Studio Glam ID Searches for Global Format Partners

The Tel Aviv-based Studio Glam launched Studio Glam ID (International Development) in September to operate as a separate entity alongside the company. The new venture focuses on international partnerships with channels, production companies and distributors, with the goal of co-developing original formats for the global market and meeting the needs of specific territories.

Ami Glam, founder and CEO of Studio Glam (whose remit also includes overseeing the creative side of Studio Glam ID), explains: “For us [Studio Glam ID] is another step in the development of our content company. We started working a lot with the international market and this is our first major aim in establishing the studio.” He adds, “We realized that this was our way forward as a studio: establishing direct co-developments and cooperations with different channels and companies outside of Israel, and extending our direct market, working toward new projects together.”

Glam continues, “Today, working with different territories that have the same needs and working with one idea that [has the potential to travel] to another place is just basic nature.” He believes in aligning with partners that respect each other and that understand how they can all benefit from working together.

A central goal for Studio Glam ID is creating formats that are tailored for specific territories. According to Glam, the production company is focusing on five to seven different territories across Latin America, and Western and Eastern Europe. He believes that nowadays, it is more beneficial to have what he calls a “tailor-made” focus on creating a format that will work well in a specific territory, rather than trying to generate an idea that will sell internationally right off the bat. “We don’t necessarily work on something that we say, ‘OK, this is for 50 territories,’” Glam says, though he admits, “Of course, if that happens, it’s a dream [come true].”

Studio Glam ID is planning to work on projects with channels, production companies and distributors. “We can do business with everyone,” Glam says. This is because the company is not set on having Studio Glam serve as the distributor on all projects generated through Studio Glam ID. “We believe that we can work with many partners,” he explains. “It’s not that you have to have it all. We don’t believe in having 100 percent of nothing. We believe in having a certain percent of something. In this way, we believe that in order to create something, you need many partners that believe in the show.”

“Our first aim is content,” says Glam. If Studio Glam ID strikes a deal with a company that already has a distributor in place, it is willing to work with that distributor. “If they don’t have [a distributor], we can decide together which company is the right partner to take the distribution,” he says. “If we think together that Studio Glam will be the best option for the distribution, then this is what we’ll do, but [having Studio Glam serve as the distributor] is not our first priority.” He emphasizes, “We are not interfering with or intimidating anyone that has a specific goal for distribution or production.”

To this end, Glam explains, “We’re trying to make Studio Glam ID work as a partnership both ways: first on the development side and second on the business side, so we are in the middle.”

According to Glam, the new entity is looking to fill gaps in the format market by focusing on a different approach to three areas within non-scripted programming: studio-entertainment formats, factual entertainment and reality shows. With regard to studio-entertainment formats, Glam believes that there is a market for something other than run-of-the-mill game shows or talent shows. Studio Glam already has a challenge competition, Double or Nothing, that it believes offers a new take on the studio-based format, and is working on a show in the dating field that the executive says will “enter the studio in a different way.”

Many players in the format business have acknowledged that there is a hunt on for the “next big thing,” and Glam sees his mission as finding the “next step in TV.” He says the key is “not what is the next big thing, but what is the new language that we can bring?” He elaborates: “We really spend a lot of time talking about the philosophy of television, trying to understand the things that are behind us to find the next step. This is something that I want to try to do in every format that I create, to see if we can say something new.”

Glam adds, “This is why we want to expand, because we believe that there are different needs for different territories. Different partners can enrich and support our development, and together we can find that new reinvention.

“It takes time, and we know that this new division is something that we need to work hard on and to spend a lot on—both time and money—but we really believe that this is the best way forward in achieving our goals in the industry.” Glam hopes to continue to extend the company’s footprint outside of Israel, with an eye toward partnerships in the U.S. in particular.