The last two days have been so hectic. This is where I earn my salary. It can be a lot of work running around a foreign city, meeting with different clients. But it's an important part of my job. There's nothing that can replace going to see them in their office and getting a better sense of their programming and their needs.
Here's a quick rundown of the past two days. It should give you an idea of the kind of schedule we face on sales trips.
Day 3 - Reykjavik
My first full day of meetings. In a small town like Reykjavik, there are only a handful of people to meet so it's difficult to schedule more than 3-4 meetings while there.
My morning begain with a meeting with ITC Skjarinn, a local broadcaster that recently switched from free TV to a pay TV service. After the financial crisis in the country, they were forced to switch to a pay service in order to survive. They previously aired our miniseries Bollywood Hero with Chris Kattan and were quite pleased with how it perrformed. They have about four channels, including a channel devoted soley to golf. Their main channel is SkjarEinn (Screen One). Some of their shows include The Good Wife, Survivor, and CSI. Their channel tends to be more female focused.
After that, I took a taxi to downtown Reykjavik to meet the buyer from 365 media for lunch. 365 is the main commercial broadcaster in Iceland. They have several channels and radio stations in the country. Their biggest shows are shows like NCIS and Ghost Whisperer. We went to a really nice Italian restaurant. The food was delicious. Apparently the owner is good friends with Jamie Oliver. But the weird thing is that the restaurant was completely empty but for the two of us. So it was a bit awkward.
After that, I called my next meeting to see when he would be available. I had some free time, so I went to a local coffee shop and made notes on my previous meetings. Then I walked around the town for a bit and wound up at the statue of Leif Eriksson, along with the beautiful church Hallgrimskirkja, that sits atop the hill. The national religion is Lutheran. So almost all the large churches are Lutheran.
Then I got a taxi out to my meeting with Samfilm. They are the largest theatrical distributor in Iceland and have output deals with Warner Brothers, Paramount and Disney. Apparently their offices are actually inside one of their theater complexes. It's a family business and the owner runs it with his sons. After our meeting, I met with his son Thor, who handles the theatrical acquisitions. He had just come back from seeing the new Transformers movie. He raved about it and said it was much better than the second one. His only complaint was that at over two hours it was too long. As distributors, they don't like movies over two hours long because they can only schedule so many screenings in one day. They also told me about a huge megascreen they recently built that is verging on being an IMAX sized screen.
One of his sons Bjorn drove me back to my hotel. During the drive we had an interesting conversation about piracy and the future of film content in the country. It's gotten so bad that there is no market for non theatrical movies in the country. They make all their money in theatrical and their DVD revenues have been plumeting. It's a common story I hear in every country around the world. Piracy is killing the DVD business. Of course this means there will be less and less opportunities for independent filmmakers as they can't rely on DVD revenue and VOD is only bringing in about a tenth of what DVD used to bring in.
Day 4 - Reykjavik to Amsterdam
Got up early and took the 5AM bus to the airport. Thankfully, Reykjavik buses are very clean and reliable. Made it to the airport and it was a madhouse, swarming with people. Luckily, I was flying business class, so I got the shorter line. I was checked in and through security in no time.
Had a cup of coffee and a croissant. Then spent the remaining Kroner I had on another souvenir. Iceland is in the process of joining the EU. It will be so much more convenient if they do. That was I can just use Euros, instead of having to get specific currency just for Iceland. The same problem is there in Scandinavia as well. A Danish Kroner and a Swedish Kroner are two seperate things and you have to constantly convert your currency while travelling through Scandinavia.
Icelandair is so nice and clean. It's so much better than Delta. If I come out here again, I will definitely fly them again.
Landed in Amsterdam around 1pm. I assumed that would be enough time before my next meeting at 2:15pm. Unfortunately, we had to wait about 20 minutes for our baggage. Apparently, there was some sort of snafu with the baggage, which caused the delay. I had intended to take the train when I got there. But seeing as it was about 1:45pm when I got out of there, I ran and grabbed a taxi to the hotel. Got to the hotel at 2:10pm, quickly checked in and got my key cards. The hotel is a beautiful historic hotel dating from the 1900s. They have me staying on the second floor at the end of a labyrinthian hallway up several small flights of stairs. Struggled to my room, sweaty and flustered. Had just enough time to set my bags down when I got a call from my next meeting. He was down in the lobby waiting for me.
I took a moment to compose myself then headed down for my meeting. I met with one of the buyers from Npo, the Dutch public broadcaster. They have three channels they are buying for. The first channel is the mainstream channel similar to BBC 1. Their second channel is news and sports and the third is more irreverent and younger skewed. As a public broadcaster, they don't buy a lot of American programming as it is too commercial for their tastes. The American shows that they do acquire are shows like Dexter or Boardwalk Empire. We walked to a nearby cafe. I just had a Coke because I couldn't imagine having a coffee since I was all sweaty from running around.
After that, I had a meeting with Comedy Central at the MTV building. I had to take a taxi to the building as they are across the river from Amsterdam. It took me about 45 minutes to get there. I emailed my buyer to let them know I was running late. I always love meeting the buyer from Comedy Central. Their channel is small, maybe 2% of the market. Their biggest shows are old American sitcoms like Dharma and Greg and Married With Children. They also have shows like 30 Rock and South Park, but they don't perform that well.
Their offices are in the old shipyards. The area is being converted into a media area. There are offices from other broadcasters such as Discovery and Red Bull. He showed me around their offices. They share the same offices with Nickelodeon and MTV. The building is all wood and exposed beams. It's got a very open feel as there are just desks with no cubicles or private offices. In a way, it's nice. It has a very egalitarian feel to it. He also showed me the free water taxi that will take me directly to Amsterdam Centraal Station. So I saved myself the 45 minute taxi ride.
Got back to Amsterdam, walked back to my hotel room and set off my bag. I took a shower which felt so good. Then went off and grabbed some Chinese takeaway for dinner, which was delicious.
Today will be interesting as I have to meet with SBS before taking the train off to Hilversum to meet with RTL and Disney.
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