Dealmakers


CAROLINE SCHROETER Sales manager, Central and Eastern Europe, Cinefl ix Rights


S CAREER


2010 Joins Cinefl ix with responsibility for German-speaking Europe, CIS territory including Ukraine, and north-east Europe 2003-2010 Various entertainment roles including working as a producer with companies like Endemol Germany and MME on shows including Big Brother, My Restaurant Rules, Top Of The Pops and The Dome. Also serves as a commissioning editor at Vox Television, where she works on the German version of Come Dine With Me 1999-2003 Works as a producer on the MTV European Music Awards for German broadcaster RTL2


ince joining Cinefl ix Rights last year, Caroline Schroeter has grown the company’s revenues


in Russia by more than 500%. In part, she benefi ted from good


timing, with the Russian TV adver- tising market experiencing rapid growth after a weak 2009 (Russia was named as the top emerging market in the Broadcast Distributors Survey 2011). But what particular skills did she bring that explain such a huge spike in sales? “When I joined, we weren’t doing


a lot of business with Russia so I started by doing some basic research to see what business opportunities existed. The main thing this showed me was that there were a lot more broadcasters in the Russian market than we had previously targeted.”


Market knowledge It helps that she speaks and reads Russian. “That made it easier for me to get an understanding of the market. I also have a background as a producer and director, which helps with research.” Armed with her notes, she went


to MipCom 2010 with a slate full of shows and a diary full of meetings. “Because I’m German, I am quite direct,” says Schroeter. “What I found was that Russian buyers didn’t mind being pestered. They didn’t make decisions straight away but they didn’t have a problem with me follow- ing up until I got an answer. Once I had broken the ice, I think they really appreciated the fact that I’d taken the time to get to know their business and their requirements.” One key point she noted was “the sheer volume of content they screen at this market. When the stats came back, it was amazing just how much they watch at markets – which I think is linked to logistical issues such as online security and customs controls for DVDs in Russia.”


For a factual distributor like Cine fl ix, one big oppor- tunity is the expansion in Russia’s secondary market. “We had sold shows to Channel One [the country’s biggest channel], but what I found was that pay-TV


was expanding fast. In addition, the


www.broadcastnow.co.uk Cupcake Girls


‘Russians tend to look to the US and Canada fi rst for lifestyle and


entertainment shows’ Caroline Schroeter


Inside The Box


major free-to-air broadcasters often have sister networks that are in need of quality acquisitions.” Pay broadcasters that picked up shows include Red Media, First


HDTV and Intra Communication, all of which run several channels. Other buyers include TV Stolet and DTV, which bought one of Cinefl ix’s top- performing series, Mayday. Aside from Mayday, other


titles to fi nd slots include Huge Moves, Python Hunters, Inside The Box, Weird or What?, hosted by William Shatner (pictured, left), Cupcake Girls and My Dream Home.


The last one is an oddity, says Schroeter. “There is demand in Russia for factual content in areas like dieting, makeover and


cooking. But there are almost no home life- style programmes because Russia’s


property market doesn’t work in the same way as those in the rest of Europe or the US.” Schroeter, who previously worked


at German broadcaster Vox on local- language adaptations of shows such as Come Dine With Me and Idol, believes Cinefl ix is well positioned going forward because of the profi le of its catalogue. “Russians tend to look to the US and Canada fi rst for their life- style and entertainment shows – and that’s where a lot of our titles origi- nate,” she says. “We sold Canadian cooking show Pitchin’ In, for example.” While Schroeter doesn’t anticipate


the same level of revenue growth in future, she does see more opportu- nities. “I recently went to a regional event where I met a whole new group of Russian buyers.” Not to be overlooked, either, is the


fact that a sale to Russia can lead to additional upside across the CIS. “Tastes in Russia are echoed in other markets like Ukraine, Khazakstan and Belarus. So once you have rever- sioned a show for Russia, it’s an opportunity to reach out to other markets in the region,” she says.


30 September 2011 | Broadcast | 55


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