here<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\nWith production budgets already on the rise before Covid and an increasingly competitive environment, \u201cwe as international distributors have to change the model a little bit, and we are becoming co-producers,\u201d said Kusser, executive VP of international co-production and world sales at LEONINE. \u201cWe have to jump on board very early if we want to get our hands on a project. We used to write a check for an MG, and the deal was done, or we were deficit financing. And we see a lot more private equity companies coming into the market wanting to be part of the game. That\u2019s a new model to look at in co-financing\/co-production.\u201d<\/p>\n
March, founder and managing partner at Dynamic Television, agreed and added, \u201cCo-productions fit into one of two buckets: creatively driven or economically driven. The benefit of economic models is often trying to attract an additional broadcaster or another entity. That\u2019s just getting a little bit more challenging. But I think in general, demand for co-productions is very strong.\u201d<\/p>\n
Franke, VP of drama at ZDF Studios, added that co-pros are the market\u2019s response to mitigating investment risks. \u201cIt\u2019s one way to make sure that you don\u2019t put too much money into one project, and you partner with like-minded people and companies to make sure that you benefit from a joint production. It\u2019s also a reaction to the vertical integration of big media companies. These big conglomerates keep everything to themselves. Production companies now belong to bigger groups. If you\u2019re not part of an idea right from the get-go, you\u2019re not part of it at all. That leads to a situation where we are forced to become co-producers. It\u2019s not an evolution of the co-production model per se. It\u2019s more the evolution of the role of distribution companies in the markets and facilitating our expertise.\u201d<\/p>\n
March called the U.S. a challenging market for co-productions. \u201cA U.S. buyer, not a global streamer, coming on board early as a co-producer doesn\u2019t happen that often. The bar is extraordinarily high in the U.S. It is hard to get broadcasters or buyers to come on board early and take that risk because they\u2019re investing so much money in their original shows. The U.S. is one market where you don\u2019t need a partner to crank out $4-million or $5-million episodes year-round. There\u2019s not an inherent need for co-production structures the way there might be in Europe, where you have smaller markets and smaller investments. Can you presell? Yes, you can presell. Will the buyer have a little bit of creative input? They might. But it remains a very English-language-dominant market. Is it doable? It is, often driven by big talent out of the U.K. or big IP. But it\u2019s not easy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Franke agreed with March\u2019s assessment of the U.S. market for European drama co-pros. \u201cIt\u2019s incredibly hard to find the right topic that ticks the boxes of both partners, a European one and the U.S. one. More often than not, the U.S. partners don\u2019t need the European contribution. They\u2019d rather retain creative freedom than share something. On the other hand, I\u2019m having more conversations about co-productions in the last two years than ever before with U.S. partners. There is more openness in the U.S. market to at least have the conversations because they see more openness in U.S. audiences to look at foreign content. That is the beginning of a fundamental shift.\u201d<\/p>\n
The conversation then moved to co-producing with the global streamers and what that means for rights retention. \u201cIt\u2019s very hard to retain rights if we work with streamers, especially if they\u2019re operating on a multi-territory or even global scale,\u201d Franke continued. \u201cIt changes your business model when you work for somebody like Netflix. It\u2019s more beneficial to get them on board as a partner who will fund the project entirely rather than co-produce. Especially with what\u2019s happening in Europe among the linear broadcasting community, they\u2019re quite skeptical and see the competition from these streaming platforms\u2014they don\u2019t want to have them involved anymore. It\u2019s hard to find meaningful projects that justify co-production between a linear partner and a streaming partner. We\u2019d rather work on the linear side in a co-production model or sell it off to the global streamer entirely simply because the rights are just not that valuable if it is branded by a streamer.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a double-edged sword,\u201d March said. \u201cYou become a little beholden to the streamer on whether you can continue with the show in subsequent seasons because their investment is so substantial. If the show performs well in the country of origin, where it is produced and where the audience knows the cast the best, and they want a second season, but your global streamer just had OK success with it, you\u2019re stuck. That\u2019s a risk you take that I don\u2019t think you think about early in the process.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all know that the streamers don\u2019t need a co-production, a real one,\u201d Kusser noted. \u201cThe result is that we will see more like-minded broadcasters or international parties willing to partner up. As the big streamers commission more out of Europe, the traditional European broadcasters are partnering up with each other.\u201d<\/p>\n
On what makes for a good co-pro, March referenced \u201ccreative alignment\u201d regarding tone, audience, timelines and the overall ambitions for a series.<\/p>\n
Kusser agreed that a creative match is critical. \u201cWe all speak the same language. Also, not too many editorial voices. Don\u2019t have five people giving notes on the latest cut. Of course, the financials play the main role, but don\u2019t forget that big creative part.\u201d<\/p>\n
Franke mentioned role delegation: \u201cHave a joint understanding about what I am supposed to do and what my partner is supposed to do. Who\u2019s driving the co-production creatively? Who is defining the financing strategy? Who has the last say in how you\u2019re going to put it together? There needs to be a consensus at the end of the day, but you need to be clear about who is doing what in a co-production because otherwise, things can get very messy, especially when people start fighting over creative ownership. You don\u2019t want to be in that spot where you have something financed, and all of a sudden, people are fighting over who is going to have the final say creatively. The same goes for financing as well, especially from our perspective as a distribution company. The financing model determines whether or not we will be able to earn money. If there is a decision taken by your partners in terms of who is being brought on board to close the gap in the financing of a project, you might end up with something that could seriously harm your ability to earn money. Assigning roles is important.\u201d<\/p>\n
Authenticity is key, which means local language, but as March noted, financial considerations are in play. \u201cIt has to be organic to the story. There are opportunities for non-English-language in the U.S., but it\u2019s limited in value. There are certain parts of the world\u2014Latin America, Asia, parts of Africa, parts of Eastern Europe\u2014where non-English-language content is either harder to place, or you\u2019re selling it at a lower value. You can\u2019t force a show to be in one language or another. But it plays a part in how you ultimately view the potential of the show and your investment.\u201d<\/p>\n
The conversation then moved to production incentives that make particular markets well-suited to co-pro opportunities. In Europe, \u201cthe number of incentives is becoming mind-boggling,\u201d Franke observed. \u201cThere are so many countries offering all sorts of incentives, whether subsidies, soft money, tax deduction schemes. You want to ensure that you tap into as many of these incentives as possible. At the same time, you have to be true to what type of product you are producing. If you have something set in the Mediterranean Sea, and you feel you need to go to Belgium because it offers 37 percent on top of some subsidy, you might want to reconsider if that is the best creative decision. You have to look at your story and where it\u2019s set and then figure out where the best places to shoot are. And just because you get a lot of money from a certain territory doesn\u2019t mean it translates into savings. Sometimes you pay hidden costs.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe creative is going to dictate where we\u2019re going to make something,\u201d March added. \u201cAnd then it becomes, are there ways to optimize the financing?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The TV Drama Festival featured a panel this morning on how the co-production model has evolved, with insights from ZDF Studios\u2019 Robert Franke, Dynamic Television\u2019s Daniel March and LEONINE Studios\u2019 Caroline Kusser.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":290,"featured_media":17129,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[70],"tags":[5074,5075,628,4482,2354,4964,4932],"class_list":["post-17128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-top-stories","tag-caroline-kusser","tag-daniel-march","tag-dynamic-television","tag-leonine-studios","tag-robert-franke","tag-tv-drama-festival-2022","tag-zdf-studios","pmpro-has-access"],"yoast_head":"\n
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