World Screen DISCOP Istanbul, FILMART & Pre-MIPTV 2016

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DISCOP Istanbul, FILMART & Pre-MIPTV Edition

WWW.WORLDSCREEN.COM

THE MAGAZINE OF INTERNATIONAL MEDIA / MARCH 2016

Drama Financing / Endemol Shine’s Sophie Turner Laing / Lionsgate’s Sandra Stern

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CONTENTS

MARCH 2016/DISCOP ISTANBUL, FILMART & PRE-MIPTV EDITION DEPARTMENTS WORLD VIEW

Publisher Ricardo Seguin Guise

12

By Anna Carugati.

UPFRONTS

Group Editorial Director Anna Carugati

16

Editor Mansha Daswani

New content on the market.

MARKET TRENDS

Executive Editor Kristin Brzoznowski

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Lionsgate’s Sandra Stern.

IN FOCUS

Managing Editor Joanna Padovano Associate Editors Sara Alessi Joel Marino

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all3media international’s Steve Macallister.

WORLD’S END

Editor, Spanish-Language Publications Elizabeth Bowen-Tombari

40

50

In the stars.

44

BEHIND THE SCENES

Associate Editor, Spanish-Language Publications Francis Rodríguez

30 INSIDE OUTCAST

Contributing Editor Elizabeth Guider

Star Patrick Fugit, Executive Producer David Alpert and FOX International Studios’s Sharon Tal Yguado provide a look at the new drama Outcast.

Special Projects Editor Bob Jenkins

—Mansha Daswani

SPECIAL REPORT

Production & Design Director Victor L. Cuevas

32 DRAMATIC SHIFT

Online Director Simon Weaver

Leading distributors discuss the financing and distribution strategies needed to roll out high-end drama across the globe.

Art Director Phyllis Q. Busell

—Mansha Daswani

IN THE NEWS

Senior Sales & Marketing Manager Dana Mattison

40 ENDEMOL SHINE’S SOPHIE TURNER LAING

Sales & Marketing Manager Elizabeth Walsh

The CEO of the Endemol Shine Group discusses the power of the company’s production and distribution network.

—Anna Carugati

Business Affairs Manager Andrea Moreno Contributing Writers Steve Clarke Andy Fry Jane Marlow Joanna Stephens Jay Stuart David Wood Copy Editor Stacey Wujcik

Ricardo Seguin Guise President

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WORLD VIEW

BY ANNA CARUGATI

Our Enduring Need for Drama Drama—it’s everywhere: relationships, families, the workplace, schools, hospitals, neighborhood streets, politics (have you been following the U.S. presidential campaign?), in government and between countries, and the financial world (look at what is happening to the stock market and to the valuation of media companies).

We can’t get away from drama; it’s been around for a very long time. The word “drama” comes from Greek and means action: to act, do or perform. The origins of drama were hymns sung in honor of Dionysus, the god of wine, fruitfulness, vegetation, fertility and ecstasy—he knew how to have a good time! In the 6th century BC there were festivals in his honor that featured song, dance, music and poetry. Later, the ancient Greek writers gave us the first great tragedies—Agamemnon, Antigone, Oedipus the King—and we’ve been hooked ever since.

While some of us want to avoid drama in real life— preferring to be observers of it at the theater, movies or on television, rather than participants—others thrive upon it. A school of psychology posits that some individuals who lived through high levels of crisis or even trauma as children—domineering parents, dysfunctional families, fighting, divorce—have the tendency to reenact conflict-laden situations and relationships as adults. Why? Even though they may say, and truly believe, they don’t want strife in their lives, they are drawn to these situations because subconsciously that is what is most familiar to them—better the devil you know than the one you don’t. There is an almost perverse safety for them in high-drama, reallife circumstances because that is what these individuals are used to, and they drag others into them.

I belong to the first group; I avoid conflict at all costs. I hate discord, disputes, disagreements, dissonance, disparity, all those “dis-” words. A contentious situation can literally make me ill. This doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate the value of a good argument that can clear the air and lead to better understanding. The problem is I express myself so much better in writing than I do verbally. I’ve never been quick on my feet with witty retorts. Blame my boringly normal childhood and the unconditional love I got from my parents, but harmony is my preferred milieu, my default setting.

So why is it that I love drama so much on television? I relish the give-and-take of relationships, not necessarily romantic ones, but between people in all sorts of settings.

I so admire people, mostly women, who can hold their own in a contentious situation. I live vicariously through them! Mostly, I love intrigue, investigations, crime solving, espionage and series that illustrate worlds unfamiliar to me. That’s what good drama is all about, and there is so

The increase in scripted series has brought topics to the small screen that wouldn’t have been seen years ago.

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much of it on television today. The only thing lacking is the time to watch it all!

There is an abundance of TV series, and John Landgraf, the CEO of FX Networks, famously commented last year that there is too much TV—more than 400 scripted series aired in the U.S. during 2015. His remark sparked a heated debate: too many series and not all can get adequately promoted and therefore sampled by the audience, versus not enough good ones that truly matter, can cut through the clutter and spark conversations.

I may not like confrontation, but I love discussions of issues and posing questions, so I have asked executives in our business what side they are on in the debate: too many series or not enough?

Sophie Turner Laing, the CEO of the Endemol Shine Group, whose interview appears in this issue, believes that there has always been great drama on television. The mushrooming of linear and nonlinear outlets has created more players clamoring for the genre because it carries with it such cachet for quality—which she rightfully points out is a bit of reverse snobbery because some of the highest-rated shows on television are unscripted.

Sandra Stern, the president of Lionsgate Television Group, also in this issue, says there can never be enough quality television and notes that the increase in scripted series has brought voices and topics to the small screen that wouldn’t have been seen years ago when there were fewer outlets commissioning scripted series.

We also speak to Steve Macallister, the CEO of all3media international, a company that sells a wide variety of programming, including a healthy slate of drama.

We have a feature that is all about TV drama. It reveals that, as has always been the case, the genre is expensive, but there are numerous financing models available to producers. There are a lot of opportunities for foreignlanguage drama; we’ve seen the success of Deutschland 83 and of dual-language series like The Tunnel. (American audiences, who have been dubbing-averse for generations, have taken to subtitles quite nicely.) In short supply, instead, are writers and actors. With so many series being produced, there is quite a premium on well-written, beautifully crafted, thought-provoking stories that feature complex, multidimensional characters, and on the actors who can bring them to life. We also take a behind-the-scenes look at the new exorcism drama Outcast, hearing from series star Patrick Fugit, executive producer David Alpert and FOX International Studios’s Sharon Tal Yguado about how this topic will translate universally. Good drama—we just can’t get enough of it!

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UPFRONTS

A+E Networks Roots / SIX / Knightfall Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Laurence Fishburne, Forest Whitaker, Anna Paquin and more star in the upcoming limited series Roots, a remake of the original iconic 1977 miniseries. A+E Networks is gearing up to introduce the new iteration to international buyers at MIPTV. The four-parter, which is a historical portrait of American slavery, is produced by A+E Studios in association with Marc Toberoff and The Wolper Organization. It is slated for broadcast later this year. “We’re really excited about that—it’s a new telling of a great story,” says Joel Denton, the managing director of international content sales and partnerships at A+E Networks. Another highlight from the company is SIX, an eight-part Weinstein Company and A+E Studios production for HISTORY. “It’s based on some of the stories of SEAL Team Six and it mixes the action with home life and everything else,” says Denton.

Then there is Knightfall, a companion piece to the hit HISTORY show Vikings. The ten-episode series, which will become available toward the end of this year, is about the Knights Templar. In addition, A+E Networks will be bringing a handful of new TV movies to the market in Cannes, while also showcasing fresh episodes from big unscripted franchises such as Ice Road Truckers and Pawn Stars.

“This [MIPTV] our focus is really on three big scripted pieces that we have coming down the pipe.”

—Joel Denton

Roots

BBC Worldwide The Collection / Planet Earth II / Top Gear At MIPTV, BBC Worldwide is launching the period drama The Collection, which tells the story of an illustrious French fashion house set in Paris just after WWII. “It has a great cast with Richard Coyle, Tom Riley, Frances de la Tour, Mamie Gummer and French film actress Irene Jacob,” says Paul Dempsey, the president of global markets at BBC Worldwide. “Add to that an award-winning showrunner in Oliver Goldstick and you have a title that has already stirred up a lot of interest ahead of launch.”

The company will also be at the market promoting the new landmark natural-history title Planet Earth II, which comes from the BBC’s Natural History Unit (NHU). “It’s hard to believe that it’s ten years since Planet Earth first came onto our screens and became a worldwide hit,” says Dempsey. “Planet Earth II is another game changer; it’s hugely ambitious and uses the very latest filming technology you would expect from the renowned NHU.” Another highlight for BBC Worldwide is the new season of Top Gear, which features Chris Evans leading the show alongside a roster of brand-new presenters, including Matt LeBlanc. “We started the buzz for the new season at MIPCOM and look forward to following that up at MIPTV as we get closer to completion of production,” Dempsey says.

“These three titles share absolutely premium production values, great storytelling and hugely accessible subject matter.”

—Paul Dempsey

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Calinos Entertainment Relationship Status: It’s Complicated / Emergency Love / Love, Just a Coincidence The fraught relationship between an aspiring screenwriter and a famous actor sets up the premise for Relationship Status: It’s Complicated, a series that Calinos Entertainment will be promoting at DISCOP Istanbul. Another series highlight is Emergency Love, a story of romance set in a hospital. These titles both have a lighter, more optimistic tone than some of the other dramas in the marketplace, skewing more toward romantic comedy, “which is a new and popular trend in Turkey,” says Besir Tatli, the general manager of Calinos. “We think that this notion is a good alternative for modern TV viewers. Both [series] have received very high viewership locally since their inception.” Also a top priority for DISCOP Istanbul sales is the film Love, Just a Coincidence.

“We are in the process of establishing new strategies and partnerships, which we believe will open a universal window of activities for our company.”

—Besir Tatli Love, Just a Coincidence

Caracol Internacional The White Slave / River of Passions / Tariqi The White Slave, a Caracol Internacional highlight for DISCOP Istanbul, tells the story of a woman raised by slaves after the murder of her family. The 4K series weaves a plot “about slavery and colonialism, something that represents a part of [Colombian] history that nobody should ever forget,” says Berta Orozco, Caracol’s sales executive for Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Meanwhile, the telenovela River of Passions chronicles a young man who decides to capture a drug lord in order to collect a bounty. Also being offered at DISCOP Istanbul is Tariqi, the Arabic adaptation of Caracol’s The Voice of Freedom. After the market in Turkey, the distributor will present a new talentshow format at MIPTV.

“DISCOP Istanbul is a very remarkable market for Caracol, since we are able to meet [existing] clients and make new ones from Turkey, the Middle East and Eastern Europe.”

—Berta Orozco River of Passions

CJ E&M Corporation Signal / Pied Piper / Memory From the director of Misaeng comes Signal, a new detective drama on offer from CJ E&M Corporation at the Hong Kong International Film & TV Market (FILMART). The company is also showcasing Pied Piper, focused on a genius negotiator working to defeat terrorism, and Memory, about a lawyer who is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. “For FILMART, we continue to work closely with our regional partners in expanding our businesses in line with a rapidly changing content market,” says Jangho Seo, the head of international sales and acquisitions at CJ E&M. For MIPTV, the company will premiere a number of new non-scripted formats. These include We Kid, a singing entertainment show; Look What Your Hubby Did, a reality format; and I Can See Your Voice.

“We are very keen on the development of regional OTT platforms and the possibilities [they] provide to showcase CJ content.”

—Jangho Seo Signal 18 World Screen 3/16

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Endemol Shine International Intersection / Mossad 101 / Grantchester Dramas about crime, action and love are the focal point of Endemol Shine International’s MIPTV slate. Produced by Endemol Shine Turkey, Intersection is a love story that examines the financial and moral commitments of contemporary relationships. Mossad 101 is a psychological thriller that follows a new class of cadets as they transform into members of Israel’s national intelligence agency. The company is also offering season two of the period crime drama Grantchester. Cathy Payne, CEO of Endemol Shine International, says, “In addition to the return of Grantchester, in 2016 we have returning seasons of international hit dramas The Fall, Peaky Blinders, Kingdom, Hell on Wheels, Dark Matter, The Tunnel and Humans.”

“Our focus for MIPTV is to showcase our non-Englishlanguage programming as well as our returning series.”

—Cathy Payne Intersection

FOX Cherry Season / In Love Again / Heart Never Forgets FOX is heading to DISCOP Istanbul for the first time and has a slate of Turkish dramas to offer, including Heart Never Forgets (Kalp Asla Unutmaz), In Love Again (Ask Yeniden), Cherry Season (Kiraz Mevsimi) and My Husband’s Family (Kocamin Ailesi). “These programs have [been] successful on Fox Turkey and now they are being made available around the globe,” says Prentiss Fraser, the company’s senior VP of global content sales.

“We are very excited to showcase our portfolio at DISCOP Istanbul this year to strengthen our relationships with the production community as well as the buyers of these fantastic long-running series. We have a steady flow of content from our own commissioning pipeline and attending DISCOP is important for us to secure more key partnerships for our content.”

“FOX has a top-rated selection of Turkish, Latin and Asian dramas from our global footprint of channels. We locally commission thousands of hours a year and are fortunate enough as a sales division to be able to bring these offerings to DISCOP Istanbul for the first time this year.”

—Prentiss Fraser Cherry Season

GDS Paradox / Tiflis / The Lost Heroes The Georgian channel GDS is kick-starting its sales efforts and chose DISCOP Istanbul as the market to make its debut as a distributor. Its offerings include the post-apocalyptic drama Paradox and the period piece Tiflis. There’s also The Lost Heroes, set against the backdrop of WWII. “We are sure that they will be successful internationally, as the stories we tell are not local and the production values are very high,” says Tamara Edgar, GDS’s head of sales. She adds, “We are also very interested in co-production possibilities and we think that Turkey, with its strong industry and it being a neighboring country, can be a good partner. Georgia now has a tax refund for foreign productions, and co-productions with GDS can prove to be highly cost-efficient while maintaining international quality.”

“Very often people have presumptions about Georgian product and we are happy to prove that we can make series up to international standards.”

—Tamara Edgar The Lost Heroes 20 World Screen 3/16

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Global Agency Magnificent Century Kosem / Queen of the Night / I Wanna Marry You Global Agency will be attending DISCOP Istanbul ahead of MIPTV and is highlighting a mix of drama series and formats for both markets. Among them is Magnificent Century Kosem, in which Ahmed Khan, the youngest sultan in Ottoman history, finds hope in Anastasia, who changes the destiny of the empire.

Queen of the Night, another series on the company’s slate, is a love story starring Meryem Uzerli (Magnificent Century) and Murat Yildirim (Love and Punishment). “The production values and the story lines of Magnificent Century Kosem and Queen of the Night exceed international standards,” says Izzet Pinto, the founder and CEO of Global Agency. Another highlight is the reality format I Wanna Marry You, which currently airs on Kanal D in Turkey.

“Once more we are satisfying our customers by bringing many groundbreaking hits to the international marketplace.”

—Izzet Pinto Queen of the Night

GMA Worldwide Wish I May / Because of You / Little Mommy GMA Worldwide has supported the Hong Kong International Film & TV Market (FILMART) over the last ten editions and is heading to the event this year with the drama highlights Wish I May, Because of You and Little Mommy. Roxanne J. Barcelona, the company’s VP, says that GMA Worldwide has “met most of our valued clients at this market.” She adds, “This is also an opportunity to further strengthen our partnerships and build [relationships] with new clients.” Because of You and Wish I May will also be key titles for GMA Worldwide at MIPTV this year, alongside Beautiful Strangers. “Our presence at MIPTV is an opportunity to showcase top-rating Filipino dramas from GMA Network and to strengthen our partnerships with content providers from Europe and Africa,” Barcelona says.

“This year, GMA Worldwide celebrates its 20th year in the industry.”

—Roxanne J. Barcelona Because of You

ITV Studios Global Entertainment Victoria / Drive / Highlands A new drama launching at MIPTV from ITV Studios Global Entertainment (ITVS GE) is Victoria. Dan Gopal, the executive VP of EMEA distribution and global digital partners at ITVS GE, describes Victoria as “an ambitious new eight-part series following the early life of Queen Victoria from her accession to the throne at age 18 through to her courtship and marriage to Prince Albert.” From its format catalogue, ITVS GE presents the new entertainment title Drive, in which celebrities test their skills behind the wheel of different vehicles in a range of challenges. Highlands, meanwhile, is a blue-chip natural-history series that Gopal says “offers an incredible portrait of the region’s stunning scenery, rich and diverse wildlife and the impact of the changing weather across all four seasons.”

“We look forward to showcasing our fantastic portfolio of quality content from wherever it has originated in the world to the global marketplace.”

—Dan Gopal Victoria 22 World Screen 3/16

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ITV-Inter Medya Endless Love / Join Instant / In Between Endless Love is the story of two young lovers who come from different parts of the same neighborhood, one glamorous and the other middle class. That title and the successful series In Between are among the Turkish dramas that ITV-Inter Medya will be offering buyers at MIPTV. “The production quality of our titles is world-class and the strength of our stories [makes them] quite well accepted around the globe,” says Can Okan, the president and CEO of ITV-Inter Medya. Alongside dramas, the company will be presenting a roster of formats, including the interactive quiz show Join Instant. “Our creative team has been working on developing new game-show formats for a year and we plan to surprise people by the variety of our catalogue,” Okan says.

“We believe a strength of the Turkish dramas in our catalogue is that they are fast-paced and very exciting.”

—Can Okan In Between

Sky Vision Hooten and the Lady / Agatha Raisin / The Secret Life of the Zoo From creator Tony Jordan (Dickensian) comes Hooten and the Lady, a drama series that Sky Vision is touting for international buyers at MIPTV. The show follows the adventures of an unlikely couple working together to find ancient treasures.

“In a market dominated by dark, serialized drama, Hooten and the Lady shines as a modern, pacey, lighthearted action adventure,” says Jane Millichip, the company’s managing director. “Tony Jordan’s script sizzles with wit and mischief.”

Sky Vision is also offering up Agatha Raisin, a book-based drama series about a big-shot PR exec who moves to a tiny village in search of peace but instead becomes an amateur sleuth, and The Secret Life of the Zoo, a documentary series that takes a behind-the-scenes look at Britain’s Chester Zoo.

“In the past year, Sky Vision made a number of strategic investments in independent production to build our production portfolio.”

—Jane Millichip Agatha Raisin

STUDIOCANAL Section Zéro / The Five / Baron Noir The political sci-fi thriller Section Zéro takes place in a near future when multinational corporations rule the world.

STUDIOCANAL will be promoting that title at MIPTV, along with Harlan Coben’s The Five. “The story line and characters are riveting, with twists and unexpected turns that will keep audiences at the edge of their seats,” Katrina Neylon, STUDIOCANAL’s executive VP of sales and marketing, says of The Five. There is also Baron Noir, a CANAL+ Creation Originale about a French politician who is plotting against his enemies.

“Revenge, betrayal and political intrigue on a grand scale is the wonderfully and wickedly woven tale of Baron Noir,” says Neylon. “The actors...are brilliantly talented and bring the characters and story line vividly to the screen.”

“At STUDIOCANAL we have a policy of maintaining a consistent level of premium content with international appeal.”

—Katrina Neylon Section Zéro 24 World Screen 3/16

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Televisa Internacional Trivia Crack / Generation Gap / Date My Avatar Game shows are at the forefront of Televisa Internacional’s growing formats catalogue, with titles such as The Assembly Game, Generation Gap and The Wacky Old Games. At MIPTV, the distributor is highlighting Trivia Crack, a quiz show based on a popular app, and the dating format Date My Avatar. The latter is a format with a twist: contestants must use an earphone to guide a person, often the physical opposite of them, through a date. “We’re always looking to be on the cutting edge of where the market is going by offering formats with unique, original and flexible twists in terms of content and programming,” says Ricardo Ehrsam, the general director of entertainment formats for Televisa Internacional. Also on the slate is the kids’ talent show Mini Me.

“We offer our clients programming solutions with formats that will set them apart in the market.”

—Ricardo Ehrsam Generation Gap

TRT—Turkish Radio and Television Corporation Resurrection / Filinta / What Happens to My Family The historical drama Resurrection (Dirilis Ertugrul) has been a ratings hit in Turkey, and TRT—Turkish Radio and Television Corporation believes this success will help to drum up further sales with buyers at DISCOP Istanbul. The drama tells the story of Ertugrul, the son of Suleyman Shah, who is considered to be the grandfather of the Ottoman Empire. Another period piece that is front and center for TRT is Filinta, which follows a young police officer in the time of the Ottoman Empire. Meltem Tumturk Akyol, international program sales manager at TRT, also highlights What Happens to My Family (Baba Candir) and the miniseries Seddülbahir, in addition to TRT’s new slate of TV movies positioned for prime time.

“Turkish audiences are open-minded to innovative projects.”

—Meltem Tumturk Akyol Filinta

ZDF Enterprises Ku’damm 56: Rebel with a Cause / Scream Street / First Flight: Conquest of the Skies Produced by UFA Fiction, Ku’damm 56: Rebel with a Cause is a three-part family drama that tells the story of rebellious, selfdetermined young women in the 1950s. ZDF Enterprises (ZDFE) will be promoting that title at MIPTV, along with Scream Street, a spooky stop-motion animated series for children; First Flight: Conquest of the Skies, a docudrama about the world’s first motorized flight; and You Can’t Fool Me!, a game-show format that aims to deceive contestants’ senses.

These titles “clearly bear the stamp of the finest productions,” says Alexander Coridass, ZDFE’s president and CEO. “Their topics are analyzed, distinctive and shaped exactly in such a way as to stun, shake and even spin audiences around now and then, but that never look for an easy way out.”

“MIPTV 2016 will be a particularly important market for us since we are lead partner of the special Focus on Germany, which will shine the spotlight on German TV programming.”

—Alexander Coridass

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Inside

Outcast

Star Patrick Fugit, Executive Producer David Alpert and FOX International Studios’s Sharon Tal Yguado provide a behind-the-scenes look at the new exorcism drama Outcast.

By Mansha Daswani hen The Walking Dead premiered in 2010, few could have anticipated that a series about a zombie apocalypse would become a global megahit. Based on Robert Kirkman’s graphic novels of the same name, the show, commissioned by AMC, marked the first time that the FOX global channels portfolio snagged all international rights to a series. When the 21st Century Fox-owned group decided to start developing original content for its global bouquet, it turned to Kirkman and his company, Skybound Entertainment, for ideas.

“I definitely wanted to be in business with Robert Kirkman after The Walking Dead—I would be a fool if I didn’t,” says Sharon Tal Yguado, the executive VP of global programming at FOX International Studios.

Outcast, premiering later this year on FOX globally and Cinemax in the U.S., stars Patrick Fugit as Kyle Barnes, a man struggling with demonic possession.

“What Robert said in our first interaction that got me really excited was that the focus is going to be on a character who is relatable, who is struggling, who has been surrounded by possession all his life. He comes to learn that if he wants to put his family back together and if he wants his life back to normal then he needs to go on this quest to find answers. While trying to put his family back together he ends up battling these dark forces. It’s not about the procedural element of an exorcism.

This is a guy who will go on this quest from a very human, personal, emotional place. That’s a character I will get addicted to and want to watch week to week. Putting that against a backdrop that is so unique and special that I haven’t seen on TV yet, that was a very exciting proposition.”

For Fugit, known primarily for film roles in Almost Famous and Gone Girl, among others, both the premise and the opportunity to work with Kirkman were what attracted him to the role. “I have some interest in [the subject of] demonic possession in that it’s something that’s been explored in films for a long time [but not on TV]. And then I found out it was Robert Kirkman, and that was very exciting. Robert Kirkman took the zombie template, as it were, and he shifted the perspective of it and looked at it from a different angle. He’s doing something very similar with possession in Outcast. But also what’s really obvious to me is how Robert has progressed as a storyteller. He’s evolving as a writer and you can see conceptually and through character and story that everything feels more sophisticated. Having that context to step into, as an actor, is very exciting.”

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David Alpert, executive producer on Outcast who founded Skybound with Kirkman, says of the casting of Fugit: “When he came in and did his first reading, we all looked at each other and Robert said, ‘I don’t think I can ever imagine anybody else saying those words again. He says them the way I hear them written in my head.’ When we heard that, we all felt the same—we’re done, we have our Kyle Barnes!”

In developing shows that can play across FOX’s 120-marketplus footprint, Tal Yguado is focused on finding ideas that can translate universally. “As a concept, demonic possession and possession in general is a worldwide phenomenon,” she says. “It’s scarier in a way than zombies, because some people do believe it’s real. Every religion has an aspect of possession and a lot of people will relate to it. They will come to it in different ways, but I think it’s incredibly universal.”

Fugit agrees, noting, “You can certainly imagine yourself in a Walking Dead scenario—[but] that’s a fantastic imagining, it’s a stretch. I think people, particularly people who believe in demonic possession, have a much easier time relating to this subject matter and subjecting themselves to the possibility of possession in their own life. This isn’t about one possession and how it relates to some intangible character or family.

This is about characters we can relate to and characters we can empathize with.”

Alpert adds, “Most people do not think dragons are real, most people do not believe zombies are real, but most people believe demonic possession is real, so we’re starting from an easier place. In a way, that sets the bar higher for us in that we have to treat this [subject with] even more respect and have to be more factual and diligent in our research. We’re going to ask the questions that I would want asked. If touching [a possessed person] with a cross makes the demon howl in pain, why is that? There should be a reason for that. Is it a metal cross? Is it a wooden cross? Is it crossed fingers? What about that actually works? Why does holy water work? Is it the blessing in and of itself? If the blessing is rendered in Latin, does the pronunciation of the Latin matter? Since Latin is a dead language, can we know that someone actually rendered the blessing correctly?

These are questions I have when I watch exorcism movies— everything from The Exorcist to The Conjuring, two movies I absolutely love. I always have those questions. How are those things possible? What degree of them being possible makes sense? We’re going to really examine that. And then slowly, because it’s Robert, the mythology itself is going to evolve to have its own consistency within the Outcast world.”

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BBC Worldwide’s The Living and the Dead.

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DRAMATIC Mansha Daswani surveys leading distributors about the financing and distribution strategies needed to roll out high-end drama across the globe. arlier this month, unconfirmed reports indicated that the American drama business was to welcome yet another new player: Apple. The tech giant, long rumored to be prepping a streaming service, is reportedly working with Dr. Dre on its first scripted project.

The company—which revolutionized anywhere/anytime viewing with the video iPod and TV shows on the iTunes Store in 2007—sees, like so many others, that compelling scripted content is at a premium right now. But when it comes to drama, especially the serialized kind that requires time and attention, industry watchers are starting to ask themselves, how much is too much?

“I don’t believe that there’s too much out there,” says Carmi Zlotnik, the managing director of Starz, which is delivering almost 90 episodes of original programming a year to its subscriber base. “Choice benefits the consumer and creates competition and differentiation.

People have the ability to pick and choose what window they want to invest in watching something. For instance, you can watch a movie in a theater or wait until it’s in home video or comes to pay TV. It’s like a cascade. You’ve got these pools of water that each fills to its own level before it drops down to the next level. Our job is to try to start with those assets as high in that

system of cascades as possible and fully fill all the pools, because the way people in media win is to make something once and then sell it multiple times to maximize the yield from the intellectual property.”

WINDOW SHOPPING The influx of new digital players has indeed radically transformed how distributors go about selling their properties. Any distribution strategy starts with assessing all of your options.

“There are some real opportunities to window content across free, pay and DTT channels, and we’ve got EST and the traditional DVD that is still clinging on!” says Ruth Clarke, the executive VP of global content strategy and investments at ITV Studios Global Entertainment (ITVS GE). “It’s a complicated space. What it’s meant for drama is the life span of these shows is getting longer. There are more windows. It’s not unheard of to sell a show through six or seven-plus windows now. It’s about clever planning and trying to preserve the value through all of those different windows. And then it comes down to carefully managing your rights.”

Stuart Baxter, the president of Entertainment One (eOne) Television International, stresses that it’s certainly no longer a one-size-fitsall approach. “I don’t think there is a generic single windowing strategy.

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It’s very much on a show-by-show basis. We weigh the various factors, such as the content of the show, the audience and any potential opportunities. You don’t just assume you’re going to go one route first and then wait and hope the second route evolves. Rather, you establish a strategy individually per show up front, with the right partners. Often when you’re an independent like we are, you do that together with the show’s creators, and you decide the best take-to-market strategy.”

Katrina Neylon, the executive VP of sales and marketing at STUDIOCANAL, notes that it’s essential to take a big-picture view of each show as you’re crafting a distribution plan. “Maximizing profits is obviously really important, but we must strategize on a much broader scale. What’s most beneficial to that actual series in terms of branding it? Having the right mix of windowing and reaching the right audience keeps the show in the public eye. That can be really critical in supporting the show [and] getting a renewal for subsequent series is also important.

At the same time, we don’t want to overexpose the series. So we manage the rights very carefully.”

Windowing is probably the most “head-scratching” part of the business, observes Keren Shahar, the managing director of distribution

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ITV Studios Global Entertainment fills its slate from a variety of sources, including ITV Studios, whose new output includes the four-part Tutankhamun, commissioned by ITV. at Keshet International. “It’s really a matrix. The ultimate goal is to maximize the long-tail value of your property. There is no one strategy for us because we have a heterogeneous catalogue. We have Israeli series, U.K. series, U.S. dramas and Korean dramas. At the end of the day, there’s a different life cycle and different levels of demand for each title.”

An English-language commercial drama would likely be best suited to a terrestrial deal first, followed by a rapid SVOD second window and then EST, Shahar notes. A foreign-language series might be better served with an exclusive first window on an OTT or pay platform, she adds. Such was the case with Keshet’s Israeli drama False Flag, which is premiering internationally on FOX. For Alexander Coridass, the president and CEO of ZDF Enterprises (ZDFE), digital platforms have been central to creating new opportunities for distributors of foreign-language drama. “OTT helped us make our breakthrough in the non-European territories,” Coridass says. “The users of VOD platforms are really interested in Scandinavian, German [and other European] programs—if possible in the original language. These are truly entirely new markets and possibilities.”

Liam Keelan, the director of scripted at BBC Worldwide, has also found that OTT platforms are creating windows for shows that in the past may not have found a home in the international market. “It’s the new platforms that want something that is genuinely innovative and fresh, that isn’t the same as [what’s on] some of the networks.”

For Keelan, BBC Worldwide’s current drama slate reflects the diverse needs of the market, ranging from crime series like Undercover and Thirteen to the Victorian ghost story The Living and the Dead.

DOLLARS AND SENSE While there may be a proliferating number of buyers and a seemingly endless demand for scripted, platforms don’t necessarily have more money to spend, meaning producers and distributors have to be much more strategic about cobbling together the financing on a show.

“You have to be smarter and more aggressive and more wide thinking as to how you set these things up,” notes Greg Phillips, the president of Content Television & Digital. “If a producer has settled a show in, say, North America, that gives you an opportunity to license it around the world. If they only need a certain type of service from you and they don’t need money,

then your distribution fees are lower. If they do need money, then we’re positioned to go not only to the broadcast and pay and cable guys, as we always have done, but we also have excellent relationships with the VOD and digital outlets. We try to weigh up what is the best way to pull the financing together and still leave us the opportunity to distribute a property on a long-term basis.”

ITVS GE’s Clarke reports that financing deals have indeed become more complex. “Film talent is coming over to TV and film financing has always been complex.

A film-financing deal is likely to have more parties at the table than TV. As companies have blended across into the TV space, they are often bringing with them the experience they have of film financing.

And also, film financiers want to get involved in this booming British TV industry. That’s great news, but they’re used to doing things in a different way. We’re all trying to find what new, more expensive drama financing can look like. There are definitely still the straightforward deals too though. It does vary across [our] portfolio.”

BBC Worldwide’s Keelan states that “there isn’t one set model— there isn’t even a half-dozen set models. It’s constantly changing, so any which way we can cut a

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deal we’ll do it to get the right kind of show on air. We’re looking at working with European broadcasters more than we were. We’ve got developments with ProSieben in Germany, which is looking for more episodic drama; we’re talking all the time to broadcasters/ networks/platforms in the U.S. Although British drama is incredibly important in terms of the portfolio, we’re looking at every different avenue.”

PLANNING AHEAD At eOne, too, a mix of financing models are in play, often dependent on the status of a project when the company comes on board. If, for example, a producer approaches eOne about a show that already has a commissioning broadcaster, step one is about “establishing the value of the anchor tenant and their definition of the show and how you finance the balance,” Baxter says. Who the commissioning platform is “will dictate the tone, the content, the budget, the talent, everything else. Then we’ll determine how to finance the balance of that show. Is the gap small enough and we can deficit finance that balance ourselves? Is the gap too big and we need a secondary co-producing partner? Or do we [finance it from] the host broadcaster plus some presales and a

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global partner such as a Netflix or Amazon for a second window?”

Sometimes, Baxter says, there’s no initial broadcaster committed.

“We work with [the producers] to develop a strategy and determine the different ways this show could be produced. The same show could be produced for a different cost, depending on where it’s [made], how much soft money is introduced, what talent is in front of and behind the camera. We always lean toward the higher quality execution, where we don’t compromise the budget and the show to reverse into a finance plan. We keep the integrity of the show as envisaged by its creators and instead provide them with options like a coproduction between a U.S. partner and an international partner.”

COMING TO AMERICA Having an American platform sign up as a partner on a project—as SundanceTV did on the ABC Australian drama Cleverman—can deliver a boost to a show’s budget, and its international potential.

“The opportunity to get a U.S. partner on board to fill a gap in the finance and retain the [distribution]

Harlan Coben’s The Five, a Sky 1 commission from RED Production Company being sold worldwide by STUDIOCANAL, was recently licensed to CANAL+. rights, and also still have the same understanding of the general [vision of the show], is so important,” says Henrik Pabst, the managing director of Red Arrow International, which is repping Cleverman globally.

“We still get the question from the buyers: where is the show on in the U.S.?”

Keshet International also landed SundanceTV for its British series The A Word, an adaptation of an Israeli drama. “They came on board before the show wrapped production and this is really a presale,” Shahar says. “That helped us secure the budget,

ZDF Enterprises has a number of European co-pro partners aligned for its crime series The Team.

although the show had already been commissioned by the BBC and was in production.”

An American co-producing partner, however, is not the holy grail.

“There’s a great opportunity for us to fully finance a show out of Europe and the icing on the cake is a license to the U.S.,” Pabst says.

One U.S. service that is a frequent international co-production partner is Starz. It signed up to the BBC One commission The White Queen, taking U.S. broadcast rights and most global distribution rights from all3media international. This year, Starz announced it was taking the creative lead in the sequel to the period drama, The White Princess. Zlotnik says that there isn’t a British partner yet on the Company Pictures eight-part production, but he does not expect it to be the BBC. “We understand that [The White Queen] didn’t work as well for the BBC. It worked extraordinarily well for us. And it was a great project for us to have international distribution rights on. Properties don’t have to work equally well in all territories. Something can work better for one partner.

The baton can then be passed to inherit the lead role in the project.”

International collaboration is one of three sources filling the scripted pipeline at Starz. It also has shows that it fully funds and sells internationally, such as Black Sails, and licensed series, like Outlander. “In my job, first and foremost, I have to think about the U.S. subscription business, because that’s the overwhelming part of our revenue,” Zlotnik explains. “But there’s also an international-distribution

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division (Starz Worldwide Distribution and Starz Digital) and a home-video division (Anchor Bay Entertainment), and part of my job is to supply them with product. It’s always a balancing act between shows that we license, co-produce and fully own, to make sure I’ve addressed all the different needs within our business system.”

International distributors aligning with American partners on scripted shows acknowledge that it can be a highly complex market.

ITVS GE’s Clarke notes that four factors influence how complicated an American deal is: “What the show is, who the partner is, when they come in and how much they’re paying! We have a longstanding relationship with Masterpiece [on PBS] and a good sense of which shows work. There’s a synergy between the audiences on ITV and on PBS. We’re really in sync, so they are good, collaborative deals. The challenges come more when the audiences differ.

We’ve had a fantastic experience with Esquire and Beowulf and that’s rating really well for them.

They built their own marketing campaign around it and have delivered the show to their audience, which differs from an ITV audience, in a way that works for them. That’s been a really interesting collaborative process.”

The key, Clarke says, is in finding alignment with the broadcaster you’re working with. “We have buyers in mind for a lot of our content. There are new relationships being built as more American broadcasters look to buy British programming, which wasn’t the

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After signing up as a partner on the BBC-commissioned The White Queen, Starz is now taking the creative lead on the sequel, The White Princess, which it will also distribute worldwide. case a couple of years ago. The standard deal in America is very different to the standard deal in the U.K. The perception of how deals are made, and the business affairs side across the two territories, are really different. Once agreement is reached, [and you’re] understanding each other’s idiosyncrasies, then you’re good. If there’s a misalignment, it’s tricky.”

20/20 VISION Whether in the U.S. or elsewhere, a shared creative vision is essential when multiple partners are funding a project.

STUDIOCANAL has developed a steady slate of multi-country copros, among them Crossing Lines, which had AXN among its base of partners, and the upcoming Midnight Sun, a CANAL+ and SVT collaboration. When developing these international co-pros, “You go out and look for channels that have a similar ask,” says Neylon. “It’s not always going to be the case. Something like Crossing Lines was an easier transition, if you like, in terms of the partners that came on board. It has aired on free to air, but we also know it sits very well on basic cable and very well on digital.”

If your partner broadcasters have different visions of a project, “you end up with a compromise where the show isn’t really what

the creator envisaged it to be,” eOne’s Baxter says.

As producers and distributors work out the complexities of various financing models, they’re also struggling with a talent shortage.

The U.K., in the midst of its own scripted boom while its top creators, writers and on-screen talent find more opportunities Stateside, is particularly feeling the squeeze.

“The tax credits have been a fantastic success for the U.K. industry,” ITVS GE’s Clarke says. “They’ve been brilliant in terms of drawing production into the U.K. One of the challenges with that is simply supply and demand. There has been a natural per-unit increase in costs, just based on the fact that there’s not enough space, people or equipment. It’s really competitive to get into the production studios and to get the top talent across the board— writers, actors and directors.

Everyone is vying for the next big ambitious show. That’s brought bigger budgets and I’d be lying if I said that wasn’t challenging for a distributor.”

Writers, in particular, are very busy in the U.K., BBC Worldwide’s Keelan says. The key to maintaining your talent pool lies in “relationship management,” he says. “If, for example, Russell T Davies is working on A Midsummer Night’s Dream [for the BBC], you want to

be involved in his next project.

You’re constantly talking to talent about what they’re up to and what would they like to do next. When we were with Andrew Davies at MIPCOM to launch War and Peace, we were talking to him about the next huge project he wants to adapt. Those conversations are happening all the time.”

TALENT MANAGEMENT It’s not just the U.K. though, that is causing some scheduling headaches for talent-seekers.

Content’s Phillips admits that it’s become “increasingly challenging” to find producers who are unaffiliated with distribution outfits. “So many companies have been subsumed into larger organizations.

That’s been offset by a larger pool of drama [projects] necessary to feed a growing appetite in the marketplace, and by the bar being raised all the time in quality. We feel we can lend [our expertise] to individuals who want to keep hold of their IP and take the lion’s share of the benefits and have more control, more input, into how their shows are distributed and where they are placed.”

Many distributors are casting a wider net to align themselves with producers with compelling ideas.

ZDF Enterprises expanded beyond its German-language scripted slate when it took a lead in representing

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Scandinavian series. “ZDF and ZDFE were the first to put their faith in Scandinavian series, and invested in them,” Coridass says.

“The global recognition of our coproductions confirmed that we were right. Scandinavian series remain a major pillar of our coproduction and sales strategy.”

However, Coridass adds, ZDF Enterprises is certainly looking elsewhere too to fill its pipeline.

“We’re finding many projects in Central Europe, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy and Spain. And, of course, U.K. fiction always offers great new products.”

Keshet International is also broadening its horizons. “We are doing more and more traditional co-pros in Europe,” Shahar says.

“We’ve identified stories that cross borders and that can be set up as co-productions with Keshet Broadcasting and Keshet International.

[We’re working on a] Keshet Broadcasting and European channel coproduction, produced in Europe and Israel, and Keshet International will be the deficit financier.”

Ultimately, “the best way to compete is by constantly innovating,” BBC Worldwide’s Keelan says, “and by working with talent that have real passion projects where they feel they are given space and the freedom to realize exactly what they want to do.”

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IN THE NEWS

have] the distraction of the integration. The new team is forming. We recently announced that Cris [Abrego] and Charlie [Corwin, co-CEOs of Endemol Shine North America and co-chairmen of Endemol Shine Americas] are taking over the whole Latin American piece for us.

The jigsaw puzzle is slowly falling into shape.

WS: How important is scale in today’s market?

TURNER LAING: Scale gets talked about a lot because in a lot of creatives’ eyes big equals evil, but it’s actually not about scale, it’s about your network, and that’s really what we’re focused on. Lisa Perrin leads Endemol Shine Creative Networks, the central hub that helps get these wonderful pieces of content around the world. And if you have a beautiful piece of content, we are the people who can turn it into a global hit. Having local production companies in 30 countries means that as soon as something starts bubbling in one part of the world—and the great thing is now with the globalization of content, great ideas can come from absolutely anywhere—we can pick it up and [roll] it out through our network.

WS: Why is it essential to focus on programs as brands?

In today’s world of infinite choice, brand is one of the most important things you can have, right?

SOPHIE TURNER LAING It’s been more than a year since Sophie Turner Laing became CEO of the Endemol Shine Group. The first 12 months were spent dealing with integrating Endemol and Shine’s operations, which combined consist of 120 companies in 30 countries. During the many weeks spent with the logistics of who and what remained in the group, Turner Laing’s main goal was to not let integration get in the way of creativity. Indeed, 715 programs from the various Endemol Shine production entities made it to air in 2015. During a panel at NATPE, Turner Laing sat down with World Screen’s group editorial director, Anna Carugati, to discuss her vision for the Endemol Shine Group. Turner Laing was also one of the recipients of the Brandon Tartikoff Legacy Award at this year’s NATPE, given to television professionals who exhibit passion, independence and leadership in creating programming.

WS: How did you approach merging Endemol and Shine this past year?

TURNER LAING: Carefully, because at the heart of our company are these brilliant, talented creatives, so the main thing was we tried to keep all the logistics of the merger away from the creative production, so they could do what they do brilliantly. And having delivered 715 productions in the middle of a merger is what I’m actually the most proud of.

I [also] thought that we really had to move very, very quickly—being in limbo about not knowing whether you’re in or out is just horrible for everybody. It was tough because there were lots of really good people [who left the company]—some left voluntarily and some we had to ask to go, because that’s what mergers mean. But I almost feel that 2016 is our first year [because we no longer

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TURNER LAING: Definitely. I do think—having started out my career working on The Muppet Show, which is obviously one of the classic brands—that in a world with infinite choice and infinite delivery pipes, it’s the program brand that we as viewers go searching for. For me, the most fascinating challenge going forward is how to take these iconic brands that we have and develop them from a B2B business into a B2C business. If you look at the success of MasterChef or Big Brother, which are definitely our superbrands, and there aren’t very many superbrands out there, I always get asked, When’s the end of them? Are they showing any sign of decline? But CBS had its 17th [season] of Big Brother last year. It’s phenomenal, and the ratings are still marvelous. We just finished MasterChef in the U.K. and knocked it out of the park, and [had] the highest ratings for MasterChef in Australia, so there’s something about the familiarity about these superbrands that for us is incredibly important.

WS: How does a brand become a superbrand?

TURNER LAING: Obviously you have to have a show that really connects with an audience. You could say that Big Brother and MasterChef are very, very different shows, but that’s great because it means that we have options for all sorts of different broadcasters that have different audiences to hit and have to attract different advertisers. The clever bit about the teams who work on Big Brother and MasterChef is it’s a constant evolution of those shows, so it’s not just, Put the same old thing on again next year; it’s, How do you change it slightly so you don’t lose the audience who love

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the heart of that show but give them something new every time? And MasterChef is, I think, brilliant. Look at the variants that we have. My favorite is MasterChef Junior. It is the most enchanting, warm show to watch and [in] teaching kids about healthy eating, how to cook, with obesity out there, I feel so proud of what the teams do on that.

WS: There has never been more and better television than there is today and yet viewership on many linear channels is declining. What does the television industry have to do to remain relevant in today’s ever-evolving media landscape?

TURNER LAING: Having spent 11-odd years at Sky, I think the word “broadcaster” is probably outdated, because if you look at catch-up and online and SVOD, all channels are trying to make sure that their content is available on all platforms, and we work very, very closely with all our customers to [make] that happen.

To remain relevant they’ve got to keep the audience there. And there is definitely a migration of the younger audience to mobile, so what does that mean for a linear channel and scheduling? You and I have children the same age and our eldest are now working.

When they come home from a really hard day at work, they want to sit in front of the TV and vegetate. I’m

down, so it’s hard [to get a precise number at any given time]. My job is to make sure that we stay connected, because if as a team we can learn from each other, share ideas and do that really fast—pace is everything in this business—then I will have achieved the goal. For me it’s literally about joining dots, every single day looking at schedules and thinking, Oh, I must tell somebody about that and this and that, and it’s fascinating, and it means that every day is totally different.

WS: And the communication between 120 companies is…

TURNER LAING: It’s good actually. We have two brilliant heads of communication, one in L.A. and one in London, so we cover all time zones, which is very important.

We do a monthly call where I have about 60 people on WebEx [which provides video conferencing services], and we talk about shows, share clips. Then we do gatherings because, at the end of the day, we’re a people business and face-to-face interaction is always the best thing. So we have creative days where we gather everybody up from around the world, and development days, all that fun stuff.

WS: In your many years as an acquisition and programming executive, has drama ever been at such a premium?

ENDEMOL SHINE GROUP not sure that they are online searching for program X. But ultimately, at the end of the day it’s all about content. If you can create and the buyer can choose the best that there is, you’re off to the races.

WS: What challenges and opportunities does this vast landscape offer a company like Endemol Shine?

TURNER LAING: Well, the biggest trick is trying to remember who is in the company! There are about 5,000 people, but productions crew up and crew

TURNER LAING: We’ve always been fortunate that there’s been great drama out there. I think the proliferation of pipes that technology brings us means there are a million and one different sources hungry for content that really stands out, and drama carries a particular flag on it that says “quality,” which is a kind of reverse snobbery actually of our business, because the big numbers go to the entertainment shows. So we’re as proud of Big Brother and MasterChef as we are of Broadchurch or even our new Turkish drama Intersection, which is absolutely fabulous.

On stage at NATPE, Sophie Turner Laing sat down with World Screen’s Anna Carugati for a one-on-one interview.

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WS: Does the current focus on drama offer opportunities to experiment more in the unscripted realm?

TURNER LAING: That is a great challenge for us because given the cost of drama, that is very hard to sustain, week in, week out, if you are a programmer. So our big challenge (and we’re kind of getting our creative heads around it) is, What does non-scripted mean in OTT? No one’s really cracked that yet. That’s very much a focus for us because obviously that is a lower-cost option.

The thing I love is that I have an archive of glittering jewels of IP, thousands and thousands of hours of shows. I challenged the [team] to work at how you do game shows on Snapchat, because it’s absolutely perfect for answering questions.

WS: What is Endemol Shine doing in the area of shortform content?

TURNER LAING: We’re doing quite a lot, actually. Both Endemol and Shine had already got their toes quite wet in this area. We produce Michelle Phan’s ICON channel. We also have a brilliant concept called Legends of Gaming, which is where you watch video gamers play games, which seemed to me quite an interesting concept, but it is huge, absolutely huge.

What’s so fascinating about it is, in fact, it’s just like the old-fashioned TV business, because we’re taking a format that was created in the U.K. and we now have Legends of Gaming U.S. or Legends of Gaming Brasil, so actually the network and the structure that we have for linear programming is exactly the same for digital. But there’s a lot of fun to be had there, and I think one of the challenges and one of the upsides for us is we have legions of brilliant storytellers. While ad agencies are brilliant at 30- or 60-second spots, with the advent of ad-blocking, it’s going to be really interesting to see how brands connect with their customers. They’re going to want to tell stories. I think that’s an enormous opportunity for us.

WS: Do your skills and instincts as an acquisitions, programming and commissioning executive still inform what you do today?

TURNER LAING: What is really fun for me is that I feel like I’ve gone full circle. When I was working for Jim [Henson] I was in the international world out there selling and now I’m back in the international world out there selling. And now a lot of people who I used to sell to, I’m back selling to, which is quite scary in another way! [Laughs] But I think it’s about taste and instinct, and you never lose that. I sit there and watch these great pieces of content, and it’s with a buyer’s eye still; that’s hard to get out of the system.

The combined Endemol Shine catalogue features a mix of scripted and unscripted series produced for a range of international networks, including, from top, Humans, Big Brother, MasterChef and Hunted.

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WS: What shows are in the pipeline for 2016?

TURNER LAING: I’m really proud of what Cris and Charlie are doing in the U.S. Hispanic market, because that’s quite a new area for us. Gran Hermano [Big Brother] launched on Telemundo recently, and we just got commissioned by Telemundo again to do our first Hispanic drama. It’s [called] El Vato and it’s the equivalent of a Mexican Entourage. It sounds cool to me!

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MARKET TRENDS

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SANDRA STERN

LIONSGATE Since Lionsgate started producing for television nearly 20 years ago, it has distinguished itself by thinking outside of the box. It immediately spotted opportunities within the pay-TV landscape, and, with a more limited budget to spend on development than the major studios, was willing to forge partnerships and make innovative distribution deals. Lionsgate, in fact, was one of the first studios to work with nonlinear platforms.

One of the architects of those deals was Sandra Stern, who today is the president of Lionsgate Television Group. She shares her views of the vibrant market for scripted programming.

By Anna Carugati WS: FX Networks’s John Landgraf started quite a debate when he said there are too many shows on television. What is your opinion?

STERN: I think there is never too much good television. We may not have time to appreciate all of it. I’ve got queues of shows that I haven’t gotten to yet, but I think it’s a luxury to be able to complain about too much quality. There is a lot of high-end television, the quality has never been better, and that is going to come at the expense of what we used to call programmers, the things that you watched because you had a half-hour to kill. TV today has got to be somebody’s favorite show, and right now there are enough good shows that almost everything that is going to survive is somebody’s favorite show.

WS: Is television moving into a niche period, where a show no longer needs to be something for everybody, it can be something super special for a smaller group of viewers?

STERN: It seems to me that’s where television had started to go about a dozen years ago when cable started doing original programming. I know there was some original programming before the past dozen years, but when cable really came into its full flourishing, it was, by and large, with much more targeted [programming]. Yes, you had the general [entertainment] cable networks like USA and TNT, but when you looked at the cable landscape, FX was very different from Lifetime and it was going for a very different audience from Spike.

These channels programmed for more targeted audiences, with the understanding that they were not going to get the kind of 18-to-49 audience that broadcast networks had to go after. They didn’t have to have something for everybody. Mad Men became the first breakout hit for AMC with an audience share that probably would have gotten it canceled on any broadcast network. But Mad Men established a particular brand for AMC. When you look at the cable landscape you are seeing more targeted, more branded programming.

WS: In today’s multiplatform world, how do you describe a successful show?

STERN: That’s a very good question. Largely, the networks will describe a successful show based on whether they want to pick it up again. Ted Sarandos [Netflix’s chief content officer] recently spoke in defense of why he doesn’t publish ratings.

He says a show may appeal to a particular audience that he is trying to encourage and although the numbers may not be great, it may still be targeting an audience that he is focused

on. So, I’ve got all sorts of different definitions for success.

Ultimately, the high-minded part of me says a successful show is a show that I can step away from and say I’m very proud of, but since we don’t produce for ourselves, I always hope to do shows that I’m proud of. You want to feel that your show is not simply appealing to an audience, but [starting] a conversation. Sometimes you are not getting the broad audience, but you are defining the conversation, you are making a statement that speaks to what you want to say and to the brand that you want to put out there. So I may not get a huge audience on a particular show, but if that audience is vocal and engaged and committed, first of all, I feel like I’ve done what I set out to do, and second of all, I feel like an audience will come. I remember when we did Mad Men; it was AMC’s first original [drama series]. It took a little time for people to not only find the show, but simply to get their arms around the fact that, Oh, AMC is doing original programming. We have a new series going into its second season now on Hulu called Casual. It’s a show that I’m very, very proud of. I have no idea what the numbers are on Hulu, but I know that Hulu is building its profile, and as its profile builds as a destination not only for reruns but also for original programming, and as they build their brand and their audience awareness, Casual—because it is a very well-done show and does have something to say—will grow with it, so that is a successful show.

WS: Can a show create buzz even if it’s on a streaming platform that releases all 10 or 13 episodes at once, as opposed to having a weekly show where anticipation can be created for the next week’s episode?

STERN: There are pros and cons to both, but I do think the pros outweigh the cons in terms of giving audiences choice. I often say nobody ever got rich or successful by not giving the customer what he or she wants! And what the customers want, what I want as a consumer, is choice.

It’s a very easy target to talk about the release of episodes all at once and whether that is good or bad for buzz, but even on traditional television, it is not at all unusual for people to save up episodes and watch several at once. I’ll go to the office and someone will say, Oh my God, did you see [show X] last night?

And somebody else will say, Don’t tell me, I haven’t seen it yet!

Those are shows with a traditional once-a-week pattern.

What has happened is people find their own patterns and then they find their communities. They may talk more generally [in person] to people who haven’t caught up yet on that

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The Lionsgate-produced series Orange Is the New Black was recently renewed by Netflix for an additional three seasons.

episode. But online communities are much, much more vibrant. That to me is the most exciting change in the past few years, how people use social media not just to exchange funny videos or [pictures] from their holiday vacation, but to actually exchange ideas and opinions [about television shows].

Going back to your previous question, how do you define success, one of the things our marketing team does for us, and I do, is go online to get a sense of what the buzz is for any particular show. I was talking to one of our marketing people about The Royals. He said there is a lot of online chatter, people were missing a particular character and wanted to see more of her. I need to pay attention to that. I’m really happy people are talking about the show. That tells me the show is in the public consciousness, which is a good thing. People have opinions about the characters and those opinions go beyond the person they happen to be having a cup of coffee with in the kitchen or at the watercooler, or whatever that modern watercooler is. That’s the exciting thing about how we are doing television today and the immediate connection we have with the audience. I don’t think that changes whether you put out one episode a week or all at once and let people choose what they want.

WS: Is Lionsgate broadening the net it casts searching for IP for potential TV series?

STERN: One of the things we are seeing is that with more series, doors have opened for a lot of nontraditional content creators.

Ten years ago there was a large network of really talented showrunners and writers and people who had spent their careers—and at times long careers—in the TV world. They were operating initially in a world where there were four or five networks and primarily coming up with original content. I think about the great TV shows of the past: Seinfeld, Mad About You, ER, those all came from the fertile imagination of a really smart guy who had a vision of what he wanted to say.

Today, with so many outlets and so many people migrating into television, people are relying on things other than original ideas. Orange Is the New Black is based on a book. [Creator and showrunner] Jenji [Kohan] pretty much mined the entire book in the pilot; everything else was her imagination! What we are seeing today is a far greater reliance on pre-existing IP. We have probably a half-dozen projects in development at various outlets based on Lionsgate features that may have lived out their life

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expectancy in film, but they have become really fertile ground for television. Characters were created in those films that had more to say, that had a continuing life. We want to delve deeper into those characters than we were able to in 96 minutes. I often say that a movie is like a one-night stand and a TV series is like a long-term marriage; there are compromises that you make along the way, but the depth of the relationship, the level to which you can explore character and the stories you can tell often need time to play out.

We are seeing a lot of that, taking IP from different worlds and adapting it to a long-term relationship.

[We are also singling] out a lot more books and a lot more foreign formats. We are starting production on Feed the Beast, a new series for AMC. It’s our first with them since Mad Men. It is coming from a showrunner who has been around a very long time, Clyde Phillips, who did the first four seasons of Dexter and the last three seasons of Nurse Jackie.

There has been recognition that not all creativity [has to come from] the U.S. There are talented and creative people all around the globe, with unique and interesting things to say [that] speak to universal issues that can be easily adapted to American sensibilities.

WS: Lionsgate has frequently partnered on projects.

STERN: Lionsgate is a very good partner. A lot of studios don’t like to partner, they respond negatively to a network saying, If you want to be on our air you’ve got to partner with us and give us half of your show. I’m OK with it. I like to keep my own show, but we are good partners and we understand the world. But what we are primarily looking for when we look for a partner is a strategic partnership.

At Lionsgate we see the world as a very diverse but also very integrated place, so we like producing in different countries, taking advantage of different talent, and we are not so immodest to think we know how to do everything ourselves. We shoot The Royals in London with an almost entirely British cast and an entirely British crew. The Brits know their system better than we do. We like having a partner.

We are a pure content company. We have always believed— long before it became a mantra—if you build it they will come.

If you create good, compelling content, with a point of view and a statement, you will find an audience and you will find partners.

We built that one step at a time. We put on the air [one of] Showtime’s first [originals], Weeds; and Starz’s first original scripted shows, Crash and Boss, and AMC’s with Mad Men and Netflix’s second [original] series. We are launching Graves on EPIX. We put [on one of] Hulu’s first [original] shows and now have five series on Hulu. We like to find the right partner and sometimes it’s a traditional player and sometimes it’s a nontraditional player. What maybe distinguishes us from everybody else is that we are excited about those new partnerships. It’s what gets me up in the morning—how can I do something today a little different than yesterday? Not just for the sake of novelty but because it is a smart way to expand and move my business forward.

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IN FOCUS

It was also clear that our presence as a business was too U.K.-centric, so during this year we will be opening offices in the U.S. and in the Asia-Pacific region. To that end, I’ve rearranged the way our sales team is structured so that we are now organized around geographic regions. We’re investing more in market research, too, and are in the process of establishing an insight department to help us focus on the emerging opportunities around the world as well as anticipate future trends.

Steve Macallister all3media international

By Mansha Daswani

As the distribution arm of British superindie all3media—which is co-owned by Liberty Global and Discovery Communications— all3media international can tap into the output of 20 leading production companies, among them Company Pictures, Maverick, Lion Television and Studio Lambert. With those relationships, alongside third-party distribution pacts, all3media international has carved out a reputation as a reliable supplier of high-end drama, top-rating factual entertainment and hit formats. As CEO Steve Macallister tells World Screen, he is positioning all3media international for further global expansion in 2016.

WS: What’s the overall strategy you’ve put in place since joining all3media last year?

MACALLISTER: One of the first things I did was sit down with our internal and external producer partners to go through their development slates. It was clear from the outset that we have a wealth of fantastic projects to work with them on. So the natural next step for us was to commit to significantly increasing our investment into content.

We’re also looking at establishing a more proactive approach to international co-production financing for scripted content—partly to help mitigate risk, but also because true co-production financing is sometimes the best way to get certain projects funded. I know it’s been said many times, but there really has been an explosion in the number of buyers out there looking for channeldefining content. We’re currently talking with a number of potential co-pro partners around the world about coming on board projects that will resonate particularly well with international audiences.

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WS: How long do you think this high-end scripted trend can be sustained for?

MACALLISTER: There’s no question that there’s more scripted content out there than there’s ever been. And that’s partly due to an underlying shift of innovative scripted storytelling moving from movies to TV—I don’t see that trend reversing, to be honest. The key thing for us is to make sure we work with the best producers and invest in the best stories. Stories that have a real point of difference. Good-quality shows will always sell and will always find a home. We need to make sure that we are smart about how we find the best route to market for those shows to give them the best possible chance for them to stay on air, for example by working with broadcasters that care about the shows as much as we do. And, of course, with the emergence of SVOD we’re no longer in a world where there is a finite number of broadcast slots available to license drama into. Consumers now have more control than ever on what they watch and when.

WS: Are you looking at scripted opportunities out of France, Germany or other markets?

MACALLISTER: Yes, we’re always on the lookout for great, quality content that will complement our catalogue. And while our slate is ostensibly English-speaking, we’ve been working with Filmpool (one of all3media’s production companies in Germany) to market their constructed-reality catalogue in Central and Eastern Europe. These shows have a reality feel but are fully scripted and we’ve been selling them as formats and to German-speaking territories for several years. Looking forward, we are certainly keen to extend that approach and if the right show comes along that suits our catalogue, a high-quality crime series for example to sit among our acclaimed detective strands, we’d certainly look at it seriously.

WS: What are some of the new developments on the formats front?

MACALLISTER: Formats are a big driver for us in emerging markets such as Asia and Latin America—indeed our formats business has been doubling in size in Asia each year for the last five years. With so many more producers and broadcasters developing original formats, there has never been more choice for format buyers. Only the most innovative titles are breaking through—hybrids like You’re Back in the Room and our own Gogglebox (now licensed in 35 territories) are selling well. The next format hit is no longer guaranteed to come from one of just a handful of countries. To that end, we are sponsoring the ATF Formats Pitch [at Asia TV Forum] to foster relationships with talented Asian producers who may well have the next big thing on their hands.

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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 Neil Patrick Harris send me a “dick pic”?

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 prophetic.

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.

Taraji P. Henson

Neil Patrick Harris

Abby Lee Miller

Salma Hayek

TARAJI P. HENSON

ABBY LEE MILLER

time show, Henson shares a video of the performance on Instagram, with the caption: “YAAAAAAASSSSSS!!!! #maroon5 is life to me!!! #superbowl50 #HappyCamper I am.” However, the actress accidentally confuses the U.K.’s Coldplay—who actually headlined the halftime show—with American rock band Maroon 5.

Horoscope: “You may not be as up to date on events as you think. At least ask questions that will yield information. They may also prevent you [from] making an embarrassing mistake.” (m.gulfnews.com)

TV star is placed on hold when she calls a local Pizza Hut to inquire about a $5 pizza deal. Miller reportedly snaps at the employee for not giving her an immediate answer and is subsequently hung up on. She then posts the store’s phone number to her 2 million Instagram followers, asking them to call “the idiot who keeps hanging up on paying customers.”

Horoscope: “Matters may reach a head, but keep your cool, even if provoked.” (cafeastrology.com)

Global distinction: Empire’s Cookie Lyon.

Sign: Virgo (b. September 11, 1970) Significant date: February 7, 2016 Noteworthy activity: Excited about the Super Bowl half-

NEIL PATRICK HARRIS

Global distinction: How I Met Your Mother alum.

Sign: Gemini (b. June 15, 1973) Significant date: February 13, 2016 Noteworthy activity: To celebrate a major social media milestone, the actor promises his fans something that sounds a bit naughty. “Since I’ve reached 3 million followers on Instagram, I thought I should finally post a dick pic,” he writes. What NPH actually posts is a publicity image of legendary funnyman Dick Van Dyke from the ’60s.

Horoscope: “There’s something you said you would do that remains undone. You were in a different mood when you obligated yourself and you don’t feel the same about the situation. And yet, it’s important that you deliver on your promise.” (creators.com)

O.J. SIMPSON

Global distinction: Fallen football legend.

Sign: Cancer (b. July 9, 1947) Significant date: February 2, 2016 Noteworthy activity: Simpson is portrayed in the new FX miniseries The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story, which dramatizes his 1994-95 murder trial.

However, the Juice isn’t able to watch any of it. The Lovelock Correctional Center in Nevada, where the athlete is serving a sentence for armed robbery and kidnapping, has cable but doesn’t have FX. Horoscope: “Your curiosity about the world outside your door will grow. However, your curiosity cannot always be satisfied.” (my2016horoscopes.com) 50 World Screen 3/16

Global distinction: Dance Moms star.

Sign: Virgo (b. September 21, 1966) Significant date: February 4, 2016 Noteworthy activity: The notoriously hotheaded reality

SALMA HAYEK

Global distinction: Brunette beauty.

Sign: Virgo (b. September 2, 1966) Significant date: February 5, 2016 Noteworthy activity: The Mexican-born movie star is rushed to the emergency room after suffering a minor head injury on set. To make matters worse, she is wearing a shirt featuring an image of a topless woman. “Unfortunately my wardrobe for the scene was completely inappropriate for the hospital,” the actress says on Instagram alongside an image of her posing in the tacky top with two doctors.

Horoscope: “All you need to do is be prepared for the unexpected and keep your head when the surprise hits you.” (gotohoroscope.com)

PIERS MORGAN

Global distinction: Outspoken Brit.

Sign: Aries (b. March 30, 1965) Significant date: February 3, 2016 Noteworthy activity: The opinionated TV personality takes to Twitter to condemn Susan Sarandon’s breasts, which were hard to miss when she presented the In Memoriam segment at this year’s SAG Awards. Along with a picture of the 69-year-old’s cleavage-bearing ensemble, Morgan tweets: “Would Susan Sarandon wear this to a funeral? No. It was thus horribly inappropriate for an In Memoriam tribute.”

Horoscope: “Keep to your own business and you will succeed beyond your wildest dreams. It is not your job to be judge and jury, but to mind your own business.” (astrologyanswers.com)

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