Beatrice Riesenfelder

TV Real Weekly, November 19 2008

Head of Program Sales

ORF

Despite its small size, Austria has carved out a firm niche for itself in the international content market, in large part thanks to the documentary strand Universum on the country’s public broadcaster, ORF. Co-produced with the likes of ARD, ZDF, BBC and PBS, among many others, ORF’s Universum blue-chip wildlife documentaries have picked up slots, and acclaim, worldwide. Nature Tech: How Engineers are Inspired by Nature’s Designs, for example, co-produced with Smithsonian Channel in the U.S., this year picked up an Emmy for cinematography for the episode "The Magic of Motion."

Strengthening the presence of the Universum brand globally is a key priority for Beatrice Riesenfelder, who heads up ORF’s international sales activities. The goal, she says, is to maintain a high production output, in the wake of budgetary constraints, in order to continue to feed ORF’s co-production partners and output-deal clients.

Riesenfelder is also aiming to use that documentary output to expand ORF’s business in North America, particularly with pay-TV behemoths like Discovery, and in Australia and New Zealand.

While wildlife has been a driver for ORF’s global sales business—Nature Tech, for one, has sold to more than 25 broadcasters—other factual fare has also performed well, such as the lifestyle offering Chefs Around the World. "We are expanding our food and beverage content constantly," Riesenfelder says, citing series like Musically Culinary. On the current-affairs front, meanwhile, ORF made inroads with networks it had never dealt with before with its exclusive interview with kidnapping victim Natasha Kampusch. The sale of the rights to the special "made about 1 million euros," Riesenfelder says, adding that all proceeds went to charity, through the Natasha Kampusch Foundation.

Factual is a headliner as ORF heads into the Asia TV Forum next month, inspired by the region’s strong interest in the genre. "We sell broadly to Asia; TrueVisions [in Thailand], ATV in Hong Kong, Astro and Metro in Indonesia and EBS [in Korea] are regulars of ORF programming," Riesenfelder says.

Top properties on the ATF slate include Silk Road, in which filmmaker Curt Faudon provides a look at the renowned Vienna Boys’ Choir; the holiday concert special Christmas in Vienna; and Climate Change Bug, exploring the changes to the environment in Europe.

Placing ORF content on as many platforms and in as many markets as possible is one of the things Riesenfelder most enjoys about her role. She has been with the organization for many years, getting her start at the division that handled sponsorships, product placement and other forms of special advertising for ORF content. Her job today, she says, allows her to "connect with people all over the world, speak different languages and spread a part of Austria’s culture to the world."