Mediawan, SkyShowtime, Endemol Shine Finland, and Banijay Europe, spoke about the challenges and actions they are taking in the development, production, and distribution of content during the crises that the industry is currently going through.
Steve Matthews, Content Executive at Banijay, began by mentioning that production conditions are low due to costs, so co-productions are ‘more important than ever’, especially in terms of formats. The executive referred to the patronage they offer to smaller production companies around the world, a strategy that they have been leading in different markets where the group has development units.
‘Patronage is a great bundle that we offer to a large number of production companies. Now there are around 60 companies working under this model, from Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Europe, to India, etc. It’s a great bundle, I’ve been on that unit for a year and I’m just thinking about it, to be honest. My perception is that, being the patronage center, one of the things that I really liked about leading these from the outside was how well I think they have managed to do with the production of titles. I think they are very good at charging companies with maintaining their identities and making their specialty. My role is partly to provide Patronage headquarters, in addition to procurement. We usually have a Scripted fund, if the company wants a little more money for a book or something, we have BookScout, as well as other ways to finance them’, explained.
On the other hand, Max Malka, Head of Scripted, Endemol Shine Finland, showed images of his recent high-end projects. One of them was the co-production made in alliance with Finnish broadcaster Yle and Netflix for the 10-episode drama Dance Brothers, being the first commission made by Banijay in this market since it opened its operations in Finland.
‘We are looking for international partners, whether they are talents, co-producers, financiers, who are creative in the content, but also in financing, which is really very important for us,’ said Malka.
Meanwhile, Elisabeth d’Arvieu, CEO of Mediawan Pictures, referred to the tremendous work they have done helping creators, directors and developers of premium independent content, offering financing and creative freedom.
‘As for the others, budget problems are present at Mediawan Pictures, so we are carefully selecting what we should invest in, but we must also be able to respond to these needs, and develop in the space that the audience is consuming: documentary, which has been very important in the last year, because a good story, a good documentary series, a good crime series in Docs, can lead to a very good unscripted adaptation’, concluded.
