Dori Media Group

Nadav Palti
President & CEO

What have been some of Dori’s top-selling titles in Asia?

Dori Media Group has a varied catalogue, containing over 4,450 TV hours. We are very happy to bring it to ATF 2009 and present to buyers from all over Asia our newest productions such as Ciega a Citas (Date Blind), Mia: Mi Amiga Invisible (Mia: My Invisible Friend), Split, Money Time and uMan. We are certain that all these titles will be well received, as some of our top selling productions in the continent – Lalola, Sos Mi Vida (You are the One), Amanda O, Juanita El Soltera (Juanita is Single), The Champion, Patito Feo (Ugly Duckling), Collar De Esmerlads (The Emerald Necklace) and Rebelde Way (The Rebels) among others.

Lalola was among the first titles that enabled Dori Media Distribution to deepen its penetration in Asia, as it was sold to the Philippines, Vietnam and recently to China. Lalola was sold to more than 70 countries in total since its launch on August 2007.

What are your top properties for ATF (You can list up to 5)?

Ciega a Citas (Date Blind) is a unique product, as it is inspired by the original and successful Lucía Gonzale´s Blognovela. It is the first blog in Spanish and one of the first in the world to be adapted for television. It became a huge success on the web achieving two and a half million views and eighty thousand comments in only 9 months (November 2007 to June 2008). Ciega a Citas is a coproduction of Dori Media Contenidos and Rosstoc based on the original story of Lucia, written by Carolina Aguirre.

Single and somewhat unattractive, Lucía overhears her mother make a bet with her younger sister she won’t be able to bring a real boyfriend to the sister’s wedding. Lucía sets out to find a genuine, loving boyfriend, knowing all too well she has only 258 days at her disposal until her sister’s wedding day.

We consider Ciega a Citas to be a "New-vela" as it contain all the basic elements of the traditional telenovelas but with an edge – its storyline is more updated and unique; its pace is faster; and the way it is shot and edited is innovative.

In Money Time, a long term friendship leads two successful football players to join forces and form a winning football team, but a dark secret is about to turn the two into arch enemies.

Mia: Mi Amiga Invisible (Mia: My Invisible Friend) sttaring Brenda Asnicar, Pepe Soriano and Juan Darthes. Mia is an invisible friend, who magically transforms into a teenager so she can save a little girl from losing all hope. While fighting evil forces in order to accomplish her mission, Mia will also find the love of her life.

One of the most interesting formats is uMan. ’uMan’ was launched in July 2009, broadcasting 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. ’uMan’ is a unique and innovative 24/7 cross-platform control game, based on an idea developed by Dori New Media and produced by Dori Media Darset with Cellcom, for cell phones, internet and TV. Eight contestants enter a "Lab" for 21 days during which their every move is controlled by viewers and they have to score life-points to win. The viewers’ control is constant and relates to how they live, what they eat, what they wear and who they sleep with.

We can also name Split as a product with great potential. Split deals with one of the most popular trends in the world – vampires. It tells the story of Ella, a 15-year-old girl who always felt different, but never really understood why. When she discovers that she is a part of a magical world, she is drawn into the age-old conflict between vampires and humans. This shocking revelation will force her to choose between her love for Omer, her human friend, and Leo the vampire.

Other than that we have Champs 12, which was sold to 19 countries in 5 months and Amanda O which was sold to 23 countries in 9 months.

Why will these appeal to buyers in Asia?

Dori Media is staying "fresh" by offering its clients innovative formats and canned versions with an international appeal. As a rule, Dori Media tries to produce a variety of products, so that buyers from all over the world can find the perfect product suiting their needs. This is a big advantage of Dori Media that we produce for the international market and not to a specific local channel. Our productions are characterized by storylines that break boundaries, international-looking cast, unique editing and advanced shooting techniques.

In the past years Dori Media managed to enlarge its catalogue so it is now contains a varied combination of themes in the Telenovela and daily dramas field. Within that scope we have classical stories, romantic comedies and youth oriented titles. Dori Media Group’s catalogue has it all – Ciega a Citas as a romantic comedy; Split, Mia and Champs 12 for younger audiences; uMan as a desirable 24/7 format, addressing teenagers; Money Time and Lalola for general audiences etc.

What are some of the trends you are seeing in Asia Pacific?

One of the major trends worldwide is in the New Media area. Dori Media recognized this potential long ago and by the end of 2008 we launched the first cross platform telenovela – Amanda O.  Amanda O was developed as a multi platform program with 19×45’ TV episodes, 120×7’ internet episodes and hundreds of mobile episodes. As a result of its originality, Amanda O was sold to 23 countries in 9 months.

From one production to another, we constantly strive to create innovative and top of the line products. In 2009 we produced "uMan", a cross platform reality control game that became an instant success, as more than 7 million viewer votes have been cast on-line in 21 days. During this period, 700,000 unique users (out of a total population of 7 million) have visited the site, many of whom visited more than once a day and spent 12 minutes on the average in the site. The game was aired live 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

’uMan’ has won 3 Accolade Awards: an Award of Excellence for reality programming; an Award of Merit for creativity / originality and another Award of Merit for viewer impact and entertainment value.

Both uMan and Amanda O were strategically developed as internet and mobile telephony content. The objective is to maximize revenues to Telco’s, IPTV carriers and broadcasters by having a product which heavily relies in voter participation – as is the case of uMan.

Are you focusing on novelas, or other types of titles from your catalogue?

Dori Media catalogue contains best telenovelas for all ages, classic and modern stories as Ciega a Citas (Date Blind), but also teen daily dramas such as Split, dramas for children and family audiences such as La Maga (The Wizardess), cross platform titles produced exclusively for internet and cellular such as Amanda O and entertainment programs such as uMan, a new reality control game.  

What kinds of novelas are in demand in Asia?

Contemporary romantic comedies are the preferred genre throughout Asia; it has been the case during the past two years when our title LALOLA became an instant hit with buyers from India, Vietnam, Malaysia, Philippines, Cambodia and China among others. Laughter is truly universal; therefore this is the preferred genre for programmers and audiences alike. We have the same high expectations for our new program CIEGA A CITAS (DATE BLIND), which we are sure, will surprise and entertain our clients in Asia just like it did with our European clients in the recent Mipcom market.

— What are your overall expectations for the ATF?
In ATF 2009 we are ready to make a big entry just like we did a year ago in the same market. Our clients’ expectations are high and we are diligently working to bring them the best products of the industry. We are looking forward to this market as it will be another opportunity to bring Dori Media to TV’s biggest stage. Other than our international sales team, which will present DMG’s varied catalogue containing telenovelas and daily dramas, Dori Media will also send to ATF representatives that will introduce DMG’s dedicated channels (either telenovelas or others such as Ginx)  and representatives who specialize in developing formats for internet and cellular.