Greece
Local production shoots up

80% of Megachannel programming are own contents. The reason for this situation lies in the boom of adaptations: 1 to 7 p.m. programming consists of Greek productions, mainly re-runs of series and comedies; and obviously, movies are the Greeks’ favorites.

Homemade. That is the way the Greek audience prefers television. “Local production is shooting up, reaching about 8 0 % ,” remarks Louis Xenopoulos, Head of Greek Programming at Megachannel, and Nassos Katakouzinos, Head of Acquisitions at Megachannel, in an exclusive interview with our director Amanda Ospina at the channel’s premises in Athens.
The broadcaster, launched in 1989 as the country’s first private TV station, leads ratings with a 90% share. Below, we find Antena 1 (18%), Alfa (14%), Star (12%) and Alter (10%), as well as other smaller stations competing for ratings.

How is the channels’ daily programming made up?
All of these channels have about the same programming structure, except for Star, which is more oriented to young girls and plays movies in primetime. There are lots of morning programs, and you can see live entertainment in all the channels. In the afternoon all the other channels, except for us, have live entertainment shows, like talk shows and reality shows. We are the only channel airing a telenovela, which plays at 7 p.m.

Rise in local adaptations and decrease in finished products

Louis Xenopoulos believes that the problem with telenovelas when it comes to matching up Greek audience preferences is that “many of them are too dramatic for the Europeans, who like  comedy more.”
For this reason, the local version of the Colombian telenovela Betty la fea’s second season shattered the traditional genre’s preconceptions and became an all-time success. “It was very successful. In 2006 we aired it in our primetime from 9 to 10 p.m. and that time frame share was 30% to 40%.  Last year we re-scheduled it in access primetime getting a 32% share, and it continues to do very well indeed!,” says Xenopoulos in excitement.
Now the executives are looking for “telenovelas that have been successful in other countries” so that they can develop their own versions. Nassos Katakouzinos, Head of Acquisition of the station, gets the credit for introducing the first telenovela into Greece 20 years ago, and he is proud of them becoming a boom, specially in the case of Star and Alter. On the other hand, he maintains that Mexican telenovelas – which were very successful before – have lost their popularity due to the boom of adaptations. For instance, the adaptation of Betty la fea carried out by Televisa in Mexico is not doing very well and it has about a 10% share, while Greek productions reach up to a 30% share.

How are you dealing with adaptations?
It was quite difficult because we had never done it before for a daily program. We had done adaptations for a weekly program like The Nanny and it was like a training school for us. But we are adapting to things quite quickly now. So I think for our next project we’ll do even better.
Megachannel works with 5 independent production companies that deal with the development of the formats bought by the channel. Currently, the company is fully developing a version of Amor descarado, which they bought from Telemundo. When it comes to selecting, the executives choose locally made products, because that is what the audience prefers. “It is easier for the language, people understand better, they feel more familiar with the characters,” concludes Xenopoulos.