Viewpoints: sales strategies

Jens Richter
Managing Director
SevenOne International
Germany

Can you tell us about your sales strategies?

Selling is a very individual process. It is crucial to pay close attention to the buyer's channel profile and time slot in order to find the right program. Finding suitable programs for the buyer's schedule is a mutual process based on a close trustful business relationship. And of course, it's the icing on the cake when we and the buyer exactly meet the viewers'expectations: for instance, our catastrophe miniseries "Tornado" had a fantastic market share of 22.41% on Italy's RAI UNO.

Bible Code

What are your key deals on TV Channels in 2007?

Many broadcasters buy our productions even before they're finished. Many of our co-produced and co-financed programs are offered right from scratch to secure financing. For instance, events like "Treasure Island", "Raging Inferno" or "Comet Impact" were presold before completion to over 50 countries. We prove to be reliable supplier of big events, whether in the catastrophe, family entertainment or adventure genre and our product is in high demand. We also had an amazing run with formats in 2007 but also this year. "The Successor", the talent show with Uri Geller, launched first last fall as "Phenomenon" on NBC. In Germany, the eight episodes of "The next Uri Geller" reached a fantastic average score of 17.3% in the 14-49 demographic and doubled ProSieben's share. "The next Uri Geller" drew an average share of 30.6% within the young adults age group (14-29) and the show outperformed the channel's Tuesday night prime time slot by 73% in the 14-49 demographic. Our improv-comedy "Schiller Street" launched last year on Italia 1 and became cult after the first season. The show has been recently awarded the Telegrolle for "Best Comedy" and a second season has just been ordered. The docu crime "Lenssen & Partners" has been successfully adapted in the Ukraine.

What are your new titles for MIPTV 2008?

Again, we have a powerful line-up of 50 new titles for Cannes. We will present new prime time series like "Innocent", a crime series for ProSieben, in which the ambitious lawyer Anna is determined to free innocent people that have been falsely accused and jailed for crimes they did not commit. The role of Anna is played by Alexandra Neldel, the star of our telenovela "That's Life". Our action series "Special Unit", which has been sold to Italy, France, Russia and Japan, goes into its second season. In the thrilling mystery miniseries "Bible Code", the young policewoman Johanna follows the nebulous tracks into Germany, France, Austria and Morocco and chases after a mysterious biblical code to prevent a conspiracy to assassinate the Pope…

Amazing CGI-effects reveal the modern world seen through Don Quixote eyes: wind mills turn into vicious giants, and a dog becomes an evil dragon… "Don Quixote" is entertainment at its best for the whole family!

The catastrophe movie "Heat Wave" deals with clime change: In a merciless summer with temperatures over 40° Celsius, the water supply system is close to a complete break-down, threatening the fresh water supply of 5,000,000 people… In a mind-blowing scenario with state-of-the-art CGI, the catastrophe movie "Aftermath: Population Zero" shows, what would happen, if human mankind simply disappeared. Shot in English, this movie is produced by Cream Production from Canada. We also present a strong line-up of TV movies, hour series like "17", funny animated shorts and even a Romanian sitcom.