Saban prepares to mind the gap: an interview with Joel Andryc, Saban Capital Group's chief creative officer.(From Teutons to Lat

Since immigrating to the U.S. in 1983, the professional life of Israeli-American investor Haim Saban has been the stuff of In 1988, he formed Saban Entertainment. By 1995, the company had joined forces with Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. to create a global joint venture known as Fox Kids Worldwide. In 2001, that company was sold for $5.2 billion to the Walt Disney Corporation. That move was followed, in 2002, by the launch of a new company, Saban Capital Group (SCG), dedicated to investing in media properties. In 2003, SCG went even more global, forming an investment group to take control of ProSiebenSat. 1 Media, one of Germany's leading television broadcast groups.

Fast-forward to June 2006, when a consortium led by Saban won the bid for Spanish-language media company, Los Angeles-based Univision Communications. The company's most valued assets are Univision (the uncontested U.S. ratings leader among Hispanic audiences), TeleFutura and Galavision television networks. Together, these three networks constitute an 80 percent chunk of the fastest growing television market in the U.S., which just may justify the $12.3 billion ($36.25 per share) price tag the Saban Group agreed to pay for the company. While the deal likely won't be finalized until sometime in the first quarter of 2007, SCG will attend this NATPE with eyes on how best to proceed with its soon-to-be acquired asset. Due to the sensitive nature of the negotiations, Joel Andryc, chief creative officer at SCG, declined to explain how his company's approach to managing Univision--which is in the U.S., but holds a Latin frame of mind--will be different than that used for ProSieben (which Saban sold to investment firms KKR and Permira in December), which is in Germany, yet has a brain-trust in the U.S. But, Andryc spoke freely about his company's plans to expand its production business through a new virtual studio run by Saban Entertainment Group. VideoAge spoke with Andryc, to see what's in store for the future.

VideoAge: In what capacity will you be attending NA TPE?

JA: I will be at NATPE in a few different roles. Part of my job is to oversee Saban investments and to be their point person for the Hollywood community. Second, the new (and not-yet-approved) acquisition of Univision presents a new opportunity for us. NATPE will be part of the learning curve to see about the Hispanic market, meet with station groups, advertisers and suppliers. Third, we'll be focusing on our new venture [known for now as Saban Entertainment Group], and meeting with suppliers and creators of kids' properties for that.

VA: What can you say about the pending Univision acquisition?

JA: Simply, that we're very excited about closing it.

VA: There has been talk in the industry about a need for Univision to update its programming as its viewers become more sophisticated and, in some cases, abandon Spanish TV for more mainstream networks. Can we expect big changes in the realm of programming?

JA: No, not at all. We recognize the strength of Univision, which continues to be the clear ratings leader among Spanish-speaking Americans, and the number five network in the U.S. We also feel loyalty to the audience and see that telenovelas have been very successful. We're not going to come in and change everything. We're still learning a lot about the business and want to see where we can take things.

VA: Can you tell us a little bit more about the new venture?

JA: Well, as you know, Saban has his roots in the creation of kids' content and was a very active producer and distributor of kids' programming until 2001--when he sold all of the operations to the Disney Corporation. But we still yearned to get back into the kids' business, and that includes the creation of content. Although Saban is primarily a private equity group that invests strategically in entertainment and media-related properties around the world, we thought this would be a good opportunity and a good time to get back into the business.

Basically, we've created an incubation fund for developing new kids' intellectual property. The Saban Entertainment Group, as it is called, will be dedicated to incubating, developing and marketing family entertainment properties. The programs that we work on will be joint efforts: we'll have a lot of co-production partners and work with many freelancers. We don't have plans to build a huge staff or a large base, like we used to have for Saban Entertainment, since most of the work can be done digitally.

VA: Has the Saban Entertainment Group launched any properties yet?

JA: Our first launch was at MIPCOM, and it was a show called Hollywood Star Dogs, a series that, in the same vein as the movie Babe, seamlessly shows animated dogs talking, in this case, telling fairytales. Our hope is to begin production on the 26-episode, half-hour series at some point after NATPE. We're now in the process of following up with all the interested broadcasters we met with at MIPCOM.

VA: Why is now a good time to get more involved in content creation?

JA: Back in 2001 there was a real bottleneck when it came to being able to launch kids' properties. Basically, you had three major players--Nickelodeon, Disney and Cartoon Network--and they were the only ones reaching kids 24/7. To reach kids in any major way you had to have that 24-hour service. Otherwise, it was really tough to get the eyeballs. Now, when you take a look at the landscape you can see that there are so many other platforms on which to launch properties. We're going to use all different platforms--You Tube, social networking sites and mobile television. Just look at, for example, the Crazy Frog phenomenon in the U.K. It started as a ring-tone and has now been expanded into animated shorts.

VA: Are you saying that new platforms like VoD and mobile provided the impetus for getting involved in the creative realm?

JA: Absolutely. It still all comes down to content--whoever has the content will win out--but there are so many new places to house that content.

VA: How are you prepared for this new venture?

JA: Our preparedness is multi-faceted. We still have great contacts on an international level, since a lot of the same players from four years ago are still buyers, and we can use our relationships from the old days to advance this venture. We're also well-versed in the licensing arena. Plus, we have a financing role, where we can provide the seed for development that a lot of independent producers just don't have.

VA: Is there any connection between the new venture and the Univision acquisition?

JA: Not really, aside from the fact that we'll have great access to Univision, which provides a good opportunity for Saban Entertainment Group.