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November 2023
WWW.WORLDSCREEN.COM
THE MAGAZINE OF INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
TV Drama Festival Recap / International Drama Screenings Festival Behind the Scenes of Concordia
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CONTENTS
NOVEMBER 2023 WORLD VIEW By Mansha Daswani. INSIDE CONCORDIA Showrunner Frank Doelger and stars Christiane Paul and Ruth Bradley go behind the scenes of the new surveillance drama. DRAMATIC CHOICES Sky’s Katie Keenan, RTÉ’s Dermot Horan, MultiChoice’s Waldimar Pelser, TV 2 Denmark’s Lars Erik Nielsen and SVT’s Karolina Stallwood on their drama wish lists. ZDF STUDIOS’ SCRIPTED EDGE Robert Franke and Yi Qiao showcase the rising importance of English-language content and U.S. and U.K. partnerships to ZDF Studios’ scripted strategy. BANIJAY’S CHRISTIAN WIKANDER The global head of scripted at Banijay leads IP creation and collaboration across 60 labels. FREMANTLE’S CHRISTIAN VESPER Across such acclaimed outfits as Miso Film, The Apartment and Euston Films, Fremantle’s CEO of global drama is driving the expansion of its scripted output across films and series. WINDOW WATCHING All3Media International’s David Swetman, A+E Media Group’s Alexandra Finlay and Global Screen’s Ulrike Schröder weigh in on how windowing and financing strategies are evolving. TWO BROTHERS PICTURES’ SARAH HAMMOND The Emmy-, PGAand Golden Globe Award-winning television producer has worked on such hits as The Tourist. UNIVERSAL TELEVISION’S ERIN UNDERHILL The president of Universal Television oversees a unit that produces the Law & Order, One Chicago and FBI-branded series. DISTRIBUTION EVOLUTION Dan March, managing partner of Dynamic Television, showcases how the role of the independent producerdistributor is evolving. FRESH HITS Bertrand Villegas, co-founder of The WIT, talks key trends in linear and streaming scripted series. A WORLD OF DRAMA Course corrections and budget recalibrations notwithstanding, the business of international drama is still vibrant. TRENDING ON The most-viewed clips on our video portals for the last 30 days. WORLD SCREEN is a registered trademark of WSN INC., 401 Park Avenue South, Suite 1041, New York, NY 10016, U.S.A. Phone: (212) 924-7620 Website: www.worldscreen.com ©2023 WSN INC. No part of this publication can be used, reprinted, copied or stored in any medium without the publisher’s authorization. For a free subscription to our newsletters, please visit www.subscriptions.ws.
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Publisher Ricardo Seguin Guise Editor-in-Chief Mansha Daswani Editor-at-Large Anna Carugati Executive Editor Kristin Brzoznowski Associate Editors Jamie Stalcup Alexa Alfano Editor, Spanish-Language Publications Elizabeth Bowen-Tombari Production & Design Director David Diehl Online Director Simon Weaver Sales & Marketing Director Dana Mattison Sales & Marketing Manager Genovick Acevedo Bookkeeper Daphne Menard
Ricardo Seguin Guise President Anna Carugati Executive VP Mansha Daswani Associate Publisher & VP of Strategic Development
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WORLD VIEW
BY MANSHA DASWANI
Going Back to Basics? Disruption, recalibration, course correction. The profound shifts in the international media ecosystem were top of mind as more than 11,000 executives convened in Cannes last month for MIPCOM. But the mood on the ground was less “the sky is falling” and more, as Lucy Smith, the market’s director, said at a closing press conference, “from challenges come opportunities.” That was the message from Bob Bakish, president and CEO of Paramount, in his Media Mastermind keynote. “Change brings new challenges,” Bakish said. “But it also brings new opportunities, including, importantly, in content licensing. While our peers were pulling back content and putting up walled gardens, we never left.” In his keynote, moderated by World Screen’s Anna Carugati, Warner Bros. Discovery’s Gerhard Zeiler had a similar message: “We don’t believe that putting everything into one window is the right business model or good for the consumer.” It was a similar refrain during the fireside chat I moderated with BBC Studios’ Rebecca Glashow and Ralph Lee on how the company is positioned to manage the disruption in the content business today. “We have peaks and troughs in this industry,” said Glashow, CEO of global distribution. “We’re making decisions and investing in content, not for this year, but for the long term.” And it does all come down to having the best content, Bert Habets, CEO of ProSiebenSat.1, and Henrik Pabst, chief content officer at Seven.One Entertainment Group, told reporters about how that company is bracing for the challenging days ahead. “Studios understand that we can only help them finance their content if they help us maximize our reach,” Pabst said. 8 WORLD SCREEN 11/23
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UPFRONTS
Inter Medya
Leylifer / Deception / Tuzak Among the titles Inter Medya has on offer, Leylifer comes from a partnership with Caracol Televisión. When Meryem and her family travel to Istanbul for a wedding, their plans to return home to Spain are disrupted after her husband is found dead next to a woman Meryem has never met. Deception centers on a family court judge whose 30-year marriage and two children give her the illusion of the perfect life until she finds out everyone is keeping secrets. Tuzak centers on two sets of siblings who cross paths.
Tuzak
ZDF Studios
The Swarm / Stories to Stay Awake / Before We Die Leading ZDF Studios’ November slate, The Swarm follows a group of international scientists investigating strange occurrences in the world’s oceans. When they come to the conclusion that an intelligent being is retaliating against man, they prepare to delve deep into the Arctic Ocean to search for it. The second season of Stories to Stay Awake, a reboot of the iconic 1960s Spanish series, features four new episodes. Before We Die season two continues the story of the war between detective Hannah Laing and the matriarch of the Mimica crime family, whose children are lovers.
Before We Die
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Inside Concordia
Showrunner Frank Doelger and stars Christiane Paul and Ruth Bradley go behind the scenes of the new surveillance drama Concordia. By Kristin Brzoznowski
he topic of artificial intelligence is front and center in the new surveillance drama Concordia, which is being brought to the market by Beta Film and ZDF Studios. The series is set in Concordia, a town powered by AI that is of the future and on the verge of expansion when dual catastrophes strike: the first-ever murder and a hack of its AI tech. A team races to solve both crimes but, in doing so, uncovers a shocking original sin that could bring it all crumbling down. Produced by Intaglio Films for ZDF, France Télévisions, Hulu Japan and MBC, the series is helmed by Frank Doelger
T
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(Game of Thrones, The Swarm). “I’ve always been fascinated by utopian communities; a group of people come together thinking that there must be a better way to create new towns, villages and societies to address the evils and problems tearing us apart,” Doelger says. “What is a 21st-century version of that kind of
“I’ve always been fascinated by utopian communities.” —Frank Doelger
community? Then, I had a very interesting meeting with my doctor, who was talking about medical technology and getting to a point where the advances in AI in terms of monitoring people’s health were going to be a new type of guardian angel. I was so intrigued by that! “So, I thought, wouldn’t it be interesting if AI was at the center of this new community and to examine whether AI itself was a force for evil or good or the people behind its exploitation and use,” he continues. The cast features Christiane Paul as Juliane, a mastermind behind Concordia. “She has to struggle not only with a murder but also a new city joining the Concordia family,” Paul says. “This is challenging her to lead Concordia and keep everything in balance.” Ruth Bradley plays Thea, who is brought in to contain the crises. “What’s great about her for the audience is that she’s entering this world with fresh eyes, too,” Bradley says. “She’s never been to Concordia. She is the audience’s eyes.” 11/23 WORLD SCREEN 13
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DRAMATIC
CHOICES
9 Story Media Group’s Katrina Hitz-Tough, Aardman’s Rob Goodchild, Our trademark opening session featured key scripted buyers from Epic Story Media’s Ken Faier and Cookbook Media’s Rob Bencal shared across the globe: Sky’s Katie Keenan, RTÉ’s Dermot Horan, perspectives on how to build 360-degree brands in a fragmented and MultiChoice’s Waldimar Pelser, TV 2 Denmark’s Lars Erik Nielsen crowded landscape. and SVT’s Karolina Stallwood.
Read the recap here. Read the recap here.
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We’re always buying the very best within the market. Talent is key, and larger-than-life characters.
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—Katie Keenan
The RTÉ Player has a sweet spot of 35- to 44-year-olds, slightly more female than male. We’re buying content for that age group.
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—Dermot Horan
Acquired drama still works well in linear, but the main focus for us is to increase the audience on SVT Play.
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I’m looking for likable characters, heroes that you want to root for and coherent storylines that are not too complicated. A more laid-back viewing of drama.
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—Lars Erik Nielsen
We hope we don’t reach a point where exclusivity becomes a luxury, but it remains key in our positioning.
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—Waldimar Pelser
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ZDF Studios’
SCRIPTED ED
Robert Franke and Yi Qiao, VP Drama and Director Drama, respectively, at ZDF Studios, showcased the rising importance of English-language content and U.S. and U.K. partnerships to the company’s scripted strategy.
Read the recap here.
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EDGE
t
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We have been prioritizing Englishlanguage drama for a while now. As a company based in Germany, it was hard to make sense of how things are being put together, packaged, financed and produced. We’ve done that with European languages for almost 30 years. Five years ago, we started looking into it. When Yi joined us in 2020, we decided that now is the time —Robert Franke to go full force into it.
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When the streamers started coming in, a lot was targeted toward one global commission. Now, we are going back to the initial co-production model, even —Yi Qiao with streamers.
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Banijay’s
CHRISTIAN W
In his post as global head of scripted at Banijay, Christian Wikander leads IP creation and collaboration across 60 labels at the company.
Read the recap here.
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N WIKANDER We are in a time of correction. Each commission needs to perform on its own merits. And budgets are under big pressure…. It’s extremely important that we can develop stories that are relevant for an audience today. The fact global rights are not the case all the time opens opportunities for producers. It’s so important that a producer is part of owning the rights. I’m also happy about the fact that stories today more and more are expected to do well in their own market. And I see that in many different territories, public broadcasters are coming back. That’s also good for everyone.
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Fremantle’s
CHRISTIAN V
Across such acclaimed outfits as Miso Film, The Apartment and Euston Films, Christian Vesper, CEO of global drama, is driving the expansion of Fremantle’s scripted output across films and series.
Read the recap here.
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N VESPER The downward pressure on budgets is good news for us in that there is more openness to co-productions than there was a year ago. There is some realization that it makes sense to work with studio partners. There was a period where everyone was insistent on raising the walls and having closed gardens. That era, for now, is coming to an end. That’s an opportunity. We seem like a big company and we are, but we’re also quite nimble. In an era of huge consolidation, there is something that comes from being as nimble as we are, yet being part of a stable and disciplined group.
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WINDOW
WATCHING
All3Media International’s David Swetman, A+E Media Group’s Alexandra Finlay and Global Screen’s Ulrike Schröder weighed in on how windowing and financing strategies are evolving in the age after peak TV.
Read the recap here.
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It’s not just the case that we’re attaching one co-producer, but there may be two or even three on a single project. We also do presales and provide distribution advances or MGs. The amounts of money involved are getting higher, and the number of these deals needed on any single project has —David Swetman gone up as well.
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Co-pros themselves are inherently more precarious. You have a range of different partners coming together. The key thing is figuring out how you can find that jigsaw, bring it together and have that hold so that you can bring the show to fruition.
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—Alexandra Finlay
You have the same ingredients every time: the money from the commissioning entity, soft money, tax incentives and an MG —Ulrike Schröder from a distributor.
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Two Brothers Pictures’
SARAH HAMM
An Emmy-, PGA- and Golden Globe Award-winning television producer, Sarah Hammond has worked on such Two Brothers Pictures hits as Angela Black and The Tourist.
Read the recap here.
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s’
MMOND One of the things that we always look out for is, is it crowded territory? That’s one of the things that often informs a decision, especially if it’s a genre show…. It’s a very crowded marketplace. How do you stand out from all of the things that are being read by the commissioners all of the time? How do you grab the viewers once you get something greenlit? That’s always a consideration. And it is a challenge because it is getting harder and harder to get those greenlights. On the flip side, there are so many places to pitch things to now.
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Universal Television’s
ERIN UNDERH
As president of Universal Television, Erin Underhill oversees a unit that produces the Law & Order, One Chicago and FBI-branded series, among a raft of other broadcast, cable and streaming hits.
Read the recap here.
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ERHILL The [Dick Wolf shows] are huge fan favorites every week. The crossover events, in particular, are so well received by the audience. Who doesn’t want to see Stabler and Benson together? The highest-rated episodes of a season tend to be those crossover episodes. Beyond the incredible stats that I could sit here and rattle off, it’s the value the Wolf shows bring to our library. Also showing the entertainment community that Universal is a home where we can produce 22 episodes times how many series year after year. In some ways, that is becoming a lost art. We can do it with our partners at Wolf Films and on other shows as well.
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TVDRAMASCR
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CREENINGS.COM The only video portal for the global TV drama community.
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The only video portal for the kids’ media industry.
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SCREENINGS.COM The only video portal for the factual programming industry.
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SSCREENINGS.COM
The only video portal for the television formats business.
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DISTRIBUTION
EVOLUTION
Dan March, managing partner of Dynamic Television, showcased how the role of the independent producer-distributor is evolving in the scripted business today.
Read the recap here.
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N
N
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If you step back and look at all the challenges streamers are under, their investments are still in the billions of dollars every year in content. That doesn’t have to entirely be global buyouts—it still can be acquisitions. If you buy a show, 99 percent of the time it’s going to be cheaper than making that show in that particular territory. As streamers start looking at optimizing their spend, we anticipate it’ll move a little bit back to an acquired strategy. I don’t think the money is going away. You have distributors like Dynamic that are well-capitalized and want to invest in content. There’s been so much negative price pressure, this is as careful as we ever have had to be in evaluating and analyzing the potential of a show.
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FRESH
HITS
Bertrand Villegas, co-founder of The WIT, closed out the TV Drama Festival by showcasing key trends in linear and streaming scripted series worldwide.
Read the recap here.
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I’ve heard that fiction is plateauing, that the number of new products is slowing, but according to our data, we have 3,700 new fiction shows launched over the last 12 months. That’s versus 3,500 the year before. Ranking the top ten services with new fiction, Netflix is on top with 400-plus new titles last year, ahead of Prime Video’s 130. Only two of the top ten are linear channels: Lifetime and Hallmark Channel, due to their rollout of TV movies. The top ten also includes Disney+, China’s iQIYI, Vqq and Youku, Shahid in the Middle East and the AVOD service Tubi. Series based on books accounted for 12.2 percent of all new fiction launched last year. True stories inspired 7.1 percent of new fiction. About 100 of new fiction launches were inspired by true crimes, a 40 percent gain.
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ZDF Studios’ Boundless—Magellan’s and Elcano’s Journey to the Edge of the Earth
A World of Drama
Course corrections and budget recalibrations notwithstanding, the business of international drama is still vibrant, from twisty crime thrillers to uplifting family dramedies and everything in between. Visit InternationalDramaScreeningsFestival.com to find out more about these buzzy non-English-language shows. DF Studios has been rolling out a string of high-impact, ambitious dramas as of late, including the six-part Boundless—Magellan’s and Elcano’s Journey to the Edge of the Earth. “The producers secured top-class talent on- and off-screen to do this epic story justice,” says Susanne Frank, Director Drama. “The high production value throughout makes this a premium ‘must-watch’ series that will captivate audiences around the world.” Frank also highlights the second season of the horror anthology Stories to Stay Awake, the reboot of the iconic Spanish series from the 1960s. ORF-Enterprise is bringing a diverse slate that includes a new coming-ofage drama, School of Champions, set at a ski academy. “In this intense setting,
Z
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the students navigate the thin line between love and jealousy, loyalty and betrayal, ambition and frustration in eight exciting episodes,” says Armin Luttenberger, head of content sales international. It is “a creative collabora- All3Media International’s Tree on a Hill tion of young filmmakers, an established Austrian production company and three public broadcasters.” While best known for its lineup of British drama, All3Media International has been steadily expanding its international lineup and arrived in Cannes with a new series from Wales, Tree on A Hill (Pren ar y Bavaria Media International’s Dead End Bryn), “the latest drama from the brilliant team at Fiction Factory, whose celebrated drama Hinterland (Y Gwyll) established Welsh noir as an internationally recognized genre,” says Lauren Jackson, VP of scripted content at All3Media International. “Set against the atmospheric Brecon Beacons, this anticipated series delivers a rich mix of dark humor, unique characters and a touch of the absurd as it follows the lives of two unlikely heroes whose quiet existence is changed in an instant when they find themselves on the wrong side of the law.” The company is also offering up two Nordic thrillers: Black Sands (Svörtu Sandar) and Blinded (Fartblinda). Crime and suspense are also on the ZDF Studios lineup, with offerings such as White Night, a 12-part drama set in two different time periods. “A family struggling to cope with an imbalance of power wielded by a person who is no longer alive, interwoven with a murder mystery, makes for a compelling series,” says Mirela Nastase, Director Drama. 11/23 WORLD SCREEN 41
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Global Agency’s Another Love
Bavaria Media International is showcasing a thriller with a more comedic bent in Dead End—The Sworn Sisters of Suburbia, which has two seasons available. “Dead End blends tension, dry humor and feminist relatability in a universal manner,” says Helge Köhnen, head of content sales. “The production quality mimics and updates popular narratives known since Desperate Housewives with international grace.” Turkish drama continues to find new fans worldwide, and Global Agency headed to MIPCOM with two buzzy new highlights. Flipping the script on traditional love stories, Another Love sees a prosecutor and an investigative journalist find each other as they search for a serial killer. Izzet Pinto, founder and CEO, also highlights a second season of One Love, calling it a “powerful drama about two people who seek to overcome their differences and find harmony.”
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TRT’s Come What May
The new slate from Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT) includes the youthful love story Come What May, tackling “contemporary themes such as social media addiction, family dynamics, generational clashes and parent-child relationships,” says Mustafa Ilbeyli, director of advertising and sales. My Lovely Family is set “in a harmonious yet playfully conflicted atmosphere,” Ilbeyli says. “It underlines the enduring importance of family and the comforting embrace of a shared home.” Another key highlight in the International Drama Screenings Festival is ZDF Studios’ sci-fi-tinged YA drama, Feelings. “The mystery and coming-ofage series is set in a fictional village in the middle of a mystical forest and tells stories about friendship, love, self-doubt and the great magic of feelings,” says Sebastian Krekeler, Director Drama.
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Trending On The most-viewed clips on our video portals in the last month.
Tree on a Hill Margaret and Clive Lewis live a quiet, unassuming life that is suddenly transformed when they find themselves on the run from the law. (All3Media International)
School of Champions Tells the story of a freshman class at Austria’s most renowned and prestigious ski academy. (ORF-Enterprise)
Monster Shaker Nine-year-old Justin winds up with a magic shaker that he can use to make tons of crazy monsters with awesome powers. (DeAPlaneta Entertainment Kids & Family)
Davey & Jonesie’s Locker Davey and Jonesie are a pair of misfit BFFs in a teenage prison of mediocrity. That is until their locker throws them a universe-twisting curve ball. (Blue Ant Media/marblemedia)
Talking Tom Heroes Suddenly Super In this action-packed new comedy, a group of friends discovers a strange device that grants them amazing powers. (Outfit7) 44 WORLD SCREEN 11/23
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