On June 19-22 in Budapest, NATPE Global TV Market and Conference took place. This is a business event dedicated to TV industry in CEE region. FILM.UA Group was represented at NATPE by Kateryna Vyshnevska, director for development and co-production, who was a panel speaker at “Success in Co-Production: Maximization of Regional and International Business Partnership”. Other speakers included HBO Europe (no further introductions needed), Eccho Rights (international distributor known to Ukrainians thanks to Turkish and Korean series and also selling Make Comic Laugh and Servant of the Nation by Studio Kvartal 95 abroad) and Talpa Global (their format The Voice also needs no introductions). For the first time, NATPE organizers didn’t simply want to create a platform for selling readymade content and formats but also decided to facilitate development of potential partnership, co-production and co-development in the region. The panel was dedicated both to success stories of original CEE formats and to opportunities and challenges of the region concerning co-production with Europe and America.
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“Several months ago, NATPE organizers invited me to become a member of NATPE Budapest advisory board. My goal was to bring to them and therefore to global media community the message that Central and Eastern Europe in general and Ukraine in particular comprise a fully formed market ready for cooperation. So a panel on co-production with and in the region is the first but very important step in the necessary direction, and we are not planning to stop. The issues discussed during our panel were described by all media outlets present at the market. This means that these issues are relevant and essential,” says Kateryna Vyshnevska.
At the conference, Katerina emphasized that Eastern European media industry has a perennial tradition of high-quality and competitive content production for less money in comparison with the budget the EU is used to. This makes our region an attractive co-production partner for the EU, North America and Asia. An important feature of the region is that local content is more popular there than imported one. Plus the economic capacity of the market is smaller if compared with Western Europe, for instance. Therefore, we cannot afford to buy foreign products for prices Western Europe or North America are used to paying. For maximally productive and efficient cooperation with Eastern Europe, Western counterparts should review their model of working with us and concentrate not on licensing but on co-production as well as on joint projects development.
The panel also touched upon language issue; all company representatives noted that successful content doesn’t have to be produced in English. On the contrary, there is high-quality local content in Eastern Europe, which is not subject to the influences of the global market, and opening access to it for TV audience from the whole world is a unique opportunity and prospect.
“Big productions and distributors are focused on their search for English-language content. It might be worthwhile to shift the focus to non-English content and find the right unique story. We [in the Eastern Europe] can produce it well and for a reasonable price,” Katerina said.
Below, the original of Worldscreen publication about the conference follows.
See also a video report.
A session this morning at NATPE Budapest featured executives from HBO Europe, Eccho Rights, Talpa Global and FILM.UA Group discussing the ins and outs of co-producing in Central and Eastern Europe.
Kateryna Vyshnevska, the head of development and co-productions at FILM.UA Group—Ukraine’s leading media company—said that there is a “mixed bag” of both opportunities and challenges that come with co-producing in the region.
“As a Ukrainian producer, I get this vibe that CEE is still being treated as an emerging market; it is not,” she said. “We’ve been in the business for many years now and have an established tradition. We do know what we’re doing! And we’re doing it really well,” and at a price point that is particularly appealing for partners in the EU or North America.
“The CEE market is not that big,” Vyshnevska added. “We cannot afford to pay the license fees that Western Europe can pay for instance, and local content performs better here anyway. So when you put that all together, it creates a very special ecosystem where it makes sense to shift your licensing into more of a co-development, integrated cooperation model.”
Fredrik af Malmborg, the managing director at Eccho Rights—which represents producers from around the world, but primarily non-English-language markets—believes the industry is in “a very interesting phase.”
He explained, “Right now, the drama side especially is booming because there are all these SVOD services coming in and investing a lot. Then the linear TV channels are still investing quite a lot. I think we are seeing the first signs that the linear TV channels are going to have problems in the coming years. I think they are selling such a bad product, and I think advertisers will start to realize that. This will have an enormous impact on the lives of everyone in this room. Right now, a large portion of the money coming into this business is from linear TV, so I think we need to learn new models.”
Looking forward, af Malmborg believes that linear broadcasters trying to sustain themselves on U.S. product are going to have a hard road ahead. “Those shows that you get from the studios’ deals, I don’t think they will work anymore; we already see that they work less and less. You will need to produce more local drama, find different platforms and manage those rights properly.”
He suggested that rather than looking to the U.S., “what’s undervalued, especially in Eastern Europe, are imports from neighboring countries. If you launch them properly, they can deliver really good results at a reasonable fee. Especially commercial broadcasters in Europe will have a tough future if they continue to go to the L.A. Screenings and think they can live on the [American] imports.”
Af Malmborg said that’s where co-productions come in, to allow for more local productions, including “low-cost drama that can still perform very well.”
The panelists also commented on how there is an increased acceptance nowadays for non-English-language drama in markets where there hadn’t been before.
For example, Laura Rhodarmer, the senior VP of licensing at Talpa Global—which exports Talpa formats that have already proven successful in the Netherlands—pointed to the scripted series Divorce. “It’s going into its third [season] here in Hungary on RTL. That’s a Dutch-spoken dramedy that we’ve exported out of the Netherlands, and it’s traveled to Hungary and is doing very well. Because of its success in Hungary, neighboring countries are now looking at it as well.
“We also have Vipers Nest, which is again a Dutch-spoken, Dutch-based scripted show, but that’s traveled to Serbia. The Serbian version then traveled to neighboring countries.”
Eccho Rights’ af Malmborg highlighted the success of Scandinavian drama as having helped to open more doors for non-English-language content, citing as an example the U.K. putting The Bridge on air in prime time. “That opened up a very interesting trend; it doesn’t have to be in the English language to travel.”
Johnathan Young, the VP of original programming and production at HBO Central Europe—which has been stepping up its local content efforts—added: “There’s a global appetite for shows that are fresh and original, and there’s fantastic talent here [in CEE] that hasn’t been exposed to the global market. There’s a global audience now that can access local content. That clearly is a big opportunity.”
FILM.UA’s Vyshnevska agreed, adding that the “foreign-language barrier” in programming is quite often “not so much from the audience, but from the media companies, which act as gatekeepers and are not adventurous enough.”
She also highlighted opportunities in Ukraine and Russia and said she’d like to see these two countries become preferred partners for CEE co-pros. “Together, we account for 40 to 45 percent of the monetary value of CEE. Linear TV is poor in our countries. That connects to the ad revenues, the budgets and everything. Apart from Turkey, Russia and Ukraine have the lowest ad spend per capita. We have, between the two of us, 200 million people. When you combine all of that, it means the only way to go is up.”
Vyshnevska mentioned the filming incentives that were recently put in place in Russia and Ukraine in a bid to compete with other CEE countries. “I believe that it makes sense to co-produce whether there are incentives or not; our production values are high as is.”
Eccho Rights’ af Malmborg, however, said he’s not the biggest champion of creative co-productions. “It should be one party running the show—but you can do it as a financial co-production.”
HBO Europe’s Young added that “it’s a challenge to find the right project creatively. In order for a project to work, it has to have a voice. To achieve that in a co-production world is a challenge. If you could achieve it, the prize would be fantastic. It’s something we talk about a lot but haven’t done yet. The risky side is that you end up with something that’s a big of a fudge” if there are too many ideas from different partners being combined.
Young said that the key is to “build relationships.”
Talpa’s Rhodarmer agreed and added that building trust is “absolutely essential to the local success.” She said, “We’re exporting a format from our original territory, and we have our production experience, team and influence, but locally there is an established production team and they have their ideas how to locally adapt that format. Co-production is not just selling a format or script and saying, Good luck! You want to be a part of that process hand in hand with the local producers. The trust and how you work together are essential for success.”
FILM.UA’s Vyshnevska urged the production community to “put more effort into trying to find those stories. If we do, the payoffs could be great. The big production and distribution companies focus on English-language first, so maybe try to focus on non-English content and find the right story. We can produce it at a very appealing price point!”
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