TV Real MIPCOM 2010

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Wildlife Docs True-Crime Shows Nat Geo’s David Haslingden HISTORY’s Nancy Dubuc www.tvreal.ws

MIPCOM EDITION THE MAGAZINE OF FACTUAL PROGRAMMING

OCTOBER 2010

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One big, happy family!

13 x half hour

MIPCOM Stand No: R38.01 www.itvstudios.com

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AETN International www.AETNinternational.com • IRT Deadliest Roads • The Tillman Story • Top Shot • Pawn Stars • Biography: Mel Gibson—Rise and Fall of a Hollywood Icon

Competition series have been proving quite popular in the non-scripted arena, and AETN International is throwing its hat into the ring with Hot Shot. The first season had a successful run on HISTORY and has been renewed for a second installment. Also in the AETN catalogue is IRT Deadliest Roads, a character-driven spin-off from the hit series Ice Road Truckers.The new doc feature The Tillman Story spotlights a professional U.S. football player who left his career to serve his country as an Army Ranger following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

AETN is also bringing back a new season of its megahit series Pawn Stars. “Perhaps one of the most important benefits [of our programming] is that as broadcasters ourselves, we can provide our clients with successful ratings track records out of the U.S., which is a powerful sales tool for buyers,” says Sean Cohan, the senior VP of international at A&E Television Networks.

IRT Deadliest Roads

“All of our programming features top-of-theline production values, with innovative story lines and compelling characters, making for great TV.

”

—Sean Cohan

The Asian Pitch www.caldecottproductions.com

IN THIS ISSUE

• Transmission: Listening to the Mountain’s Message • Red Box • For the Love of Shakespeare

Call of the Wild Exploring trends in wildlife docs

24

Crime Wave True-crime content is in demand 30

15 Years of HISTORY AETN’s Nancy Dubuc discusses the factual channel’s milestones 36

Interview National Geographic Channels’ David Haslingden 34

Channel Profile Veria TV

42

An NHK and MediaCorp collaboration, The Asian Pitch (TAP) has been instrumental in presenting Asian cultures to the world. Fumio Narashima, the head of the program development center at NHK, says, “Asia is a region with various ethnic groups, religions, politics and other social backgrounds.When producing a program dealing with issues surrounding the Asian people, I think it is important that the director or producer shares the same values and same social perspective as the local people. That’s why the TAP event is limited to directors and producers living in Asia. I believe that through these programs produced with an Asian consciousness, we will be able to convey an Asian perspective and enable the world to understand Asia more.” The titles selected as this year’s commissions are Angels of Troubled Paradise, Street Teachers, The Rest of My Life is for Sale and Living for the Dead. From past TAP events, Transmission: Listening to the Mountain’s Message, Red Box and For the Love of Shakespeare are titles being touted to international buyers at MIPCOM.

For the Love of Shakespeare

“ We wanted to produce documentaries and current-affairs programs with an original and unique perspective of the locallybased director/producers.

”

—Fumio Narashima

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CABLEready www.cableready.net • Intersections • The Minimalist • King Dave • Dream Detectives • Women Behind Bars

Ricardo Seguin Guise

Publisher Anna Carugati

Editor Mansha Daswani

Executive Editor Kristin Brzoznowski

Managing Editor Matthew Rippetoe

Production and Design Director Simon Weaver

Online Director Phyllis Q. Busell

“ CABLEready continues to

CABLEready continues to acquire, distribute, develop and produce nonfiction programming, with a special emphasis on crime and investigation, entertainment and lifestyle. “It’s what most buyers in the world want, need and can almost always afford,” says president and CEO Gary Lico. And the catalogue covers a wide palette, “from celebrity entertainment with global appeal and our ReelzChannel programming to popular lifestyle programming originating from brands like the New York Times.” He adds, “We also have utterly unique new talent-based programming in the form of King Dave and Dream Detectives. All this added to a growing library of HD programming and CABLEready’s world-renowned crime, lifestyle and women-centric programming,” such as Women Behind Bars. Further highlights include Intersections and The Minimalist.

acquire and distribute… nonfiction programming, with a special emphasis on crime and investigation, entertainment and lifestyle.

”

—Gary Lico

Women Behind Bars

Art Director Kelly Quiroz

Sales & Marketing Manager Erica Antoine-Cole

Business Affairs Manager Cesar Suero

Sales & Marketing Coordinator Alyssa Menard

Sales & Marketing Assistant

Ricardo Seguin Guise

President Anna Carugati

Executive VP and Group Editorial Director Mansha Daswani

VP of Strategic Development TV Real © 2010 WSN INC. 1123 Broadway, #1207 New York, NY 10010 Phone: (212) 924-7620 Fax: (212) 924-6940 Website:

www.tvreal.ws

Canamedia www.canamedia.com • Faces of a Vanishing World • Fraud Squad • The Aviators • Wine Cents

This July, Canamedia was acquired by Distribution Access, a Canadian company that specializes in educational videos. “We feel that with Canamedia’s new positioning as part of the Distribution Access team, we are now in a stronger position to offer high-quality factual series while still retaining our personal touch,” says Andrea Stokes, Canamedia’s international sales and acquisitions manager.

Heading to MIPCOM, the Canadian outfit is highlighting the 5x1-hour Faces of a Vanishing World, as well as the 13x30-minute series Fraud Squad, The Aviators and Wine Cents. Each of which has been done in high definition.

“The new HD series and documentaries we are focusing on now are engaging, insightful and work well on an international scale,” Stokes adds.

Faces of a Vanishing World

“ The new HD series and documentaries we are focusing on now are engaging, insightful and work well on an international scale.

”

—Andrea Stokes

Get TV Real Weekly— delivered to your inbox every Wednesday.

For a free subscription, visit: www.worldscreen.com

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Global ImageWorks www.globalimageworks.com • People, History, Lifestyles • Global Conflict, War, Military, 9/11 • Animation, Effects • Destinations • Cultural Arts, Sciences

Global ImageWorks (GIW) specializes in unique contemporary and historical footage. “We are more than a stock-shot library,” says Jessica Berman-Bogdan, the president of GIW. “GIW offers deep content footage shot by filmmakers, cinematographers, journalists and found in private collections.” Popular stock-footage collections fall in the categories of 9/11, global conflict, war and military, along with shots of destinations from around the world. There’s also categories featuring snapshots of people, history and lifestyles. Cultural arts and sciences are also popular. GIW offers rights-managed and royalty-free collections, as well as film research and music and media-clearance services. “GIW represents a handpicked collection of unique images that cover a wide range of subjects, perspectives and time periods,” adds Berman-Bogdan. “This imagery is relevant today and cannot be recreated.”

Oil spill footage

“GIW represents a handpicked collection of unique images that cover a wide range of subjects, perspectives and time periods.

”

—Jessica Berman-Bogdan

Globo TV International www.globotvinternational.com • GloboDOC • Sketch It Out • Profession Reporter

“ The documentary series GloboDOC [was] produced exclusively for the international market, with detailed journalistic research.

Globo TV International’s GloboDOC strand highlights Brazil as seen through the eyes of Brazilians themselves.

The series blends journalism, culture and entertainment to present topics such as wildlife, science and technology and Brazilian personalities. “Programmers will have the opportunity to learn about figures such as Oscar Niemeyer, the world-renowned architect, who among many projects was responsible for the creation of the capital of Brazil, Brasília; indigenous tribes of the Amazon; and other subjects,” notes Raphael Corrêa Netto, the head of international sales at Globo.

“GloboDOC Carnaval goes behind the scenes of what is considered to be the biggest party in the world. The journalists follow all the stages of the party, from the composition of the samba song, creation of the costumes and floats, going through the practice runs, as well as all the expectation of the final parade,” he adds.

Globo is also presenting the formats Profession Reporter and Sketch It Out.

”

—Raphael Corrêa Netto

GloboDOC Kuarup: The Lost Soul Will Return

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National Geographic Channels www.ngcimedia.com • • • •

Restrepo: Outpost Afghanistan

Restrepo: Outpost Afghanistan Inside Polygamy Locked Up Abroad Britain’s Underworld

MIPCOM is gearing up to be one of National Geographic Channels’ (NGC) busiest markets yet, “driven by the variety and volume of new hours available,” says Germaine Deagan Sweet, the VP of global content sales. “The distribution market is struggling to offer truly fresh content and this is where our catalogue stands out in the marketplace, with a consistent offering of high-quality, smart and innovative programs.” Restrepo: Outpost Afghanistan, winner of the 2010 Sundance Grand Jury Prize for Documentary, is sure to create some buzz at the market. “Without exception, it has been hailed by critics as one of the best documentaries on the chaos of war,” Deagan Sweet explains.

There’s also returning factual series, like Locked Up Abroad; new history fare, including Britain’s Underworld; and singlehour specials, such as Inside Cocaine Subs and Inside Polygamy. “National Geographic Channels’ content has a proven track record and buyers can acquire a wide range of new content with confidence.”

“National Geographic Channels’ content has a proven track record and buyers can acquire a wide range of new content with confidence.

”

—Germaine Deagan Sweet

NHU Africa www.nhuafrica.com • Touching the Dragon • Chameleons • Cheetah Diaries 2 • Paseka • Into the Dragon’s Lair

“ NHU Africa produces a wide variety of films, within the wildlife paradigm, that are gripping, thrilling, and will shock and entertain audiences.

”

Wildlife continues to be in strong demand, and NHU Africa (Natural History Unit of Africa) can satisfy this appetite. NHU Africa commissions, co-produces and distributes wildlife documentaries for both international and local broadcasters, all with a signature South African flair. “We are expecting a positive response to our high-quality productions,” says managing director Sophie Vartan.

“NHU Africa produces a wide variety of films within the wildlife paradigm that are gripping, thrilling, and will shock and entertain audiences,” she adds. The MIPCOM slate includes Touching the Dragon and Into the Dragon’s Lair. A second season of Cheetah Diaries will be available for buyers as well. Rounding out the slate are Paseka and Chameleons. Vartan says she hopes to “sell our high-quality productions by reaching out to more broadcasters” in Cannes.

—Sophie Vartan

Touching the Dragon

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Novavision Promotion Internationale www.novavision.fr • • • • •

Pop Corn TV QUIzZz Crazy Hidden Camera Hilarious Home Video Special Xmas Hidden Camera

As one of the world’s largest producers of candid-camera gags, Novavision Promotion Internationale has sold some 400 half-hours of the hit Pop Corn TV in more than 90 countries. Novavision will introduce at MIPCOM 200 new episodes. There’s also 65 hours of the Crazy Hidden Camera program, 30 hours of Hilarious Home Video and five Special Xmas Hidden Camera offerings. New to MIPCOM this year is QUIzZz, a short-format show that features no dialogue and is designed to air before and after a commercial break in order to keep the audience watching. “There are very few suppliers for this kind of programming, making Novavision’s products quite unique,” says Nadège Boinnard, Novavision’s executive VP. “Moreover, the fact that they are all non-dialogue means they are ready to broadcast at no additional cost for the broadcaster, even though we recommend the addition of a voice over from a famous host in the territory.”

“ Novavision has doubled its catalogue in one year: 400 shows are now available.

”

The Known Universe

—Nadège Boinnard

Passion Distribution www.passiondistribution.com • • • • •

Crashers

RuPaul’s Drag Race & RuPaul’s Drag U Babies Behind Bars 24 Hour Restaurant Battle Dresscue Me @ Shareen Vintage Crashers

Passion Distribution has more than 300 new hours of content launching at MIPCOM. “We have a brand-new food competition show [24 Hour Restaurant Battle] and really feel that across the board, for slots from lifestyle to documentaries, there is something for everyone,” says Sally Miles, Passion’s CEO. RuPaul has proven to be a powerful brand for Passion, with the success of the entertainment show RuPaul’s Drag Race, now in its third season.

Passion is now also offering RuPaul’s Drag U. “This will take the brand to a wider, more mainstream audience without losing the camp humor we love!” says Miles.

Dresscue Me @ Shareen Vintage has a fashion angle, while the Crashers brand—Bath Crashers, House Crashers and Yard Crashers—is focused on home-renovation and lifestyle.

With a bit of a darker bent is Babies Behind Bars, which spotlights an American female prison where the inmates are moms or soon-to-be moms.

“ It is our job to ensure buyers know where to come for our producers’ and broadcasters’ great shows and formats.

”

—Sally Miles

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Portfolio Entertainment www.portfolioentertainment.com • Big Voice • The Real Estate Adventures of Sandy & Maryse • The Restaurant Adventures of Caroline & Dave • Chef Abroad

“ Each of these shows,

Chef Abroad

whether its unscripted reality or cooking, is the best of its respective genres.

Portfolio Entertainment has been aggressively expanding its factual catalogue, and is heading to the market with the new reality show Big Voice. The series follows world-renowned voice coach to the stars Elaine Overholt as she transforms everyday women into singing divas. Culinary fare is also in the mix, highlighted by Everyday Exotic, hosted by chef Roger Mooking, and Chef Abroad, with chef Michael Smith. The Real Estate Adventures of Sandy & Maryse focuses on two busy moms, friends and former co-workers who invest in flipping a house, while The Restaurant Adventures of Caroline & Dave follows a couple who decide to open their own dining establishment.“[Our distribution arm] Portfolio International prides itself in its high-quality programming,” says Joy Rosen, co-founder and co-president of Portfolio.

“Each of these shows, whether its unscripted reality or cooking, is the best of its respective genres. Moreover, we have an array of digital add-ons for each program, which means we are offering much more than a television series.”

”

—Joy Rosen

Solid Entertainment www.solidentertainment.com • • • •

KIT: An Autobody Experience

Undersea Edens So Right, So Smart Fresh KIT: An Autobody Experience

So far, 2010 is turning out to be a promising year at Solid Entertainment, according to founder and president Richard Propper. “But there is still more work to be done, so we are [at MIPCOM] to meet and greet,” he notes. Propper is looking to talk to buyers about Undersea Edens, a blue-chip underwater series that was six years in the making. “I think buyers are looking for not only the critical corporate stories in these more mindful times, but also the positive ones,” says Propper, pointing to the title So Right, So Smart, which provides an honest look at how manufacturing works and how we consume goods. “This is a great program for 2010 and beyond, as we envision a world with a sustainable future,” he adds. Solid’s catalogue is also highlighted by Fresh, which delves into the world of food production. Of further note is KIT: An Autobody Experience. “Our automotive lifestyle programming continues to be one of our most consistent sellers,” Propper points out. “KIT: An Autobody Experience is a new series that gets the formula right.”

“ Our automotive lifestyle programming continues to be one of our most consistent sellers.

”

—Richard Propper

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ANDY WARHOL’S FACTORY PEOPLE 3x60’ & 1x100’ MY GREEN HOUSE 13x30’ HD UNDERWATER SAFARI 13x30’ DESIGN U 52x30’ ANGRY PLANET 39x30’ HD

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Terranoa www.terranoa.com Carla’s Way: The Birth of a First Lady

• Killer Volcano • Carla’s Way: The Birth of a First Lady • Portraits Self-Portraits • A Year on Earth • Does My Brain Have Sex?

A top priority for Terranoa is securing presales for Killer Volcano. “The innovative storytelling and editing style is sure to make it a ground-breaking factual property,” says Isabelle Graziadey, the head of international sales and acquisitions. Another title targeted at prime-time slots is A Year on Earth, from the award-winning producers behind March of the Penguins. “Broadcasters need ambitious primetime benchmark events or properties with innovative storytelling to stand out in a competitive environment,” Graziadey notes. “One-offs dealing with big generic issues at the crossroad of neuroscience and social studies, such as sexual identity and gender issues, are big at the moment.” As a result, Terranoa has high hopes for Does My Brain Have Sex?. “Shorts and fillers are always on demand and we hope our series Portraits Self-Portraits will seduce buyers with its magic moments.” In addition, Terranoa has already presold Carla’s Way:The Birth of a First Lady into some ten countries.

“ Broadcasters need ambitious primetime benchmark events or properties with innovative storytelling to stand out in a competitive environment.

”

—Isabelle Graziadey

Veria www.veria.com • The Incurables • Under the Sun • Fed Up!

Making its first official outing at MIPCOM, the cable network Veria is now opening up its catalogue to the international market. “Our goal is simple—sell our top programs to international distributors looking for healthy lifestyle and wellness content and buy programming that speaks to our network’s vision of improving the health of communities in a way that’s practical, inspiring, entertaining and authentic,” says Hal Rosenberg, the general manager of Veria. “The natural health and wellness space is in major global demand right now. We’ve already lined up an impressive number of meetings with top international distributors. We see tremendous potential for MIPCOM and plan to make our presence known in a big way.” Veria is offering up The Incurables,which touches on the topic of life-threatening diseases and chronic illnesses but tells stories of courage and hope. Under the Sun gives viewers a taste of organic, natural foods from near and far. Fed Up! features former Top Chef contestant Andrea Beaman showing viewers how to make food that tastes good and is good for you.

The Incurables

“ The natural health and wellness space is in major global demand right now.

”

—Hal Rosenberg

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Nat Geo Wild’s Big Cat Odyssey.

Call of the

Wild From blue-chip specials to long-running series, programming about nature and animals remains popular with viewers and broadcasters.

By Bill Dunlap The makers of wildlife documentaries always face challenges—mainly how to come up with new stories and new ways to tell old stories. Sometimes that means years of camping in the bush in faraway lands or sending cameras in the deepest parts of the oceans; sometimes it means looking right under their noses.

LIONS AND TIGERS AND BEARS, OH MY!

This year’s crop of new wildlife programs demonstrates that well. The subject matter varies from the always-popular big cats and mountain gorillas to humankind itself and the creatures that come out at night in our big cities.

Big, blue-chip projects, years in the making on seven-figure budgets, continue to be popular, as do lower-budget series built around compelling locales and characters.

And the producers promise even more in the not-toodistant future as they begin the difficult challenge of coming up with practical ways to shoot 3D footage in the wild.

So far, 3D is mostly in the planning stages, but wildlife documentarians are cranking out an impressive slate of conventional high-definition product. The difference between old and new in subject matter is perhaps demonstrated most clearly by the BBC’s two new blue-chip wildlife offerings, one on a subject that has been “done to death,” Natural History Unit head Andrew Jackson agrees, and one that has never been explored by the BBC. 352

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Human Planet, an eight-hour mini-series four years in the making, is a study of Earth’s dominant species. “That’s the first time we’ve turned the camera on ourselves and looked at ourselves as an animal,” Jackson says.“There are a lot of people who live on the planet in a way that is very different from what we would normally know in our own lives as we sit in front of our TVs. It looks at how man, as an animal, has adapted to every habitat around the world, some of which are the most extreme.”

Couched in natural history and wildlife terminology, divided by habitat, the series was produced by the Natural History Unit in Bristol and BBC’s factual unit in Cardiff, with Discovery and France Télévisions as co-production partners.

“The team has done a fantastic job of pulling it off,” Jackson says. “What was the evolution of man to get us to these places? It’s about following the honey catchers who have somehow developed an immunity to bee stings. There are some fairly classic scenes of farmers in Ethiopia protecting their crops from invading baboons. There are scenes of Inuits hunting auks during their migrations.”

Mountain Gorilla is three hours on a subject widely covered over the years and Jackson posits that continuous coverage, dating back to David Attenborough’s work in 1979, is what allows the Natural History Unit to produce a more meaningful documentary today.

“The benefit is that we’ve studied gorillas for 30 years,” Jackson says. “One of the male gorillas died of natural causes 10/10

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during the filming, but we were able to tell his story for 30 years because we had all of the information from the scientists. Except for a two-year break during the civil war [in Rwanda in the early ’90s], we’ve got an almost unbroken history. When we see two gorillas fight now we know that they are two brothers and they are fighting for hierarchy.

Adding in this complexity of story and real information makes it different. As natural historians we have to start doing that better and better.”

Other wildlife fare from BBC includes The Great Rift:Africa’s Wild Heart, three hours on Africa’s Great Rift Valley; Good Morning Kalimantan, telling the story of Chanee, 28, who runs the biggest gibbon rescue and rehabilitation program in Indonesia and is the lead DJ on the most popular radio station in the Kalimantan region of Borneo; and Superswarms, an examination of the phenomenon of animal swarms.

Exploring deep and remote locales are two projects from Japan’s NHK—Life Force, six hours on how extraordinary environments have shaped unusual evolutions, and Giant Squid, the first close examination of the elusive deep-sea creatures.

“Life Force reveals six incredible places where nature has allowed eccentric animals, eclectic lifestyles and unorthodox patterns of behavior to flourish through the miracle of natural selection and the magic of evolution,” says Gen Sasaki, the senior producer of NHK’s Science Program Division.

The series, a co-production with NHNZ, France 5 and Discovery, devotes separate hours to marsupials in southwest Australia, tropical fish in Africa’s great lakes, tiny grazers and giant toothless predators in Brazil, monkeys in Japan, lemurs in Madagascar and New Zealand’s flightless birds.

“Life Force is a new type of wildlife documentary that combines the approaches from both science and natural history to investigate how and why unique creatures evolved and survived in certain places,” Sasaki says. “The geographical and scientific approaches using computer graphics, quotes from scientists, latest DNA research, etc., give us a new take on evolution, which is something an ordinary blue-chip documentary could not show.”

Giant Squid, in production with Discovery’s Science Channel, is scheduled to air in 2012. “This multimillion-dollar coproduction is aiming to film the elusive giant squid, in its natural habitat, for the very first time,” Sasaki says.

NHK produces both blue chips, primarily for its 90-minute Wildlife timeslot, and more family and youth-oriented series, like the half-hour Nature Wonderland.

McDonagh says audiences are looking for more entertainment value in their wildlife series. “You need great access and great characters,” he says. “That’s the heart of what makes great programming. In the last couple years, we’ve been leaning away from presenter-led shows and toward people who have real passion, who are credible and authentic. On River Monsters that’s Jeremy Wade. Jeremy is somebody who lives, breathes and is all about these amazing river creatures. He’s very authentic and people connect with that.”

Along with River Monsters, ITV Studios has a new season Monkey see, monkey do: of Lion Country and is going into its vaults to produce a new Life is just one of many series using footage from its heralded Survival series. Anglia epic productions from Television produced more than 800 hours of Survival for the BBC’s Natural ITV, beginning in the 1960s.

History Unit.

CAPTURING THE AUDIENCE

Producers and distributors more closely associated with commercial broadcasters are trending more toward series wildlife and, although they don’t really admit it, they sometimes seem in search of the next Steve Irwin, Australia’s ebullient “Crocodile Hunter” who died while filming a documentary in 2006.

Gary McDonagh, the acquisitions manager at ITV Studios Global Entertainment, has 50 hours of new material anchored by a new series, Chris Humfrey’s Wild Life.

“He’s a real animal maverick kind of guy,” McDonagh says, “a zoologist living in the outback of Australia. He’s a great character. He has a breeding program for animals. It’s sort of a docu-soap following the trials and tribulations of running a park with 2,000 animals.”

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Gone fishing: ITV Studios has a number of wildlife series to offer the market, including River Monsters.

“We’ve changed the pacing for today’s audiences,” McDonagh says.“Survival is one of ITV’s strongest brands.We went back into it to find the best 15 hours of content, which we reedited. The editing, music, story lines are contemporary, using the bedrock material we already have. It’s all 35-mm. film, so the quality holds up. Buyers seem to want series, not one-offs.They can put some marketing spending behind it.Viewers can come to it night after night.That’s where the focus is.”

ALL WILD, ALL THE TIME

With a full 24-hour wildlife channel to program, Geoff Daniels, senior VP of National Geographic Wild, has several character-led series in the works. In Wild Nights with Mireya Mayor, “We’re following Mireya Mayor, who is an emerging explorer with the National Geographic Society,” Daniels says.“The series goes into some of the world’s most iconic cities to find a different kind of wildlife. It’s the surprising side of the wild, animals taking over our city streets after we go to bed.”

The first three episodes of the hour-long series are set in: New Orleans, where Mayor and some local characters try to catch a 300-pound wild boar; Rio de Janeiro, where the targets are the world’s largest rodent and an ancient reptile; and Miami, where snakes and manatees roam.

“Part of our mission is to look for unique characters and unique stories and ways of telling those stories that really feel contemporary,” Daniels says. “I think what audiences are looking for now are those kinds of 354

experts, like Steve Irwin, those kinds of unique individuals who are passionate about wildlife.”

In that same vein are Strike Force and Expedition Wild.

“Strike Force features Jamie Seymour, who was Steve Irwin’s chief scientific advisor before his accident, and Richard Fitzpatrick, a premiere filmmaker specializing in underwater cinematography,” Daniels says. Focusing on dangerous wildlife, early episodes, an hour each, find the two collecting venom from sea snakes and other marine animals, and intentional interactions between people and sharks.

Expedition Wild with another dedicated naturalist, Casey Anderson, rolls out later this year. “Casey began his career by adopting an orphaned grizzly cub named Brutus,” Daniels relates. “He’s created a grizzly bear rescue center called Grizzly Encounter on a ranch in Montana.We went out on a series of expeditions with Casey in the Yellowstone basin. We’ll be doing a special with him looking at the success story and drama of Yellowstone’s wolves.”

In the more typically National Geographic vein are three one-off blue-chip documentaries anchoring Big Cat Week, Wild’s first worldwide event late in the fourth quarter of this year: Big Cat Odyssey, Lion Warrior and Leopard Queen.

“It ties into the Society’s Big Cat initiative,” Daniels says.

“We’re featuring the work of two of the world’s greatest filmmakers, Dereck and Beverly Joubert. In Big Cat Odyssey they follow the struggles of the lion pride that live right in their backyard in Botswana, drawing on all the work they’ve done over their careers.”

Lion Warrior examines the conflict between lions and the Masai tribe in a time of drought in the region, and Leopard Queen culminates 17 years of work by veteran filmmaker John Varty.

“We’re balancing the portfolio between the big, spectacular blue-chip events that we’ll be doing on a quarterly basis with series with extraordinary talent and characters,” Daniels says.

On the prowl: South Africa’s NHU Africa has just commissioned a third season of The Cheetah Diaries.

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“We’re committed to being not a repurpose channel, but to bringing exclusivity and originality to the screen.”

NHU Africa has just commissioned its third season of The Cheetah Diaries, featuring Annie Beckhelling, the founder of the Cheetah Outreach attraction near Cape Town. “We are up to 39 episodes and we’ve sold it to Discovery in the U.K. and all over Europe and Asia,” says NHU Africa’s managing director, Sophie Vartan. “The Cheetah Outreach organization is constantly expanding and searching for new ways to make a difference in conservation, and The Cheetah Diaries is there to capture all the exciting additions.”

THE THIRD DIMENSION

The wild card in documentary filmmaking these days is 3D, which has obvious attractions, but which poses greater challenges for wildlife than it does to animation, sports events or entertainment television. NHU Africa has been actively shooting 3D on the Okavango Delta in Botswana, where its study of giant crocodiles, Into the Dragon’s Lair, was shot,Vartan says, adding that the learning curve has been steep.“We were using some of the most up-to-date cameras on the market today, and we had to have a completely separate boat just for the camera itself; it’s that big.”

Vartan sets the cost increase of producing in 3D at 50 percent. “To go out into the field and shoot it properly and postproduce it properly takes a minimum of 18 months,” she says.

“When you shoot for 3D you have to hold your shots a lot longer, because there is so much information and depth of field in the 3D shot, the audience’s eye has to look around the entire space in the shot. In 2D your eye doesn’t have to explore it so much.Your shots can be quick. If you brought out the 2D version of that film it would look boring and slow.

So it’s difficult to get that perfect balance.We’ve decided in our

2D versions of 3D films we are going to have to re-cut them and put in a few extra shots.”

BBC’s Jackson says the Natural History Unit’s long production times have precluded it so far from actually finishing anything in 3D, but he is absolutely interested in 3D and the unit started shooting test footage last year. “We’re seeing about a 40 percent cost to 3D,” he says.

“Most of the stuff we shoot is on the end of a long lens, a long way away. If you put two cameras next to each other, about the same distance apart as your eyes, and you shoot something that’s two or three hundred yards away, you don’t get a 3D parallax.

We shot some cloudscapes in time lapse, but to make the clouds look big and fluffy we had to put the cameras 100 yards apart.

Natural history only works in 3D when it’s close up.You have to get right in there with the pride or whatever you’re filming.”

Because Discovery, a frequent co-production partner with BBC, is launching a 3D channel next year, Jackson feels an extra push toward the new medium. “We’re looking at an underwater project with Discovery and several other things we might do with them,” he says. “Underwater is perfect for 3D.You can get close and it’s a lovely landscape.”

Danny Tipping, director of production at Parthenon Entertainment, says the company is working on three productions in 3D, but completion is still a long way off. “It’s not cheap or easy.You have to shoot a lot of natural history with long lenses and zooming is not something you can do with 3D,” he says.

“We’re not going to do everything in 3D by a long shot. Not a lot of broadcasters are clear on what their 3D strategy is. But people’s ears really prick up when you say, ‘And it’s going to be available in 3D.’ If they can take a show in 3D and have it ready when they are able, and in the meantime broadcast the HD version, they’re very interested.”

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Cineflix’s Campus PD.

e m i r C

Crime-and-justice programming has proven to have a broad appeal, bringing in male and female viewers and finding slots on niche networks as well as free-to-air broadcasters.

Truth is stranger than fiction. This especially applies to twisted tales of bizarre crimes, investigations into criminal minds and stories of everyday people pushed to the brink of insanity.These subjects have formed the framework of factual narratives that have intrigued viewers for decades, making true-crime, investigative programming a popular genre.

AETN International has been in the business of crimeand-justice programming for some 20 years now, even dedicating an entire channel to this genre, Crime & Investigation Network (CI). According to Michael Katz, AETN’s VP of international programming and production, these shows have the universal appeal of being “classic stories of good versus evil, and justice done or not done, as the case may be.” He adds, “There are real consequences involved. Not only do they tell an interesting story that will get people’s attention, but there’s a resolution at the end.”

AETN has developed a number of series within the genre that take the audience along to witness firsthand present-day criminal chases. The First 48, for example, follows detectives from around the country during the critical first 48 hours after a crime has been committed as they race against time 358

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wski Brzozno in t is r

By K

to find the suspect. “The First 48 is the flagship of all factual crime-and-justice programs,” says Katz. “It’s the longest running and highest rated of any in this market and is also the most widely distributed.”

Following in this vein from AETN are Steven Seagal Lawman, which lets fans ride shotgun with Seagal as he responds to crimes in progress, and Dog the Bounty Hunter, which follows a real-life fugitive recovery agent in his quest to track down criminals. Both of these shows are led by strong personalities, which Katz says is key when putting together a ride-alongstyle series set in the present.

IN THE REARVIEW

The bulk of AETN’s crime-and-justice programs have very few, if any, re-creations. They depend almost completely on actuality, with the filming taking place as the action unfolds.

“The idea is to allow the viewers into the actual process of the crime solving,” says Katz.

However, there’s a whole segment of the genre dedicated to programming presented in the past tense, as are many of the crime shows in CABLEready’s catalogue. “The stories are usually told by the people involved as well as by forensic scientists, and are illustrated by dramatizations,” says Gary Lico, CABLEready’s president and CEO.Two of the strongest in its portfolio are Forensic Files/Medical Detectives, which pro10/10

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files crimes where science catches the bad guy, and Dominick Dunne’s Power, Privilege and Justice, which features the late crime writer Dominick Dunne as he retells the stories of the high-profile crimes of the rich and famous.

The crime programming on offer from Beyond Distribution strikes a balance between actual footage and dramatizations to tell past-tense stories, says Munia Kanna-Konsek, the company’s head of sales. “For most of our titles it is 50/50.

The re-creations or re-enactments bring it to life. It makes it easier to visualize and easier to understand.”

Such is the case with Deadly Women. The HD series, now in its fourth season, fuses bone-chilling storytelling, dramatic reconstruction and forensic facts to create profiles of famous cases of female murderers.

At New Dominion Pictures, the offerings are mainly “truecrime docudrama past-tense programs, so there is not a lot of actual footage,” says Kristen Eppley, the seniorVP of international distribution.The series include The FBI Files, featuring dramatic reenactments and interviews with agents and scientists; The New Detectives, looking at how scientists are re-creating the circumstances surrounding a person’s death; and Daring Capers, which uses dramatizations, news footage and interviews with witnesses and law-enforcement officials.

TOOLS OF THE TRADE

“There are many ways to tell a crime story depending on what is available, such as actual footage,” says Sally Miles, the CEO of Passion Distribution, which represents such offerings as Killer Couples, Killer in the Family and the brand-new Real Crime. “Most crime

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programs include and rely on dramatic reconstruction to take the viewer back to the scene of the crime.The true-crime and investigation viewer is very discriminating and expects that 360-degree experience, seeing the story from all perspectives to draw from it a conclusion.”

Miles says that other techniques used to bring viewers into the heart of past crimes or investigations include interviews with key characters, access to videos, interview tapes and forensic materials.

“CGI graphics and animation are also great tools that help to illuminate and re-create the crime accurately, while avoiding too much violence as part of the dramatization,” notes CABLEready’s Lico.

Technology certainly has played a role in the genre’s evolution, with the use of CGI and other innovative re-creation techniques, yet a solid, compelling story is still what drives these series forward. “Whether they [include more elements of a] drama or documentary, the story line has to be gripping, and the end has to give the viewer what they want—the unfolding of events, the perpetrator brought to justice and, possibly, a reason for it all,” says Beyond’s Kanna-Konsek.

New Dominion’s Eppley agrees, noting that good storytelling helps viewers feel like they’re part of putting together the pieces of the crime-solving puzzle. “It’s all about keeping the audience on the edge of their seats, giving clues and keeping them in the moment, not revealing ‘whodunit’ until the very end,” she says. “It is so important to maintain the mystery throughout the program. Once the audience knows who did it, they move on. We take viewers behind-the-

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Lethal lady: Beyond’s crime-and-justice strand is led

by Deadly Women, which airs on Investigation Discovery.

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Hot on the trail: Dog the Bounty Hunter has emerged as a lead property for AETN, showing the strength of crime programming with a strong central character.

scenes of major crime investigations. They witness worldrenowned forensics experts and criminal investigators and the techniques they use to solve murders and other crimes.

Along the way, the audience gets to exercise their own detective instincts.”

Eppley goes on to note that the market is open for both present- and past-tense styles of presenting criminal cases.“The trend is changing all the time, from docudrama past tense to reality, actual footage, and back and forth,” she says. “All driven by the appetite of the channels and their audience.”

And it’s a mixed bag of broadcasters that have an appetite for crime series. “Our programs have been and continue to be licensed across all types of channels, from generalentertainment to documentary to niche channels,” says Eppley.

CRIME SHOPPING SPREE

“We have many channels in the international marketplace that look to acquire crime,” says Passion’s Miles, “from the broader mainstream channels to female channels (women love crime stories) and the more focused, targeted crime channels.”

Paul Heaney, the president and managing director of Cineflix International Distribution, has had a similar experience, selling titles such as Cold Blood, Murder She Solved:True Crime, True CSI and Psychic Investigators to a range of broadcasters.

“There are niche channels, like Crime & Investigation Network, but also solid slots on free-to-air networks in U.S., U.K., Australia, Germany, Scandinavia and Benelux.”

Heaney has found that these shows cast a wide net when it comes to gender as well.“Women tend to enjoy the storytelling aspect, while the crime and sensation appeals more to a male audience,” he notes.

An aspect that can draw in both male and female audiences for a crime show is the allure of celebrity. The incorporation 360

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of star power has paid off for Comcast International Media Group (CIMG), which offers up the signature E! Investigates strand, with titles such as Bizarre and Mysterious Celebrity Deaths, Rich Kids Who Kill and Doomed

by Lust.

“Quite simply, nothing sells like celebrity,” says Jene Elzie, the VP of international sales and strategic planning at CIMG. “The very idea that people who seemingly have everything they could ever want—money, power, fame—have problems just like any of us is what keeps people tuned in. Perhaps it is a bit of ironic joy in the fact that the ‘perfect’ people aren’t so perfect after all. Perhaps it is the relatability—the leveling of the playing field—in realizing that name-the-A-lister is just like you and me. Regardless, the celebrity angle brings a whole new level of intrigue.”

Elzie adds, “Look at the O. J. Simpson trial, which is now two decades on. It changed the face of television. It blurred the lines of celebrity, gossip and news reporting.The lines were crossed on the day of that fateful Bronco chase, and media has never looked back.”

The celebrity spin on crime shows is but one example of this genre’s continued evolution.

UP FOR FURTHER INVESTIGATION

“You would think that it’s all been covered, from plain oldfashioned murder investigation to investigation by psychics,” says Beyond’s Kanna-Konsek, but there are constantly new turns to be taken with these tales. “Our current Deadly Women season four focuses on children who kill. However disturbing this is, you are on tenterhooks while you watch.”

Passion’s Miles adds, “There are so many more innovative new technologies and techniques we can use and this will continue to push boundaries and keep a very contemporary feel, telling old stories in new ways, as with Jack the Ripper: The Definitive Story,” which will be available at the end of the year. “It is a popular genre and we just need to keep moving forward to excite the viewer with our storytelling.”

CABLEready also has some innovative offerings within the genre coming down the pipeline. “One twist on the crime-and-investigation genre is the new program Lore,” Lico says. “Each two-hour episode uses both real and dramatized footage from real and folkloric tales, fused together in a feature-length docu-thriller.”

He continues, “This is evidence that the genre is still evolving and expanding, despite its lengthy and successful track record. The need for new creative approaches like Lore is on the rise, as crime channels have now launched all over the world, which is steadily increasing the demand for innovative crime programming.”

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competitors Discovery and HISTORY use when commissioning and buying rights to programming.

TV REAL: Speaking of the competition, they don’t have the

long-term brand legacy that National Geographic has always had. What continues to give the Nat Geo channels a competitive edge against other channels in the factual genre?

HASLINGDEN: There’s no mysterious answer here.You’re only as good in any particular market as your brand is meaningful in that market. Part of that is legacy and, equally, part of it is contemporary relevance.You’re only as good as the creativity and execution of the way you market that channel to consumers in a given country. And you’re only as good as the quality and relevance and attractiveness of the content that is on your channel.

So if you look across our performance against our competitors market by market, you’ll see that in some markets we are handily the number one in our category and in others we’re the number three behind both Discovery and HISTORY.The reason for that in each case comes down to those factors—just how well our programming is resonating in the market, how effective and creative our marketing is to consumers, and how powerful the brand is. I’d add one other element to that, which is distribution: how effective you’ve been at securing broad distribution for your channel and how easily and conveniently accessible your channel is.

I don’t think we have any killer edge against Discovery or even HISTORY in any of our markets. I think the brand, as you say, as a result of its legacy and as a result of the ongoing quality of all of the National Geographic products, is the strongest brand in the category, but we, just like our competitors, live or die by the quality of our programming, our distribution and our marketing. Our goal as an operating unit is to excel in those areas.

Natural Selection

National Geographic’s David Haslingden As CEO of Fox International Channels and National Geographic Channels Worldwide, David Haslingden knows that National Geographic Channel, in the U.S. and around the world, has a dual mission. It invites viewers to re-think the way they see television—and the world around them—with thought-provoking, innovative programming, and it also contributes to the National Geographic Society’s commitment to exploration, conservation and education. Recently, the channel has even provided viewers a call to action to help save endangered species.

By Anna Carugati

TV REAL: Tell us about the recent restructure at National

Geographic and what benefits the company derived from it.

HASLINGDEN: We’re finding around the world that the tra-

ditional windowing of programming across different media— broadcast, pay TV, syndication—is collapsing. It’s therefore becoming increasingly more important, particularly if you’re a channel with a very strong and premium brand like National Geographic, to be able to control the way in which your shows are exhibited in markets, and to ensure that if you are selling your channel as a premium product to a pay-TV platform, that the programming on that channel is not freely available to consumers in the same market.

Consequently, our cost of programming is increasing because we have to buy out all windows. And that’s required us to take a much more focused approach in the way we buy programming globally. We’ve really had to bring all of the benefits of our global scale to bear in making sure that when we buy product we buy out all rights and we buy those products globally. That was what was behind the change in our structure, now it’s much more like the structure that our 362

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TV REAL: Does your programming strategy focus on balancing big special events against less expensive long-running series—is that still a formula you are finding success with?

HASLINGDEN: That is absolutely a fundamental part of our strategy. You want long-running series that viewers relate to and feel a connection with and you need to punctuate the schedule with iconic specials that are very high quality, very expensive and take a long time to produce— they are not the type of program you can have every week on the schedule, either because we can’t afford it or because there just aren’t enough subjects to satisfy that level of video journalism. But we absolutely believe that we need to have these major tent-pole events that keep reminding our viewers and our pay-TV affiliates what’s special about an organization like National Geographic and a channel like National Geographic Channel.

One example is Great Migrations, which we have coming up, and all the initiatives that are built around that show, like our education outreach program, the articles in four of our National Geographic magazines, the six books that we are publishing, all the online resources, the ability to talk to National Geographic explorers in the field as they observe migrations. These big events are initiatives that only National Geographic can do and are ultimately why platforms are prepared to pay a premium to have our channel as part of their offering to consumers.

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We’d very much like to do more on the series side. In the markets where Discovery and HISTORY do out-rate us it’s almost entirely because they have these long-running series that have engendered a very loyal returning viewership who identify with those shows and enjoy watching them. That’s an area where we have to do more and where I think in the future you’ll see us have more successes, but that doesn’t mean that we are de-focusing on those big events. In fact, every year we’re increasing our investment in these events by 30 or 40 percent.

TV REAL: How do websites and digital media help support

what’s on the channel and further that relationship that you have with viewers beyond the TV screen?

HASLINGDEN: For a channel like National Geographic, online is a very important tool to enhance the experience of seeing our shows on TV, and that’s the first step. We see online as a medium that is completely integrated into our main media strategy, which is television on the channel. If you take a show like Great Migrations, we will have masses of scientific information that will allow people to dig into the detail of these incredibly moving stories of the migrations that certain species follow. There will be a multitude of still photographs so that you can better visualize some of the extraordinary trials and tribulations these species go through in their migratory journey.You’ll be able to use the Internet to actually chat online with explorers. Also online, we are partnering with the National Geographic Mission to provide a call to action so viewers can donate to help the different species and track migratory patterns around the world.

I don’t think our competitors or anyone else offers that call to action to viewers after they watch the show and they are interested to know [more] about the species.

I don’t think viewers watch us because we are an organization. Ultimately people watch TV because they are

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engaged, entertained and engrossed by the show that is on.

You’ll increasingly see on our air, particularly on Nat Geo Wild, that a lot of the work we do is built around initiatives that are designed to deal with some of the sustainability issues that relate to the planet and to our wildlife resources. For example, the Big Cats initiative is a great example of this. There was a good article in The Washington Post comparing Discovery’s Shark Week to the Big Cats week we have on Nat Geo Wild. For years, Discovery has aired these shows which paint sharks as desperate killing machines and I have to give them credit, it’s very engaging and entertaining programming and Shark Week—even the most recent one—has been a hugely successful television franchise and very entertaining programming.

The approach we take to programming about animals is a lot more focused on trying to get people to understand the very real issues that the planet faces in terms of the survival of these species and how dependent we are on their survival.

Sharks are a classic case. While it’s very easy to demonize these animals, their survival as a species is absolutely fundamental to the health of the oceans. People are doing many things around the planet that will jeopardize the survival of the species and I don’t think we are doing enough as an industry to communicate that and to promote calls to action that will help finance efforts to combat the threat these species are facing. That’s why we are doing the Big Cats initiative. You would be absolutely horrified if you saw just how few of these incredible animals are left worldwide. And it’s not just the tiger that you hear a lot about, it’s the lion, the cheetah and the leopard—these species are all really in danger. People don’t understand that and there isn’t enough communication about what people can do to actively help sustain those population.

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On the run: The broad reach of National Geographic— from the magazine to books to online resources—will be utilized as part of the Great Migrations programming event.

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15

Years of HISTORY

AETN’s Nancy Dubuc

By Anna Carugati

When The History Channel launched in 1995, it quickly found a loyal male audience that was affluent, educated and mature.

It wasn’t long before the service became one of the fastest-growing cable channels in the U.S. and a favorite among advertisers. The channel, rebranded in 2008 as HISTORY, has gone from one successful milestone to another: it is the top factual entertainment network across most key demographics, it attracts a larger proportion of men than any non-sports channel and in June it moved from its ranking among the top ten cable channels into the coveted top five club. Its varied programming menu offers long-running series and ambitious specials. But HISTORY is much more than a linear channel. Its website is a leading destination for history buffs and students alike. Nancy Dubuc, the president and general manager of HISTORY and Lifetime, has been a driving force behind HISTORY’s many accomplishments.

TV REAL: HISTORY turned 15 this year.

DUBUC: 15-year-olds are very precocious!

TV REAL: Yes, they are!

What has been the greatest contribution HISTORY has made to the TV landscape?

DUBUC: Yes, the opportunity to be all things history to consumers both digitally and on linear is a huge, huge honor and one that we take very seriously. To be able to be part of the force that is putting history as a subject at the forefront of people’s minds and to be part of the force that is helping to create and support a dialogue about why history 364

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is so important—not only that we learn from our history, but also that we acknowledge that history is happening around us every day—is a responsibility we take very, very seriously.That goes hand in hand with every brand discussion, every programming discussion, every business discussion that we ever have.

TV REAL: What objectives did you have in mind with ambi-

tious projects like The People Speak, or America:The Story of Us? DUBUC: These are real tent poles of the History brand.We have

a business to run and it was our goal to create appointmentviewing series that keep audiences tuned to us day-in and dayout.We have succeeded in that strategy with many, many of the hit series that we have launched throughout the last three or four years. But in addition, one of our secret weapons is the strength of our specials.We do about 40 specials a year, that’s 80 hours of programming.These specials need to stand as the definitive record of the subjects they cover. America:The Story of Us was incredibly ambitious for us, not only financially, but also from a scheduling standpoint.We couldn’t be more thrilled with the response that we’ve gotten from it: the successful ratings, the recognition from our peers through Emmy nominations, as well as recognition from educators, as we have distributed the DVD of the series to every school and accredited college in America.The response both critically and performance-wise validates our belief that people have an appetite for history. People come to us for history and the way that we translate and communicate these important stories of our times is widely accepted. Anything that gets people to sit up and think about their human story is a good thing.

TV REAL: You made a commitment to move HISTORY into

the top five cable networks in the U.S. How did you achieve this?

DUBUC: We’ve been among the top five since June and feel pretty confident that we’ll finish the year there.We did it with appointment viewing series, tent-pole event specials and the innovative programming that every day this team challenges itself to do. We are one of the only voices in the TV landscape that audiences come to for quality information that’s authentic and entertaining.

TV REAL: How do you maintain a channel’s strengths but broaden its appeal so it reaches new and maybe younger viewers, while not alienating the core audience?

DUBUC: One of the things we talk about a lot is just how much that question remains a part of our daily dialogue. Our 10/10

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cations were and how it affected everything around it. Stories, quite honestly, evolve throughout history. The more we learn, the more we know, the more needs to be told and we are constantly looking for those next chapters, that next generation of this continuously unfolding onion that we all are part of.

Hidden treasures: HISTORY has begun offering a new spin on history programming with reality series like American Pickers.

TV REAL: Nowadays we have many sources of 24-hour news,

TV REAL: Would you say that viewers’ expectations of HISTORY today are different from what they were, say, five years ago?

DUBUC: Yes, and whenever you have the kind of success that we have, viewers constantly expect more. It’s the human nature of our business. People like to be entertained and once they’ve experienced that, they want the next thing. That’s just television and I believe it’s the point of entry for everything that we do.As soon as you have a hit show, if you’re not thinking about what that next hit show is going to be, you are going to fail.We’re in a very fortunate place to have a lot of shows to lean on, but believe me the dialogue around here is not about those shows. The dialogue around here is about what’s coming next.

We are really evangelical about that because I believe in my heart it’s what keeps us successful and it’s what keeps us a strong team—because we own that responsibility. One of the things that we talk about a lot is it’s great to herald your best year ever, but we are in the business of having the best year ever every year.

So how do you keep that engine moving, not only from a business standpoint but from a viewer standpoint as well? Viewers tend to start to expect a certain level of performance of us. Now for me, performance might be a real numerical performance, looking at budgets and looking at ratings. Performance for viewers is the entertaining side of the word, they want to be entertained and they are waiting to see what we do next. We need to feed the beast, yet at the same time keep the ideas coming at a pace at which viewers understand and come to expect that they are always going to get something new from us.

whether online or on TV. There’s a need sometimes to sit back and have events explained and put into context.

DUBUC: We talk about putting events into perspective and giving context to stories every day and that’s what we do—it’s one of the veins of our heart that we take subjects that people know and give the context of the larger story, what its impli-

TV REAL: How important has online become not only in allowing viewers to view video but also to support the programming you offer on the linear channel?

DUBUC: We have a unique opportunity here because our brand is a niche genre unto itself, history, which allows us to

job involves more than creating innovative programming and shaping the brand as audiences’ tastes evolve. At the heart of what we do every day is finding a balance between growth, the brand equity that we have and quality. It’s really portfolio management, that’s how we refer to it.We need to make sure that we are true to who we are, but we also recognize that who we are is evolving, and that is a natural progression, but at the core, we’re still an information-driven brand, a history-driven brand.

People come to us for factual entertainment. And it’s that balance of the factual part with the entertainment part that we watch every day. Sometimes we overshoot it and sometimes we hit it square down the middle. But I believe if you are not trying and pushing then you are not growing and evolving.

There are so many options for consumers in the media landscape these days. The risk of losing your brand is far greater if you stand still and think that you don’t have to push creative boundaries, than if you take risks and are innovative.

Back in time: HISTORY’s most ambitious production this year was the epic series America: The Story of Us. 366

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because it sends a very clear signal from consumers that we have a very clean and clear place in the market that they are enjoying.

TV REAL: Why have education

and outreach initiatives always been important?

DUBUC: It is just part of who we are, it’s part of the DNA, quite honestly, of AETN. Outreach and education were important legacies at A&E originally through our programs like Biography. Then when HISTORY blossomed out of A&E, it just was a natural extension, not only because it’s such an important part of AETN’s culture but there is also such an obvious subject connection and opportunity. We represent not only the genre of history, but we also represent an academic discipline and it’s important to work with that community and give them the access and expertise that we have to help move different techniques of education into the next century.

TV REAL: Besides programSigns of the times: Pawn Stars, about a family-owned pawn shop in Las Vegas, has become one of HISTORY’s most successful series.

have a site that isn’t just a marketing arm of the channel. We rebuilt History.com all last year and launched it this year in connection with America:The Story of Us. Our vision for History.com is a video resource for all topics of history—events, people, places, things—and it’s a never-ending resource that can be augmented on a daily basis. We continue to build the number of pages and sites and video portals for everything related to history. I see the site as an unbelievable resource, not necessarily as a marketing extension for the channel. While there are places on the site to go to for a deeper dive into our shows, really what we hope people are doing is going to our site and looking up “Civil War,” for example, and immersing themselves in all the interactive elements: maps, journals, videos, text information, and really getting a sense of the fun of exploring that topic on their own, in the order in which they want to, in a way in which they want to. A linear experience of the Civil War on our channel would be very passive and one-way. On History.com, viewers are allowed to become much more interactive, they can immerse themselves in the content the way they want to and in a way that they control.

We’ve seen tremendous success with interactive elements on History.com. We launched the Ultimate History Quiz around America: The Story of Us and the growth for the Ultimate History Quiz was exponentially larger than what we had expected. That is really thrilling for us 368

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ming, how important is marketing in driving viewership of a channel like HISTORY? DUBUC: It’s critical. Chris Moseley, our head of marketing, has a great line, “Programming is the great story and marketing is the story about the great story.” Marketing is a reflection of our core job, which is to produce great shows, but marketing is also the voice of what the overall HISTORY brand is. Marketing has a job not only to drive tune-in to specific shows, but it has the burden of making sure that people have a sense of what our brand reflects and what it represents. We’ve done a great job in the last year of really making HISTORY feel like a destination.

There is a three-dimensional aspect to a lot of promos now—the way the logo interacts with on-air talent, the way the propel arrow works throughout our on-air elements—so that you have a real sense of place when you watch our network, we feel like a destination.You even see it reflected in one of our brand spots that we call “The Factory,” whose premise is that we are a place, a factory, and we make things. And the four walls around us create a destination for viewers. The History Made Every Day campaign has done an unbelievable job of helping to express what we are trying to convey through programming and it’s also helping to express that history is a living, breathing story that’s around us every day. Sometimes it’s a reflection of something that happened 2,000 years ago and sometimes it’s a reflection of what’s happening right now.

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Veria TV COUNTRY: U.S.A. LAUNCH DATE: 2007

By Kristin Brzoznowski

A great pick: Hot on the Trail follows wild-foods expert Sunny Savage as she goes in search of allnatural eats.

PROGRAMMING

STRATEGY:

OWNERSHIP: Distributed by Asia TV USA Ltd.

Dedicating to bringing natural wellDISTRIBUTION: More than 17 million homes via cable and satellite ness to the mainstream,Veria TV was created as an outlet for showcasing GENRE: Healthy lifestyle and wellness (reality, doc, fitness, food, travel) unique, fun and rewarding ways for people to lead healthy, active TARGET DEMOGRAPHIC: People 25+ lifestyles. While the linear network is REVENUE MODEL: Advertising and subscription only currently available in the U.S., its message is universal, going out to TARGET DEMOGRAPHIC: People 25+ anyone who is looking to improve their lifestyle or health.

ORIGINAL TO ACQUIRED RATIO: 100-percent original “I think any human wants to live RECENT ORIGINAL PRODUCTIONS: Sports Dads (in pre-production), a better life, no matter where they The Incurables, Yoga for Life, Fed Up!, Hot on the Trail live, no matter what socio-economic place they are in; we all want to live SENIOR MANAGEMENT: better, healthier lives,” says Hal GENERAL MANAGER: Hal Rosenberg Rosenberg, the general manager of VP, AFFILIATE DISTRIBUTION: Amit Mathur Veria. Rosenberg stresses that the EXECUTIVE ADVISOR, PROGRAM SALES: Linda Kahn channel is designed to be approachable, affordable and “not preachy.”

CONTACT: (1-646) 745-9101; lindakahn@veria.com He says, “We’re an entertaining channel, we don’t preach to people.

WEBSITE: Veria.com We want every person who comes in contact with our programming or our network to be comfortable, to be engaged.” of money into making programming. He believes that you Veria has created 26 original programs, all in high defican’t go out into the marketplace and get distribution nition, that air on its dedicated channel. These series are all unless you have the foundation of programming. That’s why devoted to helping people live healthier and happier lives. we spent [a significant amount of money] creating these Rosenberg explains: “When our founder, Subhash Chan- 26 shows in pure high definition…. We’re very fortunate to dra, came up with the concept for Veria he invested a lot have this treasure trove of more than 500 hours of natural health and wellness programming in our library.”

Leading off the slate is The Incurables, which touches on the serious topic of life-threatening diseases and chronic illnesses like cancer, heart disease and diabetes.Veria also highlights Under the Sun, a travel series. Hosted by Nathan LeRoy, the show gives viewers a taste of organic, natural foods, from various locales around the world. Rounding out the grid is Fed Up!, hosted by Andrea Beaman, former Top Chef contestant and celebrated natural foods chef. Also on the schedule are Hot on the Trail, Feng Shui Living, Chasing the Yum, Bedside Manor, Natural Companions and Everybody Nose.

Currently, the Veria portfolio features all in-house productions, however, Rosenberg says that at MIPCOM a focus will also be acquiring content.

“I’m very anxious to see what else is out there in terms of licensing some programming,” he adds.

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