This edition of LA Screenings —till last week in Los Angeles, USA— has been important for the evolution of the content industry. Around the presentations of new season feature films and TV series that major studios made to worldwide buyers, a big message was sent: after years where SVOD platforms were the exclusive ‘North’ for them, now the international sales, windows management and advertisement, are back relevant.

For some regions, Walt Disney organized again its screenings, suspended since 2019 after Disney+ launch. The studio is opening sales of some product lines, depending on each region. Also, Amazon MGM was launched: the online titan offers internationally its originals through its acquired major studio. So, both top majors and streamers open distribution. Considering that the other studios kept themselves more open, just WBD is still closed, but it is a question of time.

In LA, Disney started opening the sales of regional content, if any. Progressively, the studio will free the series from ABC, 20th Century Fox, FX, Freefom, analyzing case by case per region. Feature films? There is not a sure strategy yet, but the idea for new releases is to launch in Theatrical, then in own platforms and later to sell to third parties. We make focus on Disney because it was the first major studio to close distribution, and the others followed it. Now opening, it will happen the same.

Major product trends in LA Screenings? PRENSARIO has interviewed about 70 buyers from the different regions. First, they stress the relevance of feature films this year, more than in previous years. Second, the female empowering is sensible in all the studios, a disruptive tip from the past, but buyers say that sometimes is too much recurrent the matter. Third, buyers have seen better product than last year, though they don’t feel the impact of golden years, when ‘Lost’ and others used to kick the table frequently.

Above all, the offering is very segmented between free TV —more traditional, with doctors, lawyers, cops; procedural, episodic— and online platforms —more transgressor, with super natural tips, as premium cable in the past. Broadcasters appreciate this, because there were years where everything was for digital, but at the same time they’d like to have same products in a medium point, to refresh the audiences.

It continues the trend of creating TV series from famous games, films, books, as a direct way to get awareness and 360 business. As a new ‘sub-genre’, we can mention the influence of ‘The Good Doctor’: many series this year have a main role with a pathology that surpasses ‘normal’ people to curate or solve mysteries. ‘True crime’, based on real facts, is a hot topic for many screens.

Aldo Di Felice, head of programming, TLN Canada: ‘The major screenings were not as they used to be, but they have been better than last year’. Thomas Lasarzik, EVP programming, Seven One Germany: ‘A new crime procedural or a new sitcom would be very welcome for our free tv channels. Other exciting new series with binge potential would especially suit our streaming platform Joyn. Especially Crime has looked promising this year’.

Two tips more: the big SVOD project reductions have empowered free TV, which now is seen by the majors as a more stable partner for flagship ventures. And in most of the major screenings, it was sensible the international touch, with big players especially from UK, but also Europe and this year Australia, coproducing and including ingredients. This satisfies an historic claim of international buyers, who watched the screenings ‘too American’ many years in the past. Now there were studios where 70% of the slate, had international partners. The writers strike will deep this factor next year.

Final conclusion: the return of international distribution pushes health for more market members, and energy for events like LA Screenings, which live due to plurality. More content available, more buyers attend. And the independent players —distributors, producers— are far better considered now by the buyers to compete. We will see a richer and more varied content market from now.

Nicolás Smirnoff y Francisco Ferreyra

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