CBS’s Armando Nuñez Discusses International Strategy

PREMIUM: Armando Nuñez, the president and CEO of the CBS Global Distribution Group, talks to World Screen about the many outlets around the world for CBS product.

WS: You now oversee both domestic and international distribution. Where do you see potential for growth?
NUÑEZ: I look at the businesses as different pods, if you will. I can see great growth opportunities internationally and I see growth opportunities domestically as well. In the U.S., I think we are just starting to scratch the surface given how digital platforms are evolving and how content is going to be monetized on those platforms. Cable channels in the U.S. are always going to need both our library content and our hugely successful off-network content. When it comes to syndication, we are by far the number one syndication company in the U.S. with Entertainment Tonight and Dr. Phil and Judge Judy. These are big, big shows in the U.S. and in many places around the world as well.

WS: Some say Elementary and Vegas are new versions of traditional procedurals, because they have a mythology that runs behind the crimes solved in each episode. How have those shows sold internationally?
NUÑEZ: Hawaii Five-O is also a procedural and it has a story line and continuity that goes through the entire season of production. They are still very easy shows to program and to schedule. If you go from the first episode of Elementary to the fifth, it’s not like a serialized drama where you would have no idea what’s going on in the story line if you jumped from episode one to five. Elementary has been very successful pretty much everywhere it has aired. Certainly it’s been successful on Sky Living in the U.K., Sat.1 in Germany, TEN in Australia, Cuatro in Spain and Global in Canada. And we’ve been very successful selling Vegas as well.

WS: Do you take a different sales approach with Dexter or Californication or The Borgias than you would take with NCIS or Elementary?
NUÑEZ: Yes. The first question you have to ask yourself when you look at these properties is how broad are the shows: is the interest limited to the pay-television universe or is it a show that can be telecast as well on free TV, or in many cases, both free TV and pay TV? It’s hard to generalize because it really depends on the territories and markets you are talking about, but we’ve been very, very successful with all of these properties, but Dexter is not necessarily an 8 p.m. show on a terrestrial broadcaster; it may be more of a pay-TV show. In other markets, like France, Dexter airs on Canal+ and it airs late night on TF1. The good news about how we deal with Showtime content is that this premium pay content is, first off, in great demand, and secondly, it’s a limited commodity. There is just not that much of it in the marketplace. We’ve been very successful with Showtime series but they don’t necessarily fall into the category of NCIS and CSI because of the type of shows that they are.

WS: Even though there is a lot of local production going on across the various territories, would you say that American programming is selling better today than it did ten years ago?
NUÑEZ: Yes. I don’t view local production and acquisitions of American shows as mutually exclusive. When you look at broadcasters around the world, there is a combination of local production that goes on along with acquisitions. From a broadcaster’s perspective, American content is relatively cost-efficient, particularly in the case of CBS; it’s a limited commodity with a certain probability of success built in to it. It all works together in the ecosystem.

WS: What opportunities are you finding with digital platforms internationally?
NUÑEZ: Incredible opportunities. We have been very active with Netflix and Amazon and Hulu in Japan. Those are the U.S. players everybody talks to but we’ve also done deals with local digital players like BT and Vivendi in Germany and Avex Entertainment in Japan and mobile SVOD players. We’re in business with all these platforms. From our perspective, the issue isn’t doing business with them, it’s doing business in a smart strategic way, which at the end of the day doesn’t hurt the value of the programming in the market, but adds value. We’re not taking money from one pocket to the other; it’s incremental revenue to us. It’s a strategic view of windowed licensing.

WS: You’re making programming available to multiple outlets without cannibalizing any of them.
NUÑEZ: Absolutely. Digital platforms are just another outlet now to sell content to. And where SVOD falls into the [entire sequence of windows] is a function of pricing. You want to look at it in a strategic and holistic way so that you are not just grabbing a few dollars here and forsaking the value of the programming. Don’t forget, especially on new shows, you need the traditional platforms to create these brands for you.

WS: You need to get to the broadest audience first?
NUÑEZ: For the most part. It is the traditional platforms that promote, market and create the brands that then, in success, create all this other value for you. There is brand recognition for the shows you have sold as a result of that first exhibition.

WS: Your division also sells formats and scripts of CBS shows.
NUÑEZ: Paul Gilbert runs our format and production group. We license the formats to our shows. The first ones people think about are our various versions of Wheel of Fortune and America’s Next Top Model that we have around the world. We’ve done 20-plus local versions of Next Top Model and we sell the American version in more than 100 markets. We just celebrated the 30th anniversary of Wheel of Fortune. As part of MIPTV’s 50th anniversary, Reed MIDEM did a list of the 50 most iconic shows that changed the landscape of global television and Wheel of Fortune was one of those shows. 

We have also been more active in the business of looking at some of the shows and scripts from our library and making local versions of some of them, including Taxi in Ukraine. We had Cheers a couple years ago in Spain. Currently, we are in preproduction on Charmed and The 4400 in Russia.

If you take a step back, we are a content-monetization machine. It’s all about monetizing the content and doing it in a coordinated fashion. In this case, we want to make sure that we are not doing anything that impacts the sales of the U.S. episodes.

WS: Are you also continuing with branded channels?
NUÑEZ: Our joint venture with Chello expanded into Eastern Europe and western Africa. And we have another joint venture for three channels called BIG CBS in India, with Reliance Broadcast Network. We now have 22 channels in 20 languages across 87 territories—more than 100 million international households.

WS: When buyers are screening shows, even though they have to keep in mind all the channels and platforms they are acquiring programing for, at some point doesn’t it all start with an emotional response to a show or a character?
NUÑEZ: At all points! It all starts with good programming—all of it. Leslie Moonves [president and CEO of CBS Corporation] has a famous quote he uses: “A bad show doesn’t get better on a two-inch screen.” That reminds us that good programming generates great business. It doesn’t start with the technology; it all starts with the programming. Our buyers who come to the L.A. Screenings aren’t thinking about what the multiplatform exhibition is going to be for whatever the next new show is. They are thinking about, How am I going to generate the most eyeballs to watch the show and what’s the financial model that is going to make this work? It’s all about the programming and that hasn’t changed. There are just a lot more pipes and places now to put all this programming.