Serials make killing in digital TV universe
DTT bolsters U.S. shows as local nets ink several volume deals
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From January to June, ad revs at Spanish commercial broadcasters plunged a dramatic 30.1% to E1.2 billion ($1.7 billion). Recession has caused execs to slash programming costs. Inhouse TV fiction budgets fell this year about 15% from 2008.
Although prices for international fiction, mainly U.S. skeins, are slowly adapting to global markets' new realities, demand is increasing.
The key is digital terrestrial television.
In July, for the first time ever, digital terrestrial television's audience share surpassed analog services (40.2% vs. 38.9%). Big-broadcaster shares are eroding fast. With the analog switch-off skedded for April, TV fragmentation looks unstoppable.
But inventories have to be fed.
For some TV execs, U.S. skeins are niche, cost-effective programming that benefits from the audience fragmentation.
"U.S. dramas bring prestige and work well for Spanish channels," says Eduardo Garcia Matilla, prexy of research company Corporacion Multimedia.
Mediaset-owned network Telecinco has reacted aggressively to audience loss. This spring, Telecinco inked a volume deal with NBC Universal, which includes NBC's new drama series "Trauma" and "Parenthood." It's also just pacted with Robert Halmi's RHI Entertainment for eight miniseries and 10 TV movies. Telecinco maintains a 3-year-old volume deal with CBS-Paramount, tapping "Harper's Island" and "Worst Week" for this season.
Interest in the industry is also focused on the long-term deal shared by pubcaster RTVE and Forta, the country's regional pubcaster association, with Warner Bros.
Ending in 2010, it could attract many private-sector suitors.
Except for Fox, all of Hollywood's studios have multiyear skeins/movies commitments with Spanish TV operators. The latest has been ABC-Disney, which in May signed a first-option deal with Cuatro.
"A key part of our DTT channel programming will be based on series," says Ghislain Barrois, head of acquisitions, Telecinco, which hit ratings gold with the "CSI" franchise.
"We're going to increase purchases of international fiction to feed our DTT services," says Antena 3 acquisitions manager Mercedes Gamero.
DeAPlaneta's Antena 3 shares transmission of U.S. skeins with its leading DTT channel, Neox, which has aired "The Big Bang Theory" and BBC's "Life on Mars" and more recently "The Listener" and "Flash Point." Fox's "Lie to Me" will be Antena 3's biggest international series fall bet.
Only Antena 3 and La Sexta lack preferential agreements with Stateside distributors, which allow the channels more selective acquisitions policies outside volume deals.
"We'll wait until fall to see how new dramas work and then deal," says Sexta head of acquisitions Sergio Ramos, who can hold back given that Sexta's top five skeins -- "The Mentalist," "Bones," "NCIS," "Numbers" and "Cold Case" -- have been renewed.
"There are quite interesting dramas available beyond volume deals," says Gamero. "We'll buy new skeins after their U.S. premieres."
Last May's Los Angeles Screenings marked the return to normalcy after the 2008 WGA strike.
"TV dramas were a little bit less creative than other editions but very solid. It seemed that networks tried to play it safe as a result of the crisis," says Barrois.
Spanish buyers highlighted "FlashForward" and the Warner Bros.-sold
remake of "V" as two of the biggest Screenings standouts.
"Many U.S. dramas command huge loyalty from a part of the audience, but now this fidelity is jeopardized by online access to TV series," says Fernando Jerez, programming head at Cuatro, which has a success with "Lost."
One of Cuatro's biggest 2009-10 season bets, ABC's sci-fi drama "FlashForward," launches in Spain very close to the Stateside premiere, Sept. 24, to mitigate piracy.
In Spain, the appetite for U.S. fiction remains unabated, as DTT aims at its fragmented audience.
