Conquering America

The expanding demand for scripted projects from U.S. platforms is creating a wealth of new opportunities for international companies.

By Joanna Stephens

Every scripted project takes a commissioning broadcaster—and if that commissioning broadcaster is a U.S. network, cabsat service or OTT platform, there’s a strong chance you’ve got a global hit on your hands. Like it or not, everything is bigger in America, and that includes success.

The U.S. is still far and away the largest, most powerful entertainment market in the world and the content it produces is still second to none in terms of quality, exportability and kudos. No surprise, then, that some of the most successful content producers in the world—the likes of ITV Studios, Entertainment One (eOne), all3media and STUDIOCANAL—have U.S. partnerships front and center of their scripted drama and comedy ambitions.

Michael Prupas, CEO of Canada’s Muse Entertainment, speaks for many when he says: “A primary sale to a U.S. network or digital service is the keystone to success in other territories, so it’s our first goal on most projects that we develop.”

While nobody is claiming it’s easy to embark on U.S. scripted partnerships, it has become less of a challenge in recent years thanks to American broadcasters’ growing openness to foreign concepts. This is partly due to the success of European imports like Downton Abbey and adaptations such as Homeland and House of Cards, but also because of the increasingly crowded and competitive nature of the U.S. broadcast landscape. The traditional purveyors of drama—the networks ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX and The CW—are competing with a pack of pay-TV services, including HBO, AMC, SundanceTV, FX, Showtime and Starz, not to mention the upstart OTT platforms such as Netflix, Hulu, Crackle and Amazon that are snapping at the linear broadcasters’ heels. All are now commissioning their own content in an effort to justify their subscription fees and sustain the interest of viewers who now expect their small-screen drama to be cinematic in both ambition and quality.

BY THE SCRIPT
“Scripted content is an imperative, as only fiction has the pulling power to help [U.S. broadcasters and content aggregators] build their brands and make them distinctive, even more so if it is exclusive,” says Jean Chalaby in his recently published book The Format Age. The City University London academic, who specializes in international media and communications, adds: “Overseas scripted shows come in handy for U.S. buyers who [are demanding] not only more scripts but stronger ones.”

Broadly speaking, American broadcasters require their bigger production partners to deficit-finance scripted projects. Given the eye-popping cost of high-end drama, this is a model that can carry considerable risk for producers if a series fails to sell into the secondary U.S. windows or achieve sufficient international interest. It can also require producers to be as creative off screen as on it, as they stitch together complicated packages of co-pro finance, private equity, tax credits and subsidies.

Back at Muse, Prupas is optimistic about the surge in U.S. demand for scripted content and the opportunities this presents to his company, whose latest premium projects with American partners include Tut for Viacom’s Spike and the Aurora Teagarden Mystery movies, Gourmet Detective and Signed, Sealed, Delivered for Hallmark. “I’m optimistic that the demand for quality programming is going to increase in the short run, because of the multiplication of outlets for distinctive programming,” he says. “But I worry about the long-term economic viability of many of these new outlets. One of the side effects of the digital revolution is that consumers expect to get programming for free, or at very low cost, so piracy is endemic.”

Meanwhile, he observes, viewers now expect high-end scripted TV to deliver a cinematic punch, which comes with a corresponding cinematic price tag—and this at a time when many are questioning whether the glut of high-end drama is sustainable, or a bubble that is about to burst.

Pancho Mansfield, the Los Angeles-based president of global scripted programming at Entertainment One (eOne) Television, says that all U.S. broadcasters “are looking for something that stands out”—no small challenge in a market that now has some 55 channels and platforms airing at least one scripted show. “The good news is that there’s now a lot of scripted,” Mansfield adds. “The bad is that the ratings are dropping and there are fewer big scripted hits. But that’s opened up possibilities for niche content and we’re now seeing things that wouldn’t easily have found a home in the U.S. before.”

SPRECHEN SIE DEUTSCH?
He references the first-ever German-language drama to air stateside, UFA Fiction’s spy thriller Deutschland 83, which has delivered solid numbers for SundanceTV. “That just wouldn’t have happened a few years ago,” Mansfield adds. “But now, all avenues are open. It’s been fascinating to watch U.S. broadcasters realize that, one, the rest of the world has a lot to offer and, two, they can partner on projects and don’t have to be fully responsible for the funding.”

“What’s wonderful to see is that the Americans now recognize that we in Europe can do programming that rates on their platforms,” says Rola Bauer, partner and CEO of Munich-based TANDEM Productions, and managing director of STUDIOCANAL’s television business unit, under which are clustered respected Euro producers TANDEM, RED, Guilty Party and SAM. Bauer is adept at working with European producers to create shows that have “a local heartland but can sit in the U.S. space and, ultimately, will land internationally.”

Bauer is a co-pro veteran, with a track record of U.S./Euro creative alliances that dates back to the 1986 miniseries Sword of Gideon. Her current U.S. slate include Spotless, Esquire Network’s first-ever scripted drama, which premiered in mid-November; and The Last Panthers, a six-part crime series commissioned by Sky Atlantic and CANAL+ and co-produced with SundanceTV, where it is set to air in the spring.

Romain Bessi, chief financial officer and chief operating officer of STUDIOCANAL, says cultivating new relationships is “critically important” to the French production heavyweight’s continued assault on the U.S. market. “As we do on the film side, we want to work with top U.S. studios, broadcasters, creatives and talent on the development, production and distribution of television content for the global market.”

The financial models underpinning relationships with U.S. broadcasters have evolved over time. Muse’s Prupas notes, “In the last few years, we’ve found it’s more productive to get involved in productions that are presold to U.S. networks and then taken out internationally—the twist being that we retain the right to sell those shows ourselves.” He cites Tut, which tells the story of Egyptian boy king Tutankhamun’s short but tempestuous life, as an example. The primary buyer was Spike, where the six-hour event series debuted in July. Tut was then sold by Muse Distribution to the U.K.’s Channel 5, Discovery in Italy, Hulu in Japan, Turkey’s Saran Media Group, Portugal’s SIC and Sky in New Zealand. Ditto Signed, Sealed, Delivered, which has sold into France, the U.K., Italy, Spain and Germany on the back of a primary sale to Hallmark.

Next up for Muse is The Kennedys: After Camelot, a four-hour limited series for Reelz, due to air in spring 2017. A sequel to Reelz’s Stephen Kronish-scripted The Kennedys, the drama takes a look at the life of America’s ‘royal family’ following the murders of JFK and his brother Bobby.

After Camelot will follow the same presale/distribution trajectory as Tut and Signed, Sealed, Delivered—a model that Prupas admits was pioneered by producer/distributor powerhouses Lionsgate and eOne.

THE RIGHT FORMULA
Mansfield says that eOne has several models for collaborating with U.S. partners, ranging from “finding a project, selling it to a network, making it for them and then taking it out into the world” to teaming up with European producers to create series, which it then pitches into the U.S. An example of the latter is Ransom, a drama from Frank Spotnitz (The Man in the High Castle) that eOne is developing and producing with France’s TF1 and Canada’s Shaw Media, and is about to take out to the U.S. networks.

“Packaging” (attaching showrunners, directors, writers and talent to projects prior to approaching a network), having a local presence in the form of a U.S. office (“critical…”) and knowing who’s looking for what are also pivotal in forging broadcaster relationships in the world’s toughest TV market, Mansfield says. The trend for big serialized shows continues, particularly among the basic-cable, premium-cable and digital services. “Everybody’s looking for drama that will cut through the clutter and make viewers come back to see what happens next.” Meanwhile, closed-ended episodic procedurals—“cop shows with a beginning, a middle and an end”—are currently proving a tougher sell in the U.S., despite their continuing popularity with international buyers.

“The world is changing dramatically,” Mansfield says. “These days, you have to be very flexible and work with all the models that are out there.” He admits it can be challenging, not least because the entire global industry is struggling to adjust to the new paradigms. “But the great news is that the product is better than ever—and we’re at the center of it.”

Ruth Clarke, ITV Studios Global Entertainment’s (ITVS GE) executive VP of global content strategy and investments, echoes eOne’s Mansfield when she says a U.S. office is vital in terms of building and sustaining relationships, and identifying likely drama and comedy projects to co-develop and/or sell. “We have people on the ground in L.A. who are a short drive away from the key U.S. executives’ offices,” she says. “Face time is really important in understanding American tastes and matching the right broadcaster with the right programming.”

ITV Studios has distribution and production offices in Los Angeles. ITV America is ITV’s recently rebranded U.S. group of production businesses, the scripted arm of which—ITV Studios America—recently hired ex-Endemol Studios chief Philippe Maigret to accelerate its growth into this space. Clarke reports that the two sides of its business are in “weekly if not daily contact” to ensure that any pitch is laser-targeted to its recipient. As she points out, “You get one shot at pitching a show, so you want it to be as perfect as possible.” That not only means ensuring your projects are relevant, but also attaching talent. And don’t forget to be enthusiastic, Clarke counsels: “You won’t get anywhere in the U.S. without passion.”

Clarke says that ITVS GE’s financial structures not only vary depending on whether a show originates from the studio or distribution side of its business, but are also crafted to suit the needs, partners and ambitions of each project.

CUSTOM APPROACH
Steve Macallister, the CEO of all3media international, agrees. “We will create a bespoke model for each and every project. As an international distributor we are constantly looking for new and innovative models to get great shows funded but, ultimately, it’s about finding the right partner for the right show.”

Macallister says bringing U.S. partners on board as early as possible is helpful in terms of funding, development and production. As U.S. broadcasters open up to European producers and talent, “they are actively looking for creative input at an early stage,” he adds. And then there’s the pixie dust that an early commitment from a U.S. partner can sprinkle on international sales in terms of “reinforcing the strength and potential of a drama to global broadcasters.”

Currently on all3media’s U.S. slate is a partnership with Starz on the original drama series Close to the Enemy. The six-part series is all3media’s second project with Starz: it previously collaborated on The Missing, which goes into production on a second season in 2016. There’s also Indian Summers, a nine-part saga for Channel 4 in the U.K. and Masterpiece on PBS.

Everybody acknowledges that scripted comedy is a much tougher proposition than drama to sell into the U.S., although it can work well if approached “intelligently at a price that’s reasonable,” eOne’s Mansfield says. He recommends quirky, provocative, single-camera comedies such as You Me Her, created and written by executive producer and showrunner John Scott Shepherd. eOne will finance, produce and distribute “TV’s first polyromantic comedy,” in which one of the two parties just happens to be a suburban married couple.

While acknowledging that U.K./European humor has tended to get lost in translation somewhere over the Atlantic, all3media’s Macallister points out that American audiences have become much more open to “different voices” in recent years. “Comedy is a genre that we’re actively looking to build on for the U.S. market,” he adds. “The rise in VOD has led to that increased popularity. Our Matt Lucas comedy drama Pompidou airs on Netflix and we’re expecting another comedy to land on a major VOD player in the next 12 months.”

COMEDIC VALUE
Alon Shtruzman, CEO of Keshet International, is of the same opinion. “Comedies can be a super-lucrative asset,” he says—as long as you can find “a significant global concept and good, strong story lines that you can adapt to different markets.” He cites Oh Mama, an original Keshet Studios development for NBC. Created by Claudia Lonow (How to Live with Your Parents), Oh Mama is executive produced by Peter Traugott, the president of scripted at Keshet’s recently launched U.S. scripted studio. It is also the first project under Keshet Studios’ new first-look programming deal with NBC, announced in August, which also includes a co-production pact for scripted product with NBC’s sibling studio, Universal Television.

A second comedy project, Imported, is also in development with NBC/Universal Television. Adapted from an Endemol Israel show for Keshet Broadcasting, the comedy focuses on the “cultural collisions” experienced by an American family that moves to London when their son is signed to a top football club.

Shtruzman says one of the biggest challenges when it comes to reversioning shows for the U.S. is finding a writer who is not only acceptable to the studios, but is also available—in the case of Imported, Robert Borden (Late Show with David Letterman) has been hired to do the honors. With the U.S. producing some 400 scripted series last year, the competition for writing talent is intense. “Attaching a good writer is a big part of successfully packaging a show,” Shtruzman adds. “But it’s getting harder and harder to find good writers.”

Like all3media and ITVS GE, Keshet International structures every deal according to the creative needs of the project and the commercial requirements of its partners—“and on today’s big scripted projects, that can mean a lot of different parties with a lot of different sensitivities and ambitions,” Shtruzman observes. There are now, he points out, as many financial structures as there are new windows, outlets and players. “That’s very exciting,” he adds. “It’s time we came up with new models to finance and monetize content. The U.S. scripted market may be very crowded and competitive, but there have never been more opportunities for producers. I think it’s definitely a golden age of television. Let’s just hope it’s sustainable.”

Pictured: ITV Studios Global Entertainment’s Poldark.