Dramatic Pacts

Producers and distributors are evolving their co-production strategies as the drama business becomes more competitive.

Co-production may be the de-facto model for making high-end scripted programming today, but in a complex market where innovative financing approaches are essential, the very meaning of the term is in a state of flux.

“This word ‘co-pro’ has become so used and abused,” says Rola Bauer, the CEO of TANDEM Productions and head of U.S. TV production and co-production at STUDIOCANAL, who has been a pioneer in structuring deals for premium English-language drama. “I’m calling them international productions. Every country has their local productions, and the Americans are renowned and successful with their American productions. Then there’s all of us out there in the world who do not have the deep pockets of America and are trying to create international productions that also land very successfully in America.”

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to co-production today, observes Carrie Stein, the executive VP of global production at Entertainment One (eOne). “We treat each project individually and on a case-by-case basis. When we find a piece of material that we all respond to, then we determine the best way to put it together commercially, financially and creatively.”

By the simplest definition, a co-production is “two partners collaborating fully, creatively and editorially on a project, and then additional financing is made up from tax and location incentives, a distribution advance and maybe a presale,” explains Caroline Torrance, the head of scripted at Zodiak Rights. On that front, the slate at the company currently includes three high-profile titles: Versailles, a co-production between Zodiak Fiction, CAPA and Incendo; Rebellion, produced by Touchpaper for RTÉ with SundanceTV as a co-pro partner; and Occupied, a TV2 and ARTE co-pro from Yellow Bird.

“The other model that often gets called co-production but really isn’t co-production is where you’ve got one commissioning broadcaster, and you make up the rest of the funding with more presales rather than co-productions,” Torrance adds. “Sometimes all you need is a presale to de-risk the project, to help you get it over the line, rather than full-blown co-production partners.”

Both models are in play at Federation Entertainment, and each “has its own specificities and difficulties,” says Lionel Uzan, the company’s co-founder and managing director.

For example, the company is on board as a partner on the U.K./French co-pro The Collection, which has two primary broadcasters (Amazon Prime U.K. and France Télévisions) and a distributor (BBC Worldwide) involved, with Lookout Point taking the creative lead as the production house.

Federation brought in a portion of the budget through France Télévisions and public subsidies, Uzan says. Federation also serves as the “middleman” of sorts between France Télévisions and Lookout Point and contributed local expertise for the show, which is set in post-World War II Paris. “We helped a lot by bringing remarks and notes on the scripts, helping the U.K. part of the production to choose French actors, and we brought in some French talent, especially on the costume design.”

The other model, Uzan says, is when there is a single commissioning broadcaster and Federation helps the project “financially, creatively and in terms of distribution.” Such is the case with the Finnish drama Bordertown.

“The idea here is really not to [participate in the] creative too much,” Uzan says. “The producer is building the project around the requirements of the local broadcaster. We are not interested in changing the nature of the project. What’s interesting for us is the fact that it has local authenticity. We do a light-touch intervention on the creative side, trying to help the producer to understand how the international market works and what kinds of elements could be problematic for the international market.”

At STUDIOCANAL, Bauer is looking at the slates of the company’s various creative outposts to determine if projects can be turned from local commissions into international productions. At Urban Myth in the U.K., for example, STUDIOCANAL brought in Netflix as a partner on the E4 commission Crazyhead. At RED Production Company, BBC America was brought in on Quatermass. “Instead of RED doing what they traditionally do—get their anchor network out of the U.K. market—we said, Let’s see if we can land your anchor network in the U.S.,” Bauer says.

British production houses landing first-run commissions from American networks is certainly a new development in the fast-changing international drama business. And there are many more shifts under way.

WINDS OF CHANGE 
“The landscape has changed a lot over the last year—even in the last six months!” says Ruth Berry, the managing director of ITV Studios Global Entertainment (ITVS GE). “It’s a really competitive space. One of the big changes for us is around talent and channels wanting to understand who is involved [in a project] and their level of credentials.”

As an example, Berry cites the ITV Encore and Hulu co-production Harlots from Monumental Pictures. The track record of executive producers Alison Owen and Debra Hayward was crucial, Berry says, as was the casting of Samantha Morton, Lesley Manville and Jessica Brown Findlay. “The ingredients are becoming key,” she explains. “There are so many great stories out there,” but networks and platforms want to be comforted that the execution will be spot-on. “Having more known about the quality of the people involved in the production is really helpful.”

Also on the ITVS GE co-pro slate is Victoria, which stars Jenna Coleman and is being made with PBS’s Masterpiece by Poldark producer Mammoth Screen.

For Liam Keelan, the director of scripted at BBC Worldwide, the biggest change in the co-pro business now is that “you have to be incredibly ambitious. The market is a lot more crowded; there’s a lot of really good product out there and the demand for A-list writers is greater than ever. You can’t do me-too drama in this market. You’ve got to raise the bar, you’ve got to make sure it feels as if it has the scale of other dramas out there. I’m not saying everything has to be like War & Peace. If it’s not like that, then you have to be telling a very individual story that feels like it hasn’t been told before. Something like Happy Valley doesn’t have the scale of a War & Peace, but it’s telling a story that taps into universal themes around crime, relationships, all those subject areas that sell well. It has to feel as if it’s got a very individual voice. Those are the kinds of things we’re looking for.”

One project that Keelan mentions as being reflective of how the market has shifted is the aforementioned The Collection. “It’s something that we’re doing that feels completely new and fresh and that we wouldn’t have been doing a year or two ago. BBC Worldwide is the majority funder, it’s airing first on Amazon in the U.K. It’s kicked off an interesting and fruitful partnership with Amazon in terms of originated output from the U.K.”

SOMETHING NEW 
OTT platforms have become significant investors in original drama, but they’re not the only new players. There are networks across the globe that previously didn’t commission scripted now willing to pony up cash, sometimes as co-producers with creative input, often just as prebuyers, to land compelling shows.

“It’s fantastic that there are so many more places to go and so many more people to see,” Zodiak’s Torrance says. “I was recently in L.A. and New York, pitching various projects that we’d like to find partners for, and there are almost no channels that aren’t looking for a big scripted drama title.”

That development has changed the game for Keshet International (KI), which has made co-production a significant part of its overall scripted strategy. “When we first started in the international market with scripted in 2007, the Israeli-American connection was a very natural and easy one, obviously more on the remake side,” says Keren Shahar, KI’s COO and president of distribution, referencing the adaptation of Prisoners of War into Homeland. “Now we also see that on the co-pro side. And now that we have a U.K. production company, it’s very easy to talk to British partners and European partners in general. We’re currently talking to Belgian companies, German companies and French companies; be it producers, channels or SVOD platforms. We are also speaking to Latin American partners for co-production ideas.”

KI’s biggest co-pro this year has been the British version of The A Word, commissioned by BBC One and co-produced with SundanceTV. It also has a pact with Telemundo with the view to co-producing a drama for the U.S. Hispanic broadcaster. “The world is now our playground,” Shahar says.

Amelie von Kienlin, the senior VP of scripted acquisitions and co-productions at Red Arrow International, agrees, noting, “There are new countries opening up and everyone wants to have exclusive originals. The budgets for broadcasters are being reduced, and everyone is looking for alternatives to make the budgets bigger.”

SHARED VISION 
Von Kienlin adds, however, that co-pros are not just about rounding out the budget. When determining who to partner with, there are plenty of other factors to take into consideration.

“In the end, it has to be someone who really shares the vision, someone who helps to move the project forward. We value notes, because they offer a different perspective.” The caveat there, though, is ensuring that the creator’s original concept isn’t corrupted during the co-pro process.

“We start from the idea,” von Kienlin says. “We like to give the writer the freedom to work on a vision and define it before one goes out to partners. Otherwise, if you have too many partners from the beginning, it might get diluted. This is [a process] we chaperone.”

Zodiak’s Torrance stresses that “you have to be driven by the creative of the project, not driven by the deal. It can be easy to get completely carried away with the deal, but then the partners involved are not on the same page creatively, and they don’t want the same thing. The creative has got to have a meeting of minds. If you don’t have that, then you’re doomed to failure at the start. And if you don’t have a really clear and honest conversation at the beginning about what you both want out of the partnership, then I don’t think it can work either.”

For eOne’s Stein, the biggest thing that can go wrong in a co-pro is a “broken telephone (or email). Communication is key! [It’s important to] stay connected to broadcast and production partners and truly understand what it is about the show that they love; what will make it work for them commercially; and understand their development, financing and production processes and how best to work together to ensure mutual success. When you’re dealing with different countries, time zones and languages, it’s not always easy to connect on all the financial, creative and legal details that go into a series. My advice is to get ahead of it as much as possible by sitting down with all partners early on to make sure everyone wants the same show—and then go from there.”

KI has been thrilled with the experience it’s had so far with the BBC and SundanceTV on The A Word, which has been renewed by both broadcasters.

“I have to say, all parties were extremely open to listening to everyone’s needs,” Shahar says. “The moment you have that, it becomes an easy and manageable discussion.”

One key point of negotiation was windowing, Shahar notes. “As the distributor, we need to make sure that we can sell the series outside of the SundanceTV window as soon as possible. Although SundanceTV couldn’t launch when they initially wanted to, there weren’t any holdbacks. They realized that there were international considerations. It was a very civilized and calm discussion.”

While partner broadcasters and distribution companies must all back the same vision for a co-pro to be successful, the producers themselves also have a central role to play in making sure the process runs smoothly.

“It’s the producer’s responsibility to maintain the vision of what they’ve sold to the networks,” says STUDIOCANAL’s Bauer. “If they change it then the onus is on them to make sure everybody is on the same page.”

CAN WE CO-PRO? 
While the variety of projects on the market today would indicate that almost anything is fit for collaboration, there are some types of dramas that work better for co-production than others.

“We would definitely look at every show individually,” ITVS GE’s Berry says. “They all have different appeal and different international reach and different editorial voices. There are ones where we say, Let’s keep this U.K. And there are other projects where we think, OK, on this project we all agree between us—the producer and the broadcaster—that a co-producing partner would be beneficial, financially and editorially. We’ll go find that partner who believes in the project the same way we do.”

Zodiak’s Torrance suggests that it helps to have “something that is relevant in both countries, so that means you’re often looking for well-known brands or subject matter that is known in many countries—like Versailles, for example.”

Torrance adds that period drama, in general, is ripe for co-pro opportunities. What’s challenging, she notes, is co-producing “long-running returnable series. What can happen is, one country will air it, it’ll be a success, they want to do it again, but the other country hasn’t broadcast it yet, or they’re not in a position to be able to greenlight it yet. Having said that, we are doing Versailles, and that’s returning. So there are no rules.”

Red Arrow’s von Kienlin, meanwhile, adds that sometimes a show that would be an unlikely co-pro contender ends up being an international success story.

“If you look at Cleverman, this wouldn’t be the most obvious international co-production because it’s rooted very much in the indigenous mythology of Australia,” von Kienlin says of the Red Arrow-distributed show, commissioned by ABC in Australia and co-produced with SundanceTV. “But at the same time, the subject is unique, and it’s a world you’ve never seen on TV.”

KI’s Shahar has found that “people today are much more sensitive to [local resonance] when they hear pitches for co-production. It’s not just that we have a character named Marie in a French-Israeli co-pro. It needs to make sense and be organic.”

Stein at eOne agrees, noting, “The best time to embark on a co-production is when it is truly organic to the material, and the story lends itself to the sensibilities of various markets and partners.”

For her, eOne’s new show Ransom is an example of that. TF1 in France and Corus in Canada are co-producing, with CBS in the U.S. and RTL in Germany also on board to air the show.

“The series is inspired by the renowned crisis negotiator Laurent Combalbert, who lives in Paris,” Stein explains. “His rights were acquired by Wildcats Productions, our French producing partners, who were looking to develop a project with TF1. As we began to develop the characters and story, our lead character’s ex-wife lived in Montreal with their daughter, so we made the decision to set our home office in Montreal. And suddenly it made sense to bring on a Canadian partner. The stories are set all over the world, so we knew the series would not only have global appeal, but we could shoot and post the series in Canada and France. The story naturally lent itself [to co-production].”

WIDE OPEN SPACES 
Even though some subjects and sub-genres tend to lend themselves better to co-pro than others, Zodiak’s Torrance has found that “there isn’t one type of drama that seems to be what people are looking for. There is so much flexibility and an openness to ideas.”

ITVS GE’s Berry says that the company is exploring new opportunities in a number of markets, including Scandinavia. “There is still great talent out there,” Berry says, “and they’re also really keen to work internationally. We’re starting to work more with French production companies, who have access to a different talent pool.”

ITVS GE is also continuing to expand its American scripted business. Most recently it announced a pact with Little Engine. “They are fantastic producers who can work anywhere in the world, actually, and have got quite a lot of projects that could be grounded in Europe.”

BBC Worldwide’s Keelan says that he is always looking for new partnerships, “whether it’s with writers we’ve not worked with before or packaging deals across SVOD and traditional linear broadcasters. Ultimately, it’s about getting ahold of the best IP. You’ve got to be very flexible. A couple of years ago it was, Let’s wait and see what’s coming down the track. Now we’ve got to be involved at the very outset. Producers will ask, When do you like to hear about things, is it when it’s about to be shot? No, absolutely not! It’s when you’ve got the germ of an idea. Something like McMafia, which we’re involved in with the BBC and Cuba Pictures, came from a germ of an idea. As soon as we started talking about it—not pitching it in a formal way, just talking very generally about it—there was such a buzz in the market. It felt new and completely fresh. The earlier you can be involved in these things, the better.”

What everyone will be keeping their eye on in the months and years to come is how the U.K. exits the EU and what ramifications that will have on the co-pro sector. No one knows yet what it will mean for the movement of talent between countries. How British shows will be classified under European content quotas is unclear. Access to financing may change. For now, the mantra appears to be business as usual—until it’s not.