Sydney Suissa

TV Real Weekly, December 3, 2008

Executive VP, Content

National Geographic Channels International

Imagine if you could go on a spaceship to the edge of the universe. What would it look like? What would you see? National Geographic Channels International’s (NGCI) upcoming two-hour special Journey to the Edge of the Universe looks to answer these questions and more, all played out in cutting-edge CGI. "It’s quite spectacular and unique looking," says Sydney Suissa, NGCI’s executive VP of content. "We have a big theme week built around it called Space Week coming in January."

Also coming down the pipeline from NGCI is the new event Herod’s Lost Tomb, which is based on the discovery of King Herod’s tomb near Jerusalem. Coming up in February is a two-hour expedition called Kingdom of the Blue Whale. "This is a National Geographic expedition to find something that’s never been found before, which is the calving grounds of the blue whale," explains Suissa. "We know so little about these majestic mammals and this is an expedition to find out a lot more about them."

Big event specials are nothing new for NGCI, which has been taking viewers to rarely-seen corners of the earth for more than a decade. But what is new for the company is live programming. "We just finished two big events, most recently, and they stretched us in great ways because we decided to do live events. One was Jetman Live, and just [last month] we finished a whole week of broadcasts out of South Africa called Caught on Safari: Live! Doing live events for an international audience is really, as you can imagine, complicated, with the different time zones and versioning and dubbing. But the results, so far that we’ve seen out of those two events, have been superb. Those were very exciting because they pushed us out of our comfort zone and they were quite innovative."

But pushing the boundaries of what’s been seen and done is something that Suissa, and NGCI, thrive on. "One of my strategies is always to find the fine balance between what viewers expect and want from us and at the same time being innovative and coming up with programming that is new and fresh. I would like to keep pushing the live format in the future because I think it has immense potential for us, and we’re ideally suited for it because of our expertise. There are a number of shows that are built around unique access, and one of the great strengths of National Geographic is that the brand is a passport. It can get us access to places, stories and locations that very few other people can get to. That’s always an important part of our strategy; making sure that we have enough of those shows every year."

Another one of the core strategies for NGCI is finding synergies between its flagship National Geographic Channel and the new channels it’s launched, such as Nat Geo Wild, Nat Geo Adventure and Nat Geo Music. Suissa explains, "When we have a big event on the core channel, we have to make sure that we create a tail of programming on another channel that can feed off that event. Let’s say we’re doing Kingdom of the Blue Whale, we’ll have a special about some of the other big, beautiful mammals of the deep blue on Nat Geo Wild. We have to constantly make sure that we are finding those great synergies between all our channels. That’s really important and is central to our strategy."

Also central to NGCI’s core is expansion, be it with launching new channels or extending the reach of its established networks into new markets. And when looking at priority markets for expansion, Suissa explains that there are two different approaches he examines. The first he calls "the growth markets," which are where channels have launched but the company still sees strong potential. "Out of the growth markets right now, the ones I’m most excited about and see the biggest potential in are in Eastern Europe, Turkey and Russia. I think those are very exciting markets for us with great opportunities where our brand is very strong. The other type of market is ‘the mature markets,’ where we’re fully penetrated and it’s about increasing the share. There, it’s much more about the competition and making sure that you’re topping them. Of our mature markets, the two priority ones would definitely be the U.K. and Italy. Those are markets that I pay very close attention to, that we supplement strongly with local programming to make sure that we remain very competitive."

Suissa, who has more than 20 years experience in documentary and journalistic production, says that looking down the line, some of his main priorities include the expansion on Nat Geo Wild, keeping NGCI’s slate stocked with big event series and pushing wildlife programming forward by making use of new technologies. Coming up with new cultural programming is also top of mind for Suissa. "Taking a look at other cultures and how other people live is very important to the brand," he says. "One of the areas that we’re doing a lot of new programming on is what I would call ‘reverse anthropology,’ where we work with natives from other very different cultures and we bring them into the western culture and have them look at our culture. So, rather than us looking at them, they are looking at us. I think this is an interesting way of not only learning about other cultures, but also learning about ourselves."

And being immersed in other cultures is something that Suissa truly values about his role at NGCI, he explains. "I have to tell you that one of the great things about this job is that it makes me a global citizen. I get to see this wonderful, amazing view of the world. I get this fantastic perspective on it. And personally, I absolutely love that."

–By Kristin Brzoznowski