Yahoo News Programming Deals With U.S. Studios In The Spotlight At NATPE Budapest, New Agreement For Warner Bros. In Hungary
Broadcasters in the CEE region have delivered their verdicts on whether U.S. drama and comedy still packs a punch with viewers in the region, as part of a CEO power panel at NATPE Budapest.
Bosses from broadcasters in Central and Eastern Europe were quizzed on how U.S. studio fare performs for them, yielding different answers – and news of a major new programming deal.
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The NATPE Budapest crowd heard the juggernaut U.S. series are now more regularly seen on thematic channels than the broadcaster’s flagship services in the region, but there is still audience demand.
Commercial broadcaster TV2 Media Group in Hungary is shuffling the studio pack. CEO Pavel Stantchev revealed during the Deadline-moderated session that TV2 has snagged programming from Warner Bros., previously a supplier to its local rival RTL.
Stantchev said that with dedicated movie, drama, and classic series channels, TV2 remains in the market for U.S. fare. “We have relationships with the majors, we have partnerships with Disney and Paramount, and now we became also the partner of Warner Brothers… for the first time in two decades. It has been traditionally the partner of RTL and now they switched to us.”
The U.S. studios have historically hosted post-LA Screenings events for the local buyers at this time of year. Sony had an afternoon-long screenings event that was included in the NATPE Budapest schedule.
Stella Litou runs CME-owned broadcasters Pro Plus in Slovenia and RTL in Croatia. “This content, especially the evergreen procedurals and comedies, they are for our secondary, not for our main channel,” she said when asked about the role for U.S. content on her services. “But for our secondary channels, these are our bread-and-butter. It’s very important to consolidate the numbers for the group and to populate the bouquet of channels that we offer.”
Ralf Bartoleit is CEO of Bulgaria’s bTV group, also part of CME. He was also at German commercial giant ProSiebenSat.1 during the era when it was forking out huge sums for studio shows. In Bulgaria, his strategy is to pick and choose even though competitors still look for output deals. “We are happy not to have those anymore,” he said. “You want to be more focused on local and local content, and in the end, local always beats the [U.S.] series. So yes, we have them still sometimes, especially in low season they are important, but not that important anymore.”
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