Water Cooler

By Lucy Cohen Blatter

To attend the annual Licensing International show at New York’s Jacob Javits Center, participants used to have to prepare themselves for cab drivers’ attitudes, costly labor unions and elbowing colleagues to navigate through crowded corridors. This year, everything carried on as usual — except for the crowd.

The sparsely trafficked corridors prompted one Canadian exhibitor to comment: “Where are the people?” The event organizers, who operate under a license from LIMA, the international licensing industry’s association, were visibly cutting corners and trying to find ways to generate more revenue, indirectly indicating some problems with the show.

In any case, content rights holders convening last week at the Javits Center were looking for ways to expand their brands beyond TV and film screens.

Unsurprisingly, the buzz around this year’s event was going green, with licensors and licensees flaunting more environment-friendly packaging than ever before.

Nowadays it’s not as easy as selling a license and being done with it. In today’s retailer-consolidated world, licensors must work closely with licensees and retailers to create packages that stand out from the crowd and make the big bucks (in 2006, manufacturers paid $6.04 billion in licensing royalties).

Cookie Jar Entertainment’s Sue Richter said it’s becoming more important to meet directly with retailers to “talk about marketing initiatives with them and introduce new products directly to them.” One of Cookie Jar’s most recent direct-to-retails involves CVS and Caillou diapers. But the company also toted boys property Magi-Nation, rockin’ show The Doodlebops and based-on-book series Hooray for Huckle!, among others.

According to NCircle Entertainment’s Debbie Ries, “Retailers are becoming much more savvy about the business. There’s so much competition, and they want to be at the top of the trends,” she said. “If you look back five or ten years ago, so many of the stores have gone out of business.” NCircle handles home entertainment for DIC Entertainment’s Horseland property and U.S. distribution of Granada’s Pocoyo property. Ries added that the licensing business is ripe for a new breakout hit — of Nickelodeon’s Dora the Explorer proportions.

Every content rights owner at the Licensing show was hoping to have just that. “We are here to meet with potential and actual licensees and potential and actual promotional partners,” said Starz’s Neil Braun. In particular, Starz was on the lookout for upcoming feature film Space Chimps for which Fox is handling the licensing.

Over at the FremantleMedia booth, David Luner (among others) was talking interactivity and licensing projects to complement his company’s slew of game shows (including The Price is Right, which has enjoyed publicity of late with the retirement of longtime host Bob Barker). “It’s amazing how fast things are moving in the interactive realm,” Luner said. “The lines between interactivity and consumer products have grayed, and there are real advances in console and DVD gaming,” he said. Luner sees potential in “online gaming (both free-to-play and pay-to-play) and game show interactivity in the mobile realm.” But, he insisted, “[the licensing business] is the caboose, the show is still the driver.”

Over at the Classic Media booth, the company was “celebrating its debut as a combined group under Entertainment Rights,” said Nicole Blake. After being acquired by Postman Pat proprietor Entertainment Rights, the company now comprises preschool/U.K. based Entertainment Rights, evergreen-focused Classic and religious-centric Big Idea (of Veggie Tales fame). “The energy is almost palpable,” Blake said. The newly combined company is preparing for various tent-pole events, including the theatrical release of Underdog, the TV series launch of George of the Jungle and the qubo programming block TV launch of Postman Pat.

At a DIC luncheon, Andy Heyward introduced a major property: boy-skewing Dino Squad, a series about kids who transform into dinosaurs. “This will lend itself to all vehicles,” said the company’s Lisa Streff. She specified that its highly intricate Internet community would be “core to the overall experience.”

One company that enjoyed a large presence at the Licensing Show was juggernaut Disney Consumer Products (DCP). Due to the success of its Disney Channel shows in the U.S., the company chose to focus on those licenses at the Show. The company projects $26 billion in retail sales for 2007. Next up, DCP will push its Fairies franchise, which it hopes to rival the immensely successful “Princess” line (expected to reach $4 billion in sales in 2007), and targets a slightly younger girl demo. For this reason, Disney’s Andy Mooney insisted that, “There’s no better time in history to be associated with the Walt Disney Company.”

It was hard to rival Disney’s presence at the show, but Nickelodeon & Viacom Consumer Products (featuring the Comedy Central brand) certainly gave the company a run for its money. The three properties thrust into the spotlight were preschool photo puppetry series The Wonder Pets!; tween boy “mock”-umentary series The Naked Brothers Band, which revolves around real kids who are actually musicians (and has a very music-focused licensing campaign); and Neopets, which Nick’s Jonathan Finn describes as “a whole different story.” Acquired by Nickelodeon in 2005, Neopets is an online community that caught Nick’s attention because of its stickiness factor. While TV shows are often expanded into online worlds, in this case the opposite happened. Now Nick is planning to air short character-based interstitials on their network.

While all sorts of exhibitors — from corporate brands to major studios — were showing off all kinds of items, thanks in part to the big presences of Nick and Disney, the focus was, as usual, on toys and kids’ items. Of course this all makes sense, according to Starz’s Braun. “Since advertiser revenue for kids’ shows is more limited, especially in the U.S., companies that license kids’ TV content need to make up for it with DVDs and toy licensing,” he explained.

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By Lucy Cohen Blatter

Last month, almost 10 years to the day he left MGM, international TV executive extraordinaire Gary Marenzi went back to the roaring company to act as co-president of Worldwide Television. In an era when executives move between companies faster than you can say “consolidation,” Marenzi has returned to his roots and sees a bright future ahead of him.

When asked what his long and short-term goals are for MGM, Marenzi said there are many. “I’d like to reassure buyers that the spirit of MGM lives on. People in the industry know us as delivering on what we promise. One of the things I was most proud of during my first tenure here was hiring the right people who were both good for our clients to do deals with and good to work with. I look around and see a lot of the same faces from then,” he said. “Hopefully we will be bringing on additional team members as well,” he added.

Marenzi is also gearing up to acquire and produce quality programs through co-management of the MGM catalog with Jim Packer, his co-president.

Additionally, working with Bruce Tuchman, executive vp of MGM networks, he’ll facilitate licensing deals for MGM Channels worldwide.

Marenzi described the MGM catalog as “an embarrassment of riches,” including the James Bond, Pink Panther and Rocky franchises. “Movies are a big priority for us, and we will continue to help our clients program them. We take special care to help our clients build their programming, which is something not everyone does.” On the TV side, Marenzi predicted that the Stargate franchise “has a lot of life left in it.”

When it comes to being a producer-distributor Marenzi described MGM as the best of both worlds. “A lot of the studios have more product than they know what to do with. We have resources and brand recognition that rival the studios, but can move faster than them,” he said.

And Marenzi certainly knows how the studios work. Immediately after leaving MGM, he went on to become president of International Television for Paramount (now CBS Paramount), where he stayed until 2004. After the company was taken over by CBS, Marenzi started his own consulting firm known as Marenzi & Associates, where he worked with venture capitalists and private equity firms, advising them on the domestic and international TV businesses. In 2006 he also became president of Ensequence, Inc., an interactive TV company, where he “got to know more about new technologies and the new media business,” he said. “Ironically, the last two and a half years helped make me a better executive. I am more prepared to do business with new technologies and new companies. Let’s face it, in today’s environment, a company you’ve never heard of in January could be the biggest thing by June,” he said.

While he looks back fondly on his first stint at MGM (from 1992-1997), Marenzi acknowledges that it was a different animal back then. “This time around MGM is a well-funded company with good ownership,” he said. “Back then it was owned by Credit Lyonnais, and we all knew that they would have to sell it [due to international regulations]. There was always a sword of Damocles hanging over us.” Today, the ownership is as follows: Providence Equity Partners (29 percent), TPG (21 percent), Sony Corporation of America (20 percent), Comcast (20 percent), DLJ Merchant Banking Partners (7 percent) and Quadrangle Group (3 percent). “Now it feels like we’re building a business for the long term,” Marenzi said. “The owners want to grow the business, and that brings about both stability and a sense of entrepreneurialism.”

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By Leah Hochbaum

The 28th annual Banff World Television Festival, which takes place June 10-13 at the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel in Banff, Alberta, is officially under way.

Interestingly, the event attracts a large number of Canadians who are not reflected in the official numbers because they don’t register, preferring instead to hang around the main hotel lobby in order to save on registration fees.

One unique characteristic of Banff is that it encompasses several elements: conference, festival and awards. It is the combination of these three elements that creates the fourth: The TV market.

VideoAge spoke with participants and Banff officials to learn what makes this Canadian “market” different from all other TV markets.

“Banff is primarily a content creation event, not a sales market,” said Jennifer Harkness, executive director of the festival. “Sales do happen, but this is more about helping producers make production deals or find co-production partners.”

Harkness was thrilled about a speaker slate that included Dawn Airey, director of Global Content, ITV; Rob Thomas, creator and executive producer of critically acclaimed and recently cancelled CW series, Veronica Mars; and Greg Daniels, executive producer of series including comedies The Office and King of the Hill.

In addition, Carol Mendelsohn, executive producer and showrunner of CBS’s megahit, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, and co-creator and executive producer of CSI: Miami and CSI: New York, received the Award of Excellence on Sunday, June 10. The prize acknowledges exceptional achievement through a body of work over an extended period of time. “Carol’s hugely successful career has earned her international recognition and admiration,” said Harkness. “We are delighted to have the opportunity to acknowledge this with the Award of Excellence and provide delegates with access to the thought processes of one of the most powerful women in Hollywood.”

But what Harkness was especially proud of at this year’s Banff was a panel entitled “Code Green: Environmental Responsibility in the Media.” The panel, which took place on Monday, June 11, featured environmentalist David Suzuki, director Tim Flannery and actor Daryl Hannah, who discussed ways the television industry can help save the planet. Suzuki was also the inaugural recipient of a new award created in his honor, the David Suzuki Science and Environmental Media Award, which recognizes outstanding professional and personal achievements in raising public awareness of environmental issues through the visual media. Suzuki was surprised with the prize at a luncheon held on June 11.

“We’ve gone green, too,” said Harkness, citing Banff’s own environmentally friendly acts such as printing its programs on recycled paper and promoting ride sharing among participants.

Though the powers-that-be at Banff was busy ensuring the survival of the planet, they still made time for the most important aspect of any television festival: deal-making.

And it’s the deal making that keeps TV execs coming year after year, after all. Josh Raphaelson of Canada-based Program Partners made two announcements at Banff. First, that the company cleared its procedural drama ReGenesis in 75 percent of the U.S. and second, that Program Partners has secured clearances for Merv Griffin’s Crosswords in Ontario and Alberta. The game show has already been cleared in 85 percent of the U.S.

“Banff is really extraordinary,” said Raphaelson. “Other international markets are primarily transactional between distributors and networks. Producers are usually an afterthought. But Banff is all about producers.” He cited a menu of creative recipes Banff cooked up to facilitate meetings between producers and commissioning editors, including face-to-face meetings in which 100 key international commissioning editors, all looking for the next big thing, meet up with producers looking to provide said big thing. “Other markets are about how quickly you can turn over meetings at your booth. Here, it’s different.”

Thunderbird’s Michael Shepard concurred. “Banff’s really casual, but it’s also a great opportunity to spend some time with people in different settings not only geared toward selling product. This market is about overall television development,” he said.

And it’s also about fun. “I’m most looking forward to winning the golf tournament I’m in here,” joked Shepard.

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By Leah Hochbaum

More than 1,500 participants — a whopping 50 percent increase over last year’s numbers — will be in attendance at the upcoming DISCOP 2007 market, to be held June 20-22 at the Sofitel Atrium Hotel in Budapest. VideoAge spoke with a number of television execs and DISCOP insiders to learn why the event, which focuses on Central and Eastern Europe, is growing at such a rapid pace and what, if anything, they expect from the market.

“DISCOP is simply a great opportunity to follow up with our clients about conversations we began at MIP-TV,” said Granada International’s Dorit Schilling. “It’s great to see everyone in one place and catch up.” She did, however, point out that many buyers don’t attend DISCOP due to the fact that there are too many markets throughout the year. “But there’s a good chunk of people,” she added.

As to the question of why the market has grown so quickly, Schilling had this to say: “DISCOP has raised its profile because Eastern Europe has become a much stronger market, with the region becoming more economically stable in recent years.”

Schilling is hoping this newfound stability will help her sell as much of Granada’s catalogue as possible. She’ll attend the market with a collection of Jane Austen films, including Northanger Abbey, Mansfield Park and Emma, as well as action docudrama Perfect Disaster because “literary adaptations and action movies tend to sell well in Eastern Europe.”

And while she looks forward to the newly grown market, Schilling won’t be attending DISCOP’s newest program, DISCOPRO, a day-long conference and networking event dedicated to co-production opportunities in the region. “I hope to go next year,” she said.

Patrick Jucaud, general manager of DISCOP, said that DISCOPRO will become a permanent DISCOP event, but that next year and at all future DISCOPs, it’ll be a two-day extravaganza, complete with a pitching element. “We felt it was too early this year for that,” he said.

DISCOPRO, which will be held Tuesday, June 19, will feature panels and seminars on topics related to all the European Union, government and privately-backed incentive packages available to encourage pan-European co-productions.

“With the recent expansion of the EU, the proposed ascension of the Balkans to the EU, a booming Central and Eastern European-based television industry…there has never been a better time for a conference such as DISCOPRO, and we look forward to expanding the program into an annual event,” Jucaud said.

When asked why DISCOP has grown by leaps and bounds, Jucaud referenced DISCOP’s joint partner, NATPE, which acquired the Budapest market in 2005. “Since we teamed up, we’ve seen more American companies attending DISCOP,” he said. “In fact, last year we saw a 100 percent increase in U.S. attendance.”

In addition, said Jucaud, the partnership with NATPE “allows us to feel more in touch with the problems and solutions this industry is facing. Our relationship with NATPE helps us better understand the issues.”

James Anderson, sales manager at U.K.-based 3DD Entertainment, who will be on hand at the Sofitel, has noticed the market’s change for the better. “DISCOP has gone from strength to strength and we have noticed considerable growth in many territories in the region.” 3DD recently finalized a number of deals with key Central and Eastern European buyers pre-DISCOP. An Evening with James Blunt and Gorillaz: Demon Days Live in Manchester were snapped up by the Czech Republic’s Ceska Television, while Russia’s Kultura TV bought Natalie Cole-Ask a Woman Who Knows.

Things are definitely looking up for the region. Jucaud summed it up best: “Many of our clients struggled through years when it was difficult to do business, but now they are finally gratified with the marketplace.”

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