Sydney Suissa, Executive Vice President, NGC International

As Executive Vice President, Content for National Geographic Channels International (NGCI), Sydney Suissa oversees all of NGC, Nat Geo Wild, Nat Geo Adventure, Nat Geo Music and NGC HD’s programming, production and development. Working closely with his team in Washington and all regional directors, Suissa’s focus is to develop and supply new programming, including series and specials, acquisitions, co-productions and commissions.

Suissa joined NGCI from Barna-Alper Productions, one of Canada’s leading independent producers, where he was VP of Documentary Development and Production with over 80 hours of prime time drama and documentaries in production. Prior to that, he was Senior Vice President of Factual Programming for Alliance Atlantis, where he oversaw all programming for History Television and launched National Geographic Channel Canada in the Fall of 2000.

Suissa has over 20 years’ experience in documentary and journalistic production. He is a member of the Hot Docs Advisory Board and a past member of the Steering Committee of the World Congress of History Producers.

In conversation with exchange4media’s Deepshikha Singh and Pallavi Goorha, Suissa shares the NGC’s plans in India as also the challenges and opportunities that a market like India offers.

Q. Actress Preity Zinta has been roped in for the programme ‘Trapped’. Any plans to involve other celebrities? There are a lot of initiatives that we are working on with local celebrities and personalities. This is a very big part of our ‘localised’ strategy, which helps us in connecting with the local audience.

Q. What changes have been effected in the show format of Nat Geo over the years? When we started out, Nat Geo was very much a traditional documentary channel and had a lot of coverage on wildlife. Now, the channel has become much more contemporary in terms of the style of shooting, presentation, and content. We now have a lot more coverage on natural history, science, technology, engineering, exploration and culture.

Q. What differentiates Nat Geo’s programmes from those on channels in the same genre? A number of things: one, the intensity of research that we bring to the channel and to each programme. Two, well-planned production budgets to ensure a high level of production value, and three, engaging viewers and educating them at the same time by providing real value in terms of inside information and maintaining consistency throughout.

Q. What are the challenges of holding on to the attention of Gen Next that prefers spending more time on the Internet? Generation Next eventually will be from Generation Me. It is like initiating the younger lot into watching Nat Geo. For instance, if I expose my son to the Nat Geo brand when he is young enough, I know that over the years he will stay tuned to the brand. This is a brand meant for everybody, which stands for very positive forces in the world and has something for everybody. So, our job is to reach out to everybody in whatever medium they are available on. That is one of the reasons we are using music to reach out to a certain demographic.

Q. How do you maintain a balance between local Indian content vis-à-vis international content on Nat Geo?

The budget that I have for programming is a global budget, which means every show that I spend money on has to have a value and has to be broadcast in our territory. I never buy a programme specifically for one market. In India, we localise in each territory to some extent – about 15 per cent of the content is India-based and produced here. Globally, too, we don’t produce the content ourselves, but deal with various producers directly. So, they could be based anywhere, London, Delhi, or Hong Kong.

It is the same in every territory. Local programming is about very specific local events, local personalities, and it speaks in a very specific language. The trick is to find the stories among that, which also find a connect with the rest of the world. Take, for example, a series like ‘Mega Structures’. It is about fantastic and very creative construction that takes place throughout the world, that’s a very universal subject matter. People throughout the world are interested to know about mega structures that are being built in India, the same audience also wants to know about such structures elsewhere – be it Dubai, Hong Kong, anywhere.

Q. Please tell us about your initiatives for the kids segment. Does Nat Geo have any specific programmes for kids this summer? Nat Geo is creating a lot of programming for kids in India, that are, in fact, are role models for other territories. For instance, ‘Superkid’ hunt on Nat Geo Junior has not been done anywhere else so far, but seeing the tremendous response to the initiative, we are now planning to roll out the hunt in other territories as well.

Q. Tell us something about the music channel, will it also feature Indian music? When we launch our music channel in any country, we hire somebody whose job is to source local content, local video clips, and they also tell us about the emerging artists who could be featured on the channel. We would like to feature more of emerging, young, popular artistes and music. So, here is a channel that lets the local people display their talent. We focus on artistes who are rooted in culture but don’t have the exposure.

Q. What challenges and opportunities does India offer as far as programming is concerned? Oh many! India is a very big and a very vibrant market. My understanding is that about 85 per cent of the homes watch the NGC channel. It’s is a huge audience we are talking about in India. However, the factual audience is very small in proportion to the several million in India. That’s one huge opportunity. Secondly, India is an emerging market, it is incredibly vibrant and is going through several changes. Thirdly, among all the territories in the world, India is the youngest demographically. It has a large young generation that no other country has, and it is very important. Personally, I don’t make any distinction between challenges and opportunities.

Q. How different would the programming of these channels be for India? Well, there are two answers to that. One is, I think we have the opportunity to do a lot of local programming now categorically on adventure, because India is such a great influence for travelers and experts throughout the world. We promise to be very different from existing channels. Our channels have their own programming budgets, own graphics packages, own branding strategies, marketing strategies and own localisation strategies.

Q. You are proposing to launch some more channels, what are the reasons behind launching these channels? There are two reasons – one, we wanted to create channels that go deeper and dedicate the entire schedule on specific subjects; secondly, these channels allow us to expand and extend the brand to various demographics that traditionally may not have had a strong presence. Channels on travel and adventure allow us to reach out to a younger demographic and expose the channel in the same way as the core channel.

Q. What about the new HD channel, what kind of programmes would it cover? The programming for HD channel would be quite similar to what you see in the core channel. If you have a HDTV set, you will able to watch all the programming on high definition. There will be programmes on science, natural history, wildlife, phenomenal technology and engineering, but everything would be in high definition.