The Buyers' Agenda - Belgium
- Published: 15 October 2007 11:35
- Last Updated: 15 October 2007 12:09
Executives from SBS Belgium, VRT and Canvas and Vitaya reveal what shows and formats they are keen on.
Esther van den Brink
Head of acquisitions for SBS Belgium
“The Flemish market has evolved towards the female audience recently. The successful launch of our second channel Vijf TV at the end of 2004 has created room for high-quality product for females aged 20 to 49. We are always looking for UK shows, especially personal or home makeovers.
"These continue to work very well. The British detectives remain very successful too. My advice would be to distribute female-skewing programming and take a very pro-tective approach.”
Catherine Wilmes
Drama acquisitions manager for VRT and Canvas
“We’re used to programming British products and detective and police dramas work very well for us.
"People are really into detective series and we have just started a second detective slot on a Saturday night, where we’ve played Judge John Deed after Inspector Linley. But sci-fi doesn’t work at all in Flanders.
"There is no affinity for it here in books or on TV. I was looking at the BBC’s Torchwood and it’s a very nice series but I’m not sure I can do anything with it here. I was afraid to buy it.”
Vicky van der Borght
Buyer for Vitaya
“It’s very competitive here at the moment because we’ve been expanding and tapping into new types of programming.
"We now have more drama and movies. We have seven hours of new programming a day. We mostly buy British shows such as A Place in the Sun, How To Look Good Naked and House of Tiny Tearaways. British programming is very focused on the viewer’s intelligence when you compare it to American shows.
"We programme upmarket for professionals – that’s why we tap into the British market.”
