TV With Legs by Jesse Ricke

Building content for specific domestic markets requires a well informed demographic finesse, and content selection becomes more nuanced as companies seek out audiences in international markets. Each of the Content Passport panelists deal with specific complexities as they move their products across borders. Like when Comcast is showing African American centered content to international buyers, Jene Elizie has learned to showcase the cultural or personality elements over the ethnic. Surprisingly, Africa can be the more difficult market for African American shows, as they often feature black lifestyles that Africans perceive as out of reach.

The Africa Channel, represented by Mark Walton, has to deal with some original content decisions. Many of the formats that US audiences find familiar are still very new to the African domestic audiences they serve, so that when they broadcast a classic soap opera like their 'Jacob's Cross,' it "has legs" in Africa as well as in the US. They also produce a variety of programming featuring African talents - comedians, actors, musicians - as every audience "wants to see themselves." Walton explains that the channel finds audiences among the African diaspora and among internationals with a want for diverse portrayals from outside their comfort zones. This social aim of demystifying the continent gives even the traditional content a political intent that strikes me. With such a compelling story I'm very interested to hear more about this growing company.

All these qualities of audiences - that they appreciate the novel and the familiar, faces they can relate to and faces that surprise them - makes the international content game endlessly intricate. I think Portia Archer from HBO offered an insight that might make things much simpler. While HBO moves content across seas, they do not choose or produce content because of its international potential. HBO can trust their creators, with their original voices, to make content that's truly compelling, so when something like 'The Wire' plays well in certain demographics its probably more dependent on the shear quality of the content. They can also rely on their 'After Hours' adult content to be totally "gangbusters." In either case, audiences are shown to have a lot in common that companies can use in pushing content worldwide.