34 After “content is king,” “the check is in the mail” and “it’s a people business,” probably the nextmost frequent aphorism about this business is “think global, act local.” Groups such as Endemol and Zodiak tend to have offices in 20 or more countries. U.S. studios operate in every major territory with local sales offices andmaintain other offices in various parts of the world for tax and accounting purposes. Large TV companies such as A+E, Discovery, BBC World, NHK and Fremantle have multiple offices around the world, and almost every mid-size entertainment company maintains offices both in the U.K. and the U.S. But what are the issues involved in following this “think global, act local,” maxim, and how do these vary depending on the nature and size of various companies? A+E Networks represents, in the words of its executive vice president of International Sean Cohan, “a medium sized international presence — at least compared to our peers.” The fact that Cohan should so describe a company with “over 20 offices in international markets” illustrates the importance many attach to having a local presence in the world’s significant markets. Cohan reinforced this impression when he said that, “given A+E’s rapid expansion which sees us with network presence in over 160 territories worldwide, it is very likely that we will be opening more international offices in the coming 12 months or so.” Stressing that the list “is not in any particular order,” Cohan lists the following as criteria A+E takes into consideration when deciding on the market in which to open their next office: business potential and opportunities for growth within the market, the extent to which there are opportunities to sell to local audiences and the opportunities for pay-TV operations. These might seem like obvious criteria, but they are only obvious in the context of a business like A+E. For another very well established business, DLT Raydar Rights, things look very different. Chairman Don Taffner Jr. said, “Currently we have an office in New York City, and one in London, and, although we have had overseas offices in the past, I would say that, right now, we probably don’t have any plans to open any other overseas offices in the near future.” If this seems at striking odds with the “worldview” outlined by A+E’s Cohan, it has to do with the very different nature of the businesses. Taffner explained, “We’re in the format business and having a local office in the format business can cause a conflict of interest as you can find yourself acting as both seller and producer and those interests are not always concomitant — especially where third party formats are concerned, which is why we prefer to work with local expertise rather than have our own presence.” There are other differences between DLT Raydar Rights and A+E that also underscore their different views on this issue. Taffner said, “As a small, privately owned company, the only question we would consider when looking at whether or not to open an office in a particular market is whether or not it would generate profit for us. For some of our larger, publically traded brethren, there are other considerations such as headlines, and the idea that they too must have a presence where competitors of a similar size have one.” Crossing the divide between the very well established and the very new is David Ellender, who was, until recently, managing director of FremantleMedia International, the commercial arm of FremantleMedia, and is a passionate advocate of the philosophy he summarized as, “think global, regional, local.” “When I was at FremantleMedia International, I was determined to build a global distribution and ancillary business that wouldmatch the scale of operation that FremantleMedia already had in place. After all, that only required one program sales and one licensing person to be dropped into the existing global production operation — and suddenly we were global,” Ellender said. Since leaving theFremantle family, Ellender has established his own operation, the Los Angelesbased Slingshot Global Media — but has lost none of his enthusiasm for having, maintaining and building an international presence. Although the company only has a total of six staff members, one of those, Carol Amery, is located in a newly opened London office. And, as Ellender said, “the clue is in the company name — we definitely have global ambitions.” Another relatively recent start-up expanding overseas is Nerd Television. But managing director Jago Lee said this decision was brought about by the way in which the company has developed. Nerd, founded in 2010, specializes in factual entertainment and has recently been acquired by Germany’s Red Arrow Group. As Lee explained, “being in the niche that we are, we found that almost all of our work was being commissioned by U.K. cabsat companies — the majority of which are owned by U.S. corporations and many of which have a brief to develop shows that could cross the Atlantic and feed back into their parent operations. So, we effectively found ourselves working for U.S. networks. Given this fact, and the fact that Red Arrow has an office in New York City, it obviously made sense for us to move there.” Alaska TV is also thinking about moving to New York City. Specializing in factual creative director Ian Lamarra said they have chosen New York City because, “it and nearby Washington are the centers of U.S. factual television.” BJ Having Offices In Various Parts Of The World Is Not For Status Symbol, Perks October 2014 The Business of Int’l TV David Ellender of Slingshot Global Media Nerd Television’s Jago Lee Sean Cohan of A+E Networks
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