Avi Armoza

In just six years, Armoza Formats, an independent boutique company, has become an important player in the formats business, making deals with such major television outlets as the BBC, RTL in Germany and HBO. Avi Armoza, the company’s CEO and one of Israel’s leading film and television producers, talks to TV Formats Weekly about the importance of fostering creativity and finding new ways of telling stories—two sure-fire ways of keeping formats fresh and appealing to broadcasters.

TV FORMATS: Are you seeing any trends in the formats business? For example, are game shows more popular than reality or factual entertainment? Or if you have a good format it doesn’t matter what the genre is?
ARMOZA: The genre does not matter. What matters is the ongoing search for creativity, for a new approach to storytelling in television content. Over the past few years, there has been a general feeling that we keep seeing more of the same. Programmers are looking for fresh content, but there is always a conflict between the willingness to take a risk and put a new format on the air, or to play it safe and adapt an existing show. Now we are starting to see a braver and more experimental market. TV networks are willing to take more risks and take a chance on something new because the feeling is that we have danced, sung and acted, we have been closed up in one house, so we need to find new forms of entertainment.

TV FORMATS: What success has your company had in finding new and fresh ideas?
ARMOZA: Most of the shows we launched in 2010, and even the ones we have in development now, are shows that have a strong cross-platform element. But the way we see it is that the cross-platform element is not just technology, it’s also a cultural revolution for media because of the ubiquity of the Internet. Social networks have created a new language and we are investing a lot to bring this new language into prime-time television. One of our shows, for example, that has been very successful for us is called Connected. It has been described as a new type of reality show because it gives real people the ability to document their lives. Many people who have seen it say it demonstrates a new way of storytelling in documentary and factual entertainment, which is much more about putting together a puzzle of one’s life or several lives through a new language that exists because of social networks and the Internet.

TV FORMATS: And Connected has been very successful for you, hasn’t it?
ARMOZA: Yes, it’s been optioned in 16 different territories and it’s already in the process of development and production in six territories. The strong response we’ve seen from our clients gives us the definite impression that we are moving in the right direction.

TV FORMATS: What other formats are performing well for you?
ARMOZA: We have been coming up with new ideas, such as our cross-platform game show 7-Question Millionaire, and a new type of reality show called The Frame. At the same time we have our solid brands that are continuing to do well, like The Bubble, which was picked up by the BBC, or Comedians at Work, which recently started airing on RTL in Germany. So we work on two fronts: we bring fresh formats to the market, and we support our existing brands and their success around the world.

We also had a very good year with scripted shows like The Naked Truth and Loving Anna. The Naked Truth was commissioned for development by HBO with showrunner Clyde Philips (Dexter). When I speak about creativity, the way to prove it is also in scripted shows, where the level of writing is the key creative factor.  We have developed strong, original scripted formats in the last year and we’ve seen the results.

TV FORMATS: Armoza Formats is a specialized boutique company. How has this worked to your advantage?
ARMOZA: We are both small and independent. The fact that we are not a huge conglomerate with production companies in all territories means that we are able to be flexible and can work with the right production companies in each territory. We think that this is an advantage. Also, as a boutique company, we pick up very few formats to launch every year. We don’t go for quantity. Instead, we are able to give our formats all the attention and creative and marketing support they need. Those are two factors that have worked very well for us.

TV FORMATS: What can buyers expect from Armoza Formats?
ARMOZA: Because we pick up only a few formats every year, all of them are fully developed and thus we have the ability to offer broadcasters full creative support in order to make the shows a success in their countries. For example, in the last few months we had four different groups who came to Israel to see the on-site production of Connected. This goes along with the targeted visits we make to clients in various territories. I think the know-how element is very important to the success of the show. Sometimes when you see a television show you say, Ok what’s the big deal? You get some people and you give them a camera. But at the end of the day, besides the idea itself there is also the production know-how and the specialized expertise of making the show happen and making it happen successfully. This is the kind of support that we are giving to our clients.

TV FORMATS: Are there any new formats you would like to mention?
ARMOZA: We are taking advantage of our presence at NATPE to do a soft launch for a new show that we will premiere in a big way at MIPTV. We have a prime-time game show called Still Standing, which we believe in quite strongly. It combines a very fast-paced trivia game show that takes place in a studio with some physical elements that elevate the level of entertainment.