Headquartered in Luxembourg since 2013, Docle

Interview with Laszlo Czero, CEO of Docler Holding

 

You started setting up your TV channel project in Luxembourg. Can youdescribe the process? What were the main advantages?

 

It all started under the impulse of Docler’s founder and owner, Gyorgy Gattyan and in a 30m2 office, in which we started creating stories and shooting scenes with a webcam.

The first broadcast was actually about Gyorgy Gattyan and myself. People were playing and creating a fun story around the fact he was a geek and I was the owner of the company…and in reality we are both geeks. My office was our first studio and we quickly realised there was potential to develop something more professional out of it and we started working on a TV Channel concept.

 

In November 2013, we decided to rent the large TV studios in Contern. It was a perfect location with really good facilities that could serve all of our needs. Besides, our office was next door to ZEILT productions Luxembourg. They created the Award winning animated short film “Mr. Hublot”. It was a real pleasure to work next to them.

It was the first time that we created something around one of our online products that was real and not only virtual. It was a new experience for us, for me; the fact to be standing in the middle of the set, to be able to touch the material, to discover how the set up was being created from scratch and to see it come to life. We shot and made our first pilot show in Luxembourg.

 

From November until April 2014, a lot of effort was put in locally as we hired people who specialized in audio/video, filming and production on a full time basis. Another key aspect was the great support we received from the local authorities.

 

Why move the project to Hungary then?

 

We moved the entire project to Hungary in April 2014 but the management supervising everything is still located in Luxembourg. We reconstructed the set entirely and hired new production specialists and TV hosts. The reason behind this decision was that we could not find all the right people that we were looking for and our Creative Director has a larger network of contacts and more opportunities in Hungary. Indeed, he has extensive experience in production and TV show scripts. He was one of the first to buy the license for reality TV shows in Hungary back in 2001.

 

When will the show be launched?

 

Our second pilot show was launched on August 13th. It plays on a daily basis, 4 hours per day and we fly the TV hosts to Hungary regularly. We are currently analyzing the results, feedback and impact of the show and also the audience. We are really proud of this accomplishment so far…

 

What was the original thinking behind such a project?

 

We have realised that on one side more and more big media companies are trying to move their content to the Internet (i.e. HBO) and on the other side, TV producers are trying to enter the Internet market. They both know that a TV is capable of handling an Internet connection. But none of them could break down the boundaries between TV and the Internet.

 

We have a vast amount of content at Docler Holding, which means a bigger chance to make this change and break down the barriers.

TV is still the most popular entertainment tool and information driver. It reaches segments of the population that we usually don’t reach. The surface is interesting, convenient to consume, and allows great media entertainment.

Gyorgy Gattyan’s dream is truly to merge TV and the Internet, in order to create a hybrid that no one calls TV or Internet, but something totally new…

 

What future developments are you planning to make?

 

We have identified three different areas of development and improvement.

 

The first is the platform we are using. The fact that we started the project on the web makes improvements easy and it also gives us possibilities in terms of interactivity. As a second step, the plan is to broadcast via satellite, but only once the pilot is ready. And the last step would be to sell our project to cable TV channels/network providers. This would be the most interesting one due to the technology, number of possibilities and interactivity it offers.

 

Regarding the location, we would like to expand the shooting locations and have multiple ones (i.e. Los Angeles). Following this approach, we would then also have local versions which would adapt to the respective languages.

 

In terms of content, our goal is to reach a large mainstream audience. We have started with a chat show about glamour and lifestyles but once we would reach a stable and efficient production pattern, we would adapt it to other topics such as esotericism, music and fashion. These are all the fields we have developed within Docler Holding, via our different brands.

 

Gyorgy Gattyan is a visionary who has strongly inspired the entire project and largely contributed to its development. Under his influence, I see a number of further improvements and new ideas.

 

For more information, please visit:  http://www.doclerholding.com

 

Source: Docler Holding