Programmer Profile: Disney EMEA’s Orion Ross

PREMIUM: Orion Ross, the VP of original series for Disney Channels EMEA, details the company’s strategy for producing animation in Europe.

TV KIDS: Why has it been important to drive original animation creation out of Europe?
ROSS: I think it’s mostly a function of the maturity of the channel business in Europe—the growth in subscribers and revenue has been huge. With the total acquisition of Jetix and the [rebrand] to Disney XD, that pushed up our business in Europe to a whole other level. We’ve always felt like it’s important to be local in terms of how we speak to our audiences. In the past, that usually took the form of interstitials wrapped around U.S. content—obviously, really good dubbing and adaptation of U.S. content. And, I think that there’s a feeling that this really needs to be an international business and in addition to the great stuff that comes out of Burbank, we need to be looking to work with the best talent in Europe that will speak to audiences that are tuning into us. So, it’s about finding Disney-quality characters and shows that embody all the brand values that will work for Disney globally, originated from European creators and European studios.

The reason we have a regional setup for animation in Europe is that animation travels really well if you get it right—it’s something that can work on lots of different platforms and in lots of different places. So, while we have some live-action that we’re doing in Europe as well, there’s a big push out of London, which is where I’m based, to do European animation. So, we’re working with great studios in France, Ireland and elsewhere on new pilots. In the past couple of years it was a lot about co-production to begin with—that made sense for us to be able to get that kind of content made quickly and efficiently. Now what we’re really focusing on is making the first generation of wholly owned Disney shows that are originated from Europe. So, we work very closely with Eric Rollman [president, Marvel Animation] and his team in Burbank to make sure that we’re complementing what they’re developing. We compare notes, we even share some talent. They’ve got tons of European designers working on Tron. We’ve got U.S. story editors and board supervisors coming to work over on some of our French shows.

TV KIDS: Is it mostly you and your team coming up with ideas internally and then seeking out the production companies? Or, are they coming to you?
ROSS: We take a lot of pitches. We try to keep the door open as much as you possibly can. I would say mostly it’s things that are pitched to us—often things will come either from a writer who doesn’t have a visual idea yet, or a studio attached and we’ll put them together with a studio and help make that happen. Or, sometimes it’s design-based and there’s a character designer that we love who’s come up with some great characters and we’ll find the right writing to go with it.

Every project is set up in a different way and the fun thing—it’s also a challenge—is that we work in different ways on every project with different studios across Europe. We don’t have a one size fits all kind of production approach.

The downside, of course, is that all the talent in Europe is really fragmented. There’s brilliant people, but there’s some in Barcelona, some in Paris, some in Milan, some in London, some in Ireland. We’re learning about how to put it together and the people we’re working with are learning how Disney works globally, so it’s a fun challenge but it definitely feels like we are forging ahead into new and uncharted territory. But that’s the fun bit.

TV KIDS: How do you bring together all these pieces to deliver a show that will work across multiple territories?
ROSS: It’s always a challenge. And making funny that really works universally is quite difficult. I think great characters will work across many different platforms and personality can translate really well. You may have trouble translating verbal humor. You may have trouble with things that are pun-based. I think British comedy suffers a lot from being very, very verbal and that makes it difficult to work globally. If you’re making a show that never really needs to play beyond France, then you’ll set it up in a different way than you would if you’re trying make a show that uses some French talent that needs to play globally.

TV KIDS: Co-productions are so important to getting shows financed; how do you manage the creative challenges they present?
ROSS: One of the risks of global co-production is that you get so many partners involved that you get kind of global mush because you’re trying to please this person, and this broadcaster, and this thing and this thing and rather than being an advantage, which it should be when you’re really pulling the best talent from everywhere, you wind up with this kind of soup of mediocrity. And there’s that limit that you hit in terms of funding that at a certain point nobody really believes if you put that much more into it that they’re going to make that much more money. The great thing about trying to work on these Disney wholly owned shows is that we can put more money on the screen. If it’s a Disney property, we’ll put everything behind it, every line of business will line up to support it, which is a huge opportunity. Co-productions can work as long as you have a really solid vision from the creator and everyone agrees to get behind it.

TV KIDS: Where do you want to see the London animation hub a year from now?
ROSS: My goals are very simple, which is to make great pilots and get shows into production. And then once those are in production have another crop of paper development shows that are ready to go to pilot and just keep cranking them out. No show that you work on, even if you love it the most, is a guaranteed success, so you’ve got to have a diverse portfolio, you’ve got to keep trying new stuff. We want to be, obviously, producing great work, but we also want to be fun to work with and we want people, when they’re pitching or they’re thinking about who’s going to make their great kids’ show idea, will come to us first. So, I guess that’s the main thing. Make a bunch of shows that rate really well and are huge global, monster hits—that would be nice.