NATPE Budapest Panel Weighs in On Success in CEE Co-Pros

A session this morning at NATPE Budapest featured executives from HBO Europe, Eccho Rights, Talpa Global and FILM.UA Group discussing the ins and outs of co-producing in Central and Eastern Europe.

Kateryna Vyshnevska, the head of development and co-productions at FILM.UA Group—Ukraine’s leading media company—said that there is a “mixed bag” of both opportunities and challenges that come with co-producing in the region.

“As a Ukrainian producer, I get this vibe that CEE is still being treated as an emerging market; it is not,” she said. “We’ve been in the business for many years now and have an established tradition. We do know what we’re doing! And we’re doing it really well,” and at a price point that is particularly appealing for partners in the EU or North America.

“The CEE market is not that big,” Vyshnevska added. “We cannot afford to pay the license fees that Western Europe can pay for instance, and local content performs better here anyway. So when you put that all together, it creates a very special ecosystem where it makes sense to shift your licensing into more of a co-development, integrated cooperation model.”

Fredrik af Malmborg, the managing director at Eccho Rights—which represents producers from around the world, but primarily non-English-language markets—believes the industry is in “a very interesting phase.”

He explained, “Right now, the drama side especially is booming because there are all these SVOD services coming in and investing a lot. Then the linear TV channels are still investing quite a lot. I think we are seeing the first signs that the linear TV channels are going to have problems in the coming years. I think they are selling such a bad product, and I think advertisers will start to realize that. This will have an enormous impact on the lives of everyone in this room. Right now, a large portion of the money coming into this business is from linear TV, so I think we need to learn new models.”

Looking forward, af Malmborg believes that linear broadcasters trying to sustain themselves on U.S. product are going to have a hard road ahead. “Those shows that you get from the studios’ deals, I don’t think they will work anymore; we already see that they work less and less. You will need to produce more local drama, find different platforms and manage those rights properly.”

He suggested that rather than looking to the U.S., “what’s undervalued, especially in Eastern Europe, are imports from neighboring countries. If you launch them properly, they can deliver really good results at a reasonable fee. Especially commercial broadcasters in Europe will have a tough future if they continue to go to the L.A. Screenings and think they can live on the [American] imports.”

Af Malmborg said that’s where co-productions come in, to allow for more local productions, including “low-cost drama that can still perform very well.”

The panelists also commented on how there is an increased acceptance nowadays for non-English-language drama in markets where there hadn’t been before.

For example, Laura Rhodarmer, the senior VP of licensing at Talpa Global—which exports Talpa formats that have already proven successful in the Netherlands—pointed to the scripted series Divorce. “It’s going into its third [season] here in Hungary on RTL. That’s a Dutch-spoken dramedy that we’ve exported out of the Netherlands, and it’s traveled to Hungary and is doing very well. Because of its success in Hungary, neighboring countries are now looking at it as well.

“We also have Vipers Nest, which is again a Dutch-spoken, Dutch-based scripted show, but that’s traveled to Serbia. The Serbian version then traveled to neighboring countries.”

Eccho Rights’ af Malmborg highlighted the success of Scandinavian drama as having helped to open more doors for non-English-language content, citing as an example the U.K. putting The Bridge on air in prime time. “That opened up a very interesting trend; it doesn’t have to be in the English language to travel.”

Johnathan Young, the VP of original programming and production at HBO Central Europe—which has been stepping up its local content efforts—added: “There’s a global appetite for shows that are fresh and original, and there’s fantastic talent here [in CEE] that hasn’t been exposed to the global market. There’s a global audience now that can access local content. That clearly is a big opportunity.”

FILM.UA’s Vyshnevska agreed, adding that the “foreign-language barrier” in programming is quite often “not so much from the audience, but from the media companies, which act as gatekeepers and are not adventurous enough.”

She also highlighted opportunities in Ukraine and Russia and said she’d like to see these two countries become preferred partners for CEE co-pros. “Together, we account for 40 to 45 percent of the monetary value of CEE. Linear TV is poor in our countries. That connects to the ad revenues, the budgets and everything. Apart from Turkey, Russia and Ukraine have the lowest ad spend per capita. We have, between the two of us, 200 million people. When you combine all of that, it means the only way to go is up.”

Vyshnevska mentioned the filming incentives that were recently put in place in Russia and Ukraine in a bid to compete with other CEE countries. “I believe that it makes sense to co-produce whether there are incentives or not; our production values are high as is.”

Eccho Rights’ af Malmborg, however, said he’s not the biggest champion of creative co-productions. “It should be one party running the show—but you can do it as a financial co-production.”

HBO Europe’s Young added that “it’s a challenge to find the right project creatively. In order for a project to work, it has to have a voice. To achieve that in a co-production world is a challenge. If you could achieve it, the prize would be fantastic. It’s something we talk about a lot but haven’t done yet. The risky side is that you end up with something that’s a big of a fudge” if there are too many ideas from different partners being combined.

Young said that the key is to “build relationships.”

Talpa’s Rhodarmer agreed and added that building trust is “absolutely essential to the local success.” She said, “We’re exporting a format from our original territory, and we have our production experience, team and influence, but locally there is an established production team and they have their ideas how to locally adapt that format. Co-production is not just selling a format or script and saying, Good luck! You want to be a part of that process hand in hand with the local producers. The trust and how you work together are essential for success.”

FILM.UA’s Vyshnevska urged the production community to “put more effort into trying to find those stories. If we do, the payoffs could be great. The big production and distribution companies focus on English-language first, so maybe try to focus on non-English content and find the right story. We can produce it at a very appealing price point!”