Fixing on ViX+: Plans for the Lat Am streamer
Striking a blow: What if writers walk out in US?
Key for Freevee: Service targets broad appeal
PLUS: C21’s Content Business Trends Report | Netflix wishlist Paranormal programming | TriForce | PBS Masterpiece
ChatGPT, a free piece of software launched by artificial intelligence (AI) firm OpenAI in November 2022, generates surprisingly fluid, cohesive text for a chatbot. Simply give it a task – for example, ‘reflect on the future of the media production landscape,’ and within seconds you’ll get the following response: “One possibility is that streaming services will continue to play a significant role in the media production landscape, and there may be further consolidation in the industry as these platforms grow in popularity.”
Not so different from the predictions you’ll find in this issue. The chatbot goes on to discuss the continued importance of diversity and inclusion, virtual and augmented reality and, somewhat cheekily, predicts there may also be “advancements in other areas such as artificial intelligence and machine learning.”
It’s only one “content is king” or “what we’re looking for are great stories” from being the real deal. It could fool me and as more and more people use ChatGPT (as I write this it’s currently “at capacity,” unable to cope with the number of people trying to use it), the tech is only going to become more intelligent.
AI already plays a very active role in our dayto-day lives. We all know about the predictive algorithms that determine everything from your Google searches to your Netflix recommendations. Commissioning decisions are now made with data sourced using AI, though few execs would admit any green light is determined without at least some
human intervention. As BBC director general Tim Davie put it, the ambition is to create an algorithm that can offer unrivalled personalisation, without the Beeb becoming wholly algorithmically driven.
AI has already inspired countless films, the latest being horror movie phenomenon M3GAN, while ITV in the UK is about to launch TV’s first deep-fake comedy with Deep Fake Neighbour Wars (6x30’), in which AI technology is used to turn impressionists into the world’s most famous celebrities. Elsewhere, South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone recently landed US$20m to fund their AI entertainment startup Deep Voodoo.
But as debate rages online about AI’s influence on art, ChatGPT’s ability to write scripts currently leaves a lot to be desired. My request for it to write “a Spanish-language TV drama set in both Mexico and the US” resulted in formulaic dialogue for a show titled Fronteras (Borders) in English, which suggests the great non-English-language TV boom has passed the chatbot by.
But then there’s Dramatron, a recently launched script-writing tool developed by Google-owned AI company DeepMind. Not conceived of to be used autonomously, Dramatron is instead described as a ‘co-writing system’ to provide human writers with character and location descriptions, plot points and dialogue for them to edit and re-write. It’s a worrying thought, but with a US writers’ strike looming (see pages 16 to 18), could 2023 be the year AI scripts come of age? Nico Franks
THE C21 CONTENT BUSINESS TRENDS REPORT: Winter 2022/23
Our quarterly outline of the opportunities and challenges ahead features top analysts on key drivers of change.
What do leading content industry executives think 2023 will bring and what are their priorities for the next 12 months?
Does Amazon’s rescue of Aussie drama Neighbours suggest a trend that will benefit other soaps?
THOUGHT LEADERSHIP: Rodrigo Mazón
The former Netflix exec on bringing his expertise to TelevisaUnivision’s Spanishlanguage service ViX.
AHEAD OF THE CURVE: US writers’ strike As a strike looms, we look at the potential impact on the global business.
NEXT BIG THINGS: Paranormal programming
What are buyers looking for in the increasingly popular paranormal genre?
CONTENT STRATEGIES: Freevee
Amazon’s AVoD platform is after broadappeal content in four particular areas.
CONTENT STRATEGIES: Netflix
The streamer needs more shows that work locally in Europe but can travel.
DEVELOPMENT SLATE: TriForce
Tackling difficult subjects with projects produced by diverse talent.
THREE-YEAR PLAN: PBS Masterpiece
How the US public broadcaster is looking to develop new funding models.
PRESENT IMPERFECT FUTURE TENSE Sarah E Lowe on improving immigrant representation on television.
The C21 Content Business Trends Report, a quarterly outline of the biggest trends in the business, continues in this issue with four leading data experts highlighting the shows, trends and genres that defined 2022 and looking ahead to the key drivers for change in 2023.
By Jonathan WebdaleWhile it may seem a little early in the year to select bywords that will define 2023, the phrase ‘belt-tightening’ seems a fair bet given the number of companies across media and entertainment that have already made cutbacks, with many anticipating more to come in the months ahead.
Ampere Analysis executive director Richard Broughton is keen to point out that global content spend will still increase by around 2.5% this year (a figure he says most industries would kill for). But putting the pandemic-decimated 2020 aside, 2023 will see the weakest levels of investment since the 2007/08 financial crisis. While TV budgets have been on a tear over the past decade thanks to the
been on a tear over the past decade thanks to the rise of SVoD, Broughton says the bo b ttom line is the industry is now “no longer in its s bo b om years.”
Indeed, February 1 marks 10 years since Netflix released its now – for obvious
reasons – barely mentioned debut original House of Cards. Hollywood has been in a spin ever since in more ways than one, including an upward spiral of expenditure on technology, talent and programming to power its own pivot to on-demand viewing. The studios’ biggest outlay, replicated by platforms around the world, has been in scripted. But this, Broughton asserts, has also now reached tipping point.
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A shift towards unscripted is observed by others. Parrot Analytics EMEA director of insights Amit Devani says that, according to the company’s own data, documentary is the genre that has grown most in the past five years, accounting for 7% of the market at the end of 2022 versus 4% at the start of 2018. Within the category, true crime has been the fastest-growing subgenre, with Devani noting Tiger King The Most Hated Man on the and Bad Boy Billionaires (significantly, out of India) among the top performers. Indeed, Parrot reports that, in the past 12 months, over a quarter of the demand for true crime docs has been based on Netflix commissions.
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Nature and science b category has been despite still dominates. A drama claimed nu
Nature and science have also gained significant traction, but the fastest-growing category has been sports documentaries. However, despite these gains, scripted still dominates. At the end of last year, drama claimed a 49% market share, by Parrot’s numbers, up from 47% at the outset of 2018. Ampere es crime drama, comedy drama and contemporary drama as faring best – the
at the outs identifies drama drama a
former in part thanks to the influence of unscripted true crime filtering in, with Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story on Netflix a recent example, also identified by Devani.
Spin-offs and adaptations like HBO’s House of the Dragon, Amazon’s The Rings of Power and AMC’s Better Call Saul are also proving more durable, according to Broughton, though the latter series has now ended. “In a market where consumers are belt-tightening, commissioners are belt-tightening and content acquirers are belt-tightening, they’re looking for solid, predictable IP they can rely on,” he says.
Increasingly diverse casting is also a feature, notes the analyst, highlighting NBC’s This Is Us and South Korean drama Extraordinary Attorney Woo Territorially speaking, the Korean market continues to be among the key engines of media and entertainment interest. Parrot’s Devani highlights Squid Game and Parasite as examples of South Korean titles the world has embraced, with others like All Of Us Are Dead, Hellbound and Our Beloved Summer also propelling the country into global consciousness, and Apple TV+’s Pachinko more recently continuing the trend.
Devani also identifies growing worldwide appetite for content originating from Spanishspeaking markets. Netflix’s La casa de papel (Money Heist) has led the charge, but Colombia is also emerging as a significant player, illustrated by the same streamer’s remake of classic telenovela Café con aroma de mujer
Elsewhere, India’s influence is spreading. “If we take the top 50 Indian shows this year to date, 26% of those have come from and been produced by Netflix, Amazon Prime Video or Disney+. They have figured out this is a real stomping ground for them moving forward,” says Devani. He notes the vast scope of opportunity, with Bollywood movies – traditionally in Hindi – representing a fraction of the diversity of a country that has 22 official languages plus more than 100 spoken unofficially.
The rise in popularity of non-English-language programming – drama in particular – has been a phenomenon of the past five years. Avril Blondelot, head of content insight at Médiamétrie-owned
imprint Glance, notes that while Netflix and Amazon have been responsible for the majority of this programming reaching international audiences, others like Disney+ and HBO Max are catching up. And streamers are not alone in picking up the gauntlet. For example, Turkish telenovela Hercai (from ATV) is among the most watched foreign titles in 10 key markets monitored by Glance, mainly thanks to viewership via Telemundo and Nova in Spain.
Ahead of Hercai, across 95 channels, All3Media’s Midsomer Murders ranks as second most popular show, while CBS Studios’ NCIS comes in at number one, with Blondelot identifying the latter’s first international version, NCIS: Sydney for Paramount+, as a significant development for 2023.
The popularity of Midsomer Murders, meanwhile, points to a growing need for optimum windowing as the industry witnesses its latest transformation with the growth of AVoD and advent of FAST (free ad-supported streaming TV) channels. Blondelot cites NBC’s shift of daytime drama Days of Our Lives to its streamer Peacock and Amazon Freevee’s resuscitation of Australian soap Neighbours (see pages 10-11) as pertinent to this narrative, while speculating that Netflix – having now entered the ad market – may begin licensing its originals as well, as the economic climate demands it.
3Vision executive VP Jack Davidson also sees this as an area of intense interest. SVoD stumbled in 2022, he says, with Netflix’s missed subscriber target the “canary in the coalmine,” which also had a ripple effect for studios that had begun warehousing homegrown content to power their own streaming services.
The vertical integration the industry has witnessed over the past decade is now giving way to the complexities of pipeline management –how to extract the greatest return from content investment across a business like Paramount Global, for example, which counts CBS, Paramount, Paramount+, Showtime, SkyShowtime and Pluto TV among its outlets. This as financial reality bites – Lionsgate’s decision in November to abruptly withdraw its recently rebranded StarzPlay streamer from seven markets offering a stark reminder.
Richard Broughton, executive director, Ampere Analysis
The global economy is facing a pretty torrid time at the moment and we’re expecting to see some of the macroeconomic issues – high inflation, slow growth – echo forwards into the TV industry and the content market. As companies in the market are thinking carefully about budgets, they’re looking at a period where consumers are belt-tightening and advertisers are cutting back, and they need to be just that little bit more efficient about where they’re spending their money. Even as the volume of content globally commissioned has grown over the last few years, we’ve seen a steady shift towards unscripted. It’s a little bit cheaper on average, and in the last quarter we saw those economic pressures filtering through to commissioning activity and declines in scripted.
Avril Blondelot, head of content insight, Glance
SVoD growth hasn’t declined. It’s slowing down but is still going up, and AVoD opportunities are emerging. There’s a huge interest in Asia and there’s the beginning of a new interest in Africa, but linear channels too are also tapping into the opportunities of non-English drama. Meanwhile, shows like Midsomer Murders are seeing sustainable growth through optimum windowing. The next years will see new kinds of windows and potentially a time when Netflix sells its originals, as it already has done in the kids’ space.
Amit Devani, director of insights, EMEA, Parrot Analytics
Sport documentaries are becoming a really strong parallel for streamers, which are now starting to bid for live streaming sports rights. Sport documentaries have no real language barriers and they cater to all demographics, regardless of ethnicity, age or gender. They’re family viewing. I heard someone say at a conference recently, ‘Content might well be king, but sports could very well be its queen.’ Meanwhile, the world has fallen in love with everything South Korean, from food to video gaming, culture and fashion, and now that’s translated into the TV and movie space.
There are lots of headwinds that face SVoD – a cost-of-living crisis, global macro geopolitical issues and the fact that investors are much more focused on profitability than they are on subs now. The windowing ecosystem is changing and it’s throwing the value equation for content up in the air. It’s going to be an interesting few years.
While the analysts on previous pages have understandably focused on the turbulent economic headwinds the business looks to be facing in 2023, the industry’s executives are unsurprisingly more concerned about the personal cost of such turmoil.
For Kate Harrison, president of Stuff the British Stole producer Cream Productions in Canada, the negative knock-on effects of consolidation are set to bite even deeper into the business in 2023, meaning we could do with looking out for one another over the next 12 months.
“Partnerships with networks are going to be important this year, because their staff are getting shaken up on a human level. The TV community needs to be supportive of them because there’s been so much merger and acquisition activity, and nobody in the industry can deny that job cuts are
We’ve heard from the analysts, but what do leading content industry executives think and hope 2023 may bring and what are their priorities for the next 12 months?
By Nico Frankshappening all over the place – it’s just the nature of what’s going on right now. We all need each other,” says Harrison.
Another producer with concerns for the people who make up the industry in 2023 is Frank Spotnitz, founder and CEO at Big Light Productions: “In the industry at large, it’s really painful to watch all these smart, hardworking people lose their jobs because of all the consolidation arising as companies adjust to the streaming business model, which we now
Li peopl of all the consolidation ari busines know is not perfect. ov
“There’s been some over-investment on those platforms and that’s been bad news in the short term, which I’m sad about. This may sound like a weird thing for someone like me to say, but I think there’s just too much television right now.
Greenacre Films in the UK, meanwhile, believes the line between film and TV will continue to blur into 2023, especially in terms of their respective financial models.
“There’ll be more international coproductions due to the rising costs of production in 2023. When you consider financing production, television is becoming far more like film – it’s very hard to make anything in the UK for a tariff anymore, whether it’s for ITV, the BBC or the streamers.
“As a result of that, it’s our job to put those international relationships together, so even content that is made in the UK has to have an international partner if we’re going to achieve the kind of high-end quality we want to produce at Greenacre.”
“I hope 2023 will see a move to quality rather than quantity, because there’s just an awful lot of TV out there that is instantly forgettable. Shows aren’t being made for the right reasons –somebody’s algorithm has dictated what content to produce. I hope better decisions are made in the commissioning process. Less TV, but better,
term, which I’m sad abou l telev a th of TV out there that i ha proce basically.” produ
Amanda Jenks, producer and co-founder at
Elsewhere, others agree with media research and insights company Ampere Analysis’s prediction that the year ahead will see the slowest growth in content spending in a decade, with the exception of the pandemic year of 2020. But many in the business still hope that some regions, such as Latin America, could fare better than others, as streaming services target markets where there is still room for growth.
Around the world, executives are waiting to see how 2023 will pan out because there has been a lot of movement and change in the TV industry. There have been many mergers, and companies are wondering whether the investments they’ve made are still the right agenda for them. We’re coming out of a hard economic year due to inflation and the war in Ukraine. Everyone is being cautious because money is not flowing freely out there. The questions people are asking are, ‘How much content can I buy?’ and/or, ‘How much can I produce?’
Kate Harrison, president, Cream
Commissioning budgets are tighter, non-scripted is cheaper and both broadcasters and streamers are recognising that some of the top-rated shows out there are non-scripted. Coproductions are going to be an opportunity as recession happens and advertisers are getting shaky. I also think non-scripted content will continue to be a priority for buyers, which is good news for Cream, as we produce a lot of shows in this space.
For 2023 and beyond, I’m curious about the rising popularity of shortform programming. Everyone seems to be talking about ‘snackable’ content, and shorts have become very popular on YouTube.
This could be a genre that opens new doors for producers in the future. When I look at my son and other kids his age, they have short attention spans and rarely watch anything that lasts longer than 45 minutes. We will see shows with even shorter durations, especially comedy, because it only takes seconds to tell jokes. With drama, it can take longer to establish characters and dig deeper into the story, but shortform might evolve to suit genres such as horror, fantasy and supernatural.
Amanda Jenks, producer and cofounder, Greenacre Films
Our key buzz phrase for 2023 is ‘local but global.’ The world is getting smaller and the commercial imperatives are changing. We made our drama Riches for ITVX and Amazon’s Prime Video, but even though it’s a show with the cultural specificity of being set in the black communities of London, it can travel much better to international markets because it has true authenticity.
Laura Fernández Espeso, CEO, The Mediapro Studio
What is happening with acquisitions did not happen before. Companies that were obsessed with original production are now opening up to new models. 2023 presents itself with many challenges, but also with many opportunities that I would not have thought I would have.
Pierluigi Gazzolo, president and chief transformation officer, TelevisaUnivision Wall Street’s attention to streamers has already changed. It’s no longer the top line, now it’s how
close you’re going to get to breaking even. So if Latin America remains cost-efficient with great quality, we’re going to win. What you can do with the dollar in Mexico is unmatched in Hollywood, and it’s the same quality. Argentina, the same. Global streamers are going to do more and more things in Latin America just for that.
Emiliano Calemzuk, partner, Onza Américas
The days of streaming platforms spending like drunken sailors on new productions are ending. The OTTs can no longer continue spending at the same level to try to add new subscribers that may or may not arrive. In this type of ecosystem, what is interesting now is being able to offer top talent, along with coproductions, financial advantages such as tax incentives and programming that can work on multiple screens and territories.
Jerry Rodríguez, senior VP of fiction, Endemol Shine
Today the platforms are looking for two types of content: on the one hand, very large, important series that have the opportunity to be global hits, like [Netflix’s Mexican thriller series] Who Killed Sara?, and, on the other, productions with more moderate budgets. This allows them to release more content, such as comedies or romantic comedies. What is disappearing is that medium content, which has a significant cost but may not be global hits.
When Jason Donovan and Kylie Minogue reunited in summer 2022 as on-screen sweethearts Scott and Charlene for the grand finale of the show that launched their careers 36 years ago, most – including fellow returnees Margot Robbie and Guy Pearce – thought Neighbours was done for.
The story saw the houses on Ramsay Street –the fictional cul-de-sac in the similarly imagined Melbourne suburb of Erinsborough – put up for sale. In the real world this was because producer Fremantle had failed to find an alternative UK buyer after Paramount’s Channel 5 ended its co-financing arrangement with the show’s domestic home, Network 10.
And so the long-running Australian soap opera came to an end. Except that it didn’t. In a plot twist that vied for believability with Neighbours’ 20th anniversary plane crash episode, Amazon’s Freevee announced, out of nowhere, it had struck a deal with Fremantle to continue making the series.
Not only will Neighbours now see new episodes in 2023 but Freevee will tap into its mixed advertising videoon-demand (AVoD) and free, ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) environment to offer fans thousands of hours from the archives, spliced into a range of dedicated internetdelivered channels.
While viewers in the UK and US will be able to watch all this content for nothing through Freevee, Network 10 will retain free-to-air rights in Australia with the streamed version sat behind Amazon’s Prime Video subscription paywall there, as well as in New Zealand and Canada.
Neighbours isn’t the first soap opera to move from linear to online in recent months, with NBC in the US last summer unveiling a shift for its longest-running series, Days of Our Lives, to in-house streamer Peacock after 57 years on the broadcast network. The model is slightly different in this instance, however, in that Peacock isn’t entirely free and fans now have to pay to view new episodes on its adsupported tier.
While the move caused consternation among some, one of the series’ directors, Scott McKinsey, took to social media to suggest that Days may not
have continued at all if this hadn’t happened, and the soap could have slipped into history like those cancelled by other networks.
In early 2022, Channel 4 in the UK began debuting new episodes of its 32-year-old youth-skewing soap Hollyoaks via AVoD service All 4 ahead of airing on its flagship broadcast network and sibling E4. While not as radical as the Neighbours or Days of Our Lives developments, the move highlights a growing sense that, as digitisation sweeps the industry, the world of soaps is ripe for reinvention, with FAST channels in particular opening new avenues for series with vast catalogues often simply sat on the shelf rather than being monetised.
“What soaps allow for is constant engagement with a service and so from that standpoint they’re
a natural fit for AVoD,” Amazon Studios head of AVoD original content and programming Lauren Anderson told delegates at C21’s Content London in late 2022.
“When you take a show like Neighbours – but really, any show – we have the ability to put up thousands of episodes now. For those who’ve never watched, they can join and start wherever they like and choose to catch up or not. We’re going to build a number of FAST channels just for Neighbours, if you want to watch it by season or curated episodes. The ability to play inside of streaming is the thing I love, and so even though it wasn’t originally built for streaming, it’s a perfect fit and we’ll be making a lot of shows that fit within that model.”
Freevee is just one of a growing number of players in the AVoD/FAST space, alongside the likes of Paramount’s Pluto TV, Comcast’s Xumo, Fox’s Tubi, plus Roku, Samsung, LG and Vizio. And with AVoD revenues predicted to grow faster than those of subscription services in the years ahead – rising by US$52bn between 2022 and 2028 to hit US$91bn, versus SVoD climbing US$29bn to US$132bn, according to Digital TV Research – soap operas, for long the preserve of daytime, could be set for a primetime starring role in TV’s new ecosystem.
Lauren Anderson, head of AVoD original content and programming, Amazon Studios
With the power of streaming, we’re able to offer a catalogue of thousands of Neighbours episodes for new audiences to discover this legendary series and current fans to relive their favourite moments. We look forward to immersing the audience in new Ramsay Street experiences when we relaunch the show.
Jennifer Mullin, group CEO, Fremantle
Thanks to the innovative Amazon Freevee platform, many classic episodes will be available to fans, and Neighbours will go back into full production in Australia early in 2023, providing our fans with new episodes. This partnership marks an exciting new chapter.
Marion Ranchet, founder and MD, The Local Act Consultancy
I had a theory about soap operas as a streaming retention tool and now Freevee has picked up the Aussie soap Neighbours. It makes even more
sense in the FAST space. By picking up this show, Freevee uses the appointment TV recipe. Now, who’s next? Could Pluto TV revive Plus belle la vie, a French soap that just ended after 18 seasons?
Mark Lazarus, chairman, NBCUniversal Television & Streaming
With a large percentage of the Days of Our Lives audience already watching digitally, this move enables us to build the show’s loyal fanbase on streaming while simultaneously bolstering the network daytime offering with an urgent, live programming opportunity for partners and consumers.
Adam Sharp, president and CEO, National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences
The transition of Days Of Our Lives from NBC to Peacock is yet another illustration that ‘daytime’ as we know it is now anytime, on any device. Viewers remain invested in the genre but are no longer beholden to just a linear broadcast at a fixed time of day.
Scott McKinsey, director, Days of Our Lives Days of Our Lives has not been cancelled,
and/or ‘picked up’ by Peacock. This is a big difference from the sad demise of ABC’s One Life to Live and All My Children. In fact, the prospect of Days remaining in production for the long-term just increased as a result of this move. Without Peacock, Days’ days might have been numbered on the network.
Caroline Hollick, head of drama, Channel 4
It feels like a natural step for Hollyoaks, with its youthful outlook and audience, to be the first UK soap to premiere new episodes on our streaming service on an ongoing basis. Our loyal audience want to get their soap fix when they want, where they want it and the series’ continued popularity on All 4 proves that with this new ‘stream-first’ approach we are serving a much broader range of viewers.
Lucy Allan, exec producer, Hollyoaks
We are excited to see Hollyoaks embrace the digital-first proposition so favoured by its youth-skewing audience. This feels progressive and full of opportunities for the show.
New episodes of Hollyoaks now debut on AVoD service All 4
Aformer VP of content acquisitions for Latin America, Spain and Portugal at Netflix, Rodrigo Mazón joined US Hispanic broadcaster Univision in mid-2021, prior to its merger with Mexican media firm Televisa in 2022 to create a Spanish-language media and content giant.
The merged entity, TelevisaUnivision, quickly got its VoD ducks in a row, unveiling ViX and calling it the “first global large-scale streaming service created specifically for the Spanish-speaking world.”
The free, ad-supported tier launched in the first quarter of 2022, while the SVoD tier, ViX+, arrived in the second half of the year with 10,000 hours of programming, including original telenovelas, scripted series, movies, sports documentary series and football matches from leagues across the world.
At launch, its roster of originals included dramas La Mujer del Diablo and María Félix: La Doña and cartel docuseries Mi Vecino El Cartel, the latter of which is produced by pop star and actor Selena Gomez.
In an increasingly crowded global streaming market, TelevisaUnivision believes the last major unfilled gap is for a Spanish-language streamer.
The service, which costs US$6.99 in the US and MX$119 (US$6.08) in Mexico, is on its way to launching more than 70 originals in its first year and aims to become profitable in 2024 – no mean feat when there are question marks about the sustainability of the subscription streaming model.
“On the one hand, we’re maintaining and optimising our traditional businesses, which is the linear part of TelevisaUnivision, and on the other we are committed to investing brand new money, in fact a few billion dollars over the next few years, to build out ViX and ViX+,” says Mazón, executive VP and general manager of SVoD at TelevisaUnivision.
Mazón emphasises the opportunities ViX+ has to cater to the hundreds of millions of people around the world who speak Spanish and, accordingly, the streamer is aiming to offer as broad a range of programming as possible, including “edgier stuff” for adults, with the bulk of the slate coming out of Mexico.
“Certainly, across Mexico and Lat Am, we’re appealing to the entire population, so we need to make content, and are making content, that runs the gamut of it all. Whether it’s unscripted, scripted, documentaries, film or series, across all the genres, we know that to get someone to want to pay for something, you need to have something for everyone,” says Mazón.
One area Mazón says isn’t a focus for ViX+ is shiny-floor shows that are more suitable for linear TV, but otherwise it’s anything that might get tweens, teens, the whole family and adults interested in the service.
ViX+ has agreed deals with companies such as Spain’s The Mediapro Studio in order to build its vast content pipeline, although TelevisaUnivision CEO Wade Davis said in late 2022 that the service is not likely to launch in Spain until 2024.
Meanwhile, the roll-out in most of Latin America is being done through partnerships with multichannel video programming distributors, broadband companies and other online retailers. “We are already investing in content in addition to Mexico, including content out of Colombia and Spain,” says Mazón, adding that originals from Peru and Argentina are also on the horizon.
“Unlike some of the global streamers, which for the most part have looked to retain global rights, we’re very into the coproduction model, so we’re looking to partner with pretty much anybody interested in the type of content we make. Spain is a natural fit for obvious reasons but we’re
Former Netflix exec Rodrigo Mazón is bringing his expertise to Vix+, the TelevisaUnivision-owned subscription streaming service currently available in the US, Mexico and most of Spanish-speaking Latin America. Form the ava B“
Unlike some of the global streamers, which for the most part have looked to retain global rights, we’re very into the coproduction model, so we’re looking to partner with pretty much anybody interested in the type of content we make.
Rodrigo Mazón TelevisaUnivision
working with other parts of Europe and through Lat Am, including Brazil,” says Mazón.
Towards the end of 2022, ViX+ announced an exclusive partnership with producer Mark Johnson (Rain Man), of Gran Via Productions, and with Exile Content for an original limited series to be produced under the banner of Televisa Alternative Originals.
Development has started on Amén (working title), which tells the story of Father Marcial Maciel, the Mexican priest who was formally accused in 1998 of corruption, graft and sexual abuse of minors by several members of his congregation and students of the Catholic religious order he founded, Legionaries of Christ.
“At ViX, we value storytelling, but as an authentically Hispanic company, we specifically seek out stories that are Latin at their core – stories that we know will resonate with our communities but also the rest of the world. We believe it is our responsibility to give a voice to projects that matter to Latin American audiences.
“In the case of Amén, we are telling a story that originates in Mexico, that grew to global importance, ultimately threatening one of the most powerful institutions, the Catholic church, as well as some of the highest echelons of society,” says Mazón.
Among the originals already renewed by ViX+ for second seasons is La Noche Del Diablito, the 3Pas Studiosproduced series in which Mexican actor and comedian Mauricio Barrientos, better known as El Diablito, and cohost Paloma Cedeño travel around Mexico City to talk with celebrity guests about life, relationships, sex and human connection. The show is part of TelevisaUnivision’s firstlook deal with 3Pas Studios, the entertainment company co-founded by Eugenio Derbez and his producing partner Ben Odell.
Vix+ recently launched Travesuras De La Niña Mala (Bad Girl), its adaptation of the 2006 novel of the same name by Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2010, written by seasoned scriptwriter María López Castaño and produced by W Studios.
Filmed in Paris, London and Mexico City, the romantic drama stars Macarena Achaga (Father of the Bride) as a non-conformist and adventurous young woman and Juan Pablo Di Pace (The Mattachine Family) as a man trapped in a predictable routine.
Mazón expects the AVoD side of the global TV business to continue growing, particularly as “the economy gets a
little more challenged in the next year or so.” The AVoD tier acts as a barker for the subscription service and also provides TelevisaUnivision with invaluable data about which parts of its library content could be ripe for a reboot.
“TelevisaUnivision has one of the largest, if not the largest, content libraries in the world, primarily telenovelas. Putting them on an AVoD service is a great way for people to discover them, including children, and a way to find the jewels in the vault and reboot them with higher production values and more suitable for streaming,” says Mazón.
While SVoD is a key aspect of the business, Mazón is fully aware that the style of viewing it encourages is not always what everyone wants all of the time.
“The challenge with subscription streaming services like the ones that have become global players is that it’s a very lean-forward experience. What we have found is people just want to lean back and put on a channel like they used to on traditional television and find something great to watch and be programmed to, rather than spending time navigating a big library trying to see what you might want to watch on a Friday night,” observes Mazón.
“FAST [free, ad-supported streaming TV] channels are a great way for that to happen. We have over 100 of them and will continue to personalise them and find better ways for people to tune in.
“We use a mix of programming experts and data. We look at what people are watching, what they’re interested in, what else they are watching on demand and then work on programming channels accordingly.”
Meanwhile, as the streaming revolution enters a new era of competition and, potentially, consolidation, Mazón expects the options available to consumers to continue to grow. “There’s no doubt the competition has got more intense. So that requires all of us to be even more strategic, even more dedicated and invested in what we’re doing.
“Despite the fact there’s this economic slowdown coming, I do think the pandemic slowed down productions so much that there’s a lot of content that has been produced and is being produced post-pandemic, and all of that content is going to primarily hit in 2023 and 2024.
“So there’ll be a flood of incredible content and therefore incredible choice added to that competition. Our focus is Spanish-language and Latin Hispanic culture and our advantage among all these players is our ability to resonate culturally with those 600 million Spanish speakers around the world.”
US writers could strike if issues over streaming-era payment models are not addressed. But their position is potentially precarious as the studios and streamers have never had such broad access to international writing talent and coproduction partners.
By Jordan Pinto
Of all the storm clouds that have gathered above the US content business over the past 12 months, perhaps the biggest is the looming showdown between television writers and Hollywood studios that could lead to the first writers’ strike in 15 years.
Tensions between the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which represents the major studios, have simmered over the past year. But as the clock ticks down to May 1 – the day the WGA’s Minimum Basic Agreement with the studios expires – it is becoming increasingly clear that US TV scribes are getting ready to make a big noise about streaming-era economic models that they say do not compensate them fairly.
In the pre-streaming era, writers could get staffed on 22-episode-per-season network shows that would provide their annual income, in addition to healthy residuals. However, in a streaming era when short-order seasons –typically anything from six to 10 episodes – have become the norm, a writer often needs to line up two or more jobs per year in order to make a solid wage, and the residual payments are a fraction of what they are in the network TV model.
Outside of economic factors, seeds of distrust have been sown over the past 12 months, especially with the recent trend for networks and studios to cancel shows en masse, often by reversing greenlight decisions.
Warner Bros Discovery (WBD), which officially formed in April 2022 following the merger of Discovery and WarnerMedia, set the tone for the year with deep, sweeping cuts that saw shows and movies canned (most notably the Batgirl film), entire development slates axed, projects ‘un-renewed’ and titles including dystopian sci-fi Westworld removed from its streamer, HBO Max. Other companies have followed suit, among them AMC Networks, which scrapped shows such as 61st Street, starring Courtney B Vance, and sci-fi drama Moonhaven as part of a US$400m content write-down.
Against this chaotic backdrop, whispers of the first writers’ strike since 2007 have gradually grown louder.
Lasting 100 days, the previous strike in many ways altered the course of television history. The stakes are no less high this time around, although given the global nature of today’s content business, the context for a writer/studio dispute is greatly changed.
Throw on top the fact that the Directors Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA’s respective contracts with AMPTP are set to expire on June 30 and the stage is set for bedlam if negotiations hit roadblocks.
Indeed, it was telling that when asked at C21’s Content London event in late 2022 about the biggest challenges of the year ahead, Warner Bros Television (WBTV) chairman Channing Dungey zeroed in on the potential writers’ strike.
“The writers’ strike is a real threat; that is something we’re planning for and trying to be prepared for. I would love to see us avoid a strike. I think there are some very real issues that need to be resolved and if we can try to find a way to resolve them peacefully in advance of a strike, that would be tremendous,” she said.
The WGA is concerned both about the finer details and the bigger pictures as it approaches this round of negotiations.
On the one hand, most members feel the writer payment model needs to be fundamentally realigned for the
streaming era (the traditional network model, it should be noted, continues to compensate writers well). There are a handful of writers who have lucrative deals with studios, but they are very much in the minority.
In a broader sense, the WGA has for years been sounding the alarm on the negative consequences of media consolidation and calling for stronger antitrust enforcement. The WBD merger, which resulted in the axing of dozens of shows involving WGA members, was the latest in a string of mega deals that the union feels has concentrated market share and power in the hands of a select few companies.
Moves such as WBD pulling shows from HBO Max in order to avoid residual payments and companies reversing renewal decisions have left a sour taste in the mouths of many, with one WGA source telling C21 “it’s hard to feel good about new projects” in an environment where shows are being axed so ruthlessly.
Many TV scribes also feel the studios are pushing a false narrative that strikes are futile and create loselose outcomes. As one source points out, some of the contractual guarantees that WGA members care about most – like health and pension benefits, and residuals – were won because of strikes. “Strikes don’t happen because people are reckless, they happen because people feel pushed into the corner. I feel like that gets lost in a lot of coverage,” says the source.
Frank Spotnitz Big Light
“ I’m hoping and praying there won’t be a writers’ strike, as it is such a brutal and damaging way to resolve conflict. I will obviously support whatever decision is made by the Writers Guild, but I really hope the strike doesn’t happen.
ProductionsCha Chhannnne nnenel21 International | Winter 2022/23 3 AHEAAD D OF THE CURVE: US writers’ strike On the picket line during the 2007 writers’ strike
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But writers aren’t the only ones feeling the pinch. After a brutal year that saw media stocks decimated, many studios and streamers find themselves in precarious economic circumstances, making it probable they will be ready to play hardball when WGA-AMPTP negotiations begin.
One key facet in this round of negotiations that didn’t exist 15 years ago is that all the major studios now have relationships with top-tier international writers.
Speaking on background, one top US talent agent tells C21 a work stoppage would mean lost opportunities and pay cheques for American writers – at a time when the streamers have scripts banked and more connections with international writers than ever before.
“Having seen the 2007 strike, I can tell you that the studios figured out how to replace people. They do want the big writers to write, because no one is better than Americans at putting on TV shows. But guess what’s happened in the last 15 years: there are many foreigners who are now just as good at putting on shows,” says the agent.
“The UK writers are just as good as Americans. I would say the Canadians are as well, to a point – there’s just not as many of them. I would even go so far to argue that English-speaking French, Spanish and South Korean [showrunners] are just as capable of putting on a show.
“These companies are all set up to hear pitches and buy foreign projects. Netflix is all set up, Apple is all set up. They buy from these countries anyway. They’re perfectly equipped to make some phone calls and buy some shows.
It was an issue for them in 2007 because people didn’t do that, and the streamers weren’t prolific back then – but now they can do whatever they want.”
The situation in the US is being keenly observed overseas, with European producers anticipating that, should a strike transpire, it will lead to additional business. “It could represent a massive potential upside for European producers and conversations have already started with partners in preparation for this,” says Richard Tulk-Hart, co-CEO of London-based Buccaneer Media.
The 2007 writers’ strike was a pivotal event in modern television history, not least because it helped propel the non-scripted sector to new heights as studios and networks looked for ways to fill their schedules in the absence of scripted content.
One non-scripted producer tells C21 that US networks are preparing for every eventuality. “They’re not directly saying the writers’ strike is coming, but I get the impression that some of the networks and platforms that do both scripted and unscripted are starting to hedge their bets a little bit,” says the producer.
While a strike is a very real possibility, most agree that it would have a detrimental impact.
Frank Spotnitz, CEO of The Man in the High Castle producer Big Light Productions, says “everyone loses” when writers go on strike. “I’m hoping and praying there won’t be a writers’ strike, as it is such a brutal and damaging way to resolve conflict,” he says. “I will obviously support whatever decision is made by the Writers Guild, but I really hope the strike doesn’t happen.”
It remains early days, though, and C21 understands the WGA will begin bargaining closer to the May 1 deadline in order to maximise leverage. This strategy does not sit well with parts of the industry, with some arguing that starting talks later rather than sooner is not the most constructive strategy in this situation.
While writer/studio relations are certainly frayed today, the general sense is that the mood was worse ahead of the 2007 strike, potentially paving the way for constructive talks that could bring a new agreement ahead of May. That might be wishful thinking though, suggests the talent agent, who is betting on a strike. “If I’m in Vegas, I’m putting money that there’s a strike. And by the way, so are most people that I talk to on both sides.”
“ There are some very real issues that need to be resolved and if we can try to find a way to resolve them peacefully in advance of a strike, that would be tremendous.
Channing Dungey
WBTV
With the scripted and unscripted worlds increasingly embracing paranormal themes in recent years, what are buyers looking for and how might the genre evolve in 2023?
By Neil Batey
If you’re a producer or distributor of supernatural and paranormal programming, scary season stretches way beyond Halloween. The global TV audience’s appetite for fright is active 365 days a year, whether there’s a full moon or not.
From black-and-white old-school classics like The Twilight Zone and Dark Shadows in the 1960s to modernday streaming favourites such as Stranger Things and The Addams Family spin-off Wednesday – two of Netflix’s most watched shows – viewers have always harboured a fascination with the strange, creepy, unexplainable and unutterably horrifying.
Originally considered niche programming and often curated on obscure cable or specialist channels, the undead genre has been resurrected in recent years thanks to the rise of SVoD and AVoD platforms, whose libraries are packed with bloodcurdling content.
The genre owes a debt to the worldwide success of The X-Files, which first aired on Fox in 1993 and ran for 11 seasons, spanning 218
episodes and inspiring two spinoff feature films. It starred David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson as FBI agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, who investigated mystifying cases connected to the paranormal and extraterrestrial.
US screenwriter and executive producer Frank Spotnitz worked on The X-Files for eight seasons from 1994, directing two episodes and either writing or co-writing more than
40. “The X-Files was definitely a pop cultural phenomenon and it was so exciting to be involved in that show,” says Spotnitz. “The tag line was ‘The truth is out there,’ and for the supernatural genre in general, you don’t need to believe in god, ghosts or aliens to appreciate the sense of mystery in the universe. Supernatural storytelling taps into the unknown, and that can be terrifying, moving or exhilarating, depending on how you see the world.
“The X-Files was a once-in-alifetime show and a very important piece of television. It certainly led to a revival of interest in the supernatural genre, due to the show’s sophisticated, plausible storytelling and cinematic visual presentation.
“The future is very bright for shows in this space. The audience right now is bigger than it’s ever been and, thanks to the huge financial resources of the streaming platforms, the storytelling and visual effects are incredibly accomplished.”
Spotnitz also worked on occult detective series Millennium from 1996
“ We’re seeing shows of this genre appearing on a much greater breadth of platforms, particularly streamers. It’s opened second windows, which helps us with financing projects, as we can now bring a combination of partners to the table.
Daniel Iron Blue Ice PicturesParanormal prroogrgramammmiing ng
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to 1999 for Fox, and ABC’s 2005 drama Night Stalker, about a reporter investigating supernatural happenings. He is now CEO and founder of Big Light Productions, the London- and Paris-based prodco behind dystopian sci-fi series The Man in the High Castle for Amazon’s Prime Video and historical drama Medici for Netflix. For any prodcos looking to develop their own supernatural scripted projects, Spotnitz advises that basing a show on existing IP, while certainly helpful in many ways, is not a pre-requisite. “IP can give buyers confidence that this expensive genre is worth mounting,” he says. “Buyers tend to feel safer if the project has already existed in another form and been successful. That said, The X-Files was completely original, with no underlying IP whatsoever. So my argument is you don’t need IP; what’s more important is having a strong vision, with creative talent who know what they want to say.”
Another 1990s supernatural series that remains a big influence on the genre is Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003), created by Joss Whedon and starring Sarah Michelle Gellar as a highschooler tasked with taking on all manner of otherworldly foes.
Its DNA can be found all over Astrid & Lilly Save the World, a recently launched comedy-drama starring Jana Morrison and Samantha Aucoin as two teenage misfits who unexpectedly open a portal to another dimension and must battle monsters to save civilisation. Made by Canadian prodco Blue Ice Pictures, it airs on cable channel Syfy in the US, CTV Scifi Channel in Canada and fledgling streamer ITVX in the UK. Hailed by critics as a “funnier, less angsty Buffy,” the youth-skewing series was made by a creative team staffed almost entirely by women and non-binary people.
“Thematically, Astrid & Lilly is very female-driven and also has strong
queer elements to the story, so we wanted to make sure those voices were authentically represented,” says Samantha Levine, VP of production at Blue Ice. “There is a feeling of ‘otherness,’ and that topic seems more relatable to women and non-binary people. It’s a show made by outsiders about outsiders.
“What makes Astrid & Lilly unique is that our leads are both larger women, they’re bullied and have relationships with both boys and girls. They learn to embrace who they really are, what their bodies look like and not be ashamed of themselves. Our leads don’t look like Buffy, so they’re more relatable to younger viewers. Making
misfits the heroes is great; I wish I had a show like this to watch back when I was in high school myself.”
Blue Ice also produces Surreal Estate, a paranormal drama on CTV Sci-fi Channel and Syfy that follows a realtor (played by Tim Rozon) as he brokers properties that are haunted or possessed. A second season is currently being filmed.
“We’re seeing shows of this genre appearing on a much greater breadth of platforms, particularly streamers,” says Daniel Iron, VP at Blue Ice. “It’s opened second windows, which helps us with financing projects, as we can now bring a combination of partners to the table.
“Supernatural shows are now exposed to much bigger audiences and there’s a lot of interest from broadcasters and streamers to commission them. At Blue Ice, we see this space as a great field to work within, which is why we have
other projects in various stages of development right now.”
Much more sombre in tone, though no less compelling, is Sky’s German original Souls. Produced by Geibendorfer Pictures, the eight-part series tells the story of three women whose lives are turned upside down after one of the trio’s sons is involved in a serious car accident, after which he remembers his previous life as the pilot of a lost passenger jet.
“The premise is, do you believe in reincarnation or that a soul can travel?” says Frank Jastfelder, director of original scripted production at Sky Deutschland. “It’s supernatural in the sense that you can’t get hold of it rationally, so it’s complex, emotional and very ambitious.”
As such, Souls is comparable to more thought-provoking and existential examples of the supernatural genre, such as 2012’s Les Revenants (The Returned), which won an International Emmy for Best Drama Series and was later adapted into an Englishlanguage show for A&E in the US.
However, Jastfelder admits that there are inherent risks in producing more cerebral supernatural content in that it is perhaps less accessible to mainstream audiences. “When we received the pitch for Souls, I was initially reluctant because at first it seemed very esoteric, spiritual and maybe not quite grippy enough,” he says. “In 2020, we produced another Sky original drama called Hausen, which was a haunted house story and, unfortunately, not successful because it was probably a bit too dark and moody.
“As producers, you must cater to your viewers. And here at Sky, our audience is very male-driven and loves action, horror and fantasy, but probably in a broader and more commercial vein. I would be interested in making more supernatural programming if the right idea came along, but it probably needs to be more ‘popcorn entertainment’ –like Stranger Things, for example.”
Beyond scripted, paranormal
television is also a popular reality genre, most often following investigators looking into ‘real life’ hauntings. The burgeoning sub-genre has grown in recent years to become a staple of channels and platforms such as A+E Networks’ History Channel and Warner Bros Discovery-owned Travel Channel, both in the US.
In the UK, meanwhile, the so-called ‘first lady of the paranormal,’ Yvette Fielding, has presented numerous seasons of reality shows like Most Haunted and Ghosthunting With… on channels including ITV2, Living TV and Really.
distributed globally by Blue Ant International. “Our channel audiences are hungry for paranormal content,” says Sam Linton, head of original content for Blue Ant Media’s Canadian channels. “They love to be scared by a good ghost story. We want any ideas that tell paranormal stories in a fresh way.”
Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) is also seeking more paranormal content, specifically that hosted by fresh young talent for its linear channel Really and Discovery+ in the UK. WBD executives at C21’s recent Content London event told delegates at a Factual & Formats panel discussion that programming featuring ghost hunters is still very much in demand.
Toronto-headquartered Cream Productions is a specialist in this field, producing an extensive range of paranormal content such as The Haunted Museum and A Ghost Ruined My Life for Discovery+ and Paranormal Emergency for Travel Channel. “There are definitely more buyers for paranormal than ever before,” says Kate Harrison, president of Cream. “The stories our shows tell are centred on human experience and authenticity.
“Whether you are a believer in ghosts or not, these hauntings have affected people’s lives in immeasurable ways. As documentary makers, we don’t get to have an opinion – it’s about giving people an open-minded, sensitive and respectful platform to tell audiences about their often-terrifying experiences.”
Cream also produced 2x60’ documentary special Bathsheba: Search for Evil , which was originally made for Canada’s T&E and is
“Our audience are believers, so we are believers,” said Clare Laycock, senior VP and head of content, networks and streaming at WBD in the UK. “For us, paranormal isn’t talking to dead relatives; it’s all about ghost investigations and ghost hunting. We really want to find cool, young, diverse talent in the paranormal space.”
Indeed, with economists predicting a global recession in 2023 and TV commissioners tightening their purse strings accordingly, non-scripted paranormal programming could become a lucrative space to exploit this year.
“The unscripted community has always bene fi ted from the hard times,” says Harrison. “It’s generally cheaper to make than scripted and it’s becoming more obvious to a lot of buyers that unscripted attracts as many eyeballs as big drama series.
“Looking to the future, I believe networks and streamers will be looking to commission more unscripted in general. Paranormal will have a big part to play in that, because this is a genre with a very loyal built-in audience – especially in Canada, the US, UK and South America, where the afterlife and spirits are part of their cultural history.”
“ Whether you are a believer in ghosts or not, these hauntings have affected people’s lives in immeasurable ways. As documentary makers, we don’t get to have an opinion.
Kate Harrison CreamSky German original Souls The X-Files
Amazon’s
platform
Freevee is on the hunt for broad-appeal programming in four particular areas as it plans to grow its international footprint in 2023.
By Jordan Pinto
In a period when the long-term economics around SVoD have been questioned, Amazon’s advertising-supported streaming service Freevee has emerged as one of the most compelling propositions in a market that has fully embraced AVoD.
The platform, previously known as IMDb TV until it was rebranded in the first half of 2022, occupies an increasingly important position within Amazon’s streaming business, nestled alongside its SVoD product Prime Video.
Execs have previously said the goal is for Freevee, which is currently available in the UK, US and Germany, to be a “modern broadcaster,” programming content that appeals to a wide swath of audience tastes.
Lauren Anderson, head of AVoD original content and programming at Amazon Studios, expanded on the commissioning strategy at C21’s Content London event in late 2022.
Broadly, the service is looking to commission “big-tent” content in four main areas across scripted and unscripted: crime and investigation; young-adult and coming-of-age; pop culture and music; and home and family Anderson said that one of the key programming decisions taken by Freevee is to be “day part-agnostic,” meaning its shows are intended to span both traditional daytime pr p ogramming and primetime.
“One of the things we saw is that the majority of programmes made for streaming were what you would consider ‘traditional’ primetime content, whether that was a drama or comedy, and overwhelmingly scripted. So from the very y beginning we wanted to be day partagnostic,” she said.
To that end, one n of its key titles is Judy y Justice, a spin-off from the longrunning courtroom reality series Judge
Judy, fronted by family court judge Judith Sheindlin. In its first season, it was Freevee’s most-watched show to date, with Amazon revealing in April 2022 that the series had racked up over 40 million hours of watch time. The first two seasons featured more than 120 episodes combined.
The show has spawned a second spin-off, Tribunal, which also sees judges Patricia DiMango and Tanya Acker and former district attorney Adam Levy collectively adjudicating real cases.
To begin with, Freevee has made a clear decision to lean on known IP to attract audiences. The first original show commissioned by the AVoD platform was Leverage: Redemption, a revival of the action-crime drama Leverage, which ran on US network TNT for five seasons from 2008 to 2012.
Freevee ordered the show after it licensed the original and found audiences “watching it in droves,” said Anderson. “The fanbase for Leverage is so rabid. They show up all the time and are so active on social, so it was exciting for us to be able to bring that show back.”
The revival of Leverage has “created a bit of a template for us,” said Anderson, with Freevee subsequently commissioning a spin-off from the long-running Prime Video series Bosch, which had been one of the SVoD service’s defining originals.
Without question, though, Freevee’s most headlinegrabbing green light to date was its decision to rescue Australian soap Neighbours, after it was dropped by Paramount-owned UK terrestrial Channel 5.
Anderson said the decision to board the show illustrates Freevee’s dedication to serving audiences in specific local markets. “That was very much about understanding that that show is such an institution inside the UK. It wasn’t necessarily a play for every other territory,” she said. “It’s about making sure we’re obsessing over our territories and not just programming in a broad way without understanding what people want in each territory.”
Anderson said soap operas are of significant interest to Freevee in the future, as they “allow for constant engagement with a service.”
Amazon also did a deal with the show’s producer and distributor Fremantle to acquire thousands of episodes from previous seasons, with the goal of launching several
FAST channels dedicated to older and newer episodes of Neighbours
Even though Neighbours wasn’t “originally built” for streaming, Anderson said soaps are a “perfect fit” within an AVoD ecosystem. “We’ll be making a lot of shows that fit within that model and that framework.”
In addition to Neighbours, Freevee has also been in the market to rescue more traditional drama fare, including American Rust, which was cancelled after its first season by Showtime earlier this year. Following that cancellation, Freevee jumped in to rescue the series, commissioning a second season and acquiring the rights to S1.
Freevee has not just been leaning on existing TV properties, however. In addition to commissioning shows with pre-existing brand recognition, the platform is also looking to greenlight unproven programming, including the coming-of-age dramedy Beyond Black Beauty, about an equestrian with Olympic aspirations whose journey is suddenly halted when her mother uproots the family.
It also recently debuted its comingof-age series High School, about twins who struggle to find their own identities.
Unscripted is also a key part of its commissioning strategy, said Anderson, with its roster of titles including culinary competition series America’s Test Kitchen: The Next Generation, family competition series Play-Doh Squished and home-renovation series Hollywood Houselift with Jeff Lewis, the latter of which has been renewed for a second season.
FAST channels are another key aspect of Freevee’s overall offering. “The way we built and developed Freevee was that our original content interacted with our licensed content, which interacted with our FAST content,” said Anderson. She added that the standalone FAST channels will use licensed programming to get consumers excited about specific shows or categories of content, which will, in turn, drive them to Freevee originals.
While its greenlight and renewal decisions are backed by significant amounts of data, Anderson said creative instinct will always trump data. “At the end of the day, hits are made by creators with a singular vision and you can’t predict
what an audience wants to watch in that exact way. For us, it’s always about leaning into vision, passion and storytelling.”
Anderson would not comment on the specific budget levels for Freevee originals, but said they are commensurate with budgets on the traditional television and SVoD side. “We have the kinds of budgets that make sure the shows are great,” she said.
“Because streaming was so focused on SVoD for so long, I believe there was a bit of a stigma around adsupported and what it meant to have great content on the ad-supported side. That was always so confusing to me, because until just a few years ago, everyone’s favourite show was, for the most part, ad-supported.
“Part of it has been about making sure people understand that creativity isn’t blocked by having ads, and our budgets aren’t blocked by having ads.”
While Freevee is currently available in the US, UK and Germany, it is widely expected that the service will look to expand into new markets in 2023. Anderson said there are “always plans” to grow the service’s geographical footprint but could confirm nothing at the time.
Freevee’s relatively narrow international footprint is an advantage in some cases, though, as it means the platform does not take all global rights.
Leverage: Redemption, for example, is on Freevee in the US and UK, while Dean Devlin’s Electric Entertainment handles sales in other territories. “We are open to every model,” said Anderson, adding that producers are encouraged to think creatively about the types of deals that can be made.
Anderson doubled down on the notion that Freevee is a broad service, catering to the widest range of audience tastes. “We want a lot of eyeballs and we want a wide variety of the audience, so we aren’t just programming to one specific customer, we’re programming to everyone. So it’s important that demographically we’re representing everyone,” she said. “That’s across all sorts of things –region, age, ethnicity, gender. We want to make sure it’s as broad as possible.”
“ Hits are made by creators with a singular vision and you can’t predict what an audience wants to watch. For us, it’s always about leaning into vision, passion and storytelling.
Lauren Anderson Amazon Studios
The challenge for Netflix’s European unscripted teams in 2023 remains unchanged, namely how do you commission something that resonates with the local subscribers in your territory while also having the potential to feed its service around the world?
Netflix peppers its offering with local versions of formats with strong international potential, such as breakout US/UK show Too Hot to Handle, remade in Brazil and Mexico, or Love is Blind, which has been produced in the US, Brazil, Japan and Sweden.
Local is a key word for Dolores Emile, manager of Netflix’s unscripted content in France, who has overseen a French adaptation of Channel 4 format The Circle and a local remake of US hip hop music format Rhythm & Flow. In the everpopular true crime space, Emile has commissioned a doc series on Monique Olivier, the wife of prolific French serial killer Michel Fourniret.
“We are looking for local, impactful, ambitious stories that have to resonate for our local French audience,” Emile says. “I get a lot of pitches from international production companies but it’s important to reiterate that, for France, and Spain, we’re looking for local stories.
“We want to empower our creative communities, it’s important for us to be impactful for our audience and have stories that can resonate in French culture – stories that have an impact on society, say something
Netflix’s unscripted commissioners in Europe continue to seek out shows that work for local audiences but can also feed the streamer’s global subscriber base.
By Clive Whittinghamabout the system we live in and the society we live in at a moment in time.”
“The best ideas on Netflix are the ones that are simple and you can understand them just from the top line. We often find ourselves leaning into the heart and humour. We like an idea that asks a tricky question and has juicy moments, but the best thing is there can be a laugh in there as well.”
For Álvaro Díaz, director of unscripted series in Spain, there are key differences between what’s on offer locally on traditional broadcast television and what Netflix is doing in other European territories.
“In Spain, big formats and reality shows can have three outings a week, and they can be up to four hours in length,” Díaz explains. “On Netflix,
you can watch a whole series of one of our shows in the time it takes you to do one of those. So it’s definitely not about replicating. For us, it’s about innovating, keeping our members in mind and the ways they want to consume the content. When a show resonates locally it usually travels, but my main focus is just on Spain.”
Díaz says variety underscores Netflix’s formats and factual originals strategy so far in Spain, where it is seeking to offer “a fresh take on the formats audiences know and love.”
“We want to make the best version of a dating show like Too Hot to Handle, a true crime series like Dónde está Marta?, a competition show like Nailed It!, or a docusoap like Soy Georgina. We are open, and eager, to take bets on new ideas,” says the exec, who adds that Spanish audiences
are keen to see reality, competition, relationships and high stakes.
While there have been quite worthy conversations in the unscripted industry about ‘authenticity’ in reality series for some time, Díaz says: “In Spain, we don’t care about the ‘why,’ we care about the juiciness, and the more of it we have the better. I’m not proud but it is like that.”
The back-end of 2022 saw Netflix confirm a move into live broadcasting for the first time with a Chris Rock comedy special. The comedian, writer, director and actor will be the first artist to perform on Netflix in its first live global streaming event, scheduled for March 4.
Díaz and Emile say it is “very early days” for Netflix in the live space, but Daisy Lilley, director of unscripted series in the UK, is in the market for a singing competition show, the likes of which have dominated Saturday night TV in the UK for the last 20 years.
Recent launches out of the UK include Dance Monsters, a talent show with a CGI twist, while an unscripted format version of breakout Korean drama series Squid Game is in the pipeline.
The exact details of Squid Game: The Challenge remain a closely guarded secret, beyond the fact it is being coproduced with UK- and US-based Studio Lambert (The Circle) and that contestants need to be able to speak English and “win or lose, all players will leave unscathed” – which must be a relief for Netflix’s lawyers.
UK-based TriForce worked across three productions spanning three different genres in 2022, namely documentary Handle With Care: Jimmy Akingbola for UK commercial broadcaster ITV; Dead Canny, a sitcom pilot for UKTV-owned Dave; and panel show Sorry, I Didn’t Know, also for ITV.
Renewals are a key pillar of any development slate, but as Fraser Ayres points out, programming fronted by black talent is often less likely to return compared to other kinds of programming. That’s what made making a third season of Sorry, I Didn’t Know in 2022 so satisfying and Ayres is hopeful for a fourth run for the studio format that celebrates black history and achievement.
While a new home is being sought for Dead Canny, which follows a questionable young psychic who has the ability to see dead people, Handle With Care is being developed as a returning format with ITV, reveals Ayres, who as well as being MD and co-founder of TriForce is also an actor, writer and showrunner.
The show began with an episode focusing on Ayres’ fellow TriForce co-founder and actor Jimmy Akingbola, who as well as hosting Sorry, I Didn’t Know, can be seen playing Geoffrey Thompson in Bel-Air, Peacock’s gritty, modern-day reinterpretation of 90s sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
The deeply personal film traces the journey of Akingbola, who, at the age of two, was uprooted from his Nigerian family and fostered by a white British family who raised him alongside their birth children.
As the title suggests, Handle With Care aims to approach subjects such as foster care – which in other hands might be framed in a ‘clickbait-y’ way to draw in viewers – with consideration and show them in a more positive light.
The result was a film that the press described as “raw” and “extremely moving,” with ITV now keen to develop the format into a strand of films that focus on the different lived experiences of well-known, diverse figures in a warm and positive way.
“What our content shows is a shift from broadcasters in terms of the kind of content they’re commissioning, which is really positive. Previously, when those kinds of experiences are shown, it’s through the lens of oppression and often not made by the people from those demographics.
“Actually, black people don’t really want to see those stories. They’re important, like Black History Month is important, but I’m tired of seeing people being whipped. I want to see our kings and queens and pioneers. Our success speaks to that shift,” says Ayres.
Crucial to Ayres was that TriForce was allowed to produce these projects on its own, rather than being asked to coproduce with or have its hand held by a prodco with a longer credit list but an inevitably less diverse workforce.
TriForce focuses on developing diversity and inclusivity (D&I) on- and off-camera and, via its notfor-profit arm TriForce Creative Network, is behind
TriForce Productions is taking a positive approach to projects made by diverse talent, tackling challenging subjects without turning them into clickbait.
By Nico Franksyears to make the UK media industry more representative.
Shows Dandi has supported include Bridgerton, Gangs of London, I Hate Suzie, Killing Eve, Stath Lets Flats, Taskmaster and Trigger Point
Dandi, described as the one-stop D&I support service for the entertainment industry that represents a database of more than 25,000 people.
This means that as well as ensuring its productions are crewed by a diverse and inclusive workforce (“Our crew photos are quite different to other people’s crew photos,” says Ayres), the organisation is helping others – more than 70 production companies, broadcasters and global streamers – commit to the pledges made in recent
Meanwhile, TriForce’s development slate was given a financial boost in late 2022 after TriForce was chosen as one of the prodcos to receive backing from UK commercially funded public service broadcaster Channel 4’s Emerging Indie Fund, which will see it receive a range of support and guidance to help supercharge its business.
Programming that appeals internationally is a priority and Ayres says TriForce is in conversation with a US studio about factual and factual entertainment projects, as well as scripted.
“I guess everything we do is quite worthy, in one way or another,” laughs Ayres. “That is our ethos and at our core. But we are unique in the way we find those interesting ways of presenting issues and stories.”
“ Actually, black people don’t really want to see those stories. They’re important, like Black History Month is important, but I’m tired of seeing people being whipped. I want to see our kings and queens and pioneers. Our success speaks to that shift.
Fraser AyresHandle With Care: Jimmy Akingbola
PBS Masterpiece is looking to develop new funding models over the next three years to establish a pipeline for the premium costume dramas its viewers love, with non-English-language originals a possibility.
By Gün AkyuzDownton Abbey coproducer PBS Masterpiece is forging ahead as the lead commissioning broadcaster on new period drama pieces, backed by new financing and partnership models, to keep the genre on its slate.
Masterpiece executive producer Susanne Simpson is currently looking at projects for 2024, 2025 and even into 2026, by which point it expects to be an active commissioner of costume dramas following UK broadcasters ITV and the BBC changing their approach to the genre.
“We can’t count on getting shows like that from those broadcasters and coproducing that kind of material [with them]. So we’re actually now developing and commissioning shows,” Simpson said at C21’s recent Content London event.
Gone is the previous ‘standard’ model of joining as a US coproducer on a fully commissioned show by a UK broadcaster, with a distributor picking up rest-of-world rights. ITV has moved away from full commissions into co-commissions such as Sanditon, a joint commission with Masterpiece, while the BBC’s bigger-budget costume dramas require larger players like HBO.
“This is an 180-degree turn, in that we were the lead commissioner on Sanditon, and I was the lead editorial. ITV didn’t have any input into the show and they took it for a half commission,” said Simpson.
taking a bigger part in financing the show, then I am now turning to potential European partners –the big broadcasters, the big distributors – to see if there’s a way we can create a partnership to fund a programme without a UK broadcaster, which is kind of unheard of.”
One costume drama already in the pipeline is Tom Jones, produced with Mammoth Screen and ITV, which came to Masterpiece as a script during lockdown, with scriptwriter Gwyneth Hughes’ adaptation having elevated Tom’s love interest, Sofia.
This is a model Masterpiece is likely to repeat in the coming years, she added. It is currently working more closely with PBS sales arm PBS Distribution, which also runs the PBS Masterpiece Prime streaming channel on Amazon’s Prime Video and needs content.
It also means that along with US linear rights, PBS now requires SVoD, home entertainment and other related rights for North America.
“The nature of the partnership is completely changing for us,” said Simpson, adding that one of the reasons she attended Content London was to meet other European broadcasters, producers and distributors.
“If we’re not able to rely on a UK broadcaster
“We need more money to get some of these costume dramas like Tom Jones funded, so we’re beginning to look at some new potential partnerships that way,” said Simpson. “There’s a lot of interest in UK-based English-language productions, so this is just another way for those entities to have more of that.”
Masterpiece is already a partner in Europeanfunded dramas, having participated in the European Alliance’s adventure series adaptation Around the World in 80 Days. “We are looking to do the next one together, which is Race to the Poles,” said Simpson. “We might have to step up a little bit more, as things become more and more expensive.
“I can see that we are probably not going to get our costume dramas unless we are the lead funder in them,” Simpson said, looking ahead at the funding environment over the next couple of years.
Simpson also talked about the possibility of bringing more non-English-language fare to Masterpiece in the coming years. One such success was NRK-led Norwegian drama Atlantic Crossing, which aired on Masterpiece in April 2021, plugging a gap left by several Masterpiece productions that had to shut down during the pandemic.
During the pandemic, people were “driven to find other material and they watched a lot of foreignlanguage [programmes] and just got used to it,” said Simpson.
“It wasn’t difficult for our audience, so that makes me think that, with the right project, the right story, maybe in our future we might have a foreign-language costume drama. Royalty might travel well into the Masterpiece world, so that might be something for us.”
“ If we’re not able to rely on a UK broadcaster taking a bigger part in financing the show, then I am now turning to potential European partners – the big broadcasters, the big distributors.
Susanne SimpsonMasterpiece took the lead in commissioning Sanditon
The landscape of immigrant representation on television has changed substantially since we began our longitudinal research in 2018.
While audiences often go to television to escape into fictional worlds, it is also a place for confronting the issues of our lives. The US saw Black and AAPI (Asian American and Pacific Islander) communities under attack since our 2020 report, and TV started to tell more stories about characters from these communities as well. But immigrant and marginalised communities should always be valued, not just when they are in crisis. It is imperative to our culture and our world that all communities are represented authentically.
Our findings show that nuanced immigrant characters in prominent and/or recurring roles engage audiences on deeply psychological levels, create more understanding of immigrant experiences and foster more positive attitudes towards immigrants and immigration.
Even though we have seen improvements in immigrant representation on TV since our last report, there is still much work to be done to represent the breadth and rich details of immigrant experiences.
As we have seen with the phenomenon of invisibility in media representation, a lack of representation on screen erases the existence of communities from society’s cultural imagination. But increased representation is not always better. When immigrant characters are largely depicted in reductive or stereotypical ways, audiences may develop inaccurate perceptions of immigrants and their experiences.
In addition to continuing to explore the complexities of race, ethnicity and nationality, future research could dig deeper into the prevalence of the ‘good immigrant’ narrative and its impact on attitudes toward immigration policy. For example, to what extent are certain immigrants framed as worthy or deserving by virtue of following the rules, waiting their turn, working hard or being exceptional?
Based on our findings, we see great hope in the ways TV can more accurately reflect our world. We celebrate the creators striving to bring to the small screen the untold truths and authenticity of immigrant lives.
Define American continues to be a resource and thought-partner to creatives, networks and studios. We envision an evolution of the entertainment industry’s storytelling practices – in which fully human and multidimensional immigrant characters can be the heroes of their stories and TV is reflective of the diverse country we live in – creating a better America for immigrants both on and off screen.
Our research highlights a number of opportunities and strategies for storytellers
Much more work is needed to improve immigrant representation on TV and tell the full breadth of their stories authentically, says Sarah E Lowe, director of research and evaluation at Define American.
who seek to change the dominant narrative about immigrants and immigration.
A critical step in telling these stories with humanity and nuance is to involve immigrants in the creative process. Hiring writers, cast and crew who reflect the material can bring diverse perspectives and authenticity.
Reflect the diversity and intersectionality of immigrant communities. Immigrants are multidimensional and come from all walks of life; on-screen depictions should reflect this. Consider groups who continue to be underrepresented and stereotyped: Latine immigrant characters are now underrepresented, MENA immigrant characters are overrepresented as dangerous stereotypes and there is still not much visibility for transgender immigrant characters, or immigrants with disabilities. There have been some improvements in representation of AAPI and Black immigrant characters, but there are still groups that get left behind, such as Afro-Latine immigrant characters.
Feature more immigrant characters in prominent, recurring roles. Regular and consistent viewing of humanised immigrant characters allows viewers to build relationships with immigrant characters, which, in turn, is associated with more positive feelings toward immigrants in reality. Additionally, shows featuring prominent immigrant characters can increase viewers’ understanding of immigrant experiences and foster more positive attitudes toward immigrants in the US.
Move away from criminal stereotypes. Immigrant characters associated with crime on TV is at an all-time high, yet immigrants in the US are less likely than native-born US citizens to commit crimes. When harmful stereotypes like these are overrepresented, audiences may develop inaccurate perceptions of immigrants in reality.
Define American is a non-profit narrative change organisation that uses the power of storytelling to humanise conversations about immigrants. The research was conducted by the Norman Lear Center’s Media Impact Project at USC and is available online.
EDITORIAL
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published six times a year by NuPress, Miami. Channel21 International is registered as a newspaper. No part of this publication may be copied, stored or copied on to any electronic system or broadcast via any other medium without prior consent of the publisher. All rights reserved. All trademarks acknowledged. © Channel21 International 2023 ISSN number: 1460-0668
“Shows featuring prominent immigrant characters can increase viewers’ understanding and foster more positive attitudes.
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