L.A. Screenings Buyer Feedback: ProSiebenSat.1’s Rüdiger Böss

MUNICH: Rüdiger Böss, the senior VP of group programming acquisitions at ProSiebenSat.1, was impressed by both the quantity and quality of pilots presented at this year’s L.A. Screenings.

“While there wasn’t a clear frontrunner among the pilots,” he says, “there were many, many good shows.” This was particularly helpful because Böss acquires for four different channels, whose programming is diversified by the age group they want to attract: the youth-skewing ProSieben; Sat.1, which goes for an older crowd, the 30-59 age group; Kabel Eins targets an in-between demo of 25-to-45, and sixx is a female-skewing channel. Starting in the fall, ProSieben Max will join the group and seek predominantly young male viewers.

At the Screenings, Böss was, first of all, very satisfied with all the sitcoms he saw. “It’s possible we could be acquiring 80 percent of the good ones,” he explains. “I am very happy for ProSieben because we can continue our strategy of having sitcoms in prime time. It’s been very successful. We have The Simpsons, How I Met Your Mother, The Big Bang Theory and Two and a Half Men.

Among the new comedies screened in Los Angeles, Böss liked Friends with Better Lives (Twentieth Century Fox Television Distribution), Mom and Surviving Jack (both from Warner Bros International Television Distribution). “These are very strong sitcoms we can air in prime time,” says Böss.

“On the drama side I must say there are very good shows,” he continues. “Two of the best are Hostages, which is a very high-concept drama but very well done from Warner Bros., and also The Blacklist from Sony, with James Spader.”

Böss has already acquired Under the Dome (CBS Studios International). “We are looking forward to airing that—it will start off our fall season,” he says.

Böss noticed three general trends among the pilots on view at this year’s Screenings. “On the sitcom side we are back to family. On the drama side fantasy/sci-fi is coming again; we see it in The 100 and Almost Human [both from Warner Bros International Television Distribution] and Star-Crossed [CBS Studios International]."

This emphasis on fantasy and science fiction works to ProSieben’s advantage. “These types of shows have always done well with our main target,” says Böss. “The X-Files and Supernatural, they work perfectly well on our channel.”

The last trend is one that may present some scheduling challenges—the limited series that almost every U.S. broadcast network is experimenting with. “We have to have 22 episodes, but the U.S. networks are saying, ‘OK we will do maybe only 15 or 13 episodes to tell the story.’ This is also a challenge for us,” explains Böss. Easy-to-schedule procedurals did not comprise the majority of the pilots this year, “which means we have to find a clever way to schedule these limited series to give viewers the chance to watch these shows,” he continues. “We have to offer them on catch-up and show them more often so they get to the audience.”