Docere Digital Studios, Inc. is devoted to the production of original non-fiction and reality series and programs for U.S. and international broadcasters. Docere specializes in developing and packaging its content so it can be utilized across various media - television, DVD, print, Internet. Docere also offers a competitive advantage through its proven ability to secure international financing and corporate underwriting for its landmark productions. <

A good example of the creative approach Docere takes to producing and packaging productions is The Long Walk of Nelson Mandela, a two-hour special produced for Frontline. This Emmy-nominated landmark production illustrates how Docere is able to bring together a worldwide consortium of co-production and co-marketing partners to maximize the impact and import of a television program.

Participants brought to the table by Docere included:

US News & World Report was the magazine/marketing partner

• Daimler-Chrysler was the title sponsor and corporate underwriter
• NHK (Japan) funded the high definition production and post-production.
• SABC (South Africa) was a co-production partner
• ITEL was the international distributor
• MSN sponsored an Internet chat session about the program after the premiere
• broadcast
• Carnegie Corporation of New York gave a grant to underwrite the Internet site on PBS.org.
• National Education Association (NEA) distributed the program to American high schools
• Smithsonian Museum of African Art was the host for the film's premiere in Washington, D.C.
• Warner Video distributed the home video of program 

For its investment, Daimler-Chrysler received several promotional pages in U.S. News; title sponsorship on the primetime PBS television broadcast (3 x :15 second underwriting spots); banners on the MSN.com website and PBS.org websites devoted to the program and an underwriting credit on the home video packaging as well as the video distributed by NEA to American high schools.

Another key to Docere's corporate strategy is to develop content that can be distributed on a variety of media platforms. This gives our clients and broadcasters a great deal more bang for their media buck.

A wonderful case study of this approach is the 20-part Great Minds series which was broadcast on PBS and The History Channel. In addition to television programs, the content was successfully transferred into home videos, audio books and books. The four audio books were published in conjunction with Simon & Schuster Audio and two books, Great Minds of History< and Great Minds of Business were published both in hard back and paperback editions by Wiley & Sons. The home videos were released as packaged sets by Unapix Entertainment.

The programs worked well for corporate sponsors too. Travelers signed on to sponsor the Great Minds of Business and then re-upped for two more, Great Minds of Science and Great Minds of History. Schering-Plough sponsored the Great Minds of Medicine series.

Another important element in Great Minds< success was the partnering with magazines as promotional partners. Docere partnered with: Forbes on Great Minds of Business; Health on Great Minds of Medicine; Discover on Great Minds of Science, American Heritage on Great Minds of History. This allowed Docere to offer corporate underwriters both the PBS :15 underwriting credits at the programs top and tail as well as full pages promoting the series in the magazine highlighting the sponsor's participation. The underwriting package also included a full page ad for the sponsors's use.

Finally, our television partner was WGBH. Working with WGBH, the series cleared 70% of PBS stations, making it one of the more successful syndicated series on PBS.

Docere has a long, successful history of working with magazines to transform their content into successful and profitable television ventures. This partnership is a win/win proposition. For cable networks, it gives them valuable promotion throught the ad pages in the magazine which helps drive viewership. For the magazines, it allows them to sell multi-media advertising packages that gives their advertisers a unique way to raise their brand-awareness.

Among Docere's magazine/newspaper partners are:

• Newsweek
• U.S. News & World Report
• Forbes
• Discover
• Health
• Scientific American
• Woman's Day
• House & Garden
• American Heritage
• The Washington Post

Besides the Great Minds series, which has been a hallmark of Docere's magazine partnerships, we worked with Woman's Day on a program on women's heart disease for Discovery Health. Again, Docere deftly crafted a package of co-partners to make this an event production. The package included:

• American Heart Association endorsed and participated in the program
• Kate Jackson signed on as the celebrity host/narrator

• Woman's Day ran a companion article using the women
• from the film in their story
• Sister-To-Sister--Everyone Has A Heart was also a promotional partner

Another successful magazine/television co-production was e-Planet: a Cyber Day, a one-hour special produced in association with Newsweek for CNBC. For that program, our crews traveled to 14 cities from Sydney to New York City to Johannesburg to capture the 24-hour life cycle of the Internet.

This program included the following elements:

• Microsoft was the program's exclusive sponsor
• A micro-website promoting the program and Windows 2000 was built
• A special 16-page insert on e-Planet and
• Windows 2000 was published in Newsweek
• International co-production partners included ABC (Australia) and National Geographic International
• CNBC's Tyler Mathison was the program's host and narrator.

Other examples were partnering with U.S. News on the Mandela Frontline, a Newsweek special on advances in medicine with Discovery Health and a Charlie Rose Special on the US/Japan relationship in conjunction with The Washington Post (and underwritten by Toyota). We also developed a series with WGBH and Scientific American, Masters of Technology, which was distributed both to PBS and was broadcast on CBC in Canada. Saab and Siemens were the sponsors for that series.

An essential part of the magazine co-production formula is securing corporate sponsorships to promote the series or programs through purchasing pages in the magazine as well as purchasing either a PBS underwriting or commercial television time. Corporate sponsors have included:

• Boeing
• Daimler/Chrysler
• Microsoft
• Saab
• Schering-Plough
• Siemens
• Traveler's Insurance
• Toyota

On its PBS projects, Docere often turns to foundations and non-profits to either help with funding or promotion. Foundation and non-profits, however, only support programs of the highest quality - indicating the value and integrity of Docere productions. Foundations supporting Docere programming include some of the elite U.S. foundations such as:

• Sloan Foundation
• Annenberg Foundation
• Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
• Carnegie Foundation of New York
• American Heart Association
• National Education Association

A key to successful non-fiction production is working with international co-partners. Docere has a long and rewarding track record producing non-fiction programs with both U.S. and international broadcasters. Its co-partners have included:

• CANADA: CBC, Zone3, Protocol Entertainment
• JAPAN: NHK 
• FRANCE: TF-1, France 5 
• UK: Carlton, Granada, Channel 5
• SOUTH AFRICA: SABC
• AUSTRALIA: ABC

Of course, the United States continues to be essential to the launching of any non-fiction series or program. And here again, Docere has strong connections with leading U.S. broadcasters. It has produced or developed programs for:

NBC CNBC MSNBC HBO PBS WGBH ANIMAL PLANET COURT TV

THE HISTORY CHANNEL A&E NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CHANNEL DISCOVERY HEALTH THE TRAVEL CHANNEL AMC TLC

As part of its commitment to quality television, Docere often works with non-profit organizations translating their story into compelling, visual terms. Earlier in his career, Docere's principle, Timothy Smith, produced a number of films for America's top universities and colleges including: Brown, UCLA, University of Rochester, Bryn Mawr, Hofstra University, Skidmore College. Non-profit Docere clients include:

• International Center of Photography (NYC) Rowayton Historical Society (CT).
• Student-Sponsor Partnership (NYC).
• A Better Chance (CT)
• Dregung Gomang Monastery
(Tibet)

• PROGRAM PACKAGING
• CROSS-PLATFORMING
• CO-PRODUCTIONS WITH MAGAZINES
• CORPORATE SPONSORSHIP
• FOUNDATIONS
• INTERNATIONAL CO-PRODUCTIONS
• U.S. BROADCASTERS
• NON-PROFIT PRODUCTION