Viewpoints: acquisitions strategies

Vanessa Palacios Head of International Affairs
ONTV Productions
Spain

What are your acquisitions strategies?

We don't have any specific strategy. We just look for something that hits us at first sight. If a few days or weeks later we are still thinking about we go for it. We don't have a very conservative nor a liberal plan, I mean we don't want to spend much time thinking and analyzing, but neither buy for the fun of it!

Welcome to the Neighbourhood

What programs are you looking for?

We mainly look for entertainment shows. Quizzes, games, reality shows, coaching … Each market you can find a new genre (green, reality freaks, panel shows …) so we try to be updated and have something like that in our catalogue created by our creative team or acquired to others.

We're not focused in any country. We mainly look at Britain, Dutch, and Nordic and of course American, but we do also keep an eye on Latin programs because of the impact they make around the shows.

What foreign programs did you buy this year?

We optioned the RTL format "Willkommen in der Nachbarschaft" ("Welcome to the Neighbourhood") distributed by Ohm:tv. We are also producing in Cuatro "The People's Quiz" quiz show aired in BBC1 in 2007.

What national programs did you buy this year?

We really don't buy formats or finished programs from Spanish companies; we have our own creative team that generates formats and also develop the adaptations of the foreign ones. Sometimes we produced formats which the company is not used to. This is the matter for Living in foreign land!" ("Un lugar extraсo") a TV3 (Catalunya) format. We produced it in Aragon TV past summer and it's being aired in the second term of the year. We're also producing it in ETB (Country Basque) and it will be aired in the last term of this year.

What are your acquisition plans?

Our plan is to keep on looking for something interesting and not buying crazily. Many companies just want formats to increase their catalogue, but we think that if we just have a pair we can concentrate our efforts in a good developing of each, and the pitching will be more successful than if we have to pitch many in the same time.