DISCOP 2004 – Press Clips

BUSINESS BOOMS AT DISCOP TV MART AND EASTERN EUROPE GETS MORE RESPECT

BUDAPEST -- The DISCOP 2004 TV market for the former Eastern Bloc's emerging industry enjoyed its best year yet, generating enough buying and selling for its record 844 participants to bury its reputation as the poor man's Mipcom.
Mart is the first to be held after Hungary and nine of its neighbors joined the European Union on May 1, bringing them added buying power through EU funding and grants. "Part of the increased interest in Discop this year was the opening of the EU," said Coco Coppola, DISCOP public relations manager, "and the expectation that people have that they are doing business here in a new way." The changes have given the region a measure of respect it hasn't enjoyed since the days of the Soviet Union. "I think everyone is looking at Europe now as a bigger place, and taking it more seriously," said Coppola. "You have (sellers) saying, 'We really need to be there now.' "
But larger Eastern networks and territories have gained economic heft in their own right, independent of Brussels. Russian net NTV attended for the first time looking for co-production partners to make local telenovelas; and several Eastern European stations arrived with homegrown reality TV formats to sell. Many could not afford to buy expensive Western formats and so developed their own reality programming "out of necessity, and ended up being more creative than many (Western) reality producers," according to event director Patrick Jucaud, who created DISCOP and has headed each of its 12 events.
DISCOP first launched after the fall of the Berlin wall. Jucaud credits "stronger (regional) economies" and Eastern European "acquisition staffs who have become specialized and highly professional" for the 4,000 meetings and the flurry of buying and selling that took place in Budapest's Sofitel Atrium Hotel Thursday through Saturday.

John NADLER / Variety / 30 June 2004

DISCOUNT TV MARKET THRIVING IN EUROPE

BUDAPEST, Hungary -- DISCOP, central and eastern Europe's annual television market, opened Thursday in the Hungarian capital with buyers and sellers alike agreeing that attendance here was a key part of their business strategies. More than 400 buyers and 162 sellers crowded the open walkways of the Danube riverside Sofitel Atrium hotel on the first day of the market's 12th edition. Patrick Jucaud, who founded DISCOP in Warsaw in 1991 as a venue for western distributors to sell "discounted programs" -- hence the market's name -- said the strength of interest from across the world demonstrated the enduring importance of an event established in the earliest days of eastern Europe's transition from communism to the free market.

Nick HOLDSWORTH / The Hollywood Reporter / 25 June 2004

CONTENT MAKERS PHONE EASTERN EUROPE

BUDAPEST, Hungary -- Mobile telephones will reach more than 140 million subscribers in Central and Eastern Europe within a year, and content providers must be ready to take advantage of the booming market by offering new and creative services, experts at DISCOP, the annual content market for the region, said Friday. Mobile phone revenue is set to reach a global $77 billion -- with Western Europe taking $39.7 billion of that -- by 2007, according to forecasts. Chris Dziadul, editor of online weekly Broadband TV News Central & East Europe, said the region's history of old telephone systems has helped spur rapid growth in mobile take-up, and subscribers are often more open to new content and services than those in the west. "Central and Eastern Europe must be a major market" for them, Dziadul said, pointing to figures like Poland's 17.4 million mobile subscribers -- a 45% market penetration. The value of the market is evident from figures like the €1 billion ($1.2 billion) price tag put on the 51% share of Poland's mobile system that partner Deutsche Telekom is considering paying for full control, he added.

Nick HOLDSWORTH / The Hollywood Reporter / 26 June 2004

CREATIVITY CALLED BEST PIRACY CURE

BUDAPEST -- Making money with DVDs in Central and Eastern Europe, where markets are swamped with pirate products from Russia, can be done with guile and smart thinking, industry experts said Saturday at a DISCOP campus conference. Clever marketing strategies, sensible pricing policies and crafty use of digital technology can be combined to beat the pirates at their own game, an expert panel from the United States, Europe and India told participants from marketing and production companies across Europe. Tom Moore, president of Dallas-based Reel Media International, a company that sells DVD and video rights for its catalog of films and is involved in co-productions in Europe, said the bulk packaging of DVD titles in the United States to such outlets as Wal-Mart and Target had driven prices as low as 65 cents-$1 per unit -- prices at which eastern European pirate producers could never compete.

Nick HOLDSWORTH / The Hollywood Reporter / 29 June 2004

ALL3MEDIA POSTS DISCOP SALES

Post-Discop, UK distributor All3Media International has closed a number of sales to networks and distributors in Eastern Europe, including Russia, Slovenia, Croatia and Bulgaria. Russia's Central Partnership acquired Summer Rain, the feature film debut from award-winning writer/director Jonathan Glendening; Australian rom-com Go Big, from RB Films for Network Ten; RDF Television screenplay for BBC1, Ella & The Mothers; and series 7 of All3-owned Bentley Productions' Midsomer Murders. Proxima Video Bulgaria, meanwhile, took a pair of shows from All3-backed South Pacific Productions: Jackson’s Wharf (series 2) and Market Forces, as well as BBC kids challenge shows Serious Jungle and Serious Desert, and sitcom Sam’s Game. Slovenia's Pop TV, owned by Central European Media Enterprises, acquired series 1 to 6 of Midsomer Murders. Public broadcaster HRT in Croatia also took series 6, 7 and 8 of the murder mystery.

Ed Waller / 29 June 2004 / © C21 Media 2004

TODAY LITHUANIA, TOMORROW THE WORLD

DISCOP NEWS: Formats from Eastern Europe are an untapped resource poised to explode on to the international market, according to a Lithuanian format distribution company exhibiting here in Budapest. "After many years of Eastern Europe buying formats from companies in the West, local producers are now creating their own formats," Andrius Serva, md of Vilnius-based producer-distributor Intervision, told C21. "Also, licence fees for international formats are so high that local networks and producers have to think about creating their own formats," he added. "More importantly for networks, the local formats are often out-performing the imported ones."

As examples, Serva offered his own Aquarium reality show, a series in which celebs live in a glass cube, airing on Viasat's Lithuanian channel TV3: "It did better than Strix's The Farm, which filled the same slot a little later." In Croatia, he continued, Fremantle's Hrvatski Idol and local talent search format Multi-talents scored similar ratings for Nova TV. Hungarian reality format Valo Vilag on RTL Klub has also kept pace with TV2's version of Big Brother for the past three seasons, and "totally out-rated the VIP version of the Endemol format last year," he said.

His final example was in Russia, where ORT's 29-year-old weekly primetime quiz What? Where? When? easily equals the same channel's adaptation of Who Wants to be a Millionaire?

Serva's keenness to promote local formats over imported ones has led him to pick up international rights to some of the best and try and sell them into Western Europe. The slate includes Intervision's own daily fishtank format Aquarium, which scored an average 40% share for TV3 in 2002. Intervision also has What? Where? When?, produced by Igra TV; LNT Latvia's talent search format Factory; and a curious Jackass-style reality show from Bulgaria called The National Idiot League. Hosted by an Elvis impersonator, this show invites members of the public to compete for the title. It airs on Nova TV, produced by SIA Advertising.

Intervision's format slate also includes paper formats like Poltergeist, best described as 'haunted Big Brother'; plus adventure show Spy, dating format Casanova - in which a male contestant must date 100 women all at the same time - and makeover show Frog. "There are too many good ideas in Eastern Europe to keep to ourselves," added Serva. "This is Eastern Europe's time. Big companies like Endemol have huge hits but networks might see our formats as having something fresh and new." He acknowledged the drawback of only having low-budget original versions to sell the formats with, but said they were "rough diamonds".

To boost the profile of Eastern European formats internationally, Intervision has teamed up with the Discop Organisation to launch an annual awards event at next year's Discop market to celebrate the best in formats from Central and Eastern Europe. Serva's new-found love of local formats over imported ones was hard-won, however. Intervision's adaptation of Scandinavian format The Bar for TV3 in Latvia was last year trashed by Factory on rival network LNT.

Ed Waller / 25 June 2004 / © C21 Media 2004

POLISH FOCUS FOR EUROPRODUCCIONES

DISCOP NEWS: Having been turned back in Romania, Spanish production house Europroducciones is now focusing its Eastern European expansion plans on one of the region's biggest markets, Poland.

The company, which has production outposts in Spain, Portugal and Italy, is targeting Poland armed with local rights to a German challenge format Vetten Dass? "We have acquired Polish rights to the show, as well as Turkish, from ZDF," said Europroducciones head of international sales, Marco Fernandez de Araoz, from his stand here at Discop.

The company already produces local versions of the format for Rai-1 in Italy and TVE Spain, and the Polish version is aimed at commercial networks like Polsat and TVN.

"For the past year or two, it has been our plan to open up in Eastern Europe, and Poland is a much bigger market than Romania, which is actually quite closed to foreign producers," said Fernandez de Araoz. Europroducciones opened up in Bucharest last year, in partnership with local CVI, but has since quit the Balkan territory. "Romania was a bit of a disaster for us," he explained. "However, we're in Eastern Europe for the long run."

Like Columbus, Europroducciones is also looking across the Atlantic. A pilot for its reality format Una Carta Para Ti (You've Got Mail) is going through the works at Hispanic US channel Telemundo. The show, which airs in Spain on Antena3, has a random member of the public receiving a surprise package and having to work out who it's from: long-lost lover, old school friend etc.

The company's Discop slate, meanwhile, is centring on access primetime shows, such as The Duel, a half-hour Rai-2 show that is based on the schoolboy game of Battleships. Production also starts next month on the 10th Grand Prix studio challenge format for TVE Spain.

Ed Waller / 25 June 2004 / © C21 Media 2004

CENTRAL EURO NETS BAG DISNEY PACKAGES

DISCOP NEWS: Networks in Central Europe have picked up a slew of Disney and Fox Kids product, after film, factual and toon package deals with Buena Vista International.

BVITV has signed licences with Central European Media Enterprises, owner of Slovenian channels Kanal A and Pop TV, for various films, live-action series and documentaries. Films include Pearl Harbor, Remember the Titans, Bad Company and The Royal Tenenbaums.

Live-action series in the mix include Hope & Faith, reality show Extreme Makeover, plus further seasons of Scrubs, According to Jim and Alias. The CME channels have also taken some Devillier Donegan Enterprises factual titles, namely the Living Edens natural history series.

Across the border in Croatia, commercial station Nova TV has picked up movies like Pearl Harbor, Reign of Fire, Sweet Home Alabama, Pretty Woman, The Santa Clause and Flubber.

Furthermore, some 120 episodes of Fox Kids Europe animation and live-action were bagged to fill Nova's Fox Kids-branded slot, including Power Rangers: Wild Force and Power Rangers: Ninja Storm. The Nova deal went through the channel's UK-based buying arm Programs4Media.

Alison Homewood, vice president of sales EMEA, BVITV, described Croatia as "a key market within Eastern Europe", adding that "Central and Eastern Europe is currently an exciting market for us with some interesting potential for growth and new opportunities."

Ed Waller / 25 June 2004 / © C21 Media 2004

BEYOND FLIES INTO DISCOP WITH DONE DEALS

DISCOP NEWS: On the eve of the Eastern European programme market here in Budapest, Australian distributor Beyond has chalked up a number of sales to networks in Hungary.

Viasat Hungaria has licenced series 5 and 6 of Beyond's most successful series, cop drama Stingers, which is now in production on an eighth season. New Romanian action channel Action + has also licensed the first two series as well as action drama Fire (26x60’).

Other CCE networks Spektrum and Programova Spolecnost have also bagged sci-tech series Wildtech (7x60'). TVP Poland, meanwhile, has taken Beyond's thriller feature The Vector File, starring Casper Van Dien (Starship Troopers, Sleepy Hollow), and court drama telemovie Marriage Acts.

Emma Simpkins, Beyond’s vp of sales for Eastern Europe said: "Beyond is taking some fantastic programmes to Discop and these early sales indicate they will appeal to a broad range of buyers."

Ed Waller / 25 June 2004 / © C21 Media 2004

LITHUANIANS ENTER ROOM 101

DISCOP NEWS: The Hat Trick comedy interview format Room 101 is launching in the Baltics this autumn, after a deal signed here by distributor Screentime Partners.

Lithuania's Videometra is producing the show for one of the three major networks in the Baltic state, over a 42-ep run. Videometra’s director-general, Rolandas Skaisgirys described the format as "a perfect combination of a humour and talk show. We like the unpredictable twists."

Skaisgirys added that he already has a local comedian in mind to front the Lithuanian version.

"Videometra is one of the leading producers in Lithuania and have a presence in other CEE countries," said Screentime Partners' dealmaker Maria Rakhmatullina, gm of CEE & Scandinavia.

She is now hoping to use the sale into the bijoux Baltic territory as a spring board to place the format across the region: "We are confident that Room 101 will be very popular in Lithuania and will help us to expand this UK format in Central and Eastern Europe."

This will be aided by Hat Trick International's own sale of the format to Belgian public broadcaster, Canvas, which aired the first Flemish series this spring.

Ed Waller / 25 June 2004 / © C21 Media 2004

SPAIN'S CROMOSOMA LOOKS EAST

DISCOP NEWS: Exhibiting at here for the first time, Spanish toon house Cromosoma is hoping to find Eastern European homes for a pair of new animated series that start production in Spain this September.

Asha (26x26') is a coproduction between Cromosoma, TV3 Spain, TV Espana and publishing house Pontas. The series is based on a book by Hispano-Indian writer Asha Miro, about an Indian girl adopted by a Spanish family.

With only local stations TV3 and TVE onboard, the production deficit is being bourn by Cromosoma, which will take worldwide rights to Mipcom, and Pontas. Cromosoma's licensing manager Xavier Ferrer told C21 that post-Annecy copro deals with European and US partners are imminent.

September will also see Comosoma's Triplets Babies begin production, a series spun off from the company's Triplets toon on TV3. Meanwhile, dinosaur-themed toon Tom has started airing on France3 and Ki.Ka in Germany.

While Eastern Europe offers some potential for Ferrer, with no recent licences to mention in the region, he said his main focus for the next year will be further east. "India and China are high on our expansion list," he said. "These markets are opening to Western companies but for how long? We used to sell directly but soon realized that the only way to close the deals is to have local partners."

Accordingly, Cromosoma has teamed up with Indian production and distribution partner Dataquest, and Hong Kong- and US-based Pexland International. Cromosoma's direct selling effort in China has so far yeiled DVD deals for its Triplets and MagicLetters series.

Ed Waller / 24 June 2004 / © C21 Media 2004

TV CORP TAKES C4 TEST TO MARKET

DISCOP NEWS: TV Corporation International is here in Budapest shopping it latest Channel 4 commission: a science doc that examines the effects of performance enhancing drugs.

High Performance, produced by TV Corp division Mentorn in association with New Scientist magazine, is being billed as the world’s first televised experiment to find out whether anabolic steroids help athletes improve their performance while they undergo a carefully supervised training regime.

The programme was commissioned by Channel 4's head of science & education, Simon Andreae, and will be shown as a two-hour special in the run-up to the Olympics. TV Corp has also secured presales with unnamed networks in Australia, Canada and France.

"The programme is a great example of using science to address bigger issues in the real world," said Andreae. "Drugs in sport have become a huge story yet there is little understanding of their real impact on competition and the athletes themselves."

Channel 4, Mentorn and New Scientist previously worked together on C4's gruesome Equinox special about human face transplants.

Ed Waller / 24 June 2004 / © C21 Media 2004

SERBS, TURKS PREPARE FOR THE EXAM

DISCOP NEWS: London-based Screentime Partners has optioned the Norwegian interactive SMS-based quiz format Exam to production companies in Serbia and Turkey.

Limon in Turkey has picked up rights to produce 26 episodes of the show, while the Serbian producer Global Mount has signed up to produce 200 episodes of the quiz. No networks have been mention, as yet.

Screentime Partners' ceo Chris Bonney said the deals reflected a wireless telephony boom in these territories. The company has previously sold the format to Mega Channel in Greece and bTV in Bulgaria, which is amid a 195-ep run, stripped daily.

The show was originally developed by Telenor subsidiary Cee.tv in Norway for TV Norge, where it launched in 2001 and aired for two seasons. Screentime Partners represents Exam worldwide, excluding certain Western European and Latin American territories.

Ed Waller / 24 June 2004 / © C21 Media 2004

DISCOP, INTERVISION TEAM FOR IDEAS AWARDS

PARIS, June 17: DISCOP 2005, from June 23 to 25 next year, will mark the launch of the 1st Eastern European TV Ideas Awards, in conjunction with Lithuania's Intervision Television.

The event will honour the best ideas for television programming from the region. Patrick Jucaud, the founding manager of DISCOP, notes, "The television creativity in Central and Eastern Europe is fabulous, with dynamic, popular, modern and original ideas ready to travel abroad."

Andrius Serva, managing director of Intervision Television, adds, "We believe this event will encourage Eastern producers to create more fresh and original TV ideas for the whole world."
The 1st Eastern European TV Ideas Awards will take place on June 23.

17 June / World Screen News

BEYOND SCORES EASTERN EURO SALES

LONDON, June 23: In advance of DISCOP, which kicks off tomorrow in Budapest, Beyond Distribution has announced a slew of sales in Eastern Europe.

The long-running Australian drama Stingers is faring well in the region, with Viasat Hungaria taking seasons five and six and Action +, a new channel in Romania, taking on the first two seasons. Action + also acquired the 26-episode drama Fire.

On the factual end, Spektrum RT and Programova Spolecnost acquired the seven-part Wildtech. In TV movies, meanwhile, Poland's TVP One has licensed the thriller The Vector File and the courtroom drama Marriage Acts.

23 June / World Screen News

CROATIAN, SLOVENIAN DEALS FOR BVITV

BUDAPEST, June 24: At DISCOP today, Buena Vista International Television announced multi-genre licensing deals with broadcasters in Croatia and Slovenia.

In Croatia, Nova TV has acquired a range of recent and library feature films. Among them are Pearl Harbor, Pretty Woman and Sweet Home Alabama. The network has also licensed more than 120 episodes of animated and live-action programming from Fox Kids Europe, including seasons 10 and 11 of Power Rangers.

In Slovenia, Central European Media Enterprises licensed films, series and documentaries for its Pop TV and Kanal A channels. On the movie front the deal includes The Princess Diaries, Bad Company and Remember the Titans. Alias, Scrubs and According to Jim have all been renewed, and the Slovenian networks have also acquired Extreme Makeover and Hope & Faith.
The deal also covers DDE's (Devillier Donegan Enterprises) Living Edens series of natural history films.

24 June / World Screen News

ALL3MEDIA ANNOUNCES DISCOP DEALS

LONDON, June 25: All3Media has secured a range of programming deals in Eastern Europe for titles from across its catalogue.
In Russia, Central Partnership has acquired the feature film Summer Rain, the drama Go Big, the two-part BBC One drama Ella & the Mothers and season seven of Midsomer Murders. Pop TV in Slovenia opted for the first six seasons of Midsomer Murders, while Croatia's HRT took on seasons six, seven and eight.

Proxima Video Bulgaria went for two titles from South Pacific Productions–Jackson's Wharf and Market Forces–the comedy Sam's Game and the kids' shows Serious Jungle and Serious Desert.

25 June / World Screen News

DISCOP PANEL EXPLORES FUTURE OF NOVELAS IN EASTERN EUROPE

BUDAPEST, June 23: At DISCOP tomorrow, executives from several Latin American distribution companies are scheduled to take part in a roundtable discussion, moderated by Anna Carugati, the editor of World Screen News, on the future of telenovelas in Central and Eastern Europe.

The discussion, presented by DISCOP, World Screen News and TV Latina, will feature: Marcel Vinay Jr., the director general and CEO of Comarex; Silvana D'Angelo, the head of international sales and marketing for international programming distribution at Telefe; Jose Escalante, the VP and general manager of Coral International; Silvia Curutchet, the sales manager at Ledafilms; Melissa Pillow, the sales manager for Eastern Europe at Tepuy International; Helena Bernardi, the director of marketing and sales at Globo TV International; Claudia Sahab, the director of sales for Europe at Televisa; and Maria Lucia Hernandez, the head of international sales at RCN.

Anna Carugati, the editor of World Screen News, will moderate the panel. It takes place during DISCOP's Telenovelas Day tomorrow (June 24) at 6 p.m.

23 June / World Screen News