V I D E O • A G E AP R I L 2 0 1 1 24 Television has always been a very parochial business and with the inexorable rise of the format, it seems that it is becoming ever truer. However, the origins of the international content business were firmly rooted in the business of licensing transmission of existing shows. VideoAge reviewed those markets where this quaint custom still holds sway. One region of the world where the purchase of a license to transmit rather than a format to produce is still very much mainstream is the C.I.S. territories. However, Caroline Schroeter, sales manager at British producer and distributor Cineflix, cautioned that, “the media landscape in the C.I.S. territories has changed dramatically since the breakup of the Soviet Republic, with new investors, new channels and an expanding TV Network.” Russia’s television industry, though dominated by well-established broadcasters such as Channel 1, CTC and Rossiya TV, also has several DTH platforms as well as a cable industry serving several million homes and a growing IPTV and VoD sector. Schroeter acknowledged that, “there has been an increase in local television production reflecting a national identity, especially in Russia and Ukraine,” but also insisted that, “C.I.S. and the Baltic states are still massive territories in terms of traditional TV acquisitions.” She believes the future for acquisitions in this region looks bright as well, commenting, “the arrival of new channels and the expanding pay-TV sector in this region will create new business opportunities in the future.” While these opportunities do exist and, as Schroeter said, are expanding in parts of the region, not all programming is popular with buyers. According to Schroeter, the most popular genres are, “the classic high-end documentary with history, culture or science as a central topic.” Underlining this, she cited “successful sales to the C.I.S. and Baltic territories,” of such Cineflix staples as Mayday, Nazi Hunters, Huge Movies 5 and How Machines Work. Other genres she reported as selling well include factual entertainment aimed at a female middle class audience such as Rags To Red Carpet, and shows with a known international celebrity host such as Ty Pennington’s Inside The Box or John Barrowman’s Animals At Work. Although she cautioned that, “for factual entertainment, it is crucial that the cast is convincing and there is a strong storyline with a unique selling point.” As a general rule, Schroeter reported, “broadcasters in these countries are mostly interested in programming from English-speaking markets, mainly the U.S., U.K. and Canada.” She continued, “This is especially true of fiction and factual entertainment. A show from the U.S. would almost always be preferred to a similar show from France or Germany, for example.” The volume that is bought will, of course, vary considerably from broadcaster to broadcaster, with large channels such as Channel 1 producing a lot of local content and as a consequence, buying in a lot less, although Schroeter did point to “a focus more on highend documentaries for weekly slots,” among its main acquisitions. By contrast, smaller channels will produce a lot less and buy more, “in excess of 500 hours per year,” was her estimate for one of the smaller channels. And, although she said she has, “occasionally done deals with local distributors that include Pay, VoD and IPTV rights, she nonetheless noted that, “in general there is little or no windowing in these markets.” Another part of the world where program licensing still plays an important part in the audiovisual content business is Latin America. Here, windowing is very much a part of the equation. “The first window,” asserted Tomas Silva, sales executive at Rive Gauche, “is always the Pan-Regional operators such as Discovery, HBO, Turner etc., which cover the entire region. Then there are some second window Pan-Regionals such as Mexico’s Multivision or Argentina’s Pramer, and others. These companies cover the whole region with the exception of Portuguese-speaking Brazil, which is covered by Globosat. After these operators,” continued Silva, “it is a case of going country by country and broadcaster by broadcaster. In terms of windowing, the FTA channels are the very last, even after DVD.” Illustrating this point, Silva cited the example of “a Hollywood blockbuster, which will have been seen everywhere by the time it gets to free TV. It will air first on Premium Pay, and possibly PPV, then on secondary pay such as Multivision and Pramer, and then on DVD.” In many ways this identifies the difference between the Pan-Regional operators and local free stations. The local stations buy in very little programming, around 15 percent to 20 percent with the majority of the big Hollywood programming going to the Pan-Regionals, but the programming the local free stations produce is much more targeted at their local audiences. Silva said that the amount of programming bought by the PanRegional operators is very difficult to estimate, “because so many of them are contractually bound to take a large percentage of their schedule from their U.S. parents, and also because some, such as HBO, Turner, Discovery, MTV and A&E are quite active in co-producing with local partners.” Where sales are made Silva reported that, “prices are generally steady, with the obvious exception of Venezuela where the government has taken over a number of stations causing the prices to fall dramatically.” He conceded that, “recently some of the Pan-Regional operators have been more aggressive with their pricing.” The markets of sub-Saharan Africa have a structure that broadly resembles that of Latin America. Andreas Boenisch, VP, Sales at Zodiak Rights said, “Two years ago, our business was mainly focused on South Africa, Nigeria, and the Pan-African global players such as BBC Worldwide and Discovery, and, of course, the South African players such as MNET, e.tv and TopTV. Now, however, we are seeing a lot of activity in other sub-Saharan countries such as Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, Zimbabwe and Ethiopia.” One key difference, however, between Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa is that a number of the large satellite operators are launching new services, either niche satellite services such as action channels aimed at young men, or lifestyle or documentary. The market is changing in other ways as well. “There are a lot of new players entering the market now, especially in the four key markets I have already mentioned,” reported Boenisch, “and they are often prepared to buy in high volume. So it is increasingly worth considering doing a number of local deals rather than one, all encompassing, deal with a satellite operator.” Generally sub-Saharan countries buy from English-speaking markets and Boenisch reported, “We have done very well, for example, withSo You Think You Can Dance and Don’t Forget The Lyrics.” Shows like these, he noted, “have been produced in local versions in South Africa and Nigeria, and with the number of channels increasing, content from other genres, such as lifestyle and crime, is becoming more important.” Who and What Are Buying In The Age of Selling B u y i n g V s . P r o d u c i n g Zodiak Rights’ Andreas Boenisch Cineflix’s Caroline Schroeter
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTI4OTA5