Streamers vs. Producers: How Sellers Can Outfox a Broken System
Mixed signals, lower budgets: Europe's creative players reveal small moves to getting 'entrepreneurial' now (first: skip Amazon & Max's presentations)
Manori Ravindran covers int’l TV from London. She recently wrote about the model TV producers are loving to get shows made, the “buy, sell or die” M&A climate for producers and producers’ pivot to YouTube for money.
Hello, Series Business readers. You’re catching me the day after a Harry Potter-fueled charm offensive from Warner Bros. Discovery that none of us in international saw coming (not even the Sorting Hat). I’m also at the tail end of the Content London conference, which delivered some hard truths for the industry.
This week, I’ve learned that the same gripes I hear constantly in the U.K. are shared Stateside — and even down under in Australia: Scripted producers are scrambling to get costs down on shows where prices have been driven up by streamers that once over-paid for virtually everything, while the mid-market squeeze I wrote about in September is affecting unscripted producers everywhere. Those shows people built careers on — lifestyle, home renovation and travel series, for example — just don’t make financial sense for broadcasters anymore.
In explaining the cancellation of the unscripted series Wicked Tuna (about commercial fishermen) after 13 seasons, Disney’s EVP of programming for networks Christian Drobnyk, who acquires for brands such as Nat Geo, nailed it: “Those shows were greenlit when we were a linear-only platform. And that world has changed dramatically.”
So dramatically in fact that, of the producers I spoke to, there’s not a single one holding out for a significant rebound in 2025. “Adapt or die!” snarled one Welsh producer. The sentiment I kept hearing over and over was: “If anyone thinks things are going to get better overnight in the new year, they’re crazy.”
Although the market may not be looking up just yet, the people in it sure are. Rather than passively waiting for conditions to improve, I’m seeing far more interest in entrepreneurialism among producers — and, crucially, among broadcasters. The number of times my discussions turned to genuine partnerships and, yes, co-productions (as I covered last week) was astounding. Once again, these aren’t new models for anyone working in international TV, but they’re certainly new for Americans adjusting to a cash-strapped reality.
“Everyone’s budgets are somewhat compromised, and we’re all looking for ways to get creative made,” said Kathleen Finch, Warner Bros. Discovery’s outgoing head of U.S. networks, who somewhat bizarrely took part in a keynote interview despite her impending retirement later this month.
“We’re doing co-pros now and just taking U.S. rights on occasion for some things,” she said. “The old ways of doing business, we decided, are a bit limiting.” (A bit?)
As U.S. producers and broadcasters look more closely at European models, it’s clear that the allure and novelty of streaming is somewhat losing its sheen. Netflix, for example, was the only streamer to command a line outside the Content London auditorium. Sessions for Prime Video and Max were sparsely attended.
Just three years ago, producers were chomping at the bit to discuss their prospects for bagging what was then the Holy Grail: a local streaming original. Now most simply shrug at the idea — there simply aren’t enough to go around, and buy-out models aren’t always worth their time.
“It’s been a couple of years of really mixed signals,” says Paper Entertainment founder Julien Leroux, who also exec produces Apple TV+ thriller Tehran. “I think it’s really been difficult for [European] producers to navigate this.”
The timing, then, of Warner Bros. Discovery’s Bal des Débutantes, if you will, for Max this week (the last of the major streamers to roll out in Europe) either couldn’t come soon enough — or it was too little, too late.
In this issue, you’ll learn:
How to be an entrepreneur in your own right
About the need to feed the local markets
The role of freemium streaming in the market
The calculus in selling to the places that have more available hours to fill
How Harry Potter hijacked Max’s international slate presentation
Why a co-production can make more sense than a streaming order
Why some producers call global streamers “smart” but “manipulative”
How Max made an about-face on its content strategy as it expands in Europe
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