World Screen Content Trendsetter Awards


It has never been more challenging to be a television programmer. Budgets are under pressure. Content owners want to be adequately compensated for all the extra rights—online, on-demand, catch-up—that are needed in today’s TV Everywhere world. New online platforms and digital channels are popping up every day, making it that much harder to keep viewers’ attention. In the quest for hits, broadcasters, free and pay, are having to make risky, often expensive choices as they try to determine what’s going to resonate with their audiences.
We at World Screen are again teaming up with Reed MIDEM to honor some of these brave executives—who use a mix of market research, ratings data and gut instinct to take gambles on imported and original fare—with the third-annual Content Trendsetter Awards.

In Denmark, Piv Bernth has been commissioning distinctive local dramas that are leaving a major mark on the global media landscape. Carmi Zlotnik is carving a niche for Starz in the U.S. premium pay-TV space, long dominated by HBO and, more recently, Showtime. In Australia, Ross Crowley at Foxtel has been successfully luring audiences away from the dominant free-TV space with his high-profile acquisitions and unique original series. And in Mexico, Azteca’s Pedro Lascurain is offering free-TV audiences innovative imports. You can read more about this year’s honorees below.

These executives will receive Content Trendsetter Awards at the end of the Acquisition Superpanel: What Do Buyers Want? session at MIPCOM on Wednesday, October 9. This must-attend panel, taking place at the Grand Auditorium in the Palais, will see the honorees discussing their programming strategies in conversation with Anna Carugati, World Screen’s group editorial director.

“For the third year in a row, we are delighted to be working with our friends at Reed MIDEM to honor four leading programmers with the World Screen Content Trendsetter Awards,” says Ricardo Guise, the president and publisher of World Screen. “In highly competitive marketplaces—the U.S., Mexico, Australia and Denmark—these four executives have been developing pioneering, innovative domestic content and seeking out the best properties from the global marketplace. Their insights at the Acquisition Superpanel will undoubtedly be invaluable for anyone in the business of making, buying or selling content. We are excited to be honoring their achievements at MIPCOM.”

Piv Bernth
Head of Drama
DR

No other Danish creation has had as much of an impact on the international drama business as Forbrydelsen. Commissioned by public broadcaster DR and first broadcast in 2007, the series, known internationally as The Killing, kicked off the Scandinavian drama trend that has been making its way around the world over the last few years. It became a cult hit in the U.K., was sold around the world and was remade in the U.S. for AMC. Piv Bernth, who was an executive producer on the original Danish version, is today the head of drama at DR. She has had a hand in a host of other hit Danish exports, including Borgen and, more recently, Bron, which has spawned The Bridge for FX and The Tunnel for Sky Atlantic and Canal+.

Carmi Zlotnik
Managing Director
Starz

This year has seen a number of major original programming initiatives at the U.S. pay service Starz, with the debuts of Da Vinci’s Demons and The White Queen. Next up, Starz will premiere the highly anticipated Michael Bay pirate drama Black Sails. As managing director, Carmi Zlotnik oversees the company’s originals, which include Starz-led properties like Black Sails and international co-productions such as Da Vinci’s Demons with BBC Worldwide, The White Queen with Company Pictures, and the upcoming Fortitude with Sky Atlantic. Zlotnik has been getting the message out to the international content community that Starz can be the perfect home for smart, compelling programming.

Ross Crowley
Director of Programming and Channels
Foxtel

Foxtel, Australia’s leading pay-television operator, has always been known as an innovator, constantly offering subscribers a wide range of top-quality programming, much of which is not available elsewhere. It is fitting that the company tapped Ross Crowley to be director of programming and channels, where he oversees the bouquet of Foxtel owned-and-operated networks that range from movies and factual to lifestyle, reality and drama. Crowley’s background makes him ideal for the job because he has worked in a variety of roles in programming and acquisition. He was with Foxtel in the mid-’90s and then moved to the pan-Asian pay-TV service STAR, followed by the commercial broadcaster Nine Network, before returning to Foxtel. Today he is responsible for both linear and on-demand services.

Pedro Lascurain
Head of Acquisitions
Azteca

Throughout his long career in television, Pedro Lascurain has witnessed key developments in Latin American and U.S. Hispanic free TV, cable and satellite television. In the 1980s in the U.S., he helped build the program offering of the cable channel Galavisión. In 1990, he was invited by Televisa, the market-leading broadcaster in Mexico, to be program manager for Canal 5. He then joined the satellite service SKY and helped develop the newly established pay-TV business in the region. Finally, in 1999, he joined Azteca, the company that fearlessly went head-to-head with Televisa. Today, as head of acquisitions at Azteca, he buys movies and TV shows for three channels and has been instrumental in helping them build significant audience share and viewer loyalty.