Michela Giorelli, Production and Development VP at Discovery Latin America, with more than 18 years of experience in the region, was a speaker in a presentation on how to finance creative ideas.
She mentioned that Discovery receives many proposals, “an average of 25 per week, mainly for the Discovery channels and for Home & Health, and we also have our channel Discovery Kids, that receives an enormous amount of proposals I am not including in this number.”
Even though many are interesting, she explains that others are not appropriate for their channels. “What I would tell producers is to do the task of watching our channel so they can notice what we are broadcasting and see what is new. The ideas that stand out most are the ones that are fresh, different.”
She points out that the evaluation process is quick because there is a filter to decided, and the ones that pass are discussed with the programming team to see the potential each project can have.
If Discovery covers all the production expenses, the rights are then theirs, she says, but there are cases, such as Brazil, in which they contribute 100% of the production and the rights in those cases continue to belong to the independent producer. “But we are also open to many co-productions, some can be with other channels and others with brands.”
Regarding talent in Latin America she says there is “enormous talent that has improved in recent years as it has matured, mainly cable television. We do many Latin American versions of American formats and our versions are of the same quality or even better.”
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