Disney+ is pursuing a local originals strategy in the UK and France that aims to put quality over quantity, while using its Star brand to branch out from family-friendly content.
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By Gün Akyuz
Two years after setting up shop in the UK and France, Disney+ is starting to roll out local original commissions from the countries.
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It’s about cultural and dramatic weight – finding stories that have something to say. We want stories that feel specific, that speak to that local audience but have enough thematic relevance and universality that they can travel.
Johanna Devereaux
Disney+ EMEA
In France, family comedy Weekend Family was first out of the blocks in March this year, telling the story of a ‘super-blended’ family and created by Baptiste Filleul and produced by Elephant.
Young-adult sci-fi adventure Parallels followed soon afterwards. Created by Quoc Dang Tran (Marianne, Drops of God) and produced by Daïmon Films and Empreinte Digitale, four friends’ lives are turned upside down when a mysterious event scatters them into different timelines.
More recently, true-crime drama Oussekine launched under the streamer’s Star label. Set in 1986, it dramatises events surrounding the fight for justice for student Malik Oussekine, who was chased and then beaten to death by police after walking home from a night out. It is produced by Itinéraire Productions.
In the UK, part action thriller, part romcom caper Wedding Season debuted as part of adult 18-plus content hub Star in early September, with a handful more now coming down the tracks.
Disney+ is currently building a well-publicised portfolio of local scripted and unscripted originals across the EMEA region. It aims to hit 60 titles by 2024, with the UK expected to account for between 10 and 12 per year, Disney+ EMEA’s director of scripted content Johanna Devereaux told producers at this year’s Edinburgh Television Festival.
Speaking alongside Lee Mason, fellow director of scripted for Disney+, and Sean Doyle, director of unscripted
for Disney+ in EMEA, Devereaux highlighted pitching opportunities in two distinct commissioning buckets for the platform’s two brands: classic family-friendly Disney and its general entertainment, adult-focused service Star.
“Across both of those brands the big word for us is ‘ambition,’” Devereaux said, adding local commissions should be able to “announce themselves boldly,” be “unabashed about how entertaining they are” and be of “scale.”
“We want to tell stories that feel distinctive and that have something different about them; stories that are inclusive and diverse,” she said.
“The Disney difference is that we do have all of these huge brands that exist on the platform – Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars, and all of the others. That’s a lot to compete with. What we’re trying to do as an original commissioning team is find stories that can sit alongside them.”
The challenge of commissioning local EMEA content for a platform that carries such global mega-brands is daunting but their presence also helps “raise our game,” said Mason. “It isn’t just about budget and scale in that way, but about raising the quality of performance.”
The daily commissioning work still centres on finding shows “with character and representation and stories with purpose,” he said. “The challenge for us is we have to have properties that can sit on this platform alongside these other shows.”
“It’s about cultural and dramatic weight – finding stories that have something to say. We want stories that feel specific, that speak to that local audience but have enough thematic relevance and universality that they can travel,” said Devereaux.
Now in the UK pipeline for Star is Disney+’s series reboot of the movie The Full Monty (8x60’), which reunites a number of the original cast. The very British series also contains very universal themes, said Mason.
Also in the works is the recently commissioned Rivals, based on Jilly Cooper’s racy Rutshire Chronicles novels. The project was pitched to Disney by Dominic TreadwellCollins (A Very English Scandal, Holding, EastEnders), who is writing the show, with Laura Wade (The Riot Club), and producing with Alexander Lamb (The Bay, We Hunt Together, Ackley Bridge). ITV Studios-owned Happy Prince is producing.
While likely to challenges expectations about what Disney+ will commission, the project is “not just about sex and horse riding,” Devereaux insisted. “It’s also a way for us to look back to a particular moment in history, to the 80s. For some people, it was a time of enormous opportunity and for others, they were really left behind,” she said.
Meanwhile, over at the more familiar Disney brand, the aim is for “family-focused four-quadrant pieces that are completely redolent with those Disney values of community and optimism and joy and hope and inclusivity,” Devereaux said.
Upcoming UK-produced scripted commissions includes Nautilus, adapted from Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by James Dormer and produced by Moonriver TV and Seven Stories. The cast includes Shazad Latif as Captain Nemo and Richard E. Grant. Another is adventure series The Ballad of Renegade Nell (8x45’), created and written by Sally Wainwright (Gentleman Jack, Happy Valley). The series, about a swashbuckling highway woman, is produced by BBC Studios-owned Lookout Point.
Star’s broader generalist content strategy caters to an adult 18-plus streaming audience, but Devereaux said there’s still an instinct to gravitate towards stories with “a bit of hope” and “a sense of optimism” for the brand. “We’re not looking for bleak or gritty. That’s just not really our editorial taste.”
Having commissioned It’s a Sin, the
hit drama about London’s gay community in the 1980s, during his Channel 4 days, Mason said he believed he could have also commissioned it for Disney+ without a single editorial change. “That goes back to what we’re looking for. In a way, it would work perfectly for us. It’s a very British story.”
All Disney+ EMEA’s commissioning decisions are taken locally in Europe and don’t need a green light from LA, Devereaux said.
“We’ve always operated on the principle of local teams know best what’s going to work for their local market. So whether you’re looking at our markets around Europe, and we have a brilliant commissioning team in place in all of those territories, we lean on them to tell us what’s going to work for their audiences and which talent they want to support. It’s the same for us. We know best about the UK,” she said.
When pitching to Disney+ in France, having a producer attached to a writer’s pitch is key to winning a commission, according to Pauline Dauvin, VP of programming, production and acquisitions at The Walt Disney Company France.
“We’re not a prodco, we’re a streaming platform. We commit on projects endorsed by prodcos,” she said, speaking at French television conference Série Series in July. “It is quite important to specify that. I hired a team two years ago and projects reach my team who then read and assess the project, and after that we decide whether to support it.”
Dauvin also takes advice from Disney’s commissioning team in London before putting a project into active development – a stage that can take between six and 12 months. Projects can be commissioned straight from a pitch, although those instances are rare. Fifteen shows are now currently in development, including a biopic about the life of French fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld, creative director of Chanel.
Pitchers must also provide a pilot script with details about storylines, arcs and character outlines. “What we want to know before we start a project is if it’s something that’s new or if it has been covered [before]. We’re quite
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We’re not looking for topics or subjects, we want to look at stories with characters, and we identify and select projects with strong characters. We want characters that can convey emotions.
Pauline Dauvin
The Walt Disney Company France
open to contemporary topics. We want to know if the series broaches themes around gender and diversity, and if these themes have been dealt with before.
“We’re open to innovation. We want areas that are new and innovating. We want to know if the project can target the families, because at Disney, one of the main targets is families with children, but we also target adults, with series that have more sophisticated storylines – the Star section of Disney,” she said, citing Oussekine as an example of a show belonging under that umbrella.
Kevin Deysson, director of original programmes, is the first point of entry for new projects in France. He oversees a team comprising an editorial hub and a production management hub. But whether it’s a drama series, feature film or documentary, Disney is open to any genre.
“We’re open to any format or genre because we have an editorial policy where we try to embrace any genre,” Dauvin explained. “We don’t want to limit ourselves because we want to cater for a family audience and the wider audience with Star. We’re not looking for topics or subjects, we want to look at stories with characters, and we identify and select projects with strong characters. We want characters that can convey emotions. It’s about stories first and foremost, not topics.”
Dauvin is also looking for innovation and not series that cover similar themes to shows that are already on the platform, such as Oussekine. “We won’t be doing another show of the same kind,” she said.
That attitude also speaks to Disney’s strategy of quality, not quantity. “We’re not going to launch 20 original shows a year. We’re launching five in 2022,” Dauvin continued, noting that the next release will be Les Amateurs (6x30’), an action comedy from Calt Studios and BBC Studios France based on UK series The Wrong Mans
“In 2023, we plan to launch more than five original shows and we hope to reach a basic rhythm in 2024. In terms of editorial position, we try to support writers. We don’t want to format the projects we receive as we don’t want to have a Disney-ing of projects. We support writers in the notes we send. That’s the vision we want. The worst thing is to have one show in mind and working with creative talents who are thinking about something different.”
Dauvin holds up Oussekine as an example of the type of quality production Disney is looking for. It can also advertise the quality of French productions around the world as any
commission would be streamed globally on Disney+ and Hulu in the US.
Diversity and inclusion are also important when it comes to pitching to Disney, with an imperative on gender balance in front of and behind the camera. “If we don’t represent the diversity of world we live in, we can’t create a connection with the audience,” Dauvin said. “We want to show the world as it is. Diversity and inclusion are certainly key for us in our choices.
“In terms of new talent, which is also very important, it’s something the creative community in France has wanted for many years. Innovation will be coming from these new talents. It is crucial we have new French authors and French writers to make sure we can produce as much as we will be in the next few years.”
Dauvin highlighted the difference between Disney’s family content and its Star brand by citing adult scripted such as Pam & Tommy and Only Murders in the Building “It’s not for a family audience with young children,” she said. “Our limit is the quality of the project but it certainly is an adult line.”
In particular, Oussekine, “really changed perceptions of the Disney+ platform” in France, demonstrating that any subjects, even political, can be up for discussion, the exec said.
Dauvin added: “It helped us to understand there are high expectations in France and demand for shows about these types of subjects – a re-exploration of periods of our history to set the record straight in some sense and to appease the situation. They can also help to recognise issues not sufficiently discussed within our society and allow society to express things.”
The appeal of Oussekine extends to its “pretty complex” narrative structure and writing style with, “three narrative lines and a very expert sophisticated style of writing, which is quite unusual for French broadcasters in general,” Dauvin observed.
“There’s a massification of shows in France and an increasingly expert viewership who know what they want. We need to go into more complex stories and styles of writing and Oussekine was evidence of that.”
However, there are still a number of elements that remain unsuitable for the Disney brand and the platform, such as violence and strong language in shows intended for family viewing.
“Our responsibility is to amuse people, entertain people and create fantastic, high-quality entertainment. That’s the DNA of all our shows,” Dauvin said. “At Disney, we feed on stories and our responsibility is to entertain with fantastic entertainment about complex issues, such as Oussekine, or perhaps more light-hearted issues. That’s our responsibility.
“We need to retain our audience; we want them to come back every month and be happy and eager to discover new subjects and characters, or watch shows they like over and over again.”
has historically been very challenging for Spanish companies to gain a foothold in the US market, given that most Hollywood studios are focused on Anglo audiences and US Hispanic broadcasters already cater to Spanish-language viewers across the US, Mexico and Latin America.
But with the rise of local-language programming have come new opportunities for companies based in Spain, and they are grasping them with both hands as they put down roots in the US.
The uptick in business opportunities is, for the most part, being driven by two converging trends.
The first is that streaming dollars are pouring into the space. This has been typified by the recent launch of TelevisaUnivision-owned SVoD service ViX+, which plans to premiere 70 new projects during its first year.
speaking Latin America in July, ViX+ represents the most signifi play to date, with the platform having agreed deals with companies such as Spain’s The Mediapro Studio in order to build its vast content pipeline.
Sp St go
Spanish companies such as Animal Federation, The Mediapro Studio and Onza are zeroing in on the Americas to capitalise on a gold rush around Spanish-language content. By Jordan Pinto
Federation Spain alongside fellow execs Toni Sevilla and Nacho Manubens.
The company has produced films including Netflix’s Dancing on Glass and Amazon’s Awareness, the latter of which is reportedly the largest Amazon production in Spain to date, and has a raft of other projects in the works.
“As we were growing, we felt there was a huge opportunity to build a bridge between the US and Spain,” says Solá, who next set about launching Animal Federation, a management and production company, last year.
With Animal Federation, the goal is to partner with high-level talent and put them at the centre of projects, says Solá. Today, the company, which he runs with co-CEO Manubens, represents around 25 writer, director and actor clients from the US, Spain, Latin America and Europe, including Lluís Quílez (Under Zero), Dani de la Torre (The Unknown), Beto Marini (The Unit) and Isabella Ferreira (Love, Victor).
In years gone by, it may not have been viable to launch a management and production company in LA, says Solá. But given the breadth of opportunitiesLaunched in the US, Mexico and most of Spanishsignificant Spanish-language streaming
On top of that, the likes of Netflix and Amazon efforts.
Prime Video have expanded their commissioning eff
The second trend is that traditional studios, in While the market can shift abruptly, the to
which have retooled around streaming, are more interested than ever in making non-Englishlanguage content. They spy a vast opportunity in creating programming that will cater to the 600 million Spanish-language speakers around the globe.
appetite for Spanish-language content seems to be something that will sustain over the long term, especially given the fact the Spanish-language population is projected to grow signifi the next 30 years.
significantly over
Against this backdrop, a growing number of
Spanish companies are looking to kick down doors in the US that were previously closed to them.
years, the US and Europe seemed like two diff the platforms came about and everything became so global,” says Juan Solá, partner in Federation Spain and co-CEO of Animal Federation.
“It’s quite interesting to see how, for so many different worlds, until Federation.
Solá, who has lived in LA
for 25 years, partnered France’s Federation Entertainment in 2020 to launch
he sees in the US market today, Animal Federation is a very viable business.
Solá says that when he is pitching projects in the US, studios are less hung up on how much of the dialogue is English versus Spanish. “The conversations lately have been, ‘let’s concentrate on the content, let’s make sure we’re developing a great story and that everything flows organically –let’s not think about whether this should be 60% Spanish and 40% English. Let’s just figure out a story,’” he says. Among the projects on Animal Federation’s slate is a yet-to-be-announced series based on a Spanish book. Solá says the company has closed an agreement with a studio in the US, with filming scheduled to take place in Europe.
Spanish companies are also managing to retain some rights as they navigate the US marketplace.
One of the reasons Solá partnered with Federation in the first place, he says, was its expertise in retaining and exploiting rights globally. That has allowed Animal Federation to bring additional financing to projects, giving them more leverage when it comes time to discuss rights.
“Without being specific because of confidentiality, we have a couple of projects with platforms where they will retain rights for a couple of territories and we will take care of the rest by bringing financing through our distribution team, through rebates etc. It’s hard sometimes because the platforms tend to want to own everything. But more and more, they know they must be open to different business models,” he says.
Expansion in the US is also high on the list of priorities at Spain’s The Mediapro Studio. The company has already made significant inroads into the US Hispanic and Latin American market through its strategic alliance with ViX+.
Several projects have already been commissioned through the partnership, including scripted drama series Las Pelotaris, set in the 1920s, about three pioneering women who broke barriers to succeed, and docuseries La sangre y la gloria, which investigates well-known Mexican sports figures and their relationships with the world of crime.
The Mediapro Studio also has an alliance with Erik Barmack’s LA-based production company Wild Sheep Content. Barmack, the former VP of international originals at Netflix, is a pioneering exec who helped spearhead the streamer’s entry
into local-language content. Through that partnership, the companies have produced the English-language film The Haunting of Ava Bravo, among others.
In the US market, it is also developing Is There No Place on Earth for Me?, a six-episode drama created, written and directed by John Turturro and based on the Pulitzer Prizewinning novel by Susan Sheehan.
“The Mediapro Studio has been expanding and planting seeds in the US market for many years, and what is currently happening is we’re seeing the results,” says Marta Ezpeleta, the company’s director of distribution, international offices and coproductions.
“ Putting programming together in partnership with talent took a little bit of a back seat during this [period of] drunken-sailor bingespending by all these streamers. A lot of money was being thrown around.
company Onza, emphasises that the launch of Onza Américas was not done simply to forge coproduction partnerships between Spain and North American and Latin American buyers. “We launched it to develop and produce shows targeted to the Latin American, US Hispanic and Latinx audiences,” he says.
Grisalez adds that Onza Américas is in conversation with several US-based showrunners, many of which are “very interested in international stories,” which wasn’t always the case. The company is in the process of attaching US showrunners and writers to a political drama that originated in Spain.
With global streamers now having to manage costs and demonstrate the business rationale for each project, the Onza Américas execs say a significant opportunity is opening up for producers who are able to tap into high-level international talent, in addition to bringing other incentives to the financing plan, such as tax credits and rebates.
“Putting programming together in partnership with talent took a little bit of a back seat during this [period of] drunken-sailor binge-spending by all these streamers. A lot of money was being thrown around. Every writer was fully booked on multiple shows. That era feels like it’s coming to an end,” says Calemzuk.
Another company making a significant push into the Americas is Madrid-headquartered indie Onza, which launched its Miami-based subsidiary, Onza Américas, last year.
Led by senior VP Harvey Grisalez, founding partner Emiliano Calemzuk and CEO Gonzalo Sagardía, Onza Américas has hit the ground running with a greenlight from ViX+ for the mystery, forbidden love and revenge story Isla Brava, which is currently shooting in the Canary Islands.
The company has also partnered with motherand-daughter duo Angelica Vale and Angelica María to create a dramedy series, in which they star and executive produce.
Gonzalo Sagardía, who is also the CEO of parent
“It’s not that the streamers didn’t want to talk about these things before, but now the mandate for all the buyers is to be a lot more cost-conscious while maintaining quality and while servicing as many audiences within their distribution reach as possible.
“Obviously, Onza has a great creative presence in Spain, a team in the US market and tax advantages in places like Canary Islands. All those things coming together are going to be a significant tailwind for companies like Onza Américas, because the company is not just pitching an idea. It’s coming up with a whole package of attractive solutions for buyers and for talent. You’re probably going to see that kick into higher gear now, as the market is evidently taking a bit of a turn.”
Emiliano Calemzuk Onza AméricasLeft: ViX’s Isla Brava. Below: Harvey Grisalez of Onza Américas and The Mediapro Studio’s Marta Ezpeleta
CBC/Radio-Canada’s
Catherine Tait looks at retaining the pubcaster’s position as the home of Canadian creativity at a time when distrust of public institutions is on the rise and the threat posed by global SVoDs is intensifying.
thre glo int
By Jordan Pinto
The chaos of the past two-and-a-half years has forced public broadcasters around the globe to take stock of their priorities, purpose and position in their local markets.
This has been especially true for Canada’s pubcaster, CBC/Radio-Canada, which has navigated challenges on multiple fronts as it attempts to prove and reinforce the worth of public broadcasting to the country’s 38.7 million population.
“It’s amazing how a pandemic sharpens one’s focus,” said Catherine Tait, president and CEO of CBC/Radio-Canada, speaking at C21’s Content Canada event in September.
“Our existential struggle today is making sure that Canadians understand the value of what it is the public broadcaster does, and ensuring that we earn their continued support, because clearly there’s a disconnect for a lot of Canadians.”
Indeed, peruse Twitter on any given day and you are likely to come across the #defundtheCBC hashtag. And it’s not simply online chatter. Shifts in the political landscape are creating concern around what the future of the organisation might look like.
The Conservative Party, the official opposition to Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party, recently elected Pierre Poilievre as its new leader. Poilievre has been critical of the CBC and suggested that, if his party were to seize power from the Liberals, he would look at cutting CBC’s budget (although the specifics have not been outlined).
Keep reading online and smarten up your programming strategy at c21media.net/thought-leadership
audiences throughout Canada. When nobody else was able to get health information to people, we were there. Or even recently, in the British Columbia floods, or any of the climate change issues we’ve had, we’re on the ground in a way that nobody else is,” said Tait.
“You’re never going to have Netflix standing there [doing a live news story] from a car as water is rising. It’s that proximity. We have to leverage that really intelligently and bring it over to everything we do in entertainment programming.”
Prior to the onset of the pandemic, public broadcasters spent a great deal of time warning of the challenges posed by the rise of global SVoD platforms, which were eating into their market share and investing in programming at a rate simply impossible for publicly funded institutions to match.
While some of the broader challenges facing public broadcasting have dominated recent discourse, the threat posed by the rise of global streamers has not gone away.
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What we’ve found in the last two years is a clarity around what our strengths are, that constant connection with local audiences throughout Canada. When nobody else was able to get health information to people, we were there.
Canadian broadcasters have had an at-times tense relationship with global SVoDs. There have been fruitful collaborations, including the CBC/Netflix drama Anne with an E, which became a global hit. The decision to cancel after three seasons was met with outcry from fans of the show, which is based on Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery’s 1908 novel Anne of Green Gables.
Catherine Tait CBC/Radio-CanadaCanada’s next federal election could take place as late as 2025, but it could come sooner if Trudeau were to call for it. One thing is certain, though: historically, Conservative governments have not been good news for the CBC and have usually resulted in significant cuts to its budget.
Tait said that, across the board, public broadcasters are experiencing a “diminishing respect for the role of independent journalism and for the work that we do. That is extremely worrisome, not just in Canada but globally.”
The organisation is looking to block out the noise and double down on its core mandate to serve all Canadians – a mandate that came sharply into focus with the onset of the pandemic.
“What we’ve found in the last two years is a clarity around what our strengths are, that constant connection with local
CBC originals like Workin’ Moms and Schitt’s Creek have also become global hits for Netflix.
The co-commissions have not dried up though, and Tait pointed to the young-adult comedy Fakes (10x30’), which CBC’s streaming platform CBC Gem co-commissioned with Netflix last year. From Vancouver-based prodco Reality Distortion Field, the series stars Emilija Baranac (To All the Boys I Loved Before, Riverdale), Richard Harmon (The 100) and Jennifer Tong (Grand Army, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow) and tells the story of two teenage best friends who accidentally built one of the largest fake ID empires in North America. In Canada, it debuted on CBC in September and will move to Netflix Canada in the second window. Outside of Canada, Netflix has first window.
The question of how to compete with global streaming platforms has been a tricky one for local broadcasters
for the better part of a decade.
And as many CBC execs have pointed out down the years, its annual programming budget of around C$140m (US$102m) is roughly equivalent to a single season of Netflix’s The Crown
Despite its comparative lack of financial firepower, Tait is crystal clear on one thing: the CBC will not be pushed around by any of the large global platforms.
The pubcaster still regards itself as the storytelling home of the country’s greatest creators, not just across TV and film, but also for musicians, performers and artists.
It is anything but a second port of call for Canadian creators, insists Tait, pointing to the critical acclaim garnered by its series. “I have one word: Peabody. Netflix didn’t win a Peabody this year for Sort Of,” she said of the series about a gender-fluid millennial who straddles various identities. Fronted by Canadian writer and actor Bilal Baig –the first queer South Asian Muslim actor to lead a Canadian primetime television series – and produced by Sphere Media, the show was co-commissioned with HBO Max in the US.
In addition to being the first woman to hold the top post
at CBC, Tait is also the first producer to do so. Her pre-CBC resume includes co-founding the New York-based TV, film and digital company Duopoly, which she led as president from 2002 to 2018, in addition to co-founding digital content company iThentic in 2006 and Canadian network Hollywood Suite four years later.
Her vast production experience means Tait (who says she still considers herself a creative producer) is attuned to the concerns of the production community. And, as is usually the case in Canada, there are many.
Top of the agenda is the modernisation of Canada’s Broadcasting Act, which, if new legislation is passed, would bring streaming services under domestic regulation and force them to contribute to the creation of local content. The road to new legislation has been a long, winding and frustrating one for Canada’s creative community, but hope remains that new rules could be passed into law before the end of the year.
At the same time, the Canadian commissioning landscape is starting to look very different as the likes of Amazon, Netflix, Disney+ and Paramount+ establish local outposts and staff them with highly regarded local execs.
As a career producer, Tait can no doubt recognise the benefit of new commissioning entities arriving in the domestic market, especially in a highly consolidated broadcasting landscape like Canada’s.
CBC retains a crucial legup on all of them though, she said. “How many of those companies are allowing independent producers to own their intellectual property for exploitation in ancillary markets worldwide? Not many.”
That’s not to say CBC won’t do business with those streamers, reiterates Tait, who understands as well as anyone that partnerships with global SVoDs will make budgets stretch much further.
“I mentioned Fakes – that’s a show we’ve done with Netflix. But we want Canadians to discover those shows first on CBC. We want Canadians to know that if they’re going to see the brightest, hottest new Canadian show, they’re going to find it on CBC first. That’s really the thing we’ll be trying to protect as these companies become more embedded,” she said.
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Annika
Public broadcasting group France Télévisions is looking for eyecatching event series through an increasingly flexible approach towards international partnerships.
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By Michael Pickard
France Télévisions (FTV) is shifting its coproduction and acquisition policy to respond to changes in audiences and the inroads made by local and global streaming platforms in the French market.
The broadcaster’s international series team works across coproductions, pre-buys and traditional acquisitions. But the chief requirement for any series in which FTV is a partner is that it must complement the group’s domestic output.
“We’re being offered increasing numbers of early-stage scripts instead of buying ready-made shows,” said Morad Koufane, deputy director of international series (coproductions and acquisitions), speaking during an FTV panel at Serié Series over the summer. “We try to secure the rights as early as possible, as with [Australiaset thriller] The Tourist and find shows that are going to be events.”
When it comes to acquisitions, the exec said: “We try to be more complementary in terms of genre – thrillers, crime shows, usually in Europe, but we do try to find shows that are true events. Producers, please think European. Another essential dimension is inclusiveness, behind and in front of the camera. We’re very keen on that.”
picking up second windows on shows that have aired on a different platform. Then there’s The Tourist, which was bought from a script.
“The idea is to seize it as early as possible to make an event, particularly for France 2,” Gaucher said. “We try to be complementary and not just make an international version of what they do domestically. When we read The Tourist script, we thought, ‘Wow.’ It was an alignment of the planets. The cast was great, the topic, the landscapes of Australia, the dark humour, the characters. We were really happy. The launch went really well; we had three million viewers and a 14% market share.”
There’s much more tension in the market now, so many outlets, so many series. We try to be present across all of the festivals and markets. We go to other locations, Eastern Europe, Israel, countries that have huge potential.
Catherine Gaucher France Télévisions
International fiction buyer Catherine Gaucher told Serié Series she believes the market has changed dramatically over the past few years. “We could fill our shopping basket at Mip and the LA Screenings after watching a pilot or a few episodes,” she said.
“There’s much more tension in the market now, so many outlets, so many series. We try to be present across all of the festivals and markets. We go to other locations, Eastern Europe, Israel, countries that have huge potential.”
As a result, FTV is open to different types of acquisitions, from off-the-shelf to pre-buys. Gaucher also supports
Meanwhile, UK security thriller Bodyguard is an example of a secondwindow success. FTV took the series after coproducer Netflix’s initial run and launched the show terrestrially to four million viewers and claimed a 17% share.
“The second window is not a problem for success,” observed Gaucher. “Any content can have a second or third career. Normal People aired on StarzPlay; it was adapted from a bestselling novel on the BBC. We put it on [youth-skewing channel] Slash, but we really wanted to position it and showcase it as much as possible by having it on France 5 too. The launch went pretty well, more than 3% market share, which leads us to believe that kind of bridging might be a good way to go. When we find a golden nugget, we want to position it as well as we can with a 360-degree approach.”
Koufane admitted the deal for The Tourist had been considered a risk for FTV, but one that ultimately paid off under the group’s plans to steer younger viewers to its online platform, France.tv. “It was a risky bet and it worked very well,” he said. “For each of these shows, the idea is to find something with high impact to be part of
“
the conversation. With that show, we managed to deliver.”
Ready-made acquisitions are sought for France 3’s Sunday evening slot, where franchise procedurals from all over the world – particularly crime dramas – can become appointment television.
The UK’s Inspector Barnaby (aka Midsomer Murders) and Canada’s Murdoch Mysteries (Les Enquêtes de Murdoch) have previously all filled the slot. The latest addition is Annika, All3Media International’s crime drama that first aired in the UK on UKTV channel Alibi. Nicola Walker stars as a detective who, uniquely, speaks straight to camera as she reveals her thoughts on her latest investigation.
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“We have recurrent heroes and heroines so they can have an easy appointment with viewers on a Sunday,” Gaucher said. “But some are stopping, so that allows us to find some new blood. We’re trying to do things differently by working on light-hearted stuff for a Sunday night, with more modern characters or style or the context. Our next acquisition is Annika, the English crime series with a fantastic actor, and it’s adapted from a British podcast. Annika’s a very funny woman, talks to us and shares her point of view about her life, her daughter and her investigations.”
When it comes to coproductions, FTV is famously a founding partner of The Alliance, working with fellow pubcasters Rai in Italy and ZDF in Germany to pool their resources for bigger-budget, panEuropean dramas. Previous examples have included David Tennant-fronted Around the World in 80 Days and historical dramas
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FTV’s copro priority is to work with its Alliance colleagues, but the group’s wider “editorial roadmap” is focused on contemporary stories or stories set in the near future, and that are also organically set in Europe.
Manuel Alduy, FTV’s head of film and international fiction, said the point of coproduction is to make an impact and have a say in the development of a series. “If we’re just being offered the chance to sub-lease a room in a house that’s fully furnished, we’re not really interested,” he said. “Another misunderstanding with producers is if the project is an international collaboration, FTV is going to spend twice as much money. No, it’s a show that will be funded just as any other show.”
The international team at FTV last year received 150 projects, took 12 into development and put three full series in production, “so there’s a major bottleneck,” Alduy said. “There’s a lot of domestic fiction that’s very expensive.”
Coproductions must generate a huge event, according to Hélène Saillon, deputy head of international drama. “We need something remarkable, that truly makes a difference. That’s always the starting point,” she said. “Around the World was very well funded – and spectacular. Germinal was a French heritage series, an adaptation of Emile Zola’s best-known novel. Leonardo was one of the first romance biopics of Leonardo Da Vinci. They are three very powerful products.”
interested partners laying different voices and notes on the original idea. Consistency in style and tone, in terms of writing and casting in particular, are key.
“
Germinal was a bit different because FTV was the leader, while Rai came along with additional funding,” she said. “FTV was the only one that talked to the writers. Choices in terms of cast and director were discussed between us and the producer and Rai asked to have something consistent for their own audience [such as an Italian actor in an organic role].”
“ Another misunderstanding with producers is if the project is an international collaboration, FTV is going to spend twice as much money. No, it’s a show that will be funded just as any other show.
Leonardo was initially a Rai project, where the Italian pubcaster had the artistic lead and FTV provided minority funding. “We had a right to send in notes, but Rai did not need to do what we wanted every time,” said Saillon. “We did insist there should be French actors for our own audience to identify with, too. When you have a foreign cast in a show with mostly Italians, it needs to be consistent with the project.
But when making an international coproduction, Saillon stresses the importance of complying with the author’s vision for the series, rather than different
“In this instance, there was one episode where Leonardo falls in love with a French actor, and Leonardo’s father is bilingual. This was shot in English. We’re always very keen for things to be artistically consistent.”
Around the World in 80 Days with David Tennant and (inset) Julia de Nunez in Bardot
Top: Germinal was adapted from Emile Zola’s novel. Above: Romantic biopic Leonardo started out with Rai in Italy. Inset: Forthcoming Alliance project The Reunion
One upcoming Alliance project with all three partners on board is The Reunion. The six-part drama is based on Guillaume Musso’s novel La Jeune Fille et la Nuit and is also backed by MGM. Featuring an international cast headed by Ioan Gruffudd and Grégory Fitoussi, the story opens at a high school reunion in the South of France, where three former friends reconnect, bound by a tragic secret surrounding the disappearance of a high school girl who went missing 25 years earlier.
“Guillaume wanted it to be adapted as an international coproduction and not as domestic fiction because he would like his work to travel,” said Saillon. “For this, it was offered to us by [producer] Sydney Gallonde. They had an English writer with European actors. As it was FTV which had the creative lead, when we would receive texts from the writer, we would send them to Rai and ZDF and they would send in their observations.”
Another coproduction, this time built outside of the Alliance, is Bardot, a biopic of French actor and model Brigitte Bardot. It is produced by Federation Entertainment, with other broadcasters including Mediaset in Italy and Nordic pubcasters NRK, SVT, YLE and DR. Alduy said 40% of the project’s budget comes from abroad.
“It’s a show that was very complicated to fund because
one of the great beauties of the Alliance, where there are three or two [partners involved], greenlighting the production is much quicker,” he notes.
“For Bardot, we worked with Mediaset in Italy and used the European Broadcasting Union to convince other countries. We’ve tried to use that to accelerate pre-funding. We also had to work with Netflix and a year ago, if we’d stayed hardline [against working with streamers], we would have had to stop the whole thing. People at Netflix are very pragmatic; they have a second window in France, and the first window in countries where it is not sold.”
FTV is still very much committed to the Alliance, so much so that the relationship between the three pubcasters is evolving in new ways. Firstly, they are pitching projects to each other much earlier in the development phase to get an early lead on how the project might be funded.
“That’s what we’ve been doing for the past year or so,” he said. “We’re also starting to develop things between all three of us, not like before, where one would take a lead. Two or three of us start to work together from the outset with producers and writers, and we’ve found when we have an equal voice, it changes our discussions with the producer or author.”
FTV’s increasing flexibility about deal-making and who it works with all stems from four main challenges that Alduy has identified within the industry – ones that will be entirely relatable to other players.
One is the fact broadcasters can no longer wait until a project has been developed creatively before mapping out how it will be paid for. Secondly, Bardot is an example of how broadcasters need to be flexible in their partnerships and how they handle exclusivity and windowing rights.
Thirdly, projects need to stick to their original timetable. “We need to stick to schedule in terms of production and broadcast and not let things drag on for years, because they become irrelevant by the time they’ve aired,” said Alduy.
Finally, the exec added: “In Europe, there’s a lack of availability of technical resources – sets, costumes, talent – because there are too many series being made at one time. Writers work on projects simultaneously and that’s really tough.”
German public broadcaster ARD is grappling with the problem of reaching younger audiences when it is no longer enough to offer them the same output across its streamer, ARD Mediathek, and its linear channels.
This shift to online presents a big challenge for ARD, whose core linear audience is largely aged over 60, while the average age for ARD Mediathek’s viewers is 50. But that is about to change.
SWR is one of the nine state broadcasting organisations under the ARD umbrella and plays a leading role in the implementation of ARD Mediathek, which currently has 16 million users per month and more than 180,000 items of content.
For Maxi Droste, deputy head of content at ARD Mediathek, the goal is clear: “Our target is [to attract] 30 million Germans. We want to win over the 14- to 49-year-olds, because we still hardly reach them.”
Jonas Schlatterbeck, ARD Mediathek’s head of content, manages content selection, strategy and non-linear planning as well as curating and designing ARD Mediathek, including its related social media presence. He says: “The biggest challenge for us is to develop exactly the sort of content for a target group we’re reaching less and less: the 20-49s, who occupy a grey area between linear television and YouTube. They haven’t grown up with YouTube but don’t relate to linear television any longer.”
According to Schlatterbeck, one of the solutions is “exciting drama,” because fiction has great potential to appeal to different age groups. One example is last year’s younger-skewing adventure series Wild Republic (8x45’), made by WDR for Das Erste.
“For 2023/24, we are focusing on factual entertainment formats (docu-soaps and reality shows) as well as high-frequency fiction (weekly or daily) for a young ondemand audience,” says Schlatterbeck. “We don’t produce ourselves, but within ARD we work closely with individual state broadcasters who produce nationally, coproduce internationally or license from abroad.”
When it comes to foreign content, Schlatterbeck wants to bring in styles and tones of programming not seen on other services. One example is Beforeigners, the HBO Max Norwegian crime series that combines elements of cultureclash comedy with science fiction.
The exec advises all producers looking to pitch to ARD Mediathek that, in addition to an outstanding story, they should also include ideas about how it will be distributed, with a view to how the content can best reach a young target group in a non-linear environment.
Additional ideas about on-screen talent that would appeal to a younger target group are also welcome, as are thoughts on how the show would be presented in the media library, such as a key image making it instantly clear what the show is about. Foreign producers are also welcome, especially
ARD’s online player and streaming service Mediathek is growing its digital-only exclusives, with opportunities opening up across originals, coproductions and acquisitions.
By Wilfried Urbethose with a focus on the European market. ARD Mediathek currently has a “quasi” British focus, with series such as shortform comedy series State of the Union, penned by Nick Hornby, and kidnap drama Thirteen
Schlatterbeck also identifies shows like Netflix’s Stranger Things as desirable. “Such a crossgenerational format would be ideal to get the younger audience interested in the media library,” he says.
For now, external collaboration takes place primarily through coproductions, and ARD Mediathek will also partner with commercial providers. “We are already working with Netflix on a regional and regular basis,” explains Schlatterbeck.
“NDR’s comedy production Der Tatortreiniger [Crime Scene Cleaner] is now probably more associated with Netflix than with us. Big Tuesday historical series like Weißensee or Charité have also all ended up on Netflix.”
However, when a new season of a hit format is shown, the complete box set of the previous seasons is put online by ARD Mediathek before the premiere.
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In terms of process, each state broadcaster contacts ARD Mediathek in advance to discuss what might be suitable at what time and acquire the corresponding licences. There is also close cooperation with ARD subsidiary Degeto, which itself manages an acquisitions budget.
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For international coproductions, exclusive exploitation rights for the German market are required. Partnerships with Scandinavians, Belgians or Dutch are more likely, as they don’t overlap in exploitation terms and share similar viewing cultures.
A fixed content budget is agreed annually, with the share of money allocated to non-linear having increased each year at the expense of linear. Most ARD Mediathek content, however, still continues to run on linear television and only the focus on new production is shifting in favour of digital.
Significant new online-only projects from ARD Mediathek include Höllgrund prodco Studio Zentral. Set in the Black Forest, the scripted “crime-in-nature” series is layered with “mystical” elements.
ndinavians, are similar nually, near inear. Most l continues he focus on cts from d from Forest,
season of period drama series Oktoberfest t which was accessed more than 10 million times on ARD Mediathek two years ago before it migrated to Netflix When the new season launches next year, Mediathek will make the first run available again.
This will also be the case for the upcoming season ,
Jonas SchlatterbeckAfter years spent skipping class to visit cinemas in Paris, it was 1996 when Mariam Naoum decided to quit the university degree in economics she was studying for in the French capital to return to Egypt and pursue her passion for screenwriting.
A film festival celebrating 100 years of Egyptian cinema proved the catalyst for her decision to move back to Cairo, where she enrolled at the High Cinema Institute before going on to become one of the country’s most acclaimed screenwriters, earning a reputation for powerfully feminist works that leave a lasting impression.
Naoum is a prolific writer and since the success of her first film, Wahed Sefr (One-Zero) in 2009, has been behind a host of successful series and movies, including Segn El Nisaa (Women’s Prison), That El Saytara (Under Control), Seqout Horr (Freefall) and Wahet El Gheroub (Sunset Oasis).
Two people are identified by Naoum as providing her with crucial mentorship during her career: film scholar Yehya Azmy and screenwriter Wahid Hamed, who died last year. “My professor, to whom I owe everything, taught me how to give back what I took, and Wahid Hamed taught me how to be supportive,” says the women’s rights advocate.
Naoum set up Sard – the Arabic word for storytelling – in 2016, to act as a hub for aspiring screenwriters to develop their projects, improve their writing skills and practise their creative freedom, with a goal to create Arabic content for an Egyptian and Arabic audience, “reflecting their dreams, fears, struggles and everyday life.”
Wesh W DaherThe acclaimed screenwriter has partnered with Netflix to introduce storytelling as a viable career option for the next generation of Egyptian women, having benefitted from mentorship herself. By Nico Franks
Furthermore, Sard, producer of series such as Wesh W Daher, recently partnered with Netflix to train women outside of Cairo to develop their storytelling and creative expression skills.
The writing programme, titled Because She Created, launched in September and is part of the Netflix Fund for Creative Equity. Made up of 20 women from outside the Egyptian capital, it aims to equip them with the creative tools and industry insight needed to advance their professional development, according to the global streamer.
feel will one day become scriptwriters of the future.
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Naoum says: “Sard believes that expressing oneself through writing is the discovery, and we are proud to have discovered talent through this programme that we
“The Arab world, including Egypt, is ripe with talent. What they need is concerted effort and professional support to nurture their growth. Women in the region, in particular, need this kind of incubation and technical support to gain access to opportunities that advance their professional growth in an industry where their presence is still limited. Sard is trying to achieve this through the work we do, and through partnerships with organisations like ix that help steer talent in the right direction.”
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d f outside Ca that could surface in the work includ abuse, harassment and dreams.
Naoum expects that, given the group taking part in Because She Created are coming from a very conservative community outside of Cairo, themes that could surface in the work include freedom,
Dealing with topics such as female oppression, drug addiction and mental illness, Naoum’s work is known for its willingness to challenge societal taboos without falling foul of censorship. It’s a
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“We have a lot of censorship here, so I raise the bar slowly. It challenges me all the time. I don’t want to tell stories that are peaceful; I want to tell stories that make people think and discuss things. So I do a lot of things between the lines in a subtle way, because if I do it in the wrong way it
As well as continuing to provide breaks for budding creatives to follow in her footsteps, Naoum is eager to see how platforms such as Netflix, which have the power to create global phenomena like Squid Game, could allow her to create shows that have an impact beyond the Middle East and North Africa.
“This is the dream of any creator in eld. I know my work makes an impact in the MENA region, but I would love to see one of our projects reach more people from other cultures and they can see some ways in which we are all the
same,” she says.
Matt Loze (above) of Halcyon Studios discusses what the next three years will look like in high-end scripted against the backdrop of a US presidential election and maturing AVoD market.
By Nico FranksFormed in 2020 by producer, distributor and AVoD operator Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment after it acquired the assets of Sonar Entertainment, LA-based Halcyon is laserfocused on high-end premium scripted TV with an international footprint.
Led by CEO David Ellender, the former head of Sonar, the company’s productions have included series such as Hunters for Amazon’s Prime Video, Mr Mercedes for Peacock and The Mysterious Benedict Society for Disney+.
Matt Loze, its president of scripted entertainment, has spent four decades in TV development and founded the television division of Propaganda Films, where he helped develop shows such as Twin Peaks and Beverly Hills 90210 before going on to work for the likes of Fox 21 Television Studios and BBC Worldwide Productions, where he was head of scripted entertainment.
Loze oversees Halcyon’s scripted line-up alongside fellow industry veteran Dara Cohen, VP of scripted entertainment, who joined the company earlier this year. The pair look after a slate that includes the projects Dinotopia, Under The Wave at Waimea, Death Line, The Old Man & the Sea and an as-yet-untitled James Ellroy project.
Loze believes its adaptation of Ernest Hemingway’s 1952 novella The Old Man & the Sea is indicative of the ethos that will drive the company’s storytelling over the next few years.
“It goes to the root of the company as we’re very talent-driven, very story-driven. The tagline for Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment is ‘Changing the world one character at a time,’ so we’re very conscious of using the media to try to inspire and leave the world in a better place,” says Loze.
The exec sees the AVoD industry maturing considerably over the next three years, with
production companies like Halcyon having to strike the right balance between the “very expensive” shows commissioned by subscription-based streamers and the lower-budget series ordered by ad-supported VoD players. What will keep everyone on their toes over the next few years is the fact that some services will operate both kinds of business models.
Loze sees 2023 and beyond being defined by audience demand for lighter programming after a tough few years and increasingly worrying
“ There’s a strange unknown in that we could be on the precipice of a world war or an environmental disaster. The audience is exhausted and just wants to be entertained.
Matt Loze Halcyon Studiosheadlines, with the romance genre set to be the main beneficiary.
“There’s a strange unknown in that we could be on the precipice of a world war or an environmental disaster. The audience is exhausted and just wants to be entertained. And I think every broadcaster, streamer and cable [network] is conscious of wanting to give people entertainment.”
With a US presidential election coming in 2024, Loze expects political tribalism to only grow fiercer: “We’re competing with news and that’s going to get
very loud and amplified.” Loze, however, is optimistic about the ongoing influence of non-English-language programming in the US and sees it only growing in popularity in the coming years.
“We’ve hit a new level of maturity where that content is just plain entertaining, whatever language it’s in, and I think we’re all the better for it,” Loze says.
Halcyon’s content is distributed by sister company Screen Media Ventures, while it also shares a parent with Crackle Plus, owner and operator of a variety of ad-supported and subscription-based VoD networks including Crackle, Chicken Soup for the Soul, Popcornflix, Popcornflix Kids, Truli, Pivotshare, Españolflix and FrightPix.
Halcyon’s content is not necessarily destined for these services, but Loze nevertheless believes there’s an opportunity for AVoD services to bring about a more positive consumer experience for audiences while watching ads. “There’s going to be a lot of evolution across the businesses and sometimes it will come from Europe and sometimes it will come from the US. People don’t necessarily dislike commercials, they just don’t like commercials that aren’t relevant to them,” says Loze.
The exec is interested to see how Amazon, which operates both Prime Video and the ad-supported Freevee, will continue to combine its retail muscle with its entertainment arm, as it has done on originals such as Making the Cut, with viewers able to shop for each episode’s winning garments online via Amazon Fashion.
“If I can get advertising that’s specific to me, that’s where the AVoD business can really come into play and be successful,” says Loze.
Mark Fennessy, the former co-CEO of Endemol Shine Australia, discusses his Sydney-based prodco’s pipeline of new shows, many of which have music at their core.
By Nico Franks
How does Helium go about developing its scripted slate, knowing shows likely won’t make it to screen for two or more years?
We’re very much focused on developing premium scripted – and anything premium takes time. The essence of truly great drama always comes back to story and character, so this is paramount for us over topicality or speed.
In terms of development, internally we have a young, vibrant, supremely talented creative team that is complemented by partnerships with a unique network of independent storytellers, writers and producers. We are curious, intrigued and fascinated by compelling stories that are produced and delivered with high production values.
What are some of the most promising titles on Helium’s development slate and how were they sourced?
We’re super excited to be delivering our first major scripted series for Paramount+ in Last King of the Cross, an operatic story of two brothers who organise the street, build an empire but lose each other in their ascent to power. The series is distributed internationally by Cineflix Rights and will be officially launched at Mipcom.
Have consolidation and shifting business models slowed down the commissioning process in 2022, or have things always been slow? And does Helium develop with specific platforms/buyers in mind?
The ground is constantly shifting and the world is spinning faster for creators and producers, and we’ve not found the commissioning process to be slower in 2022. While the streamers all tend to work slightly differently, they are big on detail and every commission is the result of much evaluation and collaboration. By comparison, we’ve actually found that the speed of commissioning among broadcast networks has increased.
At Helium, we always tend to have a view on which buyer or platform a project best suits. However, for the genres on which we’re presently focused, there’s usually at least two or three likely buyers.
Music plays a big part in Helium’s current slate of projects. Why is this and how do you go about attempting to capture the intensity and spontaneity of live performances in a scripted show?
We have something of a unique skill set and background that has always existed at the crossroads of music and pictures, which is a true reflection of my own history and passion. As a curator of original compositions, soundscapes and soundtracks, Helium’s stated objective is to create a value chain of music, be it through master recordings and music publishing, exploitation in the sync markets or via premium content from Helium Pictures.
6 Festivals is a captivating feature-length movie on youth culture and dealing with cancer at a young age.
Our big scripted series for 2023 is Paper Dolls, which is currently in pre-production and follows the meteoric rise and fall of a girl band born out of a major talent show.
We have some exciting projects coming in the genres of mystery/murder, true crime, LGBTIQA+ and comedy, which is a return to my own passion and most favourite genre.
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We work with a range of composers and have excellent relationships with all the major music labels and publishers. Capturing live performance in a scripted show is all about creating the right energy and atmosphere for an artist to express themselves in the moment, so the film crew becomes invisible.
What are the common themes across Helium’s development slate and the talent it works with?
Our themes are pretty diverse, ranging from true crime, young adult, murder/mystery, female led, LGBTIQA+ and comedy. Again, we’re curious and always open to stories that make us lean forward. We’re engaged with a growing stable of independent artists and creative talent, a unique network of storytellers, writers and producers, and we’re committed to building sustainable and truly rewarding partnerships.
From independent contractors, third-party rights holders to larger studios, platforms, networks and distributors, we are all about mutually rewarding relationships.
“ We have a unique skill set and background that has always existed at the crossroads of music and pictures, which is a true reflection of my own history and passion.
Mark Fennessy