Studio 100 Media’s Patrick Elmendorff

Patrick Elmendorff, the CEO of Studio 100 Media, offers TV Kids an update on the latest developments at the company.

With the announcement earlier this year of its alliance with beIN Media Group to launch a kids’ channel in the Middle East and North Africa, Studio 100 Media continues to find new ways to exploit and expand its extensive catalogue of animated and live-action properties.

TV KIDS: How has the emergence of new digital platforms for kids’ content impacted your distribution business?
ELMENDORFF: It’s all about windowing. You need to understand your local markets better than before, because the windowing is different in every country. It’s important to have a clear understanding of what is possible. On one side you need to be able to service the needs of your traditional partners. Most of our co-productions are financed via broadcasters. On the nonlinear side, it’s exciting to work with global players like Netflix or Amazon and with other VOD platforms on a territory-by-territory level. I find it especially interesting that they are producing content exclusively for their own platforms.

TV KIDS: You recently partnered with beIN to launch a co-branded kids’ channel in the Middle East and North Africa. How did that deal come about?
ELMENDORFF: We were approached by beIN. Their setup is amazing on the sports side. They asked us if we’d be interested in making a kids’ channel for them, similar to the channel we have in Germany [Junior, available on Sky Deutschland]. We were thrilled by the idea. It’s a very exciting deal for us. They are great partners.

TV KIDS: How is your live-action slate doing?
ELMENDORFF: Our Belgian parent company has the largest live-action studio within the Benelux. We did House of Anubis and a number of other properties that were very successful, including Hotel 13. We have a very interesting lineup. We can offer people the existing dubbed version, and we’re talking to partners about the possibility of doing format deals.

TV KIDS: What are some of the new animated properties you’re most excited about?
ELMENDORFF: We’re very excited about Nils Holgersson. There was an animated series [inspired by the book-based brand] co-produced by Nippon Animation and ZDF in the 1970s. We were approached by Bayerischer Rundfunk, one of the big regional broadcasters in Germany, who was interested in doing a new version of Nils for themselves and for KiKA. It’s based on a well-known novel from Selma Lagerlöf, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature. We completely changed the concept. We did a version where it’s not an ongoing story—every episode is closed within itself. We changed the character and we introduced new characters. It has become a very cool action comedy and we see the responses we’re getting are very positive. The presales are also very positive.

The next thing we have is Arthur and the Minimoys, which we’re producing with Luc Besson. He wrote the books that sold successfully and there were three movies that did very well on an international scale. It’s a great brand. And being able to team up with them [Besson and his team at EuropaCorp Television] and create a series is very exciting. We’re very enthusiastic about this project.

TV KIDS: A lot of the shows we’ve discussed are based on existing properties. How difficult is it to introduce a new, unknown brand in the market today?
ELMENDORFF: There is a lot of content on the market, so there’s a lot of competition in the market. We’ve always had more of a brand focus rather than a project focus. You can see it with Maya the Bee. We’re doing a second season of 52 episodes. We had a very successful feature film for Maya the Bee, which we sold into 160 territories. We will now produce two more movies for Maya. We’ve always believed that to keep a brand interesting, you have to continually invest in the content. Everything is content driven. Kids buy merchandising and licensing products because they’re fans of the brand. It’s not that they buy something and then become fans of the brand. Everything starts with great content.

We try to find completely new things. On the live-action side we have a number of new projects—Night Watch and Kosmoo are shows we created ourselves from scratch. In general it is easier to work with a brand that is already established than to create something from scratch. But both have their ups and downs.

TV KIDS: You mentioned the Maya movies. Are you replicating that strategy with other shows, expanding the brand with theatrical releases?
ELMENDORFF: Definitely, yes. With Maya, we sold the series in over 170 territories. In certain territories it wasn’t so well known by the kids, but it was definitely known by the parents and grandparents. There is also the aspect of family viewing. I personally find this two- or three-generation phenomenon quite exciting. The parents or grandparents can sit together with their kids to watch these properties, and there’s an emotional connection. We established Maya in many territories and after that it was a lot easier to work on the theatrical side because it was so present in the minds of families. That is a concept that works very well for us.

TV KIDS: What are some of your other upcoming highlights?
ELMENDORFF: As you know we have a studio in Australia and a studio in France. We have Nils Holgersson, The Wild Adventures of Blinky Bill, Arthur and the Minimoys, and a second season of Maya the Bee. We’re going to do Vic the Viking as a movie and Heidi as a movie. We intend to do a movie every year till 2020. We have, quality and quantity wise, a nice pipeline that we can offer. We’re a vertically and horizontally integrated media company. We are a content company and then we do TV, theatrical, home entertainment, merchandising and licensing. We have our channel on Sky Germany and now on beIN, and we do stage shows. In Germany and Switzerland we’re going to introduce Vic the Viking as a stage show for kids at the end of the year. Outside of the Benelux, stage shows are a new area for us. We have a theme-park business that is doing very well. I believe we have really covered this 360-degree approach. We want to create and build up great brands.