All3Media’s Jane Turton

Owned by Discovery, Inc. and Liberty Global, all3media consists of 25-plus companies located in Europe, the U.S. and the Asia-Pacific region. Last year, these entities created some 3,000 hours of scripted and unscripted content, much of which all3media international sells as part of a catalog of more than 9,500 hours to linear and nonlinear outlets around the world. CEO Jane Turton has been expanding all3media through a series of acquisitions and investments in start-ups. Many of the most recent additions to the group have been made to secure talent that will help meet the growing demand for high-end drama programming.

WS: What have been your priorities in acquiring companies?
TURTON: It’s always about talent. We bring talent into the group in a number of ways. It can be through recruitment; it can be by starting people up in new corporate entities or labels. It can also be through the acquisition of an existing business. When we acquire a business, we look for creatively strong, entrepreneurial program-makers and business leaders—people with ambition and creative vision who think globally and want to grow their program slate and business. In all3media, we have a portfolio of companies, and when we acquire, we identify opportunities where we can add to the group with new people who will fit in and who will thrive in the all3media federal model. Recently, our acquisition focus has been on scripted, and I’m delighted that in bringing Neal Street Productions, New Pictures, Raw and Two Brothers Pictures into the group, we have added such unbelievable drama talent and incredible shows like The Missing, Fleabag, Call the Midwife, Britannia, Harley and the Davidsons, American Animals, Liar, Rellik and Requiem. Acquisition is something that we know well, because this business has been created through “buy and build.” I find bringing new people in exciting and stimulating and love the opportunity it creates.

WS: Is the U.S. your fastest-growing market?
TURTON: The U.S. has grown very fast—both out of Optomen and Lion Television in New York and in Los Angeles, where we have the multi-label all3media America studio. In the U.S., we have a very strong factual and reality business, with shows like Worst Cooks in America, The Deadliest Decade, Undercover Boss, United Shades of America, The F Word, 24 Hours to Hell & Back and Chrisley Knows Best. The U.S. slate is made up of both formats that have traveled from Europe and new original programs developed locally. For us as a group, there is a lot more to do in the U.S. with both the established players in cable and the broadcast networks and with the newer OTT and digital platforms. The multi-label all3media model, with its creative richness and diversity, allows us to pitch to all of these potential buyers in a targeted way. It also allows us to build out in scripted, using the reputation earned from U.S. shows such as Main Event Media’s The Arrangement and the incredibly strong talent base and IP from the European business.

We’ve seen expansion and growth in the platforms we’re creating programming for too, with a breadth of content for a range of different audiences. Studio Lambert is producing a new sci-fi drama called The Feed for Amazon and Liberty Global’s Virgin Media, and Lime Pictures has just produced a second series of Free Rein, a teen drama based in the U.K., for Netflix.

WS: And your business in Europe?
TURTON: Germany is a very strong market for us, and we have been building it both organically and through acquisitions and startups. We are creating new labels and a broader slate to add to the very strong scripted-reality business in [our company] filmpool. We have a joint venture with the BBC called Tower Productions that acts as the producer for the BBC [Studios] and all3media unscripted-format catalogs in Germany. That’s working well. Our drama business is strong, and we have added to our existing and very successful producer of series like Berlin—Tag & Nacht with a recent acquisition in Germany, Bon Voyage Films. Our business in the Netherlands, IDTV, is growing fast in both scripted and non-scripted programs, and I’m excited at the plans from the new team there, led by Taco Rijssemus.

As we look ahead, we are considering new markets outside our key territories. We’re very tight geographically, unlike some of our competitors—with the U.K. at around 45 percent, Germany 20 percent and the U.S. at around 30 percent. Growth outside these markets will come through acquisition, partnership and through leveraging our IP.  This is one of the reasons we are now concentrating on growing our format catalog in both entertainment and factual entertainment.

Outside of the U.S. and Europe, we have South Pacific Pictures, New Zealand’s largest TV-production company. South Pacific is the producer behind the country’s biggest soap, Shortland Street, as well as international hits such as The Brokenwood Mysteries and 800 Words.

Little Dot Studios, our digital production company, has done incredibly well since it launched five years ago. Based in London, Germany and Los Angeles, it is a truly global operation.

WS: How important are scale and global expansion in the indie production world?
TURTON: Scale is important, and it’s not just size per se, as in numbers of dollars or programs or people. It’s also what scale gives you in terms of insight and know-how. With size, you can build expertise [by creating] different funding models, tax breaks, exploitation models—all essential to the new world of production. Scale also allows you to take a different view of risk. With more programs, more development, more rights, more buyers and more territories, you can mitigate risk and increase opportunity. I think some buyers like to buy from people they see have “heft.” As one example of the benefit of scale on a global basis, our distribution business has grown its slate dramatically over the past few years. This has allowed Louise Pedersen, the CEO of all3media international, to take a more bullish view of her investments in advances and co-production funding across a bigger portfolio. That’s very helpful.

If you’re successful, you tend to be getting bigger, and because you’re getting bigger, you’re seen to be successful, and so people will come to you and talk to you about projects and deals that, in turn, makes you bigger. It’s a snowball effect. Ours is a business where reputation and profile are important, and I think size and the “quality” of your profile are key to success.

WS: Is the best way to manage an indie production company to let them do their thing?
TURTON: Of course, it’s very important that people have creative freedom. And that they work within a supportive environment so that they feel that they can take risks and innovate. You listen. You act as a sounding board. You encourage and motivate. You incentivize. You add the strategic vision. Our all3media model is that each production business is run by a strong leader, and it’s that individual who manages the team and, in turn, his or her development-and-production slate.

WS: You’re having a particularly good run with scripted.
TURTON: Yes. Scripted has grown significantly for us over the past couple of years, both as producers and as a distributor. Our mix is roughly fifty-fifty scripted/non-scripted, which is a healthy position to be in.

WS: Factual and factual entertainment are also important?
TURTON: Very important. We are a very big fact-ent producer and are developing and building those genres with a particular focus on formats. Objective Media Group, Maverick TV, Optomen, North One Television, Lion, Lime, Raw, Betty and Studio Lambert are all heavily involved in factual entertainment and entertainment. We also develop and produce documentary programs that are incredibly high-quality. Shows like Employable Me, Chris Packham: Asperger’s and Me, Gogglebox and Escape are great examples of exceptional factual television.

WS: What do you enjoy most about your job?
TURTON: I like to succeed. I’m competitive. I love it when we win against the odds. I love it when an all3media producer comes and they say, We’ve got a new commission, and you think, Wow that’s cool! Then you see it on air and you feel a real sense of pride. It’s a creative manufacturing business. We are developing and producing content. We’ve created something from nothing, and that’s extraordinary. It’s exciting being in a sector that’s talked about and that plays such an important part in people’s lives. I love it because it’s clever, it’s stimulating, it’s all about talented people producing extraordinary content.