Sebastián Moguilevsky, MD of Warner Bros ITVP Spain & Portugal, shares his thoughts on the best ways to increase your chances of success when selling and adapting unscripted formats.

While linear TV prioritises proven formats in the international market, streaming platforms are still learning and researching, based on trial and error, what place entertainment programmes occupy in their catalogues and how they can enhance dialogue with their audiences.

There is a phrase I heard from Miguel Salvat, who is responsible for original programming at HBO Spain, and I took it literally: our profession is not based on getting it right, but on narrowing the margin of error. On television, there is very little content that succeeds and there is no guarantee of anything. No one knows what will work and what won’t, and whoever says they do is lying. But experience is a degree, and just as there are formulas that definitely lead to failure, there are others that can guarantee you minimise errors and have more chances of success.

Here I share a few pieces of advice I’ve learned over the years.

First Dates has marked its 1,500th programme on air in Spain

Are you able to define the format in a single line?
Let’s start with the ideas. And this applies to any format, your own or someone else’s: you have to be able to explain it in a clear and concise concept. When you have to go around and justify a lot, you go wrong. What is First Dates? Blind dates in a restaurant. My Mom Cooks Better Than Yours? The title itself defines it. A good idea has to be able to be explained perfectly in one line. That is the virtue of the first large formats, the kings of each genre. Then the copies have to appear, the variants, which add a third or fourth line to differentiate themselves. Your chances are higher if you go with the former.

Study your potential client
When you want to sell content, know very well who you are going to talk to. Study your client. Analyse where they invest, what has worked for them and what hasn’t, what new products they are promoting. The networking offered by the markets is very useful, because you can talk to your client from another side. He is not in a position to attack, to buy. That allows you to listen to him, to know how he thinks. Gather all that information and use it to your advantage.

Dominate your market
To adapt an international format, you first have to understand your country very well. And then look at the budget and the duration of the original and analyse if you can take it to your local market. Drastically reducing a budget or stretching the length of chapters too much are usually not good ideas. Spain is in a second rank of territories that require added value with something premium but where, comparatively, they sometimes don’t pay you as such. But with the arrival of streamers, higher budgets are being seen.

Trust your instinct and sell it
Once you’ve done the homework, trust your instincts. Sometimes a screener did not persuade somebody to risk something, but you can turn it on its head so that it is seen in another way. Or you receive compelling data that makes you consider a product you weren’t looking for. Your instincts are fallible, but if you had good instincts before, use them to your advantage. Ultimately, this is the matter of protecting yourself. The person on the other side also needs protection to finally press the green button. Make that person use your instinct, your track record and your expertise to protect themselves.

If you want to sell to linear TV, look for track record
Linear TV requires that international formats have a track record to adapt them locally. Spain, for example, needs to have a successful support in similar markets in terms of population and cultural codes. It does not help that it has worked in Cyprus, Hungary, Poland and Singapore. If you arrive with a success story in a territory such as France, Italy, Germany or the UK, the client will pay you more attention.

It happened to us with Who Wants to be a Millionaire?. Although it is a product that is among the three best sellers in history, the excuse of the 20th anniversary made Antena 3 pay attention to it again. That element of marketing and promotion also helps content directors elevate the product and justify it, because they’re going for something proven.

Sebastián Moguilevsky

Be patient to find the right moment
Sometimes it does not serve you to arrive first, nor to arrive last. Finding the right time for the format is key. You can have a super-proven product and not sell it for 15 years. Now we are going to do The Bachelorette for Mediaset Spain. It is Warner’s number one format, but until now it had not been able to sell the show here. The client has to be receptive to that genre, which should not be saturated. Today, I don’t know if Spain has room for a cooking show, no matter how good it is. But there is always a share of risk, and there has to be a first who is encouraged so that later others appear using their track record and can show all these auction programmes, shows with overweight people fighting to improve their lives, of makeovers etc that they had in hand.

Dare to risk with the narrative
When thinking about adapting a format to your country, one challenge is deciding which narrative elements to enhance and which to give less prominence to. In one territory the conflict may work more, in another the evolution of the character, in another the affective bonds. First Dates is a clear example of this, as a weekly programme that we transferred to a daily format. It takes two to tango – a producer that proposes the show and a network that welcomes it and finds an opportunity. In this case, Cuatro had a slot that didn’t work, it had to compete with other very established proposals and we saw the opportunity to try a different genre and in an unusual broadcast format. We have just celebrated 1,500 shows in the series.

Do not give up your personal stamp
There are formats on which it is difficult to put your personal stamp because they are already distinct. Gameshows, for example, generally give little opportunity. However, whenever possible, do not give up. Who Wants To Marry My Son? was a super-successful format in Spain, but if you saw the original you would’t recognise it. We had been putting our own spin on programmes like Rich Women and Princesas de Barrio and we used that experience in the adaptation of this show. The client appreciates it because he is expecting you to add something.

It is essential to first be very clear about your personal signature. In our case, we have two elements for which we are recognised in the market: a great eye for casting and a narrative in a unique and very solvent edition.

The 20th anniversary of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? was key to its return to Spanish TV

Universal backbone and local execution
Today all screens look for so-called ‘glocal’ content. In unscripted, that means programmes must have a universal backbone and local execution.

Local concepts don’t travel, and neither do international executions. Those attempts that were made on pay TV to make competitions with a Chilean, a Colombian, an Argentinian and a Mexican did not work because in the end the product does not belong to anyone. Be very local in the execution, because if it works in your local market, you will be able to defend it better. And if it goes well for you, in the rest of the countries they will be able to find their own label.

But local execution cannot break the original model. I go back to First Dates – we have created a very personal and very recognisable format, with key elements such as honesty, the variety of casting, the visibility of diversity and the incorporation of humour. All this has further enhanced the original as it is loyal to the brand.

Dedicate a weekly time to creativity
Although you dedicate yourself to producing proven formats, I believe that taking risks is important, rewarding and necessary. You can’t always live off the creativity of others. It seems healthy to me to take some time in a week, even if it is minimal, to exercise the creative muscle. We live in very troubled times, and original development is an investment for independent production companies.

Avoid these five basic mistakes
Finally, some formulas that, even if the answer was yes, can lead you to a precipice and are best avoided.

The first is that the needs of the chain or platform do not accelerate your creative process. Excuses are not offered, the ultimate responsibility is always the producer.

Second, Frankenstein formats don’t work. I return to the importance of simple concepts – the sum of successes does not always result in another success.

Beware of making a programme around talent that is too limiting. Talent can help you sell the project but can also expose you.

It is also not a good idea to try to sell the opposite of the brief that you know the client has. You have to go for it, be responsible and not waste time. Defend one or two products well, do not show your entire catalogue.

And don’t skimp on your presentation. The client has eyes and everything enters through the eyes. I spend time on a good pitch and a decent presentation, with a good design and maybe some video.