Twentieth Century Fox’s Erika Saito

Erika Saito, VP of sales at Twentieth Century Fox Television Distribution, shares with TV Formats the studio’s strategy for adapting some of its hit drama and comedy brands in markets across the globe.

TV FORMATS: What are some of your biggest scripted-format brands? And why do you think they’ve been successful?
SAITO: The big formats for us are Modern Family, Prison Break and How I Met Your Mother. They have a lot of scripts, there’s a lot of worldwide [awareness about] them; universal themes are at the heart of those shows, and local production companies and broadcasters are very familiar with the brands. They can envision the benefits of having a local version on their channels.

Modern Family has been very successful for us because that show in particular is setting a new trend. Internationally, in most countries, there is the very formulaic type of comedy that exists. Modern Family pushes the envelope to create what is at the heart of what people want—a family comedy— but it’s driven by unique perspectives such as a gay couple or May-December romances.

TV FORMATS: Can you give an example of a challenge a successful scripted-format brand has faced?
SAITO: We produced Bones in Russia recently. It’s doing really well for us. The chemistry is great between the two main characters. We were very proud of the way that turned out. They produced it for a fraction of what the U.S. budget was. The biggest challenge we have with selling Bones is the cost. International productions don’t typically have access to the same budgets we have here. We would like to see Bones up and running in more territories, but we have to figure out how to make it cost effective for our clients.

TV FORMATS: Tell us about how you work with your format partners on getting these adaptations off the ground.
SAITO: Typically, what we try to do is get a feel for the production company and/or broadcaster that we’re working with. Some of the production companies are very well versed at what they’re doing. They have a very clear vision of how they want to produce a show. At that point, our job is to read the scripts and make sure they’re within the brand and let them do what they’re best at doing. Other times, they need a little bit of help, which can be something as small as trimming their budget costs or as big as setting up a writers’ room. If necessary, we can send consultants onsite to help facilitate our client’s specific needs.

TV FORMATS: Given your huge library, how do you decide what shows to offer up the format rights to in any given market?
SAITO: We go production company by production company, broadcaster by broadcaster, and ask them, what [genre] are you trying to fill? What is working in your territory and what type of audience are you producing for? Fortunately, we have an enormous catalogue, which allows us to fill specific needs. [If they say] we’re looking for a comedy, it needs to be young, we can pull How I Met Your Mother or It’s Always Sunny… [We have everything from] mainstream to edgy, so we have the ability to get very specific with each of our broadcasters.

TV FORMATS: Do you tend to license the format and tape to the same broadcaster?
SAITO: We’ve had situations where the U.S. show has started on one broadcaster and they no longer want it and another broadcaster picks it up. There’s no exact formula for that. Typically we have relationships and partnerships in each country. We want to make sure the channel that is producing the show is the right channel for it.

TV FORMATS: What are some of your key format markets?
SAITO: Russia is historically [the biggest market for Fox’s scripted formats]. We have a couple of deals in India that I’m very excited about. There’s so much development and excitement surrounding that country right now. We’re in production on our second season of 24 with Bollywood star Anil Kapoor. Season one did really well and this type of programming was groundbreaking for their country. In France, Quad Productions [produced for] TF1 a show called Le secret d’Elise [based on] The Oaks. It’s an enormous success for them. They are very happy with it and we are very proud of the production that they have pulled together. Those are brand-new territories for us. France in particular has always been a very difficult country to break into with formats. We’re hoping the trend is changing, that we’re not relying on countries that need access to tons of scripts with minimal collaboration. Hopefully we are creating these partnerships with a common goal of producing successful programming with our broadcasters in prime time.

TV FORMATS: Are you looking to also do tape sales on the international versions of your scripted formats?
SAITO: We see the future of this business as being able to not only create these productions for the local territories but then take the assets and sell them worldwide.

TV FORMATS: What benefits do scripted formats offer broadcasters?
SAITO: A broadcaster’s biggest challenge is knowing whether or not a show is going to work. [With a scripted format] they typically know if it will work for them based on the success in the U.S. When the brand is well known, you can see what makes it a successful formula—whether it’s because of the actors or the writing—and you also get to know what the strengths and weaknesses are of those shows.

TV FORMATS: How do you see the future of the scripted-formats market? Are there new territories you’re looking to do business in?
SAITO: I believe [the scripted-formats market] is very promising. For many years doing this felt as though it was no, no, no. And then all of a sudden those same nos became yeses, and now we’re trying to pick who we work with. It’s a very interesting time. More people are getting involved with it. There’s a global sense of interest, not only from international companies wanting U.S. content but the U.S. companies wanting international content.

We have deals in various stages in Turkey, Mexico, Russia and the Middle East, and discussions in other territories in Asia, like Korea. Turkey has not only the demand of scripted formats, but also a successful relicensing model for those finished shows.

China continues to be a difficult market to break into, but is still very interesting to us. China is very tough because it’s all government regulated. There, they have to go into production and produce every episode and then hope the government is going to say OK, you can go on air! It’s a challenge to expect clients to come up with a production budget for 22 episodes and then [regulators] have to see all of them before they give you the green light to go to air. We’d like to spend more time trying to figure out how to work with local producers, but at this stage, it feels as though it is still evolving.