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Drama Everything about content
SVoD originals find new lives on linear TV
Spring 2021
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Covid-free Kiwi industry goes for growth
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Why comedy drama is now a serious business
PLUS: Dan March on Dynamic Television’s strategy – 12 Pulse Films targets non-English-language scripted – 16
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AHEAD OF THE CURVE: Shopping streamers’ shows
Channel21 International | Spring 2021
Life after SVoD Anne with an E
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he streaming revolution has seen the likes of Netflix and Amazon Prime Video launch numerous hit series, sowing the seeds for a hugely competitive battle among broadcasters and streamers alike to put the best dramas in front of viewers. Boasting successes like The Crown (Netflix) and The Marvelous Mrs Maisel (Amazon), the SVoDs have led the era of ‘exclusive originals.’ But almost a decade after they first began releasing their own shows, some of the licences to these originals are starting to expire, potentially opening them up to second windows on competitor platforms or channels. As its first French scripted original, Netflix initially held all the rights to Marseille after commissioning the show from Paris-based prodco and distributor Federation Entertainment in 2014. While Netflix’s licence to the VoD rights remains in place for another couple of years, the linear rights to the series, which ran for two seasons, became available last year. According to Monica Levy, Federation’s head of international sales, however, linear rights alone aren’t that attractive to broadcasters when most of them operate VoD services alongside their linear channels these days and therefore require the full-suite of on-demand rights too. “We’re gaining a lot of traction, sales and new business on the SVoD side but we’re losing them on the linear side when we don’t have the VoD rights to accompany a programme,” Levy says. Elsewhere in France, producer and distributor Gaumont is in a similar situation with English- and Spanish-language crime drama Narcos. The series was a huge hit for Netflix following its 2015 premiere and while the streamer still holds the VoD rights, the linear rights became available two years ago. Unlike Levy, Cécilia Rossignol, Gaumont’s exec VP of international sales and development, finds that not all broadcasters do require VoD rights, especially when strong IP is involved. And it’s fair to say Narcos was much better received by viewers in comparison to Marseille.
The pandemic is providing an unlikely afterlife on linear TV and AVoD services for high-end dramas that have already debuted on global SVoDs as originals. By Karolina Kaminska “It’s fantastic to have Narcos on offer to [linear] TV partners because the awareness of the series is so strong that everyone knows it and there’s almost no need to pitch it. There is still a bright future for television, so it’s not really an issue for us that Narcos is on Netflix,” she says. “It’s true that some linear channels insist on having nonlinear rights along with linear rights, but some of them don’t. But then we are talking about Narcos. Maybe if it was a show that is less famous it would be harder to sell without VoD rights.” Since the linear rights became available, Narcos has been sold to broadcasters including A&E in Latin America, AMC Networks, Viasat in Russia, Turner in Germany and SBS Viceland in Australia. In October last year, the series was also sold to ViacomCBS-owned AVoD platform Pluto TV in the US, but only across its linear channels for streaming at scheduled times. In Germany, production and distribution company Beta Film has regained the linear rights to drama series Anne with an E, which was co-commissioned by Canadian pubcaster the CBC and Netflix for a 2017 debut. The show, which is based on classic children’s book Anne of Green Gables, has since been picked up by broadcasters including Rai in Italy, while a deal in Japan is about to be closed, according to Beta u
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We’re gaining a lot of traction, sales and new business on the SVoD side but we’re losing them on the linear side when we don’t have the VoD rights to accompany a programme. Monica Levy
Federation Entertainment
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AHEAD OF THE CURVE: Shopping streamers’ shows
Channel21 International | Spring 2021
The linear rights to Netflix shows Marseille (top) and Hannibal (above) are now available in some territories
Film’s exec VP of international sales and acquisitions, Oliver Bachert. “Independently from us, another example is Bodyguard,” he adds. “Bodyguard was a BBC commission in the UK, but in the majority of territories it had its first window on Netflix, after which it found windows on linear players like ZDF in Germany and Rai in Italy.” Back at Federation, the distributor has also either already regained or will soon regain all rights – linear and VoD – to certain shows it has sold to Netflix that aren’t Netflix originals. The first of these, Israeli drama Hostages (Bnei Aruba), debuted on Netflix in multiple territories in 2017, three years after its initial premiere on Channel 10 in Israel. Prior to its pick-up by Netflix, the series had been acquired by linear channels BBC4 in the UK and Canal+ in Europe. The rights to Hostages have now expired at Netflix and, according to Levy, Federation is in negotiations for the series with another SVoD platform in the US, after receiving “quite a few offers” in the country. Next year, Netflix’s rights to Belgian crime dramas The Break and Unit 42 – both produced for RTBF’s La Une – will return to Federation along with the rights to Finnish crime drama Bordertown (YLE TV1).
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There is still a future for IP that is very strong. Take Friends, for example – the series is everywhere. In France, I don’t know how many times it’s on a different TV channel, and now it’s on Netflix too. Cécilia Rossignol Gaumont
Gaumont, meanwhile, recently regained the rights in certain territories to psychological thriller series Hannibal. Coproduced with Sony Pictures Television’s AXN for US broadcaster NBC in 2013, the series was later picked up by Netflix for countries including the UK, where the rights have now expired. According to Rossignol, Gaumont is closing deals for Hannibal with broadcasters in the countries where the rights are now available. “Hannibal is still a strong show, even though it has been on Netflix for almost four years. The Netflix windows have now closed in some territories so we can sell it to TV channels along with the SVoD rights,” she says. Given the global penetration of streaming platforms like Netflix, however, you might think that anyone who wanted to watch a particular show would have done so already. So is there really an afterlife for a series – whether it be on a linear channel or another streamer – that has had a run on a global SVoD service? “I think so,” says Federation’s Levy. “Because a lot of people are more selective with their platforms now. Before, everyone would say ‘I’m going to go watch Netflix’ – it even became a common word to watch something on-demand. But now there are more and more streamers and people go to the platforms that speak to them.” The Covid-19 pandemic has also accelerated the afterlife of SVoD shows at other streamers, notes Levy, due to the increased demand for content it has caused. “If we had had this conversation two or three years ago, I probably would have told you that we didn’t have high hopes for Hostages after Netflix, as the streamers only wanted original programming and would only really look at it if they were the first to show it,” she says. “However, one of the good things to come out of the pandemic for us as a distributor is the huge need for programming. What has happened is these shows that have come off Netflix that wouldn’t have had an afterlife a few years ago are now in demand by the streamers. “Right now we’re seeing demand from the US streamers to see what’s available for 2022 and 2023; they’re already asking what will become available off Netflix in the next couple of years.” This places Federation in something of a quandry, according to Levy. “We’re in a position where we’re asking ourselves if we should sell these programmes now,” she says. “We’re being asked to have shows picked up in 2023, but today we really don’t know what the value of those shows will be after they come off Netflix. They have a certain value today, but maybe in two years they’ll be even more valuable, so u
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Channel21 International | Spring 2021
should we sell them now or should we wait and see? “And then Netflix is saying it’s ready to renew and needs to have the rights even longer. So we’re finding ourselves in a very nice, positive position for our shows that are coming off the streamers. We have demand for them from the original platforms and from other platforms.” Gaumont’s Rossignol agrees, arguing that there will always be a home for shows that have performed strongly. “There is still a future for IP that is very strong. Take [NBC sitcom] Friends, for example – the series is everywhere. In France, I don’t know how many times it’s on a different TV channel, and now it’s on Netflix too. New generations, people who were too young to watch it when it was originally on TV, can now watch it. It’s really about the show; when you have a strong show, there is always a place,” she says. “I’m sure Narcos will still be on screen in 10 or 20 years because it’s a strong IP. There isn’t a limit that you have to ‘squeeze’ – there’s always juice to press if it’s strong. It’s always about the story.” Beta Film’s Bachert also uses Friends as an example of a show that has proved quality series can have an afterlife, but points out that this may be because the sitcom makes for easy watching, which means viewers can dip in and out of it. “It highly depends on the penetration of the viewership of an individual platform, because there are certain platforms where you can basically say that everyone who wants to see it has seen it. However, it depends on the show itself, as there are shows that people tend to watch more often, even though they might have already seen them,” Bachert says. “Friends has been back and forth on quite a lot of platforms, and even though you could argue that it was seen by the majority of people up front, it still finds a way. The question is whether serialised shows with huge revelations or twists at the end, where people are really keen to see the outcome, will have a second window. Those shows always have challenges in the second window, more so than something you can easily watch where you don’t necessarily need to watch every episode to get into it.” As the competition for content intensifies, many SVoD players that initially acquired or commissioned programming from third-party prodcos and distributors now have their own production hubs, providing them with complete ownership of the shows they are producing. The growth of streaming has also seen major US studios like Disney and WarnerMedia launch their own direct-to-consumer services where they can instantly launch their new programmes. So will these shows from the streaming revolution 2.0 ever have a life outside the SVoD environment? “The SVoDs will be likely to open the free VoD or AVoD windows on those shows after the first year or two because then they will be able to keep the shows alive,” says Federation’s Levy.
AHEAD OF THE CURVE: Shopping streamers’ shows
Gaumont’s Rossignol adds that the SVoD platforms are “quite pragmatic” and will make linear sales in order to maximise revenue, if they see there is appetite for certain shows outside their own platforms. For Beta Film’s Bachert, it all depends on economic pressure. “With original commissions done for a specific territory with a global rollout, there’s obviously a tendency for them to stay within the original world they were created for,” he says. “Obviously you want to tie a certain signature show to your brand and not allow anyone else to run around with it and get the peacock feathers for it, but on the other hand, there’s an economic balance because if you would monetise that, it would create a revenue stream. “My personal guess is if there’s enough economic pressure then maybe something could happen. For every one of the SVoD players the strategy is a little bit different. Some of them might feel more pressure to monetise quickly, others might continue to row the boat for world domination.” Meanwhile, many independent producers will continue to look at a mixed portfolio of projects, made up mostly of coproductions with broadcasters and streamers, along with the odd global SVoD original, to ensure a steady flow of product reaches the distribution market.
Top: Hostages (Bnei Aruba) aired on linear channels before Netflix picked it up. Above: Narcos’ availablity on Netflix has not affected its popularity on linear TV. Left: Beta Film’s Oliver Bachert
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COUNTRYFILE: New Zealand
Channel21 International | Spring 2021
Kiwi drama bears fruit Covid-free and with a big pot of new funding to dip into for local productions with international appeal, New Zealand is striving to grow its scripted industry, with Indigenous and diverse voices front and centre of the strategy. By Nico Franks
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The fund is designed to accelerate the development hile the pandemic and subsequent closure of New Zealand’s borders may have decimated and protection of homegrown IP, resulting in “big, bold one of the country’s biggest industries in projects” for local and global audiences. But one of the tourism, the crisis has had the opposite effect on the Kiwi key challenges set out in the Screen Sector Strategy 2030 document is New Zealand’s relatively low number of screen sector. So much is being produced on the island nation in large-scale producers, with 92% of local businesses in the the South Pacific Ocean – including the most expensive country’s screen sector reporting revenues of less than television series ever made, Amazon’s Lord of the Rings NZ$500,000 a year. As a result, the ambition over the next decade is adaptation – that capacity is becoming a real issue. to build the sector’s many smaller Meanwhile, an uptick in commissions businesses out from their from local broadcasters, with commercially kitchen-worktop operations funded pubcaster TVNZ unveiling its to create a more balanced mix biggest slate of local content in more than of large and medium-sized a decade last year, means a sector that was diversified companies, alongside already attractive for its stunning scenery small and micro producers. and high-quality crews has never been A key part of this will be balancing busier. Some stories service work from US-based clients With zero cases of Covid-19 in the are needing such as Amazon, Apple community at the time of writing, New TV+ and Netflix, all of Zealand is setting out on a 10-year strategy to be retold to make the country even more attractive properly because, which have shot in New Zealand recently, to overseas productions while growing its historically, with homegrown screen sector sustainably. Key priorities productions that include local IP, upskilling diverse talent, they’ve been told improving infrastructure and increasing by someone else – showcase the country’s studio space. not just in film and unique culture and sensibility to the world. Initiatives include a government-backed television, but in This comes after NZ$50m (US$35.4m) Premium Productions print too. Jacinda Ardern’s for International Audiences Fund (Te Puna Labour government won Kairangi Premium Fund), which is aimed Lanita Ririnui last year’s election by a at high-quality feature films and series over Māori Television landslide with a manifesto the next two years. By March this year, a total of NZ$125m in funding had been requested across 31 that pledged to rectify the absence of project submissions, which will need to be whittled down Māori, the Indigenous Polynesian people Wellington Paranormal to a select few as part of the first production funding round. of mainland Aotearoa (New Zealand), their
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COUNTRYFILE: New Zealand
Channel21 International | Spring 2021
Rūrangi
history and stories in the country’s media. This is already having a knock-on effect on the country’s TV industry. Many of New Zealand’s most successful films draw upon or focus on Māori culture, and it’s increasingly common to hear Te Reo Māori (the Māori language) in day-to-day life. But switch on the TV in New Zealand at certain times of the day and, faced with Bradley Walsh on The Chase or Lee Mack on Would I Lie to You?, you could be forgiven for thinking you were in the UK. However, a not-so-quiet revolution is underway elsewhere in the schedules, as the country’s shifting demographics bring about significant societal and culture change and a rethink in terms of how large parts of the country see themselves. Lisa Taouma is director and producer at Auckland-based Tikilounge Productions, which specialises in stories from around the Pacific region. “Locating itself as one of the biggest islands in the South Pacific, rather than an outpost of Britain, is increasingly becoming part of Aotearoa New Zealand’s identity,” she says. Founded just over a decade ago, Tikilounge Productions is in the process of delivering its first scripted series in the form of
Teine Sā (The Sacred Woman, 5x12’), described by Taouma as “the first Pacific supernatural series to look at our old Polynesian gods.” It will play out on Sky-owned free-to-air network Prime later this year, with Samoan-born Frankie Adams (Wentworth, The Expanse) in the lead role. Taouma explains that such is the pent-up desire among Pacific producers to tell their own stories that a bottleneck has already formed. Taouma calls for there to be “a plurality” of opportunities for minority groups to avoid them all fighting for the same slot: “It assumes your community is homogenous, when they’re not and the voices are very different.” Productions that can demonstrate established consultation, engagement with or inclusion of Māori creatives are being given preference as part of the decision-making process for the premium production fund, and applications that involve a Māori story must have Māori individuals attached in two out of three key creative roles. With their stories in high demand, Taouma emphasises the issue of “storytelling sovereignty” among Māori and Pacific companies, which are determined not to see “stories being written by three white men who bring a brown person on at the last minute” qualify for funding. “Because the floodgates have opened around minority community storytelling, a lot of the bigger, very wellupholstered production companies all zoomed in and put their brown person up front as a writer and applied for that funding, which was really problematic for us,” says Taouma. She adds she has already raised these concerns with those in charge of the fund and says they have “a really focused strategy now around story sovereignty.” Local broadcasters and funding institutions like NZ On Air, which is fundamental to how Kiwi producers get their projects to screen by providing the funding that triggers commissions, appear aligned about the need to rewrite certain stories from the country’s past and bring them to screen. Lanita Ririnui, commissioner at the country’s Indigenous broadcaster Māori Television, concurs that “some stories are needing to be retold properly because, historically, they’ve been told by someone else – not just in film and television, but in print too,” something Ririnui adds has been “degrading and unempowering” to minority communities. Among the scripted projects coming through the pipeline in New Zealand as a result of this shift include crime series Better the Blood, from Taika Waititi and Carthew Neal’s production company Piki Films (Hunt For the Wilderpeople, Jojo Rabbit). The show follows an obsessive Māori detective as she hunts down an Indigenous serial killer revenging the wrongs of New Zealand’s colonisers. It comes from creators Jane Holland and Michael Bennett, who says: “This story allows us to explore the long-term scars of our brutal colonial history in the context of a visceral and popular genre.” Bennett, recipient of last year’s Te Aupounamu Māori Screen Excellence award, is also the co-creator of forthcoming TVNZ contemporary action thriller Vegas (6x44’), alongside Harriet Crampton, head of drama at the show’s producer, Auckland-based Greenstone TV. Based on Ray Berard’s novel Inside the Black Horse, Vegas has been produced with Steambox Film Collective, a group of Māori screen professionals local to Rotorua, the city where the NZ$6.4m-budget show was filmed last year. u
From top: Taika Waititi in the What We Do in the Shadows film, TVNZ’s Cate Slater and GSTV’s Philip Smith
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COUNTRYFILE: New Zealand
Tikilounge Productions’ Teine Sā (The Sacred Woman)
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Locating itself as one of the biggest islands in the South Pacific, rather than an outpost of Britain, is increasingly becoming part of Aotearoa New Zealand’s identity. Lisa Taoumai
Tikilounge Productions
Channel21 International | Spring 2021
Philip Smith is CEO of one of New Zealand’s largest producers of scripted content, Auckland-based Great Southern Television (GSTV), and says there is “a strong desire to see Indigenous stories told expertly, truthfully and accurately.” Smith, creator or co-creator of numerous scripted series on GSTV’s slate such as One Lane Bridge, about a young Māori detective, believes alternative voices to those like his own are what’s now needed for the industry to keep moving forward. “I enjoy creating shows and I’ve been lucky enough to have made around 50 in my career, which is getting too long now. So I should step down and let younger people take over. And that’s what we’re doing. “It’s very important that, if you are looking at an Indigenous story, the first thing you do is consult with the people. You don’t just go and start developing a story on Māori or, in Australia, on Aboriginal matters. You have to enlist them right at the start and get it right. “There are a multitude of stories to be told and [the NZ industry] has told a lot of them from the perspective of the European coming into town and looking upon the Māori. What we’re doing now as a company is we have a large Indigenous department and we’re trying to tell stories from the other perspective. “We’re looking at alternative voices and we’re getting a great deal of encouragement from the streamers. All of them have said, ‘Where are the Indigenous and the Pasifika stories? We want to connect with them.’” So far, a US-based streamer has yet to commission a local scripted show in New Zealand. Meanwhile, the American SVoD giants continue to benefit greatly from NZ’s generous 40% tax rebate and considerable natural resources. Kiwis’ reputation for friendliness precedes them, but even they may soon start to demand the streamers begin commissioning locally, as the likes of Netflix are already doing in plenty of other markets around the world. Meanwhile, the consultation process over the country’s screen sector strategy over the next decade found that there is a strong desire to see the industry adopt ‘Tikanga Māori’ (Māori practices and behaviours) in order to better reflect New Zealand’s unique culture. For Cate Slater, director of content at TVNZ, this will only boost the country’s chances of exporting its programming, with the exec keen to see the country’s screen industry members collaborate on a brand akin to Scandinavia’s ‘Nordic noir’ that celebrates the country’s Indigenous culture. TVNZ itself is actively developing content with Māori, Pasifika and Asian storytellers and the exec adds that the amount of this programming has quadrupled on TVNZ over the past couple of years. Coming over the hill is Creamerie, a bold post-apocalyptic comedy series set eight years after a plague has supposedly killed all men, when three women who run a dairy farm accidentally run over the last man on the planet.
As well as appealing to local viewers, content like this marks a real opportunity in terms of international audiences, according to Slater. There’s evidence for this, given the popularity of the slightly awkward, selfdeprecating and zany Kiwi sense of humour abroad, as demonstrated by the success of shows like Flight of the Conchords and talent like comedian Rose Matafeo (BBC3/ HBO Max’s Starstruck) and Oscar winner Waititi. “The content we see resonating internationally is unapologetically Kiwi. It represents our Indigenous culture, our landscapes and our unique Kiwi sensibility,” says Slater. Given New Zealand’s relatively small size, international partnerships are fundamental to its screen industry, and Annie Murray, manager of local content at Sky New Zealand, says the diverse projects on her company’s slate are generating “a lot” of interest from potential international partners. “New Zealand has a really interesting demography and it’s changing rapidly,” she adds. “We are seeing very diverse, inclusive and fascinating stories coming through, particularly from our ethnic communities. We’re looking for authentic stories, and Māori stories can’t come from anywhere else in the world. “We need to be producing local content at the same level and to the same standard as international shows. We are seeing increases in budget, partially due to the scale and ambition of what New Zealand creatives are now looking to achieve – and the fact viewers are not cutting us any slack when it comes to local anymore.”
Creamerie
While exports of Kiwi factual programming have been steady over the years thanks to perennials such as Greenstone TV’s Border Patrol (though there’s not been so much activity there of late due to Covid), scripted exports are catching up. So far in 2021, major international players have picked up Kiwi content in the form of mockumentary comedy Wellington Paranormal, co-created by Waititi and Jemaine Clement (Flight of the Conchords), which was bought by HBO Max and The CW in the US, plus Sky in the UK. Elsewhere, Disney-owned streamer Hulu has acquired the groundbreaking drama series Rūrangi, which follows a New Zealand transgender activist’s efforts to reconnect with his father. It’s a promising start as the country begins its push to bring more of its unique stories to the world. The complete lack of distribution outfits based in New Zealand, however, means these shows tend to be shopped by non-Kiwi companies. But with greater collaboration set out as a top priority in the 10-year-plan, that could be set to change as the sector looks to become more organised and cohesive, with diversity and inclusion at its core.
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DEVELOPMENT SLATE: Dynamic Television
Channel21 International | Spring 2021
Dynamic approach Dan March, founder and managing partner at LA-based Dynamic Television, is targeting a “broad niche” with a slate of sci-fi and horror programming, peppered with savvy non-Englishlanguage acquisitions.
How is demand for sci-fi and horror programming changing as a result of the pandemic and the shift towards streaming? Sci-fi and horror programming provide true escapist opportunities for audiences. There is a lot of fantasy, a lot of world building and places for audiences to escape to. Sci-fi is a really broad niche, which is a little bit of a contradiction. But within sci-fi you can have lots of different subgenres, like horror, supernatural and fantasy. And it can be fun and humorous, like our Syfy show Vagrant Queen. In the TV marketplace overall, sci-fi and horror audiences have always been somewhat underserved, because broader networks haven’t tended to think of satisfying that niche. But with the migration of audiences from linear to digital, there’s been this big uptick, with a lot of the streaming platforms’ originals being sci-fi and supernatural-themed programming. This audience is very active on digital and, as some of the linear channels build out their digital services, there’s an opportunity to get some sci-fi and horror content on those services, when in the past it wouldn’t have landed on the linear networks. Is the pandemic having an impact on your development slate? Not yet. But there might be guardrails now in the scale of the show and how we can finance it. As an independent company we’re affected as much as any other in terms of having to account for the very significant costs that you now have to add into your budget to get your shows made. Safety protocols are a serious expense. It’s about solving that equation, rather than being creatively impacted by it. Some of the shows that have recently gone into production may be one or two episodes lighter than in previous seasons. But as we look at our slate, I don’t think we’re going to have to compromise on episodes, because we’re going to be building them in an environment we’re now accustomed to – whereas in 2020 everybody was taken by surprise and adjusting to the economics on the fly.
Dan March
Vagrant Queen
and a very robust business. But we’re seeing the digital marketplace continue to grow and more entrants are coming in to get a piece of that market. And if their businesses are designed the right way, offering something new, they have a lot of opportunity. We’re moving forward with our first original production with a streamer that’s been in the marketplace a while, but it’s not one of the big three. The mid-level SVoDs are getting more and more ambitious as they see their businesses grow in the pandemic. That adds more capital to their budgets and allows them to invest more. And one of the things you really learn about the sci-fi and horror audience is just how loyal that audience is. Just look at Comic-Con.
How are you approaching the market for existing IP to develop into series as well as acquiring non-Englishlanguage programming to distribute? The competition for IP has never been fiercer, whether it’s graphic novels, books or newspaper articles. Van Helsing was a reimagination of a public domain character and ran for five seasons and we’re repeating the same formula on a show that’s now in development with Syfy. The great thing about our shows based on Day of the Dead (Syfy) and Creepshow (Shudder) is that they are brands that How are relatively new entrants audiences recognise, so it cuts through some of the noise. to the streaming market shaking In non-English-language, I wish we could do a show up the business and providing like Icelandic mystery drama series Trapped every year. opportunities to get new shows off Trends shift and Trapped was very serialised, but one the ground? of our latest, The Sommerdahl Murders, is a lighter We’ve seen some new crime procedural. It’s a entrants come in and different genre but it’s been Catch C21’s Development disappear as quickly as successful as well. We’re Slate - What the world’s they arrived, whereas going to continue to lean producers, platforms and others have had a lot of into non-English-language channels are developing success, like NENT in programming as we’re seeing Keep reading online and smarten the Nordics and Stan in the talent level continuing up your programming strategy at Australia. Netflix has to get better and better in c21media.net/department/ had a phenomenal Europe. We want to help development-slate/ first mover advantage facilitate that.
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NEXT BIG THINGS: Comedy dramas
Channel21 International | Spring 2021
Feel Good
Seriously funny What’s behind the recent shift away from sitcoms to comedy dramas and where is the genre heading next? By Oli Hammett
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n recent years, the terms ‘comedy drama’ and ‘dramedy’ have become commonplace as the genres of comedy and drama undergo a creative fusion. Meanwhile, international hits such as After Life, Catastrophe and Fleabag are changing viewers’ perceptions of comedy by injecting stronger narrative arcs and serious issues. C21’s International Drama Awards (IDAs) last year featured a comedy drama category, in which Feel Good, produced by the UK’s Objective Fiction for Channel 4 and Netflix, beat off competition from the likes of Breeders and Frayed on Sky. Ben Farrell, chief creative officer at All3Media-owned Objective, says the genre is evolving rapidly: “The simplest way to describe dramedy at the moment would be comedies that you pitch to the comedy departments that also have an element of drama.” However, Sofie Palage, producer of the also IDA-nominated Swedish romantic comedy series Love Me, made by Warner Bros International TV Production for Scandinavian SVoD service Viaplay, offers a slightly different interpretation. “If you take out all the comedy elements of a comedy drama, it should work anyway. But if you take the comedy out of a comedy, you probably won’t have that much left.” For producers, the definition of comedy drama comes down to the content of the show. For channel
execs, however, it’s often a question of format and scheduling. Jon Mountague, head of comedy at Sky in the UK, says: “Our show Brassic is an hour long and when we talk about comedy drama, we’re often talking about the length. Traditionally, we only classed halfhour shows as comedies, but recently we’ve seen a shift towards dramatic comedies in a half-hour space.” One half-hour dramedy on Sky is the aforementioned Breeders, co-created by and starring Martin Freeman (The Office, Fargo). Greg Davies in The Cleaner
Mountague says the key to the show’s success is the fact the writers were inspired by their own experiences as parents. “A common denominator across all our titles is authenticity, which gives our shows a personal storytelling lens. That lens often takes you away from comedy and more towards drama, and we’ve seen a growing audience demand for these types of shows,” he adds. The exec also points out that viewers are now more able than ever to communicate what they enjoy: “TV was, until recently, a top-down model. But now it’s become bottomup, and that’s how it should be. Today, the audience dictates the shows it wants. And when you see comedy dramas across the board, it’s because there’s a sweet spot that audiences have responded to.” Producers are proving nimble in picking up on the comedy drama trend. The UK branch of German prodco Studio Hamburg recently secured its first comedy commission from the BBC for Greg Davies-led series The Cleaner, a dark comedy about a crime scene cleaner interacting with the inhabitants of the houses he de-gores. Studio Hamburg UK MD Vivien Müller-Rommel says the balance of comedy and drama was crucial when pitching the show, which is adapted from hit German series Der Tatortreinige. “Every episode of The Cleaner is about something, from veganism to
NEXT BIG THINGS: Comedy dramas
Channel21 International | Spring 2021
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It’s easier to get foreign buyers on board with shows that are narrative-driven. Shows that travel well, like Back to Life and Starstruck, are more universal, relatable and conceptual. Shane Allen BBC
Phoebe WallerBridge’s hit comedy drama Fleabag
art,” she notes. “Audiences expect that now. It’s not just about laughing out loud anymore – viewers want to explore wider issues and tackle tricky subjects.” One consequence of the pandemic is that TV is becoming more global. The international sales business has benefited from both the production freeze and the flocking of audiences to streaming platforms. For a distributor, the first box to tick nowadays is whether a show will appeal to a global audience. According to Nicola Söderlund, managing partner at Sweden-based distributor Eccho Rights, this need for global appeal is behind the recent tonal shift in comedy series. “There are very few recent examples of sitcoms that are successful internationally,” says Söderlund, whose firm holds international rights to Love Me. “From Eccho’s perspective, selling a sitcom is difficult, because they don’t travel easily. What people laugh at depends a lot on local nuances, many of which are lost in translation.” It’s long been acknowledged that language and culture issues can be barriers when selling comedy programming, but it is also the case that audiences are now demanding more from comedy shows. The genre has adapted to the international market by bringing in elements of drama in order to provide more rounded characters and deeper narratives.
Even UK pubcaster the BBC has had to adapt to the international distribution market. Head of comedy commissioning Shane Allen says producing more comedy dramas has helped bring them to US-based streamers. “It’s easier to get foreign buyers on board with shows that are narrative-driven. Shows that travel well, like Back to Life and Starstruck, are more universal, relatable and conceptual, whereas we have other shows that feel very UK.” Both Back to Life and Starstruck have something in common with many BBC comedy dramas in that they’re written by the lead actors – in this case, Daisy Haggard and Rose Matafeo respectively. Allen has identified a writer-performer dynamic as another aspect of dramedies audiences want to see. As well as the authenticity mentioned by Sky’s Mountague, Allen feels writerperformer series have more clout with viewers. “More than half our comedy slate is made up of writer-performer shows,” he says. “If someone like
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Catherine Tate comes to you with her next show and you know it’s going to be excellent, that’s a big advantage because she’s hugely popular.” While comedy drama is important to the Beeb’s commercial arm, BBC Studios, in sales terms, Allen emphasises the pubcaster’s comedy department’s primary role is to serve its domestic audience. And he still feels there is room for traditional sitcom programming on TV. “We’re trying to keep a full range of shows that appeal to as many people as possible. My worry is that we end up not doing enough sitcoms. If you ask most people their favourite comedy shows of all time, sitcoms will make up most of their top 10.” Allen cites the success of BBC1’s Mrs Brown’s Boys as an example that shows the sitcom is still alive and kicking. The show, which features a live audience and is about as far away from drama as you can get, regularly pulls in millions of viewers. Meanwhile, it beat comedy dramas such as After Life, Fleabag and Sex Education to Best Comedy at the UK’s National Television Awards last year. Allen sees the mainstream family comedy slot on the BBC’s flagship channel as a top priority. However, he concedes that Mrs Brown’s Boys is far too British to have international appeal. He sees a variety of comedy programming – some dramatic, some traditional – as the way forward. Many others, however, feel the cards are stacked against achieving success with new sitcoms, and Objective Fiction’s Farrell argues that comedy dramas are the natural next step in the genre’s evolution.
It’s not just about laughing out lloud anymore – viewers want to explore wider issues and tackle tricky subjects. Vivien Müller-Rommel Studio Hamburg
Meanwhile, the enduring popularity of hits like the US version of The Office on streaming services makes it harder for new sitcoms to break out. “There have been a lot of comedies that have been around for a long time. If you don’t like the new comedy that’s out there, you can stick on an episode of Father Ted or Fawlty Towers,” Farrell says. “That means it’s very hard for a new comedy to get oxygen. If a broadcaster spends a lot of money on something and no one watches it, it’s going to be looking for ways to get the audience’s attention and bring them back.” With comedy dramas now established, how will the genre develop in the future? Studio Hamburg UK’s Müller-Rommel sees dramedy audiences growing as the genre becomes more widespread. “Broadcasters often underestimate their audience’s intelligence. Various channels tell us that their audience likes slapstick because they’re older. I don’t agree with that. When I look at my parents and friends, even people over 70 like dark stuff as much as younger audiences.” While the genre is typically defined as comedy with aspects of drama, Eccho Rights’ Söderlund sees the potential for drama to become lighter, rather than the other way round. “People are really fed up with darkness and they need some relief in their viewing,” he says. “For example, we’re currently launching a cop series with comedy elements in it and that’s what the market needs right now.” Ultimately, the move from sitcoms to comedy dramas is an audience-led choice, with viewers telling producers, distributors and broadcasters what they want to see. As the TV industry becomes ever more global, this is leading to big changes for comedy and comedy drama. In future, the platforms that secure the most audience engagement will be those offering not just the biggest laughs, but also the most compelling narratives.
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Channel21 International | Spring 2021
Three-year plan
Pulse Films
Thomas Benski
Gangs of London producer Pulse Films is looking to ride the wave of interest in non-English-language scripted content by setting up new outposts around the world.
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en years ago, Pulse Films acquired the rights to video game Gangs of London, beginning a long journey to bring the IP to the small screen that culminated in UK pay TV giant Sky’s biggest original drama launch on Sky Atlantic since 2015. The action-packed drama, which has been praised for its contemporary take on the gangster genre and cinematic fight sequences, was renewed for a second season by Sky last year, with US cablenet AMC coming on board as a coproducer. Pulse Films has offices in London, LA, New York, Paris, Berlin and Milan, and founder and CEO Thomas Benski is now setting his sights on expanding the Vice Media-backed production and talent-management company’s footprint further. “The idea of being global is very much in the DNA of Pulse. I’m not British or American, so even though we started the company in London, we’ve always been looking to expand it internationally,” says Benski, who was born in Brazil and raised in Italy before he moved to the UK. With the cat well and truly out the bag that Hollywood is not the only destination for ambitious content that can travel the world, Benski is keen to team with talent in territories such as Africa, Latin America and Asia Pacific. “Audiences are clearly embracing stories from different cultures, languages and locations. The tricky bit with Hollywood is that a lot of stories have been told in that setting,” Benski says. “If you put storylines in more exotic settings, like Manila or Lagos or Milan, the same story that might feel familiar in the US suddenly rises up and delivers something else to an audience.” However, the exec adds that Pulse Films isn’t looking to “colonise from a media standpoint” and is aiming to use its platform to “open up opportunities for amazing stories and talent from specific territories to deservedly work on a global stage.” Key to this strategy will be deciding whether Pulse Films has something to add to a domestic
Gangs of London
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If you put storylines in more exotic settings, like Manila or Lagos or Milan, the same story that might feel familiar in the US suddenly rises up and delivers something else to an audience. Thomas Benski production scene, as Benski believed was the case in Italy, where it arrived in mid 2020. Since then, Pulse’s Milan office has focused on commercials, documentaries and music content, with a few scripted projects set to hit the market “soon,” Benski says. Because of the pandemic, the exec has yet to set foot in the company’s newest office space, but he believes expansion in today’s world is less about bricks and mortar and more about the people you hire. To that end, Pulse has tapped Giorgio Testi as MD in Milan, with Martina Zambeletti and Alessandro Clary also joining in Italy as executive producer and general manager, respectively. Benski, meanwhile, is responsible for Pulse’s worldwide creative and strategic development, as well as lead-producing specific projects and
overseeing output from the company’s scripted motion picture and television divisions. The latter has a formidable calling card in Gangs of London and is set to follow it up with what Pulse executive producer of drama Nicola Larder calls a “traumedy,” an adaptation of Karen Hamilton’s thriller novel The Perfect Girlfriend, starring Anna Friel (Marcella). Also on the scripted slate is another adaptation, after Pulse last year secured the TV rights to writer Laura Dockrill’s memoir What Have I Done?. The book charts Dockrill’s personal experiences of battling with post-partum psychosis following the birth of her baby. Singer Adele, a close friend of Dockrill, has described the memoir as “a book to save a whole generation of women,” and the author is on board to write Pulse Films’ scripted adaptation. Dockrill has said she is determined to break the stigma around post-natal mental health, shatter the romanticised expectations of perfect motherhood and empower parents with the message, ‘You are not alone.’ Benski adds that the project speaks directly to the studio’s mission over the coming years to “elevate young talent, tell fresh stories and shift the conversation,” something that will hopefully happen in tandem with its ambitious international expansion plans.
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