1. SVODs BET ON QUIZ
After Family Feud, launched by Netflix in 44 African Countries (see Friday’s Espresso of 26th Nov), Hastings’ platform has just commissioned a band-new quiz series, titled Bullsh*t the Game Show, hosted by Howie Mandel.
This game offers contestants a chance to win big money, even when they don’t know the correct answer. Throughout the rounds, players will work their way up a money ladder either by answering questions correctly or by confidently giving incorrect answers – and persuading others that they are accurate. So, the aim is not to be the smartest person in the room, but just to convince everyone that you are.
Even if the concept isn’t actually quite original (it closely resembles, for example, Fremantle’s Poker Face), the format reconfirms the interest of SVODs for unscripted, in particular for quizzes. Recently also Amazon’s Prime Video launched the classical UK gameshow Pop Quiz (see Friday’s Espresso of 3rd Dec) and for sure others will follow soon.
2) THE ERA OF BRAND FUNDED FORMATS
Brand Funded Programming (BFP) will have a growing importance in the audiovisual system, mainly due to the crisis of the traditional ad spot. K7 Media dedicated a long and in-depth study to this area (click here to read it), with special attention to the VOD world.
Last year in the linear broadcasters various Brand Funded Formats were launched, among them Cooking with the Stars on ITV (sponsored by Marks&Spencer), The Great Garden Revolution (Channel 4, brand Ronseal, that produces gardening and DYS products), The Money Maker (Channel 4, brand Dell), the reboot of Changing Rooms (Channel 4, brand Dulux, that produces paints) and the brand-new Home for a Dog (Nelonen, Finland, brand Prima Pet Premium).
On the OTT front, the situation is more delicate, because, as K7 pointed out, Premium SVODs like Netflix, Apple and Disney+ can’t risk irritating subscribers who are paying for ad-free content. But things start to change also in this field, especially for Amazon, that has a ‘natural’ aptitude for this kind of model. Last November successfully premiered Beer Masters, a pan-European brewing contest.
For the Brand Funded Programming it is really the start of a new era.
3) SQUID GAME’S UNSCRIPTED LITTLE BROTHERS
It was unavoidable. After the global success of Squid Game, the attempts to recreate that kind of atmosphere in the unscripted, especially in Korea, have sprung up. Surviving Men and Women: A Divided World, soon on the Korean streaming platform Kakao Tv, is a competition format that requires participants to stay in a harsh environment for 10 days in order to win 100 million won (about €73.000). Also in Bloody Game, premiered in November on the other Korean platform Kocowa Tv, there are 10 players, but it is set inside an apartment, it’s more a psychological warfare and the prize at stake is 300 million won (about €220.000).
Understandable operations, but to have good formats it isn’t enough trying to imitate a fiction, even if successful.