World Screen NATPE Budapest 2013

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THE MAGAZINE OF INTERNATIONAL MEDIA • JUNE/JULY 2013

www.worldscreen.com

NATPE Budapest Edition

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contents JUNE–JULY 2013/NATPE BUDAPEST EDITION

DEPARTMENTS WORLD VIEW

8

A note from the editor.

UPFRONTS

10

New shows on the market.

WORLD’S END

82

In the stars.

22

30

special report

22 BRAVE NEW EUROPE Some Central and Eastern European markets have bounced back post–economic crisis, delivering strong growth rates and creating new opportunities in the media business.

—Jay Stuart

one-on-one

30 CHELLOMEDIA’S NIALL CURRAN As president, Curran oversees a number of divisions within the Chellomedia portfolio, including Chello Zone, Chello Benelux, Chello Multicanal, Chello Latin America and Chello Central Europe.

—Anna Carugati

spotlight

Publisher Ricardo Seguin Guise Editor Anna Carugati Executive Editor Mansha Daswani Managing Editor Kristin Brzoznowski Contributing Editor Elizabeth Guider Special Projects Editors Jay Stuart Bob Jenkins Associate Editor Joanna Padovano Editor, Spanish-Language Publications Elizabeth Bowen-Tombari Associate Editor, Spanish-Language Publications Jessica Rodríguez Online Director Simon Weaver Production & Design Director Victor L. Cuevas Art Director Phyllis Q. Busell Sales & Marketing Director Cesar Suero Sales & Marketing Manager Vanessa Brand Business Affairs Manager Terry Acunzo Senior Editor Kate Norris Copy Editor Maddy Kloss

55 ANTHONY ZUIKER The creator of the CSI franchise talks about his new digital series Cybergeddon, which integrates brand partners and offers a wealth of ancillary content online.

—Anna Carugati

These targeted magazines appear both inside World Screen and as separate publications.

THE MANY FACES OF DRAMA The market for European daily dramas is in flux given the popularity of Turkish serials and scripted reality shows 40…INTERVIEWS ALL3MEDIA’s Louise Pedersen 50…SPI’s Loni Farhi 52

40

ROYAL PLUSH Brands with built-in awareness continue to

Ricardo Seguin Guise President Anna Carugati Executive VP & Group Editorial Director Mansha Daswani Associate Publisher & VP of Strategic Development WORLD SCREEN is a registered trademark of WSN INC. 1123 Broadway, Suite 1207 New York, NY 10010, U.S.A. Phone: (212) 924-7620 Fax: (212) 924-6940 Website: www.worldscreen.com ©2013 WSN INC. Printed by Fry Communications No part of this publication can be used, reprinted, copied or stored in any medium without the publisher’s authorization.

lead the licensing business 62…INTERVIEWS m4e’s Hans Ulrich Stoef 73…Studio 100’s Patrick Elmendorff 74…

Suzy Spafford 76

62

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world milestones view

BY ANNA CARUGATI

Today’s Two-Way Street There was a time when broadcasters around the world looked to the U.S. for the latest in programming developments, scheduling techniques and on-air promotion campaigns. I remember when buyers would flock to NATPE just to find out what was hot in the U.S. The thinking was that eventually those trends would travel to other regions, first and foremost to Europe.

In the mid-’80s I was working at Fininvest, today known as Mediaset. I came there after working for three years at CBS in Chicago. One of my responsibilities at Fininvest was to manage a consulting agreement that was tucked away in a program-acquisition contract. There was a vague sentence, and here I am paraphrasing the legalese, that stated that CBS would make its employees available to Fininvest to consult and provide expertise as needed.

I built upon that sentence and set up an ongoing exchange: CBS executives in the areas of programming, onair promotion, marketing and even sports and news coverage would come to Milan and hold workshops for Fininvest employees. And Fininvest execs would travel to New York and Los Angeles to see firsthand how CBS created its marketing and promotion campaigns, managed its sports department, or shot and a news report. I was the goTRANSATLANTIC edited between and the experience was exhilarating. Even though I spent COLLABORATION hours translating for the Americans and Italians, I learned so much and I saw how quickly peoREMAINS THE KEY TO ple in the same field loved to share knowledge and experience.

I remember one instance in SUCCESS FOR MANY particular.

On-air promotion execs at CBS Sports were showMEDIA COMPANIES. ing a video of a sleek-looking promo for a golf tournament on CBS. The white lettering with the day and time that the event would be broadcast appeared in front of a wavy, moving, stylish black background. After a lot of oohing and aahing, the CBS execs revealed that that promo was done very quickly and for very little money.The background that looked so glossy and stylized was actually a large black plastic garbage bag that had a fan blowing at it and a couple of lights shining on it. The Italians were amazed because they thought that CBS, a U.S. network, had tons of money to spend on lavish special effects.They were surprised to learn that the promo had been produced with an ordinary garbage bag. Even the “Tiffany Network” had to sometimes resort to resourcefulness.

8 World Screen 6/13

It’s a bit mindboggling to consider how much the television industry has changed since the ’80s, and how that oneway street of knowledge and expertise flowing from the U.S. to Europe has now very much become a two-way street. For more than a decade, the U.S. has been open to, if not actively seeking, program ideas from Europe that can be adapted for American audiences.The resulting list of shows is long indeed: Survivor, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? and Big Brother were the first, followed by American Idol, Dancing with the Stars, The Office and The Voice, to mention a few.

American networks have also used the European concept of a limited series: 10 to 15 episodes, compared to 22 or 24, per season. The U.S. cable networks, with less abundant resources than the broadcast networks, have been working with the limited-series model for quite some time now. When the broadcast networks recently announced their fall schedules, shorter-run series were all over the place: ABC has Betrayal and Resurrection. CBS will air Intelligence and Jerry Bruckheimer’s Hostages. NBC has Crisis in addition to Dracula, produced by Carnival Films in the U.K., which also produces Downton Abbey. FOX is bringing back Jack Bauer in 24: Live Another Day and will also air Wayward Pines, from M. Night Shyamalan.

As I witnessed almost 30 years ago, collaboration and sharing experience and knowledge can yield extremely positive results. It’s true that the TV landscape has changed dramatically. Technology has revolutionized the business, and viewing habits today are a far cry from what they used to be; yesterday’s passive couch potatoes who watched shows placed in set schedules by TV networks have been replaced by active viewers who text and tweet and binge.

Because change has occurred at such a rapid pace everywhere, it seems to me that the exchange of ideas and collaboration is more necessary now than ever. Indeed, when I spoke to Niall Curran, the president of Chellomedia, for the One-on-One interview in this issue, he mentioned that on-demand, second-screen and social-media features are essential offerings for linear channels. Chellomedia is also partnering with a number of U.S. companies, including A+E Networks and CBS Studios International. That twoway street of transatlantic collaboration remains the key to success for many media companies.

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upfronts

A+E Networks • Double Divas • Duck Dynasty • Sworn to Silence Character-driven shows continue to prove popular for A+E Networks in Central and Eastern Europe, according to Marielle Zuccarelli, the company’s managing director of international content distribution. “Our programming is defined by highend production values and larger-than-life characters that transcend cultural barriers,” she says. “We continue to expand our catalogue, adding new genres such as ‘reality sitcom’ with Duck Dynasty, which delivered 9.6 million total viewers during the season three finale in the U.S., and Double Divas, which garnered 2.8 million total viewers in the U.S. at premiere.”

Zuccarelli also notes an increase in the catalogue of original movies with star power, including Sworn to Silence, which features Neve Campbell.

“Armed with a growing catalogue of quality programming, we have the tools to continue our global success.”

—Marielle Zuccarelli Sworn to Silence

Armoza Formats • The Gran Plan • Comedians at Work • Special Delivery

Following a strong launch at MIPTV, there are high expectations for Armoza Formats’ The Gran Plan to perform well at NATPE Budapest. Sales have already been secured in more than 20 territories for the show, including in Ukraine and Greece.The company is also placing its bets on the prime-time comedy format Comedians at Work and the game-show format Special Delivery. “These three shows all manage to bring an incredibly fun, feel-good spirit that viewers are so much longing for today,” says Avi Armoza, the company’s CEO. “Their strong premise and broad family target audience enables them to become a strong brand for the channel, while keeping modest production costs.” Comedians at Work is already being adapted in Russia, among other territories.

“We’ve always had a particularly strong connection with the CEE territories, and look forward to taking it a step further with new and exciting partnerships.”

—Avi Armoza The Gran Plan

Azteca • Timeless Love • The Other Side of the Soul • Destiny There are a number of Azteca telenovelas and dramas that Comarex is highlighting for NATPE Budapest, including Timeless Love. Starring Edith Gonzalez, Timeless Love tells the story of a man and woman who must overcome many obstacles as they pursue happiness. The Other Side of the Soul, led by Gabriela Spanic, Eduardo Capetillo and Michelle Vieth, focuses on an orphan determined to seek revenge against those who have wronged her.

Destiny, which follows a woman’s search for her biological mother, features the talents of Mauricio Islas and Margarita Gralia. “With high production budgets, each story is well written and produced in HD,” says Adela Velasco, who handles the company’s sales in Europe and Africa. “Once again, Azteca is constantly producing great shows that are universally appealing.”

“Powerful productions such as telenovelas are very popular.”

—Adela Velasco Timeless Love 10 World Screen 6/13

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Beyond Distribution • Hidden in America • Mother of the Bride • Dark Minds The show Mother of the Bride puts a new twist on traditional wedding series by spotlighting the family drama that ignites in the lead up to the nuptials, as it follows the mom’s quest for the perfect dress. Beyond Distribution is highlighting the show for NATPE Budapest buyers alongside Hidden in America, which looks at lesser-known subcultures, and Dark Minds, a true-crime series. Karen Connell, Beyond’s VP of regional sales, is hoping that these titles will help the company continue its streak of prosperous business in CEE. “Beyond has successfully placed content with free-to-air channels in the Czech Republic and anticipates growth in the territory with the launch of new channels,” says Connell. “Sales remain strong in Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Croatia.”

“I expect an active market, which provides an opportunity to meet with buyers in territories we have targeted for growth.”

—Karen Connell

Mother of the Bride

Breakthrough Entertainment • Boundless • Going Global • Rustic Adventures

Since 2009, Breakthrough Entertainment has been exhibiting at the annual market now known as NATPE Budapest.This year, the company is presenting such shows as Boundless, which watches as two friends participate in races. “Boundless will attract viewers from the very first episode and keep them there for each installment with the high-stakes drama of every competition and the riveting character study of two lifelong friends and rivals,” says Nat Abraham, Breakthrough’s president of distribution. Going Global spotlights various destinations around the world, while Rustic Adventures looks on as two chefs embark on a food tour across Italy. “Going Global is a very unique take on travel,” says Abraham. “Rustic Adventures will captivate and entertain viewers with stunning cinematography and a candid documentary approach.”

“Eastern and Central Europe have started to become strong licensees of our culinary and factual programs.”

—Nat Abraham Boundless

Caracol Television • Football Dreams: A World of Passion • The Voice of Freedom, Helenita Vargas • The Dance Floor The top three highlights from Caracol Television for NATPE Budapest are quite different from each other, but all contain “Caracol DNA,” according to Roberto Corrente, the company’s sales executive for Eastern Europe and Asia. Corrente describes this as a “unique blend of impressive production values with stories that are able to impress and move our audiences,” and also reflect a universal reality about the desire to love and be loved and the struggle to find happiness. Among the titles on offer from Caracol are Football Dreams: A World of Passion, which profiles four soccer players from the Colombian National Football Team; The Voice of Freedom, Helenita Vargas, about a woman striving to conquer a man’s world during the 1950s; and The Dance Floor, an original talent competition format.

“The year that passed since last NATPE Budapest can be perfectly described with one word: Impressive.”

—Roberto Corrente Football Dreams: A World of Passion 12 World Screen 6/13

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Construir TV • The Work and I • Family in Overalls • Building a Country This outing marks the first time that Construir TV is exhibiting its content at NATPE Budapest. “Our expectations are very positive and we hope it will be a successful market for us,” says Alejandra Marano, the company’s managing director.

Construir TV is a unique thematic channel that is dedicated to the world of work, with stories told in first person that demonstrate the value of productivity in all its facets. Programs include The Work and I, which examines the close ties between work and life, as well as Family in Overalls and Building a Country. Just a few months ago, Construir TV entered into a partnership with the Turkish outfit ITV-Inter Medya for distribution in a number of territories, among them the CIS countries and the Balkans.

“Although our main focus at NATPE Budapest will be on negotiating the individual programs, we are open to discussing distribution of the channel.”

The Work and I

—Alejandra Marano

Dori Media Group • The Caravan • Hi/lo Trivia • Little Mom

Dori Media Group has noticed a trend that more countries across CEE are becoming keen to produce local original content. Since scripted programming is often more expensive to adapt, the company has put together a strong slate of budget-friendly entertainment formats for buyers in the region.This includes the game show Hi/lo Trivia, a “simple card game with a smart twist,” according to Elena M. Antonini, the VP of sales at Dori Media Distribution.

The company is also presenting The Caravan, a reality series about reuniting families, and Little Mom, a prime-time dramedy looking at the truth of life after having kids. “This year we will also be presenting the catalogue of Channel 10 in Israel, which is the second-largest free-to-air channel in the country, after having signed an exclusive worldwide distribution deal,” says Antonini.

“Channels are looking for shows with lower budgets and great impact among audiences.”

Little Mom

—Elena M. Antonini

Global Agency • Game of Silence • Catch the Answer • Blind Taste Central and Eastern Europe, together with the Middle East, are the parts of the world where the Turkish soap opera craze has reached enormous heights, according to Senay Tas, sales director for CEE at Global Agency. “The demand is still there and buyers and broadcasters are very pleased with the success they have had with the Turkish series they have acquired [from us].We are also seeing an increased interest for formats of different genres; even though some of the CEE countries are going through economic crisis, our business with the territory has gone up in the last two years.” With these trends in mind, Global Agency is attending this year’s NATPE Budapest with the action-packed drama series Game of Silence, as well as the quiz show Catch the Answer and culinary competition Blind Taste.

“The majority of our series have been sold all over CEE and the interest for them is getting bigger each day.”

Blind Taste 14 World Screen 6/13

—Senay Tas

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HBO Europe • Burning Bush Earlier this year, in January, HBO Europe launched the mini-series Burning Bush. The three-part film is based on actual events and characters. It tells the dramatic story of Jan Palach, a young Prague student who made the ultimate sacrifice in the name of freedom in January 1969, and the legal fight by his family to clear his reputation in the face of Czechoslovak government propaganda.The project has received critical acclaim all across Central and Eastern Europe. Directed by Academy Award-nominee Agnieszka Holland and based on a script by Stepan Hulik, Burning Bush was produced

by HBO Europe’s Antony Root and Tereza Polachová and nutprodukce’s Tomás Hruby and Pavla Kubecková. While HBO Europe has done several other original scripted drama productions, this one is billed as its highest profile project to date.

Burning Bush

ITV-Inter Medya • 20 Minutes • Red Scarf • The Harem

The CEE region has long been a fertile territory for business for ITV-Inter Medya. The company is looking to continue its success in the region by presenting buyers at NATPE Budapest with the crime drama 20 Minutes and the drama series Red Scarf, both produced by Turkey’s Ay Yapim. ITV-Inter Medya will also be discussing the comedy The Harem at the market. “NATPE Budapest is a gate for us that opens up to Central and Eastern Europe, which is one of the most important markets for Turkish productions,” says Can Okan, the president and CEO of ITVInter Medya. “We are expecting a significant change in business volume in comparison with last year.We believe that this market will be the [rebound] point of the downward trend in sales in Central and Eastern Europe for us.”

“All of [our] titles have universal stories and very high production values together with the strong casting.”

20 Minutes

ITV Studios Global Entertainment • The Doctor Blake Mysteries • Saturday Night Takeaway • Hell’s Kitchen Set in the 1950s, The Doctor Blake Mysteries tells the story of a maverick country-town detective medical officer. He returns home from war to find that his risk-taking personality is no longer welcomed within the strict social structures of a small town in that time. ITV Studios Global Entertainment is presenting the drama alongside a number of format highlights, among them Saturday Night Takeaway and Hell’s Kitchen. “Saturday Night Takeaway is a proven international hit format that offers a real alternative to talent shows,” says Jennifer Ebell, the company’sVP of sales for Southeast EMEA. “We’re also excited about the potential for Hell’s Kitchen in the region. ITV Studios Nordic recently announced that it has been commissioned by MTV3 to produce a local version [in Finland], hosted by the Michelin-starred chef Sauli Kemppainen.”

The Doctor Blake Mysteries 16 World Screen 6/13

—Can Okan

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Kanal D • Mercy • Lost City • My Partner Knows The story in Kanal D’s Mercy centers on a young woman who has overcome many difficulties in her life through hard work and determination and is on the road to success. Lost City tells the stories of human tragedies caused by poverty and discrimination, the problems of workers, and the violence-filled world of children living on the streets. “As with most Turkish series, the stories in Mercy and Lost City are inspired by real stories from our own streets,” says Amaç Us, sales and acquisition specialist at Kanal D. “Viewers will be able to relate to these stories, which both contain all the universal elements of a drama and pieces from reality.” My Partner Knows, meanwhile, is an entertainment format that sees couples tested on how well they really know each other.

“Central and Eastern Europe are two of the core regions where Turkish content is very popular.”

—Amaç Us My Partner Knows

Keshet International • Master Class • Girlfri3nds • Sure or Insure

After having developed its international activities and sales substantially over the last year, Keshet International is now focusing on markets beyond its typical core territories. This has led the company to attend NATPE Budapest for the first time, where it will be presenting the children’s singing competition Master Class.

The company is also eager to showcase the dating format Girlfri3nds and the game show Sure or Insure to potential buyers.

Nelly Weber-Feld, senior sales manager at Keshet International, points out that all of these concepts have already been tested in Israel. “Israelis [watch a lot of TV], but get bored quite easily,” she says. “This means that we are constantly pushing ourselves to cover all genres and to outdo ourselves and come up with twists, casts and elements in our formats that haven’t been seen before.”

“The majority of our shows are focusing on prime-time entertainment for the whole family.”

—Nelly Weber-Feld Master Class

Novovision • Pop Toon • Junior Hidden Camera • Pop Corn TV Over the last two years, Novovision has inked a slew of deals in Central and Eastern Europe, including in such territories as Russia, Poland, Romania and Ukraine. “All our funny clips— hidden cameras, home videos, bloopers and sketches—have always been appreciated in this part of the world,” says François-Xavier Poirier, the company’s CEO. “This is probably because the kind of humor present in our [programs] is very much family-oriented and dedicated to a broad audience.” Junior Hidden Camera, a series of hidden-camera clips, is one of the properties that Novovision is showcasing at NATPE Budapest.

Other highlights include Pop Toon, a compilation of animated pieces, and Pop Corn TV, a collection of 400 episodes that is being remastered in full HD.

“Novovision has always had a strong presence in Central and Eastern Europe.”

—François-Xavier Poirier Junior Hidden Camera 18 World Screen 6/13

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Peace Point Rights • Frontier Vets • Belle du Seigneur • Donovan’s Echo Peace Point Entertainment launched its distribution division, Peace Point Rights, nearly one year ago. In that time, “we’ve experienced much success in the CEE region,” says Les Tomlin, the company’s president and CEO. In its second outing at NATPE Budapest, Peace Point Rights is looking to shore up new sales on series from its lifestyle catalogue, including Frontier Vets, The Bulloch Family Ranch and Sando. It will also be promoting titles from its film catalogue, which includes Locked In, Belle du Seigneur and Donovan’s Echo. “These titles continue to add to the depth and breadth of our catalogue and appeal to diverse buyers,” says Tomlin. “On the lifestyle side, these three new titles will be world premieres in 2013, so buyers can get in on the excitement of new series.”

“This is our second year attending NATPE Budapest, and we expect to be doing some brisk business.”

Donovan’s Echo

Record TV Network • King David • Joseph from Egypt • Tricky Business

Record TV Network made a large investment in producing King David, which tells a story set in Bethlehem in the year 1045 B.C. Extensive research went into getting the reproduction of the setting, costumes and culture of that time correct. These efforts paid off, as King David has been a success on, among other networks, MundoFOX in the U.S. Record TV Network employed a similar approach when reproducing details for Joseph from Egypt. This story is set in 1716 B.C. in Haran, a region of Mesopotamia. Filming on the project was done in Chile’s Atacama Desert. Record TV Network will be talking to buyers at NATPE Budapest about both of these epic titles, as well as Tricky Business, a soap opera.

King David

Red Arrow International • Jo • The Taste • Family Cases Filmed on location in Paris, Jo is a crime procedural that sees Jean Reno making his return to television. The show, a lead offering from Red Arrow International, has already proven successful in several territories, including Poland, Italy, Spain and Bulgaria. The Taste is new a cooking competition format that premiered this year on ABC in the U.S. There is also Family Cases, a scripted reality series that has already made its way to Russia. “With the large number of channels in Central and Eastern Europe comes a huge demand for new programming, both for fiction and formats,” says Shakira Hoffmann, the company’s international sales manager for CEE. “Entertainment shows are especially sought after, particularly for prime time but also for daily slots.”

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—Les Tomlin

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Some Central and Eastern European markets have bounced back post–economic crisis, delivering strong growth rates and creating new opportunities in the media business.

Jak Oni Spiewaja on ipla in Poland.

22 World Screen 6/13

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BRAVE NEW EUROPE C

entral Europe has caught up to Western Europe in many ways— and that’s not entirely good news for the television business, as the eurozone crisis has dragged down economic growth, hitting the advertising market.

ZenithOptimedia’s research shows the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland performing more like France, Germany or the U.K. than like Russia or Ukraine. Indeed, the media agency groups the big Central European countries in with most Western European markets— excluding the so-called PIIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain)—in a category called Northern and Central Europe. It forecast that advertising expenditure in the region, after shrinking 0.2 percent in 2012, will grow by 0.8 percent in 2013 before seeing a mild recovery in 2014 (2.1 percent) and 2015 (2.3 percent).

In contrast, Eastern European advertising markets like Russia and Ukraine, which generally bounced back quickly, have continued healthy growth. They are performing more like their neighbors, such as Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, and Zenith Optimedia groups them as the Eastern Europe & Central Asia bloc.

The ad expenditure in that region grew by 10.7 percent by the end of 2012 and is expected to be up 11.7 percent in 2013.

REDEFINING BORDERS

“We are coming to a time when there will no longer be a dividing line between Western and Central European media, and maybe we are already there,” says Ross Biggam, the director general of the Association of Commercial Television in Europe (ACT). About a third of ACT’s members have interests in Central Europe, including Modern Times Group (MTG) and RTL Group.

“The state of markets varies across Europe,” Biggam says. “Some places in Central Europe are doing better or worse than others, just as in the West.

The priorities of broadcasters are the same no matter where they are.

Those include protecting their intellectual property and diversifying away from being dependent on advertising.

The issues are the same whether it’s CME or TF1. There has been a delay in rolling out DTT [digital terrestrial TV] in some markets in Central Europe, but that might not be a bad thing.”

“It’s essential to take a countryby-country view of the region,” says Lars Riegel, the manager of the tele-

coms, information, media and electronics practice of the consulting firm Arthur D. Little (ADL) in Vienna.

“Between about 2009 and 2011, advertising was down 5 percent to 10 percent in the worst-hit countries, but that was the bottom. The advertising market is starting to grow again, and broadcasters are able to make a profit. Generally speaking, the demand for television programming is strong and it’s growing.”

TV viewing time per capita has been increasing steadily, especially in countries with relatively low GDPs such as Bulgaria, Croatia and Serbia. In Hungary, for example, the average viewing was 285 minutes per day in 2012, up by 27 minutes from 2007. Hungary now has more than 100 channels in the local language.

“Linear television is getting stronger,” Riegel says. “Despite the talk about IPTV and OTT or Google, there is still an increasing demand for traditional television, though we do expect to see this flattening over time.

The number of broadcasters will at least remain where it is and may increase. The position of the public broadcasters is strong. Across the region we see that governments are definitely committed to maintaining their support.We see public broadcasters with stable funding.”

6/13 World Screen 23

By Jay Stuart High-definition is finally happening in a big way, three to five years after the technology took hold in Western Europe. HDTV is now “going through the roof ” after a hesitant start, Riegel says.

The expansion of HD content has proven difficult to monetize, with consumers showing a low willingness to pay a premium for HD content unless a significant number of channels is made available. HDTV has been successfully used in the region mostly as a differentiating factor and consumer-retention tool. One of the leaders in HD has been “n” in Poland, which offers more than 20 HD channels and has pushed most of its subs to pay more for the service.

SATELLITE SURGE

Another noticeable trend taking place in CEE is the shift away from cable platforms and toward DTH services. In the Czech Republic, DTH’s share grew from 6 percent in 2005 to an estimated 31 percent in 2011, according to a report compiled

by ADL. In Hungary, the growth of DTH’s share was similar, from about 7 percent to 30 percent. In Poland, the DTH share grew from about 12 percent to 50 percent. DTH’s overall market share has now surpassed cable in some markets.

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On target: One of Hungary’s first commercial TV channels, RTL Klub primarily targets urban adults 18 to 49 with a mix of U.S. series and locally produced formats, including the daily scripted reality show Éjjel-Nappal Budapest, adapted from the German format Berlin: Day & Night.

However, the region is far from homogenous. In Hungary, cable remains the dominant platform, with a market share of over 50 percent.

Market experts project further growth of more than 50 percent by 2015 in multichannel households, compared with the mere 10-percent growth forecast in Western Europe.

In research by Ovum and ADL covering 20 countries of Central and Eastern Europe, the total number of multichannel households is expected to reach 113 million by 2015, up from 72 million in 2010 and 49 million in 2008. The proportion of pay-TV homes in total is expected to climb to 48 percent in 2015 from 42 percent in 2010 and 32 percent in 2008.

BORN TO BE FREE

The most important regional multimarket operator remains Central European Media Enterprises (CME), which was launched by American investors, led by the cosmetics heir Ronald Lauder, immediately after the Berlin Wall came down. Time Warner now owns 49.9 percent of CME. Lauder still holds 6.4 percent of the company.

A good prism for seeing how the market has matured is CME’s share of audiences around the region. As the regional pioneer of commercial

television, the group established early dominance. Indeed, when commercial TV was brand new, its groundbreaking channel TV Nova practically had the commercial market in the Czech Republic to itself.

The latest figures for prime-time audience share in its target demos around Central Europe show CME with leading positions in all of its markets—but the gap between it and its rivals is closing as commercial competition has intensified.

In the Czech Republic, the three Nova-branded channels had a share of 38 percent in the 15-to-54 market in 2012, down from 42 percent the year before. In the 18-to-49 target in Bulgaria, its six channels, led by the bTV brand, drew a 45-percent audience share in 2012, down from 50 percent the previous year. In Croatia, the share for its three channels in 18to-54 was 33 percent last year, slipping from 34 percent in 2011. In Romania, where CME operates eight channels, it slipped to 29 percent from 31 percent in the 18-to-49 urban target. In Slovakia, the share in 12-to-54 for its three main channels, led by Markíza, was 35 percent, down from 37 percent in 2011. Slovenia was the only market where the share held steady, at 50 percent for its flagship, POP, and CME’s two other channels in the 18-to-49 demo.

CME’s broadcasting operations generated $665 million in net revenues across the region in 2012, down from $775 million in 2011. Net revenues declined in all national markets.

In response to the downbeat results, CME is restructuring this year, moving from a centralized pan-regional approach to a “countrybased model,” said Adrian Sarbu, the president and CEO of the company, in announcing the new strategic direction. “Tough times call for bold action.”

CME plans to raise prime-time prices in all markets, including double-digit price increases in the Czech Republic. The group also plans to invest more in programming to bolster its share in prime time.

COMPETITIVE SPIRIT

Another major player in the region is MTG, whose free-TV operations comprise a total of about 20 channels in the Baltics, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria and Hungary.

Jørgen Madsen Lindemann, MTG’s president and CEO, attributed the group’s strong financial performance in the first quarter of this year to the impact of new strategic adsales agreements in the Czech Republic and Bulgaria, plus audience share gains in almost all territories on the back of higher ratings.

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“We were the largest free-TV media house in the Czech Republic for the first time on a quarterly basis, when measured by advertising market share, and this is a significant milestone for the group.”

Sales for the group’s combined Baltic free-TV operations were up 23 percent year-on-year and reflected the consolidation of LNT in Latvia from June 2012, as well as underlying growth in Latvia and Estonia.

Across the Baltic region, MTG’s channels achieved a viewing share of 46.8 percent in 15-to-49 in the first quarter of 2013, up from 40.5 percent in the first quarter of 2012. Market share in Latvia soared from 36.1 percent in the first quarter of 2012 to 55.4 percent in 2013.

“The general economic slowdown in the West has impacted the TV market indirectly because some of the advertisers are based in Western Europe,” says Marek Singer, MTG’s executive VP of Central European broadcasting. “On the other hand, there are nicely growing markets, like the Baltics. Our fastest-growing region is obviously Africa, given the low starting point, but Central Europe is growing well, accelerating in 2013 towards double-digit growth.”

In the Czech Republic, MTG’s channels Prima Family, Prima

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TV advertising decreased by 9 percent in 2012, and the Croatian operation showed an EBITDA loss of €9 million ($11.8 million) after breaking even the year before.

One of the highlights of the year was the strong performance of the imported Turkish drama series Magnificent Century, which scored an average share of 31.2 percent in a daily slot, peaking at over 40 percent.The local version of FremantleMedia’s The Farmer Wants a Wife format was also a big hit in its third season, with a 38.2-percent average share of the target audience.

CABLE GAINS

High in the sky: Chello Central Europe, part of Liberty Global’s Chellomedia group, operates a number of channels in the region, among them the documentary service Spektrum, which airs the investigative series On the Spot.

COOL, Prima Love and Prima ZOOM achieved a commercial viewing share of 37.5 percent in their target demographic of 15-to54, up from 36.9 percent during the same period a year ago. The hottest market is now Bulgaria, where MTG has struggled for some time, but things have taken off under its new CEO, Didier Stoessel. Nova TV, Diema, Diema Family and Kino Nova pulled a share of 34 percent of viewing in the 18-to-49 group in the first quarter, up from 29.1 percent. In Hungary,Viasat3 and Viasat6 slid to 7.4 percent from 9.4 percent.

MTG’s latest project in Central Europe is the launch of the Czech documentary channel Prima ZOOM. The success of MTG’s channels varies from country to country, but there are similarities in the core portfolio of channels in most of the countries. “We have a main family channel, a young male-skewing channel and a young female-skewing channel everywhere,” Singer says.

“Viewer tastes vary not only region by region, but country by country.

Turkish telenovelas are a hit in Bulgaria, but they don’t work in the

Baltics. Singing choirs are great in the Baltics, but not so great in the Czech Republic. Regionally we have been very successful with the production of big shows, ranging from the smashing success of Big Brother in Bulgaria to repeated success of Got Talent in the Czech Republic or Clash of the Choirs in Baltics. Also, local drama production has traditionally been our stronghold.”

IN THE FAMILY

RTL Group’s channels in Hungary and Croatia delivered unimpressive results in 2012, but a recent strategic diversification into cable paid off in Hungary. RTL Klub remained the market leader by a long margin in that country with a 24.7-percent market share among 18-to-49 in prime time, but the channel’s share slipped from 29.8 percent in 2011 and has fallen steadily during the past five years (from 32.6 percent in 2008) as competition has grown. Advertising sales were down sharply, but the decline was offset by seven Hungarian cable channels RTL bought in 2011, keeping the operation prof-

itable—EBITDA was €9 million ($11.8 million) in 2012, down from €15 million ($19.6 million) the year before.

“The cable portfolio acquisition has enabled us to build the market’s strongest family of channels, allowing us to strengthen our total TV offer, and to enter the subscription market as a second strategic source of revenue,” says Dirk Gerkens, the CEO of RTL Klub. “We are now strongly positioned for the challenges of a fragmented market heading towards full digitization.”

RTL Klub benefited from the continuing strong performance of the local versions of FremantleMedia’s The X Factor (an average audience share of 46.2 percent), Got Talent (37.1 percent share) and The Exit List, as well as the long-running daily soap Barátok közt (Between Friends).

In Croatia, RTL Hrvatska operates two free-to-air channels, RTL Televizija and RTL 2. The former ranked number two in the market with a 19.4-percent share in 2012, down from 20.6 percent in 2011 and 26.4 percent in 2008. RTL 2 scored a 4.9-percent share in 2012.

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Chellomedia, the European content division of Liberty Global, has built up a large channel portfolio in the region under Michael Moriarty, the managing director at Chellomedia Central Europe.

“Generally, we have built our Central European business through M&A, sometimes taking minority positions in channels and then buying them and taking them to the next level,” he says. “We bought 100 percent of the Hungarian documentary channel Spektrum, in 2008, and now we have rolled that out in other markets.We have been rolling out our channel Megamax for older kids, which is built on our Minimax children’s channel. After launching in Hungary, we added the Czech Republic and Romania in late 2012 and Slovakia this year.”

Chellomedia’s business is about the basic tier and digital. The main revenue comes through distribution partnerships. “There has been a lot of pressure on cable operators and our partners, and that flows through to us, but we are not as exposed as we would be if we were completely dependent on advertising,” he says.

“The ad market has slowed down in every market. But advertising is, fortunately, a small part of our business.”

Looking ahead, Moriarty says the group has some channels that it would like to see in new markets in the region. “We have spent the last three or four years cleaning up our portfolio, so to speak,” he says. “We

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Power of three: TV3 in Lithuania, which airs Moterys meluoja geriau (Women Lie Better), one of the most-watched programs in the country, is among the many successful channels that Modern Times Group operates in CEE.

bought a channel called Deko, for example, that we have now re-branded as Spektrum Home. Last year we re-branded all of our movie channels as Film Café and Film Mania.”

Chellomedia also owns outright the MGM networks all over Central Europe (excluding Poland, where ITI is a joint-venture partner), after having bought out much of MGM’s global channel business in 2012.

“There is a rich pipeline of opportunities,” Moriarty says. “Even the mature markets offer opportunities. They are digitized so we can offer digital channels. We have HD feeds for our sports channels and Spektrum. We have apps for our Minimax and TV Paprika.”

Most countries in Central and Eastern Europe have already launched DTT with limited success, except in the Czech Republic. The first OTT platforms have also taken flight, such as CME’s Voyo in the Czech Republic and Nova Play in Bulgaria, and Polsat’s ipla in Poland. ipla was given a boost at the outset by

delivering exclusive live online content from behind the scenes of the reality show Jak Oni Spiewaja, the Polish version of ITV Studios Global Entertainment’s Soapstar Superstar.

A HYBRID MODEL

The consulting firm ADL is high on a hybrid DTT-OTT offering, enabling viewers to consume basic linear channels on their TV sets for free via DTT and enhanced by on-demand content via OTT. “We think hybrid TV could have a big impact on the market,” ADL’s Riegel says. “Hybrid TV adds a new dimension to satellite or terrestrial television, which does not have a return path to enable twoway communication as cable and IPTV do. In Germany, Media Broadcast has started to roll out the HBB (hybrid broadcast broadband) platform, offering not only broadcast channels but Internet content as well on the same EPG. This will enable terrestrial channels to reinforce their position by expanding their offer without charge to the

consumers.They can also earn additional revenue because the business model of HBB is that web providers will pay the terrestrial channels to appear on the EPG with their main channels. We see this as possibly having a strong impact in Eastern Europe over the next two to four years.This is a region where there is high penetration of pay TV in several of the main markets, notably Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic. Consumers are used to paying for additional programming.

The success of hybrid TV will depend on the quality of the programming offer. But in principle it means that all of a sudden terrestrial operators will be able to offer a long trail of free programming as well as on-demand at low cost. This could put pressure on the pay-TV market.”

CALLING THE TELCOS

Consolidation in the telecoms and TV sector is still ongoing in the CEE region. For most players, the main rationale is to strengthen their market position or to support

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convergent offerings. As in Western Europe, telecoms and the TV sector have been offering bundled packages in several markets.

Platform operators have also started to acquire content providers. In the biggest of those deals, Cyfrowy Polsat, the largest DTH platform in the region, acquired Poland’s number two TV channel,Telewizja Polsat.

ADL sees increasing consolidation leading to a push in quad-play offerings, putting pressure on mobile-only or fixed-line-only players. The company warns that single-play offerings of cable operators could be at risk as their TVonly users could switch to bundled offerings or OTT offerings. Of course, all of this will raise regulatory issues as competition intensifies.

Regulators in Brussels are generally better informed about what’s going on in the television markets in Western Europe than they are about Central Europe. “Being a part of the European Union, broadcasters in Central Europe would be doing themselves a favor by getting more in front of European regulators,” ACT’s Biggam says.

The convergence of Western and Eastern Europe is likely to accelerate as multicountry groups focus increasing attention on investment opportunities in the region in the near future.

“The region needs to be watched carefully over the next one to two years,” ADL’s Riegel says. “You have players who have privateequity partners that are looking for an exit after several years. Some companies are quite profitable already and others have prospects for growth.We see opportunities opening up in Poland, Hungary and Russia, for example. Russia is definitely an attractive television market and it’s growing.The television markets as a whole are growing in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. The outlook for programming providers is extremely positive. They have a lot of opportunity to expand their presence. It’s important to be on the right platforms.”

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on the one-on-one record

s the content division of Liberty Global, Chellomedia operates 68 channels across Europe, Latin America, Asia, the Middle East and Africa, ranging in genre from movies, entertainment and sports to children’s, documentary and lifestyle.

Of those channels, 48 are fully owned by Chellomedia and the remaining 20 are joint ventures.

Chellomedia has, in fact, partnered with a number of companies, including CBS Studios International, A+E Networks, Cyfrowy Polsat in Poland and Zon Multimedia in Portugal. The Chellomedia channels are distributed on a variety of platforms—via cable, satellite and IPTV networks, including the UPC/Unitymedia division of Liberty Global— and reach some 390 million households.

Chellomedia also provides a variety of television services through its B2B operations for channel partners and clients. In addition, it owns Chello DMC in Amsterdam. This advanced production facility

provides Chellomedia, Liberty Global’s UPC/Unitymedia division and third parties with channel origination, post-production, and satellite and fiber transmission.

Niall Curran, the president of Chellomedia, oversees a number of divisions, including Chello Zone, Chello Benelux, Chello Multicanal, Chello Central Europe and Chello Latin America.

Besides mining further business opportunities in the main regions where Chellomedia already operates, he also sees potential for growth in Turkey, Russia, the former Yugoslavia, the Middle East and Africa. In today’s world of rapidly changing viewing habits, Curran, a proponent of TV Everywhere, is keenly aware of the need for providing more than linear channels. The company has been rolling out an array of on-demand, multiscreen and socialmedia features to accompany its bouquet of channels. Curran talks to World Screen about Chellomedia’s growth and the future of the channel business.

NIALL CURRAN Chellomedia

WS: What does Chellomedia want to

offer consumers?

CURRAN: Our main mission is to provide consumers with really great thematic TV entertainment. We do that through supporting our pay-TV platform partners, our business customers and, of course, while we are doing that, we are aiming to build value for our Liberty Global shareholders. We are primarily in the pay thematic channel business in international TV markets.We are also providers of services to other international TV operators and we’re investors in media businesses, but our primary focus is thematic TV. WS: Last year was a year of significant

growth for Chellomedia.Tell us about the MGM deal.

CURRAN: Last year we acquired MGM Networks Inc. from the MGM Studios business, which was a great deal for us. Ever since we established Chello as a content business, we’ve done a whole series of roll-up deals of thematic channels, groups of channels and some individual channel businesses. From that point of view, buying the MGM channels business internationally was a typical deal for us. We knew the businesses very well because before the deal we had been joint-venture partners with MGM in Latin America and in Central Europe for many years. We also had operating 30 World Screen 6/13

partnerships with MGM in the Benelux and in Iberia.We knew the channels well, we knew the MGM library very well, so we approached the whole thing with a lot of familiarity and, as a result, a very positive view of the development potential. We have a long-term ongoing licensing arrangement with MGM and we’ve added TV Everywhere and ondemand features to the channels, which we see to be central to the future of all the channels in our portfolio. We are nearly a year on from that deal and we are very pleased with the performance of the business. Because of the style of the channels and also because we were already fairly integrated in a number of territories, it was a very synergistic acquisition for us—for our sales teams and for our operations teams. One other important feature of the deal was that because a big chunk of the business was in the joint venture we had in Latin America, it increased our exposure to Latin America, and helped us bring our businesses together there.

WS: Chellomedia also has joint ventures with CBS Studios International and with A+E Networks. How do these channels complement your portfolio?

CURRAN: On a philosophical level, if you like, we’ve always been very relaxed about partnerships as a way of developing and growing our business. In fact, I think our [ joint venture] with A+E is our longest partnership. We’ve worked

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On the case: Chello Multicanal teamed up with A+E Networks to deliver the Crimen & Investigación channel in Spain, where the journalist Paco Lobatón serves as the host for a number of series.

really well with them in Iberia.

And that is based on a formula: we bring really deep local market insights and expertise and operational scale, and they bring fabulous brands and excellent programming that gets generated out of the U.S. networks. When you add those two together, it just makes for a great local yet global experience. So we’ve built a really strong channel portfolio with A+E. We’ve built a great business together.

CBS is a more recent partnership.

In 2009, we formed a joint venture in the U.K. and we were trying to apply the same formula: we had the on-the-ground expertise and operating scale; they had all the amazing programming that you know and love them for, and that combination worked really well for the U.K. Last year we extended this relationship into Europe, the Middle East and Africa. We are in fairly early stages building out those brands, adding new distribution and refining the experience. But that is going really well.We also have some partnerships with some very strong platform businesses, in particular Zon in Portugal and Polsat in Poland. And again, they are based on the idea of complementary partners sharing a view about how the business needs to grow and develop.

WS: Chellomedia is in some territories that are burdened by difficult economic conditions, where ad markets are soft and consumers don’t have much discretionary income.

What value proposition does pay TV still offer?

CURRAN: That’s a very good question. The good news is that the answer doesn’t dwell too much on the negative because pay TV is holding up really well in the great majority of our markets, and that is despite very tough macroeconomic conditions. I put this down to three main features: firstly, European pay-TV pricing offers really terrific value for money. It’s significantly below the pricing levels that you find in the U.S. And you know what? That makes a real difference. When individuals or families are looking to reduce their spending, pay TV doesn’t stand out as such a big target.That is one key positive in how well the business is holding up. Secondly, the pay-TV platforms who take our channels and bundle them up and sell them to these consumers in difficult circumstances are doing a terrific job of adding value to the pay-TV product proposition, and in many cases adding triple-play bundles and, increasingly, mobile offers.

So they are helping make it easier and easier to stick with a very rea-

sonably priced pay-TV offer. And the third thing is, we, along with the rest of the content-provision business, are adding a huge number of additional features, whether it’s TV Everywhere, a lot of on-demand functionality, [or] extending the brands through social media and other digital formats. All those things help give a perception that this is a

set of products you want to stick with. Fundamentally, that is what we are seeing even in some very difficult markets. For instance, we’ve seen some modest subscriber growth in Portugal, which is almost incredibly counterintuitive. But I think it’s those factors coming together: very reasonable pricing, a lot of marketing, and product development efforts from both the content providers and the pay-TV platforms.

The final point I would make is that we’ve been in these markets, Spain, Portugal and some of the Central European countries, for a long time. We enjoyed operating in a period of subscriber growth and advertising market growth. We have a longer-term perspective on the markets. None of these places are down and out, they are all having temporary—serious, but temporary—setbacks on the macro front, and our businesses are very well positioned to benefit from an improvement, whether it’s in the advertising market or in the upside of pay TV when consumers are feeling better off. I’m feeling pretty good about it.

Hungry for more: The companion app for Canal Cocina, part of the Chello Multicanal portfolio, is among the most popular applications in Spain.

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ing content away for free. Being part of Liberty Global has really helped us develop an integrated view with major platforms about how we can productively work together to introduce those features and add value to the pay-TV experience. I think they are really positive changes for the industry and for the Chellomedia business rather than being threats to the business. The way to futureproof the pay-TV business is by really embracing on-demand, TV Everywhere, second screen and seeing the brands live outside the straight linear channel experience.

Behind the lens: The documentary channel Spektrum, which Chellomedia purchased from HBO Central Europe, airs shows such as The Invisible Bird Photographer across Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

WS: What potential for growth do CURRAN: We’re very excited

owner side and the platform side.

So, yes, we are really excited about Latin America.

about Latin America. Over the last year, we made three deals to buy out partners from businesses. We had three different partnerships in Latin America, one being MGM [the others involved Pramer SCA and Canal Cosmopolitan Latino America]. That was so we could consolidate those three 100-percentowned businesses into a newly formed Chello Latin America, which we announced a few months back. I definitely view this as a platform for further growth.

It’s not the end game; it’s just the start of our more consolidated involvement in the market. As you know, Latin America is home to some of the most exciting and vibrant national economies, and although it’s a very competitive environment for programming, I’m sure there is room for our approach, which is quite distinctive and locally focused when it comes to programming and branding. So we are very keen to find further scale in the market. We are looking at the normal formula that we use when we are looking to grow our business: it’s a combination of organic growth, territory launches, acquisitions of businesses and channels, if those are available, and joint ventures on the content-

WS: Two years ago Chellomedia acquired a 40-percent stake in OBN, a Bosnian free-TV station.

Some other media companies are diversifying their portfolio of payTV channels by acquiring free-TV stations. Are you also looking to acquire other free-TV stations?

CURRAN: In 2011 we did invest in OBN. Before then and since then, we’ve looked at several free-to-air businesses—both traditional broadcast and new DTT businesses. And the fact that in the whole period we’ve been looking, we only made one move, and a relatively modest one at that, compared, say, to a Discovery or Turner, really demonstrates that we are relatively cautious about the space. Partly, that’s down to a judgment on the macroeconomic climate, because I think in difficult macro times, having a robust subscription business is just such a great place to be. And that has really biased our investment thinking. OBN, by itself, is a good business. One of the things that attracted us to it was that it gives us the opportunity to work with a strong local partner and build payTV businesses in conjunction with that free-TV business. We also benefit from longer-term development

you see in Latin America?

in the local advertising market, which is very underdeveloped. I’d say we remain interested but probably relatively cautious.We think that having done the OBN deal is a good experience for us and puts us in a better place to evaluate future free-to-air opportunities as they come up.

WS: Is it becoming more important to offer TV Everywhere, on-demand and second-screen features?

CURRAN: Yes, absolutely. What’s happening is, at a very fundamental level, the channel business is being redefined. Nowadays, when we think of being in the channel business, it means being in place to offer on-demand, multiscreen, TV Everywhere, social media, and making them absolutely integral to the experience of the linear channel brand. For us, and for how we think about product and product development, we can’t really think about linear channels aside from all of those other features. From that point of view, being part of Liberty Global has really helped us get ahead of the curve in understanding how worldleading platforms think about these developments and how to integrate them into the pay-TV offer, because clearly all the content you are working with has real value. No one is trying to see the world where technology becomes an excuse for giv-

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WS: Many American channel exec-

utives are concerned about maintaining their networks’ relevance, as viewers watch so much on-demand.

Do you share that concern?

CURRAN: It’s definitely something that is on my mind, but not so much of a concern, not at this point. There is no doubt that there are many more entertainment options for consumers to focus on, and you are in a battle for attention in a more intense way than you’ve ever been before! But I think the quality of the offer that is available, the pricing, the fact that there are other operators that are making it easier and easier to experience content in ways the consumer wants to use it, all are really adding up not to eliminate that concern but certainly alleviating it.

WS: As you begin to introduce the concept of TV Everywhere, how is it being received?

CURRAN: I think it’s being received very well. One of the things we are very conscious of as international operators is that not everybody who is using our services is an under-25 with an iPad, in an urban environment, constantly consuming TV in different places.

So I’d say the actual take-up of TV Everywhere is very encouraging where operators are pushing it out.

I’d see it as an evolution rather than a complete revolution of the pay-TV product.

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spotlight

Anthony Zuiker After creating the CSI franchise, which became a worldwide phenomenon, Anthony Zuiker has continued to dedicate himself to his passion: storytelling. This time around, he has been practicing his craft in the digital world. Zuiker started with the “digi-book” series Level 26, a trilogy of novels with an accompanying app that allows readers to enjoy supplemental content online. Zuiker is also behind Cybergeddon, a nine-part series that he describes as a motion picture for the web, which was released last fall on the Yahoo! Screen video site. It stars Missy Peregrym, of the ABC series Rookie Blue, as an FBI agent trying to stop a cyber Armageddon at the hands of a master hacker, played by Olivier Martinez. Cybergeddon’s innovations went beyond the structure of the story and the ancillary content offered online; it also included a number of important brand partners. Norton by Symantec, the Internet security company, not only served as a consultant on the project, it was also featured in the story line. Zuiker tells World Screen about the Cybergeddon experience.

segments over the course of three days. We did a lot of ancillary content, extra content about the characters. So in terms of being an artist and launching globally in 25 countries in ten languages, it’s pretty much a creator’s dream.

WS: And what are the advantages for your brand partners? They had access to a very different world; it’s not the 30-second spot anymore.

ZUIKER: No, it’s not. To be involved in Cybergeddon, if you are Symantec or Nissan, the shelf life [of your investment] is unbelievable. If you imagine back in the CSI days, it was almost $1 million for a 30-second spot.

For that same $1 million, in Cybergeddon, you’ll have 30 years of shelf life. That means downloads, foreign and domestic DVR, Netflix, iTunes, home video. It’s endless content that cannot be cut out or tracked and is permanently part of the narrative.

WS: You are one of the few creators who have worked

WS: Does writing for the web offer different freedoms

compared to writing one-hour dramas for linear channels?

ZUIKER: There are endless freedoms to this format; you can do pretty much whatever you like. You have one strong solid voice as an artist. You are championing your other brand partners: [Symantec’s] Norton has been a great partner, also Nissan. You are really able to reinvent the format for the web. We shot in May, we aired in September. There were nine tenminute chapters, which were released in 30-minute

with a brand successfully. What is the kind of give and take that goes on with the advertiser?

ZUIKER: It is a wonderful [process of] learning how to dance together, meaning at some point they have to respect what I do in terms of storytelling. I have to hear them as a brand partner and together we find a way to collaborate and do it right. They don’t really get involved in too much interfering in the storytelling. I honor what they need to have happen for their brand.

So it’s a pretty amicable experience.

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By Anna Carugati

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Locked and loaded: Cybergeddon was rolled out on Yahoo! Screen in bite-sized chapters over three days.

WS: This isn’t your first experience; you had to deal with brands even in CSI. ZUIKER: Yes, multiple brands for CSI. That was a little more high octane, because there were certain overt demands you had to comply with because brand integration was so new for television. But this is a much longer relationship. It’s a longer movie. We were pretty much upfront and transparent about what we were going to be doing together. They want more and we want less, and we figure it out and come to an agreement.

WS: You have said that storytelling in the digital age has

to be built for the device. Would you explain that?

ZUIKER: I think a lot of people that do original content for television or movies just slide it over to the iPad or the iPhone or iPod touch or tablet and call it a day. It’s really not the proper format. Cybergeddon was designed to be in chapters. It was designed to have hard-hitting openings and gripping storytelling and hard outs and cliffhangers to draw you to the next chapter. It’s a whole different mentality in terms of sectioning your movie into nine pieces and then creating a format, a style and a pace inside of that; it was almost conducive to the iPad or the Galaxy tablet. At the end of the day, as we get more and more interactive with our audience, there will be other features and utilities inside that experience besides just the sit-back experience of watching a tablet.

WS: You also wrote a “digi-book,” which had content

online. How much interactivity does the audience want?

ZUIKER: You give them the beauty of choice. For the Level 26 series, we did Dark Origins, Dark Prophecy and Dark Revelations. In our app called Dark Prophecy, which is on the iPad, we gave them the ability to read it just like a Kindle, or you can read it like a Kindle and you can actually have sound effects, or you can have the [full] experience, which is: read the book, watch the movie, collect evidence, gather suspects, gunshots go off, your screen breaks, blood trickles down, a knife comes across. [It’s] 56 World Screen 6/13

always surprising you. [The app] knows how fast or slow you read. The interactivity was endless, but if you just wanted to read the book and not be bothered, you can do that—it’s the power of choice.

WS: And Cybergeddon also has a lot of extra elements on

the web to enhance the viewing experience.

ZUIKER: We have a lot of ancillary content.Yahoo! did

a great job building an interface for the chapters in the book. We did a thing called Zips, which is short for Zuiker clips. We took all the individual characters and did six one-minute episodes about them that sometimes dovetailed into the movie, and gave a perspective of the movie that you wouldn’t have gotten if you had just watched the movie [alone]. And those 70 or 80 pieces of content float around YouTube, Yahoo!, all over the world in different languages, and act as PR soldiers that point you right back to the movie. It’s a smart approach.

WS: Was shooting Cybergeddon different from shooting a drama for a linear channel?

ZUIKER: It was an 18-day shoot. It wasn’t really different.

The thing we kept saying was, push, push, push, take chances, take risks. We kept telling the director,You’re not shooting a television show, you’re really shooting a superaggressive movie with multiple points of view, almost like 24, where you have three or four screens at one time. Just keep a frenetic pace.

WS: What other projects are you working on?

ZUIKER: The headline one is Whodunnit?, which is a

CSI-style competition mystery show [for ABC]. It’s our first foray into this new genre we are creating called reality fiction. We also have Wonderland at NBC. Shaun Cassidy is our showrunner and executive producer there. Whit Anderson wrote the script. It takes place in Detroit. The Alice in this particular series is the adversary and she is the evil queen.Very cool!

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on the world’s end record 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 I help Barbara Walters find love?

Every day, papers and magazines

Matthew Perry

Morgan Freeman

Barbara Walters

Mariah Carey

Matthew Perry

Barbara Walters

Global distinction: Friends alum.

Sign: Leo (b. August 19, 1969) Significant date: May 10, 2013 Noteworthy activity: While attending an L.A. Kings

Global distinction: Retiring newswoman.

Sign: Libra (b. September 25, 1929) Significant date: May 25, 2013 Noteworthy activity: The 83-year-old news legend

hockey playoff game, Perry is congratulated by a sports reporter on the “big news” from NBC. Mistakenly, the news was actually that his sitcom Go On was cancelled.

He jokes: “It was sort of a sad day because of the people and I’m going to miss them.... But this show that I was doing was really getting in the way of some Kings games, so I’m okay.”

Horoscope: “Let your social graces save you from a potentially embarrassing lapse of judgment.” (getmyhoroscopefree.com)

announces her plans to retire next summer. Walters has already put together quite the “to-do” bucket list for her post-work plans, a friend reportedly tells The Enquirer.The list includes helping her troubled daughter, who was recently busted for drunk driving, as well as landing herself a fourth husband.

Horoscope: “Stay busy today—you’ve got lots of ideas and should be able to at least get started on plenty of them before you start to get tired. Be sure to still relax a bit.” (primalastrology.com)

sight occasionally prove prophetic.

Morgan Freeman

Mariah Carey

But rather than poring over charts

Global distinction: Authoritative Oscar winner.

Sign: Gemini (b. June 1, 1937) Significant date: May 22, 2013 Noteworthy activity: The acclaimed actor dozes off

Global distinction: Strong-voiced diva.

Sign: Aries (b. March 27, 1969) Significant date: May 16, 2013 Noteworthy activity: The voluptuous singer is accused

a few times during a televised early morning interview, where he was to discuss his new film Now You See Me. Addressing his accidental snoozing, the 76year-old jokes: “I wasn’t actually sleeping. I’m a beta tester for Google Eyelids and I was merely taking the opportunity to update my Facebook page.”

Horoscope: “Carve out time to sleep, dream, write, draw, journal or whatever it is that your soul needs to thrive during such a busy and productive time.You will need this in order to balance your heavy workload.” (astrology.com)

of lip-synching during an American Idol performance featuring a medley of her hit songs. Infuriated viewers slam Carey on Twitter. Her rep insists that she was merely singing live along to a pre-recorded track.

Horoscope: “If someone has been spreading false and unfavorable rumors about you, make every effort to set the record straight. Then you can get back to more important things.” (ca.astrology.shine.yahoo.net)

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 fore-

of the zodiac to predict world events, our staff prefers to use past horoscopes in an attempt to legitimate the science.

As you can see here, had some of these media figures remembered to consult their horoscopes on significant days, they could have avoided a few surprises.

Barbara Eden Global distinction: Jeannie in a bottle.

Sign: Virgo (August 23, 1934) Significant date: May 25, 2013 Noteworthy activity: The I Dream of Jeannie actress

attends a star-studded charity gala in Vienna, where she slips back into her iconic 1960s sitcom costume.

The 78-year-old star hits the stage in the classic bellybaring pink and red getup and even gives her signature head nod and wink.

Horoscope: “Your reputation will continue to be important this month.... Make sure you step up and show everyone what you’ve got.” (cafeastrology.com) 82 World Screen 6/13

Zachary Quinto Global distinction: Sci-fi star.

Sign: Gemini (b. June 2, 1977) Significant date: May 23, 2013 Noteworthy activity: On the set of Star Trek into Dark-

ness, Quinto, who portrays the half-human-half-Vulcan named Spock, suffers a burn while shooting a scene involving a fiery volcano. Despite wearing a protective heat suit, a few flames manage to scorch the back of his neck, leaving the former Heroes and American Horror Story villain with a welt resembling a caterpillar, according to director J.J. Abrams.

Horoscope: “Take care of yourself, spare yourself and stay away from potentially risky circumstances (diseases, accidents, violence, etc.).” (eastrolog.com)

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