The “Industry Testimonial” of Day 5 were about business twists that are being witnessed in the global content industry with the increase of the digital platforms.
Mediaset Italy is a leading Italian broadcaster with main business on the free to air with Canale 5, as well as a diverse number of TV channels available for the Italian population. ‘But we are also focused on the OTT through Infinity. As mainstream buyers, we are looking for very broad marketable stories and we buy for prime time and daytime’.
On prime time, key genre are female thrillers, crime procedurals, bible drama, action and limited series with a well-recognized talent. On daytime, long running female-skewing dramas. Documentary is as of bigger importance with 400 hours per year, a big volume’, he underlined.
In the current landscape scenario, Poletti said it is not easy to find accurate content for Mediaset needs: ‘We are experiencing a kind of intermediation from traditional international distributors. Production volume has been on top through streamers, but very often this content not even reach international market. If you want to secure the biggest projects, we can’t really wait to buy the ready-made version for your platform; on the contrary, we need to reach them on earlier stages’, he recommended.
International catalogues are wide, but based on local production difficult to travel globally. ‘Crime, Turkish novelas and films can travel well. Pandemic stressed this trend with the big push of big corporations that dive into consumer offer. We’ll see bigger number of productions in the market.
To finalize, the executive referred to programming trends: ‘Content-wise, the most interesting trend is that drama is still the king, but there is a shift on feature films and limited series, while documentaries and unscripted programs are growing steadily’.
Distributors are changing the scope in the international market. The born of the new digital players has increase competition in the marketplace, and original content become the only way to gain their attention. This context opened new opportunities for content creators. And we can be a bridge between them and platforms offering innovative stories’, initiates Silvana D’Angelo.
Four years ago, the company started to be more involved in the management and development of fiction projects. ‘Despite the complex scenario of last year, we managed to option projects to big companies. We definitely believe the demand for new stories will grow’.
Watch more Industry Testimonials on VS Next: https://virtualscreenings.com/vs-next-testimonial-11/
