Germany Remains FremantleMedia’s Top Market By Volume

LUXEMBOURG/LONDON: International production company FremantleMedia continued to turn out more programming for the German market than any other during 2010, but output for the French market grew most strongly and U.S. production volume also rose impressively, reports Jay Stuart.

Production in Germany reached 1,252 hours last year, accounting for 13.2 percent of FremantleMedia’s global output and up 6.1 percent from 2009. Total worldwide production in 2010 reached 9,497 hours, up a hair (0.5 percent) from 9,449 hours in 2009. But the company’s output of new programms jumped 25.4 percent to a total of 2,388 hours in 2010, up from 1,904 hours in 2009. The volume of returning programmes slipped 5.8 percent from 7,545 hours to 7,109 hours.

FremantleMedia is 100-percent owned by Luxembourg-based RTL Group, which controls 40 television channels across Europe. FremantleMedia generated revenues of 1.272 billion euros in 2010, up 7.5 percent on 1.183 billion euros in 2009, but EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes and depreciation) slipped by 9.7 percent from 155 million euros in 2009 to 140 million euros in 2010.

In Germany, the seventh series of FremantleMedia’s Idols format was the top programme on the flagship RTL network in its commercial target of viewers aged 14-49, and the sixth season of reality series The Farmer Wants A Wife was the number two entertainment series on the channel. Soap opera Gute Zeiten, Schlechte Zeiten (Good Times, Bad Times) has aired on RTL since 1992 and is still the country’s top serial. FremantleMedia launched The X Factor in Germany on RTL-owned Vox and it was that channel’s top entertainment show.

Production in France, FremantleMedia’s number three market in volume, grew by 34.1 percent to 684 hours (from 510 hours) last year, accounting for 7.2 percent of the company’s total output. Its local version of The Price Is Right was the top-rated game show in France last year and The Farmer Wants A Wife was the top entertainment show on M6, the RTL Group’s flagship channel in France.

Production in the U.S., where FremantleMedia’s American Idol on FOX was the top prime-time entertainment series for the seventh year, jumped 23.7 percent to 872 hours (from 705 hours) and accounted for 9.2 percent of the company’s global total. The U.S. is its number two market in volume of output. America’s Got Talent was the most successful series on NBC in 2010.

Production declined in three of FremantleMedia’s most important markets in 2010. The volume of output fell by 21.5 percent to 355 hours in the U.K., where ITV cancelled long-running series The Bill, made by subsidiary TalkBack Thames. But The X Factor had its most successful season to date in series seven as the country’s top-rated show and Britain’s Got Talent was second.

The company’s production output fell more dramatically in Spain (down by 52.3 percent to 249 hours) and Italy (down 33.6 percent to 247 hours).

FremantleMedia has now sold the Got Talent format to 44 countries and The X Factor format to 31, and The Farmer Wants A Wife to 23 territories.

In late 2010, FremantleMedia made its first big move into the branded-entertainment space with the acquisition of a 62.5-percent stake in Radical Media.