 | INTERVIEW |
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| Elie Wahba: "Formats Are a New Way to Expand the Market" |
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The SVP of 20th Century Fox Distribution for Latin America and the Caribbean talked to ttv about the distribution company's business operations and shared his vision on Latin American media today.
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Elie Wahba, SVP of 20th Century Fox Distribution for Latin America and the Caribbean.
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Residing in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Elie Wahba is a renowned industry executive with a 42-year career at Fox. Thirty-two of those years were dedicated to Latin America's television business, making him stand out as an unmistakable reference for the industry. In dialogue with ttv, Wahba commented on the distribution company's current situation and shared his opinion on media in the region.
20th Century Fox's distribution division for Latin America and the Caribbean has offices in Sao Paulo and Miami from where it operates at a pan-regional level, from Mexico to Patagonia. Its programming line-up includes 24 to 25 series and about 40 movie releases per year. It also owns one of the largest rerun libraries in television.
Business has been tangible this year for the division led by Wahba. The answer is clear when reviewing the region's economy, which has fared well despite the global economic crisis. "Latin America recovered quickly from the crisis compared to the rest of the world," Wahba tells ttv. "Today, all countries in the region are growing very well. Brazil is the continent's engine at the moment, as well as Mexico, which -despite the crisis- is a market that remained stable in the TV business. Argentina has its difficulties due to certain issues such as the Media Law, but the ship continues its course ... and Chile is quite a competitive market," the executive adds.
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Fox has volume and output deals in almost every Latin American country: Telefe in Argentina, Globo TV in Brazil, Unitel in Bolivia, Teleamazonas in Ecuador, Monte Carlo TV in Uruguay and both RCN TV and Caracol TV in Colombia. In Mexico, Fox has an output deal shared between Televisa and TV Azteca. The distribution company recently sealed distribution deals in Panama, Honduras and El Salvador, among other territories.
Fox's offering is built on two mainstays: in series, The Simpsons; and in movies, blockbuster titles like X-Men and Avatar, which stand to be the big releases of 2011. But there is more to genres and titles. Business is expanding and formats are beginning to play a crucial role. At MIPCOM 2010, Fox presented Fox Look to the market, its division focused on series, reality and game show formats. "This division will acquire and create important formats, apart from developing traditional formats such as Beauty and the Geek, Trading Spouses or The Simple Life," Wahba says. "We are going full steam ahead with the series format. We have many stories that can be well adapted in Latin America, as is the case of The Wonder Years, for example. We would negotiate the format adaptation with local channels assisted by Fox's production division. Undoubtedly, formats are a new way to expand the market," the executive says.
In the business of pay TV, the distribution company is member of Telecine (Brazil) and LAPTV (Latin America). It also has a volume deal with Fox for a number of series, among them The Simpsons and Glee. "This year we have more series than the Fox channel is able to consume, so we have closed deals with A&E, Discovery and Turner, plus negotiations that are being conducted with other channels," Wahba says.
Other than traditional screens, the distribution company has closed business with emerging media companies. For instance, the agreement signed last July with Terra Latin America, for free broadcast of the programs 24, Prison Break and Family Guy. "New media is a business that will grow as companies mature, once bandwidth is increased and the service becomes popular in Latin America," the executive says.
But it always blows hot and cold. Distribution business in the region has hit a snag: the steady growth of local production. "Increasing local production takes up space in programming grids. Then, there are media regulations, as in Argentina, to complicate the situation. But ultimately, rejection in TV is not like in the film industry, where for example, a Mexican film has to deal with many difficulties before it can be released in Brazil. In television, the product always travels abroad," Elie Wahba concludes.
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