David Nevins, Armando Nuñez MIPCOM Keynote

CANNES: World Screen’s Anna Carugati interviewed Showtime’s David Nevins and CBS Global Distribution Group’s Armando Nuñez in the Grand Auditorium at MIPCOM, where the two executives discussed the expansion of the premium channel’s brand and content across the globe.

Carugati, World Screen’s group editorial director, began the session by asking Nevins, the president of Showtime Networks, about the overall strategy for the channel’s original programming. “We feel like our future is about owned original content,” said Nevins, who has been with the CBS Corporation-owned premium channel operator for five years. “The strategy programming-wise is we want to have the best, most cutting-edge, most progressive, adult, premium content.”

He noted that “nobody in the American market has the depth and breadth of shows that we have right now. The strategy is about original proprietary content that we can then monetize around the world.”

Nuñez, the president and CEO of CBS Global Distribution Group, spoke to the international demand for this premium content. “You take everything David just said about that type of content, and you combine [it] with the timing and the evolution of where this business is, and the proliferation of digital platforms, there is a super demand for high-end premium content. It’s the type of content that we do with Showtime that not only drives viewership, but drives subscribers. It’s marketable, promotable, and there’s not much of it in the world. There is a lot of content, but there’s not a huge supply of the type of programming that David gives us over at Showtime.”

He continued, “We are embarking on a global strategy to expand not only Showtime programming, but the Showtime-branded portfolio around the world.”

Nevins noted, “As SVOD services are waking up, as the traditional premium television in each market now has to compete against the SVOD services, there’s demand for that kind of programming that sells subscriptions.”

Carugati asked Nuñez about how CBS Global Distribution Group is placing Showtime’s heavily serialized content on platforms worldwide. “The wonderful thing about the world today is that there’s basically a platform almost for every genre of content. The procedurals that CBS is best known for…[are] those broad, mass-appeal shows that the bigger platforms, the bigger broadcasters are always looking for. The more premium shows that are on Showtime, or even shows like Zoo or Under the Dome, have some potential on those platforms, but for the most part they thrive in a premium environment, whether it’s linear or digital…week to week or on a binge basis.”

Nevins was asked to provide some insight into how he works with showrunners. “The great thing is that I’m not trying to make their show fit some abstract definition of what Showtime is. I want Showtime to be cutting edge, I want to have the next big thing, I want to make television for adults, but I’m not trying to make any one showrunner fit in. I’ve been a producer. I engage really intensely with the showrunners and the actors of our shows. I’m not, ‘Here’s the money, go make the show.’ More often than not, it’s a daily interaction with Sarah Treem of The Affair or Michelle Ashford on Masters of Sex. I have a lot of ideas, I read every script, I read every story outline, I watch every cut. I see my job as getting the best out of whomever I’m working with. Everyone has a different style. The tie goes to them when there is a creative dispute. If I think you’re making a mistake, I will tell it to your face, but if it’s core to what you believe, core to how you see the show going, I don’t expect to win.”

On working with on-screen talent, meanwhile, he said, “The lead actors of our shows—Liev Schreiber, Dominic West, Ruth Wilson, Claire Danes—these are powerful television people and they have an awful lot of responsibility. I give them a lot of say.”

Nuñez said it’s a great time to be in the premium content business. “There are challenges, but there are more opportunities than challenges. We’re fortunate to have Les Moonves as the CEO of our company. He focuses…on making the best content possible, and good business opportunities will follow.”

Carugati asked Nuñez about the deal with Bell Media to bring the Showtime brand to Canada. “It’s really an example of an evolution of deal-making, at least in Canada and potentially around the world, where we had legacy pay-TV channel deals that were expiring. Netflix had been in Canada already for a number of years. There were two competitive Canadian services that were starting up in a similar time frame. It was the evolution of the traditional linear deal and was more driven by SVOD demands. We’ve been selling [Showtime] shows on an individual basis. This is the first deal where we really committed to a portfolio deal, not only for the Showtime content but certain aspects of the Showtime brand.”

Nevins added, “All of our shows tended to be in different places in different territories. I think the brand strength of Showtime in the U.S. has been at an all-time high. Canada was the first place where there was very high awareness of Showtime. It was very valuable for Bell when they launched their SVOD service Crave to say, we’re the home of Showtime. The next stage of our growth is to make Showtime mean something around the world.”

Nevins also talked about the recently launched standalone Showtime OTT offering in the U.S. “It’s been recently interesting. I know exactly what episodes were watched last night, what was dominant, I can see all the viewing patterns, all the sales patterns, who is converting better…. Our base business has never been stronger in the U.S., but I think a lot of the growth is going to come from the broadband-only [service.]”

From a global perspective, Nuñez said, “No two markets are exactly alike, there’s an evolution taking place in different ways. It’s incumbent upon us as a distribution organization to try and stay on top of it as much as we can, try to do what we can do to both monetize our content and to make our programming successful.”