Endemol’s Tom Toumazis and Cathy Payne

This interview originally appeared in the MIPTV 2010 issue of World Screen.

 

For years, Endemol has been known primarily for its expertise in the format business. But after acquiring Southern Star International at the beginning of 2009, and a number of other specialist producers more recently, Endemol is becoming a major player in scripted programming as well. Tom Toumazis, the chief commercial officer at Endemol, and Cathy Payne, the CEO of Endemol Worldwide Distribution, talk about the breadth of their company’s finished product.

 

WS: What has been the strategy for broadening Endemol’s distribution business?

TOUMAZIS: When [Endemol CEO] Ynon Kreiz joined, in May 2008, one of the early areas he felt we could build on was that of program distribution. For a company of our scale and local footprint, Ynon felt that we are better placed than many of our competitors to develop this exciting and growing part of our business. A key step in this direction was the acquisition of Southern Star International, and that gave us 14,000 hours of English-language finished programming and the number-one producer of scripted-entertainment programming in Australia.

 

We brought together Endemol’s and Southern Star’s distribution businesses under a new company called Endemol Worldwide Distribution, and it has been going from strength to strength ever since. We have a strong slate of Endemol shows coming through, and we are looking to acquire third-party product as well.

 

WS: The recent acquisitions of Tiger Aspect and Darlow Smithson fit into that strategy, right?

TOUMAZIS: Absolutely. Everything that Darlow Smithson, Tiger Aspect and Tigress do is high quality. To be in the U.K. scripted and factual-entertainment business at this level gives us another distribution opportunity. Darlow Smithson is making an anniversary piece on Concorde and they’ve got a factual documentary about the Air France flight 447 air crash. They also have a program on the averted Christmas Day bombing of the flight to Detroit. These are just a few examples.

 

We also announced a joint venture in Russia called WeiT Media, which will focus on drama production and is led by Timur Weinstein, one of Russia’s most successful producers. This follows the launch of Wiedemann & Berg Television, our joint venture with Quirin Berg and Max Wiedemann, the producers behind the Academy Award-winning film The Lives of Others.

 

WS: What brought about your large slate for MIPTV?

PAYNE: This is a result of the integration of the Southern Star and Endemol distribution operations and the product that is flowing through from new companies that have joined the Endemol Group, such as British producers Tiger Aspect, Darlow Smithson and Tigress. In the U.S., for example, people will recognize Endemol USA as the producer of network shows such as Wipeout or Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, but they will not necessarily know that within the Endemol USA group of companies are 51 Minds Entertainment, True Entertainment and Original Media, all of which are providing product through to distribution. When you combine that with the third-party business that traditionally Southern Star had fostered, it is a large, healthy slate.

 

Now that we are big we have to focus on where our strengths lie. We are a large distributor, so our focus will be broad-audience genres. However, as a producer working in so many countries, we will also need to cater effectively for our non-English-language catalogue and product that falls into niche genres. We are slowly getting more of a discipline around that, but it is true to say right now there is product coming from everywhere all the time!

 

WS: What are you hearing from buyers? Are they more willing to spend?

PAYNE: It’s definitely improved, and you can look around and see that ad revenues are improving in a lot of territories, some faster than others. There are a lot of markets, like Australia, that never actually went into technical recession. What happened is when people start to lose confidence it does have this build-on effect, but now revenues are back and people are much more confident. We still have problems in markets like the U.K. on free-to-air television, but the U.K. also has one of the richest secondary markets in the world, and it helps offset that. America has remained strong in the cable area. In 2009 we saw a number of digital platforms and new channels that were delayed because of the economic crisis, but now operators are definitely moving ahead and pushing those forward. So there have been quite a few channels launching in a number of markets, and when channels start they always have a big need for product, in particular in their early start-up cycle.        

 

WS: Tell us about some of the big formats Endemol is working on.

TOUMAZIS: One of the things we think is giving us a competitive advantage is the production-hub approach and the work we’ve done in Buenos Aires with Endemol Argentina to produce a number of very exciting shows. We did that first with Wipeout, where we’ve made 23 versions from the same set. Most recently, Wipeout launched in Russia on Channel 1, and the original broadcast delivered a 25 share and a 16 rating.

 

These production hubs allow us to invest heavily in the show’s infrastructure and deliver high-quality programming that you wouldn’t otherwise be able to replicate country by country. We’ve proven that with Wipeout, and we are now bringing two other shows to the market. One is 101 Ways to Leave a Gameshow, which was co-developed by Endemol USA and U.K., and we’re also presenting XXS at MIPTV, which is an Endemol Argentina property.

 

WS: The production model in Argentina is unique.

TOUMAZIS: It is the kind of approach that creates strong television at more affordable prices around the world. We can put more on the screen than we would be able to if we built the same set in each country, and many broadcasters just wouldn’t be able to do it. We put significant capital investment into these two shows because they are huge sets. I can tell you that for 101 Ways we constructed a building that allows us to shoot the game show on three different floors, and the top floor at the highest point is 75 feet. We are producing 101 Ways for the BBC, which has picked up eight episodes, and we already have a lot of interest from countries around the world. The other show is XXS. It’s a family game show where dads are pitted against dads, mums against mums and kids against kids. It’s predicated on taking a traditional family environment like a living room or a kitchen where everything is around 100 times bigger than the contestants. Three families vie for cash prizes by competing against each other. Therefore you create this great experience for families to watch. We’ve already shot the Turkish version and we have Brazil, Chile, Turkey and Portugal signed up as well.

 

WS: What challenges and opportunities do you see in the next 12 to 24 months?

TOUMAZIS: We’re putting a lot of effort and energy into game shows because we have seen a lot of demand for access prime-time game shows.

We’re also excited about what we’ve achieved at Endemol Sport. It’s the fastest-growing sports media company in Europe. We have relationships with the International Rugby Board, Manchester City, with Eredivisie Live, our Dutch football channel, Ajax, Inter Milan, Goodwood and Superleague Formula. We’re bringing a number of formats to the market, including Football’s Next Star, which aired on Sky 1 and saw José Mourinho award the winning boy with a one-year contract with Inter Milan.

 

I would also point out our continued commitment to original digital productions. A great example is Endemol USA’s Married on MySpace, which is returning for its second season. This is a show that was launched last year and proved to be incredibly successful, with 1 million votes cast online. It received 15 million views and it’s the most-watched-ever series on MySpace. One lucky couple was selected to be the MySpace Wedding Couple, and everything from the cake to the dress, honeymoon, venue, car, even the rings, were selected by the MySpace community. The winning couple in season one, Elle and Tito, were such a big hit on MySpace they now have a show on the Latino network Sí TV in America. So you’ve got an original digital production, whose characters have now migrated to the cable world.

Overall, I’d say our portfolio for this MIPTV is our most diverse ever, especially in view of our increased output in areas such as drama and sport.