Pioneering format trend bodes well.

Poland and Russia continue to be dynamic production environments. There are similarities between the two markets and some of the same formats have succeeded in both countries. But one of the major differences is that vertical programming is a feature of the Polish market, while Russia remains predominantly tied to a horizontal programming model.

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Poland's major commercial network, TVN, successfully runs local versions of sitcoms The Nanny, entitled Nania, and Grace Under Fire, entitled Hela w Opalach. Local production company ATM Grupa is also producing Sony's Who's the Boss for Polsat. While Poland has followed in Russia's footsteps with some sitcom adaptations, the Polish stations are more selective.

Poland was primarily responsible for the trend of developing daily soaps--principally from Fremantle on TVN and Polsat--before Russia ventured in that direction. TVN's Na Wspallnej, based on the Fremantle format Between Friends, runs daily from Monday to Thursday, and has been very successful.

Poland is a fruitful market for distributors of entertainment formats. Both Who Wants to be a Millionaire and Big Brother were popular on TVN. Big Brother has made a return to TV 4 this past autumn. Fremantle's Pop Idolwas very successful on Polsat and BBC's Dancing with the Stars had a phenomenal 30 percent share on TVN. Similarly, in Russia there are two successful variations of Stars on Ice on First Channel and Channel Russia.

In their different and complementary ways, Poland and Russia offer unique opportunities for producers and distributors alike to license their formats, develop original co-productions and collaborate with the creative talent that is emerging in these nascent markets.

Tim Horan is ITI Group's executive vice president in Poland. He previously spent three years at Russia's leading production company, AMEDIA. Here, he discusses the differences (and similarities) between the two Eastern European markets.