{"id":7226,"date":"2019-10-07T13:00:11","date_gmt":"2019-10-07T17:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev2.worldscreen.com\/tvformats\/worldscreen.com\/"},"modified":"2019-10-07T13:15:03","modified_gmt":"2019-10-07T17:15:03","slug":"fremantles-rob-clark-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvformats\/fremantles-rob-clark-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"Fremantle’s Rob Clark"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"From Got Talent<\/em> to Idols<\/em>, Family Feud<\/em> to The Price is Right<\/em>, Fremantle is home to some of the biggest format brands in the business. Rob Clark, director of global entertainment, has been encouraging the teams at the company\u2019s vast network of production partners to keep a close eye on their local markets for innovative ideas that could become international hits. A champion of risk-taking, Clark tells TV Formats<\/em> how these efforts have been paying off, putting Fremantle in peak-performance mode creatively.<\/p>\n

TV FORMATS:<\/strong> Do you think that scripted \u201cpeak TV\u201d has peaked and the pendulum is swinging back the other way toward unscripted entertainment?
\nCLARK:<\/strong> Television is quite cyclical; people will commission more dramas, then get bored with that and commission more entertainment. If you look at major broadcasters, their entertainment commissioning is on the rise.<\/p>\n

When you can spot a trend, it\u2019s no longer worth spotting; it\u2019s a fact. It was a trend a few years ago, and now it\u2019s a fact: there are more people commissioning entertainment than there has been for a while.<\/p>\n

TV FORMATS:<\/strong> What types of entertainment are most in demand?
\nCLARK:<\/strong> One genre that has really gone into overdrive and is performing way above its normal benchmark is game shows. Looking at America, it\u2019s gone from being a game show-free zone five years ago to having prime-time schedules that have been dominated by game shows. ABC went from being a second [place] network to being the major network over the summer period, and they\u2019ve done that on the back of scheduling game shows on Sunday, Wednesday and Thursday nights. Among big commercial networks, game shows are certainly the genre that is attracting a lot of attention at the moment. After the success that ABC had in the States, we have been talking to all the major networks about other game shows that are available. ITV [in the U.K.] is commissioning game shows left, right and center. There seems to be a trend throughout Europe whereby networks are coming back to game shows.<\/p>\n

Again, it\u2019s cyclical. You often see increases in game-show commissions when the global economy is tanking. In 2007\u201308, that was the last spike in game-show commissions. Why? Because they\u2019re relatively economical, safe and they attract a broad family audience for co-viewing. Also, for a lot of younger people who are in the key demo that\u2019s so sought-after by broadcasters, they have never seen game shows! They\u2019re new to them. What is a heritage show for me is brand new for a 19-year-old; they don\u2019t know that it preexisted or who the old host was.<\/p>\n

This is good news for us because Fremantle is the home of the game show. We have a big catalog of game shows, and we have more game shows being made at the moment than we have for many years. We have 40 different brands of game shows being produced this year so far.<\/p>\n

TV FORMATS:<\/strong> What\u2019s your view on the quest for \u201cthe next big thing\u201d?
\nCLARK:<\/strong> The idea that there\u2019s never going to be another global hit is utter nonsense. [Laughs<\/em>] The networks are desperate for global hits. If it\u2019s a hit that\u2019s traveled, it proves that the format works and can attract an audience.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s an argument that there hasn\u2019t been space for new global formats because the old global formats are still doing rather well. This year is the wrong year to put that argument forward. There is a huge format that is traveling around the world at a rate of knots: The Masked Singer<\/em>. It is the breakout hit this year. It took a long time to come outside of its homeland of Korea, but it was a big hit in America. It has sold in nearly every European territory, as well as in Australia and Mexico. We have rights [for The Masked Singer<\/em>] in many European territories, and we\u2019ve sold it in an awful lot of them. This is, without a shadow of a doubt, another global behemoth.<\/p>\n

It has been a long time coming, though. We haven\u2019t really had something of that scale since The Voice<\/em>. Before that, they were sort of like busses all arriving: The X Factor<\/em>,\u00a0Idols<\/em>, Got Talent<\/em>. Then we had to wait a while before we got The Voice<\/em>, and now we\u2019ve got The Masked Singer<\/em>.<\/p>\n

TV FORMATS:<\/strong> How are you tapping into the creative minds of Fremantle\u2019s network of production companies for new format concepts?
\nCLARK:<\/strong> Fremantle is set up like a federal system in a way. Each territory has its own production company, and the bigger territories have their own development team. Centrally, that development is monitored, and we\u2019ll back it with money, our knowledge and passion, and we will work with our broadcast partners to get it on air. We do that not just within the network of companies like Fremantle France or Fremantle Spain; we also do it with the companies that we\u2019ve invested in, as part of our strategy where we\u2019ve made minority investments that will build to overall ownership in the long run. We have a vast network mainly centered around Europe and America, but not exclusively there. As a creative entity, at the moment, we\u2019re probably at peak performance for the time that I\u2019ve been here, which is 16 years. We\u2019re in good shape creatively, in terms of idea-generation and commissions for new shows.<\/p>\n

That is not to say that we will not work with third-party producers. It\u2019s always been my belief that a good idea can come from anywhere; that\u2019s not just anywhere geographically, it\u2019s anywhere within our industry or outside of our industry. Vasha Wallace [Fremantle\u2019s executive VP of global acquisitions and development] and I meet people on a very regular basis, sometimes from big companies, sometimes from tiny companies, sometimes people who are just idea machines themselves. We\u2019re always happy to meet people with good ideas and support them, whether they\u2019re part of an internal company, a partly-owned company or a completely third-party individual.<\/p>\n

TV FORMATS:<\/strong> What\u2019s your view on the future of the format business with regard to the streaming players?
\nCLARK:<\/strong> People are platform-agnostic. From a Fremantle point of view, we want our programs, our formats, our IP and the stars who we work with to be on the most appropriate platform. What is great at the moment is that that platform could be a streamer, a traditional broadcaster, a global network, a national SVOD. These are markets that didn\u2019t exist five years ago. For a company the size of Fremantle, with our creative output and depth of catalog, this is a fantastic time to be a producer.<\/p>\n

What streamers want are brands. When you have a back catalog like ours, with names that people recognize, those big global platforms are often perfect for us. We\u2019re willing to do work-for-hire like with\u00a0Confetti <\/em>[on Facebook Watch], as long as it\u2019s a global deal. We don\u2019t have to be the IP owner. We have to be nimble and find different ways of working, and in doing that, we can work for everybody.<\/p>\n

TV FORMATS:<\/strong> When you\u2019re assessing the future of the format business, where do you see the greatest opportunities?
\nCLARK:<\/strong> I\u2019ve learned that it\u2019s really important to listen to your gut and to take risks. I sometimes worry that some of our broadcasters are too risk-averse\u2014not all of them and not every time. To really create magnetic brands\u2014that literally draw an audience in and won\u2019t let them go\u2014it has to be something new. It\u2019s not just a twist of the dial; it\u2019s quite a big turn of the dial. It needs to look fresh, feel fresh; it needs to be different!<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why\u00a0The Masked Singer <\/em>works. I have so much admiration for Rob Wade [president of alternative entertainment and specials] and his team at FOX who made the decision to go with T<\/em>he Masked Singer<\/em>. It had been around for quite a long time, and nobody could see its potential; they could. The minute it was a hit in America, then, of course, everybody could see its potential. I admire broadcasters that take those sorts of risks. I\u2019d like to see more risk-taking and more believing in gut [instinct] instead of always wanting to have everything proven before it goes on air. We would never have been able to launch Idols <\/em>or Got Talent\u00a0<\/em>if we\u2019d have been in that situation. You couldn\u2019t prove them; they were too big! You just have to take a deep breath, say yes, and then wait and see what the audience wants and hope they like it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The director of global entertainment has been encouraging the teams at the company\u2019s vast network of production partners to keep a close eye on their local markets for innovative ideas that could become international hits. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":350,"featured_media":7227,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[1482,96],"class_list":["post-7226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-interviews","tag-fremantle","tag-rob-clark","pmpro-has-access"],"yoast_head":"\nFremantle's Rob Clark - TVFORMATS<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvformats\/fremantles-rob-clark-2019\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fremantle's Rob Clark - 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