Viewpoints: acquisitions strategies

Sviatlana Ramanchykava
Chief of Acquisition Department
Salmon Distribution
Belarus

Salmon Distribution (SD) is a TV, home video and "video on demand" rights distributor on the C.I.S. and Baltic media markets. The SD's catalogue contains more than 880 hours of telenovelas, and 175 hours of children's programs made by the world-known producers.

What are your acquisition strategies in 2009?

We need to be more flexible nowadays and we need to meet different customers' requirements, so we work not only with kids programs but with the titles for the elder audience. Therefore, we are looking for partners who could collaborate with Salmon Distribution widening our catalogue with the most perspective programs: new animations, telenovelas, documentaries and sitcoms. Our company strategy is to present the interests of the producers on the market of our territories. In addition, I would like to add we are ready to work not only with TV or with HV rights like before, but we are open now to discuss IPTV content and to participate in Internet TV platform creation.

What genres are you looking for?

TV specificity of Eastern media market is in regularity and stability. Single demonstration of short animation is unprofitable commercially since costs on its internal advertisement (promotional trailers, announcements in the program schedule) are the same but profit from the advertisement's placing - substantially smaller. TV channels are interested in what is being viewed regularly, at the time viewers turn their television on and look at their favorite programs, having planned this out previously.

Aggregate of the popular programs supports the high rating of the whole channel. This enlarges its profitability so any commercial and public TV-channel is interested in constant, stable and predictable popular TV programs. The key to Salmon Distribution is to meet customers' (TV channels) requirements. Moreover, we would like to present programs that would satisfy even the most demanding viewers. So, we are looking for the serials concerning animation time keeping and for kind, non-violent, instructive and educational kids programs. We would be happy to know that parents could give credence to our animations and that they could set aside their kids alone in front of the TV without any trouble for their children. Hence, the main goals of our activity as people like to say, "To run the hare and hunt with hounds". Speaking of telenovelas, we prefer to have a deal as with classic and more traditional stories, so with more modern and original ones.

We are looking for: animations (preferable target audience - 12 and up), sitcoms, telenovelas and documentaries.