World Screen April 2020

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THE MAGAZINE OF INTERNATIONAL MEDIA • APRIL 2020

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World Screen would like to thank our clients, vendors and friends around the world who have been so supportive during these difficult times. Our commitment to covering the everchanging developments in the industry is stronger than ever.

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THE MAGAZINE OF INTERNATIONAL MEDIA | APRIL 2020

WWW.WORLDSCREEN.COM

The

Producers Company Pictures Michele Buck The Ink Factory Simon Cornwell Sid Gentle Films Sally Woodward Gentle Playground Colin Callender Kinetic Content Chris Coelen Nadcon Film Peter Nadermann Wild Sheep Content Erik Barmack

Thomas Rabe RTL Group JB Perrette Discovery Courteney Monroe National Geographic Rob Wade FOX Entertainment

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Patrick Dempsey

Scandi Drama, Cooking Formats, Pop-Science Shows & Eco Kids’ Series

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CONTENTS

APRIL 2020 EDITION DEPARTMENTS WORLD VIEW

By Mansha Daswani.

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GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE

By Bruce Paisner.

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SPOTLIGHT National Geographic’s Courteney Monroe.

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Publisher Ricardo Seguin Guise Group Editorial Director Anna Carugati Editor Mansha Daswani

IN THE NEWS FOX Entertainment’s Rob Wade.

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WORLD’S END In the stars.

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Executive Editor Kristin Brzoznowski

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PATRICK DEMPSEY

JOHN WALSH

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Associate Editors Chelsea Regan Alison Skilton Editor, Spanish-Language Publications Elizabeth Bowen-Tombari

SPECIAL REPORTS

Associate Editor, Spanish-Language Publications Rafael Blanco

There’s a diverse range of drama coming out of the Scandinavian markets.

Contributing Editor Elizabeth Guider

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Production & Design Director David Diehl

Spotlighting the trends in pop-science series.

Online Director Simon Weaver

32 GREEN SCREEN The issue of climate change has made its way into kids’ TV shows.

40 LOCAL FLAVORS

Art Director Phyllis Q. Busell Senior Sales & Marketing Manager Dana Mattison

A look at what’s new in cooking formats.

Sales & Marketing Coordinator Genovick Acevedo

54 MAKING IT

Business Affairs Manager Andrea Moreno

This special report on how producers are navigating the peak TV landscape includes interviews with Michele Buck, Simon Cornwell, Sally Woodward Gentle, Colin Callender, Chris Coelen, Peter Nadermann and Erik Barmack.

Contributing Writers Steve Clarke Andy Fry Joanna Stephens Jay Stuart David Wood

ONE-ON-ONE

46 RTL GROUP’S THOMAS RABE The CEO of the RTL Group discusses the group’s businesses and the collaboration between RTL Group and Bertelsmann.

ON THE RECORD

77 DISCOVERY INTERNATIONAL’S JB PERRETTE The president and CEO of Discovery’s sprawling international business weighs in on the importance of owning content today.

Ricardo Seguin Guise President Anna Carugati Executive VP Mansha Daswani Associate Publisher & VP of Strategic Development WORLD SCREEN is a registered trademark of WSN INC. 1123 Broadway, Suite 1207 New York, NY 10010, U.S.A. Phone: (212) 924-7620 Fax: (212) 924-6940 Website: www.worldscreen.com

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©2020 WSN INC. No part of this publication can be used, reprinted, copied or stored in any medium without the publisher’s authorization.

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WORLD VIEW

BY MANSHA DASWANI

Certainty in Uncertain Times As I write this editor’s note, it occurs to me that in an alternate COVID-19-free world, I’d be en route to Cannes today, much like those of you reading this (presumably from your homes that have now become your offices).

All of us at World Screen hope that in these strange days, you are safe, and healthy, and like us, doing everything you can to maintain business as usual even when the world is very much not business as usual.

The content we’ve assembled for this special April digital edition of World Screen has been in the works for months. These interviews and features were all destined for our MIPTV issue. When Reed MIDEM revealed the inevitable last month, that MIPTV would need to be canceled this year, the entire World Screen team felt a collective gut punch. Ricardo Guise, our president and publisher, made the difficult decision to release all of our MIPTV print advertisers from their contracts and cancel the publication of this edition. But we knew we still wanted to do something with all of this amazing content. Hence the creation of this digital-only edition. In it, RTL Group CEO Thomas Rabe sheds light on his priorities at the European media giant, JB Perrette discusses what’s driving the gains at Discovery International, Courteney Monroe talks about her successful programming strategy at the National Geographic Television Networks and FOX Entertainment’s Rob Wade weighs in on the quest for innovation in the format business. We hear about the latest trends in Scandinavian drama, pop-science shows, eco-themed kids’ series and cooking formats.

And our special report on producers operating in this era of peak TV explores the development process and the chase for scale, featuring insightful Q&As with Company Pictures’ Michele Buck, The Ink Factory’s Simon Cornwell, Sid Gentle’s Sally Woodward Gentle, Playground’s Colin Callender, Kinetic Content’s Chris Coelen, Nadcon Film’s Peter Nadermann and Wild Sheep Content’s Erik Barmack.

Of course, this is a different world than the one we did these interviews in, as series production and sports grind to a halt in many markets across the globe and advertisers scale back their budgets. All of the executives we feature in these pages are monitoring changes in the market and will adjust their strategies accordingly.

We’ll continue to cover how companies are responding to the pandemic across our online assets.

The ramifications of this global shutdown are unknowable, with no clear, definitive end in sight. But there are a

few things we do know. Media consumption is up, way up. Obviously for news, but for lots of other shows too. “In terms of shifts in genre and programming trends, the economic impact of COVID-19 on the industry is likely to lead to a greater necessity for lower-budget shows and increased interest in genres such as factual entertainment,” Girts Licis, the head of strategy at K7 Media, tells World Screen. “It is possible there could also be a resurgence of low-risk revivals rather than developing costly new formats. We can expect a further surge in feel-good, society-enhancing and charitable programming, which is usually the case in turbulent times.”

Keep a close eye on cloud production and broadcast, Licis says, referring to “shows that are produced remotely, edited online and streamed over the cloud.”

Licis points to developments in China as an example. “It not only describes a new wave of programming but also carries a social message urging people to stay at home. Some new shows that have premiered in China recently include a talk show/quiz show mix hosted by a celebrity from the studio with participants Skyping in, sharing the latest news and playing quiz games; a daily lunchtime reality show featuring a celebrity interacting live with viewers while cooking at home; and a Friday night cloud show centered around celebrities vlogging about their lives staying at home.”

Broadcasters are eager to fill their slots as production on shows slows down and schedules are left wide open from the postponement of sports events, including EURO 2020 and the Tokyo Summer Olympics. SVOD platforms like Netflix and Amazon, which have shifted more to original production in recent years, will also look to acquisitions in a quest to keep their slates full, retain subs and attract new customers. “In the near term, the coronavirus will actually boost SVOD subscriptions, as well as viewing of these services, as an ever-growing number of consumers adopt social distancing or are forced into quarantine,” said Michael Goodman, director of TV and media strategies at Strategy Analytics, of the company’s recent SVOD projections.

We’ll be here to help our readers navigate the uncertain days ahead. And we want to hear from you about how you’re coping with this all-around disruption. Drop me a note on mdaswani@worldscreen.com.

All of the executives we feature in these pages are monitoring changes in the market and will adjust their strategies accordingly.

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GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE

BY BRUCE L. PAISNER

“1917” and 2020 1917 is a gripping movie, both for its actual subject matter (two British soldiers in World War I have to get a warning to an advance unit before the Germans trap the unit), and for what’s implied. The movie has a compelling plot and notable visual techniques, but the importance of this movie goes beyond what’s on the screen.

The causes of WWI have been studied at great length, but perhaps the most profound reason was a pervasive and misplaced nationalism, which drove the armies of European nations through that war and again in World War II. By 1945, leaders in Europe and the U.S. had had enough of the slaughter, and they drove a historic reordering of extranational institutions. That reordering is in danger today.

As Lance Corporals Schofield and Blake worked their way through trenches, battlefields and natural obstacles in 1917, I found myself thinking how unlikely such an adventure would be today, and yet how thin the leadership differences are between then and now. The leadership mantra in WWI was a variation on “Make [Germany], [France], [England], [Russia] Great Again.” The war had many other causes, of course, but ultimately each country involved was trying to pump up its citizens and win. To see this, one need look no farther than the ecstatic soldiers, who marched off to the trenches while crowds cheered them on.

Statesmen made an effort after WWI to craft a lasting peace, but the main instrument, the League of Nations, was a failure. It had neither the necessary enforcement mechanisms nor the support of the United States. A resurgence of nationalism, coupled with ever more counterproductive trade wars, led to the rise of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. Paradoxically, the more these countries threatened the peace, the more isolationists thought the way to avoid aggression was either isolationism, appeasement, or both. Some statistics are astounding: four months before Pearl Harbor, the draft in the U.S. was extended by just one vote. Men like William Borah of Idaho and Robert Taft of Ohio were resisting a standing army for the U.S., and opposing aid to Britain and France to fight Hitler as German and Japanese war plans were being finalized. The sad truth has always been that many people died who didn’t have to because isolationist politicians rejected evidence that was right in front of them.

After WWII, a remarkable group of statesmen came on the scene. Leaders from the U.S., the U.K., France, and

eventually Germany abandoned nationalism and created a group of related international institutions, notably the UN, NATO, the European Commission, the Common Market. NATO, unlike the others, is a military alliance, but its genius was in forcing historic combatants into a common cause—and checking on each other in the name of a greater good. Since 1946, each of these organizations has been properly funded and has flourished. The world is not rid of war, of course, but contained, regional conflicts and proxy wars have replaced the carnage of total war.

This has been the reality for 75 years, a relatively peaceful time, particularly for Western Europe. But the glue is beginning to come unstuck. Nationalism and its ugly cousins—tariffs and trade wars—have started to reemerge, fanned by leaders who seem to have forgotten the lessons of the 20th century, and reverted to always lurking isolationism. Often today’s isolationists seem like lineal descendants of the isolationists of the 1930s. It is abundantly and sadly clear that today’s leaders do not have the vision or the fortitude of their post-WWII predecessors.

The continuing job of people in the media is to remind today’s leaders of the historic accomplishments of those predecessors and to raise a warning when the lessons are not being heard. It is something that my colleagues and I at the Academy and elsewhere do whenever we can. It is not enough to accept isolationism and nationalism as alternative tools for international organization. They are dangerous in any era, and especially when anyone in the world is one message away from everyone else.

Our era will be remembered as either a time when a new generation of leaders continued and built upon the vision of the post-war statesmen, or when they abandoned the principles and the organizations to enforce them and let the world fall into conflict and chaos. Particularly in the shadow of atomic weapons, let us fervently hope it is the former.

The leadership mantra in World War I was a variation on “Make [Germany], [France], [England], [Russia] Great Again.”

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Bruce L. Paisner is the president and CEO of the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.

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ince ending his long run as Dr. Derek Shepherd (a.k.a. “McDreamy”) on ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy, Patrick Dempsey has pursued an eclectic set of TV roles. In EPIX’s The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair, he starred as an acclaimed author who is implicated in the murder of a teenage girl. In Devils, for Sky Italia, he plays the role of Dominic Morgan, the head of the London office of a prominent U.S. bank during the 2008 financial crisis. Next up, in Ways & Means, a pilot for CBS, he’ll play a congressional leader. Dempsey speaks to World Screen about the appeal of European television.

By Mansha Daswani WS: I know nothing about the world of finance, but I found the first episode of Devils to be gripping.

DEMPSEY: Visually, I think it’s really striking, and emotionally it’s moving. There is a level of complexity; you can go back and watch it multiple times and take something new away from it each time. And it’s very cinematic.

WS: What attracted you to the project?

DEMPSEY: When I read the first episode, I kept turning the page, and I was constantly surprised by the reversals. I got ahead and then thought, Oh, that’s not where it’s going at all!

That surprised me. And then I had a wonderful conversation with Nick [Hurran, the showrunner and director], and halfway through I was like, OK, I’m in. We shot in Rome and in London, which was another good reason to go! For me, that was perfect. It had a great international cast, and it was a great opportunity to learn something new about finance that I never really thought about before.

There was a nice openness to the collaborative process. A lot of things were still ongoing, especially the last few episodes, as they were still in the writing process. And everybody cared deeply and focused on, how do we make the best scene we have today and how do we keep refining it? I really enjoyed the collaborative effort.

WS: Coming from a U.S. network background, is it a different experience working on an international production?

DEMPSEY: Completely. And you had to be patient with the process. There’s a different way of approaching a [U.S.] network show—it’s completely different from what we were doing. It’s also a limited series, which is a unique experience as

well. You had a clear beginning, middle and end, which was nice. And ten episodes is different from 24 to 25. And we had the time, too. We were shooting 10-, 12-hour days, where a network show you’re shooting 15-, 16-hour days. That in itself was nice. And it was fun just to play a different character, and to go into the relationship, the power struggle and also the level of subtext. We’re saying one thing, but we mean something else. It was great working with Jan [Michelini, the director] and Nick and getting that balance. And also with [Alessandro Borghi, who stars as Massimo Ruggero], we were on it right away, with very little rehearsal. We would just let it unfold.

WS: Did you read the book by Guido Maria Brera that Devils is based on?

DEMPSEY: I never got a chance to read the book, because it was in Italian. Guido would give us reading assignments [about the world the book is set in] and certain things to watch that really helped. He’d say, This is what I’m trying to do, read this and you’ll understand. There was a great documentary called Four Horsemen, which is about finance; that was very informative.

And then you start to watch the [stock] market, and you start to talk to bankers and [see] what they’re doing.

WS: It feels like there is so much about the 2008 financial crisis that we still don’t fully know or understand.

DEMPSEY: We’re still paying the price for that financial crisis, and we’re going into another one now. You’re seeing destabilization: look at Brexit, France, Germany, America. Democracies are fragile. And the unsustainable nature of capitalism; we have to pull back. We have to look at how we’re living in the world; we’re devastating the planet.

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ZDF Enterprises’ Before We Die.

Nordic Twist Kristin Brzoznowski explores the broad range of scripted coming out of the Scandinavian markets. he stark, atmospheric landscapes of Scandinavia serve as the perfect backdrop for grim tales of brutal crimes and the mysterious and morose protagonists who find themselves entwined in their complex threads—all elements that typify the uber-popular drama genre that’s become known the world over as “Nordic noir.” But that’s not all the local TV market has to offer these days. There’s a rich cultural tradition of storytelling that unites the Scandi countries, and it is still very much alive and well, as producers from across the region deliver high-quality scripted series that garner global attention.

“The focus is always 100 percent on the quality from day one,” says Lars Blomgren, the head of scripted for EMEA at Endemol Shine Group, acknowledging, though, that it’s the high-end productions from the region that travel globally.

“We don’t greenlight until we are happy with the script, and that’s a very established tradition. There are seven or eight drafts before we go into production. So, we have the time. It’s also part of our character. In Sweden, we don’t die from war or famine, so we have developed other kinds of anxieties,” he quips.

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Blomgren says that Germany was the first country outside the home region where Scandi series became big. “We ended up getting 20 to 30 percent of the budget, on top of our Scandinavian budget, so we could go even higher with the quality and the development.”

The real breakthrough came, though, when BBC Four began bringing these stories to the U.K. ZDF Enterprises was the driving force behind the sale of The Bridge and The Killing to the BBC, “effectively kicking off the Scandi-noir hype over a decade ago,” says Robert Franke, VP of ZDFE.drama. “These shows became the spearhead for many smaller Scandi shows, which subsequently aroused interest in the international markets, thanks to these two big breakout series. Today, we remain a leader in the genre,” with an average of two new Scandinavian dramas added to ZDFE.drama’s catalog each year.

There’s been a nice uptick in the amount of scripted coming out of these Northern European countries as well, he notes. “The Nordics are a very progressive market, always leading the pack by adopting new consumption methods earlier than the rest of the world. This leads to a situation where the streaming landscape is much more sophisticated

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Banijay Rights’ Scandi slate includes The Truth Will Out, which Viaplay has renewed for a second season.

than in other territories, with a number of big and ambitious local players joining the original-content game by producing original programming. So, there is much more Scandinavian product hitting the market today than ten years ago.”

to just Nordic noir; it is much richer in terms of genres.”

Guyonnet highlights Pros and Cons, which “is as much a comedy as it is a thriller,” she says, and The Lawyer, which deals with the professional and personal conflicts of its protagonist.

Another twist on the genre is a move toward more “blue-sky” crime dramas, such as Dynamic’s The Sommerdahl Murders. “This is a show that we’ve put together on the heels of demand from outside of Scandinavia,” explains Bennemann.

“In Germany and France in particular, and also in Spain and Italy, there’s a big demand for a brighter way of approaching crime, but also with a procedural backbone, which makes it a lot easier to program. We saw that need, and we took that back to Scandinavia. We talked to the broadcasters there and said, This is something that the people who usually bring you a big chunk of the financing really need. We put together a show that combines what people love about the Nordics and their way of storytelling with a brighter approach and self-contained narrative structure, and that’s proven to be very successful.”

RAMPING UP

MORE THAN NOIR

Caroline Torrance, head of scripted at Banijay Rights, agrees, noting that across Scandinavia, free-TV channels and SVOD platforms alike have ramped up their drama efforts. She highlights the robust commissioning of the local Viaplay SVOD in particular: “When you see the amount of drama that they now produce across the region—and a lot of it by Banijay companies such as Yellow Bird, Jarowskij or Mastiff— it is really incredible. There’s definitely been an increase in scripted output. It does really well in Scandinavia and still sells really well around the world.”

Jan Bennemann, senior VP of acquisitions and coproductions for Dynamic Television, is optimistic that there’s plenty of demand in the international market for all these new Scandi series, too. “We’ve all been talking about the end of Scandi noir as a bubble to burst—but it hasn’t happened!” he says. “I think the reason Scandinavian content has been able to sustain that level of output and grow according to the general growth of the market is that they’ve never seen themselves as only Scandi noir. They have just told the stories they like and tried to push the envelope all the time. The diversity in content and the open-mindedness in how to tell stories has been with them all along. While all of us were talking about the burst of the bubble and the end of Nordic noir, they’ve been evolving.”

Françoise Guyonnet, executive managing director for TV series at STUDIOCANAL—which saw breakthroughs with the Scandinavian-French co-productions Midnight Sun and Ride Upon the Storm—echoes this sentiment. “It’s true that in the early days, all drama coming out of Scandinavia was labeled Nordic noir,” she says. “But Scandi drama shouldn’t be limited

Bennemann adds that in the last two years, he’s actually seen more successful series coming out of Scandinavia that are not straightforward crime dramas than ones that are. “I feel that they’re fed up with being marketed only as Scandi noir,” he says. “At the same time, they’ve managed to create a brand; Nordic noir is a brand that’s used now by other territories. You have producers in Spain doing Spanish Nordic noir. [Last] year saw the first Kiwi Nordic noir hitting the European market. They created a brand that stands for this exciting way of telling a crime story that does not hinge on a procedural element and really digs into the characters.”

Banijay Rights’ Torrance says that there’s still a big appetite in the global market for so-called Scandi noir, though. “For as many articles as I see about the end of Nordic noir, then we get some more and it does really well! Wisting has been a massive success on the BBC. Channel 4 in the U.K. just broadcast The Truth Will Out, and that really is Nordic noir.”

That said, she does agree that there’s much more that’s working well for Banijay Rights out of Scandinavia than just these dark crimes and mysteries, including the period drama The Restaurant, the comedy Couple Trouble and Hidden, a fantasy/sci-fi show.

Differing from the slow-burn style that characterizes Scandi noir, the pacing of the newer shows is speeding up, Endemol Shine’s Blomgren notes. “Lately, we’ve seen a number of series based on actual events,” including the killings at Utøya in Norway and the murder of Swedish journalist Kim Wall on a submarine. “So, we’re looking for stories based on true events,” he adds.

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Dynamic Television has notched up a slew of deals on The Sommerdahl Murders, a blue-sky crime procedural.

And, of course, Scandi producers continue to look to literature for tales ripe for TV adaptation, with Endemol Shine in development on some new book-based IP. The company won the bidding war for the rights to Fredrik Backman’s novel Beartown, with the series adaptation greenlit by HBO Europe.

BY THE BOOK

“Then you have other ones that travel because they’re just so well made. It’s all about the execution and the quality of the script. There’s so much talent around now. We will see surprising stories on subjects that are not necessarily the sexiest ones, but suddenly people watch them because the characters are just so lovely that you want to spend time with them and follow their stories.”

“In terms of the crime thrillers that sell around the world, Scandinavian producers are still really well respected for delivering high production values and really good plots,” says Banijay Rights’ Torrance. “They have carved out that niche very well for themselves. I don’t see any evidence of that decreasing.”

Dynamic’s Bennemann says that two words come to mind when assessing the next wave of hit Scandi series, and one of them is “humor.” He explains, “There is a very specific Scandinavian humor, which is actually quite close to British humor. It’s a little dark, a little quirky. This tone is hitting the series genre now as well. I think we’ll see more of that.

“The other word, which I think is even more important, is ‘relevance,’ ” he continues, “with shows that embrace topics that are controversially discussed in today’s society. My feeling is that the Nordics have set out to really look for those stories in that region and bring them to the market, and they want to push the envelope there and make them relevant, to find an entertaining way to have us all think about what’s going right and what’s going wrong.”

Swedish author Jens Lapidus’s trilogy Top Dog has been adapted as a series, with ZDF Enterprises serving as distributor.

Franke describes it as a “fresh new take on classic Scandi crime,” as the story is told through the lens of two unusual The interviews for this report were conducted prior to investigators: a former petty criminal and a case lawyer. He the COVID-19 global pandemic. Media companies are believes the series has what it takes to cut through today’s currently shifting their strategies in the wake of procrowded drama landscape—one where Scandi series have duction postponements. managed to maintain their place in the spotlight.

“Nordic shows always are a tad more down-to-earth and driven by narrative realism,” says Franke.

“Hence shows from the Nordics are often trying to ground themselves in everyday life, making them very relatable for audiences. The pace is becoming faster nowadays, with more plot points and stronger cliffhangers to satisfy the need for exciting and fast-paced entertainment from audiences who predominantly watch on streaming sites.”

STUDIOCANAL’s Guyonnet, meanwhile, believes that the quality of the concepts at the center of these Scandinavian stories has long set them apart. “A high concept really keeps an audience engaged and the content fresh and exciting,” she says.

“This, combined with strong and compelling characters and the confidence to play out bold ideas really adds to the appeal of Scandi shows.”

Endemol Shine’s Blomgren agrees with Guyonnet that Scandi stories with strong concepts, “a fantastic setup and a unique and amazing story,” are what will continue to sell best. The Lawyer is a Viaplay and TV3 commission distributed worldwide by STUDIOCANAL. 24 WORLD SCREEN 4/20

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ZDF Enterprises’ Great Inventions.

How’d They

Do That?

Alison Skilton checks in on the latest evolutions in the diverse pop-science genre, where everything from engineering shows to motoring series are in demand. he simple flush of a toilet belies the almost unimaginable complexities of cities’ sewer systems. The beep of a microwave oven signals the end of a journey that required incredible innovations in food science. The click of a TV remote ignites a chain reaction so you can flip on your favorite shows.

Inside the devices and systems we use every day is a world of tiny marvels. The inventiveness, imagination and innovation of the modern world continue to fuel the demand for pop-science series that let viewers take a magnifying glass to the things around them.

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Offering insight into the ingenious innovations that have rocked our world, ZDF Enterprises’ Great Inventions examines everything from common everyday items (think batteries and denim jeans) to those that have had a profound impact on the world (like satellites and X-rays). The series, which spotlights the greatest inventions of mankind, was initiated, self-commissioned and fully financed by ZDF Enterprises.

“If you just take a look around at all the objects that surround you in your daily life—the subway, the jeans you wear, the watch on your arm, the screen in front of you, the telephone you use—there are so many stories behind these inventions that need to be told,” says Ralf Rückauer, VP of ZDFE.unscripted.

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How Did They Build That? is a key highlight from TCB Media Rights.

“The ‘how it’s made,’ category is really the driver of the market in this space,” says Simona Argenti, the head of sales at TCB Media Rights, which has popular offerings such as Wicked Inventions and How Hacks Work, featuring a panel of comedians and scientists who explain various “life hacks.”

Series that offer viewers inside access to various processes or locations also consistently pique viewers’ interests. “Shows like How Did They Build That? are still selling well for us,” Argenti says. Additionally, series like The Production Line, which looks at iconic and famous brands, always grab audiences’ attention, she contends.

“Being able to say something new about the familiar is a big component as to why audiences love coming back to popular science,” says Nick Tanner, Passion Distribution’s director of sales and co-productions. “Audiences like that they already know something about the subject. So if you’re then able to tell them something they don’t know, that keeps things fresh and returnable.”

Audiences are also gripped by the narrative being woven on top of the visuals that make them feel privy to private worlds. “The high production value is attractive, but viewers stay for the storytelling,” says Hud Woodle, executive VP of international sales and operations at GRB Studios. “It always goes back to the storytelling.”

ENGINEERING DEMAND The engineering and technology genres are seeing an upswing in nearly every market around the world.

Orange Smarty, for one, has seen a great performance from Inside Jaguar: A Supercar is Reborn, an engineering documentary that follows a team of automotive artisans as they hand build the Jaguar XKSS from scratch. In the same vein is GRB’s Tech Toys 360, one of the company’s most popular pop-science programs. The series gives viewers “the story behind the coolest gear, from personal flying machines to supercars, and interviews with inventors 28 WORLD SCREEN 4/20

and exclusive tours of the factories that produce these gadgets,” Woodle says.

TCB’s Abandoned Engineering, meanwhile, showcases what went wrong in the construction of monumental projects. Behind closed doors, many of these structures, once set to be marvels of modern engineering, fell prey to bureaucracy or financial complications that resulted in them being proverbially left for dead. Massive Engineering Mistakes, too, explores the failures in huge building projects, from Baltimore’s crumbling sewer system to bridges with structural issues. Argenti says that both series have consistently done well for TCB, and the engineering category is “prominent in the market at the moment.”

Meanwhile, GRB’s Man at Arms: Art of War explores engineering from a different angle. “This fun show highlights weapons from famous movies or TV shows, like Conan the Barbarian or Game of Thrones, and then talented artists re-create the weapons,” says Woodle.

“Engineering, technology and space always remain popular, particularly for the male-skewing channels and slots,” says Amy Kemp, Orange Smarty’s head of sales.

However, Kemp notes that the greatest demand in the pop-science genre is for eco-themed fare. “The biggest thirst at the moment is for environmental programs that address climate change and sustainability,” she says.

“The importance of these issues is echoed around the world, and therefore it’s a topic that is high up on the wish list for many broadcasters.”

PUMP UP THE VOLUME Pop-science shows can help broadcasters with schedule gaps to fill. Great Inventions, for example, is catered to channels “that need to fill in or create a new slot,” ZDFE.unscripted’s Rückauer explains. “With 35 episodes as a start, you may establish a weekly slot for one year. So DTT channels and specialist factual broadcasters will love this series. Aside from

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GRB Studios’ pop-science catalog includes Arabia Motors.

that—and at the same time—it is the perfect match for bingewatchers on streaming platforms.”

All episodes have been produced in English, so the aim is for an international audience, Rückauer says. “All stories and content are very global,” he adds. “People wear jeans all over the planet so an episode like this should resonate with everybody around the globe. As a second step, one could think about a more local approach. We are looking forward to getting some local input from our clients as I could imagine it would be very interesting to have different versions with different experts created by producers in different countries and languages. This could make the strand more diverse and broaden views on ‘great inventions.’”

PLEASED TO PRESENT Producers always keep in mind their potential market when chewing over the perennial question of how to present a pop-science topic to audiences. Sometimes, series need to be anchored with a host and given a little bit of a human touch.

But for distributors, it can be a tough sell if a series has a person fronting it because it narrows the potential market. Hosts mean personality, but locality as well. So how do you strike the right balance between the two? “There’s really no formula to it, it just depends on meeting the audience demands,” says GRB’s Woodle. “As many options as we can have with versioning a show, the better a show can perform.”

Orange Smarty’s Kemp agrees that it all depends—on the buyer, on the presenter and on the territory. If the presenter is well-known internationally, they can lend some credibility to the series and some broadcasters’ ears might perk up just hearing their name. “However, for some channels, a presenter is less appealing, as they prefer non-hosted versions in order to localize,” she says.

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“U.K. audiences like a U.K. base and broadcasters like to be able to sell a show on familiar faces, and it’s the same [in the U.S.],” says Passion’s Tanner. “But ultimately, the utility value of a pop-science or factual series is higher if it’s presenter-less.

It’s an important factor when we’re looking at the potential for any given show because hosts are so subjective.”

“For pop science, I find it quite good when there’s a talent, and they draw out the stories and try experiments,” says TCB’s Argenti. “But generally speaking, we prefer presenter-less.”

SMART TV “There continues to be a high demand for this genre, particularly for popular science that is accessible to a broad audience and can also cut across demographics,” says Kemp. “The demand is seen across the landscape—linear channels have regular science slots to fill and there is also a thirst from VOD platforms.”

Hitting the sweet spot that both allows audiences to learn and stay entertained is quite the feat, a chemical reaction triggered by just the right amount of science mixed with a scoop of human interest. “It can be a tough genre to get right as the programs need to be accessible to a wider audience, credible and have high production values,” Kemp continues.

“By watching Great Inventions, we learn a little bit more than we used to know before,” adds ZDFE.unscripted’s Rückauer. “Where does the name ‘blue denim’ or ‘jeans’ come from? Your next party talk is safe; you don’t need to talk about the weather anymore.”

The interviews for this report were conducted prior to the COVID-19 global pandemic. Media companies are currently shifting their strategies in the wake of production postponements and economic trends.

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Toon2Tango’s Rebel Nature.

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GREEN

SCREEN Climate change is at the forefront of global policy and politics, and the issue has made its way into kids’ TV shows. By Alison Skilton

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t’s quite a tall order to teach young kids about the scary realities of global warming and the environmental changes that they’ll be seeing and hearing about—and may have even already noticed—as they grow up. Though nature and caring for the environment have been addressed in popular kids’ programming in the past (think of Bert and Ernie singing about conserving water, Ms. Frizzle taking us to the rainforest on her magic school bus and Captain Planet and his Planeteers racing to save the world), there has never been a higher demand for eco-themed kids’ series, and it’s with good reason.

Talk of the causes and consequences of climate change has reached fever pitch. Plus, a new generation of parents— millennials, who hold eco-friendly values nearer and dearer than any previous crop of consumers—are looking to explain these issues to their children in ways that little ones can understand.

“The kids’ industry has a heritage of stepping into this space, and this is certainly one of the areas that kids’ tele vision has always mined for entertainment,” says Kimberly Dennison, Gaumont’s VP of creative development for animation and family in the U.S. office. “But I do think that right now, broadcasters and platforms want to speak to kids in this space more than ever.”

“In particular, public broadcasters are hungry for shows that tackle environmental issues, but the demand also applies to the streaming services that are anxious to make shows with important messages for kids,” says Liliana Reyes, the senior VP of content at Portfolio Entertainment.

“The passion that today’s youth have for the environment stems from the real danger facing them and future generations if we don’t act in defense of our planet,” Reyes continues. “This has become a very real issue and kids today are certainly engaged with this topic more so than ever before.”

“We all see what’s happening around the planet, we see the kids standing up, and we think we have to do something from the entertainment side to help and send out a message,” says Ulli Stoef, the CEO of Toon2Tango.

Bob Higgins, executive VP of kids and family content at Boat Rocker Studios, echoes Stoef’s statement, saying that he has never seen even the slightest pushback from broadcasters when it comes to environmental fare. “I think broadcasters across the board understand that it is something that kids have demonstrated an affinity for and always will.”

As far as Higgins is concerned, “there’s never a ‘too soon’ with kids and the environment. There’s no point in not 4/20 WORLD SCREEN 33

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Hero Elementary from Portfolio rolls out on PBS Kids this year.

teaching them from the very earliest ages their global civic responsibility of taking care of the world in which we all live together. The same as you teach them to clean their room, we’re teaching them to clean and care for the bigger room.”

Most of the shows that end up teaching kids about the environment, especially those aimed at the preschool set, aren’t set up to be solely environmental shows. “We try not to take them to school again,” says Stoef. “The issues are [set] in a bigger, fun, eccentric story, and it’s more about self-exploration.”

GREEN LIGHT

Higgins notes that Boat Rocker’s series that explore environmental themes are, on the surface, not about the environment at all. “For example, Kingdom Force, which on its face may look to have the most opportunities to teach kids about environmental issues, is really a show about diversity,” he says. The series, which debuted on CBC Kids in Canada, is about five animals from five very different ecosystems— among them a polar bear from the Great White North, a gorilla who lives in the jungle and a savannahdwelling cheetah—who come together to protect the universe. “It’s a way that we can talk about the political, if you will, with topics of global warming, but put it out there in a way that is being told on a level that kids understand,” says Higgins.

Boat Rocker also has Dino Ranch—which has been picked up by Disney Junior for a 2021 U.S. premiere—a series that centers on a crew of junior ranchers who work in a “pre-westoric” setting where dinosaurs still roam. Kids see a happy group of friends playing with dinosaurs, and underneath that surface are the messages of conservation. “Yes, we’re dealing with [environmental issues], but we’re doing it in a fantasy way with dinosaurs, so that we can give kids the fun fantasy adventure while leaving in the current topical lessons,” Higgins says.

The WildBrain-distributed dirtgirlworld, meanwhile, from Australia’s mememe productions, is about a greenthumbed girl who grows vegetables in her backyard full of friends. It’s a “narrative-driven kind of story world that’s about friendship and love, fun and nature, and has this sort of embedded sustainable living theme, without it hitting anyone over the head with a hammer,” says Cate McQuillen, the series’ creative producer.

However, some producers and distributors, like Canada’s Portfolio Entertainment, have been able to find an audience for shows that do address environmentalism more directly. Hero Elementary, for example, is a co-pro with Twin Cities PBS that follows a group of kids in a school for

Indeed, it has become necessary for many producers to pad a series’ ecological messages with storylines and characters that almost make young viewers forget that they’re absorbing positive environmental messaging while watching TV. Some programmers fear that pigeonholing a show into being a “green” series will isolate viewers, and they certainly don’t want to fill their slates with shows that have managed to politicize the once-benign sphere of kids’ TV. “Whenever you introduce that show to the broadcasters, they say, We already have a ‘green’ story, that’s enough,” Stoef says.

Toon2Tango’s new series Rebel Nature, for example, follows a young girl who is raised on an oil rig by a robot that her parents built 50 years ago—before the entire planet was underwater. She believes that she is the only human on Earth and has no idea that the world was indeed once full of her kind. When she meets some “leftover” humans, she begins a wild adventure of self-discovery, seeing firsthand the changes taking place in the natural world. “It’s been produced for the purpose of bringing across to kids the message of what can happen to our planet—what is happening currently and what the consequences are to the environment,” Stoef says.

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Messages of conservation are featured in Boat Rocker’s Dino Ranch.

budding superheroes. Though the show also teaches young kids the power of STEM skills, “We explore topics such as how littering destroys the natural habitats of wildlife, how the conservation of resources like paper serves to protect our forests and how wildlife and nature are so interconnected that one cannot exist without the other,” says Reyes.

Italy’s Mondo TV Group is also co-producing a series that focuses on the environment in a fairly straightforward way.

Called MeteoHeroes, the series is jointly produced with MOPI (Meteo Operations Italia), a weather forecasting and meteorological research group. MeteoHeroes has also gained the patronage of three prestigious Italian public institutions: the ministries of the environment and education, and Legambiente, a leading Italian environmental association. “Through our programs, we want to entertain youngsters everywhere, but also to transfer knowledge and to help them enjoy a better life in a more peaceful, friendly and safe planet—in an ecologically aware environment,” says Luana Perrero, Mondo TV’s head of content sales.

NATURAL ADVENTURE

To accompany MeteoHeroes, Mondo TV also has on its slate less direct “edutainment” shows about the environment, with two series billed as “eco-adventures.” The shows “engage kids with great storytelling and delightful stars that kids will identify with or would like to have as best friends,” says Perrero.

YooHoo to the Rescue follows the titular fluffy character and his gang of friends as they travel from the magical forest of YooTopia to Earth to confront threats to nature and wildlife, meeting endangered animal species from around the world along the way. The second season of Robot Trains, meanwhile, sees the group of characters known as Rail Watch transform

from trains to robots to protect their home—which is made up of Water Land, Sunny Land, Wind Land and Mountain Land— and its vital energy supplies. “Our series don’t present issues as daunting; we believe for every problem there is a solution, and teamwork leads to a successful mission,” Perrero says.

EARLY START “We find the best approach is to help kids fall in love with the environment, as opposed to scaring them with doomsday scenarios,” says Portfolio’s Reyes. Shows like The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That!, which teaches kids about topics like animal migration and how flowers feed entire ecosystems, and Doki, which takes viewers around the world to learn about its natural wonders, do just that.

Fostering a love for the environment early is also the goal of dirtgirlworld’s creators. “We wanted to make this world that had an absolute beauty about it to remind people that the world is beautiful,” says McQuillen. “You protect what you love, and the notion to make this project was to engender that love of nature.”

Kids’ comprehension skills tend to limit the ways in which environmental issues can be presented, as the early stages of brain development don’t allow them to comprehend and retain complex information about scientific studies, weather patterns or the more traditional ways you might present analytics to an adult. “Obviously, you can’t go into very high-concept things,” comments Gaumont’s Dennison. “It’s about providing some really concrete, simple, kid-friendly adventures that kids can then relate to the world that they live in back home.”

Dennison points to Touch the Earth, a show based on the series of preschool picture books co-written by Julian Lennon

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choices and that really creates a pathway to hope,” says Gaumont’s Dennison. “I think that’s the biggest thing for these shows: kids, especially in the preschool set, need to see that there’s hope and they need to see a pathway to action.”

TAKING ACTION

WildBrain distributes the Australian series dirtgirlworld.

Portfolio’s Reyes agrees: “In Hero Elementary, we tackle issues like forest conservation in a way that’s approachable to kids by focusing on what they can do to help, such as not wasting paper. It’s important to distill these large and complex issues into actionable small steps for our young viewers, so they feel empowered to make a difference.”

She continues: “It’s important to empower kids with steps they can take by themselves to recycle, conserve and reuse. Our aim is to educate and inspire future generations of activists and informed citizens who will move the needle on policy issues surrounding climate change.”

“Our kids don’t want to be the generation who [are always told] what’s wrong and how to live with it,” says Toon2Tango’s Stoef. Instead, TV shows should encourage young viewers to be the change they wish to see, making them feel powerful and inspired to do something to help.

Mondo TV’s Perrero echoes this sentiment, saying all of the company’s eco-themed shows make kids “feel part of something worthwhile.”

“We all live on this big blue marble, and it’s our responsibility to make sure it remains big and blue,” adds Boat Rocker’s Higgins. “I mean what’s the worst that can happen: we live in a cleaner community?”

and Bart Davis that have been released on Earth Day for the past three years. The books deal with “concrete issues that are environmental and also social in nature,” says Dennison, themes that are carried into the series. “The types of stories that we’re looking to tell range from animal stewardship to sharing the Earth with other creatures to finding ways to recycle and upcycle and be conscious of the way that we use the planet’s resources,” she continues. “And the other storylines are about lending a hand to people that you meet on your adventures and your journeys, so it really is about being a global citizen.”

The music and design of these shows are just as important as their characters and storylines. “Music, especially in a preschool space, is well-received and it’s both something kids remember and is also entertaining at the same time,” says Dennison.

McQuillen and her mememe productions partner, Hewey Eustace, who wrote, arranged and produced dirtgirlworld’s award-winning soundtrack, were musicians before they The interviews for this report were conducted prior to made their way into the kids’ TV industry. Songs from the the COVID-19 global pandemic. Media companies are show include “Every Little Drop,” about the importance of currently shifting their strategies in the wake of proconserving water, and “Go Get Grubby,” which encourages duction postponements and economic trends. kids to go outside and get dirty.

In the absence of music, keeping kids’ attention can come down to a show’s design, especially for the youngest sets.

Mondo TV’s series “are distinctive in look and approach; the story and design stand out in their own right in each show,” says Perrero. “That’s important to us. While the messages may sometimes overlap, each show needs to be unique.”

Not only do kids’ shows seek to educate young viewers about the natural world, but they also implore them to take action themselves, gently bestowing upon them the message that they are indeed the next stewards of this planet. “For us, [a show’s takeaway] is twofold: it’s the concrete, simple messaging combined with allowing kids to see that they can enact change by their Gaumont’s Touch the Earth is based on the picture books by Julian Lennon and Bart Davis.

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Global Agency’s Blind Taste.

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Local Flavors Kristin Brzoznowski checks in on what’s new in the popular genre of cooking formats.

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hether tuning in to watch amateur cooks pour their heart into a home recipe, witness the meltdown of an ego-driven celebrity chef in a highpressure kitchen environment or be entertained by the antics of a judging panel in a blind taste test, viewers seem to have an insatiable appetite for food shows. Though the ingredients of what comprises a hit cooking format today may differ from the components of the plat du jour of the past, what remains unchanged is their success in the marketplace.

“We have always had good luck with cooking shows,” says Izzet Pinto, the founder and CEO of Global Agency.

“Even today, these sell the best. This is true whether it’s a paper format or whether it has already been produced.”

He believes that of all the format genres, cooking series have the greatest chances of making it to air from paper pitches. “Let’s say that in a given country, there are five main channels; at least three of them will want a cooking format,” Pinto posits. “Whereas with a talent format, out of five channels, maybe one needs a talent show. Because the demand is so high, it’s an easier sell.”

Indeed, food shows remain a staple for many broadcasters around the globe, but what viewers have a taste for nowadays is changing, Pinto says. “In the past, people used to watch cooking shows with a popular host or chef to learn more about recipes, ingredients and cooking styles. Now, there are a lot of competition-based cooking shows—but with more drama.”

From Global Agency’s catalog, the drama-filled Rivals-inLaw and Momsters have been strong performers, with

heightened emotional elements stemming from the family dynamics in the competitions helping to set them apart.

Chris Knight, the president and CEO of Gusto Worldwide Media, sees a shift on the horizon in terms of what’s popular in the food space. “Formats right now in the food genre typically tend to be contests or competition shows,” he says. “There are still the big shiny-floor, high-budget perennial shows that we all know, like [ones where] somebody is in the kitchen yelling at the top of their lungs. Those shows are highly entertaining, but they’re going to run their course pretty soon; a lot of these shows are in their 10th or 11th season—sooner or later, they run out of steam.”

FRESH DISHES Even the smaller competition shows, like those centered on food subsets such as cupcakes or backyard barbeques, “are pretty much done now,” he adds. “It’s become repetitive, so everyone is looking for the next new thing.”

For Knight and Gusto, that special “thing” rests in the story telling at the heart of the show. “Contests sort of absolve you of having to tell a story,” he says. “You have some people at the beginning who are competing, somebody gets told they’re not good enough and then somebody wins; it’s a format that’s as applicable to furniture upholstery as it is to food. It’s something that we can all easily understand; we can turn on the television, turn off our brains and watch hijinks for a little while. It’s been tremendously successful for a very long time. Now, we have to get back to storytelling and making emotional connections— and food has a very powerful way of doing that.”

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Discovery Program Sales’ portfolio of cooking shows includes Food Network’s Bake You Rich.

Elliot Wagner, senior VP of international program sales at Discovery, agrees that fresh flavors are needed to spice things up nowadays. “The best formats have distinct elements that go beyond ‘dump and stir’ tutorials or traditional ‘who cooks it better’ competitions,” he says. “Many of our formats have unique twists on how ingredients are sourced and competitive advantages (or disadvantages) that add a general-entertainment angle, while staying true to good cooking technique and instruction.”

UNIQUE FLAVORS Japan’s TV Asahi has a wide range of cooking shows, “from funny ones to very serious competitions,” says Shuji Maeda, sales executive for format sales and development. “At the moment, we think viewers tend to prefer programs that give practical advice or tips for daily cooking. These shows are good to sell as finished programs, but for format sales, more entertainment elements are required. That is why we created the cooking-show paper format The Gacha Gacha Show,” which was submitted for the ATF Formats Pitch last December.

The competition sees three participants—celebrities or professional chefs—cook a meal and compete for a cash prize, but all the ingredients materialize from the gigantic “Gacha Gacha” (a capsule toy machine).

“As we have seen with so many cooking shows, and some of the global megahits, we felt that we needed to have an icon that stood out and distinguished the format,” Maeda says. “In our format, it is Gacha Gacha, and viewers will be able to recognize the format at first glance.”

Maeda believes the series has the potential to play in any time slot. “We felt that for daily slots, the show should be more practical, providing useful information to viewers. But to work in a prime-time entertainment slot, it must be bigger 42 WORLD SCREEN 4/20

and well-structured, both as an episode and as a season. The Gacha Gacha format has the potential to drive in both directions: it can be a very practical show offering many cooking tips or it can become a big-scale, shiny-floor entertainment show with a gigantic Gacha Gacha.”

Global Agency, meanwhile, sees particular demand at the moment for cooking in daytime and access prime time. For example, its format My Wife Rules works well in an accessprime slot, according to Pinto, as it is stripped across the week. “When you schedule a show as a strip, it’s really difficult to find a place in prime time,” he says.

“Most broadcasters want a strippable, prime show but are constrained by the economic reality of original production,” notes Discovery’s Wagner. “It really depends on the show and specific broadcaster, but generally, the investment will demand that these shows target their core demo in prime time and work throughout the schedule. In subsequent renewal, as volume grows, these shows can find new audiences in daytime and fringe.”

GET SUPERSIZED And cooking formats do, indeed, have the ability to deliver a value proposition in their volume. “The stripped formats in Europe, notably CIS and CEE, can run over 200 episodes a year,” Pinto says, which helps to amortize the cost of production. “Once a cooking show has proven that it works, the broadcaster doesn’t need to replace it for a long time.”

The high volume and viewer loyalty also help to attract sponsors, he adds, which is one of the ways that cooking series can help to generate value for a broadcaster.

Pinto says that, by and large, cooking shows are one of the most cost-effective format genres. “For daytime and daily stripped programs, the set and decor cost the most,” he adds.

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Gusto Worldwide Media is entering the formats space with DNA Dinners.

Wagner agrees that sponsorships, as well as product integration (as allowed by certain broadcasting regulations), are a great way to drive down the cost of a format production.

“In the food genre, it would make sense to pursue sponsorship from cookware, food product, household supply and other applicable advertising categories,” he says.

WATCHING THE BUDGET In Wagner’s view, travel and talent are the two biggest variables that influence the cost of producing a food format.

“A-list talent will help drive tune-in but can quickly cause a budget to swell,” he explains. “As does shooting on-location versus a studio-based production. We often work with producers to determine how certain cost-prohibitive elements can be mitigated while still staying true to the original format.”

Gusto’s Knight asserts that “if the core idea to the format is a good one and can stand on its own merit, then you can scale all of the bells and whistles up and down depending on what sort of budget the acquiring broadcaster or platform has.”

While there certainly can be value in having an A-list name attached to a show, Gusto has found success with hosts who are hip, young and culturally diverse—reflecting the audiences watching its shows. “You don’t have to be a world-famous chef,” says Knight. “In fact, I would make the argument that the skills necessary to be an excellent chef are not the skills necessary to make an emotional connection on a television show.”

Gusto puts all its food-show hosts through a three-day boot camp, where they work on everything from posture to language to eye contact with the camera. “It all starts with something inside that person, something innate, something that allows that person to make a connection. That’s what we are all on the lookout for. Having a good idea for a show is one thing, but it’s marrying the right talent with that idea that is what makes a show popular.”

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be a star-making vehicle for a charismatic young talent, he says. “I have seen in many countries with our formats that the production house hires a relatively well-known person to present, and then they become super famous.”

TOP CHEFS? This was the case with TV Asahi’s Gourmet Academy, as a professional chef who was one of the judges gained stardom thanks to his critical comments. “With his very handsome good looks, he attracted many female fans,” says Maeda.

“Nowadays, we can easily find good restaurants with internet reviews and smartphone apps like TripAdvisor, but it is very difficult to find a decent chef who can speak well on TV. So, it’s important to have chefs with not just culinary skills but with charisma and good communication skills.”

Authenticity is key, says Discovery’s Wagner. “Charisma is not enough if the talent does not have bona fide cooking skills.

That is something that can’t be faked.” He adds that emerging digital platforms are “a great incubator of new cooking talent, many of which are ready to make the leap into long-form and can bring a substantial following of fans.”

While compelling on-air talent is one part of the equation, a new food show trying to break through in today’s marketplace still has challenges to face. “There certainly is not room for it all,” says Wagner. “To rise above the clutter, a show needs to have unique elements that weave together the best ‘hooks’ of the genre, and it needs to resonate with local audiences. Having an innovative show is critical, but sometimes it is not enough. Producers and broadcasters are often looking for support with production deliverables, consultation and budget guidance. A great show with the right partners can have a long shelf life.”

The interviews for this report were conducted prior to the COVID-19 global pandemic. Media companies are currently shifting their strategies in the wake of production postponements and economic trends.

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ONE-ON-ONE

hen Thomas Rabe became CEO of the RTL Group in April 2019, he was taking over leadership of a company he already knew well. He had been CFO from 2000 to 2006 and a member of its executive committee. In 2012, he became chairman and CEO of Bertelsmann, which holds a 76.28 percent stake in the RTL Group. Today, Rabe heads both Bertelsmann and the RTL Group.

Rabe readily acknowledges the rapidly evolving nature of the media business and says the RTL Group must continue to transform to keep apace with change. The group consists of three main divisions: broadcast, content and digital. Broadcast encompasses interests in 30 radio stations and 68 television channels across Europe, including the flagship RTL Television in Germany, M6 in France and RTL 4 in the Netherlands.

Fremantle is the content engine of the group, producing more than 12,000 hours of original programming and distributing 20,000-plus hours worldwide. The digital division comprises investments in advertising technology and short-form video companies.

The RTL Group has made Total Video—offering content across all screens and devices—its primary strategy and that has been paying off. The group reported an increase in revenues in 2019 to €6.7 billion ($7.4 billion),

delivering a profit for the year that was up 10.1 percent to €864 million ($960 million).

Going forward, expanding the group’s streaming services TV Now in Germany and Videoland in the Netherlands, whose subscriber counts have already exceeded management’s expectations, is a top priority for Rabe. So is strengthening the group’s core businesses— the German family of channels increased audience in the 14-to-59 target demographic in 2019, and Groupe M6 in France outperformed the market in advertising sales and audience shares. Third, Rabe wants the group to continue to form partnerships, in particular in advertising technology, streaming technology and international advertising sales.

Rabe talks to World Screen about the group’s businesses and the collaboration between RTL Group and Bertelsmann. The two have formed an Ad Alliance in Germany, which aims to offer clients a one-stop sales house across TV, digital and print, with a similar scheme being set up in the Netherlands, and a Content Alliance in Germany to provide opportunities for creatives across all media genres.

Rabe also makes a case for regulation he feels is necessary for Europe to ensure a more level playing field between traditional broadcast businesses and the U.S. digital behemoths.

THOMAS RABE RTL GROUP

By Anna Carugati

WS: What is the RTL Group’s strategy for its streaming services?

RABE: We are in the midst of a major transformation of the media industry. To successfully transform our business, two factors are particularly important: higher reach, in both linear and nonlinear, which requires significant investments in content, marketing and a state-of-the-art tech platform for our streaming services; and better monetization of our reach, through targeting and personalization, which requires investments in advertising technology and data.

RTL Group’s strategy builds upon three pillars: firstly, strengthening our core businesses. Secondly, boosting the growth of our streaming services and global content business, Fremantle. And thirdly, fostering alliances and partnerships in the European media industry. Within this framework, we put a particular focus on becoming national streaming champions in the European countries where RTL Group has leading families of channels. We will continuously expand our streaming services by offering more local, exclusive content across all genres directly to the consumers.

Our aim is to maximize consumers’ attraction to our broad variety of video content, across all devices—this is what we mean by Total Video. Our national streaming champions are designed to complement our leading families of channels, making our content available wherever and whenever the consumer wants, while attracting new and younger audiences to our content.

WS: Which of the RTL Group’s streaming services are performing best and attracting the most subscribers?

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Wildside, a Fremantle group company, produced The New Pope, starring Jude Law and John Malkovich, for Sky, HBO in the U.S. and Canal+ in France.

RABE: At the end of 2019, RTL Group registered 1.44 million paying subscribers for its streaming services TV Now in Germany and Videoland in the Netherlands—37 percent more than last year. The viewing times of TV Now in Germany and Videoland in the Netherlands increased by 31 percent and 45 percent, respectively. So, our streaming services are growing rapidly and exceeding our expectations, and we will significantly raise our ambitions. Over the next five years, RTL Group aims to grow the number of paying subscribers for TV Now and Videoland to 5 to 7 million.

WS: What is Groupe M6’s participation in Salto?

Are there plans to join the ProSiebenSat.1Discovery service, Joyn?

RABE: European broadcasters need to cooperate more than ever to compete with the global giants. Establishing partnerships is part of RTL’s DNA—this is how we became the first panEuropean broadcasting group. Last year, we made a start at offering different forms of partnership to European broadcasters, all based on the philosophy of bundling resources to establish open and neutral platforms. We offer such partnership opportunities in three areas: advertising technology, streaming technology and international advertising sales.

Our advertising technology platform is based on Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland’s Smartclip.

It provides a full stack of advertising technology, and many forms of cooperation, from software licensing to partial ownership. The tech platform for our streaming services is currently built by M6 and its tech arm, Bedrock. They will serve the French subscription service Salto, a partnership of TF1, M6 and France Télévisions, due to be launched in 2020. As with Smartclip, Bedrock is open to other partners.

One key development for RTL Group’s largest revenue stream, advertising, has been the growing demand from advertisers and agencies for global ad buying opportunities. As a consequence, we are further expanding our international sales house, RTL AdConnect. Its portfolio encompasses leading partners such as ITV in the U.K. and RAI in Italy.

As these examples show, we are always open to partnerships wherever they make sense. However, concerning streaming in Germany, we decided to focus on and boost our platform TV Now, which has great traction. Time to market is of the essence, and we do not want to get distracted by negotiating complex joint-venture agreements and going through a lengthy regulatory approval process with uncertain outcomes.

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WS: How are the linear channels in the RTL Group remaining relevant to viewers?

RABE: In 2019, our German family of channels increased its audience share in its main target group—viewers aged 14 to 59. This was largely thanks to our main channel, RTL Television, which increased its audience share for the first time since 2011. Live sports, such as the Europa League, drama series and entertainment formats continue to attract large audiences. This is why we recently acquired the full and exclusive rights to broadcast the UEFA Europa League and the newly established UEFA Conference League, starting with the season 2021/2022, for a period of three years. This deal not only strengthens two of our linear channels, RTL Television and Nitro, but is also key for our streaming service TV Now. In our second-largest market, France, Groupe M6 outperformed the market in advertising sales and audience shares. This was also driven by the acquisition of the leading children’s channel, Gulli, in 2019. As in Germany, live sport attracts mass audiences. This is why Groupe M6 also acquired free-to-air broadcasting rights for the UEFA Europa League and the newly established UEFA Conference League, again for a period of three years.

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WS: What has been driving Fremantle’s positive financial results?

RABE: Fremantle was very successful across all genres and across its global footprint—in drama with the second seasons of American Gods and Charité, in entertainment with American Idol on ABC and America’s Got Talent: The Champions on NBC and with the game show Ask Me Anything on RTL 4 in the Netherlands.

Fremantle’s strong growth in 2019 shows that the expansion of Fremantle we started five years ago is successful in entertaining and international drama production. With a series of acquisitions, including Miso Film in Scandinavia, Wildside in Italy, Kwaï in France, Easy Tiger in Australia and Abot Hameiri in Israel, Fremantle created a global network that now comprises 19 production sites for drama series.

Fremantle also bought minority stakes in a number of newly founded production companies to secure first access to their creative talent and output.

Working with world-class storytellers is key to Fremantle’s scripted strategy, because great stories always sell, all over the world.

In 2019, Fremantle made its first investments in the Latin and Hispanic scripted market, with a 25 percent equity stake in the Los Angelesbased company The Immigrant. In addition, Fremantle signed an exclusive first-look deal with the Oscar-winning production company Fabula to develop a slate of original English and Spanish dramas. Fremantle will then distribute the projects worldwide.

As a result of this strategy, our global content business now generates 23 percent of its total revenue with drama productions for the international market.

In digital, Fremantle has built a new client base with global streaming platforms such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+ and with YouTube and Facebook.

Fremantle’s digital revenue was up strongly in 2019 by 20 percent.

WS: How is the RTL Group working with advertisers?

RABE: Last summer, we announced a strategic review of our ad-tech businesses. In Europe, the aim is to create an open ad-tech platform, based on the technology developed by Smartclip and tailored to the needs of European broadcasters and streaming services. We have been on a roadshow to present this concept to other European broadcasters and received a great deal of interest.

At the same time, we are reviewing strategic partnerships for the SpotX global business, which serves some of the world’s largest media owners, device manufacturers, platform operators and publishers. Our goal is to find a

strong U.S. partner to further develop SpotX and cater to the U.S. market.

WS: Is RTL Group collaborating with other companies within Bertelsmann on content creation and advertising opportunities?

RABE: With new alliances and partnerships across Bertelsmann’s and RTL Group’s value chains, we are opening up significant growth opportunities—from ad sales to content creation and technology.

Three years ago, we launched the Ad Alliance in Germany. The alliance was born out of the concept of ‘What does the market want?’ And what the market wants is a one-stop sales house with high-quality content and high reach across all media—TV, digital and print. This did not exist in the German market before and is a unique proposition. In 2019, the sales house Media Impact became a partner of the Ad Alliance for the digital inventory of Axel Springer and Funke Mediengruppe. Together, all platforms of the Ad Alliance reach 99 percent of the German population. The power of our Ad Alliance was one driver of RTL Deutschland’s strong sales performance in 2019.

RTL Nederland followed the German example and is currently building an integrated advertising sales network for the Dutch market, also called Ad Alliance. The Dutch Ad Alliance will sell advertising for RTL Nederland, BrandDeli, Adfactor and Triade Media, and will also be open for new partners.

A year ago, we formed the Bertelsmann Content Alliance in Germany. Bertelsmann is a creative powerhouse, investing close to

€6 billion ($6.7 billion) in creative content per year, of which €2 billion ($2.1 billion) is invested in Germany. The Bertelsmann Content Alliance in Germany pools our group’s content expertise to fully exploit the potential of our most important market. With content offerings across all media genres and new marketing opportunities, Bertelsmann has become an even stronger partner for all creative professionals in Germany.

On the level of RTL Group, we launched our Format Creation (FC) Group to meet the global demand for exclusive content by developing both new format ideas and IP, fully owned and controlled by RTL Group. FC Group is a collaboration between RTL Deutschland, Groupe M6 and RTL Nederland. It focuses on developing factual-entertainment formats and reality shows and works closely with RTL broadcasters to reflect their needs in their local markets.

The most important element is to be in control of the format rights.

WS: What regulation is necessary to ensure a level playing field between linear broadcast businesses and the FAANGs in Europe?

RABE: U.S. tech groups have risen to positions of unprecedented power and dominance with their globally scalable business models, almost unlimited access to data and new technologies, and the money to either acquire challengers or clone their offerings. Our response is not to complain but to transform and build on our own strengths. What we need is fair competition and a regulatory framework that reflects today’s market realities.

RTL’s German operations acquired the rights for the UEFA Europa League and UEFA Conference League.

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RTL Group is tackling news verification, for example, with an initiative that started within RTL Deutschland and has become a group-wide collaboration: the user-generated content verification team brings together information specialists who, upon request, check user-generated content submitted by newsrooms from across RTL Group. More than 70 trained journalists use various tools and methods to check this material for authenticity before broadcast.

In addition, ENEX is an association of the world’s leading commercial broadcasters who share their news content and American Idol on ABC is among the 50-plus adaptations of the veteran format brand from Fremantle. production resources. Last year it launched ENEX Discovery, a social media discussed at the EU level. It could drastically I see four areas of particular concern. news-gathering operation. Its aim is to source reduce the use of personalized advertising on First, regulation on TV advertising in and verify user-generated news content and many media sites.

Europe. This is essential as advertising conto secure publication rights for its partners.

What we need is a moratorium: EU policytinues to be our main source of revenue for This allows for the exchange of information, makers should wait for another two years to funding content investments. The recently best-practice techniques and increased effianalyze the effects of GDPR before deciding on revised Audiovisual Media Services Directive ciency in alerting colleagues to fakes, deep further steps, if any. will allow linear TV channels in Europe to fakes and mislabelled content.

And fourth, competition law. For traditional go beyond 12 minutes of advertising per media, antitrust rules primarily relate to hour as long as they do not exceed 20 percent WS: Tell us about the RTL Group’s social national markets, and often to even more narduring core hours. Clearly, a step in the right responsibility initiatives. rowly defined sub-markets or sectors. This direction, provided member states fully RABE: The focus of our CR [corporate responincreasingly stands in the way of meaningful implement the directive—but it is still much sibility] commitment is to embrace indepenand necessary cooperation and consolidation in more restrictive when compared to adverdence and diversity in our people, our content the sector—and does not reflect today’s market tising on the global tech platforms. and our businesses. Millions of people watch realities and the new dimension of competition Second, copyright protection is essential to our news each day. They need to be able to with the tech groups. protect our content investments. We believe trust us. A healthy, diverse and high-quality that a simple principle of market economies media landscape is the foundation of a demoWS: Is the RTL Group looking to make acquisishould apply: if the tech groups use our content cratic and connected society. In this light, our CR tions? Does it need to get bigger to compete in to improve their reach and revenue, they commitment means we can maintain journalistoday’s media world? should pay for it. We welcome that under the tic balance and reflect the diverse opinions of RABE: Our primary focus is on organic growth at recently adopted European Copyright Directive, the societies we serve. And this diversity must RTL. However, wherever interesting opportuthe tech groups have to take more active meaalso include the composition of our workforce nities arise, we will continue to drive consolidasures against copyright infringements. But again, and management. Our long-term ambition is for tion in our existing broadcasting footprint, a lot depends on how forcefully member states women and men to be represented equally including through acquisitions or increased will implement the directive. across all management positions. As an intermeshareholdings. A current example is the acquiThird, data protection. Digital business diate step, we have set a target for 2021 to models increasingly depend on data, for examsition of the French children’s channel Gulli and increase the share of women in top and senior ple, to personalize advertising and content and five pay-TV channels by Groupe M6. To summanagement positions to at least one third. to improve the user experience. There are two marize: we are consolidators within our TV We are mindful that conserving resources challenges: excessive data regulation and footprint and will continue to grow our global access to data. Platforms distribute our concontent business, Fremantle. and protecting the climate are key issues for the tent to drive reach, but they limit our access 21st century. Thus, we have decided to become to the data generated with our content. This WS: How are newscasts on the group’s channels a carbon-neutral company by 2030. should be addressed. and stations being received by viewers?

With its General Data Protection Regulation RABE: Delivering credible, easy to understand This interview was conducted prior to the (GDPR), the European Union has taken a signifiand—above all—independent news has always COVID-19 global pandemic. Media companies cant step for better data protection, but its longbeen one of our core competencies and it clearly are currently shifting their strategies in the term economic consequences are still unclear. pays off with strong ratings, high audience wake of production postponements and ecoThe next step—ePrivacy Regulation—is already loyalty and trusted brands. nomic trends.

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Ma

Netflix’s La Casa de Papel (Money Heist).

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Making It Mansha Daswani hears from leading producers about how they are navigating this era of peak TV.

A

t the end of February, just before Kew Media Group’s lenders called in their debts, producer Jamie Brown announced that he was buying back his Frantic Films venture from the company, personally financing the deal. The Canadian outfit had been one of six key acquisitions that served as the foundation of Kew Media Group in 2017. Once Kew’s financial troubles were revealed at the end of 2019, many producers in the group quickly moved to land on their feet before the company collapsed. Two Rivers Media secured a deal to buy out Kew Media’s stake; Kew had been one of the early backers of the Scottish indie. Jeff Collins exited the company he founded—Collins Avenue Entertainment, which was subsequently sold to Asylum Entertainment Group’s The Content Group—and set up a new outfit with Sky Studios. Robert Cohen bought back Media Headquarters and Datsit acquired BGM and Sienna Films. Kew’s other companies, including TCB Media Rights, continue to operate while new owners are sought. (Meanwhile, Kew Media Distribution has ceased all operations.)

The fall of Kew Media Group is a cautionary tale for producers looking to become part of bigger groups in the pursuit of scale (and fewer sleepless nights worrying about cash flow and keeping the lights on). But it is also one of the few calamities from the rapid-fire M&A landscape over the last few years. The federations— cross-border companies consisting of a mix of production companies alongside a strong distribution arm—continue to get bigger (with the Banijay and Endemol Shine Group combination set to be the biggest once that transaction closes). IP is a valuable commodity these days, and for the most part, there has never been a better time to be a producer.

Take the U.K., where the independent sector is worth about £3 billion a year, according to John McVay, chief executive of Pact, which represents the interest of producers. That’s up from about £600 million two decades ago.

MADE IN BRITAIN “The U.K. is still one of the most competitive markets in the world, despite more investments coming from cabsats and streamers and so on,” McVay reports. “Domestic broadcasting is still the primary market for our producers.

Every slot counts, every minute counts. We’re in a battle for quality, a battle for innovation and a battle for eyeballs, whether that’s free-toair commercial or pay or the BBC. In that sense, it’s never been tougher. But at the same time, that’s made us very competitive.”

Key to the health of the sector, McVay explains, is the model that has allowed U.K. producers to retain the IP rights to their commissions. “We can make shows domestically and own and control the copyright, under license with those broadcasters, or we can go and work for global streaming platforms, where we can get our repo margin.”

While being a producer can certainly be lucrative today, navigating a fast-changing landscape on your own is not easy.

“The thing about being a one-person start-up at the moment is, unless you’ve found a way to tacitly sell something and then start a new firm with that project, even with great talent, it is going to take two or three years to get on your feet,” says Chris Aird, the head of drama at Harry and Jack Williams’ Two Brothers Pictures, which is part of All3Media. “Everyone I talk to right now who is attempting to do that is finding it tougher than they thought they might.”

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of The Natural Studios, a new non-scripted company that rolled out as a joint venture with Banijay Group last fall.

“Bear and I had a good amount of success in the outdoor adventure area,” says Shoopman, co-CEO of The Natural Studios. “All the OTT platforms and networks were buying IP. We went out [to find] a group that could support our productions and had global scale and strong distribution capabilities. Banijay won.

We’re happy to be part of that family.”

Indeed, Shoopman and Grylls quickly went to work reaching out to sister companies within the group, starting with Mumbaibased Banijay Asia, which is led by Deepak Dhar. A special episode of Into the Wild with Bear Grylls recently premiered on Discovery India, featuring the titular adventurer as he explored the Bandipur Tiger Reserve with local superstar Rajinikanth. “What we’re doing in India and some other territories is using Bear’s global footprint and the need for territory-specific programming to penetrate markets,” says Shoopman. “There’s a huge appetite in India for outdoor adventure and specifically Bear, and Deepak has been amazingly supportive.”

Shoopman and Grylls then soon heard from other companies in the Banijay group.

“We’ve been working with RDF and IWC in the U.K., the team out of Australia, and we’ve been working closely with Bunim/Murray and Banijay North America.”

LONG FORM Incendo had spent almost two decades operating as a Canadian independent, producing and financing a steady supply of TV movies. In the last few years, Incendo has moved into the series space with international co-pros like Versailles. Next up is Ice with Further South Productions and Lionsgate. As its series

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Tony Jordan’s indie, Red Planet Pictures, partnered with BBC Studios on the rollout of Death in Paradise. ambitions grew, Incendo knew that an alliance with a bigger group would make sense for its business going forward.

“The risk of these high-end international productions is, as you can imagine, very high for an independent company,” says COO Jean-Philippe Normandeau.

Last year, Incendo was bought out by French-language broadcaster TVA Group. “The marriage between the two companies has been great for us up to now,” says Normandeau.

“They are letting us keep our independence, but we’re trying to see how we can work together, now that our administrative, HR and financing [operations are] all integrated. We want to see how we can either develop projects together or take some of the projects they buy from the French side and see what we can do with them internationally. Pretty much everything is on the table.”

BOOM TIME Alejandro Rincon’s Boomdog had also been going it alone for many years before merging with Endemol Shine North America. Rincon, CEO of Endemol Shine Boomdog, says that in the two years since the merger, “We have grown in a lot of aspects. We doubled the revenues each year. We had a fantastic year last year. We

expect this year to be even better. We are not a separate company; we work as one company.

That gives us a big advantage in our markets.”

Endemol Shine Boomdog is riding the wave of increased interest in Spanish-language scripted with projects such as Súbete a Mi Moto, licensed to Amazon, and Nicky Jam: El Ganador, which was a hit for Netflix in LatAm and Telemundo in the U.S. This is a space that the recently formed The Immigrant is also targeting. The company was set up by Camila Jiménez-Villa, previously of Story House Productions at Univision, and Silvana Aguirre, showrunner of El Chapo, just over a year ago as “a Latinx premium content development and production studio,” says Jiménez-Villa, CEO at The Immigrant. “We do content in English and Spanish. Having said that, about 80 percent of our slate is in Spanish because our areas of focus are Mexico, Colombia and Spain. We are an American company based out of Los Angeles, and there is a huge opportunity here in the U.S. to talk to the multicultural audience.”

Jiménez-Villa says that she and Aguirre were able to scale the company up quickly, “so we could choose if we needed a partner or not.” The company elected to align with Fremantle, which picked up a minority stake 56 WORLD SCREEN 4/20

in The Immigrant, marking its first investment in the Latinx market.

“Fremantle was extremely strategic for us,” Jiménez-Villa says. “It was a long-term decision to associate and partner with an established company that has a track record of distributing television worldwide and supporting creators.

The way they think about story, about filmmakers and writers, is very similar to the way we do. They are very creator-centric. They’ve proved that with fantastic production companies all around the world. And strategically, it’s great to be lean, to be fast and to focus on quality, as we do, but at the same time, it’s fantastic to be able to have the support of a distribution team like Jens Richter’s at Fremantle.

That gives you opportunities and options when you’re setting up shows, so you have a little bit more creative control and more control of the IP you’re developing.”

It also gives the team at The Immigrant a pool of creatives to potentially partner with— for example, a new project is in the works with Fremantle-owned Wildside.

BRON Ventures is also a partner in The Immigrant, Jiménez-Villa adds. “It’s been a pleasure to work at a start-up, driven by folks who are incredibly passionate about content, with the backing of companies like Fremantle and BRON. It’s given us the luxury of thinking and operating as a small company, but with the weight and opportunities linked to a large one.”

INDEPENDENT SPIRIT There is, however, also a path for companies to remain as pure-play independents today.

“I don’t think going it alone is a bad thing,” says McVay at Pact, which provides an array of resources to producers, including pavilions at markets like NATPE and MIPCOM; events such as Content Without Borders, which brings factual commissioners from Europe together with British producers; and the recently launched Pact Growth Accelerator, which McVay describes as “a wiki for producers. So if you’re a start-up business, [there is information on] how you raise money and how you manage a business better. We have webinars from 180 buyers around the world.

We have information about tax credits, regulations, co-productions.”

McVay adds that within Pact membership, mid-ranking companies—those with revenues of above £10 million—have grown “pretty substantially and most of those aren’t part of groups. Nearly all the growth has come from them securing work from platforms or channels in America.”

Tony Jordan’s Red Planet Pictures has opted to remain unaffiliated with a larger company.

“It allows us to be light on our feet, to do what we want,” says Alex Jones, joint managing

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Harry and Jack Williams’ Two Brothers Pictures has earned a reputation for supporting new talent, including Daisy Haggard, star and writer of Back to Life. director at the company alongside Belinda Campbell. “That involves taking risks as well.

We’re fortunate in the fact that we have such a successful show in Death in Paradise. That does give us the security to fund and finance our own development. That has enabled us to keep our independence for as long as we have.

We’re not scrabbling around trying to find money to spend on development. We have a budget set aside for development, but if we want to spend more or try different things, then we have the freedom to do that. It allows us to partner with anyone we want to. We have the flexibility to structure things in the best way for that production.”

Red Planet Pictures does not have an exclusive distribution partner but has worked extensively with BBC Studios, including on Death in Paradise and Sanditon. “If we need to partner with a producer or broadcaster that requires us to use a certain distributor, or take certain territories off the table, then we’re able to do that,” Jones says. “That’s one of the upsides of being completely independent. It also keeps everyone in top form when they’re trying to get your business!”

WHERE’S THE MONEY? Securing a distribution partner early is, of course, a prerequisite in the scripted business today—to deficit-finance, do presales or broker co-production deals.

“We have direct relationships with a lot of the U.S. platforms and broadcasters, as well as others around the world, but we have this key relationship with all3media [international] that works so well for us,” says Aird at Two Brothers.

“They are so supportive of everything we do.

They will come in and presell to international broadcasters or deficit-finance. Every project is different, and the wheels turn at different speeds. What’s so wonderful about having All3Media behind us is, they will always provide that support, which allows us to get on with actually making the show.”

At Two Brothers, the model generally starts with landing a U.K. first-window broadcaster and combining that with a U.S. platform or broadcaster, “together with maybe a local financier abroad and then looking at all the taxbreak options, incentives, to shoot in various places around the world,” Aird says. “We’ve seen rapid inflation in the cost of making highend television drama. You need that financing package in place, all of it, to make it happen.

The inflation in costs has caught up with inflation in budgets. Some time ago, before it was such a global marketplace, £1 million per hour would have been masses of money to make a show. Now £1.4 million, £1.5 million often doesn’t feel like quite enough.”

Jones at Red Planet says that BBC Studios’ early involvement in Sanditon was critical to securing the financing package on that show.

“At a very early stage, you can broadly identify what level of budget you’re looking at, depending on whether it’s period, casting aspirations, the setting, level of visual effects, etc. For something like Sanditon, we knew from the outset that ITV wasn’t going to be able to fully fund that budget. We worked with BBC Studios and identified PBS Masterpiece as a potential co-production partner. We took it out to market with BBC Studios and 58 WORLD SCREEN 4/20

ultimately partnered with Masterpiece, and along with the ITV license fee and the distribution advance, we made the show.”

The entire financing process, Jones adds, is not getting any easier as costs rise. “The cost of production is creeping up as the demand for crew, facilities, studio space, etc., increase.

Even if you’re making something primarily for a domestic market, the production values still have to hold up against all the other international dramas out there. I’m particularly proud of what we achieved on Sanditon. We made that for a good budget, but it wasn’t up in the £3 million to £4 million per episode level. At Red Planet Pictures, we work hard to ensure that the money goes on the screen, by planning and being smart.”

IN DEVELOPMENT Thriving as a producer today also requires having a strategic approach to development, so that you’re not overextending yourself but also giving yourself as many options as possible to land a commission.

“We pick and choose our projects very specifically,” says Shoopman at The Natural Studios. “If it’s a Bear-fronted show, we’ve done a really good job at making sure he’s not overexposed. Running Wild is our marquee show, it’s on Nat Geo. When we did the deal with Netflix, we wanted to make sure it wasn’t just, Here’s Bear again, surviving!

When we pitched to Netflix, we had read an article that they were getting into interactive programming. Bear wants to empower youth; let’s face it, a lot of kids aren’t getting outdoors anymore, so how do we bring the outdoors

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in? We now have an interactive show. We break it down as, Where can we go and what can we do that is unique to that platform? We teamed up with Amazon Prime Video to do World’s Toughest Race: Eco-Challenge Fiji. That’s an endurance race for adventurers and explorers.

We’re not going to do that with Discovery or Nat Geo. We keep walls up of where we can do something and what we can do. What can we provide to X network that is natural to us, unique to that platform, isn’t overexposing us, and that we can put our whole heart into? The last thing we want to do is be over-exposed or look like we’re just out there as a money grab because we’re leveraging such a great brand.”

QUALITY VS. QUANTITY Jiménez-Villa at The Immigrant stresses that it’s not about volume: “It’s about quality and devoting time to each project and each creator.

Having said that, even if you want to have a low volume produced every year, you need to have more things in development at any point in time. We split the work not only geographically, but by passion.”

The development team at Red Planet is structured around a few key areas, including “factually inspired ideas—that’s more about using factual IP, real-life crimes or real-life events to inspire drama,” Jones explains. “We have a literary acquisitions exec who is out there scouting for books for us, getting in there with publishers and trying to spot those hits before they become hits. And then we have different parts of the team focused on new and upcoming writers. And then just looking at good ideas, chatting to writers, working with more established writing talent, and trying to make sure we have each area covered.”

Incendo has stepped up its series development business after being a co-producer on Versailles.

A show’s potential home is always considered early on, Jones adds. “It’s often quite clear whether a project is more aligned to an SVOD audience or whether it could sit on one of the U.K. terrestrials. There are some shows that you know you could take to multiple broadcasters or platforms. Some ideas you know may only have one potential home. That’s just part of our decision-making process. Things are changing so much, almost weekly. You have to have a constant dialogue with commissioners and keep an eye on what they want.”

Two Brothers’ Aird agrees, adding, “It’s our job to match up great ideas and writers with a broadcaster. I hate the scattergun approach to development. One has to be really targeted. It’s about people bringing material that is going to fit on whatever platform or channel you’re working for. That first relationship is key.”

Banijay’s The Natural Studios made an episode of Into the Wild with Bear Grylls for Discovery India.

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As for crafting a development slate, Aird stresses the crucial role played by the Williams brothers. “We punch above our weight in terms of the number of staff versus the number of commissions we make!

Most of that has to do with having these two great showrunners in the middle of the company. I think we have a great cross-section of tastes. At one end, there’s our passion for exciting, character-led thrillers, of the kind Jack and Harry write, so Liar, The Missing, The Widow, Baptiste, and shows like Cheat

by Gaby Hull fit that mold. And at the other end is this encouragement of younger, often female writers—[talents like] Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Daisy Haggard, as well as other writers like Kelly Jones and Catherine Moulton—who are creating ideas that are very current and feel fresh and zeitgeisty.”

Of course, it’s not just about finding new talent; it’s about how you foster and develop it.

“There’s something about Jack and Harry’s presence in the heart of the company that maybe allows commissioners to take risks on newer voices because they know Jack and Harry are there to help guide them,” observes Aird.

Indeed, the race to align with name talents like the Williams brothers is driving the rapid-fire consolidation in the content sector. For those companies investing in production houses, the key to success going forward will lie in finding ways to retain that talent for the long term. Because if you don’t, they’ll start something new—likely with someone else.

The interviews for this report and the Q&As that follow were conducted prior to the COVID-19 global pandemic. Media companies are currently shifting their strategies in the wake of production postponements and economic trends.

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Michele Buck Company Pictures

By Mansha Daswani range of experiences, and they are all also tonally different; they all have slightly different tastes. I’m hoping that our interests are varied and our catchment area is quite big. Our development slate at the moment is very eclectic and diverse and for all platforms. In the old days, you had something that could either be BBC or ITV or Channel 4. Now with so many different places to go and drama becoming a little bit more bespoke, if you have a really good idea that is slightly left of center, if it’s good and the writer is good and you can get it there, you should be able to find a home for it. That’s the really exciting bit of the industry.

s the CEO of All3Media-owned Company Pictures, Michele Buck has a unique perspective on the challenges of operating a British independent today.

Buck co-founded Mammoth Screen and served as joint managing director until 2015, when ITV Studios took full control of the company. Soon thereafter, Buck was approached by All3Media CEO Jane Turton to lead Company, the outfit behind Inspector George Gently, Agatha Raisin, The Missing and the new Van der Valk.

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WS: How have you set up your drama development team in order to best meet the needs of the market?

BUCK: In the last six months, I’ve taken on a whole new development team: Richard Fell from Carnival; he’s a very experienced executive producer, and Lucy Raffety from the BBC, who is also a very experienced producer, executive producer, story producer. She is my director of development, and Richard is head of drama.

Underneath them, we have lots of clever, cutting-edge people. We have a development meeting once a week for about two hours where we all talk about everything: things we’ve seen, things we want, we might talk about a book that some of us have read. We’re open for business to everyone. We’re actively looking for young writers. One of the really good things now is you don’t need one of the 12 top writers in England to get a green light.

The SVODs are actively looking for young writers, young female writers, young female black writers. The door is open.

That’s exciting. And underneath Lucy, Richard and I, we have five young development executives who all have a different

WS: When you do find that young talent, how do you work with them to hone their skills?

BUCK: We offer a very secure home where I’d like to think we’re nurturing them, and I’d like to think we hammock them with safety.

They can do what they want and then we hone it and shape it in a very positive way. I’ll be honest; it took me a very long time to get this new team together. One of the reasons [for that] is, I like a certain type of person, a positive person, a nice, supportive, confident person. I don’t want to employ someone who is just going to run roughshod over other people’s ideas and put their own ego first.

I’m hoping that what we offer now is nurturing

distributors because distributors own the production companies, or Netflix now wants to own all of the IP. So basically, if your job is to sell content, then where do you get your content? Louise [Pedersen, CEO of all3media international] works in lots of different ways. If you’re a greengrocer and you need to sell apples, but there aren’t any, you plant an orchard and grow your own. Van der Valk is homegrown talent. Louise and all3media international have a template of what they know the industry wants, what sells, what gets good ratings, what works in lots of different territories. I definitely have a reputation for making detective shows. So it was a no-brainer [for all3media international to commission Van der Valk]. Interestingly, it was a brand that I had looked at earlier on in my career to try to get ahold of, but it wasn’t available. So when Chris [Murray, screenwriter] came in the door and said, I want to do this, I said, Yes, let’s look at it again. It’s a brand that people understand.

Maybe it’s an older audience, but the younger audience is also going to want to go to Amsterdam and the genre works. So it worked on lots of different levels. Because Louise knows her territories well and what works in what territories, we went out to those territories that it should work in. ARD in Germany came in, and then others came in. PBS is in. It will go on ITV. Once someone is in, it gives others confidence, and then when people start to see it, and they know they are classy films, there’s more confidence. We’re all very proud of it and pleased with the model. It’s homegrown content that All3Media owns.

“With so many different places to go, if you have a really good idea that is slightly left of center, if it’s good and the writer is good, you should be able to find a home for it.” support. We’re confident of what we do and I hope that makes a difference.

WS: Tell us about how you work with all3media international on projects. The financing model for Van der Valk was an interesting one.

BUCK: There is a lot of competition for content. The content is either already owned by 62 WORLD SCREEN 4/20

WS: How do you determine what episode length is best suited to an idea?

BUCK: There are some things that you devise that you know are going to be long-running or returning series. If you look at a book, there are two [factors to consider]. One is the tone. Where does that tone sit in what marketplace? Some marketplaces have their own cut-off; they might

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Van der Valk

not want four-parters; they might only want eight-parters. You might look at a book and go, wow, this just wouldn’t stretch to eight.

It’s a combination of the material you want to do, where it sits and what the requirements [are of the potential commissioners]. It just shapes down organically in the end.

WS: What benefits does Company Pictures derive from having the backing of All3Media?

BUCK: One, they are owned by Americans, so you have that scale. Two, Jane [Turton] has a really interesting business model. She has seen the advantages of buying production companies, so she’s buying content. I would guess she has one of the best startup rates—she’s always setting up creatives.

Therefore, she has an eclectic bunch of people working for her. If you’re in the group, you feel the power of the intelligence of a large group, but all the companies work in a very autonomous way. I used to own Mammoth and I sold it [to ITV Studios]. Jane offered me the headspace of running an indie, but actually without losing sleep at night! Having started an indie and sold an indie, I didn’t want to do that again. It’s very stressful! I was lucky enough to be offered the job of taking on a company with a brand and a heritage and a

library and a reputation, but it’s autonomous. So it runs like I would have run Mammoth, but without the stresses. I have the support of a big company, the intelligence of a big company, and, most importantly, a really good distributor. all3media [international] is a very impressive outfit. Just look at the Van der Valk model—the way Louise has found her own content, made her own content. The bravery that must take, because the exposure is scary. I have a distributor that I can have a really good conversation with: what works, what do you want, what do you not want, this is what I have. I feel like she has an eclectic taste and the company does, too. So what does it give me? It gives me the support and confidence to do what we think we should be doing. And that’s a very rare thing. For creative people, that does make a difference. That is what All3Media offers. You don’t do your best work in a climate of paranoia.

WS: How competitive is the quest to secure book IP? BUCK: Oh my goodness me! Really, really, really competitive. We’re constantly reading books. It’s quite interesting reading manuscripts—not everyone knows about them! It’s a very competitive space and you 4/20 WORLD SCREEN 63

have to have a shit-hot lawyer on it doing good deals for you. And you have to be quick off the mark. But yes, it is hard. We’re doing some interesting co-production development work with a Canadian production company around really good books [Steve Burrows’ Birder Murder Mysteries with Shaftesbury]. We’d been looking for something to do together for ages.

The jigsaw way of working now, I actually find stimulating. In the old days, you went to ITV or BBC, and they paid for it all. Now it’s much more like feature films. It’s much more, what’s the funding model I need?

Each model is different. The co-production we’re trying to do with the Canadians will be a different one than the one we’ve done for Van der Valk. That in itself is a challenge that I personally find really interesting. It’s like three-dimensional chess!

WS: Is there anything else you can tell us about what’s new at Company?

BUCK: It’s an exciting year for us. I have a whole new team and they are quite an intimidating bunch. They talk a lot. They’re an exciting bunch of people to be around.

Watch this space. We’re constantly looking for ways to make programs, content, in an unconventional way.

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Simon Cornwell The Ink Factory

By Mansha Daswani worked quite a lot in distribution in one form or another previously, and I couldn’t see a lot more mileage in that.

I said to myself, if you want to prosper in the second, third, fourth decade of the 21st century, when there are so many ways for people to be able to access shows, you need to focus on making and owning really good stuff.

That’s the vision we started with.

WS: Tell me about your development process, be it mining the material of John le Carré or other projects you’d like to get off the ground.

CORNWELL: It’s a combination of us saying, wouldn’t it be really interesting to find something that talks about this or tells this kind of story, and the he Ink Factory made a big splash with its first- inbound: the calls from agents or the ever television project, The Night Manager. writers. And in the best possible Adapted from the John le Carré novel, the series world, those two things combine. We was a hit for both the BBC and AMC, sold widely across say, We’re keen to do an edgy, conthe world and notched up an array of Emmys, Golden temporary thriller set in London, and Globes and BAFTAs. Next up came The Little Drummer then a great writer comes along and Girl, and now the company, founded and led by Simon says, I’m interested in an edgy, conCornwell and his brother Stephen, is working on The Spy temporary thriller based in London.

And you say, right, we’re off to the Who Came in From the Cold. races! In contrast to other people, we WS: How has The Ink Factory evolved in the maybe have a narrower slate—and this is last decade since you launched it with your partly because we work with a lot of highend literary material, obviously le Carré but brother Stephen?

CORNWELL: Even ten years ago, when we were also beyond that. We ultimately get made a starting the business, everything was in a state higher proportion of the projects that we take of flux. My brother and I both had, from slightly on than most other people. That is not different perspectives and backgrounds, a because we’re brilliant; we’re no more brilsense that, with the advent of the ability to liant than anybody else, we’re probably less stream video over the internet, the world was brilliant! But we do work with material going to change dramatically. I grew up in a world where there were four or five very powerful companies that basically controlled what programming was made and what we as an audience were going to watch. From an audience perspective, the internet has brought massive democratization to film and TV, and finally, we’re able to choose what we want to watch. That said to us, even a decade ago, that brands or IP with strong recognition, actors with strong recognition and really strong storytelling were the kinds of things that new play- where, if you don’t get it right the first time, ers in town were going to want to start building you don’t blame the material. You say, OK, their audiences. And the old players in town we know what we have underneath this is were going to want to stop people from taking very strong, let’s think about how we can their audiences away. There has been a radical look at this in a fresh way. What are the chalshift in power from the owners of distribution lenges we’ve discovered and how do we systems to the owners of the underlying films, address them? You keep at it until you make movies, TV shows, books, whatever it is. I’d it happen. Where you have underlying material

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that has that real depth to it—whether that’s in terms of the pure story of it or the human drama of it—if you don’t get there on the first attempt, you dig in and try again.

WS: Working in both film and television, how do you decide which medium to tell a story in?

CORNWELL: We began life as a feature film company. For us, it’s very important that we do both. We have people in the company who know more about TV and people who have more of a film background, but we don’t divide the company down the middle and say, we have a TV division and a film division. If somebody falls in love with a book or a piece of material or they are working with a writer who has a great idea, they should feel empowered to have that discussion about the best way of approaching it. We have one project in particular where we bought it thinking we would do a feature film, and it wasn’t until much later that we decided to turn it into a series—not just a limited series, but actually a blueprint for a returning series. We go on unexpected journeys. Because we do both, at the time we acquire a piece of underlying material, we don’t have to have a fixed view.

Having said that, I think there is a lot of opportunity in film at the moment. Film is very difficult to finance in traditional ways at the levels that it used to be able to be put together, but the audience appetite remains very strong. The contrarian in me says that if we can get film right—and getting film right means working with a combination of streamers and traditional territory-by-territory distributors—there’s a big opportunity.

“There has been a radical shift in power from the owners of distribution systems to the owners of the underlying films, movies, TV shows, books, whatever it is.”

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We are doing a lot more of everything. It is a peak media world generally. So we’re building up our TV slate, but at the same time we are seeking out properties that we think would make very good feature films.

And by the way, a lot of companies—the distributors, even the [streamers]—have separate film and TV teams, and to some

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The Little Drummer Girl

extent separate models for these two things. In some ways, that’s a pity, because we’re also looking at movies which would then spin-off TV series in success. In the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s, that would be called doing a back-door pilot, but what we’re talking about here is more than that. We’re talking a movie that, whether it goes to theaters or with a lot of fanfare to a streamer, unashamedly feels like a movie—it has movie stars in it, it’s produced with a budget and attention to detail that you wouldn’t see, even in big TV. But that doesn’t mean to say there isn’t a great TV series hanging off the back of that. Maybe with some of the same actors, maybe different actors. I think that’s a very interesting area.

Although it’s one that the structure of the streamers and the big studios is not well set up to deal with. They tend to silo their film and TV operations.

WS: How do you approach bringing together the financing on your projects?

CORNWELL: We’re very lucky in that we work with a group of investors, a company called 127 Wall Productions, so they provide us with an equity financing facility.

What that means is, we can put a movie or a TV show together by preselling—in the broadcast world, bringing in commissioning

broadcasters, or in the film world, preselling a handful of key territories that underwrite a good chunk of the budget.

You then have a smaller chunk of the budget— 15 to 20 percent—underwritten by tax breaks of one kind or another. And then we’re able to write a check for the difference. And we invest that effectively against the unsold territories, against the upside.

That’s always been the way of financing movies outside of the studio system. It’s a model we’ve used very successfully for television as well. Of course, when you move into a streaming environment, you’re talking a single global sale typically, or maybe there’s an anchor broadcaster in one territory and the streamer handles the rest of the world. That’s a different financing challenge. Those companies cover the cost of production—even if they pay on delivery, you can borrow against that. But in that environment, what counts is being able to finance your development slate properly and not having to go to networks or distributors at a very early stage to raise development financing.

WS: What does the new alliance with Endeavor Content mean for The Ink Factory?

CORNWELL: Our independence is very important to us. I think not being tied to a 4/20 WORLD SCREEN 65

particular network or a particular content distribution method is really important.

There are all kinds of benefits to strategic partnerships, and if you’re lucky enough to find a strategic partner who creates options for you rather than closes them off, like we have with Endeavor Content, then that’s a deal worth doing. Historically we’ve shied away from partnerships with people who are feeding their own platform, where that becomes a constraint in the way we do business. Our collaboration with Endeavor Content means we retain independence and freedom as a studio—but have the support and network of a powerful international business to push further into areas like the U.S. market.

WS: What else is new at Ink Factory?

CORNWELL: We announced recently that Katherine Butler is joining us as creative director. The key thing here is we’re growing the creative team. We want to broaden and deepen our slate. Katherine is coming on board to lead that process with us. That’s incredibly exciting. Overall, the world is incredibly competitive, it always is, and most of the shows I most admire, most of the films I most admire, are made by other people! [Laughs] That tells you the world is very competitive.

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Sally Woodward Gentle Sid Gentle Films

By Mansha Daswani say, this writer wants to do it, it doesn’t necessarily get greenlit. The British broadcasters are swamped by pitches.

The hardest thing is convincing the broadcasters that you’re the genius you’re convinced you are!

n 2018, BBC Studios picked up a majority stake in Sally Woodward Gentle’s Sid Gentle Films after having worked with the outfit on The Durrells and SS-GB. The relationship has given the well-respected indie a support system as it navigates the high-risk drama business, one in which Woodward Gentle has carved out a distinctive voice with shows like Killing Eve and the upcoming adaptation of Taking Up Space: The Black Girl’s Manifesto for Change.

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WS: After leaving Carnival Films, what did you want to achieve with Sid Gentle Films?

WOODWARD GENTLE: It was really to be completely self-defining in terms of the projects that we do. Everyone says, I want to find a high-end, authored, original series. And that was sort of what we wanted to do, too. We’re a small company, but I think our taste is slightly leftfield of a lot of people. We like being challenged by something that feels new and hasn’t been done before. So we make our lives quite difficult! It’s become really boring [to say this], but we want to work with brilliant writers and then also brilliant filmmakers: so great directors, fantastic HoDs, amazing actors. And be led by our gut, really, rather than somebody else dictating what we need to do to make the business plan work.

WS: What are the greatest challenges in operating a U.K. indie today?

WOODWARD GENTLE: Everybody thinks it’s easy, so everyone is setting up an indie. It’s really hard! The competition for IP is high and the competition for talent is high. I don’t think there are many writers now who are a slam-dunk; if you go in with a piece of IP and

WS: Tell us about the relationship with BBC Studios.

WOODWARD GENTLE: We didn’t have a relationship with any distributor when we set up. Lee Morris [managing director] and I wanted to be completely independent to begin with so that we could be competitive in terms of who we partnered up with for shows. BBC Studios worked with us as the distributor on The Durrells, and they were incredibly supportive.

We’d come out of the BBC, and we knew a lot of them personally, and to have that shorthand and that trust was really important. At the same time, we’ve worked with Endeavor Content, who are brilliant. BBC Studios gives us all the support we want. If we want them to help us in terms of setting something up, they will; otherwise, they let us get on with it.

WS: Do you think it’s tough to go it alone in this landscape?

WOODWARD GENTLE: It’s hard to tell. I quite like being a little punky, a small unit that operates below the radar. But starting up is hard. The Durrells was hard. We had a crunch moment where our tripartite agreement wasn’t signed and we were about to go into production. You

random, ad-hoc type of way. A colleague had dinner with Luke Jennings, who had written the [Codename Villanelle e-book] novellas.

She said, he’s given these to me, do you want to take a look? We all love a female assassin, and this was a great female assassin. They were lovely little short stories, designed for people to essentially read on their commute. At the center of it was this relationship between Eve and Villanelle. He also established this separate universe that Eve goes to work in. We loved all of it, but then also realized there were other projects like La Femme Nikita and Hanna out there, and I didn’t want to do another sexy male-gaze female assassin. I’d read Phoebe WallerBridge’s one-woman play Fleabag before it was on at the SoHo Playhouse and met her and liked her because she was just this wild, enthusiastic, extraordinary ball of charisma. I thought it would be good fun to see what it was like putting a piece that was essentially genre through a different kaleidoscope.

That’s how I paired Phoebe up with the books. We got it developed by a different broadcaster than BBC America, and it got turned down by them. And then BBC America was over in the U.K. meeting people and popped in to see us. We gave Phoebe’s scripts to Melissa Wells [VP of international co-productions and development at BBC America]. At the time, they were looking for something that had more of a female skew.

They fast-tracked its development and we ended up making it for BBC America.

Because they are a hybrid between the U.K. and the U.S. models, they allowed us to operate in a way whereby we kept the IP and

“The British broadcasters are swamped by pitches. The hardest thing is convincing the broadcasters that you’re the genius you’re convinced you are!” might have loads of things booked, but cash flow can bring you down. That’s where having the backing of a big company helps. But we like being a little bit Wild West about it!

WS: How did Killing Eve come about?

WOODWARD GENTLE: That came together in the way things tend to, which is in a sort of 66 WORLD SCREEN 4/20

they licensed it, very much in the way the U.K. does. I have a longstanding relationship with Lorenzo De Maio [a partner at Endeavor Content], who was tracking the project before he was at Endeavor. They put up the deficit against [the rights for] the rest of the world. So it’s the U.K. model, except the primary broadcaster was in the U.S.

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Killing Eve WS: Can you tell me anything about the third season, which launches this month?

WOODWARD GENTLE: We know Eve is still alive, and we take all of our characters to a much deeper and darker emotional place than we have in the previous series. That includes Carolyn and Konstantin, who play quite major roles in it. Eve and Villanelle’s trajectory is quite different, and their exploration of who they are is something that we haven’t looked at in the way we do in season three.

WS: What’s the approach to finding new talent and then helping them hone their craft?

WOODWARD GENTLE: We work with a lot of female writers on the Killing Eve team. It has been a predominantly female writing team.

Moving onto season three, Henrietta Colvin, our head of development, read about 60 newish female writers and we met about 40. The hardest thing about the show is you can be an extraordinary writer, but it doesn’t necessarily mean you can get the tone. So it was about drilling down to see if they could get the tone.

All of our writers for season three really delivered because we had gone through that process. A lot of them were quite new writers, and we tried to give them as much support as we possibly could in terms of structure and timings. We will give everybody as much as they need, but all writers need different things. What emotional, practical or physical support do any of us need? It all varies. So it’s also about trying to work out what help works. We quite heavily note and support through the whole scripting process, which is, in turn, frustrating and helpful.

In terms of other talent, we’ve had some amazing directors, including Lisa Brühlmann, the fabulous Damon Thomas—who has done every season and is now an EP—Miranda Bowen and Shannon Murphy, who we booked off the back of her film Babyteeth. So it’s just casting your net wide and taking a chance and being supportive and having enough prep and enough post. The best shows need time, and we have amazing producers who are kind and supportive and experienced. Also, everybody knows it’s a safe space to play. It’s not, Can you do the same thing again? It’s, What do we do now? That is fun!

WS: What’s been more stressful: preparing season two on the heels of the breakout debut of season one, or making season three, where you have a bonafide hit to sustain?

WOODWARD GENTLE: They’re all stressful! It shouldn’t be–it’s only telly! It’s not like we’re saving lives or anything. I try not to read any press. That takes the, “How could I ever possibly live up to season one?” stress away from anything. I think most people, if you read any

press, don’t look at all the good stuff; you just look at the one snarky line that somebody wrote in a minor newspaper somewhere and it eats at your soul. I can’t do that, so I try not to read anything. And then I just try to be as true to what we think the project should be as possible.

But it’s all stressful. I hate shows going out; it’s like getting your exam results. [Laughs] WS: Did you have Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer in mind at the outset?

WOODWARD GENTLE: When you’re developing and writing, we sometimes like to think of actors in those roles. Sometimes the characters are actually called actors’ names while we’re developing. You never end up with those people. It was a real search to find Eve. When Sandra was suggested, we were all such huge fans and it made complete sense from every perspective in terms of her acting chops and her edginess. Everything felt right for it. The search for Villanelle was hard. Our casting director saw over 100 actors for that. Jodie read for it, and we adored her. And then she did a chemistry read 4/20 WORLD SCREEN 67

with Sandra. Other than that, all the other actors didn’t have chemistry reads. They just turned up. It’s all luck, isn’t it? We had no idea that Kim [Bodnia, who stars as Konstantin] was going to get along so well with Jodie and that their chemistry was going to be so good. And then Fiona Shaw [as Carolyn Martens] is just—she’s a god.

She’s mind-blowing all the time, but this season she has a really, really good season.

WS: How do you structure the production schedule so that you’re not overextending yourself?

WOODWARD GENTLE: You don’t, because inevitably you have three things greenlit and you think you’ve staggered them well and they will all start filming on the same day! It’s Sod’s law! [Laughs] You just have to pace yourself and realize if you’re burning out and take a day off. I have the most amazing team who work incredibly hard.

But also, it’s only television! We do get stressed. But you know it’s going to get better. And we can take on a lot—our capacity for work is enormous!

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Colin Callender Playground

By Mansha Daswani co-financing It’s a very buoyant, exciting time to do that.

directors, new writers, and nurturing them.

That’s a very important part of our business.

WS: When you founded the company, Netflix was doing just a handful of originals in the U.S. and wasn’t even thinking about international.

What has the streaming explosion meant for Playground, and indie producers in general?

CALLENDER: The streaming model is very seductive, but it is a time bomb that is at some point going to explode and blow up the British independent sector if the publicservice broadcasters and the commercial networks don’t remain healthy. The streamers are a very exciting new frontier, but the ince exiting HBO Films, Colin Callender has health of the British independent become a go-to independent producer for production market is dependent on high-end U.S.-U.K. co-productions. A pioneer a healthy BBC, a healthy Channel 4, in facilitating transatlantic projects, Callender’s long a healthy ITV. What’s interesting is list of credits at Playground, which he established in how those two universes are going 2012, includes Wolf Hall, Howards End, The Spanish to coexist. I think at the end of the Princess and King Lear, with All Creatures Great and day, the British broadcasters and Small, based on the James Herriot novels, commis- the streamers may want different things. Time will tell as the market sioned by Channel 5 and PBS Masterpiece. evolves whether their creative WS: What was the mission when you set up objectives are aligned or if, in fact, they are editorially in different spaces.

Playground?

CALLENDER: Years ago, I started a company called Primetime Television with a British WS: How do you find new projects? distributor named Richard Price, and we pio- CALLENDER: Everything changes and nothneered packaging co-productions. This was ing changes. As producers, we spend our before the advent of Channel 4. We would lives looking for great, exciting projects that acquire material, develop it, presell it interna- invigorate us. It’s more important than ever tionally to ZDF or TF1 or whoever, and then that a project should somehow break bring it back to the U.K. to either the BBC or ITV. They would make it, but we would use the coproduction money we had raised to leverage retaining the distribution rights. I have been actively involved in the co-production business really from the beginning of my career. In 2012, it was very clear that international coproductions were driving big-budget, highquality drama productions. And this was an area I knew very well. While I was at HBO, we did an enormous amount of co-productions, but they were projects we started and then through the clutter. The clutter is more clutwent out into the market to find co-production tered than it’s ever been. And the truth is that money. I felt that it was a great time to start with the rapid expansion of all the new platan independent production company that was forms, there hasn’t been a similar explosion of driven in large part by co-productions. That has top-end writing and directing talent. So been the strategy for the company: a mix of there’s much greater competition now for the indigenous drama for the U.K. and then higher- established writers and directors. Part of the budgeted event dramas that would attract fun, as a producer, is finding new talent, new

WS: With so much drama being produced by the streamers, will there be an inevitable decline in quality?

CALLENDER: That’s the challenge of a volume business rather than a boutique business.

That’s a perennial challenge. Back in the Camelot days of HBO, one of the things we prided ourselves on was the consistency across all genres that we were working on.

But one of the things that is exciting is the surprises come from unexpected places. So you get shows like The End of the F***ing World or Stranger Things that come out of left field and that maybe on paper looked interesting but didn’t look as if they’d actually break out. Part of the fun of having a breadth of a slate is the ability to take risks; some work, some don’t work. Success comes from unexpected places. That’s the great advantage that [the streamers] have: the ability to spend on a broad range of programming. They can take risks in a way that maybe others can’t.

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WS: The landscape has changed so much since you founded Primetime Television.

Have the core fundamentals of co-pro financing remained largely the same?

CALLENDER: You know, in many senses, it’s all the same. There are two challenges. One is, casting the finance is almost as important as casting the right actors. Getting the right financial partners and putting them together in a way that supports a project rather than pulls it apart is a key challenge for any coproduction. The other thing is making sure

“The streamers are an exciting new frontier, but the health of the British independent production market is dependent on a healthy BBC, a healthy Channel 4, a healthy ITV.”

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that everyone is on the same page editorially from the get-go, so everybody is making the same show. In terms of the productions we’re doing at Playground, we tend to try to finance them with the smallest number of co-producers possible, so we can protect the creative team from the stresses and strains that multiple coproducers can put on a project.

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Howards End

WS: How do you work with external distribution partners?

CALLENDER: There are a lot of very good distributors out there at the moment. The challenge is structuring the financing so that the minimum guarantee you get from a distributor doesn’t prevent you as a producer from actually participating in the backend. It’s a balance between getting a healthy distribution advance versus making sure that you can still see some backend once the show is marketed worldwide. But there’s no shortage of distributors right now. The real challenge that everyone is facing is the danger of the perception—and I don’t believe this is reality— that the streamers are causing everyone to have to spend more to make the shows bigger and better. It’s certainly the case that the increased volume of production, in England particularly, has increased the cost of production. Crew costs and so forth are going through the roof. So there is no question that streamers have impacted production costs in that way. But I don’t believe editorially you have to de facto have a high-budget production for it to compete in the marketplace.

Things like Game of Thrones and The Crown have had enormous budgets. But time and time again, shows break out without having enormous budgets. Fleabag or End of the F***ing World or Sex Education are not highbudget shows. And I think it’s a mistake to

think that, certainly as British producers, the only way we can succeed in the international marketplace is if we embark on very, very expensive shows.

WS: You’ve opted to remain a true independent when many companies have become a part of larger groups. Why has this been important for you?

CALLENDER: We want to produce shows that we believe in, and that will speak to the topend quality part of the market. And for the moment, we’ve decided to remain independent. We had a great relationship with Starz, we’re continuing to work with them, but we no longer have an overall deal. We are unencumbered right now, and that gives us versatility in the marketplace to talk to any potential partner, any potential distributor. There’s certainly an advantage to that. It allows us to look at each project and then go out and put the funding together in the most effective way that works for the show.

WS: What are some of the projects you’re working on now that you’re particularly excited about?

CALLENDER: We’ve wrapped the first season of All Creatures Great and Small. It’s been enormous fun shooting it. I do think that there is an audience, given the mad, mad world that we live in today, for a show 4/20 WORLD SCREEN 69

where you can sit back, put your feet up, have a cup of coffee or tea, and enjoy it knowing that it’s just great entertainment.

James Herriot’s books have millions and millions of fans around the world. It’s a wonderful new cast. We shot it entirely onlocation in Yorkshire, so it looks beautiful.

And it’s been a joy to watch. We’re about to start shooting Dangerous Liaisons, which Harriet Warner has written, with Starz and Lionsgate. We are telling the story from the perspective of the central female character, who is navigating a man’s world. The themes that underpin it are very much of the moment. It’s a story of female empowerment in a male-dominated world. That is very timely. Nina Raine is writing Tender Is the Night for Hulu. That will follow in the tradition of our big miniseries adaptations like Howards End and Wolf Hall. The ability to adapt a literary classic like Tender Is the Night and give it time and allow the story to breathe over four hours is a luxury you don’t have when you try to do a story like that as a movie. So our slate is a mix of returning series and high-profile limited series, event series. It’s fun. And there’s a lot more to come. We have an Amazon deal to do a series of single films. The first was with Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson in King Lear. We’re working on what the next titles will be.

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Chris Coelen Kinetic Content

By Mansha Daswani

ith Netflix’s buzzy Love Is Blind, Kinetic Content has continued its track record of delivering boundary-pushing, headlinegenerating non-scripted content to the U.S. and international marketplaces. Founded by former RDF USA CEO Chris Coelen, the business, perhaps best known for producing the U.S. version of Married at First Sight, has been a part of Red Arrow Studios since 2010, a partnership that is now enabling it to expand into scripted programming.

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WS: What was your mission when you founded Kinetic Content?

COELEN: I founded and ran the alternative and international packaging department at UTA, and going to MIPTV and MIPCOM for the first time was a completely eye-opening experience in terms of realizing the breadth of creativity across the world. I was working with a lot of international production companies, and while the global format business hadn’t taken off to the extent it has today, it felt like the future. We represented 16 of the top 20 British indies at the time, and one of those indies was RDF, which [at the time] was run by Stephen Lambert and David Frank. They approached me to run their North American operation; I took the leap and never looked back. When RDF was sold ten years ago, I had the opportunity to start Kinetic, and wanted to build something that was all about creativity, to really dig in and be in the weeds, be creatively driven and be the best possible producers and creators and partners that we could be, without comparing ourselves to anyone else.

WS: What was it that you saw in Red Arrow that said they could be a good partner for you to build on Kinetic’s success?

COELEN: At the time that I began talking to them, I was actually just looking for a distribution partner. I had learned at RDF how important distribution was to the entire operation, so I was looking for someone very strong in that space.

Based on my international experience, I was also looking for creative partners. I wasn’t actually looking to sell any piece of the company to anybody. Red Arrow was at the very beginning of building a global presence. They wanted to expand in the U.S. and we had a terrific meeting of the minds and I felt like I shared their vision for what they wanted to do. They had a group of networks, a distribution company, and creative capabilities across Europe in several different countries. We were, on the unscripted side, their first acquisition in the U.S., and it felt like a very happy marriage!

WS: When you reupped as CEO of Kinetic Content, you also announced plans for a scripted venture. Where are you on that initiative?

COELEN: We’ve been fortunate enough at Kinetic to work in all unscripted genres, whether it’s prank shows or social experiments or docuseries or food or real estate or competition elimination or game shows, whatever. If you can tell a good story, you should be able to navigate lots of different arenas, regardless of genre. I have experience on the scripted side, both from when I was an agent and at RDF, but of course, you need the right team of experts to

WS: How are you making sure you’re meeting the needs of networks and platforms, in the U.S. and internationally?

COELEN: You have your ear to the ground to get as much information as you can. You try to be aware of what’s in the market, whether that’s across the globe or in the U.S. As an agent I used to try to watch one episode of every series, regardless of genre, that premiered in the U.S. And for a while I could do it. Then I said I’d focus on unscripted and watch one episode of every unscripted series. People are talking about how there are 500-plus scripted shows—there’s probably quadruple the amount of unscripted series. To try to watch even a single episode of each one is near impossible. Of course, you try to be aware of the things that feel like they are garnering some buzz, but with that breadth of content, even we in the industry are struggling to watch that many things. There are so many platforms you can take a show to—Quibi, Amazon, the more traditional outlets—and we’re in regular communication with more buyers than we’ve ever been. The number of places you can go to can be overwhelming. So we start with the idea, figure out whether we believe in it, can execute it well, and think it has the potential to cut through the clutter. If we feel like those things are true, then we invest ourselves fairly significantly in the development of properties, more than we’ve ever done before in terms of interrogating the ideas. Then we bring them out to the buyers we think are right.

The challenge is to build a development slate that is not only buzz-worthy, but which we can execute very well, like any of the shows on our slate—Married at First Sight; or Man vs Bear on

“There is a lot of competition. If you can figure out how to work with [the buyers] in a way that protects their interests and aligns with yours, then you’ve hit the bullseye.” facilitate what we want to do. So that’s our mission right now: making sure we build a team of experts on the scripted side in the way we have on the unscripted side to facilitate the stories we want to tell. That is priority number one. There’s a huge opportunity in the market for scripted, and even if it levels off, it’s not going away.

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Discovery Channel, which has attracted a ton of attention; or Love Is Blind, which is Netflix’s first-ever serialized unscripted dating series.

We have not been typecast, fortunately, as a production company. We’ve been able to get into business with pretty much everybody and we’re fortunate to have good relationships across the board.

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Love Is Blind We talk to Red Arrow a lot, and we talk to partners outside of Red Arrow as well. We try to be in touch with people who are great collaborators, and everybody is sort of in the same boat. The buyers feel under pressure; there is a lot of competition. If you can figure out how to work with them in a way that protects their interests and aligns with yours, then you’ve hit the bullseye. It’s just a lot of conversations, and trying to keep apprised of everything.

WS: Married at First Sight has been a huge success in the U.S. What did you see in that concept that made you feel it would work with American audiences?

COELEN: Kudos to Michael von Würden and his team at Red Arrow’s Snowman Productions, who created a loud, absolutely compelling Danish series. I watched every episode. We loved it and felt like there was something in it that we could make resonate in the United States. Arranged marriage is certainly something that people had talked about, but the approach [Snowman] had to it was unique, and they were able to actually pull it off. There was a lot of interest when we took it out to the market, with offers for casting or development deals, some people even wanted to pilot it, which would be really difficult considering the format! There was only one network that wanted to jump in and take the risk of commissioning it, which was at the time the Bio network, which turned into FYI. It was an odd home on the face of it, but they were going through a transition in terms of their branding and Gena McCarthy, head of programming at FYI (and now executive VP and head of unscripted programming at Lifetime), really believed in it, and they felt like the right partner, creatively. While the show has evolved and is now on Lifetime, Gena has continued to be involved and having a really passionate collaborator on the network side has been crucial to the show’s success.

With all of the excitement about the quantity of buyers in the world today, it’s really about finding a piece of material that you love and making sure it gets in the right hands—in the hands of somebody who is going to be as passionate and supportive of it as you are.

show has gotten better with every season, on multiple levels. We are genuinely trying to create good matches and help them form relationships that will last a lifetime. We’re learning about what people respond to, what they shy away from, how the process affects them, the way that production and scheduling may affect them. I think we’ve done a really good job at trying to balance the needs of the production with the needs of the participants. Commercially it’s been really successful and the audience has grown every single year. This season’s premiere on New Year’s Day was the highest-rated network premiere in the show’s history, measured by L+3. That the show continues to grow in this manner is amazing, especially in this climate, but we are lucky in that we have been able to continue to grow awareness of the show, and when the viewers find it, they generally love it.

It’s a very noisy, entertaining concept as well as an intriguing scientific look at this whole process, with, of course, huge stakes given that these are real, legally binding marriages. In Australia they’ve taken the format in a housereality direction, which has really worked for them—it’s very commercial and very popular.

In Scandinavia, it’s still more of a doc type of experiment. We’re in the middle. We are a doc, but we embrace the natural juiciness of the conceit. We do look at what works in the other territories, and it’s a real privilege to be a part of.

It’s the most successful relationship format in the world today in terms of the number of territories it’s in and the success it has in each of those territories.

WS: What have been some of the lessons learned in making the U.S. version that you’ve been able to share with those adapting the format in other markets? And what have you learned from the other versions internationally?

COELEN: The show has evolved from a tenepisode series to today, where we’re making two seasons and 90 hours per year. I think the

WS: As you’re developing shows that could be formatted, are there certain elements you look to implement to make them replicable in any territory globally?

COELEN: I think primarily it’s a budgetary issue.

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it has to be flexible in terms of budget requirements. There was a time when it felt like format holders really had stringent parameters around what someone in a certain territory was allowed to do with the IP. I understand that instinct, because there are certain things that make the show work and if somebody comes in and tinkers with it too much, you’ve lost your core and it doesn’t work anymore. But I think today, if there are certain additions or enhancements that the producer would like to make in a format, you have to trust that.

That’s where it comes down to finding the right collaborative partners. We’ve been fortunate to do that at Red Arrow and in other relationships. There are very few things that work in every territory. Even the massive successes are not quite as widely distributed as some of the earlier formats were. But that doesn’t mean you can’t create one that does have that breadth of distribution. It’s tricky, but that’s the challenge and excitement of being in this business.

WS: What else do you have on your slate?

COELEN: We have Spy Games for Bravo, it’s their first big competition show after Top Chef. It’s a big swing for them. Little Women: LA and Little Women: Atlanta have been huge hits for Lifetime. Seven Year Switch, Bride & Prejudice, Love Is Blind, Man vs Bear and Spy Games are all big, unique swings, and first-of-a-kind shows for those platforms. We like to think we connect more often than not, but whether or not these swings produce hits, the fact is that we’re swinging and making stuff that everyone feels really proud of and can stand behind, and that the network promotes and hopefully finds its audience.

That’s where you’re going to succeed. You’re not going to succeed with doing the same thing everyone else is doing. The Masked Singer is successful because it’s different. With shows like Love Is Blind, Married at First Sight, Man vs Bear and Spy Games, we’re first-movers, and that’s our goal.

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Peter Nadermann Nadcon Film

By Mansha Daswani

fter starting his career at ZDF, Peter Nadermann has built a lucrative career on driving international co-pros and pushing the global viability of Scandinavian series, having exec-produced The Killing, Arne Dahl, The Team and a slew of other hits.

ZDF Enterprises recently bought out Constantin Film’s stake in Nadermann’s company, Nadcon Film, allowing him to accelerate his plans for cross-border European scripted productions.

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WS: What was your aim when you set up Nadcon back in 2012?

NADERMANN: To produce very international, high-end quality TV series and movies, and with this perspective, do mostly international co-productions in the territories I like to work in—like Scandinavia and Spain—and other European countries. So to have a strong European voice that can compete with the very high-quality American shows. I’m always happy when, like with Millennium or The Killing, we manage to do something that can compete with these top American programs.

WS: You were at ZDF earlier in your career and worked with ZDF Enterprises on The Killing. What has ZDF Enterprises’ investment in Nadcon meant for the company?

NADERMANN: To realize my ideas and projects I need a strong partner. I have a long and very successful history with ZDF Enterprises and [its president and CEO] Fred Burcksen. We know each other very well and they can support me when I’m moving on to new paths, while both sides profit from strong synergies.

WS: You’ve been a producer for a long time.

In this landscape, why is it important to have

an alliance with a distribution powerhouse like ZDF Enterprises?

NADERMANN: There is a lot of consolidation and globalization in the world of TV and movies and there is a danger that our TV market could become like the retail market. When you go to a shopping street nowadays, you see only the big brands. Even in Germany, digital sellers are getting stronger and stronger, and in the end you will have empty retail spaces and many smaller companies will be killed. That is the same everywhere. I want to remain as a creative, international boutique producer and in our times, you can only do this when you are connected to a bigger group. The TV business is one in which it’s not easy to earn money and there’s high risk. This is why I think it would be extremely difficult to do this alone, especially when you are as content-driven as I am. I’m very happy to have ZDF Enterprises as a strong partner on my side.

WS: What’s the key to making these kinds of joint ventures successful?

NADERMANN: The crucial thing in our business is communication. You should know your market. And you should know your partners. I know what the German market needs.

And on the other side, I have my network with partners all over Europe and across the globe.

WS: Tell us about your development and pitching process. How are you responding to the needs of broadcasters and platforms?

needs, and then maybe you can take your partner a step beyond. That’s my job. My job is not to fulfill the standard line; it’s always to find something new, like we found the Scandinavian style 10, 15 years ago. We are now doing a lot in Spain, which is one of the most exciting countries at the moment.

WS: How are you managing rising production costs while keeping the quality on-screen?

NADERMANN: We have a lot of promising talent, so the quality is there, but to compete, especially with the Americans—where they have budgets of $4 million or more per episode—we have to be more inventive. We find ways to tell our stories in an intelligent way with more reasonable budgets. With the financial possibilities we have in Europe, I try to find ways, with our top products, to be comparable to the big American shows. But on the other hand, I would always rather avoid shows that are, by definition, extremely expensive.

WS: What trends are you seeing in international co-production today?

NADERMANN: There will be hopefully more cooperation between the public broadcasters in Europe. I have said this for a long time: coproduction is a possibility for Europe to compete with the big players. Otherwise, our budgets are too small and our content is too local. We need to work together a lot more. That already works very well in Scandinavia, Spain, France and Italy.

With England, it’s always a bit more difficult because their focus is more on America. But the co-production is the simplest way to double your budget. Many TV executives are a bit afraid of it because they think they have to make too many

“I want to remain as a creative, international boutique producer and in our times, you can only do this when you are connected to a bigger group.”

NADERMANN: I like to create demand, and I want to surprise the market with something new that works. You have to convince channels that they should take some risks with you to move forward. You have to have a line of successes so that they trust you. That is very important. Again, good communication is required, so you know what your partner 72 WORLD SCREEN 4/20

compromises—but this happens mostly in bad co-productions. In a cool co-production, you learn from each other and that can make the program better. For example, German domestic shows have learned so much from the Scandinavian experiences we brought to Germany. You have to exchange, and you get better by exchanging. And the talent travels.

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Erik Barmack Wild Sheep Content

By Mansha Daswani need to know local producers and you’d also need to know the talent agencies [in the U.S.] Things like that are what get me going. And it could be the other way, too. We’ve optioned important books in Turkey and packaged them up in a way that might be a little more palatable to the global streamers. IP is crossing boundaries and borders in a way that the traditional mode of production didn’t anticipate.

world, so if we’re trying to piece together coproductions, they can help. And then they have physical production spaces, so if we need soundstages and things like that, that can be part of what we’re doing as well. I just think of them as a very aggressive, big company that is focused on international production, and they’re not super heavy in Los Angeles right now. So there’s a good opportunity to find some synergies with me being L.A.-based and them being Europe- and LatAm-based.

WS: In the short amount of time that Wild Sheep has been up and running, what have been some of the biggest lessons for you as a producer and packager of content?

BARMACK: You really have to love s head of international originals at Netflix, each project, because it’s a lot of conErik Barmack developed a keen ability to necting the dots and two steps forspot standout concepts and creative story- ward, one step back. Coming from tellers in the global marketplace for shows that Netflix and doing this on the other would resonate with a global fan base, resulting in side had me fairly well prepared. On hits like Sacred Games and Money Heist. As CEO of the positive side, there is such an his own outfit, Wild Sheep Content, Barmack is carrying appetite for international content on that tradition, recently securing investment from now, and you can see it. The Witcher is one of the top shows on Netflix— The Mediapro Studio. that’s a show I worked on, based on WS: When you founded Wild Sheep, what gaps Polish novels—La Casa de Papel [Money Heist] in Spain was a big hit, Parasite at the were you looking to fill in the marketplace?

BARMACK: There are these huge global pro- Oscars. The ambition to be international has duction companies like Banijay, ITV completely changed. I feel like that’s changed Studios and Fremantle, with significant in the [year] since I left Netflix. infrastructure. Then there are disparate, talented producers around the world who WS: Tell us about the alliance with The are independent and not necessarily con- Mediapro Studio and what it enables you to nected to Hollywood. And there’s been a do going forward. rise of global streamers looking for international content. The thinking was to build out packages of content for global streamers that want more international content and take advantage of the fact that content is really crossing borders. Wild Sheep was set up around that premise. For example, we’re taking out a project, which is getting a lot of attention, where we optioned a Stephen King book called The Plant. The vast majority of Stephen King’s readers are non-English-speaking. But he’s never done BARMACK: Mediapro is one of the more a project outside of the English language. aggressive companies in Europe. They’re What would it look like to take a book like putting some investment into my company. I that, package him with a director like think of Laura [Fernández Espeso, corporate Alexandre Aja, who has worked in both director and co-head of television at The Hollywood and France, and then set it up Mediapro Studio] as one of the smartest peoin Paris? That’s what we’re in the process ple in terms of thinking about international of doing right now. To do that, you would strategy. They have sales forces around the

WS: I’m hearing that production costs keep rising, and there’s a strain on talent pools.

How are you navigating that?

BARMACK: It depends on the market. In a lot of these markets, you may just run out of crews or established producers, so it’s either going to be that people have to take chances on newer companies, or costs will go up. I think that’s probably a good thing. Over time, the macro view is that it’s going to lead to more stories from around the world being heard, and investment in regions besides the U.S. [will increase]. This false constraint that everything has to come through Hollywood has ended. But there will be disruption around that, too.

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WS: As a boutique outfit, how many projects can you reasonably manage at any one time?

BARMACK: I have a half a dozen projects so far in development. And that’s out of a slate of nine or ten projects I took out towards the end of last year. I’m in the process now of building a second slate of development projects. I’ll take out another ten. Then you look at how

“The false constraint that everything has to come through Hollywood has ended. But there will be some disruption around that, too.”

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many of those ten you can get to development and how many of those development projects you can get to series. I have the ability to hire people. Also, in all these cases, I’m working with local production services companies or producers on the ground, so it’s not as though I need to build out a big production infrastructure to be successful.

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ON THE RECORD

he media business is in full upheaval. Viewing habits are changing, consumers have infinite entertainment options and the extremely costly streaming wars are underway as services backed by media behemoths vie for subscribers.

JB Perrette, the president and CEO of Discovery International (DI), has implemented a multipronged strategy to future-proof the global portfolio of brands he oversees—an average of 10 channels across 220 countries and territories—in this evolving landscape.

Well aware that consumers enjoy content in myriad ways, he wants to make sure the Discovery brands are reaching viewers wherever they are and on their most convenient screens.

For viewers who still flock to curated linear channels—and there are millions of them around the world—DI has a variety of pay-TV networks, ranging from Discovery Kids in Latin America to Discovery Channel, TLC and ID on other continents. DI has also invested heavily in sports, acquiring Eurosport and the rights to the Olympic Games through 2024. Following the 2018 acquisition of Scripps Networks Interactive by DI’s parent company, Perrette and his teams are finding homes for Food Network and HGTV. Alongside the pay-TV channels, free-to-air broadcast stations, such as Nove in Italy and Quest in the U.K., round out DI’s traditional linear-television business.

Other viewers prefer to be in complete control of their viewing experience. For them, DI offers Eurosport Player and the on-demand service Dplay, available in the U.K., the Netherlands, the Nordics, Italy, Spain and Japan, which allows viewers to watch either entire channels or individual programs.

From food and home to cars and sports, Discovery’s content generates passionate communities of fans. Many of them are not satisfied with merely watching shows passively; they want to interact with the content. This has prompted the launch of direct-to-consumer “view-and-do” products such as the MotorTrend app, the GCN ( Global Cycling Network) app and the Food Network Kitchen app, with more to come.

Recognizing the popularity and relevance of local stories told by local voices, DI has been investing in joint-venture VOD services. It has partnered with ProSiebenSat.1 Media to form Joyn, and with Cyfrowy Polsat for an upcoming service in Poland. A significant partnership with BBC Studios for its natural history and factual programming will yield products set to roll out in the coming months.

As Perrette tells World Screen, owning and controlling content has been the key to feeding channels’ schedules, rolling out on-demand and direct-to-consumer products, and quickly responding to whatever changes technology or viewing behavior may bring.

JB PERRETTE

DISCOVERY INTERNATIONAL

By Anna Carugati

WS: Discovery has long made a priority of owning content. How is this strategy paying off in today’s media landscape, particularly with the launch of so many streaming services that focus primarily on scripted programming?

PERRETTE: It’s not only owning content; it’s owning content globally. Those two points are very important and go together, because ultimately the media business is a scaled business. And being able to have global reach—compared to some of our competitors who are great but end up being strong in one market, or a handful of markets, and don’t have global reach—is a big differentiator. Running the international business, I live and breathe that every day. We are the only numberone global media company operating in 220 markets, with infrastructure and people on the ground who know the markets in all the key places.

Very early on, the company believed in ownership of IP, partly because, from a business-model standpoint, we’ve been able to exploit it most effectively by controlling it and using it to launch great channels and brands for most of the last three decades. Now, in this new, changing world, owning IP gives us huge optionality. It has allowed us to take what was historically mainly a pay-TV business internationally and exploit some of that content in the free-to-air space. Then, in many markets across Europe, where we had a pay-TV and free-to-air business, we were able to exploit content across digital. If we didn’t own and control all those rights, we’d have to go back to the IP owner every time and say, Now we’d like to diversify into free TV, so could we also get these free-to-air rights? Or, by the way, now we want to get into the direct-to-consumer business. We don’t have to do that. We have full control of an enormous programming library, which includes more 4/20 WORLD SCREEN 77

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Marooned with Ed Stafford, commissioned by Discovery International, is one of several Discovery Channel shows featuring the British adventure enthusiast. than 300,000 hours of content from the last few decades. We continue to refresh it and invest in more IP. The optionality that owning content gives us in a changing world—to do what we want and need to do, and move content across platforms and business models—is huge. And third, we looked at the world today and [saw that] several media companies are going after the scripted entertainment space. That is increasingly looking like a bloodbath of dollars; a lot of money is being spent on that side of the business. There are a lot of great companies doing that, and we wish them well, but on our side, we love our hand because the scripted business models are super expensive. They are all bidding up the prices for the same series and shows. On top of that, it’s only one business model, which is purely an entertainment business model.

Our content resonates in passion verticals, whether they be around cars, home and food, or animals and pets. And we can do it on a much more cost-efficient basis. More important than anything else, as we look at this world of directto-consumer, a huge differentiator—and we love our position—is, yes, our content is entertaining, but it’s also engaging. By engaging, I mean that it’s content people use in their daily lives. People don’t just watch the Food Network because they like our chefs and our talent. They watch the Food Network because they love to cook.

They love food, ingredients and different ways to prepare meals. In the next chapter of our growth, we’re leaning hard into this direct-to-consumer space. We’re taking all our great content, making it available on all our

traditional businesses—where we continue to grow audience and share—and then taking it to the direct-to-consumer space. In that space, we’re exploiting content on purely viewing platforms, like Dplay in Europe, but we’re also starting to exploit it in what we call view-and-do products, like our Food Network Kitchen app in the U.S., our MotorTrend app, or GCN (Global Cycling Network).

Instead of having only one model, which is to pay for high-priced premium content like all the other guys are doing, we’re building verticals, brands and content people love and know stand for excellent curation. We’re exploiting our content in the traditional linear-television landscape, and we’re offering people the opportunity to watch and enjoy it on direct-toconsumer apps like Dplay. We’re also taking a third bite of the apple by taking our content and providing it in functional ways to improve dayto-day lives in a totally different way. It’s not what Netflix is doing or HBO Max or Peacock.

We love the multipronged optionality that the content we’ve developed over so many years gives us in this direct-to-consumer space.

WS: Discovery is setting up joint ventures that are tapping into local programming, such as Joyn in Germany. What is the strategy behind that?

PERRETTE: To John Hendricks’s [Discovery’s founder] and the board’s credit, five years into the launch of this business in the U.S., when most people were either taking money off the table or plowing more money into the U.S., they were visionary and said, We have to invest in going global. What we learned over a three78 WORLD SCREEN 4/20

decade period is that it’s great to have a pipeline of U.S. content that serves as a foundation, particularly in the nonfiction genres. While our characters may be American in some cases, the themes and the storylines are universal. They appeal to viewers in Singapore, Brazil, Italy and Russia. Then we decided we needed to continue to scale these businesses. As the markets have gotten more sophisticated over three decades of television, viewers have, understandably, been wanting to see themselves represented on TV. We’ve realized we have to start investing more in stories and characters that are relatable to that local audience. We have invested, over 30 years, tens of billions of dollars in increasing our footprint and content in telling local stories. In a lot of these markets, unsurprisingly, local content is what dominates from an audience perspective.

These global players have largely Englishlanguage, U.S.-produced stories. That’s great, and some do have universal appeal. But when you get out of the U.S., still, the vast majority of content people want is local. We have a differentiated approach. We’ve taken the view to build the leading local direct-to-consumer product, taking all the great content the broadcasters have developed over the years in their markets, and aggregating it. We’ve seen the power of aggregation in the U.S. The reason Hulu is the top aggregation SVOD service in the U.S. is that, very early on, NBC and FOX, and eventually Disney, got together and said they should create a service and put all their content in one place.

We’ve taken that model and said, OK, we should be doing the same thing. We want to be the leaders in local SVOD in all the major markets across Europe. We did Joyn, a joint

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venture in Germany, and we’ve announced a JV with our partner Polsat in Poland. We have the leading and fastest-growing OTT service in the Nordics with Dplay. We’ve launched Dplay in the U.K., Netherlands, Benelux, Spain and Italy.

And we’re having more conversations with more partners every day. We believe in the power of aggregation—simplifying the journey for consumers by allowing them to have one place where they can find everything. And we know that the power of local content is huge.

Some other services are starting to understand that, but we’ve got a long head start. It’s a costly and time-consuming journey to invest in local programming across 50 to 100 markets. We want to exploit our head start, and we believe we can be the leaders in local in several markets across Europe and maybe other parts of the world.

WS: Which brands in the Discovery portfolio are performing best in which territories?

PERRETTE: Early on, the company very wisely did not subscribe to a one-size-fits-all model. It depends on markets and regions. The international landscape is very diverse for us. One of our best-performing channels in the world is Discovery Kids in Latin America.

We beat Disney, Nick and all the other traditional kids’ channels in the region with our Discovery Kids brand because we got out early. The team found white space 20plus years ago to launch a kids’ service, so we now have the leading preschool kids’

The Pioneer Woman airs on Food Network, which joined the Discovery portfolio in 2018. service in LatAm. We don’t have that channel anywhere else. In Europe, some of our big broadcast networks are doing incredibly, such as Nove in Italy and Quest and Quest Red in the U.K. Eurosport has been a great hit. On the factual side, TLC had its best year ever internationally last year. We saw great success with ID. We’ve now launched Food Network and HGTV. Scripps hadn’t invested as early in the

Discovery International is building the international footprint for HGTV, the home of Good Bones.

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international space; they came later to the party, and it was harder with their smaller scale to drive distribution. Over the last 18 months, we’ve gotten launches or commitments to bring Food Network and HGTV to almost 150 million homes internationally.

WS: What is the role of free-TV channels in your multipronged strategy?

PERRETTE: They provide an enormous amount of scale for advertising partners, and we see that continuing to grow and do well. They also serve an [important purpose for viewers], which is how it’s worked in Italy, the Nordics, and Spain, and in Germany with Joyn. When you take content in the pay-TV world, and someone’s paying you for that content through a cable or satellite system, and you want to make it available online, there is natural friction that will exist. The great thing about free to air is that we don’t have that issue. Not only are we seeing great success on the freeto-air channels in the traditional linear model— with audience shares in the U.K. and Italy hitting historic highs last year—but on top of that, free to air is serving as a treasure trove of content to launch our direct-to-consumer business. And that has both advertising [and subscription] capabilities because we have a dual model: a free layer of ad-supported content, which then sells consumers up to a premium layer of non-ad-supported content and experiences. So that broadcast content serves a fantastic dual purpose of helping us continue to do well in traditional television, while also building and scaling our directto-consumer business.

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off the screen and deconstruct how they came over a jump or how they passed a gate in a skiing race. Eurosport Cube was a big innovation. We did a huge amount of digital publishing and short-form content. There were several things that we did and are planning to do for Tokyo. We want to leverage a lot of what we learned: 4K, Ultra HD, augmented reality, tools and graphics.

WS: Tell us about the deal with BBC Studios for natural history and factual programming. Do you have plans to offer that content to consumers in a different or new way?

PERRETTE: We looked at our library and the BBC library and our production capabilities in the space of natural history. [With so many viewing options], people want places where they can easily find their favorite genres. Part of that idea was to take the best of the BBC’s natural history content and our library and make a definitive collection of content about the world around us, the animals in it and what is happening to our planet. We couldn’t be more excited, because it’s both a super-exciting business proposition and also maybe the most core element of our mothership brand, the Discovery brand. We’re planning to roll that out on some of our aggregated video services, like Dplay in the Nordics, imminently. And we are exploring other ways we may roll it out in other territories and across the world, potentially as part of this factual project or something slightly larger. We’re hard at work iterating on a couple of ideas we’d like to do hopefully later this year.

Discovery is catering to niche fans with digital products like GCN (Global Cycling Network).

WS: You mentioned Eurosport. Discovery has made significant investments in sports rights.

What products and services are you offering?

PERRETTE: [Our offerings are] not dissimilar to what we are doing on the entertainment side.

We have the linear channels Eurosport 1 and Eurosport 2 that continue to perform very well.

We have the Eurosport Player, our multi-sport direct-to-consumer product, which is doing very well and growing. We have our passion verticals. What differentiates us is that we have launched view-and-do ecosystems and products for specific areas of passion and interest.

We have GOLFTV for golf fans. We have GCN, the Global Cycling Network, for the biggest global community of cycling fans. It’s not a oneproduct approach. We have all three tiers, from big and broad television to aggregated sports to specialty view-and-do products in certain areas of passion. We’re investing in the golf space in a major way and trying to build out a golf ecosystem that allows fans to not just watch

the PGA tour everywhere outside the U.S., but do more, like watch master classes with Tiger Woods and get tutorials. We see great promise for building out these robust communities of fans around specific sports interests.

WS: Eurosport is the home of the Olympics across Europe through 2024. What innovative coverage did Eurosport offer during the 2018 Winter Olympics, and what will it provide for the Tokyo Summer Olympics?

PERRETTE: In 2018, during the Winter Olympics, we did a variety of things that allowed us to over-deliver on our promise to the IOC and its president, Thomas Bach, at the time we did the deal, which was to bring the Olympics to more people on more screens than ever before. For example, on the programming side, we used technology and innovation like the Eurosport Cube, which was the first augmented reality set that we used in PyeongChang. Athletes loved coming in and being able to take video images 80 WORLD SCREEN 4/20

WS: As you look out the next 12 to 24 months, where do you see opportunities for growth? The international business contributes significantly to Discovery’s revenues.

PERRETTE: We’re about 40 percent of the company. The Scripps acquisition rebalanced us. We were approaching 50 percent, and we were on a path to be larger than the U.S. before the Scripps deal. We’re a big component of the Discovery group and continue to be a strong driver of growth for the company. That’s our continued objective, and we see a lot of opportunities in all the areas we talked about—in free to air, in pay TV still, and certainly in the direct-to-consumer space.

This interview was conducted prior to the COVID-19 global pandemic. Media companies are currently shifting their strategies in the wake of postponements—including that of the Summer Olympics. “Our essential planning and deliverables are complete and will now shift into next year,” Discovery said in a statement.

“We will continue to develop our products and offerings to best serve our customers and marketing partners in 2021.”

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SPOTLIGHT

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Courteney Monroe National Geographic

ourteney Monroe has led a complete transformation of the National Geographic television networks since taking on oversight of the portfolio. She placed a focus on premium factual, restarted the business’s theatrical documentary segment, led a drive into high-end scripted and sealed a range of partnerships with top creatives, including Imagine Entertainment’s Ron Howard and Brian Grazer and the filmmaking duo of Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, whose Free Solo won the Academy Award for best documentary last year. Monroe, president of National Geographic Global Television Networks, talks to World Screen about the transition to Disney ownership, platform-agnostic storytelling and the Field Ready Program to promote diversity in the natural-history-filmmaking sector.

By Mansha Daswani

C

WS: Tell us about the integration into Disney, and what new ownership has meant for your portfolio.

MONROE: Being part of The Walt Disney Company is a massive opportunity for the National Geographic brand.

Not just for the television and doc film business that I oversee, but for the span of the enterprise in terms of our travel and consumer-products businesses. Disney leadership from the very top levels is incredibly engaged with, enthusiastic about and supportive of our brand, business and strategy. It has meant zero change to our programming strategy. In fact, I am grateful that we pivoted to the premium strategy when we did because it prepared us to join The Walt Disney Company and for this massive shift in the marketplace that is direct-to-consumer. We are one of five brands on Disney+. Being one of those five brands—and the only one that came over from the Fox transaction—is such a tremendous opportunity for us to expand our programming slate and expand to new audiences.

WS: What is your short-form doc strategy? How do you determine what would play better as a short-form series versus a longer-form series?

MONROE: We’re doing what we do best, which is to be creativity driven and idea driven. The lion’s share of the content we will be making is long form. But last year, we acquired two short-form doc series, The Nightcrawlers and Lost and Found, both of which made it onto the festival circuit—and The Nightcrawlers made the Oscar shortlist!

They were stories, visions and voices we wanted to support. #impact, the Gal Gadot series that we announced recently, was initially pitched to us as a long-form series.

But upon screening some tape, we just felt that the stories would be tighter and more compelling as short form. All of the creative people involved agreed. It’s not like we were

looking for a short-form series to create. We just loved the idea of being able to showcase these incredible young women, who have overcome unbelievable odds, not just on linear, which is why we’ll be launching #impact as digital shorts, culminating in an hour-long special on the channel.

We certainly have distribution platforms for short form if we feel the stories lend themselves to that. We have our own digital platforms: we’re the number one brand on Instagram—we have a massive footprint in social media.

And Disney+ is making short form as well. If the content lends itself to a more traditional long-form storytelling, then we’ll do that.

WS: Having all these different sandboxes to play in must be so much fun for your programming teams and the creatives you work with.

MONROE: It’s really fun. Our number one priority is to create compelling, high-quality, distinctive storytelling that lives up to the expectations of the National Geographic brand.

And not having a formula around format or platform is very liberating to our creative teams, and it makes for incredibly collaborative conversations with filmmakers, producers, showrunners and writers. We can say to them, “Let’s figure out what is going to be the most successful version of this story, and on what platform is this story most going to thrive?” That’s a good way to run a creative business! Sometimes you can’t do that. If the only space you’re in is adsupported cable television, you’re going to say no to a lot of things that don’t make sense for that platform. We can say, “This a great ad-supported show for cable television, advertisers will love it, we can do brand and product integration.”

Or, “This is a show that would be such a great subscription acquisition vehicle for direct to consumer.” Or, “This is about impact, so let’s just get it out, unauthenticated, across 4/20 WORLD SCREEN 83

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Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller is a new investigative series on Nat Geo.

all our digital platforms so as many people can see it as possible.” Those are the conversations we have once we fall in love with an idea or a storyteller.

WS: You’ve had a ton of success with your reinvigorated feature film doc division. What are your continued plans for that segment?

MONROE: I’m so proud of what we’ve been able to achieve in just the past three years with our National Geographic Documentary Films banner. We created it as we were pivoting our overall programming strategy, with the goal of assuming the mantle of leadership in documentary filmmaking. I felt strongly that this was a space National Geographic should occupy. What we’ve accomplished, starting with record-breaking global viewership of Before the Flood with Leonardo DiCaprio, all the way to our second consecutive Oscar nomination this year for The Cave and the critical and box-office success of our Oscar winner Free

Nat Geo is the new U.S. home of Running Wild with Bear Grylls, which previously ran on NBC. 84 WORLD SCREEN 4/20

Solo, has been pretty extraordinary. We have an unbelievable pipeline of films in development or production, including Rebuilding Paradise, directed by Ron Howard, and our recent acquisition out of Sundance, the critically acclaimed Saudi Runaway. When you have success, it becomes a great beacon for storytellers who want to bring their best projects to you. And we’re being very curated and careful. There are others in this space, other streamers, for whom it’s much more of a tonnage play. For us, it’s not a tonnage play. We want to be able to give these projects our full attention and support. So when you do a feature doc with Nat Geo, you will know we are all in. We have the ability to get behind a filmmaker’s vision, not just from a content-development and production perspective, but also from the perspective of distribution, awards and impact. It’s probably the best proof point of our transformation and our success over the past couple of years.

WS: How is the scripted strategy progressing?

MONROE: Scripted drama is not the lion’s share of our content, but it’s an important component, and it’s been responsible for a lot of our awards attention, press and buzz. Not every scripted story is right for us. Any scripted drama that we decide to make has to be grounded in factual authenticity. We want to work with the best creative minds in the business, but the story has to be aligned with our brand.

We’re looking at expanding The Hot Zone, the highestrated scripted series in the history of our network, potentially into a recurring anthology series. Genius is our critically acclaimed recurring anthology series from Ron Howard and Brian Grazer. We’re very focused on our next installment on Aretha Franklin, but we’re already thinking about what might be next. I’m proud of The Right Stuff, which we’re producing with Warner Horizon and Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way. In success, that could be a returning series. It’s based on the book by Tom Wolfe, not so much the movie, which chronicled the full history of NASA’s space program. We have our first foray into historical fiction, based on Annie Proulx’s book Barkskins—which could also be a recurring drama—with Fox 21 Television Studios and Scott Rudin. It’s not based on real people the way The Right Stuff is, but it is very much grounded in historical accuracy. While we are in development on some

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other ideas, again, this is not a tonnage play for us; it’s highly curated.

WS: Tell us about the Field Ready Program. How did it come about?

MONROE: Two junior executives on our natural history and wildlife programming team spotted a need during preproduction on Queens, which is a natural-history series that we are working on with Wildstar Films profiling animal species that come from matriarch-driven societies. The entire production crew and the cinematographers will be women. In the process of our teams looking to staff up that production, they realized there is a dearth of female and diverse voices in wildlife and natural-history cinematography and production. It has very much been a white male-dominated creative community. National Geographic has always been a leader in the natural-history-filmmaking space. We should be at the forefront of promoting diversity in the pipeline of talent who can fill the ranks of every job: directors, cinematographers and production assistants. We’re partnering with the National Geographic Society on the Field Ready Program, which is a mentorship and training program designed to clear a path for young, diverse talent interested in working behind the camera in natural-history production.

We’ve already reached out to many production companies to say, “We’re going to invest in this, join forces with us, serve as mentors, and then we can connect and help network once this talent comes through the program.”

WS: I love what you’ve done with Brain Games. How are you maintaining that franchise and others?

MONROE: We’re looking at lots of IP that we have in our arsenal and thinking about how we could reimagine and reformat some of these titles that resonated with audiences.

Brain Games is a perfect example. We take the heart and DNA of what audiences loved and reimagine it and make it more entertaining and more talent driven. We’re working with Magical Elves and the amazing Keegan-Michael Key in bringing celebrities to that format to increase the star wattage and the level of fun, but still maintain what made that show great, which is unlocking and understanding how our brains work.

We’re always looking to work with great talent. Running Wild with Bear Grylls is a show that has run for a long time in other places. We’ve taken that format and added some muscularity and a greater sense of adventure for the Nat Geo audience. We’re working on the second season of Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted. Ramsay is an example of a talent who is well known, but is being presented in a completely different format than people are accustomed to seeing him in. We’re working with Bertram van Munster and his talented team, who created and produced The Amazing Race, on a new format called Race to the Center of the Earth. It’s a global adventure competition format, but very different. It draws on classic National Geographic themes: exotic locations, breathtaking visuals and true feats of adventure. Developing our franchises means finding great talent, behind and in front of the camera, and evolving and finding new stories to tell with them that make sense for our brand.

WS: What are some of the other programming highlights you’re excited about?

MONROE: I know I briefly mentioned it, but right now I am most excited for our next installment of Genius which is [about] Aretha Franklin. It stars double Oscar-nominated actress Cynthia Erivo and the incredible Courtney B. Vance. I have seen an early cut of the first episode, and it floored me. Cynthia is so unbelievably talented I think she is going to just blow audiences way. I am also excited about our upcoming investigative series Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller. Mariana is a Peabody Award-winning journalist. She has done specials for us in the past, but this is the first time she’s headlining her own series. I love that we have a bad-ass female headlining a hardcore investigative series. Trafficked embodies inside access, which National Geographic has long been known for. Our yellow border gets us access to people and places and organizations that many don’t have access to. Mariana is fearless and she is looking at the underworld trafficking of goods and services that end up being more important to the global economy than traditional capitalist markets are. She’s someone we’re leaning into. She’s homegrown talent for us. I think this is something that markets all around the world will be very interested in.

This interview was conducted prior to the COVID-19 global pandemic. Media companies are currently shifting their strategies in the wake of production postponements and economic trends.

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The next installment of Genius stars Cynthia Erivo as Aretha Franklin.

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IN THE NEWS

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Rob Wade FOX Entertainment he Masked Singer was arguably the biggest story in the format business last year, as the breakout success of the celebrities-in-masks singing contest on FOX kicked off a string of deals in key markets around the world, including the U.K., Germany and Australia. As president of alternative entertainment and specials at FOX Entertainment, Rob Wade has not shied away from taking big bets on foreign concepts since he joined the broadcaster three years ago. In fact, finding new talent is at the heart of Wade’s strategy at Fox Alternative Entertainment (FAE), a new unscripted studio that will develop and produce concepts for FOX as well as third-party platforms.

Wade talks to World Screen about building The Masked Singer into a franchise, bringing shows like LEGO Masters and I Can See Your Voice to the U.S. and the need for broadcasters to take risks today.

By Mansha Daswani

T

WS: You recently appointed Allison Wallach to lead Fox Alternative Entertainment (FAE). Tell us about this new unscripted studio.

WADE: Allison Wallach has an incredible amount of experience. She’s worked at production companies, networks and agencies, so she has a true understanding of the business. In the unscripted world at the moment, there’s no playbook anymore. So, whoever leads a company that is going to be entrepreneurial and creative has to understand what’s happened before, so we can look at how to move forward.

We’re in a great situation with where we are in our productions at FAE. We have The Masked Singer, The Masked Dancer, a few specials [and I Can See Your Voice for later this year]. Launching FAE and bringing the production of The Masked Singer in-house gave us a stronger ownership position and greater creative control. That allowed us to do spin-offs and create merchandising revenues, tour revenues, things like that. We can work directly with the talent on those shows, which then allows us to find and nurture new voices in the unscripted arena.

And FAE will enable us to bring more producers and more talent in-house and, therefore, create other shows.

WS: Speaking of The Masked Singer, season three premiered right after the Super Bowl. No pressure! What went into crafting that premiere episode and the season as a whole?

WADE: I didn’t necessarily feel pressure, I just wanted to make sure that we were putting our best foot forward. The first show of a season is really hard. You never know what you’re going to get. We were lucky that we got a great reveal with Lil Wayne. We didn’t expect him to go in that [episode], honestly, but he did, and that was good for us. In terms of the format, the biggest thinking we did was around [whether we should] keep it as it was or split it into three groups of six [celebrities]. So we’re doing a group of six that goes down to three, then another group of six starts and goes down to three and then another group of six goes down to three. There will be nine left by the tenth show, and then we start on a more regular pattern at that point.

We’re still at the learning stage, the discovery stage, in this format. There are inherent difficulties that aren’t like any other show that you just have to manage around. We’re still trying to get it right for the audience, sustain it as a franchise moving forward and give ourselves a format that provides us with enough hours, frankly, to fill the schedule.

It’s great having a hit like this, but you want to make sure it’s maximized. I think that happened at NBC [with The Voice] and FOX back in the day with American Idol. Those formats started as very short runs, but because of the nature of those formats, you could expand them to many hours.

That’s really when you win as a network. You’re not only getting a great show and good ratings, but you’re also getting it in lots of different slots in your schedule, which increases the overall average for the network. That’s our goal.

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Gordon Ramsay’s 24 Hours to Hell and Back is one of a number of shows fronted by the popular chef on FOX.

WS: The format had barely traveled before it arrived on FOX and has since rolled out in a host of markets. Take me back to the beginning—what was your initial response to the pitch from Craig Plestis? Why did you feel it could work in the U.S.?

WADE: It was actually easier than you would think. You have to find something that is new and different. This was new and different. I was shown a tape, and it was a ladybird (a ladybug as they say in America) singing “Crazy in Love,” and I saw how the panel worked, and I felt like it was just a great entertainment show. There was a real opportunity there. It was right in my wheelhouse as well. I had spent the majority of my life working on celebrity shows and singing shows, so combining the two, I was like, Yeah, I get it! The fear was whether it was just too wacky. That was where the risk was.

Right up until the day before the show aired, I was like, Are people just going to think it is too weird?

Our mantra at FOX is, you have to do these shows that are fresh and different and take risks. That’s where we’ve had success. The Masked Singer has become America’s favorite guessing game.

WS: Tell us the story behind The Masked Dancer.

WADE: A couple of days after Masked Singer started, we saw the segment on Ellen [the talk show featured a parody 88 WORLD SCREEN 4/20

of the show]. And then they did another one. Then I got a phone call from my legal department [laughs], and I said, This is great promotion for the show! I contacted [the producers at Ellen] and said, I think it would make sense to do this with you, if you’re up for it. We feel really good about the show; it’s going to be fun. We’ve learned from Singer that the judges base [many of their guesses] on physicality and movement and just hearing [the masked celebrities] talk, even with the modulated voice.

There’s a huge amount you can learn from someone dancing. You can work out if they are a dancer or not.

If you’re a boy-bander or a Broadway person or a sports person, you dance in a certain way. There’s actually more clear movement and physicality than you’d think.

WS: What appealed to you about LEGO Masters? Was it the Australian version that sold you?

WADE: I know Karen Smith [CEO and managing director of Tuesday’s Child, the originator of the show] quite well. I watched the U.K. version, and we talked about getting it. It takes about three hours to make a cake, so you can film an episode [of a cooking show] pretty quickly. It takes days to build these [LEGO structures]. I liked it a lot, and we toyed with buying

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it. It didn’t have the scale for us. And then it went to Australia, and they did a great job. I watched the first episode and thought, I want this. It has the pacing and formatability of MasterChef, and it has great scale and great color. What they’ve done that is incredibly clever is worked out a way for the host, Hamish Blake, to call out reality tropes. It’s the Deadpool of reality shows. Ryan Reynolds took that character and broke the fourth wall and called out some of the cheesier aspects of superhero films and became quite the antihero. We understood [from the Australian version] that we could just have fun with it. Will Arnett [is the host] and you will laugh out loud in that show, I guarantee it. He’s so funny and he surprises you. He doesn’t treat the contestants like normal contestants.

The contestants take the piss out of him as well. It’s brought a freshness to [the show]. I’m very proud of it, and I’m proud of what the producers have done.

WS: As you look out at the format landscape, what trends are you seeing? Are you sensing that broadcasters are still quite risk-averse to new concepts?

WADE: Yes, it’s become that way. They are risk-averse in two ways. They are doing shorter runs of things, which means you can get on and off quicker, but obviously, it’s challenging to keep costs down or build a massive set or do something with a lot of scale. That only works for certain types of shows. There are a lot of game shows being pitched because game shows are cost-effective. If you get the game show right, it is very inexpensive and time-filling programming. Unfortunately, a lot of broadcasters are just looking back and playing it safe with old formats and playing moneyball with license fees and older formats. And they’re great shows. So it’s good if you’re a big company with a lot of shows in your library. It’s bad for new, young producers breaking into the business who are trying to start their own production companies. I’m not old enough to have worked in the business before reality TV, but I started right when it began. I had the advantage of this proliferation of ideas, and a lot of very young people growing up in the business and becoming the stars of the business. I want 20- to 25-year-olds to be coming through with their ideas now. That’s what used to happen. But if there are no risks taken and not enough hours on a schedule, they are never going to get their chance.

That’s a bad thing. They’re going to go to another creative outlet, and that’s where they’ll have their success, which again is a shame for

unscripted television. I think it’s our duty to start bringing up the next generation of creatives. At FAE, Allison is curating that possibility; those grassroots people can come in and [we’re allowing] them the creative freedom to come up with and make new formats. That’s where the next big hit is going to be.

I also think there are pockets of the world that are swinging for the fences: Korea, China, the Far East. You still get really interesting ideas coming out of Israel, Holland, Belgium.

WS: What are some of your upcoming highlights?

WADE: We have Ultimate Tag, which is from Znak & Co. It has [football stars TJ and Derek] Watt on it. We wanted a physical competition show, but we didn’t want to take it too seriously. So it’s an irreverent show, tongue-in-cheek, very Saturday teatime, as you might say in the U.K. It has big scale, and it’s fun and dynamic and exciting. We have the Gordon Ramsay shows coming back, Hell’s Kitchen and MasterChef. Beat Shazam with Jamie Foxx is coming back. It’s shown great staying power and consistency, and it’s just a fun show to watch. We have I Can See Your Voice, a CJ ENM format, with Ken Jeong hosting. And then The Masked Dancer is coming up soon. And future cycles of The Masked Singer. My focus now is on the fall and midseason and trying to launch something big there. I’m hoping LEGO Masters will return. I’m hoping all these shows I just discussed will return. The development process now is saying, What’s the next big one? What’s the next broad hit?

This interview was conducted prior to the COVID-19 global pandemic. Media companies are currently shifting their strategies in the wake of production postponements and economic trends.

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FOX launched its own version of Endemol Shine’s LEGO Masters, which originated in the U.K.

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BEHIND THE SCENES

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Mission for Justice

John Walsh and his son Callahan talk to World Screen about In Pursuit with John Walsh, which airs on ID.

By Mansha Daswani

L

uis Frias was on the U.S. Marshals’ most-wanted fugitive list for years after brutally murdering his ex-wife, Janett Reyna, in front of their three children. A tip called into In Pursuit with John Walsh on Investigation Discovery (ID) from a viewer in Mexico helped lead to his capture.

Hosted by John Walsh together with his son Callahan, the series from Jupiter Entertainment profiles criminals on the run as well as highlights cases of missing children. It is the latest in a string of initiatives by the Walsh family to bring justice to crime victims. In the years following the murder of his 6-year-old son Adam (a crime that would remain officially unsolved for more than three decades), John devoted himself to finding missing children. He set up a foundation, Adam Walsh Child Resource Center, which would eventually merge with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), and pressed for the creation of a nationwide clearinghouse with information on abducted kids. With his long-running FOX show America’s Most Wanted, meanwhile, John had a hand in catching more than 1,200 fugitives in 40-plus countries, including 17 people on the FBI’s most-wanted list. “And we recovered 61 stranger-abducted missing kids alive,” John tells World Screen.

“I had my own trained hotline operators. You call me, tell me where that dirtbag is, and I will get him.”

America’s Most Wanted ended its run in 2012 (with its last seasons airing on Lifetime) and was followed up by The Hunt on CNN in 2014. John says he was then content to spend time with his grandkids and play polo—until he heard from lawenforcement officers that 2018 was “going to be the most violent year in American history.”

John says that his longtime friend Henry S. Schleiff, president of ID, suggested doing a new show for the network. In Pursuit with John Walsh “is a crime-fighting show that we use as an investigative tool for law enforcement,” says Callahan, who cohosts and exec-produces. “We have two main criminals each episode, followed by two more criminals that we feature on what we call our ‘15 Seconds of Shame.’ We’re also featuring two missing children, because we’ve partnered with NCMEC, an organization that has helped recover more than 300,000 missing children. I was a producer for America’s Most Wanted for a number of years. I helped co-create The Hunt on CNN. I’m honored to join my father on camera. We had some great captures and are looking forward to continuing that fight and helping get justice for families that haven’t gotten it.”

One of the biggest challenges, Callahan says, is selecting which cases to profile on the show. “We’re turning down cases all the time. We do have to look at a few criteria for a case that would make it. There has to be a wanted fugitive. We need to have an active warrant. We need to make sure the statute of limitations hasn’t passed. We also want to feature criminals that are catchable, that we know the public can help out with, and where law enforcement has hit a dead end. We also take a look at the victims and try to empathize with them and go after criminals who have left devastation in their path. We’re going after the worst of the worst—child rapists, serial killers, murderers—the people that everybody wants off the streets.”

Selecting NCMEC cases of missing children to spotlight is also gut-wrenching, Callahan says. “We know [the show] is a great tool for law enforcement, for these families who are desperately searching for their loved one. It is difficult to be able to pick and choose which ones make it on. If we could feature them all, we would.”

Social media has been transformative in aiding the search for kidnapped kids and wanted fugitives, Callahan continues.

“We’re taking tips through our social media feeds. Not everybody wants to pick up the phone. Not everybody wants to say who they are when they call the cops. We have that bond of trust with the public that they can remain anonymous when they give us that tip. We’re not tracking your phone number; we’re not turning you over to law enforcement. We just want that tip. It often is the key that unlocks the door to justice. As insignificant as that tip may be, we want you to call us and give us that information. We’re also using social media to put those images of our fugitives and missing children out there. The most important tool when it comes to the recovery of a missing child is a photo of that child. People used to think of the National Center as the milk carton people—the pictures of missing kids on the back of milk cartons. That took time, getting the images to the printers and then the distribution of the milk cartons. Now we can do it instantaneously through social media and blast out these images and get millions if not billions of eyeballs on these photos.”

Callahan adds that ID is the “perfect home” for In Pursuit.

“Their audience is engaged. Our show needs an audience that pays attention, who is going to do the right thing, who wants to do the right thing. ID isn’t just telling true-crime stories; they’re solving true-crime stories.”

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WORLD’S END

IN THE STARS Almost every national constitution forbids the establishment of an official state religion. But this secular bent doesn’t stop people from looking to the heavens for answers to life’s most troublesome questions: Will I succeed? Will I find love?

Will I fight Tori Spelling over toilet paper?

Every day, papers, magazines and websites worldwide print horoscopes— projections for people born in a specific month, based on the positions of the stars and planets. While many people rely on these daily, weekly or monthly messages for guidance in their lives, some readers skip over them entirely.

The editors of WS recognize that these little pearls of random foresight occasionally prove pro phetic.

But rather than poring over charts of the zodiac to predict world events, our staff prefers to use past horoscopes in an attempt to legitimize the science.

As you can see here, had some of these media figures remembered to consult their horoscopes on significant dates, they could have avoided a few surprises.

William Shatner

Tori Spelling

Oprah Winfrey

Katy Perry

VANESSA HUDGENS

GAL GADOT

Global distinction: High School Musical star.

Sign: Sagittarius (b. December 14, 1988) Significant date: March 16, 2020 Noteworthy activity: Reacting to news reports suggesting that social distancing due to COVID-19 could be the norm in the U.S. through July, Hudgens records an Instagram Live video in which she calls it “a bunch of bulls***.” She adds, “It’s a virus, I get it. Like, I respect it. But at the same time, like, even if everybody gets it, like, yeah, people are gonna die, which is terrible but, like, inevitable?” The actress later apologizes and concedes on Twitter that her video was insensitive and encourages everyone to stay safe and healthy amid the pandemic.

Horoscope: “Think before you speak. Words can be powerful weapons: don’t use them blindly.” (arspoetica.us)

Global distinction: “Wonder Woman.”

Sign: Taurus (b. April 30, 1985) Significant date: March 19, 2020 Noteworthy activity: The onscreen superhero is inspired by an Italian living in quarantine due to the coronavirus who plays John Lennon’s “Imagine” on the trumpet from his balcony and rallies a number of fellow stars to join her in a rendition of the famous song. Gadot kicks off the cover and is followed by a host of other celebs. The actress is slammed on social media for being out of touch with the realities of those with more modest bank accounts.

Horoscope: “The saying, ‘No good deed goes unpunished,’ may come to mind as your kindness leads you down a complicated path.” (creators.com)

OPRAH WINFREY

Global distinction: Media mogul.

Sign: Aquarius (b. January 29, 1954) Significant date: March 17, 2020 Global distinction: “Captain Kirk.”

Noteworthy activity: The multihyphenate billionaire’s name Sign: Aries (b. March 22, 1931) starts trending on Twitter, linked to a conspiracy theory Significant date: March 5, 2020 Noteworthy activity: As part of a divorce settlement, the claiming that Winfrey was arrested for being involved in Star Trek actor and his ex-wife divide up their assets, an international crime ring. As the online chatter escalates, which includes four horses—and their sperm. Shatner is Winfrey breaks her silence to respond: “Just got a phone awarded ownership of two of the equines, as well as “all call that my name is trending. And being trolled for some horse semen” and equipment used for horse breeding, awful FAKE thing. It’s NOT TRUE. Haven’t been raided, or arrested.” She adds, “Just sanitizing and self-distancing according to court documents.

Horoscope: “It’s not selfish to take what’s yours, and you with the rest of the world. Stay safe everybody.” don’t need to apologize for knowing what you deserve.” Horoscope: “Protect your reputation, possessions and assets. Someone will be unreliable and manipulative, (lovelanyadoo.com) offering false accusations.” (bryantimes.com)

WILLIAM SHATNER

TORI SPELLING Global distinction: Actress & reality-TV star.

Sign: Taurus (b. May 16, 1973) Significant date: March 12, 2020 Noteworthy activity: The mother of five takes to Instagram to lament the issue of people panic-buying toilet paper in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. “We’re all sick, and the kids’ schools are closed, so we’re all home,” she says in a video post. “And the stores are out of toilet paper, and we have seven butts to wipe and no toilet paper to be found.” She later shares a selfie with a roll to confirm that her husband found a spare.

Horoscope: “If you manage to keep your impulsivity in check and plan ahead cautiously, you will be rewarded.” (horoscopefriends.co.uk)

KATY PERRY Global distinction: Popstar.

Sign: Scorpio (b. October 25, 1984) Significant date: March 5, 2020 Noteworthy activity: The America’s Got Talent judge plans a wine-themed pregnancy reveal that doesn’t go quite as planned. During a call-in chat with SiriusXM Hits 1, the singer explains that the news was printed on a wine label, and the bottle was to be brought to dinner. Perry’s mom spoiled the surprise by randomly snooping through her wine selection beforehand.

Horoscope: “If you are trying to keep the lid on something, it could take extra effort to keep it under wraps.” (realitytvworld.com)

Photo credits: William Shatner (Peter Kramer/NBC), Tori Spelling (Charles Sykes/Bravo), Oprah Winfrey (Nathan Congleton/NBC), Katy Perry (Peter Kramer/NBC)

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Promote Your Spring and Summer Lineup in the

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Showcase your new shows and library titles in the May Digital Editions of World Screen, TV Latina and TV Listings.

DEADLINES: Space Reservations: April 29 / Ad Materials: May 1 Contact Ricardo Guise at rguise@worldscreen.com for more information.

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