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Battle of the brands
Battle of the brands
17 December 2002
SMH.com.au
Australia exported Popstars to the world. Now, two
years later, two networks are bidding for a pale imitation.
Michael Idato wonders why.
It's something of a feather in the cap of the Australian
TV industry that we gave Popstars to the world.
The Kiwi's may have invented it, but it was Sydney-based
production company Screentime that finessed the package
that eventually swept the world.
It's ironic, then, that four years later the Pop Idol
format, managed by Fremantle Media subsidiary Grundy Television,
has returned to our doorstep. Even more ironic is the
fact that one of the two Australian TV networks bidding
for the right to produce it is Seven, which already owns
the Popstars franchise. The other is Ten, considered
a more likely home for the show.
So, quicker that you can spell resurrection, the format
we perfected has landed back at our feet. And we're expected
to foot the bill?
This particular format food chain is a long and complex
one. Had it been written in Biblical times, it might read
thus: Popstars begat Making the Band. Making
the Band begat Pop Idol. Pop Idol waged
war on Popstars: The Rivals and conquered the unholy
land to become American Idol.
"How many new elements do you need to add to make
an old format a new, stand-alone format?" Michael
Healy, Nine's programming executive, asks rhetorically.
"There are elements that define a format and Nine
is incredible respectful of that, and for that reason
we spend a lot of money licensing formats. However, I
do acknowledge that there are concepts that are a spin
on a spin that sit in a grey area, and that usually becomes
a legal issue."
The need for format protection is clear, but outside the
courtroom most negotiations take place at the low-profile
Format Recognition and Protection Association (FRAPA)
in Cologne, Germany. This is the industry body, formed
in April 2000, that mediates disputes between producers
of similar formats. One of FRAPA's founding members was
Australian TV executive David Lyle, who is now a senior
executive at Fremantle, distributors of the somewhat prickly
Pop Idol.
Indeed, the case of Popstars v Pop Idol
has already passed FRAPA's door. The verdict? 19TV, the
company owned by British music svengali Simon Fuller and
producer Nigel Lythgoe that produces Pop Idol,
was forbidden from using the word "pop" in the
title outside the UK. Thus, Pop Idol became American
Idol and, next year, very likely Australian Idol.
A similar case is brewing between Bob Geldof's Castaway
Television Productions, which owns the Survivor
format, and the UK production company Granada, whose Get
Me Out of Here ... I'm a Celebrity echoes its Gilligan's
Island-style forebear.
The hard and fast reality is that most program formats
contain an echo of one another. The new Nine/Screentime
co-production Stripsearch, which auditions male
dancers for a tour under the Manpower banner, is part-Big
Brother and part-Popstars, with a healthy dose
of Boot Camp thrown in. Perhaps there is some truth
in the journalistic adage that to lift material from one
writer is plagiarism, but to lift from many is considered
good research.
Screentime director Bob Campbell anticipates no problems
with either the Stripsearch format nor other producers
trying to clone it.
"I don't think you ever expect these things because
people do generally respect copyright and original ideas,"
he says. "That is not to say the exception won't
prove the rule. At law, it is difficult to protect formats
and I think everyone recognises that.
"Our view of Popstars has been to work with
the licencees in all the territories to produce the best
possible result. That's why Popstars has met with
terrific success and has been renewed, sometimes for a
second and sometimes for a third time."
The judging panel consist of singer Marcia Hines, former singer
and now writer and producer Mark Holden and BMG record label
representative Ian Dickson.
