A24’s Speed, Spend & Bidding Wars Reshape TV — Forcing Rivals to Pay Up
Fast deals and creator-friendly terms make the studio a favorite among agents, and a headache for everyone else
I dug into what’s taking Peter Friedlander so long to set TV strategy at Amazon, wrote about Byron Allen’s deal to rent CBS’ late-night block, The Pitt casting controversy, and interviewed legendary TV creator David E. Kelley. I’m lesley.goldberg@theankler.com
Not long ago, while in production on Apple TV’s Margo’s Got Money Troubles, David E. Kelley mentioned a book that he was interested in adapting to an executive at A24. That was on a Friday. By Monday, the indie studio’s TV team had read Chris Whitaker’s We Begin at the End and told the showrunner they were working to obtain the rights. By the end of that same week, I can exclusively reveal that A24 had won a bidding war for the title and attached Kelley to co-write the script.
In an industry where projects can take months — even years — to move from conversation to contract, that kind of speed isn’t just unusual. It’s increasingly the way to win.
Though its reputation was built on its film darling bona fides, A24 has quietly become one of the most aggressive — and disruptive — players in the television business, pairing lightning-fast dealmaking with a willingness to spend when it matters. The result: a studio that agents love, creators prioritize and competitors are struggling to keep up with.
Their library now includes Emmy-winning shows Euphoria, Beef and Ramy (a full chart of all their shows in development and on air is below).
“It’s difficult to break through when it’s them. They end up being fiercest competition,” one buyer tells me. “When they’re in the mix, there’s a good likelihood they’ll win it.”
This shift comes roughly two years after the company took on a major cash infusion from Josh Kushner’s Thrive Capital, a deal that valued A24 at $3.5 billion and raised questions about whether the famously curated indie could and would scale up like a traditional studio. So far, the answer has been something else entirely: an ability to push harder, throwing cash at projects they believe in that have that ineffable imprimatur of A24 “taste.”
Which is great news if you’re selling. For everyone else, it’s creating a new reality — a headache where competing with A24 doesn’t just require a strong pitch, but a very different appetite for risk.
Today I break down how A24’s strategy is playing out — and what it means for everyone else in TV, including:
Who’s running A24’s TV team and how to pitch them
How A24’s deal speed is collapsing timelines that used to stretch a year or more
Why agents increasingly steer top projects toward the studio — and how that shifts leverage
The real cost of competing with A24 in today’s bidding wars
How creator-friendly terms are driving up expectations across the market
What the Kushner-backed cash infusion changed — and what it didn’t
And why A24’s approach is forcing rivals to rethink how they buy, spend and greenlight
The Amazon show that was “dead” until A24 fought for its return