Small Screen
October 10, 2007
For the participants, the MIPCOM bazaar means five heady days of wheeling and dealing in program rights.
The biggest winner is clearly the US, with companies such as Disney taking the opportunity to boost foreign TV sales with primetime hits such as Lost and Desperate Housewives. But as TV markets become increasingly internationalized, the traffic has become more two-way than ever.
Europe: format factory
With foreign license fees reaching record heights in recent years, the movers and shakers in the Riviera this week were playing for high stakes.
"We the broadcasters are the guys who feed the world what it wants to watch," said Leslie Moonves from CBS in a keynote address as the fair kicked off. But he also admitted that Americans "had been slow on the uptake" when it came to TV produced outside the US.
But now the US networks have learnt their lesson after dragging their feet on European formats such as Survivor and Big Brother, made by Dutch company Endemol. These days, while Europe is still more than happy to open its wallets for US shows, American networks have also realized that where Europe leads, it might be worth following.
Repackaging, customizing
That includes Germany. The country has been positioning itself to benefit from developments in film and TV markets that have seen reality show concepts traded worldwide and soaps repackaged and customized for international markets.
Many of the country's prime time entertainment format exports have been gaining international momentum.
Thomas Gottschalk's talk show Wetten, dass..., which first aired 26 years ago, has gone from strength to strength. On its home turf it attracts record viewing figures, and became the first entertainment show from Germany to be sold abroad. Over the years, the format has been sold to 13 countries -- including in 2006 to the key US market, where it airs as Wanna Bet.
Further ratings giants in Germany with international resonance are the science show Clever, fronted by comedian Wigald Boning, sold to 15 countries, and Schlag den Raab, or "Beat Stefan Raab." Although it only debuted one year ago, it has already been sold to four countries including Britain and the US. The international title is Beat Your Host. Negotiations with other prospective buyers are ongoing.
"Clever is what we now call 'Sciencetainment' -- that means knowledge, family entertainment, and a game show component, in a form that never existed before," says Jens Richter, who distributes both Clever and Schlag den Raab worldwide. "It's innovative, it's new, no one ever did it before…it was successful at home, has great viewer ratings, and it is easy to grasp."
Crucially, these shows tick all the right boxes. According to prominent industry watcher Virginia Mouseler, what TV audiences around the globe want these days are kid-centered, family-based reality shows -- and especially game shows with big cash prizes, reported the AFP news agency.
Edgy
Another German show generating interest at MIPCOM might prove more controversial.
Willkommen in der Nachbarschaft ("Welcome to the Neighborhood") features five families competing to win a house worth 250,000 euros.
The snag is, it's the neighbors who decide who wins -- while the five families include one with a transsexual father, an Islamic fundamentalist family and an African family in which the husband has two wives.
Going global
Meanwhile, marketing agency Telepool made the most of the trade fair, and sold the weekly German drama Türkisch für Anfänger ("Turkish for Beginners"), made by state broadcaster ARD, to two buyers.
In France, the show about German-Turkish patchwork family, the Ötztürk-Schneiders, will air on Canal+ and the free TV youth station NRJ. Broadcast rights were also bought by Russian MTV. Telepool has said it is also talking to other countries and expects to sign further contracts.
Gaining similar heat abroad is ARD's daily soap Sturm der Liebe ("Love Storm"), currently the most successful show on German TV in terms of market share.
According to German United Distributors, a distribution subsidiary of ARD, it has been bought by 15 countries, including Finland, Austria, Canada, Latvia, Slovakia and Italy, where it's called Tempesta d'Amore.
A surprise success this week was the 2004 TV movie Stauffenberg starring Sebastian Koch, who stared in the Oscar-winning The Lives of Others, as the eponymous hero. The topic triggered renewed interest from buyers in the US and Spain thanks to the Tom Cruise film on the same subject currently in production in Berlin. A number of broadcasters and DVD distributors were keen to make the most of publicity generated by the Cruise project to boost ratings and sales of the German movie.
The German entries for the annual Emmys, awarded by the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, were also announced at MIPCOM.
Selected for the category TV movie is Die Mauer - Berlin '61 ("The Wall - Berlin '61"), which beat nominees from Brazil, China and Britain, while the jury selected the RTL soap Alle lieben Jimmy ("Everyone Loves Jimmy"), made by Bavaria Film in the comedy category.