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THE MAGAZINE OF INTERNATIONAL MEDIA • JUNE/JULY 2015
www.worldscreen.com
GAUMONT'S
Christophe Riandee Pay-TV Channels in Europe State of Formats Licensing Report
MIPTVEdition Edition NATPE Europe
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CONTENTS contents contents
JUNE-JULY 2015/NATPE EUROPE EDITION Publisher Ricardo Seguin Guise
DEPARTMENTS WORLD VIEW
Group Editorial Director Anna Carugati
6
By Anna Carugati.
UPFRONTS
Editor Mansha Daswani Executive Editor Kristin Brzoznowski
10
New content on the market.
DIRECTORY
Associate Editor Joanna Padovano
87
Restaurants and hotels in Prague.
Editor, Spanish-Language Publications Elizabeth Bowen-Tombari
WORLD’S END
Associate Editor, Spanish-Language Publications Jessica Rodríguez
90
In the stars.
Assistant Editor Joel Marino Contributing Editor Elizabeth Guider
10
30
Special Projects Editor Bob Jenkins Production & Design Director Victor L. Cuevas
IN THE NEWS
Online Director Simon Weaver
As CEO of Endemol Shine International, Payne is overseeing a combined catalogue of 38,000 hours of programming. —Anna Carugati
Art Director Phyllis Q. Busell
SPOTLIGHT
Sales & Marketing Coordinator Dana Mattison
The executive VP of international at A+E Networks talks about the company’s increasing slate of scripted series, movies and miniseries. —Anna Carugati
Sales & Marketing Assistant Fiorella Martinez
ONE-ON-ONE
Senior Editor Kate Norris
22 ENDEMOL SHINE’S CATHY PAYNE
26 A+E NETWORKS’ SEAN COHAN
30 GAUMONT’S CHRISTOPHE RIANDEE The vice CEO of Gaumont shares the company’s strategy for expanding the storied brand to the small screen. —Anna Carugati
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Contributing Writers Steve Clarke Andy Fry Juliana Koranteng Jane Marlow Joanna Stephens Jay Stuart David Wood Copy Editor Maddy Kloss
Ricardo Seguin Guise President Anna Carugati Executive VP Mansha Daswani Associate Publisher & VP of Strategic Development
LET’S DO IT AGAIN ZODIAK RIGHTS’ TIM MUTIMER BREAKING BORDERS
42 54 58
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76 80 84
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WORLD VIEW
BY ANNA CARUGATI
The Past Is Present I was recently binge-watching the last episodes of season three of The Americans, the critically acclaimed FX series about deep-cover Soviet spies in Reagan-era Washington, D.C. Don’t worry, no spoilers here—just a reflection on the confusion I experienced watching the events depicted in the show and then seeing reports on the news. Is the Cold War really over? The Americans does a masterful job of depicting the conflicts between capitalism and communism, democracy and autocracy, love of country and love of family. The first two are being played out again, almost 25 years from the breaking apart of the Soviet Union. The fall of the Berlin Wall represented the collapse of old notions such as balance of power and imperialism. The Cold War ended without a peace treaty or parades; instead, those outdated notions were replaced with the deceptively simple premise—championed by the U.S. and its allies in Europe—that citizens should be free to choose the government and leaders they want, and, of course, that a free market is far better than any state-controlled five-year plan. Nonetheless, Vladimir Putin—who was born in 1952, came of age during the Cold War and served as an officer of the KGB before entering politics—seems hell-bent on restoring the Soviet Union. He annexed Crimea, threatened to use nuclear force to protect his hold on it, and is backing a bloody war in Ukraine, which has Poland very nervous. NATO, meanwhile, is bulking up its military presence in the Baltics for fear of Russian expansion. Now, can I be blamed for having a moment of confusion between the plot of The Americans and real-life events, and for thinking that there is an unquestionable return to the Cold War? I’m not the only one. Garry Kasparov, born in Russia and former World Chess Champion turned writer and political activist, is working on the book Winter Is Coming: Why Vladimir Putin and the Enemies of the Free World Must Be Stopped. (“Winter is coming” is a reference to the Cold War.) As Kasparov told The Washington Post, the book is not only about the danger Putin poses, it’s also about the conflict between modernity and the past. Putin, like ISIS and Kim Jong-un, believes that the triumphs of the free world—liberal democracy and market economy—erode his power base. We live in a world where politics, business and media are closely intertwined. The U.S. and some of its allies are imposing economic sanctions on Russia to pressure Putin to change his imperialistic ways, but so far they are not having the desired effect. Instead, Putin continues to restrict the internet, reduce foreign ownership of media and clamp down on the Russian press. In addition, the devaluation of the ruble is limiting the amount of foreign programming
Dramas help explain human
nature or transport us to different worlds when ours becomes
increasingly dangerous.
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Russian networks can buy. The Russian people don’t need to be cut off from the rest of the world or indoctrinated by propaganda disseminated under the guise of news. Putin’s imperialistic drives will certainly be among the topics discussed at NATPE Europe, which is being held in Prague from June 22 to 25. The market will see 120-plus exhibitors, including more than 20 that are exhibiting for the first time. Also attending are CBS Studios International, NBCUniversal Television Distribution, Telemundo Internacional and Warner Bros. International Television Distribution. As NATPE’s CEO and president, Rod Perth, told me, the participation of all these companies indicates that the television industry is not giving up on Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), even though these countries are still experiencing economic challenges and are certainly worried, to put it mildly, about what will happen in Ukraine. If for no other reason, CEE countries depend on gas from Russia, which is transported through Ukraine. But there is some good news in the region. According to a report last October from the International Monetary Fund, consumption of goods is on the rise and some improvement in CEE economies is expected this year. For sure, viewers in the CEE region are carefully and nervously watching their newscasts to follow what Russia is doing, but they are also looking to the small screen for entertainment and distraction, and even series that can shed light on past events through intriguing storytelling and multilayered characters. Dramas help explain human nature or transport us to different worlds when ours becomes increasingly dangerous, whether we live in CEE or elsewhere. In this issue, we speak to Gaumont’s Christophe Riandee, who oversees studios in Europe and in Los Angeles that are producing series for traditional broadcasters and SVOD platforms. One of Gaumont’s series is Spy City, an espionage thriller set in 1960s Berlin. Once again the Cold War is serving as inspiration. Endemol Shine International’s Cathy Payne talks of her company’s vast slate of scripted and unscripted programming, of which drama is an important component and Humans is one of the new shows. A+E Networks’ Sean Cohan has also been boosting his offering of series and TV movies. One new scripted series, UnREAL, offers a revealing behind-thescenes look at a reality dating show, where manipulation steers relationship dynamics and outcomes. Speaking of relationship dynamics, have you seen the end of season three of The Americans? OK, OK, I said no spoilers, but really, Cold War conflicts are nothing compared to the challenges of parenting and marriage.
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UPFRONTS
A+E Networks UnREAL / Tiny House Nation / Dance Moms Since launching A+E Studios International last October, A+E Networks has been focusing its sales efforts on generating buzz for new scripted series, miniseries and movies. Among the highlights for NATPE Europe is UnREAL, which is set against the backdrop of a fictional dating competition show. “UnREAL has already generated a huge amount of interest globally,” says Robyn Hurd, the company’s senior director of international content sales for EMEA. A+E Networks is also continuing to push Tiny House Nation, which sees renovation experts helping people design their own mini dream homes. As Dance Moms continues to be a proven performer across Central and Eastern Europe, the company is highlighting all-new episodes.
“Tiny House Nation has been a breakout series for FYI in the U.S., and it has helped generate buzz for us internationally.” Tiny House Nation
—Robyn Hurd
American Cinema International Love Finds You in Charm / Love Finds You in Valentine / Love Finds You in Sugarcreek This year marks the first time that American Cinema International (ACI) is attending NATPE Europe. Among the company’s highlights is a trio of movies from its Love Finds You series. The first, Love Finds You in Charm, recently premiered in the U.S. on the UP channel. Then there is Love Finds You in Valentine, slated for delivery Valentine’s Day 2016. There is also Love Finds You in Sugarcreek. “Ultimately, we want to continue this trend of making romantic and family-friendly movies,” says Chevonne O’Shaughnessy, the president of ACI. “We are also really excited about meeting buyers in [the CEE] region to introduce our new Russian-dubbed film library, along with our Czech-, Hungarian-, Polishand Slovak-dubbed titles.”
“These titles are appealing in [CEE] because they are female-driven love stories that don’t have violence, sex or bad language.” —Chevonne O’Shaughnessy Love Finds You in Charm
Armoza Formats Babushka / Yum Factor / I Can Do That! Developed in partnership with Ryan Seacrest Productions and France’s TF1, Babushka is a prime-time studio game show in which contestants open Russian dolls for the chance to win a cash prize. That is one of the highlights from Armoza Formats for this year’s NATPE Europe. The company is also presenting Yum Factor, a competitive cooking show with a twist. “The combination of testing your skills in the kitchen with how well you can read people’s reactions to your food makes Yum Factor an intriguing experience, and the risk at the end adds an extra dash of excitement,” says Avi Armoza, the founder and CEO of Armoza Formats. I Can Do That! is a prime-time format that has been enjoying success around the world with a number of local adaptations.
“Central and Eastern Europe is an important region for us and is one that we’re always looking to grow in.” —Avi Armoza Yum Factor 10 World Screen 6/15
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Azteca Once I Loved You / Dance If You Can / Así en el Barrio Como en el Cielo Dance If You Can, a competition from Mexico’s Azteca, introduces a new twist on the genre: ordinary people must show off their moves and compete against celebrities. “These aren’t professional dancers,” says Adela Velasco, who is in charge of sales for Europe and Africa at distributor Comarex. “Can you imagine a taxi driver, a police officer or a florist dancing rings around your favorite celebrity and taking home the prize money?” Comarex is also highlighting a pair of Azteca novelas. In Once I Loved You, a couple hopelessly in love must overcome obstacles while pursuing romance in a prosperous wine-producing valley. Meanwhile, Así en el Barrio Como en el Cielo follows a wealthy family who becomes unexpectedly poor and is forced to live in a shabby neighborhood.
“Once I Loved You is a story of love and betrayal, where money permeates the lives of all those who live in the fertile and prosperous wineproducing valley.” —Adela Velasco
Once I Loved You
Beyond Distribution Game of Homes / Hockey Wives / Fatal Vows The format Game of Homes, part of Beyond Distribution’s catalogue, combines large-scale renovation with high-stakes competition. “Driven by a fantastic host, with teams containing great characters, each episode showcases inspiring renovation ideas while also possessing the excitement and drama necessary to captivate an audience,” says Zoe Wilson, a regional sales executive at Beyond. Also part of the slate is Hockey Wives, a docuseries that features strong personalities. “With exciting and emotional story lines, the show will appeal to more than just the female audience [that follows] series of this ilk,” says Wilson. The series Fatal Vows now has a third season on offer. “Two things that translate in all regions are a good love story and a good mystery, and Fatal Vows combines both,” says Wilson.
“Now into its third season, Fatal Vows is a strong brand that I hope will continue to grow across Eastern Europe.” —Zoe Wilson Fatal Vows
Caracol TV Internacional Laura, an Extraordinary Life / La Cacica / Emeralds, The Color of Ambition Caracol TV Internacional’s latest programming slate, which is launching in Europe for the first time at this market, features high-quality titles shot in beautiful landscapes. “We wanted to bring true authenticity and creativity to our recent productions, and we believe this part of the world is extremely appreciative of these elements,” says Estefania Arteaga, the company’s international sales executive for Eastern Europe and Asia. The company offers three new series, among them Laura, an Extraordinary Life, which follows a woman who dedicates herself to fighting for the less privileged. La Cacica features historical characters such as Gabriel García Márquez, while Emeralds, The Color of Ambition chronicles three generations of a family divided by ambition and the love of a woman.
“Our headlining series will enchant this part of the world with their cinematic quality and wonderful shots of luscious landscapes.” —Estefania Arteaga Emeralds, The Color of Ambition 12 World Screen 6/15
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Cisneros Media Distribution Separated by Love / Route 35: The Escape Valve / Criminal MasterMind One of Cisneros Media Distribution’s goals for NATPE Europe is to work with regional platforms to understand how its productions can better adapt to local strategies. “There is a surge of channels dedicated to telenovelas in the region… and these new outlets will need quality content to support their programming,” says Marcello Coltro, the executive VP of content distribution at Cisneros Media. With this in mind, the company is offering buyers Separated by Love, a classic novela about a formerly poor young woman seeking revenge after her life was nearly destroyed. Cisneros is also showcasing series, among them Route 35: The Escape Valve and Criminal MasterMind. There’s also a new catalogue of tween series, including the formats Blast to the Past, Morph App and Royal School.
“There is a worldwide need for stories that allow the entire family to enjoy quality time [through] entertainment without excessive violence and sex scenes.” —Marcello Coltro Route 35: The Escape Valve
CJ E&M Corporation Let’s Go Time-Travelers / From START till CLEAR / Three Meals a Day Among the titles on offer from CJ E&M Corporation at NATPE Europe is Let’s Go Time-Travelers, a comedic reality show. The company is also promoting From START till CLEAR, its longest running observational reality program. “Given [From START till CLEAR’s] proven success in the domestic market, we are excited to present it to the international market,” says Diane Min, CJ E&M’s senior sales manager. “In addition, the videogame market is penetrating rapidly throughout the world, and we are confident that the show’s unique video-game feature will appeal to target audiences in the region.” Another highlight from CJ E&M is Three Meals a Day, a cooking program that looks on as two men living in a country village must use whatever ingredients they find to prepare meals for themselves.
“We are excited to take the opportunity to showcase our hottest and most popular titles in the growing Eastern European market.” —Diane Min Three Meals a Day
Endemol Shine International MasterChef / Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell / Kingdom The cooking format MasterChef is known around the world, and Endemol Shine International (ESI) is looking to extend the reach of the franchise even further at NATPE Europe. “The brand is already well established across the CEE region as a format, but we also have a high volume of English-language finished versions to complement the local productions,” says Lisette Schlippe, a regional senior sales director at ESI. This includes treatments from the U.S., Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Ireland and South Africa. ESI is also launching BBC One’s new Sunday night drama Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, an adaptation of Susanna Clarke’s fantasy book of the same name. Meanwhile, Kingdom is a gritty family saga set against the backdrop of mixed martial arts fighting.
“Following a successful launch on DIRECTV in the U.S., seasons two and three of Kingdom were ordered the day after the [series’] premiere.” —Lisette Schlippe Kingdom 14 World Screen 6/15
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ITV Studios Global Entertainment Texas Rising / Aquarius / Poldark The event series Texas Rising stars Bill Paxton, Ray Liotta and Olivier Martinez. “Shot on a cinematic scale, it’s a story about the fight for freedom, duty and honor during the Texas Revolution,” says Jennifer Ebell, the VP of sales for Southeast EMEA at ITV Studios Global Entertainment (ITVS GE), which is offering that title at the market in Prague. The company is also showcasing Aquarius, a period drama starring David Duchovny as a Los Angeles police sergeant. “It’s a compelling and action-packed show with all of the unique music and fashion of the 1960s,” says Ebell. Then there is Poldark, a book-based period drama. “Poldark has been a huge hit in the U.K. and has already been recommissioned for a second season by the BBC,” adds Ebell.
“These titles are diverse, high-quality dramas that meet the needs of a wide range of broadcasters within the [CEE] region.” —Jennifer Ebell Poldark
ITV-Inter Medya Filinta / Resurrection / Black Money Love The period crime drama Filinta, part of ITV-Inter Medya’s NATPE Europe slate, tells the story of a young police officer in the time of the Ottoman Empire. The lavish production required a crew of nearly 120 people, according to Can Okan, the company’s president and CEO, with an average of 1,000 extras taking part in each episode. Another period drama in the ITV-Inter Medya catalogue, Resurrection, is set during the 13th century. It is based on historical facts and contains a lot of action, romance and plot twists, says Okan. Meanwhile, Black Money Love is full of surprises, with fast-paced editing and a standout cast, making it “the best example of the ‘new generation’ of Turkish drama,” Okan says.
“Turkish dramas are very strong in the CEE region.” —Can Okan Filinta
Keshet International Master Class / BOOM! / Trade Up Keshet International’s Master Class format is a feel-good series that showcases children’s musical talents. Hungary’s TV2 has already produced three seasons locally. The game show BOOM! has also been adapted by TV2 in Hungary, as well as in a host of other markets throughout Europe. While Trade Up is a newer format from Keshet International, it has already been licensed to Romania’s Prima TV, in addition to Discovery Italia. Trade Up sees family teams given the chance to win their dream car. “These shows had very big premieres and continue to be popular in Israel, and have already found homes in European territories,” says Cynthia Kennedy, sales director at Keshet International. “Buyers will have tangible proof of the success of these shows.”
“Master Class is an uplifting show, in which talented kids are able to perform to their fullest [potential].” —Cynthia Kennedy Master Class 16 World Screen 6/15
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Rive Gauche Television Where Cool Came From / Back to Basics / Am I a Boy or a Girl The issue of gender identity is on display in Rive Gauche Television’s Am I a Boy or a Girl. “Delving into real, captivating stories of people going through this very unique and fascinating experience, this show gives audiences a first-hand look at a world often very misunderstood,” says Bryan Gabourie, the VP of international distribution and acquisitions at Rive Gauche. Where Cool Came From takes viewers along on an exploration into why various cultures and societies find certain fashions, fads or trends to be “cool.” Gabourie says that the show answers the needs of clients that are looking for “hip and often edgy documentary/reality titles.” Rounding out the slate, Back to Basics features Irish chef and TV personality Kevin Dundon, who demonstrates core cooking techniques.
—Bryan Gabourie Where Cool Came From
Smilehood Media According to Roxi / Plim Plim, a Hero of the Heart / Wake Up! with No Make Up The popular online comedy According to Roxi has made the jump to the TV screen. Co-produced and distributed by Smilehood Media, the TV adaptation chronicles a politically incorrect mother on a mission to emerge unharmed from the devastating experience of motherhood. That title is available as a finished product or as a format. Smilehood is also offering buyers Plim Plim, a Hero of the Heart, a children’s series that promotes values such as solidarity, honesty, responsibility and respect for the environment via the adventures of the titular hero. Older kids and teens, meanwhile, can enjoy Wake Up! with No Make Up, a musical show about a group of young people who attempt to renovate an old firehouse while going after their dreams of becoming musicians.
According to Roxi
Telefe Cannibals / Story of a Clan / The Return of Lucas Love, revenge and redemption are just a few of the topics touched upon within Cannibals, a new political thriller helmed by Oscar-winning Argentinian director Juan José Campanella. The Telefe drama follows a young woman who, years after being raped, infiltrates a circle of powerful presidential contenders in order to seek justice for the crime. Telefe’s other major drama offering is The Return of Lucas. That title chronicles the struggles of a family dealing with the sudden appearance of a young man claiming to be their long-lost son, who vanished 20 years ago. Finally, the miniseries Story of a Clan recreates an infamous real-life tale from Argentina in the ’80s: a family who together kidnapped and murdered businessmen after collecting hefty ransoms.
“Where Cool Came From explores all things ‘cool’ in an entertaining journey that looks at current design, architecture, fashion and fads from the influences of yesteryear through today.”
Cannibals 18 World Screen 6/15
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Telemundo Internacional The Lord of the Skies / Land of Honor / Under the Same Sky Dramas and telenovelas are at the forefront of Telemundo Internacional’s lineup for NATPE Europe, which the company has been attending since the market first launched. Among the distributor’s highlights is the third season of The Lord of the Skies, the first season of which won the International Emmy for non-English-language U.S. prime-time program. Additionally, Telemundo is promoting its most recent telenovela, Land of Honor, which is a remake of the classic novela Hidden Passion. Telemundo Internacional is also offering buyers a preview of its next release, Under the Same Sky, a romantic drama with a lot of sales possibilities in CEE, according to Melissa Pillow, the company’s VP of sales for Europe.
“Our series are appealing because of their outstanding production quality, A-list casts and ability to attract a wide range of viewers.” —Melissa Pillow Land of Honor
Televisa Internacional Generation Gap / The Assembly Game / Stand Up for Your Country Four families made up of members from different generations face off against each other in the trivia game show Generation Gap, one of the many format offerings that Televisa Internacional brings to Prague. Also being offered to buyers is The Assembly Game, a daily game show in which two teams compete to answer a series of questions correctly while performing a number of tasks in assembly lines. Little Giants, meanwhile, is a talent show in which young performers delight viewers with their charm and skills across a variety of disciplines. “Buyers in CEE are really looking for successful, proven formats,” says Claudia Sahab, the director for Europe at Televisa Internacional. “Fortunately, Little Giants comes with a track record.”
“We’ve been having a lot of success with our formats in this part of the world, so our expectations are high.” —Claudia Sahab Stand Up for Your Country
Zodiak Rights Wild Things / The Secret Life of 4 Year Olds / The Best Singers Zodiak Rights’ brand-new family entertainment game show Wild Things watches as partners work together for the chance to walk away with a cash prize, though one of them is dressed as a woodland creature and is unable to see. “Wild Things is a funny and physical game show that plays on the universal themes of slapstick and couples bickering about directions,” says Andrew Sime, the company’s VP of formats. The Secret Life of 4 Year Olds watches as ten 4-year-old children meet for the first time in a nursery and interact. Sime calls the show “thought-provoking, entertaining and genuinely surprising.” In The Best Singers, music stars perform their peers’ most-loved hits in a celebration of the country’s best songs. “The Best Singers ticks all the right boxes for a hit format,” says Sime.
“We’re incredibly excited about these three formats. Each of them has a strong track record and a lot of interest from international buyers.” —Andrew Sime The Secret Life of 4 Year Olds 20 World Screen 6/15
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IN THE NEWS
CATHY PAYNE
ENDEMOL SHINE with the content: get to know it, talk to their colleagues from the other side about its pros and cons, and make sure they know as much as they can about as many titles as possible. When we knew the merger was happening— especially in London, where both our head offices were based—we gave each other access to our showrooms so that over the Christmas period people could watch a lot of content. As for putting the two catalogues together, they certainly complemented each other, which was a great advantage: lots of scripted, lots of broad-audience factual entertainment and reality and game shows. And it certainly helps when you’ve got super brands in the middle such as MasterChef, Big Brother, Broadchurch and The Fall, to name a few.
By Anna Carugati
Cathy Payne is no stranger to big company mergers. Back in 2009, when Endemol acquired the Southern Star Group, Payne was chief executive of Southern Star International, where she was tasked with combining the catalogues and sales teams of the two groups. Late last year, when 21st Century Fox and Apollo Global Management announced they were forming a joint venture to bring together Endemol, Shine Group and CORE Media Group, Payne was called upon to merge the distribution businesses. Today, as CEO of Endemol Shine International, she oversees a catalogue of 38,000 hours of scripted and unscripted programming that ranges from drama to factual, with some huge brands in the mix. WS: How did you go about combining the catalogues? PAYNE: The first thing we looked at was the people. While content is king, you need a strong, knowledgeable team to sell it and deliver success. We had to integrate two large businesses that were based in eight different territories and evaluate how we were going to structure the team in a way that would cater to the present while allowing for future growth. It was a detailed process and one where it was important to maintain an open dialogue on the steps that were being taken with everyone who was affected by the integration. One of the important factors is that because integration can take up a huge amount of time, we had wanted to establish a dedicated team to handle integration, so that the rest of the division would not be disturbed from their day-to-day business. As such, we have a dedicated team of rights-management, operational and financial executives who are implementing an integration plan throughout the next year. In any integration, you need to ensure that the sales directors have the time to bring themselves up to speed
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WS: You now have eight sales offices around the world. PAYNE: The head office is in London, and we have offices in Moscow, Paris, Los Angeles, Miami, Sydney, Singapore and Mumbai. One of the great things about being part of a multi-territory indie is that I can have a distribution office within a production office, so you don’t have salespeople who are off by themselves. They are an integrated part of the business. If you go to Miami, you’ll find the sales director sitting with our U.S. Hispanic and Mexican production teams. All the sales directors are very linked up with the production businesses within the territories that they sell into. Indeed, when we are selling the finished version of a show, say The Island, which [recently launched] on NBC, we won’t sell that as a finished show without first liaising with the production team in the territory to find out what format opportunities exist. Often that will result in the format and finished show being placed together and/or an agreed windowing/holdback structure. Of paramount importance to us is protecting the franchise so that we do not have our products competing with each other. It is also important to protect a title from becoming overexposed. Consequently, there is the need for ongoing dialogue between distribution and production—they must agree on the best strategy for a particular title. Depending on the territory, sometimes the finished sale will go first, sometimes the format will go first and sometimes they will go together when a broadcaster is taking a format for the main channel, but will buy another version of the show for their digital channel. We decide on a strategy for each title as it comes along for a given territory. And the strategy for one market can be completely different from another—it depends on the market and the tastes, and what is common practice. WS: Besides finding new titles to sell, is it equally important to look through the shows in the back catalogue and make sure that they don’t get lost? PAYNE: Of course. In any distribution business you have the big titles that everyone goes to, but for us, it’s how do
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WS: What are some highlights from your factual and factual-entertainment slates? PAYNE: We’ve got finished episodes of MasterChef, and I do have to say I love MasterChef because it is in its essence about real people and real food. It’s not about whether you like the contestants or not—it’s about what they cook and their passion for the food, and it is an individual journey. And as for MasterChef Junior, what is not to love about that? What talent and passion for food that younger audience has. Another very strong food franchise is My Kitchen Rules/My Restaurant Rules, which combines the passion for food with the best in reality television. Other factual titles include One Born Every Minute, 24 Hours in A&E and The Island with Bear Grylls. The U.K.’s factual-entertainment finished programming is the most successful in the world. A market where there are so many varied slots available for factual entertainment in prime time, on broadcast networks or the specialty channels, has delivered a developed sector where risk-taking is truly embraced.
MasterChef Australia is among the numerous international versions of the hit cooking competition format that sits within the newly combined Endemol Shine International portfolio.
we leverage those titles to also make sure that we are focusing on our catalogue? Whenever we look at our new releases for a market, we also have a look at the catalogue and see what shows could naturally fit with the new shows. We had an example of this recently. We were selling broad-audience, one-hour specials that are under a strand in the U.K. called Extraordinary Lives. We then looked back into our catalogue and [saw that] we had quite a few programs that could fit into a strand such as that, and then we offered them up not just as three programs but also as a possible availability of ten. Both [Endemol and Shine] had actively built up libraries of non-English-language assets, which positions the [combined] library well for new broadcast opportunities—for example, a new SVOD service launching in Spain allows us to leverage those language assets to achieve sales. WS: Scripted programming is quite sought after these days, isn’t it? PAYNE: It is sought after. We’ve noticed a renaissance in British scripted and certainly that’s had a huge amount of success in recent years. Looking at the British titles produced and/or distributed by Endemol Shine into the U.S. in the past two years, one can only be impressed with a list that includes Broadchurch, The Fall, Grantchester, Peaky Blinders, Black Mirror and Fortitude. Humans and River will be launching this year. Scripted series from the U.S. cable networks have also done well, while in the last few years U.S. broadcast network scripted shows have struggled. The U.S. cable or SVOD scripted product has come into its own; the limited number of episodes allow the producers to attract a high level of on-screen talent and off-screen creative, who are not tied into the multi-season commitments that the broadcast networks would demand. On top of that comes the non-English-language scripted, the audience for which is growing internationally. The benchmark for scripted programming has never been higher.
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WS: Are you doing many deals with SVOD platforms? PAYNE: Oh, yes, all the time. These platforms provide opportunities to exploit programs in another way, but one platform does feed off the other, so you have to look at what the cumulative benefit is. Certainly SVOD has taken away from home entertainment in a lot of markets, so you have to weigh that in; likewise as the SVOD platforms have matured and they want exclusive windows. The days of doing concurrent SVOD and linear pay-TV deals are all but gone. However, whatever type of broadcaster you are, linear or nonlinear, there is one word that is a common theme for all, and that is “exclusivity.” All broadcasters are seeking some form of exclusivity that delivers a unique opportunity to their audience. WS: Would you say that windowing takes up the most time when you are trying to place a property in a market? PAYNE: Yes, I’d say that most of the negotiation comes around to which rights [broadcasters] are taking and whether they are taking rights to actually utilize them, to hold them back or to protect themselves. I think the rights they take and the exclusivity around those rights are a constant point of discussion! WS: And I imagine everybody wants all rights. PAYNE: Yes, and I always say all rights are available—you can have all rights, as long as you are prepared to pay for all rights. WS: Besides rights, what else about the business strikes you as really different from how it was 10 or 15 years ago? PAYNE: I would say that if there is one thing that defines the business, it’s the word “exclusivity.” Broadcasters want something exclusive that they can promote and own and really get behind. That has become more and more common, while the willingness to share rights for the big programs is not there as it once was. This is combined with a broadcaster’s need to give its viewers the opportunity to watch a program via various devices, either live or on a catch-up basis.
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SPOTLIGHT
SEAN COHAN
A+E NETWORKS Jossen and Bob DeBitetto at A+E Studios, and with showrunners Marti Noxon and Sarah—really crafted an amazing and very different kind of premium, serialized show. I can’t remember being this excited about the quality of something that we’re bringing forth, particularly on the scripted side. In television there are two questions: is it good, and are people going to watch? Well, on this one there is no question whether it’s good. It’s always a question of whether they are going to watch. We think they are. It’s the first drama series produced by A+E Studios, with showrunners and on-screen talent that have great auspices from other projects, whether it be Marti Noxon, who was a writer on Grey’s Anatomy and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, or Shiri Appleby, who starred in Girls. And it’s really exciting that this is the first series that we own. We were really active at MIPTV and had a strong initial set of sales, including Lifetime channels around the world, as well as big third-party clients. We’re hoping to blanket the better part of the world with UnREAL and have really high hopes for the franchise going forward.
By Anna Carugati
A+E Networks owes its success to the strength of its brands and the popularity of its programming. HISTORY, A&E, Lifetime, H2 and FYI are part of a bouquet of channels that attracts viewers across a broad range of demographics, thanks to shows like Pawn Stars, Storage Wars and Dance Moms. Several years ago, A+E Networks’ management decided that it should own a majority of the programming it airs—a strategy that has worked well for Sean Cohan, the company’s executive VP of international. Cohan oversees 84 branded channels and the distribution of scripted and unscripted shows that are traveling well around the world. He began selling formats of the most successful brands and has boosted the number of movies and dramas that his team is offering buyers. The newest is UnREAL, a scripted series that offers an unflinchingly realistic behind-thescenes look at a reality dating show. WS: How did UnREAL come to Lifetime? COHAN: UnREAL initially came to Nina Lederman, the senior VP of scripted series at Lifetime, as a short film that was made by Sarah Gertrude Shapiro, who had experience working in reality television. Nina—along with Barry
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WS: How does UnREAL fit into the rest of the portfolio? COHAN: Very well. A+E Studios and the A+E Networks International department have been active with TV movies and TV events. [We’ve] co-produced events like Texas Rising, which was produced for HISTORY with ITV Studios America, or Houdini, which we co-produced with Lionsgate. And we’ve done movies, like those [based on the series of V.C. Andrews novels] that our studio helmed and that have garnered a lot of attention and critical acclaim abroad. We have made some announcements about projects that are in development, and there are additional TV events that are coming that we are very excited about. For example, we have talked a lot about the development of Roots, probably the most hallowed TV event in U.S. television history. We think Roots is ripe for a very well done, well-treated revisit. We will make some announcements in coming months about that project. In terms of where UnREAL fits in the portfolio, it’s the first, hopefully of many, drama series. It’s the latest very noisy project and another step along the way of our evolution toward owning most of what we produce. In the end, it’s about telling the best stories, crafting great content for viewers and for our B-to-B partners alike, and finding creative ways to monetize those stories. WS: Your scripted product sits alongside your sizeable slate of unscripted programs. COHAN: We brought 700-plus hours of programming to MIPTV, and those hours include a lot of returning series: Pawn Stars, American Pickers, Storage Wars, Dance Moms—franchises that U.S. and international viewers alike have come to know us for. We brought some newer franchises like The Curse of Oak Island, which has been a big hit in the U.S. and abroad. Wahlburgers is another returning show and a certifiable hit in the U.S. that continues to
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Lifetime’s UnREAL is the first scripted series to come out of A+E Studios.
entertain outside the U.S. At the last couple of markets, we’ve had an increased focus on properties that are truly formattable. A lot of our shows tend to be driven by great characters and they work globally because great characters have tended to travel well. Pawn Stars and Ice Road Truckers, for example, have performed well everywhere. There’s been a sense, sometimes, that it’s the characters, as opposed to the construct or the format, [that have made these shows travel]. Slowly but surely we have been debunking that myth. We have rolled out Pawn Stars in the U.K., South Africa and Australia and are looking to do it in Italy. A show like Arranged, which is an FYI series that is a companion to Married at First Sight, is a hit across A&E and FYI. Arranged is about the very real and frequent phenomenon that is an arranged marriage, which is a global [occurrence]. The Tiny House set of franchises is also interesting and I think we’ll do some local formats or we may do international hybrids of the American versions, Tiny House Nation and Tiny House Hunting. These programs really have traction in the U.S. and have gained traction abroad. We continue to bring the best shows from top returning franchises and some really interesting newer franchises, and then we want to layer on our formats. WS: What developments have there been on the channel side of the business? COHAN: Most industry observers outside the U.S. know us best for HISTORY. At the end of the last calendar year, HISTORY was in every major market where it is allowed by law, which by last count amounted to over 200 territories. It’s been really exciting to watch the performance of HISTORY, but it’s been equally exciting to watch the launches of Lifetime, A&E, Crime + Investigation and H2 and to take our portfolio of channels from not just one, but three, four or five in each market. Our brands tend to be very differentiated in terms of the audience they go after and the content viewers will find. We tend not to share content between brands, unlike some of our competitors. We think that’s helped us get good traction rolling out
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Lifetime, for example. Since the fourth quarter of 2014, we’ve launched Lifetime in Poland and Portuguesespeaking Africa. We’ve launched Lifetime in Latin America, and between last May and October it reached between 25 million and 30 million homes. We’ve continued to launch H2 in markets around the world: in Poland, the Middle East and Serbia. We continue to roll out each of these brands and we continue to get traction in Southeast Asia, where a couple of years ago we took an owned-and-operated stance. We are working on some launches for this calendar year, again in the vein of reaching two, three, four, five [channels] in a market. There has been a lot of press lately about some of our peers making big acquisitions—spending to buy a big asset in Poland or a big pan-European asset. We applaud that: we think that more quality content players, more energy, more great stories flowing into these markets, typically, will make the pay ecosystem stronger and stronger. It makes sense that some of our peers would have to go out and buy because you can’t really build from scratch anymore. When some of our competitors started launching channels 25 or more years ago—they were the grandfathers of the business—it was a different time and you were able to start from nothing. Even in the 2000s— 2005, 2008, 2010—you could launch into a country for the first time and break new ground. I don’t think you can do that anymore. We have seen players go into markets and say, I can’t do it anymore from scratch so I’ve got to buy. We’ve been builders. We’ve been partners in a lot of cases, in some cases we are taking a more aggressive singular approach, but we’ve been builders. I’m delighted to see that we continue to be able to build on that strong foundation of one, two, three channels. I’ve always said I don’t want to have 10 or 15 channels where one is a mirror of another, but we’ve been able to build. Then taking it one step further, [the business is] going beyond linear channels. There is probably too much press on it now, but we all see that viewership is increasingly fragmenting everywhere in the world and it’s going nonlinear, whether that is in a pay ecosystem or otherwise. What I continue to be delighted to see is that we’ve been able to add linear brands, but also bring our content through a variety of different platforms, in a variety of different ways, to ultimately get to the consumer and hopefully monetize that content. WS: That comes back to the importance of owning content. COHAN: The core of all this is telling great stories and a big part of telling great stories is owning them. It’s one thing to tell great stories and rent them. That is a model that, particularly on the scripted side, a lot of folks employed, but then you’ve lost any ability to exploit those same stories or variants of those stories outside the U.S. and in different media. In 2015, it’s never been more important to own.
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ONE-ON-ONE
ounded by Léon Gaumont in 1895, Gaumont is widely considered to be the oldest studio in the world. It set up shop one year before Pathé, and almost two decades before the first studios in the U.S., Universal Studios and Paramount Pictures, were established in 1912. Gaumont championed the pioneers of the French film industry, and after the country overcame the devastation of World War II, the studio became home to the directors of La Nouvelle Vague, the French New Wave, who created a new cinematic look and style of storytelling. Through the decades, Gaumont continued to attract top feature-film talent, while also branching out into television series and animation production. Today, Christophe Riandee is vice CEO of Gaumont. Through his vision for expansion, the studio’s television divisions have been extending the storied brand to the small screen. Gaumont Television Europe has used a co-production formula to finance
its first series, Spy City, which is being produced with Odeon. Riandee recently announced a second series, 1001, created by Lars Lundström of Real Humans fame. Riandee also had the vision for expansion into the U.S. In 2010, Gaumont International Television (GIT) was set up in Los Angeles, and in the five years since its launch it has already produced Hannibal for NBC, and Hemlock Grove, Narcos and the animated series F is for Family for Netflix. Riandee and GIT were able to break into the crowded and competitive U.S. market thanks to the ideas they were pitching, as well as to the financial model they were proposing: straight to series, which Riandee finds to be much more efficient than the traditional pilot model. Riandee talks to World Screen about productions on both sides of the Atlantic and his teams’ commitment to constantly mining the rich Gaumont library, which holds nearly 1,000 titles, for ideas and talent that can cross over from feature films to television.
CHRISTOPHE RIANDEE GAUMONT
By Anna Carugati
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“WE REPLICATED THE INDEPENDENT FILM MODEL IN THE TV BUSINESS USING INTERNATIONAL PRESALES, A LOW LICENSE FEE FROM THE U.S. NETWORKS, TAX CREDITS AND SOME MONEY FROM THE BANKS.”
The first project to come out of the L.A.-based Gaumont International Television was Hannibal, which is now in its third season on NBC. WS: Tell us about Gaumont’s most recent co-production, 1001. RIANDEE: It’s our second coproduction in Europe. As you know, we created the L.A. studio five years ago and we’ve been successful with Hannibal in season three; Hemlock Grove in season three; Narcos, hopefully not just season one; and F is for Family. As the market is opening up in Europe, we wanted to take advantage of our position. We are developing a few shows there. We signed William Boyd’s Spy City six months ago. We recently announced that we will produce Lars Lundström’s show 1001. There is a huge trend in Europe where people like Lars want to either explore European stories between one or two or three countries, or explore local stories but shoot in English because that
gives a project access to wellknown international casts. WS: What financial formula do you use for these co-productions? RIANDEE: It’s the same formula as the one we are using in the U.S. It’s basically straight to series, and we are assembling a couple of enhanced prebuys with one, two or three broadcasters across Europe. WS: The studio in L.A. is five years old and so much of what you have produced has done very well. What was the strategy when you first set up the studio? RIANDEE: We wanted to start the TV business a while ago, but we needed to catch the right opportunity. Five years ago there was a trend in the market saying, Look, there must be another model other than the pilot one because
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it’s extremely expensive and time consuming. We thought that a film-development model would be nice. We replicated the independent film model in the TV business using international presales, a low license fee from the U.S. networks—because it’s riskier for a network to commit to 13 episodes than to one pilot—tax credits and some money from the banks, and that was done. Nobody had had that idea before and we were lucky to start with Hannibal because NBC was with us from the very beginning. Bryan Fuller had the great idea to revamp the property and Martha De Laurentiis [producer of the feature film Hannibal and executive producer on the TV series] was interested in expanding the Hannibal property to a TV show. The first TV show had
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The Eli Roth horror thriller Hemlock Grove, which is one of three projects that Gaumont International Television has with Netflix, was renewed for a third and final season. to be a great one and that was the case. WS: From a European perspective, what is most different about producing for America, compared to how you put projects together and produce in Europe? RIANDEE: I think the main difference is that you have more outlets in the U.S. where you can finance high-end dramas—from the traditional broadcasters to the video platforms to new cable channels— whereas in Europe, the competition is not so high. It is ramping up because of the Amazons and Netflixes of the world that are launching in Europe. The second main difference is that U.S. broadcasters are looking for edgy, high-end dramas, while European broadcasters are looking for the more traditional procedural series. The third difference is that Europe is a puzzle of different countries with different languages and different broadcasters. That is something really complex to handle when you want to produce international shows.
WS: You are producing several shows for Netflix. RIANDEE: We work with Netflix. We are discussing some shows with Amazon as well. We are willing to work with everybody in the U.S., as we are willing to work with everybody in Europe. WS: How are the production units in Los Angeles and Paris working together? RIANDEE: It is very important for us— as we now have an American team in L.A. and a European team in Paris producing product in a few countries—that the two teams talk to each other and try to work together on common projects. We have a distribution team that is handling all of the Gaumont projects around the world. We also have a few common projects, like F is for Family that we are doing for Netflix, which is a collaboration between the American team and the animation team in Paris. Having great teams on both sides of the Atlantic that know better than anyone else the markets in which they operate is a unique asset.
WS: Gaumont has a vast library of feature films as well as relationships with top directors. Are your television units tapping into ideas from the library that they could develop for television, or using connections on the film side to bring talent into television? RIANDEE: We are doing that on a day-to-day basis. We are using our library and we are revamping our main titles as TV shows as well. They’re mainly French-language shows for the French market because those are huge names and huge brands in France. We are also working with directors either on the movie side or on the TV side. A great example of this is the award-winning Nicolas [Winding] Refn, who is shooting Gaumont’s next feature film, The Neon Demon, as well as developing the television series Barbarella for our U.S. studio. WS: What has Gaumont brought to the U.S. television market as networks have become more open to ideas from Europe?
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RIANDEE: I think we are part of a worldwide trend. The door we opened was clearly the directto-series model in the U.S. and now in Europe, because everyone is thinking of doing a TV show with that model. We started our first TV show using people from the film industry, but that was by chance—I couldn’t say that we were absolutely focusing on using writers or directors or actors from the film space. It is now common to see those people working for either a film company or a TV company. WS: Is the pitching process in America very different from what you’ve seen in Europe? RIANDEE: It’s the same. WS: You go in there with your passion and your idea. RIANDEE: Yes. This industry is all about desire, so you need to have great passion to inspire your broadcast partner. If you don’t have passion, you won’t succeed!
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TVEUROPE
WWW.TVEUROPE.WS
JUNE /JULY 2015
NATPE EUROPE EDITION
Formats in CEE / Pay-TV Channels / Zodiak Rights’ Tim Mutimer
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TV EUROPE
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CONTENTS
European Values
FEATURES
8 LET’S DO IT AGAIN
A survey of the types of formats that are most in demand in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE).
The American love affair with British talent shows no signs of losing steam.
Ricardo Seguin Guise Publisher Anna Carugati Group Editorial Director Mansha Daswani Editor Kristin Brzoznowski Executive Editor Joanna Padovano Associate Editor Joel Marino Assistant Editor Victor L. Cuevas Production & Design Director Simon Weaver Online Director Phyllis Q. Busell Art Director Alberto Rodriguez Sales & Marketing Manager Dana Mattison Sales & Marketing Coordinator Fiorella Martinez Sales & Marketing Assistant Terry Acunzo Business Affairs Manager
Ricardo Seguin Guise President Anna Carugati Executive VP Mansha Daswani Associate Publisher & VP of Strategic Development TV Europe © 2015 WSN INC. 1123 Broadway, #1207 New York, NY 10010 Phone: (212) 924-7620 Fax: (212) 924-6940 Website: www.tveurope.ws
If anything, it’s a particularly good time to be a Brit in Hollywood, whether on-screen in big-budget theatricals, television dramas and late-night comedy, or off-screen as writers, executive producers and network execs. U.S.-U.K. co-pros are everywhere, expanding beyond PBS and the premium cablers HBO and Starz to basic cable (AMC, SundanceTV, BBC America) and even broadcast networks. NBC recently boarded the Sky comedy drama You, Me and the End of the World, featuring a cast drawn from both sides of the Atlantic. When it comes to scripted content, the U.K. is not the only European territory getting some Hollywood attention—but interest in other markets has been fickle. Scandi noir is still very hot across Europe and there have been a smattering of adaptations Stateside—think The Killing and The Bridge (both of which are no longer on the air). Last year during America’s Upfronts week, Spain was the country to watch as adaptations of The Red Band Society and The Mysteries of Laura popped up on the fall schedules. The former failed to deliver big numbers despite its high-profile pedigree (Steven Spielberg), while the latter had better luck, securing ratings that were solid enough for NBC to order a second season. Turkey became the European content hub to watch this year as NBC greenlit a version of Game of Silence (Suskunlar) and ABC announced it was piloting Runner (Son). With steady sales of its drama series around the world and upcoming Country of Honour focus at MIPCOM, it’s shaping up to be a big year for the Turkish content industry. It’s also proving to be a big year for Poland, which has become a significant bright spot in the Central and Eastern European (CEE) media landscape. Scripps Networks Interactive has snapped up a controlling interest in TVN, and a slew of channel operators—among them Discovery, A+E Networks and FOX International Channels—are stepping up their content-creation initiatives in Poland. The pay-TV channels business in CEE is explored in depth in this edition as operators build up their presence in mature markets, work with affiliates to grow the subscriber bases in smaller territories and figure out what to do about Russia in the wake of that country’s tricky new regulatory environment. This edition also spotlights the booming format market in CEE. We also hear from Tim Mutimer about how Zodiak Rights is drawing on the strengths of the entire Zodiak Media group, and third parties, to deliver a wealth of European drama to networks across the globe, from Scandinavian thrillers to French period fare. —Mansha Daswani
GET DAILY NEWS ON EUROPEAN TELEVISION
8 24 BREAKING BORDERS
A look at how international channel brands are expanding their reach across CEE.
24 INTERVIEW
20
Zodiak Rights’ Tim Mutimer
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TV EUROPE
Atresmedia The Secret of Old Bridge / Down Below / Bandit Set in the 19th century, the telenovela Bandit sees a British student of Spanish literature move to Andalusia in order to fulfill her dream of writing her own novel. However, while searching for adventure, she becomes a Robin Hood-type figure in order to help the most disadvantaged. That title is a NATPE Europe highlight for Atresmedia, which is also presenting The Secret of Old Bridge. The successful novela has already aired 1,000 episodes across various seasons, and it continues to be broadcast in Spain. On the format front, the company offers the romantic comedy Down Below. Clients in Central and Eastern Europe have already shown interest in that title, according to Diana Borbón Cuchí, the sales manager for Atresmedia.
“Our series have the potential to reach audiences in countries that have a tradition of airing telenovelas.” —Diana Borbón Cuchí The Secret of Old Bridge
BBC Worldwide You’re Back in the Room / The Great Bake Off / The Office The format You’re Back in the Room was launched by BBC Worldwide at MIPTV, and the company is now making a sales push for the title at NATPE Europe. “It’s a fun, fresh new prime-time entertainment format that the whole family can enjoy together,” says Suzanne Kendrick, the acting head of format sales at BBC Worldwide. With format sales for the scripted series Mistresses and Luther already secured in CEE, BBC Worldwide is looking forward to now being able to offer scripts from the U.S. version of The Office to buyers in the region. “We now have 188 scripts available across nine seasons of this Emmy Award-winning series,” Kendrick notes. The Great Bake Off has been sold widely around the world and the company will be looking to add to this at NATPE Europe.
“Central and Eastern Europe is an important region for us—we’ve been licensing formats across the territory for more than ten years.” —Suzanne Kendrick The Great Bake Off
Red Arrow International Bosch / 100 Code / The Big Surprise Two crime dramas are among the highlights being presented by Red Arrow International at this year’s NATPE Europe. Based on the best-selling books by Michael Connelly, Bosch stars Titus Welliver (Lost) as a homicide detective. From Oscar winner Bobby Moresco comes 100 Code, with a cast led by Michael Nyqvist (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) and Dominic Monaghan (Lost). “Bosch and 100 Code are proving of particular interest to broadcasters in CEE countries,” says Henrik Pabst, the company’s managing director. “The market is looking for shows that are original, well written and with characters that really cut through—and both of these dramas succeed in delivering that.” Red Arrow International is also showcasing The Big Surprise, a new entertainment format.
“Crime is definitely still in demand [in CEE], and serialized content has been experiencing a boom.” —Henrik Pabst 100 Code 38 World Screen 6/15
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SPI International FilmBox Premium / FilmBox HD / DocuBox HD SPI International has been focused on strengthening the presence of its channel brands in Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania. “Our FilmBox Premium channel package is now offered by most of the major satellite platforms and cable operators in those countries,” says Berk Uziyel, the director of SPI International. The company is also looking to expand distribution in the Balkans. “With three channels—FilmBox HD, FilmBox Plus HD and DocuBox HD—already available in Serbian, Slovenian, Albanian, Macedonian and Croatian, we want to increase our presence in those countries and sign distribution deals with more platforms and networks in the region,” Uziyel says.
“We are very much devoted to localizing our English-language channels for various markets in CEE.” —Berk Uziyel Nomadic Nights on DocuBox HD
STUDIOCANAL Harlan Coben’s The Five / Spotless / Section Zéro Harlan Coben’s The Five marks the first-ever TV project from the best-selling author. Produced by RED Production Company for Sky Living in the U.K., The Five centers on friends whose lives were defined by a terrible childhood event. Spotless, a sexy and dark English-language drama that is a CANAL+ Création Originale produced by TANDEM, comes from cocreators Ed McCardie and Corinne Marrinan. Section Zéro, another CANAL+ Création Originale, is an edgy and shadowy political sci-fi thriller from writer and director Olivier Marchal. “As working in both film and TV has become more attractive for actors, at STUDIOCANAL, we are in a unique position to access the best talent for both mediums,” says Katrina Neylon, STUDIOCANAL’s executive VP of sales and marketing.
“We are developing and establishing new partnerships and sales in the continued growth and positioning of the STUDIOCANAL catalogue across all media platforms in Europe.” —Katrina Neylon Harlan Coben’s The Five
ZDF Enterprises The Team / Mountain Medic / Dr. Klein There’s a second season in production of The Team, a crime and suspense series from ZDF Enterprises’ ZDFE.drama slate. The series portrays a group of European police officers fighting international crime across borders in Europe. Also from the ZDFE.drama portfolio, Mountain Medic is billed as a family drama series. The story centers on Dr. Martin Gruber, who has to give up his job in New York and return to his hometown in the Alps. He begins to find excitement, adventure, powerful emotions and fulfillment in the medical challenges he encounters every day in the Alps. Dr. Klein, meanwhile, is about a pediatrician, who stands only 1.32 meters tall. She must balance her work at a children’s hospital with the needs of maintaining a household and family.
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Mountain Medic
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TV EUROPE
Let’s Do It
AGAIN! Keshet International’s Rising Star on TV2 in Hungary.
Kristin Brzoznowski surveys the types of formats that are most in demand across Central and Eastern Europe. espite a protracted advertising recession that’s left countries across Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) facing mixed fortunes, the format landscape in the region has been resilient. Distributors, in fact, are reporting progress in several areas: in the number of territories commissioning content, in the slots dedicated to formats and in the range of genres that buyers are evaluating. This has contributed to an overall positive sentiment from those looking to ramp up their format business in this part of the
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world, be it established players trying to make further inroads or newer entrants working to lay a foundation for long-term success. Red Arrow International, for example, has been present in this market for a while now and is seeing its format sales in CEE gain momentum. “Our business here is growing,” says Henrik Pabst, the company’s managing director, “including in the Balkans and Bulgaria, Romania and the Baltics, which are increasingly open to trying new ideas and forms of content.”
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BBC Worldwide has seen scripted-format sales increasing in CEE, with a local version of The Office airing in the Czech Republic on CT1.
and Ukraine. Our most recent license is in Estonia with TV3, where it is the first reality-based cooking format that they’ve had in the market. We’re quite excited about Estonia. In Turkey, we have a daily, stripped version of Bake Off. There are a lot of broadcasters across Central and Eastern Europe that are interested in the [idea of stripping the show] and how it might work for them. We’re having some really great conversations at the moment.” Big, shiny-floor entertainment formats have been the top sellers for FremantleMedia in CEE, including the megahits Idols, The X Factor and Got Talent. “Talent shows are still doing really well in this region,” says Daniela Matei, the CEO for the Nordics, Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans at FremantleMedia. “It has a lot to do with making dreams come true and the aspirational values and emotional stories. The story arcs are addictive! Audiences are [rallying] for their favorite candidates and really want to see them win.”
From the Red Arrow International catalogue, Married at First Sight recently aired on Nova TV in Bulgaria “with huge success,” according to Pabst. “We have a deal [for the series] in Latvia with Viasat, and also a deal in Estonia. So, sales are GET IN THE GAME picking up.” Matei also points to the game show as a genre that’s makAnd this momentum is widespread, he notes. “We have ing noise in CEE. “A lot of game shows were on the air new seasons of My Man Can in the Czech Republic, Slovenia before, then they went off for a couple of years, and now, and Lithuania. Our long-running factual flagship show Galileo like any good golden classic, they are coming back,” she is a continuing success story throughout CEE, with local versays. “Family Feud and What’s My Line are on top of the sions in Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, list. Out of the recent titles that we launched at MIPTV, we Lithuania and Serbia. Galileo is everywhere! Therefore, is had a nice reception to 10 Questions You Wouldn’t Ask on the business good for us? Yes! It’s great.” a First Date, as well as Beat the Brain. One is very much BBC Worldwide is also reporting healthy gains in its CEE lighthearted and fun; the other is full of really addictive format sales, notably with its big entertainment brands. brain exercises on TV.” “Central and Eastern Europe is a really important region for us,” says Suzanne Kendrick, the company’s acting head of format sales. “We’ve been licensing formats across the region for more than ten years now. We’re always excited to work with new broadcasters and producers, and we’ve had some great success stories.” Among those success stories is Dancing with the Stars, which has been licensed into 16 countries across CEE. Slovenia, in fact, was the 50th country in the global market to commission the format. Dancing with the Stars has had 16 seasons in Poland, “which is utterly amazing,” says Kendrick. “Season 15 rated phenomenally well for Polsat. In Georgia, season five scored shares as high as 62 percent, with an average of 45 percent.” Kendrick says that she’s starting to see this success pattern replicated in the region with The Great Bake Off. “We’ve made that series now in several territories across CEE, including Poland ITVS GE’s Hell’s Kitchen, which has a strong track record, has been adapted for Polsat in Poland. 46 World Screen 6/15
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Following its strong performance in such markets as the U.S., Married at First Sight was licensed by Red Arrow International to CTC in Russia.
“Scripted shows tend to do well in Russia and then travel through CIS,” Kennedy says, referencing the comedy Traffic Light, which has aired for seven seasons in Russia. Given this increased demand for scripted formats, all3media international has high hopes for future CEE sales for Step Dave, a dramedy from New Zealand’s South Pacific Pictures, and Red Rock, a drama from the U.K.’s Company Pictures. Natalia Sterlikova, a format sales executive at all3media international, also mentions the enduring popularity of constructed-reality formats among buyers in the region. “A new adaptation of Filmpool’s Niedrig und Kuhnt will be premiering in Ukraine this summer, while new adaptations of Cases of Doubt launched earlier this year in Romania and Bulgaria,” she says. Next up in this genre from all3media international is Berlin Models, a constructed-reality soap opera set in the world of fashion.
Avi Armoza, the founder and CEO of Armoza Formats, reports a similar mix in regard to what’s in demand in CEE. “Prime-time studio entertainment is still leading the way, and the industry continues to look for the next big thing in this genre,” he says. Armoza highlights the success of the entertainment variety show I Can Do That!, which has sold COST-CONSCIOUS into a number of markets globally, including Bulgaria. Red Arrow International has also placed a number of “Game shows are also a popular choice in the region, and constructed-reality titles in the region. Pabst says that this in particular those with strong potential for several seasons,” type of show is a popular pick with CEE buyers because of he continues. “We recently launched Babushka, our new the relatively low production cost. prime-time game show that we developed in cooperation In addition to looking for cost-effective buys, channels with Ryan Seacrest Productions and TF1. We see strong across CEE are seeking out formats with a proven record of potential for this format in the CEE region: a strong visual element—the giant babushka dolls—combined with a thrilling, high-stakes game where you never know what to expect ensures that it will hold the prime-time slot.” Armoza Formats’ game show Upgrade has had six successful seasons on Russia’s Peretz, and has also aired in Romania, Hungary, Estonia, Latvia and Slovakia, among other territories. “This demonstrates that long-running game shows are important, and that on-location [productions] work as well as studio shows,” he says. Cynthia Kennedy, sales director at Keshet International, backs up this view that entertainment and game shows are now in higher demand in CEE. “Our entertainment formats continue to attract fantastic audiences for TV2 in Hungary,” she says. “Master Class season three is often the leading show across the country, and Rising Star in Hungary performed brilliantly.” On the game-show front, she adds, BOOM! has been renewed in Kazakhstan following a strong debut outing, and Prima TV in Romania was the first broadcaster to get on board Trade Up. “The Keshet brand is making great strides in CEE,” Kennedy says. Another genre picking up steam in the region is scripted formats, but only in select markets. The Global Agency format Rivals-in-Law has run as a daily strip on a number of channels in CEE. 48 World Screen 6/15
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Televisa Internacional believes that the strong performance of the Polish version of Little Giants on TVN will lead to further CEE format sales.
success, according to Pabst. “If there’s no track record, the buyers are reluctant,” he says. “Most of the time there is a U.S. or U.K. track record [with our formats], since within the Red Arrow group we have a lot of strong companies in both territories that deliver good shows. So, this hasn’t really been a problem for us.” However, Ukraine and the Baltics are willing to be among the first to take on a new format, Pabst notes. “They are not yet there on trying out paper formats, but when they see something that they want to move forward with, they jump on it,” he says. “The buyers are more conservative with their investments, so they tend to look for tried-and-tested formats, whether they are long-running established brands or newly launched ratings successes,” says Jennifer Ebell, the VP of sales for southeast EMEA at ITV Studios Global Entertainment (ITVS GE). “For instance, I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!, which has run for 14 seasons in the U.K., is now finding success in CEE. Pro TV in Romania launched its first season in March with an overall average audience share of 30 percent.” ITVS GE has also seen steady recommissions in the region for its established hits Come Dine with Me, Hell’s Kitchen and The Chase. Claudia Sahab, the director for Europe at Televisa Internacional, explains that the general pattern she’s seen is that a format will launch in one of the larger Western European countries (such as Spain, Italy or France) before it sparks interest in Central or Eastern Europe. “It would be very rare—and I haven’t seen it yet with any country in this region—for [a CEE buyer] to take a risk on a paper format,” she says. The Televisa format Little Giants has made its way to the region, following success in Spain, among other territories. 50 World Screen 6/15
“We’re very happy to share that Little Giants is now on air in Poland on TVN,” says Sahab. “It’s been a huge success there; it is the absolute leader on Saturday evenings at 8 p.m., beating all the rest of the broadcasters in Poland by about 10 percent in market share.” While Televisa Internacional only started making a real push in the format arena a short time ago, the company had early success in the region with Dancing for a Dream. That show has been adapted in Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Serbia and, most notably, Romania, where a 15th season has been ordered by Pro TV. Sahab says that most of the interest from buyers in this part of the world is for big, buzzy, shiny-floor shows. “The channels here don’t produce too [many local productions], so when they do, they prefer to do them for prime time,” she notes.
AFTERNOON DELIGHT Global Agency, meanwhile, has had success in the region with formats for daytime and access prime slots. In particular, Shopping Monsters, Blind Taste and Rivals-in-Law have been selling well in Serbia, Croatia, Macedonia, Bulgaria and CIS countries. “These three are daily formats, stripped five days a week,” says Izzet Pinto, the company’s founder and CEO. “That is ideal for broadcasters looking [for volume] to fill their schedules. Also, budget-wise, they are easy and cost-effective to produce.” Pinto highlights that these formats present potential for sponsorships, which CEE buyers are always keen to explore for daytime programs. “We’ve had some great conversations about daily strips,” says BBC Worldwide’s Kendrick. “In the past, most broadcasters in
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TV JOJ in Slovakia and TV Prima in the Czech Republic pooled their resources to jointly adapt FremantleMedia’s Got Talent format.
the region were focused on big, prime-time shows for the weekend, because that’s where the budgets are. The idea being that, if you’re going to spend the money on a local production, it needs to be in a big slot. We’re now seeing access-prime-time slots starting to open up, notably, for things you can do at a high volume and strip daily.” “As channels are building [their brands] and economies in some places are recovering after a couple of tough years, new slots are opening up,” affirms FremantleMedia’s Matei. She says that much negotiation nowadays with CEE format buyers is centered on scheduling needs, in addition to the ever-present issue of affordability. “There’s always the discussion about ways to help them fit their budgets or schedule requirements,” says Matei. “Maybe one country needs more live shows, maybe another one needs fewer. Others want something to air twice a week—this has been coming up lately. We can work with them around these requests.”
MONEY MATTERS Red Arrow International’s Pabst does acknowledge that budgets can present a challenge, but he says that working within these constraints is all part of the adaptation process. He commends broadcasters and producers in the region for delivering high-quality versions while often working with budgets that are “a small percentage” of the cost of the original. “These producers have an enormous amount of expertise and creativity when it comes to adapting formats, knowing that the budget is much smaller. We really appreciate it. We are always keen to keep [the quality of] our brands, but we cannot expect these territories to [have the same budgets] as some larger territories.” Given the smaller budgets, conversations for format adaptations in CEE generally involve how to maintain the show’s essence while keeping the costs down or working with fewer production days, according to Armoza. “The smaller countries often require more assistance with 52 World Screen 6/15
elements such as casting,” he adds. “This is where we are able to help more with our experience and knowledge of how to be creative with solutions and produce costeffective shows that still have the appearance of big-budget productions for our partners.”
LEARNING TO SHARE Armoza says he sees a lot of potential for using centralized production hubs in CEE in the future, in particular for the smaller territories. “This is a huge opportunity that will help several countries make large-scale studio entertainment shows more spectacular than would have otherwise been possible, as well as enable them to be accessible, costeffective and quicker to produce.” He points to a few other reasons why he’s optimistic about doing more business for formats in CEE. “Due to new regulations, whereby Ukraine can no longer buy from Russia, there is a new formats market opening up in Ukraine, and in particular for scripted formats,” he says. “In general, the scriptedformats genre is a new opportunity in the CEE region and one that we predict will continue to grow.” FremantleMedia’s Matei sees potential increasing in this region for comedy formats. “There’s a clear need for comedy— it helps people forget about all the terrible things happening out there in the world,” she says. “In terms of channels in CEE developing and evolving, there’s more of a need for original content in access [prime slots],” Matei adds. “It used to just be reruns in access prime time. Slowly we can see that the schedules there have room for very careful and selective original programming. That’s for scripted, for the broadcasters that can afford to do it, or for game shows, because they are totally affordable and very entertaining and addictive.” With new slots opening up and buyers assessing a wider range of genres, format distributors are looking at CEE as a region where opportunities are ripe for exploration.
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TIM MUTIMER
ZODIAK RIGHTS is Versailles, which [is shot in English]. Huge budget, an epic scale, huge ambitions and great showrunners; it really gives a whole new dimension to period drama. It’s really fantastic storytelling; a must-watch TV series.
TV EUROPE: I understand the story focuses a lot on the relationship between Louis XIV and his brother. MUTIMER: That’s right. Obviously you’ve got the backdrop of an incredibly interesting period of history in France, but that relationship in particular is quite a complex one and it’s very interesting to see it through the lens of what was going on in France at the time. TV EUROPE: Is a key to successful drama today finding something that the audience hasn’t seen before? MUTIMER: Yes. Viewers around the world are being stretched all the time and pushed further. There was a time when television used to underestimate viewers, but I think the audience is incredibly intelligent and likes to be challenged and pushed. New technologies have aided that and demonstrated it. People now are able to consume series within a night. If it’s something that really grabs their attention, they can devour it and become more obsessed with it. So, a key differentiator is storytelling that enables people to become obsessed and brings something new that people thought they knew but didn’t.
By Anna Carugati
Tim Mutimer has seen the international distribution business from a number of different perspectives: first from that of a leading commercial broadcaster when he was at ITV Studios Global Entertainment, and then from that of a major public broadcaster, while at BBC Worldwide. Now, as CEO of Zodiak Rights, the commercial arm of super indie Zodiak Media, he oversees a sales group and catalogue that includes programming produced around the globe. He continues to see the success of English-language product, but also the growing acceptance of series shot in other languages. As he tells TV Europe, what captures broadcasters’ attention are ideas and stories that haven’t been seen before. TV EUROPE: Zodiak has placed a big emphasis on drama. MUTIMER: We’ve had a very strong track record with shows such as Braquo, Wallander and Being Human. We’ve got a lot of shows that have traveled well internationally. In particular, we’ve developed a bit of a niche in representing TV series that aren’t filmed in the English language, and they have resonated around the world. We’re launching some exciting new series. We’ve got Occupied from Yellow Bird, makers of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Occupied is a Scandinavian drama that is a twist on the Scandi noir genre. It’s a starkly topical political thriller about an invasion of Norway by the Russians. It’s an incredible series—really strong. We’ve got The Disappearance, which is an eight-part French show for France Télévisions. It’s doing incredibly well audience-wise and is being labeled the French Broadchurch. And of course, the big one for us this year
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TV EUROPE: What’s been the strategy behind Zodiak’s factual slate? MUTIMER: Over the last six months or so we have focused more on the bigger projects that are airing on big platforms in key markets. We’re trying to pick up fewer one-offs. We have a big catalogue and we want to focus on what’s important within that catalogue, shows like The Supervet, Hardcore Pawn and The Operatives. We are trying to identify the one-offs that we think are pilots and could go on and grow. So, something like The Secret Life of 4 Year Olds, which was a Channel 4 onehour, is now being recommissioned by Channel 4 as a series. It has sold into Denmark as a series and it’s really going to take on a whole new life internationally, thanks to the kind of footprint that Zodiak companies have. The Secret Life of 4 Year Olds is a one-off that absolutely pays off because it becomes a series. So, we’ll look for one-offs that we think have that potential, or one-offs that we think really stand out on their own as really interesting pieces of television that broadcasters can get behind and market. And audiences will come and be interested in them because the shows will be loud and different. TV EUROPE: What trends are you seeing in the format business? MUTIMER: I guess the trend is that everyone wants a hit! We benefit from being a big group. The key is that the companies within the group are talking much more with each other. The key creatives come together regularly and share their development slates, and that helps IP travel around the group. So, a show like The Secret Life of 4 Year Olds that we launched at MIPTV will be produced as a local version in a number of
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Zodiak Rights’ drama slate includes the Scandinavian political suspense thriller Occupied, which comes from the Zodiak Media company Yellow Bird. territories. We have another show called The Best Singers, which is from FTV, a Dutch production company that we work with. The show started its life in the Netherlands, became incredibly successful in Scandinavia and is now spreading throughout Europe. It’s been hugely successful in Germany on VOX. In fact, last year, the best-selling album in Germany was not from a huge U.S. or German artist, it was actually The Best Singers’ compilation album. The first season in Belgium ended recently and more than 20 percent of the tracks on their music chart came from The Best Singers. So, this is a format that really engages the local audiences and is also a way to sell new music. The Best Singers is a hit in so many territories. We’ve got a few territories left to go and that is a key focus for us. We are also looking at what shows worked in the past and what we could bring back. We’ve got a show called Don’t Forget the Lyrics!, which you might remember from the U.S. At the moment, it’s on in France. It’s gone from being a prime-time show in the U.S. to being an access-prime show in France, and it’s doing extremely well. It gets a 14-percent share, with two episodes per night airing on France 2. Year on year the numbers are up by 60 percent in the commercial target. One of the things I want us to do this year is take Don’t Forget the Lyrics! into other territories and say, If you are looking for hits, this is a hit—maybe think about it in a slightly different way. It might have been a prime-time show, but it could be something you strip in your schedule. We’ve got another show like that in the U.K. called Tipping Point. It does really well here. It’s been the top-rated show in its slot. It’s been on air for four years, and over those four years it has grown 35 percent in terms of share. That’s something that we really want to push in other territories now. We launched a show called Wild Things, which features people dressed up as forest animals in the woods performing crazy kinds of games. That is so different that people have really fallen in love with it, and that is a show I think we will see travel quite quickly. People want hits, but they are always open to something that is a little different and will stand out. TV EUROPE: How have you been growing your business in the Americas? MUTIMER: The Americas is a tough territory. You have so much fantastic production coming out domestically, but there has been a real opening in the last few years, whether it’s for formats
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or finished shows, coming from other markets. Some of the on-demand services have helped that as well because there is now space for more content. Andreas Lemos, who is selling into North America for us, also wears an acquisitions hat, so often he’ll come with an idea that is being partially commissioned somewhere in Europe or Australia, and then look for a coproduction partner in the U.S. That really helps because it gives the U.S. broadcaster the ability to shape the editorial of the show a little bit. Being such a huge market, it’s key that American broadcasters have content that feels relevant. So, we will certainly be looking for opportunities to do more of that. TV EUROPE: Does windowing become more complex by the day? MUTIMER: It does and it doesn’t. People have started to realize that exclusivity is something that is really important in terms of bringing subscribers in. So people will be prepared to pay more for exclusivity. In some ways we are seeing less windowing than before because people will pay up in order to buy holdbacks. You’ll still do windowing after that, but there is certainly an initial period when people will pay a significant amount of money to get exclusivity. I think it’s less complex than it was four or five years ago. TV EUROPE: You went from ITV to the BBC to a super indie. Is anything significantly different when you do business today than when you started? MUTIMER: I remember when I started, I sold to Italy. Trying to sell British drama into Italy was a real uphill battle because they looked at our production values and our slow stories, which they thought were boring, and all of this costume, which didn’t really work. It was a battle, but in the end I sold Agatha Christie’s Poirot to Mediaset. They were a fantastic partner and tested it. It worked, and they carried on working with it and we formed a great relationship. But, when I look back, it was such a struggle to sell a British show, and now what British drama doesn’t sell into Italy? The world has changed a lot. I love working here at Zodiak. It’s great because it’s got that international perspective from having colleagues all around the world and production entities in different countries. I have a great team here that is really engaged and wants to do a good job. I’m loving it!
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BREAKING BORDERS Major international channel brands continue to find expansion opportunities across Central and Eastern Europe. By Mansha Daswani arlier this year, Scripps Networks Interactive shelled out $615 million to secure a controlling stake in one of Poland’s leading broadcast groups, TVN. The move marked the first significant U.S. investment in Central and Eastern Europe’s media business in years, and reflects a gradually building sentiment that the sector has finally turned a corner after its protracted economic woes. And it’s the pay-TV business that appears to be offering up the best opportunities for expansion. Indeed, in a report late last year, research and advisory firm Ovum found that the region’s media sector had entered a “dynamic new growth phase,” powered by the launch of lowcost TV services. Ovum is not the only research company feeling upbeat about the pay-TV business in CEE. Digital TV Research indicates that revenues from the segment will rise by 45 percent from 2010 to 2020, reaching $7.3 billion. By then, the pay-TV penetration rate will have risen from about 50 percent five years ago to 63 percent in 2020. With numbers like that, it’s clear that there are many markets where pay TV is still in growth mode. And for major channel brands, that means seeking out new partners in stillevolving territories such as Serbia, while also drilling deeper into highly penetrated, mature markets such as Poland.
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GROWTH PHASE For many, Poland has become the CEE market with the greatest opportunities for expansion, given its well developed, active pay-TV sector—and a more welcoming regulatory environment as compared to the region’s other big gun, Russia (more on this later). “When you look at the key markets in the world, Poland is right up there as a significant territory with its size, a wonderful GDP and [high] TV penetration—it made sense to do something there,” says Phillip Luff, the managing director of the U.K. and EMEA at Scripps Networks Interactive. Luff, who is fairly new to Scripps but not to the CEE media sector, refers to TVN as “a tremendous asset, a real jewel in the crown for any portfolio and a great addition to Scripps. We’re not looking at making any significant changes to it. It’s a question of us learning from them and having a greater understanding of the Polish market.” Scripps, whose portfolio of lifestyle brands includes Travel Channel and Food Network, has been in growth mode outside of Poland as well. “There have been a lot of new launches
over the past 12 months, particularly in Russia, in the Czech Republic and a lot of CEE countries, filling in any distribution gaps for the networks,” Luff adds. In addition, the company has been reorganizing its EMEA business, including bringing in-house the activities previously handled by Scripps’ joint venture with AMC Networks International (AMCNI)—Zone. Formerly Chello Zone, AMCNI—Zone has a long history with the CEE pay-TV markets and has amassed a portfolio that covers all genres, from kids to documentaries, sports to movies, entertainment to lifestyle. Complementing those assets are Sundance Channel and AMC. All fall under the oversight of Mike Moriarty, the managing director of Central Europe and Zone at AMCNI, who has spent more than two decades working in the region.
EARLY BIRDS For Moriarty, Zone’s early presence in CEE has been extremely beneficial. “You have to have very good relationships with the distribution platforms. The market has really consolidated in the last seven years. There are not nearly as many operators, which is good for the viewers, for the channels, for everybody. We’ve been there on the ground since the beginning, supplying [platforms] with channels, having a track record. With the portfolio and all the different genres we have, we always have something [a platform] needs. It’s very difficult to break into these markets with a standalone single channel that has never been there before.” AMCNI has been strategic in its approach to expanding the reach of its brands, Moriarty explains. “We don’t have every channel in every country. But we have something in every country.” He adds, “There are pockets where we think we can territorially expand on our portfolio. In places like the Czech Republic or Slovakia or Hungary, we’ve been in those markets the longest—we’re very highly penetrated and we have most of our genres and brands. It’s a little less so as you go into the former Yugoslavia and a little less so as you go up into Poland and out through Russia. That’s changing now. Having AMC behind us, and access to all that AMC content, is just fantastic.” AMCNI has transitioned MGM Channel into AMC in markets worldwide. That brand will be looking to build its identity in CEE with buzz-generating originals like the upcoming Fear the Walking Dead. AMC Global has been increasingly securing the first window on AMC’s U.S. originals,
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Building its content initiatives in Poland, Discovery is developing original stories as well as adapting shows from its U.S. parent, such as Say Yes to the Dress for the local feed of TLC.
a move that Moriarty sees as being transformative for the brand’s international presence. “Having something like Fear the Walking Dead completely changes the conversation with the distribution partners.” The show is a companion series to the hit AMC original The Walking Dead, which airs globally in the first window on FOX. “That’s a show that has worldwide appeal and visibility. Being able to build off the back of that, via [Fear the Walking Dead on] our own channels, is very important.”
FOX HOUSE The Walking Dead is one of a number of shows that air exclusively in the first window on the FOX International Channels (FIC) portfolio of brands around the world. “We are in a period of growth that includes the launch of new brands and the consolidation of FOX as our main entertainment brand in the region,” says Carlos Ortega, the executive VP for CEE at FIC. New developments include the launch of FOX Comedy in Poland earlier this year as a 24-hour entertainment channel. Poland is the only CEE market, and just the second in Europe (after Italy), to receive FOX Comedy, Ortega says. The flagship FOX, meanwhile, continues to go from strength to strength. “It has strong brand awareness across the region,” Ortega notes. “FOX was launched in Hungary in February 2014 and is becoming one of the main pay-TV entertainment channels in that market, a performance we are particularly proud of since it began broadcasting just over a year ago.” Ortega notes that major gains have been seen in Bulgaria and the Balkans this year. In April, FIC rolled out HD versions of FOX Life, FOX Crime and 24Kitchen in Bulgaria through Blizoo, a leading pay-TV operator in the country. “These launches have not only doubled FIC’s distribution with this operator, but have increased the penetration of FIC Bulgaria’s HD portfolio from 1 to 12 percent,” Ortega states.
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BBC Worldwide has been refining its international channels strategy over the last year or so. In 2014, it selected Poland as the debut market for the launch of the new channel brands BBC Brit and BBC Earth, joining the existing BBC World News, BBC HD, BBC Lifestyle and CBeebies in that market. BBC Earth has also rolled out to Hungary and Romania, among other territories.
EARTH CALLING “We’re working actively now to seek other markets to launch that brand in,” says Nick Percy, the general manager for CEE at BBC Worldwide, adding that BBC Entertainment and BBC World News are both well distributed across the region. “In the case of Earth, we’ve taken the view that it has great potential as a linear channel—but there are many other things we can do. We have BBC Earth branded blocks on TVP in Poland and on Czech TV.” A+E Networks has been pleased with the gains it has seen in its CEE business, including the creation of a dedicated office in Poland to manage its growing presence in that market. Last year, A+E Networks expanded its portfolio of channels available in Poland with the rollouts of H2 and Lifetime on Cyfrowy Polsat and nc+. With a portfolio of six international channel brands, Kiaran Saunders, VP for EMEA, says A+E Networks is focused on a strategy of “trying to launch three to six in each territory.” It recently expanded its Serbian presence with the addition of H2, and is looking at ways in which it can build its relationships with operators in the Baltics. Discovery Communications takes a similar approach to its significant portfolio in the region, according to Paul Welling, the senior VP and head of channels for Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa. “Typically, we talk about eight key channels that we look to launch,” Welling explains, led by the flagship Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet and ID Xtra. “We’ve really been focused
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The AMCNI portfolio in Central Europe includes the Sport1 channel, which has an agreement with UEFA for rights to the Champions League.
on ID Xtra over the last year,” Welling says, calling it the division’s “most successful recent brand.”
THINK LOCAL “We’re on a drive to make our channels feel local and international at the same time,” Welling states. That has meant tapping into Discovery’s U.S. output, acquiring on the open market and developing content locally. “We’re not launching headlong into a full production model in all markets, but we are definitely looking to localize the way we position our channels,” he explains. “In some markets, that means intensive reversioning. In Poland, for instance, we do a lot of re-hosting of our ID content with local Polish celebrities. On TLC we just launched Sex Without Secrets. A big new TLC commission is Say Yes to the Dress Poland.” Welling says that Discovery Channel will soon have its own slate of Polish commissions, featuring locally relevant stories, talent and locations. “We find local commissions really useful in terms of connecting with our audience and giving our marketing teams and the platforms something to market directly to their audiences and something to connect with,” Welling continues. “It really helps our channels cut through in those markets.” FIC has been stepping up its local commissions, particularly at National Geographic Channel. Ortega lists a version of World’s Smart Cities for Bucharest, Romania, and the multimedia project Explore Bulgaria as recent examples. Explore Bulgaria, he notes, was funded 100 percent by sponsors. “It was born as a six-month-long initiative with the production of six 12-minute films and the implementation of a 360-degree communication campaign, online contests, events and social-media activities, achieving huge success that led to its expansion in 2015 with a new and even better edition of Explore Bulgaria. The current program has been extended to 30 minutes and new versions are planned for Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia.” In Poland, meanwhile, there’s Poland’s Toughest and Night Truckers, and Sensations of the 20th Century is being co-produced with pubcaster TVP.
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Discovery’s Welling says that “in order to deploy local content, you need a dedicated feed to the country in order to opt in and opt out of those shows.” The decision to employ a local feed in place of a panregional signal “is not something anyone would do lightly,” Welling observes. “We have a model for dividing our channels into flagships and what we call our passion brands. We’re more focused on the flagships in terms of localization. The passion brands would include Discovery Science and Turbo, and they work very well on a pan-regional basis. For the flagships, we really work through when is the right time to make them local—for the consumer, with local content and tune-in messages in the correct language; for affiliates, who want a dedicated channel for a core market; and for advertisers. I would look at those three stakeholders. Is the audience large enough? Is the ad-sales potential there? Do the affiliate partners have a demand for a local, bespoke channel?”
BUYING TIME Launching local feeds is one way in which international channels are looking to up their share of the advertising pie—which, most would attest, has struggled to expand over the last few years. “The ad markets were terribly horrible for a couple of years!” says AMCNI’s Moriarty. “They’re starting to come back. Most of the domestic U.S. channels probably run 50/50 subscription revenues to advertising. In Central Europe that number is more like 85/15 or 90/10. Advertising is a small but growing part of the business. We’re expecting a huge uptick in advertising sales across the AMC channel, mainly in the Central Europe feed. We have a dedicated feed for Hungary. We expect to see real advertising growth on those two.” Scripps’ Luff adds that having a better understanding of viewers will be essential as the company expands its advertising revenues. “We are working very closely with the advertising industry, with agencies and directly with advertisers, to do a range of things, from sponsorship to full-on brand partnerships through to advertiser-funded productions.” “The ad-funded model is an interesting one,” notes Discovery’s Welling. “It’s more difficult in markets that are
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BBC Earth, home to such natural-history and wildlife fare as Life Story, has rolled out in several markets across CEE.
Ofcom-regulated. And it’s more difficult when you talk about long-form content as opposed to short-form. We’re exploring both of those options actively in a lot of our markets. Typically, what advertisers like is a channel that delivers a pretty good share already and has robust pillars of international content, and then has an additional layer—local [content] or a local host, or even a host for an international show who comes from that region. [Advertisers like] having that hook that makes [the channel] feel very rooted in the country.” At A+E Networks, Saunders observes that the key global franchises across his channels have enabled the company to expand its ad revenues. “As we grow our audience and our reach, obviously our ability to monetize that increases. The launches in Poland, for example, are really helpful. The Serbian launch is helpful. What we tend to do is use a third-party representative rather than set up our own ad-sales house. That enables us to tap into the scale that they can offer and the local knowledge. It’s very hard to bucket the whole of Central and Eastern Europe into one [category], but it’s a buoyant market.”
FUTURE PROOFING Much like pay-TV channels anywhere else in the world, CEE’s big pan-regional brands are eagerly exploring TV Everywhere opportunities. “There are very advanced television markets in Central Europe,” AMCNI’s Moriarty says. “In a place like Poland, almost 90 percent penetration of TV households have some sort of multichannel television. Hungary is 85, 86 percent. Slovakia is a high number. Romania is a very vibrant industry. HBO is there with its GO [streaming] product. All the big operators have [TV Everywhere] apps. From a technology point of view and an offering point of view, it’s much more advanced than a lot of people would think. We don’t have the huge OTT players like Netflix or Hulu, but we expect them to show up at some point.” FIC has moved quickly in the TV Everywhere space, unveiling its own authenticated nonlinear services FOX Play and Nat Geo Play. FOX Play began its CEE rollout in Poland with pay-TV affiliates, kicking off with Vectra. FOX Play and Nat Geo Play will reach Bulgaria this summer via Blizoo. “Most of the major platforms have deployed significant consumer-facing video on demand and viewing options across multiple devices, using OTT,” says A+E’s Saunders. “They are creating an environment where the customer is getting what
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they want and possibly don’t need OTT. OTT may be a deepdive VOD library for people to add on to their packages, rather than a replacement of pay TV. That won’t apply everywhere, but there is a way OTT can coexist happily in the market. Certainly in some of the territories, pay TV has quite low penetration, so there’s no reason why both markets can’t grow together.” As all of the executives spoken to for this piece will attest to, owning your own content certainly makes conversations with any affiliate partner about TV Everywhere extensions much simpler. “We’re quite flexible and are able to be quite effective in working with affiliate partners for catch-up or streaming or VOD packages,” says BBC Worldwide’s Percy. “When we’re working with affiliates around BBC Earth, we’re always interested to see if there is more we can do. In some territories it may be that there are standalone digital packages with the First or Brit or Earth brands.” While OTT may not be an obstacle for channels as they’re building their business, a new complication has developed—in the form of Russia. In a ruling that took effect this year, commercials have been banned on pay-TV channels that air mostly foreign content. And by the end of 2016, foreign ownership of media outlets in Russia will be restricted to 20 percent. In late 2014, CNN announced it was ending broadcasts there, and in January NBCUniversal’s Universal Channel and E! were pulled. For international channel brands looking to continue expanding in this massive territory, there are no easy answers; indeed, CNN this March received a license to resume broadcasts in Russia. “Despite the difficult regulatory environment [in Russia] for the last 6 to 12 months, we are growing quite rapidly through distribution gains,” says A+E’s Saunders. “Russia is still an important market for us,” says Welling at Discovery, which announced a significant investment in Russia just a few years ago. “It’s a big country and we’re committed to operating there. Our channels are very well loved. We’re looking at ways to continue the businesses there. More is going to come later this year on our intentions.” So the verdict on Russia is: watch this space—everyone is still trying to figure it all out. Poland is set to remain the most commercially viable of the CEE markets. And everything else in between will be fair game as channels look to expand their reach, relevance and ratings.
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JUNE /JULY 2015
LICENSING EXPO & NATPE EUROPE EDITION
L&M Trends / m4e’s Hans Ulrich Stoef
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CONTENTS FEATURES
Mini Power Players
10 TOY WITH ME
A look at the strategies for turning kids’ shows into successful L&M properties.
The phrase “children should be seen and not heard” is long gone in today’s media world, where kids are key influencers for entertainment brands, licensed products and new services.
Ricardo Seguin Guise Publisher Anna Carugati Group Editorial Director Mansha Daswani Editor Kristin Brzoznowski Executive Editor Joanna Padovano Associate Editor Joel Marino Assistant Editor Victor L. Cuevas Production & Design Director Simon Weaver Online Director Phyllis Q. Busell Art Director Alberto Rodriguez Sales & Marketing Manager Dana Mattison Sales & Marketing Coordinator Fiorella Martinez Sales & Marketing Assistant Terry Acunzo Business Affairs Manager
Ricardo Seguin Guise President Anna Carugati Executive VP Mansha Daswani Associate Publisher & VP of Strategic Development TV Kids © 2015 WSN INC. 1123 Broadway, #1207 New York, NY 10010 Phone: (212) 924-7620 Fax: (212) 924-6940 Website: www.tvkids.ws
Parents are quick to give in to a child’s “I want!” request when strolling through the toy aisles, so retailers and licensees are well aware of the power these youngsters yield in the licensing and merchandising (L&M) arena. Having a robust consumer-products business can contribute greatly to a company’s vibrancy as well. Disney’s latest financials were lifted by gains from its consumer-products division, for example, with much of this due to the continuing success of Frozen products at retail. As the Frozen phenomenon persists, Elsa and her pals are getting a sequel, which is sure to again be a merchandising juggernaut for Disney while delivering at the box office—not to mention satisfying the calls from kids all over the world who just don’t want to “Let It Go.” Children are also changing the game in terms of how content is offered, with their penchant for on-demand viewing driving the proliferation of dedicated SVOD services and apps. Kids today are no longer tethered to the TV set with only a handful of channels to choose from; they are engaging with tablets and smartphones to watch exactly what they want to watch, wherever they may be. In some cases, they’re even helping to choose the content. Amazon Studios recently greenlit six new pilots for its roster of kids’ programs. The pilots are made available for children and parents to watch, and their feedback helps to determine which will move forward into full series. In this issue of TV Kids, we explore how kids’ connections to their favorite TV shows are central to the L&M market. We hear from m4e’s Hans Ulrich Stoef about the company’s expanding stable of brands, and from 41 Entertainment’s Allen Bohbot about reimagining iconic properties to make them relevant for children today. Kids nowadays are growing up quickly; they’re technologically savvy and accustomed to high-quality entertainment. They are also used to having their favorite TV properties at their fingertips, be it with a plush toy or on a tablet. Their powerful influence in the worlds of television and retail cannot be ignored. —Kristin Brzoznowski
10 18 SWINGING INTO ACTION
41 Entertainment has a stable of iconic brands that have been reimagined for kids today.
INTERVIEW
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m4e’s Hans Ulrich Stoef
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41 Entertainment PAC-MAN and the Ghostly Adventures / Kong: King of the Apes / Tarzan and Jane The properties that 41 Entertainment (41e) is touting for the L&M market are all based on established, iconic brands. PACMAN and the Ghostly Adventures grew out of the beloved video-game franchise, making it well suited for additional brand extensions, says Allen Bohbot, the managing director of 41e. Bohbot also has high hopes for Kong: King of the Apes in the L&M arena. “With a brand that everyone knows, it’s much easier [to extend it into licensing and merchandising],” he says. “You have a parent saying, That sounds cool! King Kong, sure! So, if the kid is asking and the parent is welcoming, then the retailer is much more comfortable taking it and licensees know that they can get it on the shelves.” The newest property in the 41e stable is Tarzan and Jane.
“We always make sure there’s an L&M application within our properties.” —Allen Bohbot PAC-MAN and the Ghostly Adventures
Cyber Group Studios Zorro the Chronicles / Zou The upcoming action comedy Zorro the Chronicles, part of the Cyber Group Studios catalogue, centers on the famed masked swordsman. “There’s a lot of diversity in the series and I think there’s a massive amount of potential in terms of merchandising,” says Pierre Sissmann, the company’s chairman and CEO. Zorro the Chronicles, meant for kids between the ages of 6 and 12, is one of the properties that Cyber Group is focusing on at this year’s Licensing Expo, along with the book-based animated series Zou. “The show is very family-oriented and the range of merchandising can extend from plush to interactive apps, and from books to puzzles,” says Sissmann. Cyber Group is currently looking to secure a worldwide master toy licensee for Zou, which is geared toward 3- to 6-year-olds.
“We have lifted Zorro a bit with some new characteristics—he’s younger, he’s hip, he has a twin sister—but it’s the same Zorro.” —Pierre Sissmann Zorro the Chronicles
Grand Prix Media Mika’s Diary / Chiquititas / PinguiNics Grand Prix Media is heading to NATPE Europe with a number of kids’ programming highlights within its broad catalogue. This includes Mika’s Diary, which centers on a 4-year-old girl, Mika, as well as her imaginary friends and her tablet. There’s also a youth-skewed telenovela, Chiquititas, about a group of girls who live in an orphanage built by a wealthy man with a family secret. PinguiNics, meanwhile, is about three penguin pals who have exciting adventures in Antarctica. Chun Kim, sales manager at Grand Prix, will be at NATPE Europe talking to buyers about these series and many others. “We’re hoping to meet as many partners as possible to showcase our new highlights,” says Kim.
“We firmly believe that our catalogue is very attractive for Eastern and Central European audiences.” —Chun Kim
Chiquititas
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m4e/Telescreen Wissper / Mia and me / Tip the Mouse The central character in the new animated series Wissper, a highlight from m4e, is a quirky little girl who can talk to animals. Wissper sits in the catalogue alongside the girl-skewed fantasy adventure series Mia and me, which has two completed seasons of 26 episodes each and a slew of licensing and merchandising extensions. A third season is in the works for Mia and me. The catalogue also includes the 52x7-minute series Tip the Mouse, based on a brand that started its success in the world of publishing. The company has already lined up a master toy deal, 40-plus broadcasters and a second season for the property, according to Hans Ulrich Stoef, the CEO of m4e.
“Linear television still matters—it’s still the key driver to get the [attention] of kids.” —Hans Ulrich Stoef Wissper
Mondo TV Giochi Preziosi / Aurora World Corporation / Abu Dhabi Media At this year’s Licensing Expo, Mondo TV is presenting a number of titles from its co-production partners Giochi Preziosi, Aurora World Corporation and Abu Dhabi Media. Highlights from Giochi Preziosi include Dinofroz Dragons’ Revenge and Atomicron. “Both properties were born from successful Giochi Preziosi toy lines,” says Roberta Puppo, Mondo’s international licensing and marketing manager. “This means there is already awareness among kids.” Co-productions with Aurora include YooHoo & Friends and Cuby Zoo. “YooHoo & Friends is a very well-known property and a lot of activities and promotions have already been done by Aurora,” says Puppo. Mondo’s collaborations with Abu Dhabi Media are Majid, Karamella and Kasslan, based on famous characters from the United Arab Emirates.
“[YooHoo & Friends] deals with friendship, adventure, exploration, the environment and rare and endangered species—themes and values that perfectly match the [interests] of children.” —Roberta Puppo YooHoo & Friends
Studio 100 Media K3 / Heidi / Tashi Kim, Kylie and Kate, the central characters in Studio 100 Media’s K3, are three ordinary girls taking part in an extraordinary world; they are teen pop singers on a global tour, where unexpected diversions lead them to fun stories. The trio is characterized as being sweet and cheeky and always having a positive attitude. Studio 100 Media’s catalogue also includes Heidi, about an 8-year-old orphan who lives with her grandfather in the scenic idyll of the Swiss Alps. This CGI/3D animated series is an update of a classic property. In Tashi, the characters Tashi and Jack are always finding themselves in wild adventures while exploring a fantastical kingdom, where they face off with mythical creatures. Their whimsical female accomplice Lotus Blossom helps them navigate tricky situations.
K3
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TOY W In the intense battle to make sure their
ou’ve undoubtedly seen the joy on the face of a child who receives a toy or another product connected to their favorite TV show. That palpable excitement is fueling the powerful licensing and merchandising (L&M) engine that helps drive the kids’ television business. Even though the L&M market continues to evolve—providing opportunities as well as challenges—leading content executives headed to this year’s Licensing Expo are bullish on the many possibilities the segment continues to offer. According to data from The NPD Group, U.S. retail sales of toys generated $18.1 billion last year, an increase of 4 percent over 2013. Licensed toys, which represented 31 percent of total industry sales, rose 7 percent in 2014 compared to the previous year. Of course, toys are not the only kids’ L&M category, and the U.S. is merely one of many territories, but these figures represent a step in the right direction for an industry that is still recovering from the economic woes of years past. An ongoing trend in the L&M segment has been the continued demand for properties that consumers already know and trust. “In the past decade, licensees and retailers have seen a number of potentially exciting properties fail in the market,” says Allen Bohbot, the managing director of 41 Entertainment (41e). “Often, new properties look attractive and have a lot of potential, yet they disproportionally fail at retail. “With well-known and established brands, it’s much safer and they increase the chances of success,” Bohbot continues. “There’s a safety factor. It gives you the comfort that this has been done before and it’s worked, so if done well, it should work again. Brand-new stories need more time to become established.”
FAMILIAR FACES 41e has several titles in its catalogue based on tried-andtrue brands, including PAC-MAN and the Ghostly Adventures, Kong: King of the Apes and Tarzan and Jane (the latter two being original series for Netflix). “With Kong, MGA Entertainment has a deep and great toy line developed in part with master designer Avi Arad,” says Bohbot. “[There are] toys in various sizes, plush and electronic—a full assortment. Imagine a King Kong backpack—who would not want that?”
Saban Brands’ Luna Petunia.
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Y With Me
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for retail space, kids’ content owners are using a variety of approaches brands cut through the clutter. By Joanna Padovano Another known character that has been refreshed for a new audience is the famed masked swordsman Zorro, who is featured in the upcoming CGI show Zorro the Chronicles. “I think there’s a massive amount of potential in terms of merchandising,” says Pierre Sissmann, the chairman and CEO of Cyber Group Studios. “We’d love to have a master toy deal on Zorro and move to all the different categories, whether it’s apparel, accessories or home furnishing.” The huge hit Teletubbies, now part of the DHX Media catalogue, is gearing up to celebrate its 20th anniversary in 2017. The preschool brand is being rebooted with a new series for CBeebies. “We’ve really thought hard about the strategic rollout,” says Peter Byrne, the executive VP of DHX Brands. “We’ve got some fantastic partners on board: Character Options, master toy, and Egmont, global publishing. We’ve pretty much covered all of the major licensing categories, from bedding to party to electronics, in the first wave.”
A CLASSIC RETURNS From the ITV Studios Global Entertainment (ITVS GE) portfolio, Thunderbirds Are Go is based on the iconic brand that first appeared back in 1965. “Thunderbirds lends itself perfectly to merchandise,” says Trudi Hayward, the company’s senior VP and head of global merchandising. “The craft and characters are hugely inspirational for kids. Boys in particular want to be the Tracy Brothers and be part of International Rescue, piloting the Thunderbirds craft.” Thunderbirds Are Go has already landed 30 licensees in the U.K., including for toys, clothing, puzzles, games, toiletries, food and more. “We’re still looking for partners in the liveevents and promotional categories,” adds Hayward. Saban Brands boasts Power Rangers, whose superheroes have been thrilling kids for more than two decades. The latest installment of the television series is Power Rangers Dino Charge, which premiered on Nickelodeon earlier this year. “Ratings are great and toys are selling really well with our master toy partner, Bandai,” says Kirk Bloomgarden, the company’s senior VP of global consumer products. “We’ve got great retail presence, so we’re really excited about the strength of this franchise and how it continues to excel and perform year after year.” Another familiar property in Saban’s catalogue is Popples, an upcoming animated comedy series for Netflix that is based on the classic toy line from the 1980s. “We have a great toy partner with Spin Master, which has done exceptional products that we’re launching later this year,” says Bloomgarden. “Research has shown that young moms who were playing with Popples in the ’80s are very excited about sharing that experience with their daughters.”
Yu-Gi-Oh! is a long-running property represented by 4K Media, a wholly owned subsidiary of Konami Digital Entertainment. The brand, known for its popular trading-card game, has a licensing program that spans a variety of categories. “For the older demographic, we have collectibles in place with both Mecca and WizKids,” says Jennifer Coleman, 4K’s VP of licensing and marketing. “We have housewares and impulse items, as well as beverageware, with Just Funky. We’ve also got Star Cutouts doing life-size cutouts [of the characters]. We also have Freeze on board as our master T-shirt [licensee]. “For the younger boys’ set, we’ve got Cartorama in place— though that’s really just for Italy—and they’re doing back-toschool,” continues Coleman. “We also just announced that we’re going to be working with Bioworld, and they’re going to be doing accessories and headware. [There is also] Buckle-Down, and they do funky, patented belts as well as some pet accessories and keychains; that’s more for the older demographic. And then we have a number of home-video licensees in place as well.” FremantleMedia Kids & Family Entertainment (FMKFE) is distributing Danger Mouse, a cult-classic animated series that has been updated for a new generation of kids. “There’s a fantastic production team on board that has created a range of exciting, action-packed missions for the world’s greatest superspy, with great gadgets and vehicles that will really appeal to the boys’ market,” says Rick Glankler, the company’s executive VP and general manager. “The show’s surreal comedy, distinctive mix of 2D and brilliant visuals set it apart from other current boys’ properties and make the target audience want to engage with the brand beyond simply viewing the show.” While many retailers prefer to play it safe with properties that are already known, there are still those that are willing to take a risk on something new.
IN WITH THE NEW Sitting alongside Teletubbies in the DHX catalogue is Twirlywoos, a preschool series on CBeebies featuring bird-like creatures. “It certainly resonated among retailers and licensees instantly,” says Byrne. This led the company to fast-track the property’s L&M program, which was announced at Brand Licensing Europe last year. “The response from all of the retailers was, This is one of the most unique properties we’ve seen in preschool! When can we take part?” Many of the core L&M segments for Twirlywoos have been secured, with Golden Bear appointed as master toy partner and Ravensburger handling puzzles and games. “We’ll be shipping toy products [this summer] in the U.K.,” adds Byrne. Another new property repped by DHX is Make It Pop, targeted at girls aged 6 to 12. The show, about a group of teens who form a
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eOne’s Peppa Pig garnered $1 billion in retail sales this financial year, with more than 600 licensing deals in place globally.
band, premiered on Nickelodeon in the U.S. this spring. “Ratings have been fantastic; Nickelodeon has just announced the secondseason pickup and it’s already going to be expanding internationally in July,” says Byrne. “We believe very strongly [in the brand] and certainly the response from licensing partners has been huge. We will be announcing a toy partner at the Licensing Expo.” Alongside Power Rangers and Popples, Saban Brands is also concentrating on the L&M for Luna Petunia, a new series developed in collaboration with Cirque du Soleil Média. “We’re in the early stages on [Luna Petunia], but it’s very much a focus and we’ll be talking about that property at the Licensing Expo with our partners,” says Bloomgarden. A relatively new title for Cyber Group is Zou, a book-based show that began airing in 2012. Sissmann explains that Zou had limited reach initially, “and now it’s all over the world.” The brand has already been very successful in such categories as books, plush, puzzles, interactive and play sets, with several more on the horizon. There is also an upcoming promotion that will see Chick-fil-A restaurants around the U.S. giving away Zou books to kids. “We’re still looking for a major worldwide toy master,” adds Sissmann. Among the key L&M properties for Entertainment One (eOne) Family are Peppa Pig and Ben & Holly’s Little Kingdom, two award-winning preschool series produced by Astley Baker Davies. For Peppa, the company is juggling multiple licensing campaigns around the world that are in various stages of development. “Most of the programs are at least two to three years in maturity, extending to places like the U.K., where they’re moving into their 11th year,” says Andrew Carley, the head of global licensing at eOne. “In general, the strategy for Peppa is one of sustaining the business and ensuring we’ve got a coordinated marketing campaign behind the program that pulls together TV, licensing, digital and home entertainment—all those key components.” The strategy for Ben & Holly is more about building the brand and its presence at retail. “Ben & Holly’s Little Kingdom was really launched in the U.K. via our new toy partner Character Options early last year,” says Carley. “This year, in territories where we’ve launched and been in place for the last 12 to 24 months, such as the U.K., Spain, Italy and Australia, [our strategy is] making sure that it’s top priority for retailers and ensuring that it can justify its place on the shelf.”
In addition to Danger Mouse, FMKFE has a number of other properties that are ripe for L&M expansion, including the preschool shows Tree Fu Tom, Kate & Mim-Mim and Ella the Elephant. Tree Fu Tom already has 50 international licensees, including master toy partner Jazwares. Since its launch last year, Kate & Mim-Mim has received “a fantastic reaction” worldwide, with “parents actually pleading for products,” says Glankler. Ella the Elephant also has Jazwares as its master toy partner. Penguin Young Readers is slated to release a publishing program based on the brand in North America this fall. Among Rainbow’s most successful properties are the international hits Winx Club and Mia and me, both girl-skewing and offering a wealth of L&M possibilities. “Our brands [are present in many] categories and have been in place for a long time,” says Matteo Olivetti, the company’s head of sales. “In general, we are always looking for new opportunities in different countries, and we are looking for strategic collaborations with leading companies in each category.”
TIMING IS EVERYTHING There is no hard-and-fast rule for deciding when a brand is ready to start generating toys and other consumer products. It can be difficult to determine the perfect time to launch a licensing program, because doing so either too early or too late will likely both yield undesirable results.
Rainbow’s Winx Club has been an L&M success in such areas as back-to-school.
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“The child has to engage and believe in the show before they are going to want to have any related merchandise,” says FMKFE’s Glankler. “Toys are central to all our consumerproduct strategies, and given the time it takes to design, create and ship them, we always need to be thinking a couple of years ahead. It is critical to find the right window of opportunity to launch your products. The brand has to have been on air long enough for the audience to be familiar with it (and also be keen to extend their engagement with it), but not so long that the audience has moved on to the next new thing.” “We like the property to establish itself prior to launching merchandise, so if it’s launching on TV, ideally we wait six to nine months before we launch products,” says ITVS GE’s Hayward. “We want to ensure that kids are fully engaged with the property and want to own merchandise before product goes into market.” “At the end [of the day], it’s the market that decides the success of a brand,” says Rainbow’s Olivetti. “But once the show is placed on TV, usually we start with [lead] categories like publishing, home entertainment, digital and toys, and then we extend into the other categories.” It’s also important to find the right balance when it comes to incorporating elements of a show into its licensing program, and vice versa.
[you would be] if you had a reputation for short bursts of activity that burn bright and disappear.” But even if a company is able to offer retailers both exclusivity and longevity, there is still no guarantee that their property will make it to store shelves—this is because there is a lack of available space. “There’s been a lot of consolidation in retail,” says Saban’s Bloomgarden. “And not just in the U.S., but internationally. With the consolidation, there are just limited stores, limited shelf space, and everybody’s competing for that.”
VOLUME CONTROL
What makes limited shelf space even trickier is the sheer volume of kids’ properties. “It’s highly competitive, preschool in particular; there’s a saturation of brands,” says DHX’s Byrne. “Retailers tend to look to window product. If it performs, it stays; if it hasn’t performed in a few weeks, it’s gone.” “There are a lot of properties in the marketplace,” says eOne’s Carley. “So gaining credibility, gaining your foothold in the marketplace, is increasingly difficult. For buyers, understanding which property they need to back is very hard.” Despite the challenges currently facing children’s L&M, there are still plenty of opportunities emerging for the segment, including those in the digital space. PERFORMING AT RETAIL “Where I see growth and the most “When we create new prosuccess has really been in social gramming, we think about media and mobile,” says 4K’s creating things that we can Coleman. “They allow you to take from the content— connect with your fan base in a maybe it’s a story line— way that you weren’t able to and put that into the in the past, certainly not as licensing program,” says inexpensively, and also not as eOne’s Carley. “What we deeply. Mobile and social don’t do is create overtly media are really changing the licensing-[heavy] story face of marketing and the way lines that feed into the toy that we interact with our cusor the licensing program— tomer base.” it feels very exploitative and “Digital technology just it’s just a springboard with which to sell product. continues to provide opporI think nowadays, parents see through that, so tunities for all of us,” says Saban’s we’ve avoided it. But certainly we can inject elements Bloomgarden. “Kids are now doing everyinto the show that we know will help support the thing on tablets and smartphones.” licensing program.” “Licensors are having to be a lot more creLike any business, retailers are continuously looking ative, definitely thinking about a full 360for ways to drive traffic, both to their brick-and-mortar degree approach, making the property availstores and to their websites. A good way to accomable not just on TV but now also online and plish that is by having exclusivity for a hot property. on mobile,” says ITVS GE’s Hayward. “You “An exclusive allows [retailers] a big point of need to be available at all touch points.” differentiation from their competition; they have No matter the product—be it physical something in their store that they know nobody or digital—the key to success for kids’ L&M else has,” says 4K’s Coleman. “That’s still extremely is to be able to connect with children by important and I think that will continue to be a offering brands they can relate to while also driver for retailers.” convincing parents to purchase associated According to eOne’s Carley, retailers are looking merchandise. It’s not always easy for a TV to work with companies that have earned staying property to establish and maintain a profpower in the market. “If you can develop a relaitable presence off screen, especially tionship with a retailer that offers longevity in a constantly changing media landand trust, you’re going a long way,” he says. scape, but when it does happen, the “It means that while newer properties results can be very rewarding for all come in, because you’ve got that longevity, ITVS GE’s Thunderbirds Are Go is a particular hit in the you’re perhaps not threatened in the way boys’ arena, with action figures among the L&M products. parties involved.
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TV KIDS
TV KIDS: You’ve expanded your alliance with Gerhard Hahn, with whom you worked on Mia and me. Tell us about this relationship. STOEF: With Gerhard we had a company called Lucky Punch. That was our production joint venture for Mia and me. We are in a third season now for Mia and me. We thought it would make sense to combine our production efforts in a new entity called Hahn & m4e Productions. We love his creativity and his creative skills. He loves our marketing, distribution and licensing power. We said, let’s put the m4e developments, creations and co-productions into an entity together with his under this umbrella brand. We went to MIPTV with 11 new development projects. We have another nine in early development. A development slate like that requires some significant funding. We want to bring at least six to seven [of these development projects into production] in the next three years. Hahn & m4e Productions will also be available to third-party creators and third-party co-productions. We’ll help in making content more appealing for the international market, injecting ingredients to make them [more attractive] for licensing and merchandising. We’ll help finance and presell shows. If needed, we have the capacity to come in with some gap financing. What we have now with Gerhard attached with our creative
m4e HANS ULRICH STOEF By Mansha Daswani
With its roots in the licensing and merchandising sector, m4e has expanded rapidly in the last few years to become a full-service brand-management company in the kids’ and family entertainment arena. The company is active in production, distribution and consumer products, amassing a slate that includes the global hit Mia and me, the publishing-based Tip the Mouse and the brand-new Wissper. As CEO Hans Ulrich Stoef tells TV Kids, m4e has set itself on a path to becoming a European powerhouse in kids’ entertainment.
TV KIDS: What’s been driving m4e’s growth over the last few years? STOEF: When we started in 2003, we tried to get some grip on the market but we didn’t have the financial capacity. A major step for us was raising some capital in order to be able to go into producing in a deeper way. A milestone for the company was our development, creation and production of Mia and me, and then distributing it to so many countries and getting Mattel as a toy partner. After that, we were able to produce and deliver Tip the Mouse. [That sent the message] that we are really putting out quality productions. We’ve again been able to deliver a master toy deal and 40-plus broadcasters, and we’re now going into a second season. We also bought many companies and now we have a library of 2,500 episodes of programs.
team and his creative team is a broader capacity to oversee those developments from third parties and help make them better. Wissper with Dan Good [and Absolutely Cuckoo] and his co-producing partners Telegael and Discreet Art Productions is a very good example. We were able to raise the financing and finish the deep development in six months. The financing was raised with only one broadcaster attached. That’s very rare. It was only the commissioning broadcaster, Channel 5 (Milkshake!), and then we brought in a toy company, a worldwide publishing partner and ourselves, and it was done.
TV KIDS: You mentioned earlier the growth of your catalogue. How important is volume as you’re dealing with the new digital players? STOEF: Very important. The market is in the midst of a big change right now. Content really matters, so that’s the good news. But the size of the company and its library matters, too. We have a library that services some of the needs of OTT platforms. It’s also important to go to platforms like YouTube and create our own channel business, especially for back-library titles. We have a great appetite to grow our library business. We are currently in discussions with many people on how to do that. It could be acquisitions, it could be mergers, it could be anything. From about €20 million to €25 million in revenues, we need to move this company into €80 million to
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€100 million in a short amount of time. That’s very important in order to generate cash flow on a broader basis with a large library and become a major player in Europe. I think we are already a major player with regards to our production output, and based on the number of developments and productions that we have in place. There are not many companies from Europe that have 150 episodes simultaneously in production, but it will be key to grow the library besides that in a faster way. TV KIDS: And you’ve expanded your output without having any German production incentives to take advantage of. STOEF: No tax breaks, no big subsidies for television. We look outside of the box [for financing]—so it’s not necessarily just presales and broadcast agreements. We also attack the consumer-product side at a very early stage, as well as the publishing side and the video-on-demand side. TV KIDS: Can the lack of government financing be an advantage, in terms of making sure that the shows you deliver have commercial appeal? STOEF: In the last 15 years, there were many shows, for example from Canada, that were just produced for tax credits and subsidies. They were filling the pipelines for the broadcasters, but they didn’t please the audience. I think it’s fantastic to have [subsidies and tax breaks]. We do use them—we don’t have studio capacity, [so we co-produce with countries that have subsidies available]. But it’s very important that you have a functional business model rather than just a subsidy and tax-credit model. You need to understand your broadcasters, you need to understand the audience and you need to understand the consumer-products side and how to synchronize all of that. TV KIDS: What are some of the upcoming shows you’re excited about? STOEF: We’re doing our first live-action show, Me, Mum & Mystery. It’s a detective series based on a book line we optioned from Atlantyca. We’re in deep development and there are good signs we’ll be able to greenlight the show this year. That’s the next milestone for our company, because we have never been a live-action producer. We have some great talent attached. And there’s been fantastic response so far. The relationship with Hahn Film is very important. Gerhard has developed a line of plush dolls called the Worry Eaters [known as Sorgenfresser in Europe]. Together we will bring a 52x7-minute CGI animated show to the market. We’re in the financing and presale process. The consumer-product partners are lined up for that, because the line of plush dolls has already sold millions and millions [of units] for Gerhard in Europe. We are developing another CGI series, Siggi, based on the famous Nibelungen saga. We have lots on the plate. We need to stay focused and not lose ourselves in too many opportunities! TV KIDS: In the current climate, what qualities does a property need in order to find retail space? STOEF: First, we need TV exposure, and linear television still matters— it’s still the key driver to get the [attention] of kids. Of course, we all need a multichannel, multimedia concept in order to launch a new property. The internet, social networks, etc., all need to be included in a concept from the beginning. But in order to get the attention of retailers, you need to have the gameplay in the show itself, and it needs to translate well into toys. You also need to be better than the existing shows. There’s only so much shelf space. Much of it is dedicated to existing brands that drive [retailers’] revenues. You need to prove in advance in whatever way that you will sell more toys than the existing brand they’re pushing off the shelf. In the end, it requires strong ratings, great storytelling, gameplay, a transmedia experience and a toy partner that has the capability to develop a great line of toys, which will be supported by a strong marketing campaign.
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TV KIDS
SWINGING into ACTION 41 Entertainment and its partners are reinventing iconic brands for a new generation of young viewers.
Among the newly reimagined properties that 41e has developed are (from left) Kong: King of the Apes, Tarzan and Jane and PAC-MAN and the Ghostly Adventures.
By Kristin Brzoznowski
n a marketplace as crowded as the kids’ content landscape is, it helps to have built-in brand recognition when it comes to the intense battle for viewership and retail dollars. 41 Entertainment (41e) has tapped into this niche, putting together a stable of iconic brands made relevant for kids today. The company, led by Allen Bohbot as managing director, set out on this strategy about three years ago with the revival of the PacMan brand. Born out of the classic 1980s video-game franchise, the 52-episode series PAC-MAN and the Ghostly Adventures has now aired in 100-plus markets in more than 20 languages. The show was produced by Avi Arad, a former Marvel executive whose long list of production credits includes the blockbuster Spider-Man, X-Men and Iron Man movie franchises. Following on their successful collaboration for PAC-MAN and the Ghostly Adventures, Arad and 41e reteamed to bring another iconic property to the small screen: King Kong. The CGI animated series Kong: King of the Apes, created by Arad and Bohbot, is set in 2050, offering up a fresh take on the classic King Kong legend. The story is set against the backdrop of San Francisco’s Alcatraz Island, which has been transformed into a vast natural-history and marine preserve where Kong is the star attraction. In this version, there are even gigantic robotic dinosaurs that Kong must battle in order to save humankind. Having sold PAC-MAN and the Ghostly Adventures to Netflix, Bohbot struck up a conversation with the global streaming service regarding Kong: King of the Apes. Netflix gave it the greenlight as an original series for its expanding roster of kids’ programming, slating it for a spring 2016 launch. Bohbot and Arad decided to keep the momentum going, developing another classic-made-modern kids’ show, this one featuring the beloved character of Tarzan. They wanted to update the setting, with the action taking place both in the jungle and in the city, and make the character of Jane a central part of the show, presenting her as Tarzan’s equal. 41e then went back to Netflix, which again moved the property forward as an original series. Tarzan and Jane will launch on the platform globally in the fall of 2016. “The idea is to find a really great, established brand and give it a very modern twist, doing it in a way that an 8-year-old can relate to,” says Bohbot. “This is not easy to do! [The Tarzan character] is
over 100 years old; King Kong was [first] done in 1933. It’s not about digging up old stuff—anybody can do that. The key is in how you make it relevant for kids today. If we just did another Tarzan that looked like your typical Tarzan—a good-looking guy in a loincloth swinging on vines—what kid is going to relate to that? It’s not going to work. We wanted to do it in a new style.” Part of this new style comes in the form of CGI. Bohbot explains that the level of quality seen in animated theatrical movies has set a high standard in terms of what kids expect to see in their entertainment nowadays. As such, TV producers are having to up their game. “CGI allows you to create something that kind of looks like the movies; you could never do that when it was just 2D,” says Bohbot. “It just looked cartoony or very cutesy. Kids are so sophisticated now; they expect so much more than they used to. Therefore, you have to raise the bar. The theatrical business raised the bar so high that television has had to rise with it.” In addition to delivering high-quality animation, careful attention has gone into updating the story lines to make them resonate with today’s audiences. In the case of Tarzan and Jane, the central premise sees both characters fighting against injustice in the world. Tarzan maintains the animal instincts that he acquired after being raised in the jungle, but applies them to his current surroundings, living with his billionaire grandfather in London. Bohbot says that part of the humor in the show comes from this fish-out-of-water scenario with Tarzan, a jungle boy navigating boarding school and life in the big city. Jane, meanwhile, is a far cry from the “damsel in distress” she was once portrayed as. Meant to empower the girl audience, Jane is now often the one saving Tarzan in sticky situations. “Avi [Arad] is really a storyteller,” says Bohbot. “He creates the story that makes the series hum, then we work with [top-level producers]. When you start with an iconic brand that people recognize, then take his story and work with high-end, quality studios, you really have a point of difference. That’s been our pitch!” The goal for 41e is to do two of these types of projects per year—one in the spring, one in the fall. All will be rooted in properties that already have a level of awareness in pop culture, done in a way that’s innovative, exciting and fresh, according to Bohbot. “We’re trying to get people to say, I know that brand, but I’ve never seen it quite like that!”
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a
DIRECTORY
selection of
Hotels
Restaurants
in
HOTELS
R E S TAU R A N T S
Alchymist Prague Castle Suites Snemovni 8 (420) 25728-6960
Aldente Vezenska 911/4 (420) 22231-3185 Italian
Hanabi Sushi House Petrska 11 (420) 22232-4634 Sushi/Japanese
Palanda Zlatnicka 11 (420) 77770-0422 American
U Kunstatu Retezova 3 (420) 60135-3776 Tapas
Aparthotel City 5 Vltavska 11/667 (420) 60249-5529
Alcron Stepanska 40 (420) 22282-0000 International
Indian Jewel Tyn 6 (420) 22231-0156 Indian
Pizzeria Ristorante Giovanni Kozna 11 (420) 22163-2605 Italian/pizza/seafood
U Modre Kachnicky Michalska 16 (420) 22421-3418 Czech
Design Hotel Josef Prague Rybna 20 (420) 22170-0111
Bellevue Smetanovo Nabrezi 18 (420) 22222-1443 International
Jewel Cafe Bar Rytirska 3 (420) 72536-5302 Contemporary
Rainer Maria Rilke Karoliny Svetle 25 (420) 22222-1414 Czech
U Semika Vratislavova 36 (420) 22196-5637 Czech
Four Seasons Hotel Prague Veleslavinova 2a/1098 (420) 22142-7000
Bisos U Rajske Zahrady 639/16 (420) 60855-0970 Mediterranean
Kafe Afrika Vojtesska 241/9 (420) 77466-2130 African
Sapori Americka 20 (420) 22252-3533 Mediterranean
V Zatisi Liliova 1 (420) 72576-0125 Czech
Golden Well U Zlate Studne 166/4 (420) 25701-1213
Chagall’s Club Restaurant Kozi 5 (420) 73900-2347 International
Kmotra V Jircharich 12 (420) 22493-4100 Pizza/pasta
Renomm Na struze 1 (420) 22493-4109 Central European
Vidlicky A Noze Vodni 11 (420) 72576-0125 Czech
Hilton Prague Pobrezni 1 (420) 22484-1111
Cantina Ujezd 38 (420) 25731-7173 Mexican
Locanda Marino Ovocny trh 6 (420) 22424-2507 Pizza/Italian
Tempo Allegro Karoliny Svetle 283/24 (420) 77803-1889 Tapas
Zdenek's Oyster Bar Mala Stupartska 5 (420) 72594-6250 Seafood
Hotel Pod Vezi Mostecka 58/2 (420) 25753-2041
Cotto Crudo Veleslavinova 2a (420) 22142-6880 Italian/Mediterranean
Michal Naprstkova 8 (420) 22222-2630 Czech
Terasa u Zlate Studne U Zlate Studne 166/4 (420) 25753-3322 Czech
Zinc V Celnici 7 (420) 22182-2300 Asian/European
Erawan Prague Stupartska 6 (420) 22231-8327 Thai
Mlejnice Kozna 488/14 (420) 22422-8635 Eastern European
Trattoria Cicala Zitna 43 (420) 22221-0375 Italian
Zlata Praha Parizska 30 (420) 29663-0914 International
Estrella Opatovicka 17 (420) 77743-1344 Vegetarian
Mlynec Novotneho lavka 9 (420) 27700-0777 Czech
U Bulinu Budecska 803/2 (420) 22425-4676 Czech
Zly Casy Cestmirova 390/5 (420) 72333-9995 Eastern European
George Prime Steak Platnerska 19 (420) 22620-2599 Steakhouse
Nase Maso Dlouha 39 (420) 22271-4990 Czech
U Kroka Vratislavova 12 (420) 77590-5022 Czech
Zvonice Senovazne Namesti 31 (420) 22422-0009 Czech
Hotel Residence Agnes Hastalska 19 (420) 22231-2417
Mandarin Oriental Prague Nebovidska 459 (420) 23308-8888
Maximilian Hotel Hastalska 14 (420) 22530-3118
Romantik Hotel U Raka Cerninska 10/93 (420) 22051-1100
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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 David Duchovny cry on my shoulder? 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 legitimize the science. As you can see here, had some of these media figures remembered to consult their horoscopes on significant dates, they could have avoided a few surprises.
Johnny Depp
David Duchovny
Dwayne Johnson
Rebel Wilson
JOHNNY DEPP
ALAN THICKE
the Caribbean movie in Australia, Depp illegally flies his two dogs into the country on a private jet. Barnaby Joyce, Oz’s agriculture minister, gives the actor 72 hours to send his pooches home or they could be put to sleep. “It’s time that Pistol and Boo buggered off back to the United States,” Joyce tells reporters. Depp complies but still faces a potential fine or possibly even jail time. Horoscope: “You’re not looking forward to buckling down and doing exactly what’s expected of you today, yet this isn’t an ideal time to reveal your true feelings by rebelling against authority.” (zodiacspot.co)
the 68-year-old actor and his wife, Tanya Callau, say that they enjoy having sex while listening to a seductive song by Thicke’s son, Robin. The mortified singer then takes to Twitter to express his disgust: “Dad, I heard what you said to @usweekly... I need you to give back all of my music. Immediately.” Callau later claims that the creepy confession was meant as a joke. Horoscope: “Mars-Mercury energy can cause people to say the wrong thing.... So think about what you’re saying before you speak (or try to be funny).” (weeklyhoroscope.com)
CHRIS PRATT
DWAYNE “THE ROCK” JOHNSON
the promotional tour for Jurassic World, Pratt preemptively apologizes for anything offensive he might say. “I want to make a heartfelt apology for whatever it is I end up accidentally saying during the forthcoming #JurassicWorld press tour,” he writes on Facebook. “I am not in the business of making excuses. I am just dumb. Plain and simple.” Horoscope: “Start an early preparation for upcoming social events that involve a lot of details. You don’t want to embarrass yourself.” (minihoroscope.com)
accolade during the London premiere of his film San Andreas, breaking the record for the most selfies ever taken in three minutes. The Guinness World Records organization celebrates the star’s achievement, confirming his official win with a total of 105. Horoscope: “People may accuse you of being vain and self-obsessed. These are qualities you can use to your benefit.” (321horoscope.com)
Global distinction: Eccentric hottie. Sign: Gemini (b. June 9, 1963) Significant date: May 14, 2015 Noteworthy activity: While filming the latest Pirates of
Global distinction: Hollywood star on the rise. Sign: Gemini (b. June 21, 1979) Significant date: May 22, 2015 Noteworthy activity: In gearing up to hit the road on
DAVID DUCHOVNY
Global distinction: Fictional FBI Agent Fox Mulder. Sign: Leo (b. August 7, 1960) Significant date: May 26, 2015 Noteworthy activity: The highly anticipated return of The X-Files has the TV community buzzing, and Duchovny in tears. The actor tells Entertainment Weekly that he cried when he read the first page of the new script. “It was just so strange to see the names on the page,” he says in the interview. He doesn’t divulge any details about the revival, but does call the script “fantastic.” Horoscope: “Things could get emotional this week, as something you’ve always dreamed of doing could be coming closer to fulfillment.” (orlilysen.com) 90 World Screen 6/15
Global distinction: Growing Pains alum. Sign: Pisces (b. March 1, 1947) Significant date: May 14, 2015 Noteworthy activity: In an interview with Us Weekly,
Global distinction: Hollywood tough guy. Sign: Taurus (b. May 2, 1972) Significant date: May 21, 2015 Noteworthy activity: The 43-year-old is given a new
REBEL WILSON
Global distinction: Aussie comedienne. Sign: Pisces (b. March 2, 1980) Significant date: May 18, 2015 Noteworthy activity: An article published by an Australian tabloid accuses the Pitch Perfect star of lying about her age. Official records seem to confirm that Wilson is actually 35, not 29, as had been previously reported. The actress responds to the claim on Twitter with a sarcastic comment: “OMG I’m actually a 100-year-old mermaid formerly known as ‘CC Chalice’...thanks shady Australian press for your tall poppy syndrome x.” Horoscope: “The truth will set you free, but it could also alienate certain people. As long as you’re coming from an honest place, there’s nothing anyone can say to refute you.” (glo.com)
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