{spotlight} feature reports

Report on World Congress of Science & Factual Producers, November 2006, Manchester

Margaret Scott, Director of Creative & Business Development, MnE Television

The event proved to be highly productive, as companies had excellent access to decision-makers from around the world, allowing projects to find new partners. The host Broadcaster was BBC.

National Geographic
They commission 250-300 hours of original production, a mix of pre-sales/co-production and original production. We were encouraged to pitch through their website www.ngcideas.com, they specialise in science and history and also say they can’t seem to get enough docs on dogs!

Key areas Space – Earth science, Life Science – the human body, shared experiences but not too medical. They commission singles 1 hrs within series, 2 hr specials (never 1 hour) and are also looking at formats and the lighter side of science.

The focus is on being authentic and authorative, producers should be careful to pick experts audiences for the US market can understand. The US is constantly compromising on this issue but not so much an issue for Nat Geo International.

Discovery
Discovery Networks International – spend most of their budget on travel and living, lifestyle, £250 – 400k per hour for factual, travel and living £100-250k per hour but depends on partners. The global development group has access to a pool of money and currently funds 35 series.

Head of Production Discovery Canada – they commission up to 150 hrs per year. Less money for their digitals – they are HD leaders and 75% of their current slate is HD. They have a male 18-49 skew – similar to USA but closer to Britain in feel. Engineering and accessible science main offering. Big events do well such as ‘How William Shatner Changed the World’ worked very well for Canada. It is a condition of their license to do more Canadian productions. Voices of God docs don’t work, mystery with a pay off at the end. More important how the story is told and must have a cool factor to it – water cooler TV. Discovery viewers are mostly male – intelligent – watch a lot of TV but also have other interests. Asia need lots of cool facts, UK like the cool factor. Topics such as wild life with human component are well received. Canadians not so mean as UK viewers, their production guide is currently being updated.

Sessions
What’s the Buzz looking at new trends which was very useful to aid for future development. Key trends identified at the session were

• Me TV
• Event TV
• Contemporary History
• Reality TV
• Animals

The congress was very useful for MnE in our current development phase. We hope to progress some of the contacts and the information gathered was crucial for our development. We would not have been able to attend the congress without the assistance of The Glasgow Film Office.

November 2006

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