Heather Stevenson

World Screen Weekly, February 1, 2007

President

Zodiak Television World

Earlier this month, Zodiak Television announced the opening of Zodiak Vostok, a new dedicated office for the Russian and CIS markets. The news capped off what has been a busy 12 months for the Scandinavian outfit, with the launch of a mobile division and the acquisitions of Diverse Production in the U.K. and Look Entertainment in Denmark, as well as an investment in Russia with TeleAlliance.

The flurry of activity has translated into a busy year for Heather Stevenson, who was named president of Zodiak’s distribution arm, Zodiak Television World, in April 2006. Stevenson joined the format outfit with 15 years of experience in international TV, including stints at MGM, Sony and Fox, as well as in new media outfits such as a Spanish-language Internet portal and a PDA/mobile phone software publishing company.

Based in Copenhagen, Stevenson is charged with exploiting the formats developed by Zodiak’s various production outfits. These include the new acquisitions like Diverse and Look Entertainment, as well as Mastiff Media (Denmark and Poland), MTV Mastiff Produktion (Sweden and Norway), Jarowskij (Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland), Broadcasters (Finland) and 5th Element (Sweden).

“I’ve been spending the last few months really integrating the companies,” says Stevenson. “The challenge is trying to figure out how to make sure that all the formats are traveling within the group. And we don’t only represent our own companies, we also represent independent producers and that’s an important part of our business. Trying to give everybody a little bit of love is what fills my days!”

Stevenson is beginning to see executives from all of Zodiak’s production subsidiaries coming together to form an ideas “think tank,” she says. “It’s the best brains in our group, and they’re developing new projects together. It’s happening organically as opposed to it being forced.”

And Stevenson has her sights set on growing the business further. She was at NATPE this month fostering relationships with existing clients and searching out new ones, particularly in the U.S. market, where Zodiak’s Sensing Murder format was licensed to Discovery Channel last year.

Stevenson is, like many format executives, eyeing the Call TV prospects in the U.S. “I look at how much money some of the big European players have made from it,” she says. “It’s such a moneymaker in a time where everyone is looking for margins and everyone is looking at trying to figure out how to make it work. It’s appears overly simplistic but to do it right, it really is an art form. For example, you can only show a phone a certain number of times otherwise you alienate your audience.”

Expansion into scripted formats is also on the agenda for this year. “It’s a matter of diversifying the business,” Stevenson notes. She is also exploring the possibility of telenovela formats based on productions out of Zodiak’s Russian operation.

But the big challenge going forward remains the exploitation of new platforms, particularly, Stevenson notes, “how to intelligently sell to those new platforms. It’s a new world. You talk to an IPTV client and they basically want you to give them your product on a revenue share basis. I don’t personally agree with that. I think you should have to pay for something to get something. That’s going to be the learning curve for the year.”

—By Mansha Daswani