Montreal: In its most direct form, formatting is a way of transferring expertise. Sellers provide prepackaged recipes and a licence to reproduce a formatted concept within a particular country. From smash ratings game shows to entire network and specialty concepts, the format business has settled in big time in Europe, expanding to include cross-platform and converging products and content for the Internet.

‘I think everybody can learn a lot from formatting,’ says Michel Rodrigue, CEO of Montreal’s Distraction Formats.

Rodrigue and other professionals from the sector will consider what the next big development in the format business will be at a panel called Formats: The European Wave, part of the Banff Television Festival’s Discovery Docs Day lineup on June 13.

Panelists include Claudia Durgnat, the U.S. and Canadian rep for the Rose D’Or, which is working with the European Broadcasting Union in promoting Euro ‘paper-formats’; multitalented writer/producer Guy A. Lepage of Montreal’s Avanti Cine Video, creator of the hit format series Un Gars, une fille (Love Bugs); and U.K. program creator John Gough (In the Dark).

Rodrigue says the busiest market for formats is Europe, to the point where U.S. shows are now out of the top 10 in ratings in virtually all local European TV markets.

The latest Media Metric report on North American and European programming points out drama programs made up only 18% of all new programs in fall 2000 compared to 27% a year earlier.

‘Drama has dropped tremendously in the last couple of years. The study doesn’t say [the decline is] due to formats, but it does say formats is an increasing sector and the balance between light entertainment and drama is turning in favor of light entertainment,’ says Rodrigue. ‘With [content] quotas in place for broadcasters like the CBC, format really is the answer, because once you produce a format it is Canadian product, Canadian content. The idea is bought from somewhere else, but it is rewritten and produced here, so it’s 150% content.

‘I think formats should be more appealing to English-Canadian networks than we’re seeing right now. All the new licensees have some Canadian obligations. And formats is the cheapest way of producing because you don’t have to pay for development. The licence paid for the format is a percentage of the production cost, so it’s relative [scaled] to the budget of the network.’

Good Brit business

The first format market took form in Monte Carlo in the winter of 1998. Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? was picked up for broadcast in the U.S. and it’s been full-speed ahead for formats ever since, says Rodrigue.

‘I think Millionaire was the show that made the format business what it is today. It was followed by Survivor and Big Brother, and now we have The Weakest Link. Most of the formats which have had any success in the U.S. are British except for Big Brother, which is Dutch. And there’s always a game to be played,’ adds Rodrigue.

One exception to the game show/competition rule is Love Bugs, a mischievous script-based comedy format chronicling the day-to-day ups and down of a thirtysomething couple. It’s been sold or optioned in 13 countries and is on air in seven, including France, where some 400 primetime mini-episodes have been produced for France 2, and in Spain, Israel, Italy and Germany.

Basically, says Rodrigue, the Canadian TV market has yet to respond to the format wave in any considerable way. ‘We use [European] formats in Quebec. You have no doubt heard of the success of La Fureur [a live, in-studio karaoke-style game show where the girls and guys sing and compete] and Lingo.’

Some of the major players in the format market include Pearson Television, Endemol, Columbia TriStar and Kingworld. ‘Fox is moving in now and they’ve just opened a format office in London,’ says Rodrigue. ‘I know other major players are looking at formatting, including Fox, which has come to us to discuss [the possibility] of our distributing their programs and the business model.’

ChumCity International is also active in the format business, selling both network programming concepts as well as some of its own show concepts. This activity is currently being extended to the Internet.

The industry is represented by the Format Recognition and Protection Association, headed by Pearson VP David Lyle. *