TV Middle East and Africa MIPCOM 2012

MIPCOMEDITION

Pay-TV PlatformsKeshet Media’s Avi NirSouth AfricanFormatswww.tvmea.ws THE MAGAZINE OF MIDDLE EASTERN & AFRICAN TV OCTOBER 2012

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Business across the Middle East and Africa has beenbooming for FremantleMedia Enterprises (FME),according to Jamie Lynn, the company’s senior VP of dis-tribution for Southern Europe, the Middle East andAfrica. “From growing pay platforms to the biggest freeterrestrials to emerging digital opportunities, we are find-ing success in all areas with our rich mix of compellingcontent,” he says.

FME has several new titles to offer buyers in the Mid-dle East and Africa, including the mixed-martial-arts fran-chise Bellator, which Lynn says is “different from any otherMMA promotion,” with its “real sports-tournament for-mat.” Another title being highlighted is Half the Sky, basedon the book by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn,which features celebrity activists visiting victims of oppres-sion. Battleground is a documentary-style comedy-dramaabout a political campaign.

FremantleMediaEnterprises

• Crown of Tears• Hollywood Heights• Carrossel

• Bellator• Half the Sky• Battleground

Televisa Internacional

Africa has always been very receptive when it comesto Televisa Internacional’s content, according to RicardoEhrsam, the company’s general director for Europeand Asia. “It satisfies the needs of what English-speakingand French-speaking countries in Africa are lookingfor,” he says.

“We continue believing that Africa is a region that willhave important growth, and part of Televisa’s growth willbe focused on more aggressive sales in the region,” notesEhrsam, mentioning that the same goes for the MiddleEast. “In both cases, the cultural aspect will remain a chal-lenge, but we think Televisa’s...telenovelas will continueexpanding in these regions.”At this year’s MIPCOM, Tele-visa is showcasing Crown of Tears (Corona de lágrimas), atelenovela, and Hollywood Heights, a family drama thatrevolves around an aspiring singer who falls in love with arock star. The company is also presenting Carrossel.

www.televisainternacional.tv

“There isn’t one channel indifferent African countries that isnot demanding Televisa’s product,the novela.” —Ricardo Ehrsam

“We have continued to seesteady growth with a range of broadcasters across theregion.”

—Jamie Lynn

Battleground

Carrossel

Ricardo Seguin GuisePublisher

Anna CarugatiEditor

Mansha DaswaniExecutive Editor

Kristin BrzoznowskiManaging EditorJoanna PadovanoAssociate Editor

Simon WeaverOnline DirectorMeredith MillerChris Carline

Production DirectorsPhyllis Q. Busell

Art DirectorCesar Suero

Sales & MarketingDirector

Vanessa BrandSales & Marketing

ManagerTerry Acunzo

Business Affairs Manager

Ricardo Seguin GuisePresident

Anna CarugatiExecutive VP &

Group Editorial DirectorMansha Daswani

Associate Publisher & VPof Strategic Development

TV Middle East & Africa© 2012 WSN INC.

1123 Broadway, #1207New York, NY 10010Phone: (212) 924-7620

Fax: (212) 924-6940Website:

www.tvmea.ws

IN THIS ISSUEAfter the SandstormA look at the satellite-broadcasting business inthe Middle East 6

InterviewKeshet Media’sAvi Nir 12

South Africa To GoMNet is offering up aslate of formats 14

www.fmescreenings.com

TV MIDDLE EAST & AFRICA 5

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By Chris Forrester By any measure, broadcasting in the Middle East is a boom -ing business. However, the region is severely affected by

channel jamming, religious and factional rivalry, and viewerswho are perhaps the most news-thirsty of any on the planet. Of late, there have been serious squabbles between chan-nel owners, licensing authorities at each other’s throats—some even banning satellite dishes—and a never-ending chasefor advertising dollars to keep the free-to-air channels’ oper-ational heads above water. One inter-satellite dispute hasplaced at risk a new $300-million satellite. Such is life in thenever quiet Middle East.

CHANNEL HOPPINGThe mere number of channels added over recent monthsare in themselves impressive. According to the Amman-based Arab Advisors Group (AAG), the number of free-to-air (FTA) channels in the Arab world grew by 19.3 percentbetween April 2011 and March 2012. Moreover, this growthwas almost entirely focused on privately funded channels,helped by a more liberal environment over the past year inEgypt, Libya and Tunisia.

The number of FTA satellite channels grew by a mas-sive 542 percent between January 2004 and March 2012.AAG says the total number of distinct FTA satellite chan-nels is now 642. There’s very little authoritative published research on rev-enues, as almost every channel is privately funded. AAG, usingpublished rate-card data, says that prime-time ad rates forthe small handful of top FTA general-entertainment channelsreached a record average of $3,299 for a 30-second spot.Unlike just about everywhere in the Western world, the veryhighest rates were for news and current-affairs channels,which reached $5,460 for a 30-second prime-time spot.“Of the 38 analyzed FTA satellite TV channels, MBCGroup’s Arabic-language general channel, MBC1, has thehighest average advertising rate,” said Arab Advisors. How ever,it has to be stressed that even these low rates are rarely thetrue amounts received by broadcasters, as all manner of “net,net” discounts apply.The Middle East, with few exceptions, is a region dominatedby satellite delivery with the greatest concentration of dishesanywhere in the world. However, some countries are tough-

6 TV MIDDLE EAST & AFRICA

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The satellite-broadcasting business in the Middle East is coming togrips with channel jamming, fierce rivalries and increased competition.

sandstormAfter the

Footsteps of Thesigeron Abu Dhabi Al Emarat.

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ening up their attitude to satellite. For example, Sharjah emi-rate, which sits alongside Dubai on the Persian Gulf, in Junebanned satellite dishes that are fixed to balconies and terraces.Sultan Al Mualla, the director-general of the Sharjah Munic-ipality, said residents can instead subscribe to cable or telco-supplied TV services, and he issued a 48-hour deadline forapartment-dwellers. Those who fail to remove their dishesface a fine.

DOING THE DISHESA few days later, Abu Dhabi did much the same, with the citycouncil calling on landlords and occupiers to limit and tidy upsatellite dishes on the capital city’s rooftops, balconies and ter-races. In a statement released on July 8, Abu Dhabi Municipalitysaid that satellite dishes and their related cable connections havebeen “mushrooming in a haphazard manner” on both privateand commercial building exteriors, creating a disheveled lookand threatening the community’s health and safety.Bans on dishes and local rules and regulations are but one

problem. Deliberate satellite jamming of signals is another,more significant problem. Salah Hamza, the chief technol-ogy officer of Nilesat, which is based in Cairo, says that thejamming of satellite signals, especially prevalent in the Mid-dle East, is hurting the industry very badly. “We now evenhave what we call voluntary self-jamming, where in orderto curb unwanted signals coming into a country it seemsthat a nation is prepared to also lose its own signals by jam-ming a complete [satellite] transponder.“For the past few months we have multiple examples of

deliberate jamming,” Hamza continues. “This has spread tofive transponders, affecting many of our clients. It is deliber-ate, and seems to us to be quite senseless. In some instancesthe jamming occurs on a daily basis starting promptly at 7:30a.m. and finishing at 1 a.m. the following day. It is as if some-one is just coming into an office and switching on the jam-ming mechanism as a matter of routine.”Hamza explains that as the Arab Spring revolutions and local

protests happened, the jamming intensified. “The recent eventsin Libya have added to the problems, but jamming now occursfrom Bahrain, Syria and, of course, Iran,” he says. “We have pro-government jammers as well as opposition jammers. Recentlywe had jamming from a very sophisticated source. These peo-ple seem determined to act as satellite operators, judging whatwill—and will not—be carried by an operator. Indeed, thiscase was quite ridiculous because even after we had removedall of the channels from a transponder, which is a huge headachefor us and our customers, the jamming continued onto anempty transponder! These are huge problems, and there’s no realsign of the problem going away.” In July such complaints came to a head when Arabsat was

publicly accused by France of supporting jamming, after Eutel-sat’s transponders were disrupted. France’s National FrequencyAgency said the jamming had been in effect since July 14, caus-ing the agency to make a formal complaint to the InternationalTelecommunications Union in Geneva, and to the governmentof Saudi Arabia, where Arabsat is headquartered. One new satellite operator is beginning to carve out a very

useful niche, supplying capacity as the region’s only all-HDTVplayer. YahLive, a new HDTV satellite platform targeting theMiddle East, has signed an important deal with Abu DhabiMedia (ADM) to transmit many of its channels. YahLive says it

currently carries about 30 HD channels, with plans to boostthat to close to 50 by the end of the year. “The addition ofexclusive Abu Dhabi Media channels means that our customerswill be able to view some of the biggest sporting events andleading entertainment all in highest-quality HD,” saidMohamed Youssif, the CEO of YahLive.Adding the ADM channels was a natural step, given that the

broadcaster is a sister company of Mubadala, which is finan-cially backing YahLive and YahSat. The HD channels coveredby the HDTV agreement include Abu Dhabi Drama, AbuDhabi Al Emarat, Abu Dhabi Sports 1 and 2, and Nat Geo AbuDhabi. Ayman Safadi, the CEO of ADM, says, “The uptake ofHD seems very strong. We’ll be looking at whether to extendthat offering to some of our other channels, particularly oursports channels.”

BIRD WATCHINGYahSat’s sales arm is being helped by the Luxembourg-basedsatellite giant SES, and it is also active with another powerful“bird” in the shape of SES-5, launched on July 10, which alsotargets the Middle East and Africa. Also looking for more busi-ness in the Middle East is SES Platform Services (SPS), basedin Munich. The satellite-services company is hoping to capturenew business similar to that being successfully supplied fromMunich to Johannesburg’s TopTV DTH pay-TV operation. “In Europe we have an excellent position because of our

broadcast neighborhoods,” says Wilfried Urner, the CEO ofSPS. “In the Middle East or Asia or Latin America or Africa, weare just one among many. If you cannot offer more to poten-

Local color: The pay-TV platform OSN has

been upping its investments in original

content in a bid toenlarge its subscriber

base, rolling out Hindustani on its

Yahala! HD channel.

TVTV MIDDLE EAST & AFRICA 7


tial clients, and we can talk about what ‘more’ is, then we mightnot win the business. ‘More’ might include any number ofincentives, or capacity agreements, or service bundles. Thismight include ensuring that the client gets to market a littlesooner, or [helping] with their business models, or [aiding]them with their technology development. But what we have toavoid is stepping into their businesses. They are the broad-casters, not us.”The Middle East and North African (MENA) region remains

primarily a DTH satellite-television market, and mostly free toair. Pay-TV penetration is low, at around 8 percent of DTH view-ers, according to the Arab Media Outlook report.

GAME ONAs in other regions of the world, sports is a big draw in the Mid-dle East, and a number of services are vying for viewers’ atten-tion. With 16 channels of sports and sports news, Al JazeeraSports controls the majority of international and regional sportsrights (including UEFA Champions League and the Italian,French and Spanish soccer leagues), and has the largest pay-TVsubscriber base in the region. However, its active base cannoteasily be measured accurately because it is a smart-card-onlynetwork—subscribers pay upfront for annual subscriptions andsmart cards are sold pre-enabled—and DTH ARPU is very low(about $80 a year).Many subscribers will simply buy a new card every year,

distorting the active base figures. Arab Media Outlook esti-mated 1.4 million subscribers in 2011, so a reasonable currentestimate might be 1.5 million active cards, or approximately 3percent to 5 percent of MENA TV households. Local esti-mates suggest gross DTH revenue of perhaps $150 million.However, a significant proportion of this gross revenue goesto distributors (who purchase smart cards from Al Jazeera inbulk and sell them on to dealers).The annual programming rights outlay for Al Jazeera

Sports comfortably exceeds $200 million, as it controls therights to almost all international and regional soccer leagues.After considering staff, production and operational costs, theAl Jazeera Sports DTH network is therefore running at a sig-nificant annual loss. As a network, its primary aims appear to

be achieving maximum audience penetration and controllingaccess to premium sports on TV in the MENA region.Al Jazeera Sports’ card-only “maximum penetration” strat-

egy means it is not a platform as such. The majority of itschannels are carried in standard definition in order to makethem accessible to as many open-market Irdeto and Viacess(encrypted) set-top boxes as possible.

IN IT TO WIN ITThe Abu Dhabi TV Network, launched in the summer of 2010,is best known for its carriage of premium sports in HD, in partic-ular the English Premier League, Formula 1 and Wimbledon. Italso carries other genres of HD channels (19 in total), such as theMBC HD channels, National Geographic and Sky News Ara-bia. AD TV Network controls its platform, as its channels areonly available on proprietary Humax set-top boxes embeddedwith Irdeto’s latest encryption system. About half of the ADSports package price in year one (more than $200) is the costof the set-top box.The Arab Media Outlook report suggests that the 2011 sub-

scriber base of ADM is 670,000, although this figure is notdirectly referenced (and seems high to many). This would sug-gest annual gross subscription revenue (excluding the cost ofset-top box) of $50 million to $70 million.In the two years since its launch, AD TV Network has

marketed itself as the home of English soccer (EPL), but nowappears to be moving toward a broader marketing strategyhighlighting the range of its HD content.ADM reportedly pays more than $100 million per year for

EPL rights alone. Its current three-year license agreement willend in the summer of 2013, and the English Football Associ-ation was due to award the new three-year license in Septem-ber 2012. A bidding war was anticipated between Al JazeeraSports and ADM.Al Jazeera is expected to try to consolidate control over pre-

mium international soccer in the region, even if the move costsa great deal and does not generate significant incremental rev-enues. After two years of business built on EPL, it is questionablewhether AD TV Network would continue to exist if it lost therights to English soccer. Competition could therefore be fierce.



Anchor desk: SkyNews Arabia, a fifty-fifty joint venture byBSkyB and Abu DhabiMedia Investment Corporation, reachesmore than 50 millionhomes as a free-to-airchannel across the Middle East and North Africa.


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The preoccupation with EPL rights means that the valueof the AD TV Network platform itself is often overlooked.An HD subscriber base of, say, 300,000 to 400,000 usingsecured IP-enabled boxes, all acquired within two years, is anexceptional achievement in the fragmented and chaoticMENA TV market. It took the pay-TV platform OSN almost20 years and a merger to achieve this.

TWO BECOME ONEFollowing the initial disruption of the merger betweenShowtime and Orbit in 2009, which formed OSN, the plat-form has now consolidated its headquarters in Dubai, ration-alized its management and staff, and established a consistentand secure platform using NDS encryption.OSN has kept clear of the price war for premium sports

rights. Its priorities have included leveraging what is now effec-tively a MENA monopoly on encrypted Western entertain-ment from the Hollywood studios and other independent dis-tributors. It also set out to secure its platform against card piracyand wire piracy (through deals with local cable operators); todevelop an over-the-top version of its platform (OSN Play)to future-proof its content-rights deals and prepare for chal-lenges from the likes of Amazon, Netflix and Google; and todevelop some original Arabic-language content.The result is a platform that continues to deliver high

ARPU (probably $50-plus per month across DTH and IPTVsubscribers) and a stable subscriber base. The claim of 600,000subscribers in 2011, as quoted in Arab Media Outlook, seemshigh to many and probably refers to viewing points (whichincludes hotel rooms and the like). It is reasonable, however,

to assume that subscriber revenues exceed$200 million per annum, and OSN may wellnow be EBITDA positive.Perhaps more important, its consolidation

of its platform and content licensing positionshas given OSN a degree of protection in anindustry plagued with irrational commercialbehavior (such as bidding wars for sportsrights) that constantly undermines the under-lying MENA market potential.OSN always maintains that its main competi-

tor is piracy. The MBC Group of channels,although free to air, is also a rival. MBC’s English-language channels contain premium Hollywoodoutput. MBC, like OSN, has also developed anOTT platform (Shahid.net), and through its mas-sive DTH audience reach has created a potentialplatform for future growth.

NICHE PLAYERSThere are a number of smaller services in themarket that recognize the price sensitivity ofthe MENA consumer and the need to have alow-cost compelling basic offering in order toachieve significant market penetration for anew platform. They also recognize the com-mercial potential for new low-cost pay-TVbouquets, once a platform has gained a strongfoothold in the market.For example, the Al Majd TV Network

provides Arabsat viewers with religious pro-gramming and culturally appropriate entertainment, par-tially FTA and partially in a pay-TV package. Its primaryaudience is Saudi Arabia, where it has successfully estab-lished a high ARPU package and (according to Arab MediaOutlook) has in excess of 500,000 subscribers. It does notcompete with any of the other MENA pay-TV networks,and as yet has not seen any players replicate its model. As aresult it is probably the most profitable pay-TV networkin the region!The ICHD platform was established in 2011 and carries

the MBC HD channels. Its mission was to sell a pay-TV box,which offers premium encrypted HD content at a near FTAprice, and use rapid growth as the basis to establish a pay-TVplatform. The network encountered pricing, technical anddistribution issues during its first year of operation, and hasnot yet achieved a significant market presence.My-HD was established in 2012, and also offers premium

encrypted MBC HD content on a high-definition box at anear FTA price. It anticipates further premium content to fol-low, and aims to establish an independent platform.There is also a growing number of IPTV-based players,

either using fiber or DSL/cable lines. The UAE’s Du isthe largest of these, with more than 100,000 subs, helpedby having distr ibution rights with almost all the majorpay-TV operators. Also in the UAE is e-vision, with a sim-ilar subscriber base to Du. Qatar’s Qtel is transitioning to fiber,and Saudi Arabia’s STC says it is aiming to fiber-connect2 million homes by the end of 2013. Bahrain, Jordan,Kuwait and Palestine’s Paltel also have, or are developing,IP-based consumer TV offerings.



Slice of the pie: El Bab x El Bab, theMiddle Eastern version of Sony Pictures Television’sEverybody Loves Raymond, airs on pay TV across the region.


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By Mansha Daswani As the cast and creators of Showtime’s Homeland received the stat-uette for best drama at this year’s Golden Globe Awards, there weretwo people on stage who might not have been instantly recognizableto those watching the ceremony: Gideon Raff, the creator of Hatufim(Prisoners of War), the show on which Homeland is based, andAvi Nir, the CEO of the Israeli broadcaster that commissioned thatseries. With a mix of scripted offerings like Hatufim, locally devel-oped reality like Shalosh and Israeli versions of hit formats such asMasterChef, Keshet Broadcasting has become the ratings leader inthis small, competitive market. Nir speaks to TV Middle East &Africa about Israeli creativity, the importance of second-screenapplications and Keshet’s increasing international business.

TV MIDDLE EAST & AFRICA: What have been the keys toKeshet’s continued ratings success?NIR: We are a bunch of people who love making television. Itsounds trivial, but we are coming from this motivation to doreally great stuff that we’re proud of. In our internal meetings,there’s always the question of ratings, of course. But there’s alwaysthe question of, are we satisfied? Keshet’s creative managementwatch each and every show a few times—in the editing suite, inthe final cut and on air. So the first answer is how driven andpassionate we are. The second might be that we are quite uniquein the way we work. We are all in one building—creative peo-ple, interactive people, marketing people—right in the middle ofthe high-tech, start-up section of Tel Aviv. This is the second partof the recipe. The third is that we are an organization that wantsto take risks. We are seeking high ratings, but we won’t enjoy theseratings if they don’t come from a really creative endeavor. We

characterize ourselves as edgy mainstream. We always look forsomething that will create an emotional response—negative orpositive, but not passive, and not mundane.

TV MIDDLE EAST & AFRICA: Why do you think Israelhas become such a hotbed of creativity?NIR: The start-up culture of Israel is part of the companyDNA. This constant state of looking and not finding—I canspeak for Keshet, and maybe this is right for Israel—is a partof that start-up culture. I think we share a strong urge toexpress ourselves and a constant state of neurotic dissatisfac-tion. It’s a good state [to be in] in order to create.

TV MIDDLE EAST & AFRICA:How important was Prisoners ofWar in elevating the profile of Israeli content on the global stage?NIR: Very important. On the one hand it was as Israeli atheme as you could think of. But on the other hand, theadaptation done by the American creators with our GideonRaff was so compelling, so strong, so American. [It showedthat] local creativity, local themes and pains, can be trans-formed to various nations and cultures.

TV MIDDLE EAST & AFRICA: So many of your propertieshave been formatted in the U.S. How were you able to crackthis challenging market?NIR: It started by getting to know Rick Rosen from whatwas then Endeavor and now WME. Rick learned of Keshetfrom getting to know our head of drama at the time, HagaiLevi, who did Be’Tipul [which would become HBO’s] InTreatment. Then I started coming to the U.S. more frequentlyand just showed our product. It spoke for itself ! Each yearwe produce four or five new drama or comedy franchises andthree or four new unscripted shows. [We’re] very prolific.We’ve come to understand the way the U.S. market operatesand what’s expected from someone who is coming fromabroad, how to cooperate with the studios.

TV MIDDLE EAST & AFRICA: What’s been your approachto nonlinear services and second-screen functionality?NIR: Three years ago, we had this credo for the organiza-tion, saying, the Internet, namely social networks, are greatfriends of TV. It wasn’t the mood at the time. [The Internet]was supposedly the biggest threat to TV. But we had said thatit is the best thing that can happen to broadcast television,which mostly relies on real-time viewing. After a show isconceived, almost simultaneously our interactive people getinto the picture. [The second screen] will always providesome added value for watching the show.

TV MIDDLE EAST & AFRICA:What are the main growthopportunities for the company heading into 2013?NIR: We are looking at the last five years as a pilot [phase].We’ve been assessing the world market. We look at the nextfive years as a change of gear. After getting to understandthe language and the mathematics of the international mar-ket, now it’s time for us to be a player in the internationalmarket. We’re looking for the international entity to be asubstantial part of Keshet. Some of our resources will gotowards that purpose. We are also having discussions withvarious international parties who are interested in aligningwith us and creating some kind of joint venture.



Keshet Media’sAvi Nir

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The South African pay-TV service MNet has brought itsaudience local adaptations of such world-renowned formatsas Big Brother and Idols. After a long tradition of importinginternational concepts, MNet has now made moves to exportits own ideas globally, entering the format-sales arena.“Sales and demand of both MNet and African content has

increased exponentially in the last year,” says Mandy Roger,the company’s head of sales, acquisitions and business devel-opment. “International channels are realizing that there ishuge value in broadcasting niche or ethnic content. To this

end, the step to formats was a natural progression for us con-sidering the sales successes of the past.”Roger says that there were a number of shows already run-

ning on MNet channels that had great format potential, “so it wasa case of reformatting two titles as well as creating four new onesin the beginning.”These formats “incorporate a little bit of ourculture and diversity,” says Roger. Even with the South Africanflavor, the concepts are easy to translate, Roger notes, “as mostcountries out there are becoming so diversified and the formatsappeal to and embrace that change.”Among the formats in the MNet catalogue is Duet Date, a dat-

ing and entertainment title in which singles perform karaoke. Thisis one of several titles that MNet has in the dating and marriagegenre. There’s also I Still Do. “Married couples who have lost theirspark are made over inside and out,” Roger explains. “The emo-tional makeover is done with input from their families, a pop-psych counselor and [by] reminiscing about their romantic past.The physical makeover is done by professional stylists. In front oftheir families and friends they are surprised with a ceremony torenew their vows. There is a double reveal as they see their newglam spouse and have a chance to remember that ‘they still do.’”

A third MNet format focused on love is Pants on Fire, a shiny-floor studio dating show. In it, three guys answer 100 personal,and somewhat embarrassing, questions on camera. In a blind-date-style setup, a girl asks the guys a series of questions. Theguys must choose whether to lie or stick to their honestanswers. At the very end, she guesses how many answers heanswered truthfully. The closer she guesses to his actual truthtally, the more glamorous of a date they win. “These are all brand-new formats that have been created in

response to a lot of research on what is popular and where thereis a gap in the market,” says Roger. “We felt thatexisting [dating] formats needed a bit of a fresh spinin a creative new way.”Far outside the dating genre, Way of the Warrior

involves a group of couch potatoes who try to mas-ter Muay Thai martial arts. There is also Piano Piano,which features piano-playing duels. The pianistsare also joined by celebrity guests.

UNIVERSAL APPEAL “We have stuck to shows and ideas that are easy toreproduce, lighthearted and uplifting and easilytransferable internationally as they aren’t success-ful as a result of the culture, language, religion andsense of humor in specific territories,” says Roger.In building its initial format slate, MNet first

embarked on a fact-finding mission, to get a bet-ter of sense of what the needs are in various mar-kets. “Once we get a bit more experience and getto know the market better we will expand the cat-alogue with more specifically created formats,”Roger explains.Europe, the Middle East and Asia are MNet’s

primary targets at the moment, according toRoger. “The U.K. and U.S. are difficult markets to crack and wefeel we would be better placed to target these markets once wehave a proven track record of success to speak about. Europeanmarkets, in particular, seem to be looking for new, different for-mats, too, and are open to new ideas from new [suppliers].”The slate has titles that will work for both prime time and

daytime slots, and are mostly low budget and cost effective; akey advantage given the current economic climate. The cata-logue features “uplifting shows,” Roger notes, that are gener-ally studio-based and get the audience involved.Brand-new titles for MIPCOM include Comedy Character,

which features sketch comedy, and Pop Part, a talent competi-tion that casts for specific personality types in pop groups, suchas “the sexy one,” “the shy one” and “the street-wise one.” MNet also has To Be Continued. The format, which encom-

passes two weekly hour-long installments and 26 30-minuteepisodes, features a competition in which people compete towin their own reality show. A panel of TV experts teachesthe viewer to think like a TV producer, as the at-home audi-ence will ultimately decide who will land their own realityseries in the end.

South Africa To Go

Hitting a high note:Among the formats onMNet’s initial slate isDuet Date, in which singles perform karaoke.

P R O F I L E

By Kristin Brzonowski

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TV Middle East and Africa MIPCOM 2012