3+ wants to produce new fiction
Exclusive: 3+ plans to produce its own fictional content in addition to its established docu-soaps. Channel boss Dominik Kaiser explains the plans to Werbewoche.
"I don't want to reveal yet what the first fictional pilot program produced by 3+ will be about," says Kaiser. But he does want to say when it will start: "Filming will begin in the summer.
The pilot program is intended to test the topic, the story and the characters with viewers. "After all, it's not about our preferences, but those of the general public," explains Kaiser. "Incidentally, this is also the usual international approach."
If the pilot is well received, 3+ will go into series production. And if not? "Then we'll make more pilots with other topics and stories," says the 3+ founder.
Just as important as a gripping theme, a good story and exciting characters, however, is affordable and efficient production logistics. "Fiction used to be very expensive," says Kaiser. "For us at 3+ to be able to afford this, we have to be able to produce it much more cheaply, without the viewer noticing any difference in quality."
The high costs of fiction arise primarily during filming. This is much more complicated than that of a docu-soap such as "The Bachelor" or "Bauer, ledig, sucht...", explains Kaiser - and is confident: "However, we believe that we have found a way to shoot much more cheaply and efficiently. We have already carried out camera tests. These were positive." According to Kaiser, there are no well-known directors involved.
In 2nd place for the first time
The "direction of travel" is clear: 3+ wants to open up further fields in which it can take market share from the competition - especially SRF. This is currently working better than ever with the self-produced docu-soaps. In November, the channel celebrated a historic triumph with the showstopper "Bachelor" and not only overtook all of its private competitors in the prime-time target group, which is highly relevant for advertising, but also overtook SRF zwei for the first time in the channel's history. In other words: 3+ was the second most-watched channel in German-speaking Switzerland last month.
"We see great potential in Swiss fictional stories for the general public," says Kaiser. The 3+ boss was also interested in the lucrative national soccer matches (Werbewoche.ch reported). "Since SRF has blocked our path to broadcasting international matches of the Swiss national football team because it simply keeps outbidding us with license fee money, we are now investing in fiction." At the same time, there will be significantly more and also new Swiss in-house productions on 3+ in 2017. (hae)
