Viewpoints: Acquisition strategies
Dmitry Velikanov
Chief Executive Producer
REN TV
Russia
What are your acquisition strategies?
REN TV Channel does its sales on the basis of "All 18-54" audiences, but its product predominantly targets men in the age group of 25-54. Our viewer is an experienced and independent male; hence, we hope to deliver him unusual, smart and ironically intriguing ideas of formats, high quality movies and TV series.
What products are you looking for?
REN TV's daytime schedule consists of a variety of non-fiction lifestyle programs produced in-house, locally produced TV series and documentaries in weekday prime, as well as Russian and foreign movies and TV series in weekend daytime and primetime. Although our daytime slot programs have been on air for quite a while and earned audience's loyalty and good ratings, we would be happy to consider new ideas for non-fiction formats to diversify our schedule. On the side of ready-made product, we are looking for packages of foreign movies and TV series. Our recent success was reached by movies starring Steven Seagal, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Sylvester Stallone and other well-known actors, whose popularity among Russian male audience seems to remain at high levels. Such series as Fox's "Prison Break", Warner's "Supernatural" and "Sarah Connor Chronicles" have also appeared to be very successful, so we would be excited to find similar product as well as continue with the new seasons of several of these titles.
Can you name the most successful titles that you acquired this year?
The past year has been quite modest on acquisitions, but we are currently in negotiations with various partners to license product for the upcoming years. It is probably a bit early to announce these deals, as they are still in the final stages of negotiations, but we are confident that the product that we are going to present to the audience would be quite original, inspiring and distinct for our Channel. There will be several new titles with Steven Seagal, exciting adventure and fantasy movie premieres from European distributors and Class A feature films from major American distributors.
What products will be in demand during MIPCOM 2009?
As usual – reputable premieres of the year, new seasons of premium TV series, and highly rated veterans of television – great movies, high quality returning series. However, this year, I presume the genre will skew more towards comedy and humor, rather than drama and mystery.
|
