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Come Dine tops Euro formats for 2011

ITV Studios’ cookery format Come Dine With Me was the most screened TV format in Europe for 2011, and Endemol was crowned the biggest format distributor in terms of broadcaster value, according to new research revealed to C21.

Come Dine With Me

Come Dine With Me

The TV Formats in Europe report, to be published this week by Essential Television Statistics (ETS), Madigan Cluff and Digital TV Research, has analysed the programming output of 50 major formats on 97 channels across 16 territories. It found that Come Dine With Me clocked up 4,126 hours on air, having been licensed to broadcasters including TV3 in Ireland, Antena 3 in Spain, TV4 in Sweden and BBC Entertainment in Poland.

In total, the number of hours of TV aired last year that were based on the 50 formats covered by the report stood at 16,856, according to the research, a figure that was level with 2009 and 2010. The UK led Europe in the number of format hours aired, but its total was “considerably lower than in 2010.” This decline was due in part to Channel 4’s format output halving to 705 hours and E4’s falling from 1,339 hours in 2010 to just 297 in 2011. These declines more than offset the launch of Big Brother on Channel 5. Channel 4, nevertheless, remains one of Europe’s top five broadcasters of format-based programming.

The Money Drop

The Money Drop

Jonathan Bailey, co-author and MD at ETS, said two newcomers also scored well in Europe last year: “The Money Drop was screened for 615 hours and The Voice for 312 hours in 2011 – impressive considering that both shows only started in 2010. Both are expected to grow sharply in 2012.”

The report also listed the top formats by value created for broadcasters, based on advertising revenues or the proportions of household licence fees that broadcasters received by screening these formats.

TV Formats in Europe 2Come Dine With Me led the pack in this metric too, creating some US$217.4m for its European broadcasters last year. Endemol’s The Money Drop has already become the second title by value created across Europe, with US$171.2m, while Sony’s Who Wants to Be a Millionaire came in at US$165.2m, BBC Worldwide’s Dancing With the Stars created some US$140.1m for its European broadcasters, and FremantleMedia’s Got Talent accounted for US$121.5m.

More established titles such as Big Brother, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, Wheel of Fortune and Deal or No Deal saw considerable falls in value for calendar 2011 compared to 2009 and 2010, according to the stats.

“The value created by the 50 major formats was US$2.02bn in 2011 for 97 channels across 16 European territories,” said Michael Cluff, co-author and director at Madigan Cluff. “The 2011 figure was 8.4% up on the 2010 total, with the number of hours broadcast increasing by only 2.4%, demonstrating that the category still has expansion potential despite tough times for European broadcasters.”

The UK was described at “the TV formats powerhouse in Europe” in the report. Not only does that territory screen the highest number of format hours, it is also home to several major formats’ producers and distributors. The value of formats for UK broadcasters was US$475m in 2011. France’s figure stood at US$382m, almost equal with Germany (US$381m) while Italy came in at US$260m. All told, the four countries accounted for 75% of Europe’s total value in 2011.

TV Formats in EuropeThe report also broke down the figures for hours on-air and broadcaster value by distributor. “Five distributors accounted for three-quarters of the format hours in 2011. ITV Studios is the largest distributor by hours, mainly due to Come Dine With Me,” said Simon Murray, co-author and MD of Digital TV Research.

The report said ITV Studios chalked up 4,454 all-day format hours in Europe last year, while FremantleMedia’s figure stood at 3,039. Endemol came in at 2,803; Zodiak Media accounted for 1,455 all-day format hours, while Sony Pictures TV stood at 1,008. “However, Endemol (with US$439m) was the leading distributor by value created in 2011,” added Murray, “closely followed by FremantleMedia (US$431m). The top six distributors accounted for 82% of total value created.”

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