Janson Media CEO Talks Market Trends in C21 Screenings Profile

Janson Media President Stephen Janson was recently interviewed by the media business trade magazine C21 Screenings. As reported in the pressroom at the top of the year, Janson Media acquired a suite with the Media House as a part of the company's progressive push for digital content distribution. In the profile Janson showcases both the foresight to anticipate market trends and an ability to adapt towards them. Hot topics for programming seem to be Current Affairs, 'Green', and Travel - all genres Janson Media has excelled in over the course of its 20 years in business.

Full interview by Emily Brookes

New Jersey-based indie distributor Janson Media will celebrate its 20th anniversary at MipTV, and it hasn't come this far without learning a thing or two about spotting trends. Emily Brookes reports. After several years of watching slots for acquired, independently produced factual content become fewer, Janson Media CEO Stephen Janson has spied a possible saviour in the unlikely guise of the growing global recession. 'The silver lining in the financial crisis for indie content and cheaper documentary and fact-ent fare might be that broadcasters will need to reduce commissions and coproductions, and expand acquisition slots to make their budgets stretch further,' he speculates. Hoping for growth in demand as his company enters its second decade, Janson has populated his C21screenings suite with programming that reflects the trends of the last few years, and predicts what might be next. ''Green' was the big buzzword at MipTV and Mipcom last year,' Janson begins, meaning that there are a lot of schedulers currently looking for environment- and sustainability-focused programming, but also that a lot of it has entered the market in a short space of time. Janson Media, therefore, is looking to promote programming that follows the green trend but also stands out from the crowd. A highlight is The New Environmentalists (6x30'), a series of portraits of ordinary people effecting real change on their home turf that is hosted and narrated by Robert Redford (left). That star factor, Janson says, gives the show 'instant credibility in a busy field.' The New Environmentalists is also noteworthy in that it has been developed so that it can be aired either as complete half-hour episodes, as does PBS, or as five-minute interstitials that introduce the activists, which is how they appear on Sundance's Green block. Also broadly under the green banner is Harvest Eating With Keith Snow (26x30'), a new series that Janson Media will debut at MipTV later this month. In the series, the eponymous chef shows viewers how to eat healthily and ethically by cooking using locally produced, seasonal produce, encouraging the audience to both be creative in their recipes and to build relationships with local growers, farmers and store clerks. While environmental programming could get a further boost from the recession as people are encouraged in cost-saving measures like growing their own vegetables or reducing their driving distances, for travel programming, another of Janson Media's staple genres, it could have an adverse effect as viewers save bucks by staying home. But Janson isn't worried. 'In my view, the travel category will never go away,' he says. 'Whether people travel less or travel more won't matter - the shows will either work as pre-trip guides or as vicarious experiences for armchair travellers.' For the armchair explorer, Janson Media's C21screenings suite offers a glimpse of Indique (left, 6x30'), which aims to capture India as a modern country, less interested in tours of the Taj Mahal and visits to the Ganges than in India's burgeoning wine-producing regions and its film industry. Janson's aims for the series are to get it on to networks like Discovery or National Geographic, but because it's a hosted show in English it could be difficult to place on a large international scale, he says. For buyers who shy away from hosted travel series, however, there's Discoveries: Asia (4x60'), a more conventional series shot in high definition that showcases the beauties and marvels of Japan, China and Korea. 'The traditional travelogue is less in demand in places like the UK, America or Canada, where audiences like their hosts, but in terms of re-versioning in other languages, these shows are relatively easy to do with a simple replacement of the narration tracks,' Janson explains. At C21screenings, prospective buyers can also check out two new travel properties that Janson Media will debut at MipTV. Globeriders Indochina Expedition (36x30') is a BMW motorbike adventure through the back roads of the Asian continent, while in Travel With Kids (36x30'), the Roberts family - mom, dad and two kids under 10 - head to locations both on and off the tourist track, showing viewers how families can have fun and adventures while still dealing with nap times, temper tantrums and fussy eaters. Janson Media might know trends, but after 20 years in the biz, it also knows to be prepared. That's why the company is covering its bases: it recently launched its own web channel at www.janson.tv and has struck content partnerships with the likes of YouTube, Hulu, Blinkx, Vuze and iTunes. The company has also started a consultancy group, bringing the lessons learned in the past two decades to newcomers to the entertainment community.

For more information on Stephen Janson, visit his resume.