Special Report
Discop 2009

Discop 2009 is, without any doubt, a bold challenge to the European and International contents industry. MIPTV left a positive balance in spite of the crisis, while Discop is focused -as known- on Central and Eastern Europe, one of the regions that reflects the two sides of all crises: socioeconomic frailness on the one hand, sizable opportunities on the other hand.

The global crisis calls for cautious attitudes when purchasing product and slower development of production projects. But MIPTV has added three business features that will be important for the season as a whole, and these should be reflected at Discop, too: a turn towards finished programming vs. production projects; advantage for fiction against realities and entertainment; and search for alternate providers in order to obtain better commercial terms.

The three trends convey to the same place: the broadcasters are searching for predictability, lower risk levels and maximizing the cost-benefit ratio. These flows don't change the essence of the market, where in-house prime time production will continue signaling the difference. But, it spurs new relationships and results in tests, many of which may remain when the business returns to its normal courses. These are the chances that can be turned into profit at trade meetings such as Discop.

Let's see some of the comments coming from programming buyers at Central and Eastern Europe outlets in the recent past. They underscore the above described trends and reflect the current belief within the region:

' We are like the bakers', said Delo Hadziselimovic, programming manager of HRT Croatia. ‘During the crisis, people have bread, milk and television. So the industry continues as ever. Though, we have to be more careful about our purchases, this is not a good time for mistakes'.

Ljiljana Pasic, head of Foreign Programs of Radio & TV Bosnia and Herzegovina: ‘Eastern Europe is complicated because costs are rising and the advertising pies are shrinking. But, the public TV channels are making a big effort to compete with the commercial TV stations, which are very aggressive. We expect to go ahead'.

This issue features a special report about the TV business in Hungary. Nevertheless, here we can add some remarks from Tibor Forisz, head of acquisitions of RTL Klub: ‘The situation is difficult, especially in our country, but we continue attending the content markets as always. We participate to buy, not only to watch, particularly series and miniseries, mainly featuring action and from independent distributors, as we have what we want from the majors. Perhaps we will postpone expensive local productions for next year, but we need good product to continue attracting the audience'.

Petra Bohuslavová, acquisition buyer of Nova TV, Czech Republic, added: ‘This season we are looking for prime time programming, mostly series, miniseries and movies. Facing fiction against entertainment, definitively fiction gains the main attention'. Larissa Mohut, acquisitions National TV, Romania: ‘It is true what it is said… we see more finished product, more fiction. I'm buying basically movies and checking some TV series'.

Giorgi Lomindaze, Imedi TV, Georgia: ‘Our budget was cut by 25%, so what we do is concentrate our acquisitions on what interests us the most: fiction, kids, animation, soaps, documentaries'. Claudia Sahab, from distributor Televisa Europe: ‘We have seen an important change in favor of telenovelas in Central & Eastern Europe. Many countries that a few years ago said that the genre was out of order, now are buying again'.

Central and Eastern European traits
When compared to other regions, which are the characteristic features of Central en Eastern Europe? Until the crisis exploded, the region was evolving from times of transition, moving from the underdevelopment of the Soviet era to join the European Community. Transitions result in instability and fragility; these features are not the best when crises erupt.

Many of the economies within the region were still weak and were hit hard; even today they are pointed at as the most affected by the crunch, ranging from nations closer to the Western patterns such as Hungary (which suffered a political crisis that left the country without a President during MIPTV) to others that seemed stable, such as the Slovak Republic. Even Russia -which along with China, India and Brazil are now world economy drivers- suffered a setback and slowed down its development.

Yet, deep transformation cannot be stopped; they may lose speed, but keep going on. Now there is a new round of relationships; this allows moving forward, and that's where sellers, buyers and producers must find room (Discop is a good stopover, in this respect) to roll out the product most suitable to the future to come.

Prior to the crunch, Central and Eastern Europe witnessed a large increase of in-house production, even in the smallest markets. Now, some of them cannot produce or have curbed output; so, they fill prime time slots with canned product or develop low-cost alternatives, both concerning realities and fiction. Program-sharing is being applied, too: fare for different nations is produced in a single place, sharing expenses. Here, choosing the right partners and the right projects becomes essential.

Prime-time fiction programming was on the rise until the setback, against a declination of realities and entertainment. Series, miniseries, comedy and telenovelas were delivered, with regional hits such as Gipsy Heart (from ProRomancxe, distributed by Mediapro distribution), which started in its home country, then expanded to its neighbors. These reinforced a trend that had started with the success of Betty La Fea (RCN, Colombia) a ProSieben in Germany, which launched the genre in Western Europe and reignited it in central and Eastern Europe. A cascade of options became available from then on, offered by European distributors, some with weekly options, others on a daily basis.

Nowadays, fiction keeps growing in spite of the crisis. As explained earlier, crises promote the purchase of canned product -movies, series, miniseries- because they are profitable for prime time allocation, easy to insert in layouts and cause limited losses if results are not good. This, compared to the expense involved in a format that required months of effort to produce.

Concerning daily fiction, as commented by Televisa's Sahab, many countries that had stopped buying telenovelas are now purchasing them again; there are strong cases in Poland, Hungary, Greece and Turkey, all of them large countries within the region. Canned product is acquired and new production projects are being discussed at the same time. So, the challenge is to produce fiction for prime-time; if results are good, it's a competitive advantage. If the effort fails, it's an expensive setback. Finding good stories that can be produced on small budgets appears to be the best alternative, especially because in many Central end Eastern Europe territories in-house production of fiction is news to the audiences and can surpise the viewers.

A larger number of business windows is another major trend. A sizable number of pay TV operators -both terrestrial and DTH- have popped out in recent times; and Digital Terrestrial Television, with an eye put on its Western European successful developments, is being watched, too. This trend remains active despite the crisis, but it is expensive to feed; so, finding good cost/benefit ratios is another challenge for this year. There are good prospects both for fiction and realities; in this aspect, the contents industry has large room to grow during the next 5 years.

Concerning New Media, Central and Eastern Europe are good territories for new media development; Poland and the Baltic countries have technology centers that deliver hardware and software services to the entire world. Some of these players (Internet TV, mobile telephony) attend Discop, but it is also true that, during rough times, most entrepreneurs tend to focus on the fundamentals of their business, leaving aside emerging developments.

However, as Nadav Palti, of Israel-based distributor Dori Media asserts, Internet is the future. He adds that Internet will rule the business in four or five years; so, investment is needed now in order to retain a place in the business when that moment arrives. Romania-based Acasa TV is a forerunner regarding multimedia platforms: he launched Palti's Amanda O on television, Internet and mobile telephony at the same time, earlier this year.

What should you then expect from Discop 2009, this year? It will be intense, carry surprises and opportunities that may produce adjustments concerning the future. It doesn't look like a good idea to attend unprepared or hesitant towards the crisis; things may happen that will allow you to jump ahead several steps at a time. Climbing steps one by one happens -and is considered a progress- only during "normal" times. The search of alternate vendors is not an issue to dismiss: it widens the range of opportunities, sometimes towards unforeseen fields.

 

Nicolás Smirnoff