{"id":10825,"date":"2018-01-17T10:20:35","date_gmt":"2018-01-17T15:20:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/nat-geos-christian-drobnyk-talks-acquisitions-remit\/"},"modified":"2018-01-18T09:37:11","modified_gmt":"2018-01-18T14:37:11","slug":"nat-geos-christian-drobnyk-talks-acquisitions-remit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/nat-geos-christian-drobnyk-talks-acquisitions-remit\/","title":{"rendered":"Nat Geo\u2019s Christian Drobnyk"},"content":{"rendered":"

Christian Drobnyk, who joined the Nat Geo group in 2017 as executive VP of programming strategy and acquisitions following a six-year run at Lifetime, tells <\/em>TV Real about what\u2019s on his wish list.<\/em><\/p>\n

National Geographic Global Networks, under the leadership of CEO Courteney Monroe, has undergone a dramatic shift in its programming strategy over the last year. The flagship National Geographic Channel has been aggressively driving collaborations with top-tier talent to deliver event programming in both the unscripted and scripted realms.<\/p>\n

\"***Image***\"TV REAL:<\/strong> What most appealed to you about joining National Geographic?
\nDROBNYK:<\/strong> The most interesting and exciting thing was Nat Geo moving toward this much bigger, more ambitious, high-quality premium content strategy that Courteney Monroe [CEO of National Geographic Global Networks] had initiated. It was a strategy to future-proof the brand as the industry changes\u2014[cementing itself as] a must-carry brand for the future. It was an exciting and alluring thing for me to be a part of. And in a world where you\u2019re spending a good chunk of money on fewer hours, you need to have a strategy that helps maintain viewing continuity between your big events and helps to amplify those big originals and bring in new audiences. Acquisitions are an important part of that strategy for a lot of networks and now increasingly for ours.<\/p>\n

TV REAL:<\/strong> What will you be keeping an eye out for at NATPE?
\nDROBNYK:<\/strong> We are getting into the buying of theatricals. We’re looking to build a based-on-true-stories theatrical strand in our schedule, whether it’s The King\u2019s Speech<\/em> or Argo<\/em> or Apollo 13<\/em>\u2014connecting our acquisitions in the scripted space back to our nonfiction DNA through the based-on-a-true-story filter. That’s a really important area for us. Another is looking at off-network series that can make sense for us. We’re also looking at international format and acquisition options, but that’s more of a MIPTV and MIPCOM opportunity. At NATPE it’s about looking at the off-network landscape and seeing what\u2019s out there that could make a lot of sense and help provide some episodic volume for us. A good example this last fall was a series from NBC called Running Wild with Bear Grylls<\/em>. We bought that, started airing it in October and it\u2019s done fantastically well for us. It fits perfectly with what people expect from Nat Geo. It looks incredible. All of the celebrity guests are great names, from Julia Roberts to Barack Obama, and it fits in with our originals strategy.<\/p>\n

TV REAL: <\/strong>Are you also acquiring for Nat Geo WILD?
\nDROBNYK:<\/strong> We are definitely looking for Nat Geo WILD as well. We\u2019re looking at natural-history series, which are few and far between\u2014they tend to be specials or three-parters\u2014and the pets-and-vets space, with really strong character-driven people stories as they relate to interacting with animals. The Incredible Dr. Pol<\/em> is our marquee show on WILD.<\/p>\n

TV REAL:<\/strong> I spoke with Courteney Monroe before MIPCOM and she discussed Nat Geo\u2019s renewed commitment to theatrical docs. Are you also looking for acquisitions in that space?
\nDROBNYK:<\/strong> We\u2019re looking at festivals like Sundance, Tribeca, Toronto. We\u2019re starting to become more a part of the upstream conversation with producers, so we’re able to buy before they make it to those markets. It’s a little bit of a different strategy. An off-network strategy is where we\u2019re buying [a show] for a period of time\u2014it\u2019s not ours and it\u2019s already aired elsewhere. With the feature docs, we\u2019re the first-window TV partner after it makes a theatrical debut. It feels more like an original, but it is still an acquisition.<\/p>\n

TV REAL:<\/strong> You’ve been in acquisitions for a long time. What have been the most significant changes in how you approach your job, given the proliferation of outlets and windows?
\nDROBNYK:<\/strong> Acquisitions have made an important resurgence from six years ago, when there was a huge push into the original content space, particularly in cable. Over that time, the flood of original hours into the market made it very difficult to get buzz and attention for your project. There has been a massive failure rate as a result. We\u2019re also seeing broadcast networks dealing with that same thing. A huge amount of resources and an unbelievable concept are required to break something new, which is why we\u2019re seeing a lot of remakes on the broadcast side. The [content available in the] acquisitions market is high volume, it\u2019s pre-marketed and it’s well known. There’s a level of continuity that you get with acquisitions that allows you to make sure you have that viewing momentum between launching your originals. And importantly, acquisitions, particularly theatricals, help bring in a super broad audience that might not come to your network regularly, so you’re able to promote to a broader group of people as you’re trying to break something new.<\/p>\n

TV REAL:<\/strong> Speaking of the theatricals, is it a challenge to find true-story-based movies that don\u2019t play fast and loose with historical facts?
\nDROBNYK:<\/strong> The brand is so well-defined and so trusted. There’s an added layer of filtering that we do here that a lot of other places don’t do. It makes my job from an acquisitions perspective and our job from an original-content-development perspective harder. But the headline going into NATPE is not about the fact-checking element of acquisitions; it’s just that acquisitions weren’t even happening previously. People didn’t view them as opportunity areas for being a part of the Nat Geo slate. Now, with an elevated strategy and more diversity of content, including scripted series, we’re looking to some other markets we haven’t been in before. We’re finding ways for Nat Geo to not only benefit and have more viewing continuity between our big originals, but also buy things that are incredibly high quality for a fraction of the price we would have to pay for an original. That allows us to create more of a unified network in reinforcing this high-quality strategy that we’re pursuing, whether it\u2019s an acquisition or an original. All the key fact-checking and trust elements have to be there as well.<\/p>\n

TV REAL:<\/strong> How closely are you working with your international colleagues on global acquisitions?
\nDROBNYK:<\/strong> We work very closely with all of the regions. Our priority is to make sure that with what we’re buying, we can get some portion of rights beyond the U.S. But that’s a well-oiled machine for us. What we haven’t done before is just looked at opportunistic U.S. buying; we were so focused on international. We realized we need a little bit of light and shade and more breadth and lateral thinking in how we’re leveraging the acquisitions market.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The executive VP of programming strategy and acquisitions talks about what\u2019s on his wish list.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":290,"featured_media":10826,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,69],"tags":[2462,90],"class_list":["post-10825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-interviews","category-top-stories","tag-christian-drobnyk","tag-nat-geo","pmpro-has-access"],"yoast_head":"\nNat Geo\u2019s Christian Drobnyk - TVREAL<\/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\/tvreal\/nat-geos-christian-drobnyk-talks-acquisitions-remit\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Nat Geo\u2019s Christian Drobnyk - TVREAL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The executive VP of programming strategy and acquisitions talks about what\u2019s on his wish list.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/nat-geos-christian-drobnyk-talks-acquisitions-remit\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"TVREAL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-01-17T15:20:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-01-18T14:37:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2017\/07\/2018-01-17-Christian_Drobnyk_171002_103.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"318\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mansha Daswani\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mansha Daswani\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/nat-geos-christian-drobnyk-talks-acquisitions-remit\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/nat-geos-christian-drobnyk-talks-acquisitions-remit\/\",\"name\":\"Nat Geo\u2019s Christian Drobnyk - TVREAL\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2018-01-17T15:20:35+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-01-18T14:37:11+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/#\/schema\/person\/83da304c8bad8bfdb3edd7eb47cfe5ad\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/nat-geos-christian-drobnyk-talks-acquisitions-remit\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/nat-geos-christian-drobnyk-talks-acquisitions-remit\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/nat-geos-christian-drobnyk-talks-acquisitions-remit\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Nat Geo\u2019s Christian Drobnyk\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/\",\"name\":\"TVREAL\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/#\/schema\/person\/83da304c8bad8bfdb3edd7eb47cfe5ad\",\"name\":\"Mansha Daswani\",\"description\":\"Mansha Daswani is the editor-in-chief and associate publisher of World Screen. 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