Q&A with Breakthrough’s Nat Abraham

NEW YORK: In the run-up to the AFM, Nat Abraham, the president of distribution at Breakthrough Entertainment, talks about further growth opportunities for the company.

WS: Has the acquisition of Joker Films, and appointing its founder Tim Brown as executive VP of feature films at Breakthrough, changed your feature-film strategy?
ABRAHAM: We were already in the film business prior to Tim joining us. We accelerated the growth of that division very quickly by bringing Tim on board because he has a lot of experience, not just in selling films but also in producing them. He has been very successful with family-oriented films that are now part of our catalogue. He’s also very good at reading scripts that are submitted to us. We’ve got a production crew that works on our films in various locations. It’s been a well-oiled machine since he joined us.

WS: Are you looking to make more acquisitions?
ABRAHAM: We are constantly looking for complementary ways to grow. There are other companies out there that are either doing things in our space or in spaces we want to get into. If a company is a strategic fit, we will obviously look at that opportunity as well. It’s definitely something we have our eye on.

WS: What kind of films do you focus on?
ABRAHAM: Our main focus is films that cater to the entire family—a lot of talking-dog movies, which keep everyone amused! But we are also increasingly getting into the genre area with a whole team that is dedicated to horror and suspense thriller films. We’ve had some good success with them. We are also looking at feature documentaries. We just had a very successful screening at TIFF [Toronto International Film Festival] of one of our documentaries called The Culture High. We also have female-skewing movies as well as romance, mystery, suspense and female-oriented miniseries.

WS: Are digital platforms opening up new opportunities?
ABRAHAM: Absolutely. We recently produced a series with Hulu starring Eva Longoria called Mother Up! That was a brand-new opportunity that didn’t exist before. Netflix is commissioning a lot of product from a lot of distributors. These digital platforms are [proving to be] as strong as traditional linear channels. They are certainly not to be ignored; in fact, they are to be embraced as opportunities.

We [also] do a lot of program extensions like games and apps that go along with our conventional TV shows. That is a whole area of growth for our company, and we are very well established with our game development and webisodes.

WS: What balance do you try to strike between what you produce, co-produce and acquire?
ABRAHAM: There is not a particular strategy. It just so happens that Breakthrough is a very well-known producer, but it’s also a very well-known distributor. There are a lot of independent producers who approach us with their projects, whether they are completed, are close to completion or need help to be completed. We get involved in financing. We get involved in distribution. We get involved in all aspects of helping a great project come to life, whether it’s our own or an independent producer’s.

WS: What has driven Breakthrough’s success in children’s programming?
ABRAHAM: I think our success is driven just by producing shows that get ratings for networks. Buyers keep coming back for more because they know we have the team that can deliver those kinds of shows. We have been very fortunate in that most of our shows have performed quite well and have had additional seasons ordered. It’s all about just getting shows made that will drive ratings for the networks.