Exclusive Interview: Discovery Networks International’s Luis Silberwasser

October 20, 2010 World Screen
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PREMIUM: TLC, one of the fastest-growing female-targeted channels in the U.S., has begun rolling out internationally, starting with a launch in Norway this past March. The TLC International channels will feature many of the hit series from the U.S. network, but a new unit has also been set up that is dedicated to creating distinct programming designed specifically for TLC on an international and local level. Leading this division is Luis Silberwasser, as senior VP and international head of content at Discovery Networks International. Silberwasser talks in this interview about the rollout strategy for TLC and what plans are for the new unit.

WS: What are the plans for the new dedicated production and development unit for TLC International?
SILBERWASSER: That’s a very exciting strategy for us. If you know about Discovery, our traditional model has been that the U.S. has produced shows and we take those shows to the international market and we complement that with a very robust acquisition effort. We wanted to do something different this time around with TLC because we think there is an opportunity to take not only the best U.S. shows but also to create our own ideas for international. Not only do that, but also go a step further and localize those ideas in different key markets in international. We can do a Polish version of something, we can do it in Italy, we can do it Brazil, we can do it in Mexico. We decided that we need to have a strong development and production effort for TLC International, working side by side with the U.S. development effort. The combination of those two things will serve TLC to make it a really big, big global channel.

WS: Are there any other brands that you are looking to follow this effort with?
SILBERWASSER: Not specifically right now. TLC for us is an area of focus. You have to also think about TLC and the type of content that is on TLC as more adaptable to doing local formats. A brand like Discovery Channel, for example, can live with those sort of big ideas around the world, maybe not as much of a local adaptation of the ideas. Right now we are focused on TLC and depending on that experience we will take it to other channels later on.
 
WS: How have you been approaching the international rollout of TLC?
SILBERWASSER: TLC in the U.S. is a top 10 channel for women; [it] has carved a place as a window into the life of extraordinary characters in the U.S. In situations that are relevant—whether it’s marriage, whether it’s families, whether it’s birth and also on the health side—all those things made us think, you know what, this is probably a bigger idea than just a U.S. idea. We embarked on this process to create a global channel called TLC. We’ve now rolled out in Norway, Poland, Serbia, Slovenia, Bulgaria and in Asia we converted a big channel into TLC. We’re going to keep doing that into 2011. At the end of next year we’ll have about a 100 million households for international.
 
WS: What other regions are you targeting?
SILBERWASSER: There are going to be more launches in Europe—that will be a big area of growth. We’re going to continue to enhance our Asian TLC. Then, for example, in Latin America we’ve launched TLC HD and it’s in Brazil, Argentina, Colombia and Mexico. We’re well on our way to 100 million households.
 
WS: Where else do you plan to launch the HD channel?
SILBERWASSER: Right now TLC is mainly an analogue channel or a digital channel around the world. In Latin America we had a specific opportunity to launch TLC as an HD channel; that was pretty important for us. So we’ll see how the operators react to the channel. As the HD technology continues to evolve and advance I am sure there will be several opportunities to do HD rollouts around the world.
 
WS: Tell me about Discovery’s pre-existing portfolio of global channels that TLC now joins.
SILBERWASSER: Discovery specializes as the number one nonfiction company in the world. TLC joins a category of channels that we have around the world, mainly on the factual side. We have Discovery Channel being the number one factual channel around the world. We also have Discovery Science. We have Animal Planet, which is taking a leadership position in the natural history world. We’ve had good success with Investigation Discovery; it’s one of the fastest growing channels in the U.S. We’re taking that same concept into the international marketplace. Then we have our suite of digital channels, with Civilization, World, Turbo. In marketplaces like Asia, for example, Discovery Turbo is one of the most successful channels that we have. It’s an interesting time for Discovery with regard to expanding our nonfiction portfolio of channels and also embarking on TLC and becoming a leader in terms of television around the world.
 
WS: What are your big picture goals, next 12 to 18 months?
SILBERWASSER: What we see with TLC is a very exciting channel around the world. We see a channel that speaks to women. We see a channel that really is what we call a lifestyle and entertainment channel. What you will see is a channel that has some nonscripted content, but it may also have scripted content, and some from the area in between. We want within the next 12 to 18 months to have about 100 million households for TLC and to become really the dominant player in regard to women and television in the cable and satellite world. We are well on our way to doing that! The combination of that with Discovery Channel will provide us with two big flagships to provide entertainment around the world.
 
WS: And you are bringing in other core Discovery franchises to the TLC International channel?
SILBERWASSER: The mission of TLC is lifestyle and entertainment content designed for women. It’s usually centered around extraordinary characters, extraordinary stories, and looking at the life of a woman and those life events, whether its marriage, divorce, children, a relationship between couples, dreams, aspirations. All of those [subjects] are fertile grounds for us.
When you look at that, clearly there’s an opportunity to not only have content from TLC U.S. but there’s also Planet Green, which is doing some very interesting things; Discovery Health, which is doing very interesting things; FIT, and in the future maybe OWN. It’s in a great place to be. It can get content and produce content using a variety of ideas around the world.
 
WS: You were previously senior VP of the content group for Discovery Networks Latin America/U.S. Hispanic and general manager of U.S. Hispanic Networks. What experience do you bring from that post that is helping you in your new role?
SILBERWASSER: There are two things. One is that in Latin America we have the most balanced portfolio of any of our regions. When I say balanced I don’t mean the number of channels, but the type of channels. We have Discovery Channel in Latin America, which is number one in its genre. We have Discovery Kids, which is the number one preschool channel in its genre in Latin America. We have Discovery Home & Health, which is a female channel. Doing similar things as TLC, we have a very successful, number one lifestyle in channel in Latin America. We recently launched Liv, which is an entertainment channel. It’s a very balanced portfolio in different places. One of the things that I specifically want to do is to see if there are other opportunities like that in other regions for Discovery, that we can have a portfolio that’s more balanced. TLC is one of those strategies to create a portfolio that is not only about factual but also has…more entertainment and lifestyle. We’re going to try to bring that in.
The other perspective is to see if there’s a way we can share more among the international regions and work better with the U.S. in terms of collaboration of ideas. I think we’ve done that in Latin America to a large degree. We see things that can be bigger than if you were just focused on one market. We want to bring a little more of that to the international programming.


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