 2.3 0.9 2.6 1.8 2.7 1.2 4.7 4.5

5.1 5.3 7.1 4.7 4.2 5.9 2.7 3.6 8.1 7.4 5.3 3.4 4.3 4.1 3.3 5.3 5.9 3.4 2.6 3.7 4.4 3.3 5.2 5.0 5.6 5.4 3.1 5.4 2.6 3.7 3.8 3.8 4.4 5.6 4.5 3.6 5.5 4.1 1.9 3.7 6.0 3.0 3.8 3.9 1.7 3.0 4.1 3.9 2.1 3.1 3.0

5.5 2.6 7.6 2.5 4.8 6.7 4.3 3.7 3.1 6.2 4.1 3.2 4.3 3.7 4.2 5.0 5.7 2.5 2.4 2.6 4.7 2.8 4.1 4.0 3.5 2.8 1.9 5.2 2.1 3.6 4.6 3.6 3.1 1.8 2.4 2.2 2.9 4.1 1.7 3.1 3.8 4.3 2.3 2.9 1.4 3.4 2.2 3.1 1.6 4.3 4.5

6.8 7.5 8.5 6.6 5.7 7.3 3.9 5.0 9.1 8.3 6.4 4.8 5.5 5.3 4.6 6.6 6.7 4.7 3.9 5.0 5.8 4.5 6.1 6.0 6.5 6.5 4.3 5.8 3.6 4.8 5.0 5.1 4.9 6.6 5.4 4.3 5.1 4.6 2.9 4.6 5.3 3.6 4.6 4.7 2.6 3.8 4.8 4.5 2.6 2.8 2.9

13.3 7.6 8.7 7.0 10.9 7.7 10.5 9.1 3.3 4.2 6.8 8.2 7.3 7.1 8.7 6.4 5.8 6.4 8.0 5.5 6.1 6.1 4.3 4.4 4.4 3.7 5.4 4.1 6.6 5.3 6.2 5.0 4.4 1.8 3.5 3.8 2.2 3.9 5.7 3.6 2.1 4.9 3.2 3.1 4.7 4.4 2.0 2.0 3.7 1.1 1.9

15.8 18.4 9.1 16.2 12.4 8.1 11.0 11.4 8.0 6.2 9.7 10.6 8.6 9.6 9.5 7.6 5.9 10.6 11.1 10.1 7.4 9.4 6.6 6.8 6.7 7.0 9.9 4.2 9.6 7.3 6.0 7.4 6.7 6.2 6.5 6.4 3.5 4.3 8.5 5.7 2.4 4.0 5.6 4.9 8.2 5.0 4.1 3.3 5.2 0.7 1.1

For a complete list of the top U.S. network shows, visit www.worldscreen.com.

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world’s end

IN THE STARS

Almost every national constitution forbids the establishment of an official state religion. But this secular bent doesn’t stop people from looking to the heavens for answers to life’s most troublesome questions: Will I succeed? Will I find love? Will J.Lo and I go driving in the Bronx? Every day, papers and magazines worldwide print horoscopes—projections for people born in a specific month, based on the positions of the stars and planets. While many people rely on these daily, weekly or monthly messages for guidance in their lives, some readers skip over them entirely. The editors of WS recognize that these little pearls of random foresight occasionally prove prophetic. But rather than poring over charts of the zodiac to predict world events, our staff prefers to use past horoscopes in an attempt to legitimate the science. As you can see here, had some of these media figures remembered to

Alec Baldwin

Charlie Sheen

Jennifer Lopez

Alec Baldwin

Miley Cyrus

Global distinction: 30 Rock funnyman. Sign: Aries (b. April 3, 1958) Significant date: December 6, 2011 Noteworthy activity: The actor is kicked off an

Global distinction: Former tween queen. Sign: Sagittarius (b. November 23, 1992) Significant date: November 23, 2011 Noteworthy activity: At her 19th birthday party,

American Airlines flight parked at a Los Angeles International Airport gate in a dispute over his continued usage of an electronic device prior to takeoff. What was it that was so addicting he just couldn’t turn it off? Baldwin was playing the Scrabble-like game “Words with Friends” on his phone. Horoscope: “Saturn wants you to follow rules, to the letter, or you may feel consequences.” (astrologyzone.com)

Cyrus is presented with a cake emblazoned with an image of reggae icon Bob Marley. “You know you’re a stoner when your friends make you a Bob Marley cake,” jokes the former Hannah Montana star on footage captured of the event by friends. “You know you smoke way too much f***ing weed.” Her rep insists the comments were “taken out of context.” Horoscope: “You’re working and partying hard with little time to take it easy. It’s essential that you look after your health in the best way possible while you’re putting in so much effort.” (glo.msn.com/horoscopes)

Charlie Sheen Global distinction: Sitcom star fallen from grace. Sign: Virgo (b. September 3, 1965) Significant date: December 12, 2011 Noteworthy activity: Sheen is hit with a barrage of

phone calls and text messages after accidentally tweeting his phone number. “310-954-7277 Call me bro. C,” Sheen tweeted, in what was apparently supposed to be a private message to none other than teen heartthrob Justin Bieber. Horoscope: “While you won’t approach any dangerous levels of ego-driven behavior,Virgo, you may say a bit too much about your private affairs. Keep some things behind the curtain.” (phonezoo.com/astrology)

consult their horoscopes on signif-

Jennifer Lopez

icant days, they could have avoided

Global distinction: Jenny from the Block. Sign: Leo (b. July 24, 1969) Significant date: November 23, 2011 Noteworthy activity: The singer is featured in a car

a few surprises.

Miley Cyrus

commercial driving down the streets of her native Bronx in a Fiat 500C, talking about how the city “inspires” her. Controversy erupts when details surface that J.Lo shot the scenes in Los Angeles, while a body double was used for the low-speed driving sequence in New York. Horoscope: “There are times when you will need to approach aspects of your life with caution. One of these times is likely to arise soon when a confusing and/or deceptive situation is likely to be prominent.” (astrologyrealm.com) 238

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Piers Morgan Global distinction: Journalist and TV presenter. Sign: Aries (b. March 30, 1965) Significant date: December 1, 2011 Noteworthy activity: The CNN host attempts to

honor deceased comedian Patrice O’Neal with an onair tribute. “It’s a sad day for comedy with the death of Patrice O’Neal, who I know that you knew. She died of a stroke today. I want to take a quick look at Patrice on Jimmy Fallon, to remind everyone just how funny she was.” However, the stand-up comic Morgan was referring to is actually a man. Horoscope: “Get your facts straight...or it could come back to bite you.” (theastrologyroom.com)

Suri Cruise Global distinction: Celebrity spawn. Sign: Aries (b. April 18, 2006) Significant date: December 20, 2011 Noteworthy activity: The daughter of Tom Cruise

and Katie Holmes has a Christmas wish list that totals $130,000. Among the items listed by the five-year-old celeb-offspring are a pony, $15,000 diamond earrings and $1,500 gowns. Horoscope: “Aries are self-involved and can be selfcentered. If they do not pay attention to the feelings of others, Aries can easily become spoiled and resented by others.” (zodiac-signs-astrology.com)

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