McFormat?

Sparks Network president Nicola Söderlund will tell you there's an invisible divide in Europe when it comes to tastes in formats. It already existed in early 2004 when Sparks - a network of 12 global indie prodcos that give each other first look at formats - launched in Sweden. Söderlund recalls a meeting at the time, during which the Italian creators of a game show called Azzardo (Hazard) excitedly showed it to the rest of Sparks' members for the first time. Azzardo uses 'ballerinas' (as Söderlund describes, "pretty girls in bikinis that do short dance numbers and kiss the winner of prizes"), and he laughs recalling the reactions it prompted. "You should have seen the faces when the Italians presented the show to the others in the group, because this [style] was not very common in other countries."

Azzardo originates from Italy, a ballerina-friendly market that's part of what Söderlund calls the "Mediterranean Europe" television tradition, which also includes Spain, Portugal and Greece. The other region, "northern Europe," includes the UK, Scandinavia, Germany and Benelux. Since the two regions have such distinct tastes, even though Söderlund says Azzardo is a beautiful show, "because of the ballerinas, it's very difficult to sell into northern Europe."

Patrick Svensk, CEO of Copenhagen-based Zodiak Group - which has prodcos in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Russia and Poland - has a phrase to combat this type of problem. "We say to our development teams in all six of our local countries, 'Think global, act local,'" he says. "The greatest format hits are the ones that travel identically anywhere, so they should be thinking in global terms, 'What makes a great format?'"

After analyzing market trends and dissecting the components of well-traveled hits, Svensk has made an observation: "There's a reason that McDonald's restaurants look the same all over the world, and so goes it for the greatest formats, like Who Wants to be a Millionaire and Big Brother, for instance. They only adopted one or two percent in each territory and they are on the air in more than 100 countries looking exactly the same."

To ensure a format keeps uniform across different markets, Söderlund says: stick to the bible. "When you transfer the knowledge as a rights holder to local producers, you have to be very strict that they know how the format should be produced." He recommends keeping the graphics, set, and overall feel of the show the same. One of Sparks' members produce a Belgian reality format called Peking Express that's been sold to France and Germany, and it remains essentially identical in each market. The show has ordinary people traveling from Moscow to Beijing with only two Euros to spend each day. Since the mechanics of the show are well defined - the contestants have to reach certain points at certain times, and complete specific challenges - Söderlund says it's not a difficult format to produce in different territories.