Lionsgate’s Peter Iacono

The TV business at Lionsgate has been going from strength to strength, with a string of hits airing in prime time, in syndication and available anytime through on-demand streaming platforms. The company is heading to NATPE next week already enthused by the prospects that 2015 has presented for expanding its television activities even further.

“From an international perspective, we’re really enthusiastic about the market,” says Peter Iacono, who was recently promoted to president of international television and digital distribution at Lionsgate. “It’s a really good opportunity for us to focus on the Latin American market. Also, a lot of new-media players are there, along with a handful of major European clients.”

Iacono highlights Manhattan, The Royals and Ascension as key pushes for NATPE. The drama Manhattan, created by Sam Shaw and directed by Thomas Schlamme, is set in New Mexico during a time when the race was on to build the world’s first atomic bomb. The period drama was a key part of WGN America’s original-programming strategy, and its strong freshman run led the network to a second-season commission.

“It’s tremendously helpful for broadcasters and platforms to know that there’s a second season,” says Iacono. “Then they know that the show’s a hit. When you commit acquisition dollars to it and marketing spend to it, you are doing that knowing it’s a show that’s going to be around and you can put some muscle behind.”

The Royals marks E! Entertainment’s move into scripted programming. The sexy new one-hour drama stars Elizabeth Hurley as the queen of England, and the show follows the wild antics and extravagant lifestyle of her fictitious royal family.

Ascension, meanwhile, is a six-hour limited series. The original drama follows a covert U.S. space mission in the 1960s that sent hundreds of men, women and children on a century-long voyage aboard the starship Ascension to populate a new world.

Further catalogue highlights include Deadbeat, developed in partnership with Hulu, and Orange Is the New Black, a Netflix original. Iacono points out how Lionsgate has been at the forefront of working with these types of new digital players in today’s changing marketplace. “When you look back at Orange Is the New Black, it was one of the initial commissions for Netflix. That’s really indicative of Lionsgate: we are entrepreneurial, we do try to be at the forefront of the business, and we are a little bit more nimble. Some of the larger studios have a lot of prescribed rules, so it can be more difficult to be innovative in that type of structure. We have a structure that embraces and fosters creativity.”

Last year, Lionsgate relocated its international sales office from its Santa Monica headquarters to London, a move that reinforces its position as a global company. Lionsgate is now expanding its U.K. office as well. Mid-2014, Lionsgate tapped Mark James and Fabio Etienne-Tinchant—former CBS and ITV Studios Global Entertainment sales execs, respectively—to join its London-based team. They support Roberta Ibba-Hartog, who is Lionsgate’s head of TV for the U.K., Ireland, CEE and Israel.

While Lionsgate has already seen extraordinary growth in its TV programming output, Iacono assures that even more is on the horizon.