Joel Denton

World Screen Weekly, October 2, 2008

President, Production and Distribution

RHI Entertainment

The last two years has seen considerable change at RHI Entertainment. Since Robert Halmi, Jr. took full control of Hallmark Entertainment and rebranded it as RHI in 2006, the company has expanded its production output, launched a branded block on ION Television in the U.S. and gone public. What hasn’t changed, however, its commitment to big-budget, event productions that are popular with free-TV broadcasters around the world, and with the critics—the mini-series Tin Man, for example, a re-imagining of The Wizard of Oz for SCI FI Channel, picked up nine Emmy nods this year.

RHI produces six to nine event productions per year, says Denton, within the genres that tend to fare well with buyers: “action and disaster, myths and legends, fantasy and sci-fi,” he says. Those areas are all represented on RHI’s slate of new titles this year. Offerings include Meteor, about dangerous meteorites hurtling towards Earth, starring Billy Campbell, Jason Alexander and Marla Sokolove. “Big action disasters always work well,” Denton says. Also available is Dragons of Black Roc,which involves fantasy lands, swords and sorcery, Denton says.

RHI’s big-budget titles, produced for U.S. broadcast networks and cable channels, have ended up on key international broadcasters like M6, TF1, RTL, ProSieben, Antena 3 and Seven Network, often in prime time. Denton, however, has been in the TV business for long enough to know that markets—and their programming grids—are always evolving.

“The importance of the different product offerings has changed over the years,” says Denton, citing as an example the migration of TV movies from prime time to daytime or late night on leading broadcasters.

The TV-movie market, however, is a still a lucrative one for RHI, which has expanded in the last year into what Denton refers to as “action-adventure thrillers and creature features. We’re doing them with Spike and SCI FI; about 20 a year.” Better known for its female-skewing dramas for networks like Lifetime and Hallmark, RHI now has a slate of movies to offer buyers targeting the underserved 18-to-35 male demographic. “They appeal to a whole different set of broadcasters and slots. That’s fun for us to do.”

Meanwhile, RHI is also experiencing a “resurgence” in demand for its female-skewing fare, Denton says. “We find they’re doing pretty well, sometimes moving into summer prime-time slots. They seem to be rating well in markets like Spain and Italy. That’s a little bit of a change. They’d really moved out of prime time in those markets all together. It will be interesting to see if we can duplicate that in other markets where they’re still playing in daytime but hadn’t been in prime time for some time.”

In order to respond to broadcasters’ needs, Denton notes that the company is putting more effort into tracking the performance of its shows. “We’re looking at not just the first run but also the fifth and sixth run. In Germany, it’s fascinating to see how shows we made ten years ago, like Merlin, we [have now] sold to RTL Group, and they’ve played it three of four times on the main channel, three or four times on Vox, and it’s now it’s getting shown on SUPER RTL. It’s still pulling 3-, 4-, 5-percent shares. It’s very important for us to be able to see how those titles, which seem to be evergreen, carry on working.”

Denton has developed an eye for what works and what doesn’t over the years. His knack for the content business is, perhaps, not surprising, with a father who made documentary films, a mother who worked as a researcher at the BBC and a script-editor for a sister. Entering the TV industry, Denton says, was a given. “I didn’t have much of choice really!”

With years of experience to tap into, Denton is excited to pursue the new opportunities emerging in the marketplace, including VOD, where RHI has been very active in the U.S. market. “The U.S is further along. They’ve got digital cable on such a large scale. Satellite has been, in a lot of territories, the largest pay-TV platform and you don’t have a big enough return path at this time in most markets to be able to do true video on demand. It’s early days, but over the next three to four years we have real hopes, particularly with things like the action movies, where the demographic is right, we’ll be able to grow that [into] a nice healthy new business.”

Denton is also looking to work with the new cable, satellite and DTT channels popping up worldwide in need of strong programming solutions. “We have always looked at where we can do some strands, branded or not, with the newer networks coming on line. That’s going to be a big push over the next two to three years.”

Exploring emerging markets is one of the things Denton enjoys most about his position. “It’s a real privilege to be able to meet people from different countries, cultures, backgrounds, but all working in the same industry, usually with the same aims.”