Q&A: FremantleMedia Enterprises’ Jeff Tahler

The travel slate has been a key facet of FremantleMedia Enterprises’ (FME) catalogue, which contains high-quality programming from across all genres—drama, comedy, factual, entertainment, lifestyle and popular culture. In 2008, the company struck a deal with Travel Channel that brought to its portfolio all of the network’s original programming. FME gained access to more than 200 hours of top-tier programming from the U.S. Travel Channel as well as a first-look at new productions for possible co-financing for international distribution. This added globally recognized, talent-led titles such as Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern, Samantha Brown Passport to China and Best Places to Find Cash and Treasures with Kirsten Gumm to the FME fold. Jeff Tahler, the senior VP of acquisitions and development at FME, talks to TV Real Weekly about the appeal of the Travel Channel programming and what trends there are currently in the travel genre. 

TV REAL: Tell me about FME’s partnership with Travel Channel.
TAHLER: Our relationship with Travel Channel has been great. We’re going into our third year now. Their programming has been a really great addition to the Fremantle family. We’ve been able to get them visible as a content provider—not just on an individual show basis, but on a channel basis—to get the world to understand what Travel Channel U.S. is providing as content. It’s been quite a successful journey and one that we hope continues for a long time.

TV REAL: What have been some of the trends you’ve seen within the genre of travel programming?
TAHLER: It’s interesting because the travel genre is always evolving. It’s gone from the typical stand-up host type of show, where it’s more of a travelogue, to these personalities that have taken form. There’s no more successful one than No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain. He’s such a strong personality. He’s a guy you want to travel with. He’s a guy you want leading your journey. Viewers take a very active role, and that’s where you want to be. That’s where these types of programs are going, having a more active participant leading your charge. Travel Channel calls it the "Impassioned Insider." It lends real credibility to the genre, and it’s not just for people who are looking for the next great vacation, it’s for people who want to be taken into worlds that they wouldn’t otherwise be invited into or be included in. That’s the real key to a successful travel program.

There’s also Andrew Zimmern with Bizarre Foods. Again, he’s a really interesting personality in that way.

We’ve been able to market and build brands around these high-energy personalities that people gravitate toward. And that’s the trend that we see really working. It’s quite different than the stand-up host, where it used to be. It’s more of an adventure now. I think that’s what people are craving. You can get a lot of that stand-up-hosted type of information from the web now. You can do that research yourself, whereas five or ten years ago the information wasn’t as readily available. Now it exists, you can go online and go to the hotel’s website or a tourism website, you can get the information from there—that’s why the day of the normal stand-up host has come and gone and this is the real future. Now you’re viewing your travel programming for entertainment—information, sure, but more entertainment.

TV REAL: How important is it for the hosts of these shows to have an international appeal?
TAHLER: The great thing about the personalities that we have is that while a number of them are Americans, and some are British, they are cosmopolitan and they are international in their own way. They may be American, but their travel is global. As a viewer, both domestically and internationally, that’s what people are looking for. They’re looking for people with that thirst to go outside their borders. I think that that’s part of the wish fulfillment of a viewer, saying, I wish I could do that or I’m going to do that after I’ve seen this. It travels really well.

Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations has sold in over 50 countries, Bizarre Foods is in over 40 countries and Ghost Adventures, which is a different type of show but again an immersive experience for the viewers, is in over 30 countries. You’re talking about real global television shows here.

The production values have really skyrocketed with these types of shows. The visuals, combined with the hosts’ comments, suck you in for an amazing experience.

TV REAL: Is it mostly the more niche, pay-TV channels that are picking up travel shows?
TAHLER: It’s a mix. We do sell to lifestyle channels, but we’ve actually been able to elevate some toward terrestrial television platforms. We’re feeding some great lifestyle channels in a lot of territories, absolutely. The idea is to try and expand these out. Because of our reputation in the business and our ability to not only produce, but to acquire and work with top-flight content creators, we are in a unique position to help elevate some of these to bigger platforms.

TV REAL: Have inflight deals been a key part of your sales strategy?
TAHLER: We do a good amount of work on the inflight side. I make our inflight sales team very happy by giving them this programming because it’s a natural fit. It fits really well both domestically and internationally. When you fly, more and more airlines are offering up more sophisticated programming opportunities on their flights. Whether it’s flying with the Travel Channel actually just streaming on the satellite or if it’s a programmed piece that the airline buys, it just seems natural. You’ve got a captive audience, whether they’re traveling for business or pleasure.

TV REAL: What do you see as the next phase of evolution for the genre?
TAHLER: Whether it continues in the food-travel genre, whether it goes more toward adventure-travel, I think it’s really going to be personality-based. It’s tough to say, This is the next great trend, but you really look at it more as, This is the next great personality—the one that’s going to engage, the one that you want to go on the journey with. That’s the most important thing. When you start looking at it from, OK it’s been food for a while and now it’s going to be sports, you paint yourself into a corner because if you come across that next great piece of talent that people are going to respond to, you don’t want to necessarily push them away because it doesn’t fit in what your view of the future of the genre is going to be.

This doesn’t just apply to the travel genre; it’s all genres. As a viewer, it’s about who you want to take that journey with. On that journey, you’re going to want to go with a guy like Anthony Bourdain or Andrew Zimmern. Somebody who captivates you, makes you laugh, makes you think and you want to spend 45 minutes to an hour with on a weekly basis on their adventure. Who do you want to lead you around the world in their own special way?

The travel business goes in its ups and downs as the economy does, but I think a good amount of people want to see what experiences are out there and where they could possibly go and how they could do it. If you look at it, it’s just continuing to mine the field for great talent who you want to go on these adventures with.