TV Real Festival Spotlights Indie Distributors

Exploring the unique positioning of boutique independents, TVF International’s Poppy McAlister and Albatross World Sales’ Anne Olzmann joined the TV Real Festival today to share how their outfits are making sense of the factual distribution business.

McAlister, who leads TVF International, and Olzmann, managing director of Albatross World Sales, took part in a wide-ranging panel discussion, moderated by TV Real’s Mansha Daswani, which can be viewed here.

For McAlister, one of the biggest pressure points for indie distributors today is the need to help deficit finance productions. “There are so few full commissions nowadays that it means that distributors are having to get involved much earlier, helping piece together the financing. When it works, it’s so rewarding—when you can find those presales, or it might be that we can invest ourselves. The toughest thing is when you have to say goodbye to some amazing projects that are still being developed but we just can’t find the international money.”

Olzmann agreed, adding, “As an independent distributor, we have to stand out much more than we used to. A lot of buyers buy packages instead of one-offs or two hours, so that’s become a bit trickier—the buying behavior is a bit unpredictable at the moment. We know there’s a shrinking volume in presales, so as Poppy said, we need to be ready to invest a bit more than we used to. That’s mostly the problem for mid-budget and maybe the non-franchise factual programs. It’s tricky to navigate this whole new universe that is in constant change.”

There are benefits to being a boutique independent in this landscape, Olzmann noted. “We can be a bit more flexible and quicker in decision-making. You’re more flexible in adapting and reacting to market challenges. The boutique character also allows us to remain nimble and very personal and to keep our catalog highly curated.”

McAlister agreed, referencing TVF’s four-decade commitment to bringing compelling factual content to broadcasters and platforms worldwide. “There is still demand for high-quality premium documentaries and factual. We don’t have a huge catalog; we’re bespoke in what we take on. Our producers know that it’s not going to get lost in a large catalog of scripted and kids. We champion the factual genre, and our broadcasters know that, too. They come to us for the top-quality documentaries. So, remaining steadfast and true to our core heartland genres and our goals has served us well, even though it’s a challenging and evolving time in the industry.”

On what TVF looks for when taking on a title, McAlister said it’s “all about how globally focused and internationally skewing a show is. If a producer comes to me with a show that feels really hyperlocal or it’s a bit too much of a personal story, it won’t be right for our catalog. If a product comes with a story with a global theme, that’s what we’re always looking for. Wildlife is universal. History and science are, too. As long as they are kind of globally focused and developed with that wider market in mind, then we’re interested. And it can be at any stage; I’m always happy to review pitch decks or treatments. Getting the advice of the distributor early is so helpful because it means that we can help to encourage a show to be shaped with the international lens rather than it being shaped by a hyperlocal commissioner.”

The discussion then moved to opportunities in AVOD and FAST to further monetize back library content. “You can find revenue for titles that are 20, 30 years old,” McAlister noted. “There are so many more opportunities now to find homes for shows that maybe you can’t get linear license fees for anymore. The majority of our business still is done with broadcasters and them committing license fees, but for titles that might be older, there’s definitely demand. When we take on a show, we’re not taking it just for the first five years, we want to take it on for the next 55 years and see what opportunities we can find going forward.”

Albatross’s wildlife-heavy slate, with a wealth of titles with a long shelf life, has seen strong gains from the AVOD and FAST spaces. “For us, the VOD sphere is about 30 percent of our revenues in the year; it is significant. But you have to keep in mind it’s packages and many hours. It’s a lot of work; to get the same revenues from one broadcaster, you may need ten VOD deals.”

“It gives a show a longer shelf life, but also it can take time for those shows to start to gain traction,” McAlister added.

I asked the panelists about sub-genres that are in demand today. Wildlife remains a perennial, but Olzmann has seen some shifts in that space recently. “People and wildlife seem to work a bit less than pure wildlife,” she said. Science has also picked up, Olzmann said.

True crime and history are proving popular at TVF International, McAlister said. In true crime, the bar has been set high, given how competitive that landscape is.

TVF International has been involved in bringing together co-productions, McAlister said, pairing U.K. and international broadcasters. “It’s all about trying to work out the best budget and then finding those international presales. I’m trying to do it for shows that are going to have a long shelf life. If you’re investing, it needs to be something that’s going to travel far around the world and have a long, continued shelf life.”

Albatross, meanwhile, does not engage in co-productions, Olzmann said. “It hasn’t been in our DNA from the beginning, because Albatross was founded by a production company, so we really don’t want to interfere too much with the production market. That being said, we’re still working closely with a lot of German-speaking producers. When we meet producers in other markets, we’re trying to link them up with a German producer who may be able to bring in the German commission and then we pick up distribution rights. For us, it’s more of a networking tool at this point.”

On traversing the road ahead, Olzmann is ensuring her team “remains positive and looks for the opportunities so we can adapt and ideally grow. We need to streamline processes to remain flexible. So, hold the fort and be as flexible as possible. We want to stick to our genres as well. We’re not experimenting a lot at the moment because things are so uncertain.”

Being nimble, flexible and adaptable is also the mantra at TVF International. “For us, a key goal is working closely with our producers to develop unique, exciting international ideas that we can help piece together financing for and find co-production partners, pre-sales and deficit finance. There are a lot more opportunities that we will see with the increased presence of AI in the production and distribution world. There’s a lot to be nervous about. But as an international agent, we work a lot with producers across the world, particularly in non-English-speaking territories, especially across Asia, who are producing amazing documentaries. We are finding abilities with AI companies to help re-version, subtitle, dub and create closed captions. Hopefully, we’ll be able to bring more of these documentaries to the rest of the world.”