FremantleMedia’s David Ellender

October
2006

By Anna
Carugati

David
Ellender has been with FremantleMedia since 2001. As managing director of its
international sales arm, Fremantle International Distribution (FID), he
witnessed first-hand the power of extremely successful brands like Idols, The Apprentice and Project Runway, and oversaw a catalogue of more
than 20,000 hours. Last spring he was promoted to CEO of FremantleMedia
Enterprises. This new division encompasses three main areas: licensing, which
includes merchandising, interactive, wireless, publishing and live
entertainment; home entertainment and archive sales; and FID. Ellender explains
how important it is to keep pace with the constantly evolving media world.

TV EUROPE: How do you manage your broad portfolio of businesses in
today’s constantly changing media landscape?

ELLENDER: My taking this role is partly to look at our
rights-exploitation strategy. We’ve seen the rapid convergence of platforms and
it now requires an updated strategy to accommodate the increasingly complex
media world and the speed at which it changes.

One prime example of that is the download-to-own trend. In
the U.K., we’ve seen broadcasters moving into that area, making a land grab.
DVD operators and even distributors and producers are all asking for the same
rights. A year ago, that wasn’t happening, so that is really [an illustration
of] the speed of change. We’ve also seen broadband penetration increase. We’ve
seen the penetration of 3G mobile phones going up. Digital TV is expanding its
subscriber base. And game-playing participation is increasing. So
FremantleMedia Enterprises has to adapt so that we can respond to the changes
strategically, proactively and quickly.

And our production companies to some degree, in different
parts of the world, have to change from being a large [in-house] production
business to a rights business. By bringing together in Enterprises those three
disciplines of licensing activities, home entertainment and television
distribution, we really need to have an aligned and cogent strategy for rights
exploitation.

We’ll also see new-media demands on programming
encroaching on some of the old-media demands for exclusivity. Still, old media,
or traditional media, will remain a major revenue source for the next three to
four years, and obviously that needs to be protected. But new media will become
the major revenue source in three to four years—there will be a tipping
point. Understanding that symbiotic relationship is the key to success in the
new era.

TV EUROPE: In this world in which viewers have so many entertainment
choices, brands have to be very strong and very recognizable, don’t they?

ELLENDER: Yes, and at Fremantle we have the opportunity to create a
one-stop shop because we produce [finished programs, we sell formats and we
manage the brands]. We have 22 international offices. Idols is in about 35 territories and is
supported by licensing activities, consumer products, sponsorships, telephony
and wireless. In addition to that we sell the U.S. program American Idol to many of those same markets.
Our home-entertainment division, which has a few years of American Idol [to offer], is taking the DVD
version into the market. So I think we are quite unique in how we can exploit
brands, not just in terms of production, but also leveraging all the other
commercial activity to make sure that we extract the most from our brands.

TV EUROPE: Recently you have expanded and diversified FID’s
catalogue.

ELLENDER: Yes, part of the activity of the television group within
FremantleMedia Enterprises is to focus on content that complements our
production unit, and doesn’t cannibalize or compete against it. Our production
is very much in the soap-opera and telenovela genres, whereas FID focuses on
distributing not only some of our internal shows, but also third-party drama or
mini-series or TV movies. Third-party producers know we are a distributor of
fiction-based programming. They also know that if they bring us a series, we
don’t have another ten coming from our own production entities.

There’s always that danger with some other distributors
that are attached to broadcasters or studios. BBC Worldwide, just to use one
example, clearly looks after BBC content first, not product from independent
producers, and likewise with the studios. Whereas we are agnostic, if you like.
Two-thirds of FID’s new programming is actually coming from third-party
producers, it’s not coming from Fremantle’s own content. Shows like Falcon
Beach, which is
on ABC Family in the U.S. and Global TV in Canada—we rolled that out at
MIPTV and it sold to 24 markets, with another nine in negotiation that will be
closed before MIPCOM. Our hope is that by the time we come out of MIPCOM we
will probably bring that total closer to 50. And the good thing is that we have
no other shows—with the exception of catalogue product like Baywatch—that targets the same
demographic as Falcon Beach does. So we are focused on getting Falcon Beach sold.

TV EUROPE: Tell me about nurturing relationships with independent
producers in the reality genre.

ELLENDER: For The Apprentice, we have extended our deal with Mark Burnett for
season six, which is the new season that will air this fall in the States. We
will be distributing it worldwide. It’s been very, very successful. It’s still
in more than 25 markets internationally. Project Runway from The Weinstein Company is in
its third season in America. That has sold to some 24 markets internationally,
and it’s doing very well. And now, we’re negotiating a local version in four
markets because of the success of the American show.

And obviously, American Idol, one of our own shows, goes into
its sixth season in January of next year and it’s being presold in markets
around the world. It’s a phenomenal success as a brand, and the U.S. show, not
just in the States, but internationally as well, seems to improve its ratings
and share year on year.

TV EUROPE: And what big factual programming brands do you have?

ELLENDER: We have Prehistoric Park. Animal Planet airs it in the
U.S., it recently started playing in the U.K. and the first sale was made to
Australia. It’s been a phenomenal success, but we still have a lot of the world
to sell. It’s a very strong piece for home entertainment. It’s a very strong
publishing piece for books and also we’re talking to a number of licensees. I
don’t think dinosaurs ever go out of fashion with kids! It’s a great show, it
works across so many windows of exploitation, and we hope it will be a
returning franchise and it’s a key brand for us.

TV EUROPE: What do you enjoy about the television industry?

ELLENDER: I love content first and foremost. I enjoy being with
some of the creative talent, both in front of the camera and behind the camera.
There are some very creative writers and producers, so that end is really
exciting. One of the most interesting areas at the moment is the growth of
multi-channel environments and different platforms. It’s the way a piece of
content can be exploited across multiple platforms. And the immediacy of all of
that is absolutely fascinating. The other key element for me is the global
marketplace. If you look back at the industry 25-odd years ago, it was almost
one size fits all. And now the marketplace has become so much more fragmented
and it’s a very intricate and complicated puzzle sometimes. How do you unravel
that [when you have content to sell]? How do you come up with a strategy that
is going to be global, regional and local? I really get excited and intrigued
by that.