Q: Pawn Stars UK Version – is that the way to go? Are we looking at important brands that have done well for the network, and looking for formats that could travel?
A: Absolutely. But it’s not going to replace the great stories that are on finished taped. We’ll bring Pawn Stars UK, but we’ll also bring local formats. Our big brands of the last couple of years have become a lot more ‘formattable’. I think Pawn Stars is just the first. We will probably announce other big formats soon and their migration to Asia.
Q: Would it then be fair to say that in the development of programmes, you would have distribution in mind?
A: That’s actually difficult to say. While broader distribution is nice, really at the core of it, all (our U.S. content developers) will be thinking about is ‘Is this a great story?’ ‘Are people going to want to watch this story or its great characters, or is it a season upon season thing?’ That kind of calculus.
Inevitably, we are focusing more on the creative. Because once you tell a great story, once you put together a creative that’s compelling, then we believe that if you got the right people in place, the right brands in place, and your market around it, then you can absolutely exploit that in the form of both finished tape and formats.
Q: When we look at content, we cannot help but feel that sometimes content tends to look surprisingly similar. How do you then grapple with the need to still be original?
A: You’ve said it: the word is original. There’s a big push in every development room to be original. If it’s not original, the viewers can tell. The viewers everywhere are very discerning. I think our approach in stressing that is fundamentally different from some of the other players.
Q: When it comes to localisation, what’s the output looking like for Asia-centric content coming out of the Asian office next year?
A: I’m not going to give you numbers, but I am going to say that localisation is a huge thrust and a huge belief that we have. By the way, localisation from me doesn’t mean languaging; that’s the end of your play. You got to subtitle, you got to dub depending on the market. You have to include interstitial, you got to add a local voice, you got to package—all of that is a given.
But I think, you got to produce a substantial number of hours in local or hours that are substantial in nature. What does that mean? You have to spend a fair amount of your creative bandwidth and ‘make-noise’ locally with your production. That can either be from a steady flow, or from a handful of very big, splashy, expensive events.
