32 Searching for Television’s Next Slow Horses Content sellers are good at promoting their new programs and acquisition executives are good at keeping abreast of new productions and trends. Some buyers even hire consultants that sift through the trade papers, monitor film and TV festivals, and check cattle calls to get glimpses of new and upcoming productions. However, when attending trade shows, some buyers like to spend some time doing their own scouting for genres that were overlooked and could present a good deal both in terms of license fees and audience responses. This process is like the story of British book writer Mick Herron, who was destined for oblivion after his London publisher declined to further publish his books since nobody was buying them. That is, until Soho Press, a New York City publisher, decided to publish his new book, Dead Lions, as well as to revive Herron’s previous 2005 book, Slow Horses, which was mentioned in a program on National Public Radio in the U.S. in 2017. Today, Herron’s books have sold more than four million copies, with Slow Horses, about a group of misfit British spies, even becoming an Apple TV+ streaming series in 2022. Now, the question is: How do content buyers go about searching for the types of TV programs that they’d like to acquire — especially if said programs are in genres that they’ve never even come across before? VideoAge posed this question to eight acquisition executives from seven different countries. Marcello Busé, head of Content Acquisition Planning at Italy’s Mediaset, said: “We are fortunate to have an internal department, called International Observatory, which monitors the production of many countries from the pre-production phase to finished product, so it doesn’t often happen that you come across products that you hadn’t heard of in some way... But sometimes it still happens, perhaps at a market, to see a flier and say. ‘Where did it come from?’ “However, the criteria we use to choose a product we want to acquire are always the same, regardless of the moment in which we meet it. First of all we evaluate if it meets the editorial line of one of our channels (female stories for Canale 5, action packed movies or comedies for Italia1 for instance). Then, if we decide that the product is eligible we have to check if the price matches the benchmark fixed for that channel. “Other elements, such as the cast or the literary provenance may initially attract, but the final choice will rest on the two aspects highlighted previously,” he concluded. “The good thing about MIPCOM,” said Dermot Horan, director of Acquisition & Coproductions at Ireland’s RTE, “is that pretty much everyone in the industry is there. Most buyers have a completely full diary through till Thursday morning, so you are going to meet all of the distributors with whom you do regular business. That will expose you to the majority of content, which may be of interest to your platform. I also read all of the trades, which are printed that week, including, of course, VideoAge, just to make sure there isn’t any content I have missed. The articles are important, but so are the ads, which are easy to flick through, and you immediately get to see who is selling the program. And Cannes being Cannes, you just bump into people walking down the Croisette, at cafés and bars, and at evening drinks functions [with new program tips].” From Finland, Tarmo Kivikallio, head of Content, Rights & Sales at Yleisradio, commented: “Myself and my team are quite well informed by the distribution companies. We also read international news and other articles to find out what is coming up. We have a lot of discussions with our Nordic public broadcaster partners and we share information. There are also discussions on the European level between public broadcasting companies. Those are the main information channels for us.” Anna Humphries of the U.K.’s ITV suggested checking the broadcaster’s website for their content requirements, which, among others, indicated that ITV looks “for content in most genres across Drama, Comedy, Factual, Kids and Film. We are also looking for co-production and pre-buy scripted opportunities for ITVX with a focus on the following genres: comedy that is either young or male-skewing, premium thrillers, and supernatural/sci-fi that is grounded in reality. Please note we are not acquiring any foreign-language content (including dubbed or subtitled) at present.” Similarly, Manuel Alduy, head of Cinema and Young Adult and International Fiction for France Télévisions, explained what he’s looking for, but not how he goes about finding the next Slow Horses: “At France Televisions,” he said, “we search for series that resonate with the turmoil of the world, series that engage our audience with concerning issues and provoke social conversation: the environmental crisis, wars in Europe or the Middle East, the fight for democracy or people’s rights, etc. As a Public Media Service, we already commission a lot of social drama, but with a French focus. When we look at the international market, our focus is similar: we don’t find a lot of such series, so we tend to commission them through our international co-production alliance, but that’s not enough.” From Canada, Justin Stockman, VP, Content Development and Programming, Bell Media, said: “For Bell Media, the act of being present at markets such as MIPCOM to connect with suppliers and peers from around the world is the first step in learning about series available for acquisition and in educating the industry on the compelling series we are selling. This compliments the work we do all year researching trends and tracking series in development that we have interest in for our platforms.” And from the U.S., Jonitha Keymoore, head of Content for the New York City-based FilmRise, explained: “FilmRise is a data-oriented company, so we continuously monitor TV programs resonating with audiences around the globe through performance metrics. But it’s also through conversation, with new and existing relationships, that we learn about content partnership opportunities in today’s dynamic landscape.” Justin Stockman, Bell Media Manuel Alduy, France Télévisions VIDEOAGE October 2024 Content Buying
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