all3media international’s Steve Macallister Talks Trends & Strategy

NEW YORK: Steve Macallister, the CEO of all3media international, tells World Screen about how he is positioning the company for further global expansion in 2016.

WS: What’s the overall strategy you’ve put in place since joining all3media last year?
MACALLISTER: One of the first things I did was sit down with our internal and external producer partners to go through their development slates. It was clear from the outset that we have a wealth of fantastic projects to work with them on. So the natural next step for us was to commit to significantly increasing our investment into content.

We’re also looking at establishing a more proactive approach to international co-production financing for scripted content—partly to help mitigate risk, but also because true co-production financing is sometimes the best way to get certain projects funded. I know it’s been said many times, but there really has been an explosion in the number of buyers out there looking for channel-defining content. We’re currently talking with a number of potential co-pro partners around the world about coming on board projects that will resonate particularly well with international audiences.

It was also clear that our presence as a business was too U.K.-centric, so during this year we will be opening offices in the U.S. and in the Asia-Pacific region. To that end, I’ve rearranged the way our sales team is structured so that we are now organized around geographic regions. We’re investing more in market research, too, and are in the process of establishing an insight department to help us focus on the emerging opportunities around the world as well as anticipate future trends.

WS: How long do you think this high-end scripted trend can be sustained for?
MACALLISTER: There’s no question that there’s more scripted content out there than there’s ever been. And that’s partly due to an underlying shift of innovative scripted storytelling moving from movies to TV—I don’t see that trend reversing, to be honest. The key thing for us is to make sure we work with the best producers and invest in the best stories. Stories that have a real point of difference. Good-quality shows will always sell and will always find a home. We need to make sure that we are smart about how we find the best route to market for those shows to give them the best possible chance for them to stay on air, for example by working with broadcasters that care about the shows as much as we do. And, of course, with the emergence of SVOD we’re no longer in a world where there is a finite number of broadcast slots available to license drama into. Consumers now have more control than ever on what they watch and when.

WS: Are you looking at scripted opportunities out of France, Germany or other markets?
MACALLISTER: Yes, we’re always on the lookout for great, quality content that will complement our catalogue. And while our slate is ostensibly English-speaking, we’ve been working with Filmpool (one of all3media’s production companies in Germany) to market their constructed-reality catalogue in Central and Eastern Europe. These shows have a reality feel but are fully scripted and we’ve been selling them as formats and to German-speaking territories for several years. Looking forward, we are certainly keen to extend that approach and if the right show comes along that suits our catalogue, a high-quality crime series for example to sit among our acclaimed detective strands, we’d certainly look at it seriously.

WS: What are some of the new developments on the formats front?
MACALLISTER: Formats are a big driver for us in emerging markets such as Asia and Latin America—indeed our formats business has been doubling in size in Asia each year for the last five years. With so many more producers and broadcasters developing original formats, there has never been more choice for format buyers. Only the most innovative titles are breaking through—hybrids like You’re Back in the Room and our own Gogglebox (now licensed in 35 territories) are selling well. The next format hit is no longer guaranteed to come from one of just a handful of countries. To that end, we are sponsoring the ATF Formats Pitch [at Asia TV Forum] to foster relationships with talented Asian producers who may well have the next big thing on their hands.