What’s Selling, Who’s Buying in Int’l TV Now
Crime and celebrity, yes; ‘gentle’ docs, no: Producers and execs on a volatile market
Manori Ravindran covers international TV from London for Series Business. She recently wrote about the creative dealmaking that got Netflix to say yes to a hit series after rejecting it three times, covered Tubi’s launch in the U.K. for the broke Letterboxd generation — and how the BBC and HBO scored Richard Gadd’s latest project.
“The danger with the big switch to streaming,” said Channel 4 chief content officer Ian Katz during an on-stage interview at the Edinburgh International TV Festival on Thursday, “is it’s our job to tell the story of Britain.” Katz, who had some good news for the audience when he revealed that the network’s commissioning spend in the first half of 2024 was back up to pre-Covid levels — Katz did not share a number, but Channel 4’s full-year 2019 originals budget was £492 million, or $644 million — acknowledged the bind he now found himself in.
“In a linear world, it’s much easier to do that. Lots of gentle obs-docs [observational documentaries] about people giving birth or life in the zoo rated perfectly well in linear,” he said. “But in streaming, it’s a flight towards the types of programming that stream best.” What are those? “Overwhelmingly crime and celebrity.”
In this issue, you’ll learn:
What else is also selling and what’s not right now
The death of the “middle” of content between low and high
Why co-productions and creative dealmaking are on the rise — even at Prime Video
How global streamers are playing coy when discussing budgets for shows
How producers are slimming down “crippling” overhead to respond
How traditional broadcasters are trying to adapt
How David Beckham’s production company offers a model for sustainable success
Why U.S. presence in Edinburgh was limited even as the U.K. market grows in significance
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