Event Preview: World Screen Content Trendsetter Award

September 23, 2011 World Screen
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NEW YORK: CTV’s Mike Cosentino, Channel 5’s Jeff Ford, Sky’s Sarah Wright and Televisa’s Carlos Sandoval will receive the inaugural World Screen Content Trendsetter Award, in partnership with MIPCOM, at the end of the Acquisition Super Panel: What do Buyers Want? session at MIPCOM.

The event takes place at the Grand Auditorium in the Palais on Wednesday, October 5 at 5 p.m.

It’s hard not be jealous of program buyers. Not only do they work in a thriving and exciting business that allows them to shape the viewing habits of millions, they are pampered and fêted at every turn. As Kevin Lygo, who is now the managing director of ITV Studios, told us in 2006, when he was the director of television at Channel 4 in the U.K., “I thoroughly enjoy the week in Los Angeles at the Screenings, where I am treated like some Russian billionaire arriving in a limo. They take you to the theater and about eight people greet you, ‘Are you ready to see our programming now?’ and you answer, ‘Naw, I think I’ll have another latte.’ You sit there not believing you are being paid for watching the wonderful new dramas and comedies coming up on American telly. And then you go to some gorgeous hotel poolside—that’s a tough job.”
All kidding aside, it is a tough job, and everyone in the business understands how crucial imported programs are to the health of a network. A top acquisitions executive must have the ability to predict the success of a show, and, with a dash of luck, choose a game-changing program that will shatter the previous ratings records in its time slot. This executive must also have the ability to counter­program the schedule of a competing outlet, do research to better understand the viewing habits of the viewers, and negotiate increasingly complex multiplatform agreements.

We at World Screen have long recognized the importance of these men and women and their contribution to the industry. At MIPCOM 2011 we are pleased to partner with Reed MIDEM to celebrate the achievements of four of these executives by awarding them with the Content Trendsetter Award. Each comes from a different background: one is the buyer for the most successful pay-TV operator in Europe, one acquires programs for Canada’s leading commercial network, one buys for one of Britain’s terrestrial services, and one is the acquisitions executive for four networks in Mexico. They each are well established and praised by their peers, having worked successfully in their positions for several years. Let us introduce them to you.

Mike Cosentino
Senior VP of Programming
CTV Networks, Canada

CTV is Canada’s largest private broadcaster. It offers a wide range of news, sports and entertainment programming and has been the most-watched television network in Canada for the past nine consecutive years. To maintain this leadership position, Mike Cosentino has had to secure the best American programming, including CSI, The Mentalist and Grey’s Anatomy.

For the 2011–12 season, CTV has placed its bets on Pan Am, Unforgettable and Whitney. CTV, like the other Canadian networks, broadcasts these series simultaneously—on the same day and time—as the U.S. networks. That means that when Cosentino is at the L.A. Screenings in May, viewing the pilots of the new network offerings, he has only a few hours to make his buying choices, to try to snatch up the shows he wants away from his competitors and secure them in time for their premiere in September.

A 16-year veteran of the broadcasting industry, Cosentino developed an eye for acquisitions and program scheduling while working directly under two of Canada’s pre-eminent programmers, Susanne Boyce and Ivan Fecan, from 2007 to 2011.

Over the years, he notes, “Some of my successful acquisitions have been The Voice, The X Factor, The Mentalist, Unforgettable and Smash.” He is also quite proud of the decision to strip The Big Bang Theory Monday through Friday, a strategy that has delivered a huge, and young, audience.  

Jeff Ford
Director of Programs
Channel 5, U.K.

Jeff Ford oversees three linear channels at the British commercial broadcaster and an online on-demand service. Channel 5 is a general-entertainment channel that offers American hits like the CSI franchise, NCIS, The Mentalist, documentaries, entertainment, films, the children’s block Milkshake!, Europa League Football and cricket coverage. The channel 5*, which launched as Five Life in 2006, became FIVER in 2008 and was rebranded as 5* in March of this year, attracts a younger audience with a mix of soaps, movies, entertainment, documentaries and edgier series like Californication, Burn Notice and Archer. On 5USA, the offerings include some of most popular American series, as well as drama, comedy, films, sports and youth programming. Demand 5 is a 30-day catch-up service that provides viewers online access to much of Channel 5’s prime-time schedule.

Ford has been part of Channel 5’s growth at two different periods in his career. He was there for its launch, in 1997, and helped build the channel for eight years. He then joined Channel 4 in 2005 and was responsible for buying both feature films and series for the broadcaster’s portfolio of channels: Channel 4, E4, More4 and FilmFour. During this time he acquired some of the most sought-after U.S. series, including Ugly Betty and Desperate Housewives. He returned to Channel 5 in 2009 and has shepherded its bouquet of services through the change in ownership from the RTL Group to Northern & Shell, a publisher of newspapers and magazines. He has witnessed the evolution of the television business. “When once it was a linear offer, things were simpler in terms of programming. Now, we are looking at shows that can still be relevant or entertaining through VOD months later.”  

Sarah Wright
Head of Acquisitions
BSkyB, U.K. 

Sarah Wright acquires product for a portfolio of channels that include the general-entertainment channel, Sky1, which offers mainstream family viewing with imported shows like The Simpsons, Fringe, Lie to Me, Modern Family and The Middle; the contemporary and classical arts channels Sky Arts 1 and Sky Arts 2; the British home of HBO programming, Sky Atlantic, with such series as Game of Thrones, Boardwalk Empire and Curb Your Enthusiasm; and the entertainment channel Sky Living that appeals to both men and women but is more of a female channel. It airs imported shows like Bones, Criminal Minds, Nikita and Cougar Town. This range of programming requires not only an instinct for which dramas and comedies will click with her audience, but also an understanding of theater, opera, dance, jazz, rock and classical music to satisfy the most discerning of viewers. After all, for a pay-television service, the goal is not to score a certain rating in a given time slot, the key is supplying a flow of programming that will increase customer satisfaction—and will maintain a loyal subscriber base.

“Buyers have always been on the hunt for ‘the next big thing’—it’s at the core of our job description—and editorial judgment has always been vital,” says Wright. “But now we need to be ahead of the curve with our knowledge of new technology, keeping constantly abreast of market developments, so that we can acquire the right set of programming rights to keep our customers happy.”  

Carlos Sandoval
General Manager of Content Acquisitions,
Online Video and Business Development, Televisa, Mexico

Televisa is a powerhouse, the largest media company in the Spanish-speaking world. Its businesses range from film and television production and distribution to free-TV and pay-TV channels and to professional sports and live entertainment. As big as the conglomerate has become, the heart of Televisa, and the vehicle through which it touches the lives of millions in Mexico, is its four free-TV channels. Canal de las Estrellas is the flagship channel, with telenovelas, variety shows, news and sports programs. Canal 5 mixes homegrown and international productions, children’s and youth programming and internationally acclaimed series like CSI and Law & Order. Galavisión presents novelas, wrestling, movies, series, including American hits, comedy programs and news. FOROtv focuses on news and analysis of current events and business during the week, and films on the weekend. Sandoval acquires programming for all four channels.

All buyers find themselves, at one point or another in their careers, with limited budgets, due to contractions in the advertising market or to domestic or global recessions. Sandoval has recently weathered such difficulties. “I am proud of having maintained our relationships with the Hollywood studios through several difficult years. Most of the output deals that we have in place were made before my time, but renewing them, while trying to satisfy opposing needs and navigating through six years and a world crisis, has been a challenge.”