TV Real: 2010 Year in Review

It was another strong year for the behemoths of the factual industry, as the big three maintained their dominance and expanded with new ventures. National Geographic Channels (NGC) continued to aggressively rollout its bouquet of leading factual networks around the globe. New launches for channels such as Nat Geo Wild, Nat Geo Adventure, the +2 networks and various HD services spread across a number of territories, from Belgium to Malaysia to Australia. National Geographic Society’s content production and distribution arm, National Geographic Ventures, set up a new international operation to support its various business lines throughout the world, which diversified significantly last year, with localized websites, wide distribution points for home entertainment, mobile apps and more. Nat Geo also continued to increase its regional production initiatives. These efforts included a partnership with Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) aimed at fostering local documentary filmmaking through the "Hong Kong to the World" documentary production project.

Discovery Communications hit a new milestone in 2010, as its flagship Discovery Channel, which celebrated its 25th anniversary, passed the 100-million subscriber mark in the U.S. This made it the second-most widely distributed cable network in the country. Discovery Channel continued to draw eyeballs with its Shark Week programming event. The 23rd installment of the shark-themed broadcasting stunt was the most successful in the network’s history, pulling in 30.8 million viewers with its run from August 1 to 7, and increasing online viewership by 324 percent. Looking to replicate the global success of its flagship service, Discovery has started rolling out the female-skewing lifestyle network TLC worldwide. The international version debuted in Norway in March, and continued to make its way across Europe, the Asia Pacific and Latin America. Discovery Networks International even set up a dedicated production and development unit exclusively for TLC International. The launch of TLC in Russia is among Discovery’s expansion efforts planned for the country. Other Russian initiatives for 2011 include the introduction of a commercial-free science education block on Discovery Channel and an increased investment in local content.

AETN International, too, had a fruitful 2010. Channels such as HISTORY, Military History and Crime & Investigation continued to grab slots across the globe, and program sales were strong in all genres of the portfolio. AETN launched the landmark project America: The Story of Us, a 12-hour series done with Jane Root and her production outfit Nutopia, at MIPTV, ahead of its U.S. debut. When the series did premiere on HISTORY later that month, it garnered 5.7 million total viewers with its first episode, making it the network’s highest-rated, most watched special ever. Internationally, the company signed a joint venture this fall with Network18 Group to launch its channel brands in India.

As Nat Geo, Discovery and AETN produce much of their own content, smaller documentary outfits have been faced with difficult times. To compete, many began to expand into lighter fare, such as factual entertainment and lifestyle, to appeal to a broader range of networks. Shed Media launched a factual-entertainment division, Watershed TV, focused on making programs around social and current-affairs issues. ALL3MEDIA expanded its offerings with the acquisition of Optomen, along with its U.S. production arm, Optomen Productions, and its joint-venture subsidiary with Gordon Ramsay, One Potato Two. Shaftesbury Films launched a factual division that will produce across a broad range of non-scripted genres, with programming rooted in unique characters in compelling real-life situations.

The real-life highs and lows of 2010 made for some compelling documentaries and specials over the year. The Gulf oil spill was covered extensively on National Geographic Channel with exclusive, never-before-seen footage from the first 36 hours of the disaster. Sony Pictures Television’s football documentary How to Win the FIFA World Cup clinched deals worldwide in the run-up to and during the global sports competition. Another project, Earth on Pause, co-produced by La cuisine aux images, Grizzly Productions and Canal+, captured the emotions of people from around the world as they watched the World Cup final. Also capturing a slice of life, Ridley Scott and Kevin Macdonald teamed up with YouTube for the project Life in a Day. The video-sharing site was used to collect submissions from users to be integrated into a documentary feature that will premiere at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. When all eyes turned to the rescue of the Chilean miners, Thom Beers’ Original Productions piggybacked off the interest to launch the new series Coal, which will make its way to Spike TV in April 2011. Another hot topic for the year to come is sure to be the royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton.

The year is already off to a strong start for factual programming, as 2011 got under way with the January 1 launch of OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network in the U.S. The channel, which will head to Canada later in the year, has lined up a slew of original non-scripted series and also features a monthly doc film club that will showcase acquired films and original documentaries, with celebrities such as Julia Roberts, Forest Whitaker, Goldie Hawn, Gabriel Byrne and Mariel Hemingway on board to produce their own projects.  

New lifestyle and factual channel launches will hopefully continue throughout 2011, giving more slots for the independent distributors, without their own networks, to place their shows. The appetite for current affairs, lifestyle and real-life series is out there. However, with limited space the competition within the doc community remains stiff. This is why having a diversified catalogue seems to be increasingly appealing for distributors in the doc market and is likely to become even more prevalent as the year goes on. Also alluring for 2011 are the prospects that 3D has been presenting for the factual industry. Sony, Discovery and IMAX are soon to launch their own 3D network, which will feature a number of original and acquired non-scripted series and factual films. Indeed, 3D will continue to open up new opportunities for the doc market in the year ahead.

TV Real Weekly will continue to cover all the latest innovations, trends and headline-making stories from the factual arena each week. Also, be on the lookout for a new service dedicated to this part of the industry to come from World Screen in 2011.