With versions in 25-plus territories, including a 24/7 spin-off for Mexico and the U.S. Hispanic market, Power Couple has emerged as Dori Media’s biggest non-scripted format. ScreenMDM Talks kicks off its new Format Zone strand with Nadav Palti, CEO of Dori Media, and Maria Perez Campi, director of sales for LatAm and the U.S. Hispanic market, discussing why the game show has traveled so well across the globe.
Created by Abot Hameiri (Fremantle Israel), the format recently spawned a 24/7 version on all of TelevisaUnivision’s platforms in the U.S. Hispanic market and Mexico. The celebrity edition is produced by Fremantle Mexico.
The company has now announced a new Finnish adaptation, with Yellow Film, and renewals with RTL Hungary (tenth season), Antena in Romania (fourth season), and Bulgaria’s Nova (seventh season).
As Palti explains in this new episode of ScreenMDM Talks, which you can watch on YouTube below or here on Spotify, the 24/7 extension followed the success of the Mexican version. Campi, who leads LatAm and U.S. Hispanic sales for Dori, was closely involved in how ¿Apostarías por mí? (Would You Bet on Me?) came about. The version ran across Televisa and Univision (Sundays), UniMás (weekdays) and ViX (streaming) and speaks to the needs of broadcasters looking for formats that can be extended across multiple platforms.
That version ran for two months, but the format is flexible enough that its duration can be adapted to the needs of the commissioner, Campi explained. “We can take it to a weekly format. We can take it to two or three times a week. We call it an accordion structure because we can spread it more or less as well.”
Palti adds, “It really depends on the client and the culture and the territory.”
That flexible approach underpins Dori Media’s development process, Palti adds.
“To launch new non-scripted today, it’s not easy. People are conservative. People want proven concepts. People want to take less risk. We are looking for new ways to launch paper formats, because we develop a lot all the time, and also we try to use new technologies to reduce the cost of production.”
Palti referenced a pact with América TV in Peru for another Abot Hamieri-created format, The Auction (La Subasta). “The idea was, let’s find a channel in the world that is willing to launch it—take the risk with us to co-produce it—and we will give them a percentage of the IP. If it’s a success, they can benefit from the rest of the life of this product. Today you need to be very creative about how to launch a new format.”
Beyond the launch, constant innovation during a format’s lifecycle is crucial, Palti adds. “If you have a success like Power Couple, you need all the time to bring something new to keep the success.”
The team at Dori Media is also exploring brand involvement as it continues to expand its format footprint.
“Reality shows are good for getting brands inside,” Campi said. “The Auction is perfect for sponsorship. Brands are supporting most of the production costs, so we need them.”
Palti added, “Think about a new arena where you have a good game show and you develop a way to produce it cheaper. The pilot costs, lets’s say $300,000, $400,000. If you can get the prizes from brands, we reduce the cost for each episode to almost zero.”
Palti and Campi also weighed in on scripted opportunities in the kids and YA spaces, given Dori Media’s long heritage of teen and tween telenovelas. Palti referenced the new series Young Suchard, renewed for a second season ahead of this month’s premiere; and a new series slated for later in the year.
“This is a powerful target. We already know this because we had Rebelde Way—the original guys did musical tours all around the region and they sold out everything,” Campi says.
“Regarding Rebelde Way, it’s not only in Latin America,” Palti adds. “They did a tour in Europe. We have Rebelde, the Mexican version, where the band there is RBD. They did a huge tour in the U.S., from New York to Los Angeles. We own the brand. I believe Rebelde Way is number one in the world of teen novelas.”
The teen target is very important to the company, Campi added. “Microdramas is a new format appearing. This is related to the teen audience. It is another rhythm. We always give this teen target their own space and we think about what they want to see.”
Dori Media was making minisodes long before the vertical drama craze, and will soon announce a new microdrama series, Palti says, while continuing its production activities in long-form scripted.
“We’re going to start to shoot in a month a big drama,” Palti says. “And then, after two months, an eight-episode high-end drama. I told you about Young Suchard. We want to shoot also in Argentina. We are very busy in production, which is not easy. You have to sometimes bring more partners to the table and to be very creative to make it happen.”
As the market continues to face structural challenges, “our job now to be very specific and concrete on what we see as the needs and what we can do to fulfill the expectations this new era requires from us,” Campi says. “How to spend the money, where to put it, what to produce, how to produce.”
Alongside that, Palti adds, is understanding “what our clients need. The arena of their business is changing.”
“Flexibility is the word we need to understand,” Campi adds. “We need to adapt constantly to be open. How do we adapt this to the new needs? It’s constant flexibility and adapting to what’s going on.”
