Fishing for the Best

April 2009

Despite the economic crisis, executives at a number of major factual channels report that their programming budgets have so far been relatively unaffected. Even better, a number of the newer digital channels launched in recent years are beginning to commission new programs, creating outlets for producers willing to work within the tight budgets of new services. Still, a number of important changes are occurring. 

A PROCESS OF DISCOVERY

At Discovery Channel in the U.S., Gena McCarthy, the senior VP of development and production, explains, “We are looking at a very broad range of content. We are always on the prowl for content we can order as 13-episode series, but we also look for limited-run mini-series and classic one- or two-hour specials across all of Discovery’s genres.”

Popular series include Deadliest Catch, MythBusters and Out of the Wild: The Alaska Experiment. Discovery also continues to air blue-chip natural-history programs, including Nature’s Great Events, which is a new co-production with the BBC, and such archaeological programming as Cleopatra: Portrait of a Killer. Classic science specials like Inside Planet Earth, the annual Shark Week stunt andBefore It Was America, an upcoming six-part series about dinosaurs in North America, are also part of the mix.

Discovery generally likes to buy all rights for the shows it commissions, in part because of its aggressive push into new media. “Because that is so important for us, we largely commission most of our content,” McCarthy says. “Having unique content online for some of these major series has proven to be very successful for our group.”

Developing new talent, using innovative CGI techniques to enhance the story and finding ways to reinvent a genre are important, McCarthy adds. “We get hundreds of pitches about deadliest jobs and brawny men, and we evaluate them all very carefully because we know there is something there we haven’t found yet,” she says. But she stresses the importance of simple, classic storytelling. “Compelling characters doing interesting things is a good combination for us,” she says.

INTERNATIONAL HISTORY

“The beauty of the History brand is that it allows us to look at a lot of different genres, because history touches just about everything,” notes David McKillop, the senior VP of development and programming for series at A&E Television Networks’ History channel, who stresses that producers should not limit their pitches based on some narrow notion of the channel.

“We don’t want people to do my job, which is to pre-think what is a good idea for History,” he adds. “We want you to bring us your best ideas, and we’ll work with you to make sure it becomes a great idea for History.”

That range of programming can be found in some recent or upcoming series. These include Expedition: Africa, a show from Mark Burnett Productions that retraces Stanley and Livingstone’s expedition in Africa, World War II in HD and How the Earth Was Made, which grew out of a two-hour special.

AETN’s international channels are generally structured as joint ventures or licensing deals, but McKillop works closely with networks outside of the U.S. “I am aware of their development lists and they are bringing ideas from their channels to us, so it is a very collaborative relationship,” he says.

Although many of the international channels get a large chunk of their programming from the U.S., they are also producing a growing slate of local programming.

Richard Melman is the channel director at History in the U.K., as well as at BIO: The Biography Channel, Military History and Crime & Investigation Network, which are operated as a joint venture of AETN and Sky. He notes that they are now commissioning or co-producing about 30 percent or 40 percent of their programming.

“Localization pays dividends for us because a U.K. story that we commission will always rate better than a third-party acquisition,” Melman explains. Examples of those commissions include a series on Henry VIII to mark the 500thanniversary of his ascension to the throne.

At a digital channel, however, budgets are limited, and Melman says History U.K. regularly works with other broadcasters, including the local terrestrials. “If we come across a very good idea we know can’t be done on our budgets, we will take it to terrestrials like Channel 4 or Five or international broadcasters like ZDF,” he says.

AETN’s Asian and Latin American channels are also expanding their original production. In Latin America, Eduardo Ruiz, the executive VP and general manager of A&E Ole Networks, explains that they currently commission about 80 or 90 hours of programming across all of their networks—A&E, History and BIO. “Probably about 95 percent of this original programming [is currently] for History, with the rest for BIO,” he says.

Ruiz expects the slate to include about ten different biographies of well-known Latin American figures over the next year.

Some of the productions are also based on U.S. formats and ideas. “In the U.S. we have Ice Road Truckers and we have commissioned a series about dangerous jobs in Latin America,” he explains.

Other local productions for History in Latin America include an investigative series that will look at the terrorist group FARC in Colombia and other armed conflicts in the region; a four-part series on the Maya Indians; and a look at the Alamo from the Mexican point of view.

Next year, it is also looking to create a number of programs on bicentennial celebrations marking the independence of a number of countries in the region.

Overall, about 85 percent of the programming in History’s schedule comes from the U.S., with most of the rest either commissioned or co-produced. For BIO, about 95 percent comes from the U.S., with the remaining portion produced in-house or acquired. 

The Asian channels are much newer and are just beginning to commission original fare, says Michele Schofield, the director of content, programming, acquisitions and production at AETN All Asia Networks, a joint venture of AETN and Malaysia’s Astro All Asia Networks. Over the next year her company is planning to commission 36 hours of original content or about 12 hours for each of its networks in the region—History, BIO and Crime & Investigation.

Some of the first projects to be greenlit include a three- to four-hour project for History focusing on separate events in Asia that are set in 1942 during World War II; some biographies of major Asian figures for BIO; and a co-production with History U.K. for Crime & Investigation that covers a British man who murdered tourists in Singapore and Bangkok.

In February, AETN Asia announced an alliance with the Malaysian government to invest equal amounts of money in about eight hours of production by Malaysian producers for the three channels.

SPIRIT OF EXPLORATION

After hitting the highest ratings in its history in January 2009, the National Geographic Channel in the U.S. is looking to commission about 400 hours of programming this year, much of it in the genres of natural history, science, history, archaeology and exploration. Original productions include such popular series as Dog Whisperer, Taboo and Locked Up Abroad, as well as big specials like the upcoming Inside Guantanamo, which gives viewers a rare look inside the prison. 

To build further on its ratings’ success, the channel has been making some changes in the way it commissions shows in recent years. It has sped up the decision-making process, worked to bring in a wider array of international producers and put more emphasis on series, notes Bridget Whalen, the VP of development for the National Geographic Channel (NGC) in the U.S. 

“We are always after the most innovative and biggest specials as well as series—shows that are extremely engaging because the characters or storytelling are so compelling,” adds Steve Burns, the executive VP of content at NGC. “We are very flexible and very quick to get people answers.”

Shows like Inside Guantanamo, which explores the infamous prison through the eyes of the guards and former inmates, illustrate how NGC is also looking for projects based on unique access. “They really emphasize that National Geographic can take viewers to places you normally can’t go,” Whalen says. 

The domestic channel works closely with the international channels on many high-profile projects, notes Geoff Daniels, the senior VP of development and production at National Geographic Channels International (NGCI). But those international services—which include National Geographic Channel, National Geographic Channel HD, Nat Geo Wild, Nat Geo Adventure and Nat Geo Music—also commission and co-produce a wide variety of original fare on their own.

“For the core channel [NGC] we are looking to build on our strengths in science, technology, engineering, exploration, natural history and world culture,” Daniels explains. “We’re looking for lightening-rod events, strong specials and, of course, the holy grail, those breakout series.”

Shows should reinforce the “Think Again” branding tag line introduced a few years ago and “continue to push the boundaries,” he adds.

Recent or upcoming projects include such series as Salvage Code Red and Generals at War. Upcoming specials include the blue-chip natural-history titles Kingdom of the Blue Whale and Extreme Ice.

Co-productions are extremely important, making up “the majority of the things we do,” Daniels says. “You need to be able to stitch together partnerships to maximize the amount of programming you can get.”

The company is also pushing to expand its commissioning for its newer digital channels, Nat Geo Wild and Nat Geo Adventure.

“In the upcoming months we will be making a lot of noise with Nat Geo Wild,” Daniels says. While natural history will remain a core genre for NGC, he expects that it will be investing more in blue-chip natural-history documentaries that premiere on Wild and then air on NGC internationally. It is also expanding series production for Wild.

At Adventure, Daniels is looking to target a younger demographic with a channel that has “a very hip and edgy persona,” he notes. “We’ve already been investing commissioning dollars in lower-cost reality series that have a strong local flair,” and have done several adventure series in Latin America.

National Geographic Television (NGT), which co-owns the channels with Fox Entertainment Group, is a major producer for the services and uses its international arm to help fund productions via sales or co-productions.

National Geographic Television International, which will be selling such NGT productions as Darwin’s Lost Voyage, Inside Guantanamoand Herod’s Lost Tomb at MIPTV, also “helps with co-productions on a number of projects” that air on the channels, according to Chris Fletcher, the acting head of acquisitions and co-productions.

Fletcher sees a growing interest in wildlife programming among international broadcasters. “Towards the end of the ’90s there was a lull, but now, with HD and the new filming techniques, there is growing interest in the classic blue-chip wild-animal studies,” he says.

GERMAN GIANT

The German public broadcaster ZDF’s involvement in factual programs has remained at a reasonably constant level in recent years, with two prime-time slots on Sunday and Tuesday evening, notes Kristina Hollstein, the director of documentary co-productions and development at ZDF Enterprises, the pubcaster’s commercial arm.

Hollstein does not commission documentaries, but does work with the various editorial departments at ZDF that are making those decisions on financing and co-productions.

“We support the editorial departments with international financing and we act as a sort of intermediary with international broadcasters and producers” for co-productions, Hollstein explains.

The Sunday evening slot called Terra X, named after a long-running popular program, focuses on such subjects as archaeology and historical expeditions. Upcoming programs include shows on ancient Egypt, a three-part program on the history of the oceans, and two hours on India.

The Tuesday evening slot puts more focus on current affairs, contemporary history and travel programs. For that slot, ZDF produced a special on the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, Busting the Berlin Wall.

This program highlights the delicate balancing act between the channel’s domestic need to attract large audiences for a prime-time slot and the financial importance of creating shows that will have international appeal, notes Hollstein.

The German version, she says, “tells a very emotional German story with dramatic escapes” from East Germany. For the international version, however, an additional 15 minutes of new material was shot and CGI reconstructions were added that show how the wall was built and then expanded to prevent future escapes. “For the international version, we did a piece on the megastructure of the Berlin Wall,” she says.

POLITICS AT HOME

Following the September 11 terrorist attacks, HBO began to put more emphasis on international themes, looking closely at American politics, the war in Iraq and the Bush administration, says Sheila Nevins, the president of documentary and family programming at HBO, which has won numerous awards for its productions.

Now, however, with a new president in the White House, a growing global economic crisis and a changing public mood, “we are in a real transition period,” she says. “We’re thinking hard about where we want to turn our critical eye.”

This may mean a more domestic focus. “We will probably be doing more things about America, business, poverty and domestic issues, though we haven’t commissioned anything in those areas,” she adds.

HBO airs about 40 factual programs a year in a wide range of topics, from some late-night sex programs based in a brothel in Nevada to more serious political and social documentaries.

“In the more serious vein, we do about 35 films a year, of which about 12 to 15 are original,” Nevins says. About 25 percent of the original films are done in-house; the other 75 percent come from outside producers.

Upcoming projects include a four-part series on Alzheimer’s disease; a film on Senator Ted Kennedy; a look at the First Amendment right of free speech in the U.S.; a film on Sergio Vieira de Mello, the U.N. diplomat who was killed during the Iraq War; and a film with Rosie O’Donnell that will take a lighthearted look at the changing conceptions about what constitutes a family.

As a premium pay channel that takes no advertising, HBO’s documentary programming is driven by “buzz, not ratings,” Nevins says. “We want our subscriber base to feel good about the fact that HBO is bringing them information they really need to know or be interested in.”

For commissioned projects, HBO is particularly keen on “subjects we think no one else will do,” she says. “We have a film about a mother who had a bipolar child and makes a film about her child’s suicide. We think that is something no one else will do, and we want to nurture those kinds of stories.”

The hallmark HBO approach to a subject is to offer viewers fresh perspectives. “We want to make you rethink what you think you already know about the subject.”