Claude de Saint Vincent

April 2008

With a catalogue of more than 1,500 hours of content, including classics such as Tintin, Mediatoon has become home to one of the largest animation libraries in Europe. The company is a division of the French media powerhouse Média-Participations, which owns a number of animation studios, including Ellips-anime, Dargaud Media, Dupuis Audiovisuel and Storimages. The publishing division accounts for the bulk of Média-Participations’ business, with its strong heritage in comics and children’s books through Dargaud and Dupuis, among other outlets. The company is also active in the home-entertainment market via Citel. As the CEO of Média-Participations, Claude de Saint Vincent is driving all of these businesses.

TV KIDS: The company is involved in so many areas. What are the main components of the business?

DE SAINT VINCENT: Our group turnover is over €300 million, of which 25 percent is press [magazines], and 60 percent is publishing. That leaves 15 percent for audiovisual—both production and video.

TV KIDS: How do each of your animation companies function under the Média-Participations umbrella?

DE SAINT VINCENT: They each have different editorial policies. They have their own shows, their own catalogues, their own know-how, and they have different ties and relationships with the broadcasters. Some of them are used to working with one broadcaster, others have a good partnership with another; they know perfectly what [each of the channels] need. Producing is still a very personal and creative job. Some projects will not be suitable to a producer. We feel that it is very important to have different studios or producers with their own personalities to carry different projects.

TV KIDS: Are there any opportunities for the various companies to work together?

DE SAINT VINCENT: What they definitely share is their international distribution, with Mediatoon, headed by Marie-Pierre Moulinjeune. As far as producing, creating, writing, animating, they all work separately. They also can sometimes share technical tools and studios.

TV KIDS: What are the strengths of the Mediatoon catalogue?

DE SAINT VINCENT: It’s probably the richest European catalogue. There are all kind of shows: preschool and programs for older kids. All formats, from short toons, less than one minute, to long, feature animated movies. International characters and more European programs. Adaptations from books and graphic novels and original creations. There are obviously a lot of 2-D shows, but we have more and more 3-D and CGI shows. We have European programs but also Japanese animation and very soon an American character with The Garfield Show. We have long-term stars that have been known for years, like Tintin and Babar, and very new characters. Thanks to the originality of each catalogue from each producer, Mediatoon is able to bring to the market a very wide choice and array of shows.

TV KIDS: Are you looking at expanding the group, through acquisitions of other producers or catalogues?

DE SAINT VINCENT: Mediatoon is distributing not only the in-house shows, but we also have a few producers that we do represent. Such as PMMP and Bayard, a very well-known publisher, which produced a few shows that we are distributing. As far as enlarging the group, I would say that it is a matter of opportunities. Right now there are not that many producers available. We’re always looking to enlarge our catalogue [through third-party acquisitions].

TV KIDS: A number of your successful animated series have been based on comics from within your library. What characteristics do you look for in books or graphic novels to determine if they can be successfully translated to the screen?

DE SAINT VINCENT: When you have a graphic novel or a youth book which has been successful for years, and sometimes for over 50 years, it means that the character itself, its universe, the relationships between the different characters, are working and have done so for several generations. This probably means that it can be adapted. If it has been working for two generations, the concept is solid. But once you have a good universe, a good character and a solid concept, you still have to make a good show. We always need to have a producer who wants to adapt such a book by conviction, not by obligation.

TV KIDS: Why do you think properties like Tintin have endured for so many years?

DE SAINT VINCENT: A character becomes a star when it can survive one generation. Look at Peanuts, Mickey Mouse, Batman; when you can survive for more than 25 years, then the parents will try to show their kids what they liked when they were that age. And then you create a link between generations and a kind of community that gives you eternity (kind of). But nothing is possible without the magic of the original creation.

TV KIDS: What are you doing to exploit new-media opportunities?

DE SAINT VINCENT: For all our activities, meaning the press, the book publishing and animation production, new technologies have become both a challenge and a new frontier. All audiovisual products exist on the Internet for free. Pirates are everywhere. Graphic novels like Tintin, Asterix, Lucky Luke, which are huge stars in Europe, can be read on the Internet if you know where to look. The fact is that we have to first build a way to make this availability profitable for the producers—whether it is book content or television content. And second, we have to find new ways of producing, new ways of writing that are more adapted to the Internet. The problem we all face is that right now, the Internet is the Wild West, where everything can be found for free; there is no real business model. For the sake of the creation we just need some time for the sheriffs to [bring order to the market].

TV KIDS: How important is the licensing-and-merchandising business for you?

DE SAINT VINCENT: We’ve been selling rights and thinking in terms of consumer products for a long time. Whenever we produce a new series, we always try to build a consumer-products program, but we don’t rely on it for financing a production. Ten years ago, 20 years ago, everyone was looking at the same shows; it was easier to build a major character and build a consumer-products program. Now there are so many shows, so many ways of seeing them—Internet, video games, television. Obviously, every character is more diluted than it was 20 years ago. And in addition, everything has become a character. Coca-Cola, NBA; any brand can be licensed. So we’re not only facing all the children’s characters, we’re competing with all brands. The market is more difficult than it was.

TV KIDS: What are your goals for the company this year?

DE SAINT VINCENT: Facing the Internet challenge is definitely where we’re putting an emphasis for the next few years. You [can no longer] build a large success by remaining only in one media.