2022: The Year in Factual

Factual producers and distributors entered last year with high hopes for all the opportunities CNN+ would present in the fast-proliferating factual streaming space. The service went live at the end of March and was shuttered in a month amid a series of strategy shifts at the new Warner Bros. Discovery, ones that are still playing out as the company prepares to lift the lid on the upcoming merged HBO Max/discovery+ service.

Despite the CNN+ news and a fair bit of confusion over Warner Bros. Discovery’s streaming strategy, it was still a busy and fruitful year for doc producers and distributors in the streaming space. Wildbear Entertainment launched Chronicle, a new history streamer in Australia. A+E Networks EMEA unveiled Crime+Investigation Play as a dedicated direct-to-consumer streaming service for true-crime content. TelevisaUnivision’s streaming service ViX emerged as a new buyer in the U.S. and Latin America. Global sports streaming service DAZN served up a range of documentaries, expanding its investment in originals. FIFA launched a streaming platform to deliver live domestic league games worldwide, stats, an archive of football matches and original content. MagellanTV ramped up its originals slate, including partnering with Nigel Marven. ITV revealed its first slate of factual commissions for ITVX, which launched in December. Tinopolis-backed Mech TV launched Mech+, a VOD streaming service dedicated to robotics, science and engineering content. And, of course, the global SVOD giants continued their investments, including Netflix expanding its natural-history slate and renewing its most successful love and dating shows while ramping up its unscripted offerings in key markets like Japan. Disney+ also expanded its non-scripted offerings in EMEA, as did Paramount+.

Meanwhile, the AVOD/FAST space is becoming more lucrative for distributors, especially those with large catalogs. Pluto TV launched new channels in partnership with a range of content providers, including A+E Networks UK. Autentic and OneGate Media partnered to launch the FAST channel Adventure Earth, featuring nature and wildlife documentaries. Quintus bolstered its FAST channel bouquet, which includes FD Crime. Blue Ant Media continued the expansion of its FAST channels, which include Love Nature and Homeful. Tubi unveiled a brand-new Gordon Ramsay FAST channel. A dedicated FAST channel featuring titles fronted by Jamie Oliver rolled out on Amazon Freevee, which emerged as a significant home of both acquired and commissioned factual fare in 2022. The AVOD platform greenlit new originals like the court program Tribunal and the reality show God. Family. Football. and inked a two-year licensing deal to bring back all 14 seasons of The Suze Orman Show to the U.S., the U.K. and Germany.

The last year was also marked by significant M&A activity, including Banijay acquiring Beyond International. Fremantle also inked a slew of deals, among them majority stakes in Israel’s Silvio Productions and 72 Films, the independent production outfit behind All or Nothing: Arsenal and 9/11: One Day in America, and a 51 percent interest in Wildstar Films. Red Arrow Studios’ U.S. production companies, a portfolio that includes Kinetic Content, Left/Right, 44 Blue, Half Yard Productions and Dorsey Pictures, were sold to Peter Chernin’s The North Road Company. BBC Studios became 100 percent owner of Voltage TV in the U.K. LEONINE Studios bought a 50 percent controlling interest in gebrueder beetz filmproduktion, which specializes in documentary features and series, and acquired the Berlin-based production outfit Hyperbole Medien. Newen Studios acquired a majority stake in the London-based production house Rise Films. ITV agreed to purchase a majority interest in Plimsoll Productions. Amcomri Entertainment acquired the assets of Flame Media. Blue Ant International took full ownership of the U.K.-based distributor Drive Media Rights. Sony Pictures Television acquired Industrial Media, expanding its footprint and capabilities in nonfiction and documentary television production. SK Global purchased Critical Content from Anchorage Capital Group.

Creative alliances and first-look deals also remained critical last year as IP owners sought to align with key talent. Of note, Lionsgate entered into a first-look agreement with producers Karis Jagger and Fabienne Toback (High on the Hog) and with Jenny McCarthy Wahlberg and Donnie Wahlberg for unscripted projects through their Work Baby Productions banner. HGTV signed a new exclusive multiyear talent deal with renovation and real estate stars Drew and Jonathan Scott. BBC Studios Natural History Unit entered into a one-year development pact with Underdog Films and its founder, James Reed, who directed the Academy Award-winning My Octopus Teacher. Investing in new talent, the NHU also committed £1 million to developing and supporting up-and-coming natural history filmmakers in the U.K. and worldwide over the next three years.

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