World Screen November 2024 by World Screen

Paramount’s Dan Cohen / Disney+ EMEA Commissioning Strategy

Previewing MIP LONDON with RX’s Lucy Smith

NOVEMBER 2024

WORLD VIEW By

Mansha Daswani.

PARAMOUNT’S DAN COHEN The chief content licensing officer at Paramount weighed in on new licensing models in his MIPCOM keynote conversation with World Screen ’s Anna Carugati.

MADE

TO ORDER The Walt Disney Company’s Diego Londono and Paolo Agostinelli on the Disney+ commissioning and licensing strategy in Europe.

EYE ON MIP LONDON RX France’s Lucy Smith offers up new details about MIP LONDON, running from February 23 to 27, 2025.

TRENDING ON The most-viewed clips on our video portals for the last 30 days.

Publisher

Ricardo Seguin Guise

Editor-in-Chief

Mansha Daswani

Editor-at-Large

Anna Carugati

Executive Editor

Kristin Brzoznowski

Senior Associate Editor

Jamie Stalcup

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

Ute Schwemmer

Ricardo Seguin Guise

President

Anna Carugati

Executive VP

Mansha Daswani

Associate Publisher

Kristin Brzoznowski

VP, Content Strategy

BY MANSHA DASWANI

View from the Top

Even with dramatic cutbacks at the major streamers, the combined content spend of Disney, Comcast, Google, Warner Bros. Discovery, Netflix and Paramount will reach $126 billion this year.

According to recently revealed Ampere Analysis data, the combined expenditure of the aforementioned top six will account for 51 percent of all global content spend. Disney remains the biggest contributor, despite its cutbacks, accounting for 14 percent of film and TV content spend this year, boosted by it taking full control of Hulu. Comcast is second, with YouTube third via its rev-share agreements with creators. Across the top six, spending on originals hit $56 billion, 45 percent of their total spending since 2022.

Netflix leads in global streaming content, averaging $14.5 billion in annual investment in original and acquired shows every year since the pandemic. Of the total $126 billion in content spend by the big six, $40 billion will be on the companies’ subscription services, including Disney+, Peacock and Paramount+. International has emerged as a key growth area for investments. You can read a deep dive into Disney+ EMEA’s commissioning and licensing strategy in this edition.

On the road ahead, Peter Ingram, research manager at Ampere Analysis, noted: “The content landscape will see low-level growth in 2024 as production schedules recover from disruptions caused by the pandemic and the [2023] writers’ and actors’ union strikes. However, while these top six providers will continue to account for the majority of spend, overall growth will plateau as companies look to refocus their output. This will include limiting commissioning volumes and prioritizing strategic investments and profitability to counter the current challenges of the media market.”

Inter Medya

Valley of Hearts / Deception / Love and Pride

Set against the backdrop of Cappadocia, Valley of Hearts is the latest drama on the Inter Medya slate from the Turkish powerhouse producer TIMS&B Productions. In the drama, a pair of twins confront the mother who abandoned them and seek retribution. Also from TIMS&B, Deception follows a family court judge whose seemingly perfect life is shaken when long-buried secrets, including her husband’s inﬁdelity, come to light. The Inter Medya catalog also features Love and Pride, about three sisters whose family wants to marry one of them off to a wealthy heir.

Kanal D International

Secret of Pearls / The Family Burden / My Mother’s Tale

Kanal D International is putting the spotlight on Secret of Pearls, The Family Burden and the new release My Mother’s Tale. “Now in its second season, Secret of Pearls continues to lead the ratings, while The Family Burden was the standout drama of the summer,” says Elif Tatoğlu, distribution strategy and sales director. “These series captivate audiences with stellar casts, top-tier production quality and gripping storylines that keep viewers engaged at every moment.” Tatoğlu calls My Mother’s Tale, starring Bergüzar Korel and Mehmet Günsür, “a powerful addition.” 10 WORLD SCREEN 11/24

My Mother’s Tale

“These titles captivate international buyers with universally relatable themes, exploring family bonds, loyalty and the pursuit of justice.”

—Elif Tatoğlu

Deception

Dan Cohen Paramount

By Mansha Daswani

Dan Cohen, the chief content licensing officer at Paramount, weighed in on new licensing models in his MIPCOM keynote conversation with World Screen’s Anna Carugati before being joined on stage by the stars of NCIS: Tony & Ziva, Michael Weatherly and Cote de Pablo. Paramount arrived in Cannes with a wealth of talent—it hosted a screening on the weekend of Morris Chestnut’s Watson; Cohen was introduced on stage by Tom Kenny and Bill Fagerbakke, voice cast of SpongeBob SquarePants , which marks its 25th anniversary; and Weatherly and de Pablo were in town to help launch the latest expansion of the hit NCIS franchise.

World Screen’s Anna Carugati with Paramount’s Dan Cohen.

“SpongeBob is one of our most important franchises, and we are doing a year-long celebration,” Cohen said. “We culminate it with a big new SpongeBob theatrical ﬁlm for 2025. So, you’ll see a lot of things along the way, including what my team and I love to do, the licensing of the library.”

Carugati asked Cohen, who also serves as president of Republic Pictures, about the company’s movie distribution strategy outside of the theatrical window. “One of the things we talk a lot about with films—also with television content— is windowing. In the film world, it has evolved a lot. For many years, the windowing for theatrical films was set and traditional. A movie was released in the theaters. Six months later, it was released in home entertainment, even though it had probably left theaters four or five months earlier. You had this dead time with the films doing nothing, and audiences had to be reminded of what it was for home entertainment. And then six months later, it would come to the ﬁrst television window. That was after the home-entertainment window, where 80-plus percent of your revenue would be generated in the first two months. If you look at that landscape today, all of that happens typically in three months, sometimes a little bit longer. You’re seeing windows accelerated.

“One of the things we talk a lot about with films—also with television content—is windowing. ”

It used to be the ﬁrst TV client and then the second wanted exclusivity. An HBO output deal would be completely exclusive, and you might follow with basic cable, where there are ads introduced, but exclusive. We live in a world now of co-exclusive deals, non-exclusive deals. Films move much more quickly. One of the new innovations [is that] we might license a movie to a FAST channel for a weekend.”

On finding new ways to window content, Cohen discussed the Paramount+ branded destination deals the company has been signing since its first one with Cosmote TV in Greece, announced at MIPCOM last year. “Consumers see ‘Paramount+,’ but it is a licensing deal; it isn’t a service our company owns and operates.” Paramount just clinched a new one with beIN Media Group for the Middle East and Africa. “Last year, we announced the first market; we’ll now be in 80 markets.”

Cohen continued, “It’s really a triple win. It’s great for our licensing business. It’s great for our partners, and the real winner is the consumer because Paramount+ is now in their market faster and in a better business model than if we had to wait until we felt the market justiﬁed us coming in and building and operating” its own DTC platform.

Cohen also discussed the AVOD and FAST space, noting that Paramount partnered with Frequency Networks to build turnkey premium channels. “We now have seven channels, and we’re

NCIS: Origins debuted this fall and is being sold globally by Paramount Global Content Distribution.

working with great brands like Miramax, a movie channel; National Lampoon, a comedy channel; we have two with The CW; and two with Tyler Perry and BET. We’re really pleased with the results. It’s another way for us to do business with clients. Typically, we will bundle that with AVOD content. It’s been heavily U.S.-centric thus far, but I had more discussions about FAST and AVOD [at this MIPCOM] than prior years.”

Cohen also highlighted the value of the Paramount Global Content Distribution library. “We have over 3,000 movies. We have over 10,000 episodes of television, and we’re constantly keeping those in circulation. They generate a lot of revenue for the company. NCIS is our biggest television

“We have over 3,000 movies. We have over 10,000 episodes of television, and we’re constantly keeping those in circulation. ”

franchise; it is a global juggernaut. In Germany, the new episodes are on ProSieben, but there are library episodes on Kabel Eins, 13th Street, Paramount+, Sky and Warner. ProSieben has an AVOD service with about 900 episodes. You’re constantly able to window, circulate and monetize. That franchise alone, there are 1,000 episodes. We’ve done over $4.5 billion of licensing of NCIS. That is a massive business, and that greatly helps fuel the production of new things.”

Made to Order

The Walt Disney Company’s Diego Londono and Paolo Agostinelli on the Disney+ commissioning and licensing strategy in Europe.

By Mansha Daswani

At the Producers Hub at MIPCOM, The Wa lt Disney Company’s Diego Londono and Paolo Agostinelli discussed the Disney+ commissioning strategy in Europe, co-productions and windowing innovation in conversation with World Screen’s Mansha Daswani.

Disney+ has been commissioning across Europe, with 73 commissions to date over eight markets. Londono, executive VP of media networks and content for EMEA, noted that for Disney+’s

Disney+’s Rivals.

ﬁrst year in Europe, the focus was on its strong slate of U.S. content, which drove its ﬁrst round of growth. It has now complemented that with a wealth of drama and non-scripted commissions in key markets like France, Italy, Germany, Spain, the U.K. and Turkey, “where we have teams on the ground taking pitches,” Londono

“In our early days, there was a lot of focus on full commissions, but as things have evolved, we’re much more flexible.” —Diego Londono

said. There have also been commissions out of markets like Spain, the Netherlands and Poland.

The focus is “local for local,” Londono continued. “We’re not doing broad multi-market English-language pieces. We’re commissioning across scripted and unscripted. On the scripted side, we try not to be overly prescriptive, but we all know the genres that work: crime, action-adventure, general dramas and soaps, and comedies on a limited basis. We’re across the gamut.”

Londono highlighted some of the platform’s key recent and upcoming releases, including Rivals, out of the U.K., based on the book IP; This Is Not Hollywood, dramatizing one of Italy’s most notable true-crime tales; and A Thousand Blows, from Peaky Blinders’ Steven Knight and set in 1800s London.

Co-productions and other funding models play a critical role in Disney+’s approach to original commissions. “We’re deﬁnitely open to different models,” Londono noted. “In our early days, there

was a lot of focus on full commissions, but as things have evolved, we’re much more ﬂexible in terms of the types of things we do and working with partners.”

This includes Whiskey on the Rocks with SVT in Sweden, which has the first window. “We come four months after in Sweden, but in the rest of the world, we’re in first position. That is something we’ll look to do more of,” Londono said. In France, meanwhile, Disney+ is working with TF1 on the French adaptation of BBC Studios’ Ghosts. “We have taken a first position in that, with a second window on TF1. We’re having conversations with broadcasters about different models to bring new content to the platform.”

Agostinelli, senior VP of affiliate and content distribution for EMEA, talked about the co-pro angle from his licensing vantage point. “We can leverage our relationships and the knowledge of our clients to identify needs and projects that could be of interest. And we can maximize the value and make sure both partners beneﬁt.”

Agostinelli also reﬂected on Disney opening up its coffers again more widely as its DTC strategy has matured. “Our objective is to reach as many fans as possible. We’ve been doing this for decades. Five years ago, when we launched our DTC proposition, it was about managing the shift in both demand and supply with changing behaviors and technology, making it possible to reach out to consumers in a much more effective way. So, we added to our distribution screens direct-to-consumer. And you

Disney’s Paolo Agostinelli and Diego Londono with W orld Scre en ’s Mansha Daswani.

can think about it; it only made sense when we launched directto-consumer to protect this new screen by holding a good chunk of content almost exclusively to Disney+. Things have changed. Dir ect-to-consumer is in a different stage of its life cycle. The service is well established in more than 150 million homes across the world, which is a testament we did the right thing at the moment. There was a need to rebalance our distribution strategy, which is something we had

“Our objective is to reach as many fans as possible.” —Paolo Agostinelli

planned from the begin ning. We want to maximize reach, and we believe in windowing between direct-to-consumer and third parties. Not only do we maximize reach, we have an opportunity to generate synergies and create further value. We can have an exclusive window on Disney+ and then license to third parties.”

He mentioned as an example Extraordinary from the U.K., which was licensed to ITV2 and ITVX just ahead of the season two drop on Disney+. “It raised the proﬁle of season one and engaged fans in season two. We’ve done more than 20 such deals in the last few months.”

Londono added that Disney+ is also acquiring content locally, “so we have a lot of conversations with free-to-air broadcasters in various markets to license content in a second window. It increases the local content on our platform and increases funding for free-toair players at a difficult time.”

Eye on

MIP LONDON

RX France’s Lucy Smith offers up new details about MIP LONDON, running from February 23 to 27, 2025. By

Mansha Daswani

The logistics for MIP LONDON, which takes place at the same time as the London TV Screenings, have come into place, including the addition of a kids’ co-production summit alongside MIPDoc and MIPFormats.

“MIP LONDON is about more content, more deals, more networking,” Lucy Smith, director of MIPCOM CANNES and MIP LONDON at RX France, said at a presentation about the new event.

“Let’s face it, London in February has become the biggest week in content in the ﬁrst quarter. We believe that beyond the existing screenings, there’s so much more potential business that can be done during that week.”

The new event, unveiled earlier this year as RX decided to close the chapter on MIPTV, “has a clear intent,” Smith said: “To open up an international marketplace to everyone, providing more opportunities for sellers, buyers and producers to meet, do deals, form partnerships, create showcases and discover content across the whole week.”

“MIP LONDON is about more content, more deals, more networking.” —Lucy Smith

The multi-genre international content and networking marketplace will be staged across the Savoy Hotel and the IET London. MIP LONDON will serve as a central hub, Smith continued, delivering “meeting spaces that can be adapted, whether you’re a small company or global studio; state-of-the-art screening theaters; and dedicated lounges for buyers and delegates.”

Smith explained that when RX announced its decision to end MIPTV, the feedback from clients was clear: “There was still a need for a market at the beginning of the year, but the calendar had become too congested. In MIP LONDON, we think we’ve responded to both of those.”

MIP LONDON and the London TV Screenings are not an either/or, Smith said. “We’re setting it up to attract additional buyers to London, to lean into those areas that are currently underserved, such as unscripted, FAST and kids’, and to open up and create a marketplace beyond only buyers and sellers. More people doing more business.”