Central and Eastern European markets, Poland in particular, are ripe for reboots of classic formats and could prove fertile ground for scripted remakes, delegates at C21’s Content Warsaw heard last week. Here we pick out five key takeaways from the event for the formats industry.
The future of formats in CEE panel at Content Warsaw last week
1. Old is new
Although commercial broadcaster TVN announced earlier this year it was dropping classic quizshow format Who Wants to be a Millionaire? for good after three separate iterations over more than 25 years, last week’s news that rival Polsat has already moved in on the show proves rebooting old formats is very much on trend in Poland at the moment.
Magda van Niekerk
Magda van Niekerk, sales director, unscripted, global formats at BBC Studios, said: “The broadcasters are coming back to well-known old IP. This does require some refreshment to adapt to local audiences and new circumstances.
“Dancing With The Stars on Polsat has been the best entertainment show ever in the territory. Poland is just behind the US in terms of number of seasons; season 29 will come back in the fall and it’s doing well. We’ve seen it with The Office, which is an old IP and is working well for Canal+, which has done season five.
“I can see more space for old IP. The Weakest Link is an amazing format coming back in the US on Fox and I see a space for this gameshow in Poland again with a new host and comedy twist.”
2. Formats flip-flopping channels
The Millionaire deal also shows that linear networks are dropping their aversion to airing shows that have been traditionally associated with a rival network. For traditional broadcast networks in Poland, the threat now comes not from each other and ratings wars, but from digital and streaming services that are bleeding young audiences and advertisers.
Małgorzata Perkowska-Czaja
Małgorzata Perkowska-Czaja, MD of Endemol Shine Poland, said: “Right now, linear clients really want to keep the viewers they already have. For them, the biggest problem is viewers leaving for streamers.
“That’s why they’re searching for old formats that have perhaps been on different broadcasters. They previously wouldn’t have wanted something that was on a competitor broadcaster, but right now they see this is not a big problem. The big problem is the viewers are going to the streamers. So they think, hey, let’s keep the linear viewers and maybe take viewers from our competitors because we can’t take them from the streamers.
“It’s a good moment to bring old formats that have been hits in Poland back to the market.”
3. Don’t be lazy with those reboots
There’s no more prolific adapter of foreign formats in Poland than Beerend Jan Kepinski, founder of Jake Vision, which currently produces everything from the local adaptation of Bake Off to Dancing With The Stars and is working on the Millionaire reboot having produced the show in Poland since its 1999 debut.
Beerend Jan Kepinski
He acknowledges that the traditional linear audience of 16-45s has gone and the viewers of content through that means are now predominantly aged 50-plus, which is why classic brands are doing well. It is, however, important not to give up on attracting that younger audience. If you’re bringing back a show for its umpteenth iteration, don’t be lazy and just air what aired before. Think about how to update that show, and more importantly still, how to market it.
Kepinski said: “The broadcasters are careful with new shows, which I understand – with the audience and advertising declining you need good brands – but when we brought Dancing With The Stars back we also looked for a young audience. We put more fashion into it; we put the best Tik Tokkers into the cast. Our Instagram team has been great with that show, marketing it to younger viewers. We’ve also started doing that with Love Island; the online element of that show is very important to attract younger viewers. Then you get the whole family watching.”
Laura St Clair
Laura St Clair, senior VP of international formats at Sony Pictures Television, added: “Family viewing and co-viewing is incredibly important. Sony has a quizshow catalogue. Five years ago we could not pitch a quizshow – we’d walk into a pitch and be told, ‘As long as it’s not a quiz you can pitch it.’
It’s lovely that has changed because young people do watch quizzes, but they don’t necessarily watch them if they’re cast with older contestants, older-skewing hosts, questions about history. They want something with energy that is well cast. They will watch and turn up. We’ve got plenty of research that backs that up. Broadcasters have picked that up.
4. Drama and comedy formats could be the next turn of the wheel
All execs appearing on the Future of Formats in CEE panel agreed the Polish market was absolutely prime real estate for scripted formats, particularly in comedy following Canal+’s success with its local version of The Office, which has now aired for five seasons.
Banijay-owned prodco Endemol Shine Poland is planning to push further into Central and Eastern Europe (CEE)’s scripted market after successfully re-booting crime format Penoza. The Warsaw-based outfit is best known for producing entertainment formats such as Your Face Sounds Familiar, Good Luck Guys and MasterChef, with scripted playing a smaller role in its output. But that looks set to change as the label readies a slate of original dramas under CEO Małgorzata ‘Gosia’ Perkowska-Czaja.
Steve Matthews
“The brilliant Gosia took over as CEO in Poland and that brought a new kind of energy and passion for scripted,” Steve Matthews, head of scripted, creative at Banijay, told C21. “She really wants to lift up the scripted side, which is clearly an area ripe for expansion. Gosia definitely doesn’t want to rest on her laurels and do just unscripted. There is a lot in development in the scripted slate. Some of those are originals and longform dramas, while some are taking a little bit longer to work their way through various forms. Gosia is working away and they’re super busy.”
St Clair at Sony said: “We’re pushing our extensive Sony scripted catalogue. We have Doc, Teacher, Mad About You, Married With Children and a lot of nuanced comedy like Chosen and Yo No Soy Mendoza. I’ll be pushing all of that in CEE. We see a big opportunity in scripted formats.”
Van Niekerk at BBC Studios adds: “We would love to do more scripted in the territory; we have Ghosts, Doctor Foster and others. The BBC has more great formats than just Dancing With The Stars. We also have The Honesty Box, 1% Club and a vast catalogue of successful gameshows that work well in access prime.”
5. A lesson from the Netherlands
The age-old question at events like Content Warsaw is how you turn your market from an importer and adapter of formats into an exporter of original IP. This is difficult when, as we heard last week, one of the main trend is reboots of classic IP. Kepinski at Jake Vision thinks the answer may lay elsewhere in Europe.
He said: “Linear television broadcaster are into formats because they don’t want to take risk. The streamers take risk but they also take all the IP rights. LOL on Amazon is only for Amazon, same with Love Is Blind for Netflix. In the Netherlands, you have John De Mol owning his own broadcaster. He puts 50 formats a year out there, 48 don’t do well but two are succeeding. The Floor – he started that on his SBS. He’s taking the risk. That’s something which should change here, in my opinion.”
