FremantleMedia Enterprises Builds Home-Entertainment Slate

A recently signed deal between FremantleMedia Enterprises and National Geographic furthers the distributor’s expansion in the home-entertainment sector.

FremantleMedia Enterprises (FME) and National Geographic have struck up an exclusive partnership that sees FME distributing home-entertainment content from the renowned nonfiction outfit in the U.K. and Ireland. The new deal is an extension of FME’s activities in the home-entertainment space, but bumps it up a level into the business of brands.

"We have our own video label as part of FME, and part of it is used for releasing Fremantle programming, co-productions and third-party titles, but we’ve also built a successful business on handling sales, marketing and distribution for third-party labels," explains Pete Kalhan, the senior VP of home-entertainment and archive sales at FME who brokered the deal. "In addition to having these third-party labels, we started talking about taking brands and managing the brands for the brand owners. We highlighted a number of brands that we wanted to work with and National Geographic was one of them."

Kalhan says that the timing was fortuitous for Nat Geo as well, as the company was quite keen on having someone manage all elements—sales, marketing, distribution—for its home-entertainment releases in the U.K. and Ireland.

The deal between FME and Nat Geo covers all content, from new releases to the existing catalogue of some 600 titles. While the catalogue side has an appeal all its own, Kalhan says, "the real attraction is all the new-release programming." The plan is for a "tent-pole release" each month, which will be supported with a strong marketing push.

"For us, it’s a real opportunity to take a recognized brand from the television world and recreate that on DVD. We’re working with all the different partners at Nat Geo, not just their home-entertainment people. We’ll work closely with the magazine, the online areas and the channel as well. It will be a much more strategic approach to building and growing Nat Geo on home entertainment."

Kalhan is particularly excited about the prospects the catalogue provides for release on Blu-ray, since a good amount of National Geographic’s programming is now filmed in HD. Also, 3D is a market FME will be exploring for the Nat Geo titles. "The 3D market is one we’ve been talking about for [a little while], and Avatar has catapulted 3D into the mass [market]. We will be looking over the next 4 or 5 weeks to pick out titles that we might be able to give a 3D treatment. More likely for 3D, it’s going to be new-release programming in 2011 and beyond where you can perhaps do a very small theatrical [release] in a 3D cinema to build and elevate the DVD release."

While Kalhan looks to continue growing this side of FME’s business, he is cautious to not over-extend in terms of how many brands and labels the company takes on. "What we wouldn’t do is have hundreds of labels because we just wouldn’t be able to manage that. We only pick labels that complement what we do or add value. At the moment there’s about seven, and I think 12 would be maximum because after that you start competing with yourself. Having our own dedicated team here handling sales, marketing and all the operational elements certainly gives us an advantage in being able to bring in third-party labels and brands."