South African Exports

Mandy Roger, the head of sales, acquisitions and business development at M-Net, talks about the company’s foray into format sales.

The South African pay-TV service M-Net has brought its audience local adaptations of such world-renowned formats as Big Brother and Idols. After a long tradition of importing international concepts, M-Net has now made moves to export its own ideas globally, entering the format-sales arena.

“Sales and demand of both M-Net and African content has increased exponentially in the last year,” says Mandy Roger, the company’s head of sales, acquisitions and business development. “International channels are realizing that there is huge value in broadcasting niche or ethnic content. To this end, the step to formats was a natural progression for us considering the sales successes of the past.”

Roger says that there were a number of shows already running on M-Net channels that had great format potential, “so it was a case of reformatting two titles as well as creating four new ones.”

These formats “incorporate a little bit of our culture and diversity,” says Roger. Even with the South African flavor, the concepts are easy to translate, Roger notes, “as most countries out there are becoming so diversified and the formats appeal to and embrace that change.”

Among the formats in the M-Net Sales catalogue are Duet Date, a dating and entertainment format in which an audience of singles perform karaoke. Way of the Warrior involves a group of couch potatoes who try to master Muay Thai martial arts. Piano Piano, which is already a hit Afrikaans series, features piano-playing duels. The pianists are also joined by celebrity guests, who try their hand at tickling the ivories.

“We have stuck to shows and ideas that are easy to reproduce, light hearted and uplifting and easily transferable internationally as they aren’t successful as a result of the culture, language, religion and sense of humor in specific territories,” says Roger.

In building its initial format slate, M-Net first embarked on a fact-finding mission, to get a better of sense of what the needs are in various markets. “We developed six new formats after researching the Central and Eastern European markets to present at NATPE Budapest,” Roger explains. “Once we get a bit more experience and get to know the market better we will expand the catalogue with more specifically created formats.”

Europe, the Middle East and Asia are M-Net’s primary targets at the moment for sales, according to Roger. “Reason being is that the U.K. and U.S. are difficult markets to crack and we feel we would be better placed to target these markets once we have a proven track record of success to speak about. European markets in particular seem to be looking for new, different formats, too, and are open to new ideas from new broadcasters.”

The slate has titles that will work for both prime time and daytime slots, and are mostly low budget and cost effective, given the current economic climate. The catalogue features “uplifting shows,” Roger notes, that are generally studio-based and get the audience and members of the public involved.