Joel Denton Talks Distribution, Windowing Trends

Joel Denton tells World Screen about how he is building on Red Arrow Studios International’s core strengths of premium international drama titles and innovative formats.

No distributor has been immune to the effects of COVID-19, but some, with large libraries, have been able to weather the storm better than others. That has been the case for Red Arrow Studios International, which, while dealing with production pauses on shows it was gearing up to launch this year, has a deep bench of scripted and non-scripted properties to offer buyers across the globe. Broadcasters coping with their own production delays have been snapping up TV-movie titles, library shows with multiple seasons available and the holy grail for broadcasters in need of entertainment shows in a COVID-19 landscape: quick-turnaround, flexible formats that can be made with or without studio audiences. At the helm of Red Arrow Studios International is Joel Denton, who joined the company earlier this year with a wealth of experience working in international content distribution, having previously spent time at A+E Networks, RHI Entertainment and Hallmark Entertainment. He also previously ran Red Arrow Studios’ operations in the U.K. Tapping into his knowledge of production and distribution trends across the globe, Denton is building on Red Arrow Studios International’s core strengths of premium international drama titles and innovative formats. In this interview with World Screen, Denton articulates his strategy for the year ahead.

WS: What’s the overall strategy for driving growth at Red Arrow Studios International in the 12 to 18 months ahead?
DENTON: Our priority is to focus on our core strengths and key areas of specialization, particularly scripted and formats. In scripted, we have a strong slate of “global drama,” ranging from returning, premium series like Bosch, Vienna Blood and Departure through to our catalog of TV-movie titles, which number over 500. We are also a big supplier of quality, critically-acclaimed non-English language drama like Dignity, The Bank Hacker and Falco. The increasing globalization of drama means viewers are more accepting of subtitled and dubbed content than ever before. Our scripted slate is an attractively broad mix of content, which is important as trends come and go quickly in this genre, so building on that is a priority.
And of course, formats are a big part of our strategy. We are known for being innovators in this space and have a track record of launching interesting, off-beat, noisy and commercially successful formats that quickly become the new mainstream. A format like Married at First Sight, for instance, is huge for us in distribution and for the group as a whole. It’s now the world’s most locally produced relationship format, with 29 local productions, and local tape versions sold to over 100 territories. Over the next 12 months, we see Beat the Channel gaining significant traction: it’s a totally original concept in which two presenters are given the chance to win a 15-minute live slot, where anything goes. Produced by Florida Entertainment for ProSieben, it’s been a huge hit in Germany and season four is now in production. Internationally it’s been licensed to a number of territories, so it will start to roll out locally next year. We are lucky as we have a strong supply of in-house formats from renowned Red Arrow Studios-owned production companies, like CPL Productions, Snowman Productions, Kinetic Content and RedSeven Entertainment, and we also work with leading third-party suppliers and will continue to do so.
In terms of factual, our focus going forward will primarily be on premium factual and brands; titles like The Weekly and the forthcoming new series The Weekly: Special Edition—the landmark factual series produced by Left/Right and The New York Times for FX and Hulu—and also Galileo, our long-running science-tainment series that continues to sell widely and has spawned numerous spin-offs and brand extensions.

WS: How are windowing strategies evolving?
DENTON: As the landscape keeps evolving and old rules get broken, there is a greater degree of flexibility regarding windowing and other traditional broadcast rules. From our perspective, we try to be as creative as possible in finding windowing solutions that capitalize on this new openness, serving our broadcast and producer partners in the best possible way.

However, it all depends on the content. For those channel-defining, premium dramas, exclusivity is important. In these instances, the commissioning channels tend to hold onto all rights, and what we are seeing is more split-window deals whereby free-TV broadcasters collaborate with pay-TV players or streamers at the commissioning stage, thus tying up two windows.

WS: You’ve had a long history with TV movies; how has that market evolved?
DENTON: There has always been a healthy demand for TV movies, particularly from broadcasters in Europe, and the popularity of the genre continues to endure, in part because the movies are incredibly flexible to schedule—they are almost always rated PG. There has been an evolution over the years, though; broadcasters used to schedule them in prime time, now they generally run in daytime or shoulder peak for a largely female audience. That said, networks are still buying TV movies in volume. In terms of genre, romantic comedies and light crime tend to be the most popular. Recently we have seen an increase in the number of holiday movies produced, which is driven by the Hallmark channels’ success with this genre. We have a number of holiday and Christmas titles and they do good business for us, but they obviously aren’t as flexible to schedule as rom-coms.

We look to launch a minimum of 20 new U.S.-produced TV movies a year, along with a number of German TV movies, and are one of the larger trusted volume suppliers. For us as a distributor, having a good stock of TV movies in our catalog and a steady flow of new titles means we can service pay- and free-TV needs and also the increasing appetite from the streamers.

WS: How important has it been for Red Arrow to become a producer-distributor-packager, especially in scripted?
DENTON: It’s hugely important for Red Arrow to be involved in content throughout its whole lifecycle. In the scripted space, in particular, we get involved in projects right from the treatment and development stage, with Red Arrow’s Carlo Dusi leading on scripted development. Good examples include both Vienna Blood and Departure. If you are a distributor of scale, it has never been more important to get creative projects to the screen by building interesting business models and financial packages and then coming up with bespoke distribution strategies, often with complex rights structures, to make sure each show generates as much revenue as possible back to the production company—be they in-house or third party.

WS: How are you working with Joyn? And what benefits does RASI derive from being part of the broader ProSiebenSat.1 group
DENTON: We work closely with our colleagues at Joyn and ProSiebenSat.1. We distribute Dignity, Joyn’s first original drama series commission, and two of our comedy-dramas—Ms. Jordan and Check Check—are also Joyn and ProSieben commissions, both of which have been recommissioned for second seasons that we are launching this fall/winter. German drama continues to get more ambitious—in terms of production values and budgets, and the scope of its themes and storylines—so it’s a fruitful relationship.

Being part of a large broadcaster in Europe is incredibly beneficial for us; it provides us with a pipeline of shows and, more broadly, resources for investment. We also continue to benefit from the shows flowing from Red Arrow Studios as a production group, something I want to focus on even more in the next 12 months.

WS: And in terms of your extensive library, what’s resonating with broadcasters at this time?
DENTON: Our catalog of TV movies is doing particularly well, as there’s a clear demand right now for easygoing, feel-good content—viewers don’t want too much gloom and doom at the moment. As it’s content that appeals to a broad family audience, it’s easy and flexible for broadcasters to schedule.

Quick-turnaround formats is another key area for us, particularly those high-volume, lower-cost shows that can play in daytime and access prime. Our format Block Out, which Red Arrow Studios developed with Nippon TV and July August Productions, has recently been commissioned for 70 episodes in Spain and also in the Netherlands. Broadcasters are experimenting with these types of formats in prime time as the lower price points mean the risk is also a lot lower.

We’ve also been doing a lot of business with the ready-made episodes of Married at First Sight. The U.S. version, produced by Kinetic Content for Lifetime, sells widely to broadcasters around the world, as does the Australian version, which has been a massive hit for Nine Network. This year it has been acquired by Lifetime in the U.S. and Channel 4 in the U.K. Additionally, SIC Portugal has taken seven seasons, alongside spin-offs Married at First Sight: The First Year and Married at First Sight: Second Chances.

The other local versions also travel, with SVT having picked up the Norwegian tapes, SIC Portugal the Italian and New Zealand tapes, and PRO Plus Slovenia has acquired Married at First Sight Croatia, just to name a few!

My observation is that big TV brands are just becoming bigger, with broadcasters looking to supersize them in as many different ways as possible. So, in addition to making their own versions, picking up other ready-made versions and their associated spin-offs is a cost-effective way for a channel to extend a hit brand, ensure it is recognized as the home of that brand and benefit from the halo effect.