Q&A: Lionsgate’s Jim Packer

Jim Packer, president of worldwide television distribution at Lionsgate, talks to World Screen about strategic windowing, building a presence on YouTube and meeting clients’ needs.

This summer, Roku entered the SVOD business with the launch of Howdy, priced at just $2.99 a month and delivering some 10,000 hours from launch partners Lionsgate, Warner Bros. Discovery and FilmRise. Packer has long been on the hunt for innovative ways to monetize the indie studio’s extensive film and television library. He talks to World Screen about the AVOD and FAST spaces, opportunities on YouTube and meeting the needs of buyers.

WS: How did the deal to supply content to Roku’s new Howdy SVOD service come about?
PACKER: I’ve been working closely with Roku since 2017, when we did our first AVOD rev-share deal with them. We had finally gotten to the point where we had a critical mass of films and TV to do rev-share. Licensing will always be our primary goal, but when we have a one-month gap for a particular movie, there’s no reason for us not to monetize it. I view [the opportunity] like open hotel rooms. We do the premium licensing first, and when there’s an opportunity to maximize a shorter window, we do that. We also took a chance when we decided to make Roku our exclusive launch partner for our 50 Cent Action channel, rather than going the non-exclusive route. And since launching on the platform, the channel has amassed 45 million hours viewed. I’m comfortable with Roku and the way they operate. They came to us and said, “We’re thinking of launching this lower-cost subscription service, but structuring it more in line with how we do rev-share on AVOD and FAST.” I liked [the concept]. If I look at our content library, I don’t think everything should be on AVOD all the time. Some titles benefit from a break—monetizing with fewer eyeballs can actually give content time to breathe. This felt like a smart way to do that. So, we’re one of the three launch partners [on Howdy], and Roku has been very collaborative.

WS: What have been some of the lessons learned on this AVOD licensing journey?
PACKER: You have to be comfortable with the massive changes taking place around you. You also have to accept that you may have some pressure on your ad revenue. That means you have to get smarter about how you program. We’ve been using AI to help us program more effectively. If you have 750 pieces of content live on Roku, you had better make sure they’re the right 750 pieces of content. There’s less room for error when ad sales are under pressure. As a result, we’ve become more tactical and analytical in how we program to address the degradation in some of the ad sales CPMs.

WS: Does broad distribution across AVOD or FAST devalue content in the eyes of traditional licensing buyers?
PACKER: That might be true for unscripted shows with thousands of episodes that have been on FAST for years. But just because something is really successful on FAST doesn’t mean SVOD licensing might not also happen. Take The Conners—it performs really well both on FAST and on Netflix. People live in their existing ecosystems. Nobody comes home on a Friday night and says, “I want to try four new AVODs and download those apps and do some new sign-ins!” They find a couple that they like. These ecosystems complement each other. [FAST] has not developed as quickly internationally as it has domestically, and it’s going to take longer for those markets to catch up. We’re monitoring the landscape, and I have seen some interesting trends emerging in specific territories. In those regions, we’re leaning into YouTube more because of its strong monetization and large audience. In some situations, we may launch a channel on YouTube before FAST, flipping the usual paradigm. In the U.S., we started with a lot of FAST networks, then expanded into YouTube channels.

WS: What has been your overall approach to YouTube?
PACKER: We’ve always been a leader on YouTube when it comes to our TVOD and EST businesses. We’re a very big player in their AVOD rev-share business, and we’re expanding on the channel side—we currently have 10 to 15 proprietary channels, but we’re increasing that number significantly. For example, we partnered with our friends at Disney when Wicked Tuna was canceled. Since we control global rights to the entire franchise, rather than just starting a FAST network, we started a [Wicked Tuna] YouTube channel from scratch. We’re also creating some original content that we’re going to be putting on the channel. And the algorithms have done their job. We started with no subscribers, and now we have 35,000, with that number growing every week. We also have our [Wicked Tuna] FAST channel on YouTube. Rather than launching the FAST channel first, we flipped [the typical model] a bit. Instead, we launched the YouTube channel first and then added a FAST channel on YouTube. It’s a different way to think about things. [You benefit from] the analytic back end. If the show is performing well in a territory like South Africa, then my team can go in and try to license it. We can take the data and say to a client, “You don’t have to sit here and believe my sales pitch, just analyze my data.” Pitching becomes much more compelling and effective when you can leverage data to act as a smart distributor for your partners.

WS: What are you hearing from your partners about their needs currently?
PACKER: I’m starting to see a lot more green shoots from international [partners]. Big streaming platforms realize they can’t just rely on their own content. There was a period when licensing activity might have been impacted by [the major streamers] focusing on profitability. Many streamers made adjustments to the amount of content they kept live. However, the reality is that consumers still need new, fresh and intriguing content. We’ve done more business with Disney recently than we have in the past. With HBO, also. We’ve always had great business with Amazon and Netflix, but now more platforms understand they can’t just rely on their own libraries—they need to supplement. For example, our two big non-exclusive partners dramatically expanded their footprints on The Rookie. On a show that strong, it’s a sign [that streamers] need to compete in every country. That, to me, is encouraging.

WS: How are you keeping on top of all the new opportunities that come up, especially around pop-up channels in FAST?
PACKER: We try not to walk away from smart ideas, even in creating channels. We’re up to over 25 channels in the FAST space, and yet we just did a proprietary channel deal with DIRECTV. We wanted to tap into DIRECTV’s very high CPMs, since they excel at ad sales. That’s an opportunity that nobody else took advantage of, but we pursued it. Of course, you have to set your team up to execute effectively and, fortunately, we have the resources to do so. And if we can use AI to help us sift through thousands of movies and TV shows to make [the process] more efficient, so much the better.

WS: You had a great night at the Emmys with The Studio. What’s guiding the thinking behind your slate for MIPCOM?
PACKER: I’m excited by the diversity that we’re able to bring to MIPCOM. We have Spartacus: House of Ashur, which is deep IP, and Robin Hood, a compelling reimagining of the classic story. We also have The Rainmaker, based on a best-selling John Grisham novel—which is also a great movie. We now control Heartland, which premiered its 19th season [on CBC]. The 18th season, which debuted on Netflix, even made the top ten. People still love that show. So, if you want family, we’ve got it. If you want high-end, premium library, we’ve got Mad Men, Weeds and Nurse Jackie. If you want down-the-middle procedurals, we’ve got The Rookie. One thing that makes our company unique is that we’re only 25 years old. We have a contemporary, relevant library that we can tailor to the needs of any client.

WS: What other industry trends are you keeping an eye on?
PACKER: I don’t think there is a single one of the big six streaming platforms that’s not leveraging studios’ deep libraries. Take Twilight, for example—a nearly 20-year-old movie that still reached the top ten when we released it on Netflix this year, competing against brand-new releases.

In 2024, we had 56 movies that hit the top ten on the big six platforms. So far this year [as of September], we’re already at 60—and I expect to hit the 70s by year-end. Some titles will repeat, but many of them will be different. I think [this trend] bodes well for us. Audiences want fresh content, but they also appreciate familiarity at times. That’s especially true in FAST, where recognizable titles perform strongly. We’re in a great position at Lionsgate after the Entertainment One acquisition. We’ve gotten to a point where we have so much content that we can put it to work in many smart ways.