Robert Bakish

This interview originally appeared in the MIPTV 2014 issue of World Screen.

Some of the most well-known TV brands in the world are part of Viacom International Media Networks (VIMN). Leading the pack is MTV, which in the ’80s and ’90s promoted dozens of artists and launched the careers of numerous directors thanks to the success of music videos. With its emphasis on music, a universal language, MTV also attracted viewers from around the world—the young and the young at heart—in a way no other channel ever had before. It has kept its finger on the pulse of its audience through a mix of shows: reality programming (long before it became a global phenomenon) with series like The Real World and, more recently, Jersey Shore—which has generated a string of local adaptations; live awards, starting with MTV Video Music Awards; and pro-social initiatives such as partnering with a variety of sponsors in the Staying Alive Foundation, which promotes the prevention of HIV.

For younger viewers, Nickelodeon has offered some of the biggest live-action hits for tweens—Drake & Josh, iCarly and Sam & Cat, just to name a few. SpongeBob SquarePants, the wisecracker who lives under sea, is a household name. And from The Ren & Stimpy Show, The Fairly OddParents and Sanjay and Craig to the re-invention of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Nick has given hours of laughter to kids. The channel’s signature live event is the Kids’ Choice Awards. And littlest viewers are offered preschool programming through Nick Jr.

Among the other channels in the VIMN portfolio are Comedy Central, BET and the Paramount Channel. All together the Viacom brands are seen in some 700 million households, in 170 territories, through more than 200 TV channels. This portfolio is accompanied by more than 550 digital and mobile properties. As Robert Bakish, VIMN’s president and CEO, knows well, the young demos targeted by all of these linear and digital services are viewing content on every possible screen and device available.

Bakish is spearheading the growth of VIMN brands around the world and he sees plenty of opportunities, across a number of businesses: successful formats, linear channels, apps and digital assets, consumer properties and more. The key is VIMN’s “glocal” approach—part global, part local.

WS: VIMN airs award shows on a number of channels. Do live events boost viewing on linear channels?
BAKISH: Live events are a very important part of our business and are valuable as a social currency to our young viewers, who might be Nickelodeon viewers, MTV viewers, Comedy Central or BET viewers. For kids we have a franchise called KCA, the Kids’ Choice Awards. We’ve done it in different ways. In the current version it’s an event held in the U.S., but consistent with this “glocal” model, we add key local components to it. In 2013, we had 15 localized voting sites. We sent crews from most of our Nickelodeon channels around the world to Los Angeles, where we shot local awards, and international fans could vote in some 22 local categories. There were local winners that we then integrated into the U.S. show. That gave a little localization for our international channels that aired the show. KCA is great for our consumers, it’s great for advertisers and it’s an example of the power of that kind of programming.

On MTV, beside the EMAs [Europe Music Awards], we also do events year round. We tend to air them under our World Stage banner—there are things like Isle of MTV Malta, World Stage Malaysia, World Stage México, and so on. We say that in this digitally connected world there is no substitute for live [events]; we see that passion on fans’ faces as they are having this communal experience with other fans listening to great music. Events are a very important part of what we do and will continue to be in the future.

WS: How have you been rolling out Comedy Central and BET internationally?
BAKISH: About two years ago, we looked at Comedy Central. It was a U.S. and European brand, and we decided it needed to be a global brand. We went on an aggressive expansion program where we lit up Africa, all of Latin America, more of CEE and we launched in Asia. In the last 18 to 24 months its distribution has doubled in size—we have some 28 Comedy Central channels and it has become the only global comedy network.

In operating it we pursue the same “glocal” philosophy as our other brands. We take global hits, which in Comedy Central’s case tend to be off-network product, shows like Two and a Half Men and Anger Management, and we supplement it with our own product. On the local level Comedy Central is a significant player in stand-up comedy. We have also been developing made-for-Comedy Central international product. We had a show, Threesome, last year that worked very well. We have Popoz (which is a translation of Cops), a Dutch show that is working for us, and we have a series of shows at the pilot stage that we are looking to launch later in the year.

Comedy Central has plenty of [potential] ahead of it and we will continue to build it out. It also helps us in the advertising space because it gives us exposure to the adult market—as opposed to the youth and kids’ market—which is a place where we have very low share and therefore plenty of opportunity.

BET is also an expansion network. Last year, to complete our U.K. distribution, we did a key deal with Virgin, and now, with either the Virgin or Sky EPGs you get BET. On the back of that we have seen extremely healthy ratings growth. We are also in Africa in a variety in countries. We are about to launch in France, where we’ve had a block on MTV and that will be expanding on a different frequency to a 24-hour service.

After Comedy Central the next big brand is going to be Paramount Channel. We launched in Spain first, then in France at the end of September. We had major launches in February in Russia and Hungary. It is an ad-supported film channel and relies heavily on the Paramount library, but in the case of Spain, we have a whole bunch of local titles there. That channel continues to grow audience share month after month and has proven to be very successful.

WS: Nickelodeon is a very strong brand, but it is present in some very crowded markets—the U.K. comes to mind. What gives it its competitive edge?
BAKISH: Nick is a great contemporary kids’ entertainment brand. Its success is due in large part to its significant and growing pipeline of both live-action and animated content, both of which travel well. SpongeBob SquarePants has been a hit everywhere in the world, including in China on CCTV. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which the Nick crew has reinvented for today’s kids, is doing very well and there is also a feature film coming. Our live-action show Sam & Cat is a hit all over the world.

The success of Nickelodeon starts with our shared global pipeline, which emanates from the U.S., and like other services, we supplement that. We’ve done formats like House of Anubis, which was a show originally created in the Netherlands, where it did very well. We then did a German version that did very well. Then, in partnership with Nickelodeon U.S., we did an English-language version for the world, which was shot in the U.K. but had some U.S. talent in front of and behind the camera and it did well around the world. We supplement Nickelodeon with shared international programming as well as relevant local product like Olive the Ostrich in the U.K. or Camp Orange in Australia. Then we have events like KCA that is the signature event.

Globally, Nickelodeon is one of the most recognized and widely distributed multimedia brands for kids and families. We reach 350 million homes in about 110 countries with around 75 channels. And it’s not only the core Nick channel; we also have Nick Jr., and Nicktoons in the U.K., and that allows us to super-serve segments of the kids’ audience.

WS: Are you also serving children on screens other than the TV?
BAKISH: We’re in the middle of rolling out a really cool Nick app.  It’s not the first app we’ve done; we’ve done a bunch of franchise-specific apps, like a SpongeBob game and they all do very well in the iTunes and Android stores. But the Nick app—that umbrella brand app—has some very cool-looking features, like this big button in the middle of the screen that says “Do Not Touch,” and of course all kids touch! It’s fun to play with. In the U.S. it’s being rolled out as an authenticated device for cable subscribers. Internationally, we are looking at different models; in some cases we will do that, in some cases we might roll it out more on a standalone basis. We have rolled the Nick app out in the U.K. to great success, with more countries coming.

We’ve also done a cool new product called My Nick Jr., which is a multiplatform Nick Jr. channel that allows parents to become the programmers.  You sign on as a parent and put in some parameters for your kids—age, what kind of shows and games you want them to focus on, how long you want them to use the device, etc.—and then the child plays on a customized version. If your child is watching on a TV and you say, “Oh I’ve got to run out to the grocery store to get some milk,” no problem; you can press pause on the TV, pick up the tablet, hop in the car, press play, and the show picks up where it left off. We want to make sure we’re bringing innovative versions of Nick to today’s kids to get the most out of this great programming lineup.

We also do a lot on the consumer-products side. The current big hit is Turtles; that business is growing like weeds! We have a feature film coming from Paramount. Nickelodeon has remained relevant. It’s a great brand, with great creative, a lot of hard work and a lot of great ideas.

WS: Most of the economies in Latin America are doing well. Is it a good market for you?
BAKISH: Absolutely. Sometimes people think of Latin America 20 years ago when the economies and the currencies were tougher, but it’s been a great growth market; certainly for pay TV it’s a great growth market. We have multiple brands active there: MTV, Nick, and we launched Comedy Central both in Spanish and Portuguese. If you look at the development of the middle class, first they are buying pay television and then they are getting larger packages. That market has a long way ahead of it and we will be launching more brands, perhaps as soon as later this calendar year. The ad market continues to grow; the fundamentals of that continent are sound.

It’s also a great place to do creative. We have a substantial facility in Buenos Aires where we do a lot of short-form content, and increasingly long-form production. We’ve done MTV novelas and Nick novelas and they have been great ratings generators. In fact, we recently took one of the Nickelodeon novelas called Grachi, we created an English-language version of it with our Miami team that debuted in the U.S. recently [Every Witch Way] and is performing extremely well. Latin America is not only a great market to serve; it’s also a great market to create in. There is lot of excitement ahead, perhaps most exciting is that we took back our MTV license [in Brazil] and launched an owned-and-operated service in October. It’s off to a very strong start, with almost full distribution right out of the gate.

WS: And you also have a lot going on in India.
BAKISH: We have a fifty-fifty joint venture called Viacom18; our partner is Network18. Seven years ago, when I started, we had a 100-percent-owned operation in India. We had been there for a while, but we decided we wanted to be a more substantial player given the importance of the market. We decided to make a major commitment there and thought it was relevant to bring in the right kind of local partner, so we created Viacom18. We went on to launch Colors, which is a true general-entertainment network. That went on to re-write history in this space. We went from zero to number one in a very short period of time, something nobody thought could be done. And today there are four general-entertainment networks at the top of the ratings and we’re always in that group.

Colors is an out-and-out hit. It has gone on to be exported all over the world. We have Aapka Colors in the U.S. We have Colors in the U.K. and the Middle East, and we have program sales all around the world. Colors has become a powerhouse Indian entertainment brand with all original programming created for the Indian consumer. The core is Bollywood novelas, serialized strips telling Indian stories that often involve a lot of music.

We also continue to operate MTV and [have launched Pepsi MTV Indies], which has a different feel particularly on the music side. We operate a number of kids’ ser­vices—Nick, Sonic—and we brought Comedy Central in as an English-language service. And we’re not done yet. You will see us make some moves in India in the not-too-distant future. It’s great business and we’re thrilled with our partnership and with having a leading position in that market.

WS: What other regions are you targeting for growth?
BAKISH: We’re in most places where there is a semblance of an economy. It’s easier to talk about where we’re not! We’re not in North Korea. In general we have a pretty wide reach; however, the opportunity comes in increasing our participation in a market and that comes through either taking an MTV or Nick and adding localization, or more likely comes from adding a Comedy Central or a Paramount Channel.

On the back of our success in India, we said we needed to deepen our participation in some of the less mature markets. We thought of doing more in Latin America, more in Brazil, more in Russia, and we are in the middle of bringing in another brand in some of the Eastern European markets.

There is certainly a broad palette of opportunities out there, and some of these higher-growth markets are important. We’ve had a lot of growth in Africa too, and are thrilled with our African business. Georgia Arnold, the head of social responsibility, was recently in Nigeria with Alex Okosi, who runs our business in Africa, because we created a franchise called Shuga that relates to our work fighting HIV and AIDS and the MTV Staying Alive Foundation.

WS: Staying Alive is one of your major pro-social campaigns.
BAKISH: 2013 marked the 15th anniversary of Staying Alive. We work with the U.N. and we believe we’ve helped make a difference. Obviously, it’s a large and complex issue and continues to be an area of importance to our audiences, and is therefore important to our brand.  The MTV Staying Alive Foundation has handed out almost $5 million in grants in the last decade to fund local youth-led drives for HIV prevention all around the world, and has helped raise several more millions of dollars for the same cause.

We have also been active in helping to fight human trafficking with our MTV EXIT foundation, mostly in Asia. All of this sits under an umbrella brand called MTV Voices, which is an ongoing project of ours to encourage youth all around the world to think about causes. We support it digitally and on air.

Finally, at Viacom, social responsibility is part of our corporate DNA. We have [an annual] Viacommunity Day, when all our offices around the world participate in and support a range of causes. We believe you do well by doing good and we need to reflect the fact that we have tremendous reach from our media assets and we should employ them to attempt to make a difference in the lives of our viewers and their families.