The challenges of financing series at a time of rising production costs and reduced spending by streamers and broadcasters was one of the major talking points at this week’s inaugural South International Series Festival in Cadiz, which ran from October 6-12.
Panellists at the festival’s industry programme debated how to finance series when the market is contracting. Speakers agreed fewer projects will be greenlit in the near future, as many as 25% fewer according to one exec, as streamers and broadcasters retrenched and dealt with higher production costs.
Chris Albrecht, the founder of Rubicon Global Media and former president of Legendary Television, said some shows during his time at Legendary had cost $12-17m an episode: “I think with costs rising, there will be a greater emphasis put on fewer projects. So, well known IP becomes increasingly more important to buyers locally and globally. The other thing that will become increasingly important is talent – like IP that is a way to attract attention and make something better.”
Local for local
Buyers are interested in local dramas that might resonate globally, rather than huge budget international shows. Many said it’s local shows that have the best chance of becoming break out hits, citing series such as Spain’s Money Heist and South Korea’s Squid Game. “All the streamers, all the buyers are asking us to make local for local,” said Anxo Rodriguez, the founder of Spanish talent and production company Espotlight Media.
The rise of co-productions
Co-production has always been an important part of the TV drama landscape, but it is more in vogue than ever before as producers seek to make up budgets. Laura Minarro, VP of international business and co-production at Spain’s Buendia Estudios, said: “The budgets of productions are diminishing a little right now, so for us it makes sense to come into co-productions, mainly with Europe but also with Latin America.”
Buyer demand for local content can make it difficult to strike international co-pros, but it is not impossible. Espotlight Media’s Rodriguez said local dramas made in one language can still find international finance. He said his company is putting together a co-production for a Spanish language show with Gaumont in the UK, which has Harry Potter director David Yates attached as a showrunner. It’s based on a true Spanish story, and the cast and director will be Spanish. “But we have David Yates in England who found the story and fell in love with it and he wants to showrun the show,” said Rodriguez. ”We’re going to have a Spanish director, but an English showrunner that gives it an extra point of view. It is going to have a very local taste, but we are going to try to make it for the rest of the world.”
Streamer flexibility
Streamers are moving away from only commissioning expensive originals and will instead look to save money by licencing more content or by taking territory specific rights for originals, said many execs. For the drama sector, this presents both opportunities and challenges. It means there will be fewer big cheques written by streamers to fully finance (and to buy worldwide rights) to series. Instead, producers will have to finance series from multiple sources and, on the plus side, will be able to hold on to IP. Elsa Huisman, a partner at Paris based media law firm, said: “The next step of challenges is that the platforms are going to be much more willing to licence. It is much less expensive to do licensing if you co-ordinate the financing through different local territories.”
Rediscovering the value of Europe
Many panellists saidwith the US market in flux as a result of the strikes and market contraction, they were increasingly turning to Europe as a way to finance dramas. UK execs, in particular, said that they were looking to diversify away from a reliance on the US market, and to work more with European partners. Europe was repeatedly cited as territory that can produce increasingly high quality content, but for a much cheaper price than the United States. Many execs said they were increasingly looking to public service broadcasters in Europe to partner on ambitious shows rather than automatically pitching first to streamers. The comments came at a time when there is an increasing focus within Europe on partnerships to create drama; earlier this week eight European public service broadcasters united on New8, a new collaboration to co-produce drama series.
The South International Series Festival ran from October 6-12 in Cadiz in southern Spain.
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