The United States’ leadership in scripted series production is fading, according to scripted execs speaking at the South International Series Festival in Cadiz, Spain.
Xavier Marchand, founder and CEO of UK-based producer Moon River and a former president of production at eOne Features, cited Netflix’s most recently published viewership data for the first half of 2024 which was led by British-shot titles Fool Me Once, Baby Reindeer, Bridgerton and The Gentlemen.
“What Netflix has done really well is taking local TV shows and local stories and making them accessible to global audience,” said Marchand. “For us producers in Europe, it’s a huge opportunity because it shows that the hegemony of the American series has fallen away.”
Budget squeeze
Marchand acknowledged, however, that streamers are commissioning less and are asking for shows with more ‘reasonable’ budgets. Traditional broadcasters, he said, still have an appetite for content, but the budgets they offer have not increased at the same rate as production inflation. “So we have to square this equation.”
José Antonio Salso, head of acquisitions and international sales at Spain’s Atresmedia, said the squeeze on budgets is presenting a challenge to producers. “We have a very smart audience. They have watched a lot of content, and they demand bigger productions, and they know very easily what is well done and what is not so well done.”
As a result, securing financing at a very early stage of a project’s life is more important than ever to achieve the budgets needed for shows, said Al de Azpiazu, SVP of distribution and co-productions at Fremantle. He explained that one of the buzzwords of last week’s Mipcom programme market was ‘acqui-missions’ – when a show is a mix of an acquisition and commission at the same time by a broadcaster or streamer.
“We’re really going earlier than ever, hand in hand to find partners to say, ’Does this editorially fit you? Is it a strong IP? Is it a big enough cast? Is a story that can travel well,’” said de Azpiazu. “UK content is definitely on a high and if you have the right ingredients to make it work, you can definitely lock local partners in other European territories or other territories outside of Europe to lower that risk or that burden and make it happen.”
JJ Lousberg, managing director at the UK’s Magical Society, noted that a scripted commission with the BBC now covers “not much more than 50% of your budget. Your mindset always needs to be ‘How do I sell this show? And how do I pay financing?’ Now, more than ever, it has become really, really important to start thinking early about your partners.”
The executives were speaking in a panel titled “Successful Series. Is there a magic formula that works?” The second edition of South International Series Festival runs October 25-30.
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