{"id":12047,"date":"2019-01-16T09:00:26","date_gmt":"2019-01-16T14:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev2.worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/worldscreen.com\/"},"modified":"2019-01-17T15:20:33","modified_gmt":"2019-01-17T20:20:33","slug":"tcb-media-rights-paul-heaney","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/tcb-media-rights-paul-heaney\/","title":{"rendered":"TCB Media Rights\u2019 Paul Heaney"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Paul Heaney, CEO of TCB Media Rights, talks to <\/em>TV Real<em>\u00a0about how he has carved a unique niche for TCB in the marketplace and discusses the evolving role of distributors today.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>TCB Media Rights\u2019 mission includes building collaborative, early-stage relationships with its creative partners. Founded and led by Heaney, the outfit\u2014which was snapped up by Kew Media Group in 2017\u2014has been helping producers deliver the type of strong creative properties that the marketplace is demanding, and distributing that programming to a wide global footprint.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/newsletters.worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/img\/2019-01-15-Heaney2019.jpg\" alt=\"***Image***\" width=\"145\" height=\"190\" \/><strong>TV REAL:<\/strong> How is a distributor\u2019s role evolving as more of an editorial commissioner, and how is TCB involved in the creative decision-making of the shows it sells?<br \/>\n<strong>HEANEY:<\/strong> There are a lot of hungry distributors out there who want to grow fast. Program commissioning budgets are falling among some platforms. The dynamics of the business have undergone a revolution so that opportunistic distributors can take advantage and see that they can play a role that\u2019s morphed into a much more significant one than it ever was before. Distributors were on the fringes of the process, [they are] not anymore. They\u2019re vital to the process now, front and center. Before, editorial was sacrosanct and separate from business, but now editorial and commerce have merged together. It\u2019s been happening on broadcast platforms for a few years, probably because of rationalizing among staff, so maybe key personnel have had to be part editorial, part business. [Now] distributors are still delivering their core roles, but are also able to make discerning decisions on content and guide the content so it fits and makes the most money for those producers who rely on backend profit to keep their businesses afloat. Every single project will have a different level of input from us, even within the same producer, depending on the amount we\u2019re putting in and the overall risk involved. So all of it is pertinent to how we work. We\u2019re moving into an area now where it\u2019s in our interest to be really editorially involved, but we want to make sure that doesn\u2019t [interfere with] how the producer works; we don\u2019t want to be heavy-touch unless the producer wants us to be.<\/p>\n<p>We have to make sure that it\u2019s a sophisticated level of editorial; it\u2019s not just a case of giving it a quick look and saying, Oh, can you improve your CGI? There is a duty of care; what we\u2019re offering is not just properly developing an idea, which we do, and not just having a quick look at a rough cut\u2014this is so we ensure the producer makes enough money from backend sales. The money being spent has to be continuously assessed and analyzed for its effectiveness, looking at the strategic and financial results. And the broadcaster is trusting that we\u2019re going to make sure we\u2019re delivering as well. There are lots of stakeholders within this process, so to do it properly means we\u2019re giving it the right level of attention. Working with an indie you can trust is paramount; we want them to be able to steer the production through calm waters and execute the idea and [have it be] on time.<\/p>\n<p>But ultimately we\u2019re relying on selling finished programs; that is the core of any distributor. We can\u2019t spend all day working across brand-new projects\u2014we\u2019d never get any revenue in&#8230;. For all the producers that are talking to us and are looking to work with us, there has to be a balance because we don\u2019t have the resources and manpower to just work on new projects the whole time.<\/p>\n<p>More importantly, it\u2019s only by having a sales team to sell finished shows to the maximum that allows us the financial freedom to take calculated risks. We\u2019ll always favor the indies that offer us finished shows to sell as well as projects that need TCB to get it off the ground.<\/p>\n<p><strong>TV REAL:<\/strong> What sets the company apart for buyers?<br \/>\n<strong>HEANEY:<\/strong> A significant initiative is the development days that we host now; we do a couple a year. We do one on true crime and one on factual just before MIPCOM. We now have anything between 9 and 25 broadcasters turning up on the day to be pitched to by pre-briefed producers every 40 minutes in a <em>Dragons\u2019 Den<\/em>\/<em>Shark Tank<\/em> style, where the buyers are marking what projects they\u2019d like to invest in. That supercharges our efforts in this whole new area of distributor-turned-commissioner or funder.<\/p>\n<p>Along with this we just have a withering, cold-eyed focus on what we need as a team to sell to the platforms that form our \u2018inner sanctum&#8217; of buyers. We want to keep super-serving this group.<\/p>\n<p><strong>TV REAL:<\/strong> TCB has a broad range of factual content in the catalog. What genres are currently selling best for the company?<br \/>\n<strong>HEANEY: <\/strong>Whether it\u2019s male or female, access-driven ob-doc series\u2014that\u2019s what buyers seem to be looking for. Noisy, commercial series form our backbone, and we feel this is what the buyers want from us. Science, technology and engineering, crime and investigation, lifestyle series\u2014we\u2019re always looking in those areas too. We also love history because buyers like it, but in a user-friendly way.<\/p>\n<p>One show that has sold really well for us is <em>Borderforce USA: The Bridges<\/em>. There\u2019s also <em>Extreme Love Stories<\/em>, which is commissioned by WE tv from Barcroft TV. <em>World\u2019s Most Extraordinary<\/em> <em>Families<\/em> is something we\u2019ve commissioned ourselves and that area is a good one for us. The biggest hit show we have is <em>Abandoned Engineering<\/em>, which is going from strength to strength; more and more episodes are being made all the time and it\u2019s the number one show on Science Channel, where it\u2019s called <em>Mysteries of the Abandoned<\/em>. Along with that, we\u2019ve got <em>Massive Engineering Mistakes<\/em> from BriteSpark\u2014also pretty close to being the number one show on Science Channel\u2014and that was commissioned by us. <em>Egypt\u2019s Unexplained Files<\/em> is just arriving now, and we\u2019ve got a whole load of deals that are coming through for that one. And then there are a few others in the wildlife hybrid space, including <em>Wild Tube<\/em>, which seems to be going really well. It\u2019s UGC [user-generated content], but with a bit more of a cerebral element.<\/p>\n<p><strong>TV REAL:<\/strong> What are some of the current market demands that you\u2019ve been noticing as of late?<br \/>\n<strong>HEANEY: <\/strong>There\u2019s a demand for light entertainment, social responsibility with a stronger, broader-based lifestyle, and we\u2019re looking at that now to see if we can move into that area a bit more. We\u2019re always responding to buyer demand across the board, all around the world, if we think we can make it work. The whole body-positive area is good as well. Overall, it\u2019s often about the tone rather than the subject.<\/p>\n<p><strong>TV REAL:<\/strong> How does the company keep up with the competition?<br \/>\n<strong>HEANEY: <\/strong>Each size of distributor brings its own competitive challenges. From the startup point of view, you\u2019re hungry to move away from the small boutique companies. You have to develop a sphere of influence\u2026and move into the more established businesses, so you\u2019re then mixing with the big boys and girls, who\u2019ve potentially got more resources and bigger budgets. We know our place; all we have to do is stay fast and focused, and make sure that our relationship-building is as good as ever. If it is, everything else falls into place. If we are super-serving the producers we work with and not neglecting any of the buyer relationships, then we\u2019re doing OK.<\/p>\n<p>Overall, we hope TCB, as an outstanding team, is doing our bit to help the industry see distributors in a different light, and that means a positive one that is keeping the wheels turning. The business had to move on, so we&#8217;re just doing our very best to keep up!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The CEO talks about how he has carved a unique niche for the company in the marketplace and discusses the evolving role of distributors today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12048,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,69],"tags":[3352,184],"class_list":["post-12047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-interviews","category-top-stories","tag-paul-heaney","tag-tcb-media-rights","pmpro-has-access"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>TCB Media Rights\u2019 Paul Heaney - TVREAL<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/tcb-media-rights-paul-heaney\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"TCB Media Rights\u2019 Paul Heaney - 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