Televisa Internacional Gets in the Game

NEW YORK: Ricardo Ehrsam, the general director of entertainment formats at Televisa Internacional, talks about the company's format catalogue, which has grown quite extensively in just a relatively short period of time.

"In about a year and a half, we went from being a company that had four or five formats to now aiming to have at least 25 formats after this MIPCOM," says Ehrsam.

"We're moving forward with new types of formats, from talent shows to game shows to reality series," he adds.

A notable success in the talent genre has been Stand Up for Your Country, which has sold into 20-plus markets worldwide. The prime-time entertainment series sees singing duos of parents and kids performing in front of a studio audience. The goal is to try to get a standing ovation in order to move on to the next round.

Televisa Internacional has two new game-show formats in its catalogue as well, and this is a genre that Ehrsam says has a lot of promise for drumming up global sales. "Game shows are always very appealing for networks," he says. "Broadcasters don't always want to take a risk, but if they do, and the game show is a hit, it can stay on the network for a long, long time."

Within the game-show genre, the company recently launched Generation Gap and The Assembly Game. Ehrsam says that The Assembly Game is appealing for broadcasters because of its flexibility. "The show could be placed in any slot available," he notes. "This could be treated as a prime-time show on a weekly basis or this could be treated as a daily access-prime game show. You can convert it to a one-hour show or you can put it on as 30 minutes. It can also be adjusted to any age [group]."

Generation Gap, meanwhile, is targeted more at a family audience. The format was developed by Mark Burnett and is jointly distributed with Televisa Internacional on a worldwide basis. The show is going on air in Mexico on Televisa's Canal de las Estrellas as a prime-time show, "right before our big talent show!" Ehrsam explains. "We want to attract the whole family to the TV set at that time in order to [keep them watching] together into the evening [schedule]."

Ehrsam points out that a benefit of game shows, in addition to the fact that they can be long running, is that they are generally less expensive to produce than a shiny-floor talent show. "With a talent show, you may need to have celebrities and a huge studio, but with a game show, you can make it a very interesting show without spending that much money," he says.

As Televisa Internacional continues to build up its format slate, the company is working to ensure that its catalogue has something for everyone. "We are choosing formats that can fit anybody's needs," says Ehrsam. "[We are aiming to deliver] flexible formats that can really provide a solution for our clients."