Armando Nuñez Jr.

October 2008

With several popular shows, including Dexter, Californication and NCIS, generating considerable demand among international broadcasters, not to mention the mega-hit CSI franchise, CBS Paramount International Television’s president, Armando Nuñez Jr., is quite bullish about worldwide distribution opportunities.

WS: The CBS Paramount catalogue has grown over the last couple of years. You have added Showtime’s programming.

NUÑEZ: Showtime had its own international distribution unit and a decision was made to consolidate that function into our group. And with the good timing of the very high-profile shows Dexter and Californication, we’ve had a significant amount of success distributing the Showtime content globally. And through the sale of Alliance Atlantis, we formally took over official responsibility for distribution of CSI in January 2008. It’s a very important franchise for us and we’re thrilled to have it as part of our portfolio.

Then on top of that, CBS Films [is moving forward], and that’s the one genre we weren’t in as a result of the split between Viacom and CBS. But in the last couple of years we have been building that unit up and they have announced their first projects. One is called Crowley and it’s going to star Harrison Ford. The plan is for four to six movies a year with budgets of up to $50 million.

We are looking at where there might be channel opportunities around the world. Again, as a result of the Viacom split, most of the channel assets stayed with Viacom, but not all, because some have remained on our side, like TV1 and SCI FI in Australia. We’ve got some of the biggest and best brands in the entertainment industry and we’re looking at what opportunities there might be for us on the specialty channel side.

WS: The L.A. Screenings were different this year because of the impact of the writers’ strike.

NUÑEZ: The L.A. Screenings were very unique because of the strike, but we put our best foot forward. And we were probably in a better position than most of the other studios, in that we had probably more content to show. When you go out with a show like 90210—that is obviously something very significant.

But our job is to constantly manage and maintain the brands that have been established and look to create new brands around the world. And whether it’s 90210 or some other new shows that we had at the Screenings, that is our next task at hand.

WS: Tell us about some of your more popular brands.

NUÑEZ: CSI continues to be incredibly popular around the world; it shows no signs of slowing down. But it’s not just CSI. Look at NCIS—people don’t talk very much about NCIS, but it’s a very significant ratings performer around the world. It’s one of the top-rated shows on Five in the U.K., in addition to CSI. It’s one of the top shows on M6 in France, on Network Ten in Australia and on ProSieben in Germany.

We certainly talk a lot about the CSI brand, but we have a number of brands in the prime-time category, and then there are Oprah and Dr. Phil that are very strong brands in the daytime category. And if you look at the success of Survivor and at the success we’ve had in formatting America’s Next Top Model, [with] 15 local versions [in production], whether it’s China’s or Australia’s or Britain’s Next Top Model, we worked hard to establish those brands, but more importantly, to establish those brands in a way that is complementary to the U.S. brand. So we are not cannibalizing it. There is a lot of talk of establishing brands, but a lot of that first and foremost depends on the success in the U.S.

WS: Do platforms like IPTV, mobile phones or VOD represent growing parts of your business?

NUÑEZ: Of course they are growing. There are many more pipes out there that need content. Have the models been worked out? Are they significant revenue generators at this point? No, they are not. Are we spending a lot of time trying to figure out how to best exploit our content on these new distribution pipes? Absolutely. We are optimistic that there are going to be some viable revenue models via these new distribution platforms, and most importantly, that we are able to do it in a manner that is complementary to our traditional business. To cannibalize the traditional piece, particularly at a time when international demand for our content is thriving, might be counterproductive. So most importantly we have to find a way that is complementary. When you talk about establishing brands, we need to work together with partner broadcasters so that they establish these brands for us locally. There is no subsequent value to that content if the brand hasn’t been established locally by the big broadcasters.