TV Producers Are Loving This Model to Get Shows Made
My primer on winning the new co-pro game, the red-hot center of the global TV market: '50% of something is better than 100% of nothing'
Manori Ravindran covers int’l TV from London. She recently wrote about the “buy, sell or die” M&A climate for producers, producers’ pivot to YouTube for money, how to get a TV buyer to yes (when budget is the problem) and why brands are now funding unscripted shows.
Ten years ago, the same contingent of British producers would pop up at international TV markets around the world. Whether it was NATPE, Mipcom or Realscreen, I’d spot a perennial group of plucky indie bosses schmoozing with any non-U.K. producer, channel buyer or distributor they could wrangle.
They were always on a mission: to set up an international co-production — a deeply unsexy but practical term for a joint venture between two or more production companies or channels that aim to reduce risk, either by taking advantage of government incentives, such as tax breaks, or sharing creative and/or financial resources.
During the industry’s post-Covid downturn, while their peers in the U.K. felt the sting of their over-reliance on British broadcasters’ diminishing content budgets, many of those same U.K. producers who were hustling and making international connections are the ones still in business and getting shows made.
Recent high-end examples include All Creatures Great and Small, a PBS Masterpiece and Channel 5 co-production (or co-pro, for short). The forthcoming second season of Night Manager is a co-pro between BBC and Amazon Prime Video, and The Day of the Jackal is technically a co-production between Comcast’s Peacock and its U.K. pay-TV operator Sky. Over in factual, the David Attenborough-narrated Asia series has a trifecta of co-pro partners: BBC America, Germany’s ZDF and France Télévisions.
In a perfect world, you wouldn’t need co-productions. “No one wants to cut in a partner financially or creatively,” says former Lionsgate executive and international co-production specialist Marc Lorber. “If you can do it all yourself, keep the majority of the money and the creative involvement, why [wouldn’t you]?”
I’ve reported on some of the more innovative methods people are looking at to get shows made today: Working with brands, for instance, or carving out a YouTube strategy. But there’s a lot to be said for mastering the co-pro model.
American producers, until recently, haven’t really needed to bother with co-productions at all. (It doesn’t help that the U.S. doesn’t have any co-production treaties in place with other countries, much to the chagrin of The Walking Dead’s Gale Ann Hurd.) Channels and streamers were able to fully order shows stateside, so there wasn’t urgency to look overseas for completion funding.
Yet as we’ve reported extensively for the past year, U.S. buyers aren’t exactly on a spending spree. “They’ve been turning to producers and saying, ‘Hey, we’re happy just to take U.S. rights if you can find a partner for some of the budget,’” explains Lilla Hurst, the London-based global head of acquisitions and content strategy for Canada’s Blue Ant Studios.
“That’s triggered producers needing to understand the co-production market better and build more relationships, both with international channels, production companies and distributors,” she says, noting that in the last year, her company has worked with more U.S.-based producers than ever before.
This week, I compile a crash course in co-pros: Demystifying this kind of deal-making, how American producers can take advantage of them, and when it is (and isn’t) the right avenue for your project.
In this issue, you’ll learn:
How to begin your hunt for a co-pro partner and the one thing that matters most
The five most important co-production models available
The buzziest factual topics that lend themselves to co-pros
How to write a script with co-pros in mind
Two people you need to know who specialize in assembling these deals
The three countries with the strongest treaty agreements globally
Why pre-sales are still considered co-pros
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