Content consumers, kings of the sport in in the present day’s TV market are being rolled out the purple carpet at this week’s fifth London TV Screenings and first MIP London, touted by organizers RX France as an add-on to the indie distributors’ curated viewing showcase within the U.Okay. capital.
As greater than 900 patrons of scripted, non-scripted and codecs are taking the Soho venues by storm, 4 heavyweight gamers have shared with Variety their shopping for want record and techniques to woo and entertain viewers amid tense world geopolitics.
Flagging the general public service views are Eva Kamin, VP acquisitions and co-productions at Germany’s ZDF Studios and Manuel Alduy, France Télévisions’ head of worldwide fiction and cinema. On the industrial facet are Spain’s José Antonio Salso, head of acquisitions and worldwide gross sales for Atresmedia and Sweden’s Cathrine Wiernik, director of packages and acquisitions for the Scandi group TV4 Media.
Some brief takeaways:
London Calling Out Loud
Despite being squeezed between Berlin’s Series Market and Lille’s Series Mania, the curated London TV Screenings showcase is a must-attend for the European patrons, “even more appealing now that MipTV Cannes is no longer operating,” says Salso. Bets are nonetheless out on how the inaugural MIP London will play out.
Crime, Emotions, YA
In a flattened market outlined by Ampere Analysis’s Guy Bisson as 75% peak TV, crime, which accounted for 25% of world scripted commissions in 2024, stays the No. 1 selection for patrons as “it continues to be a key audience driver,” says ZDF’s Eva Kamin. Other favourite program varieties are emotional and interesting human tales, throughout scripted and non-scripted, “preferably with timely appeal and some news edge,” Wiernick observes. Flagship worldwide collection with A-list solid are additionally important for model worth and consumption throughout linear and streaming. France Télévisions can be in search of the very best of the very best in European younger grownup collection. Within codecs, Wiernick has an urge for food for sturdy actuality reveals, key to attracting youthful demographics and English or Nordic variations of the large manufacturers similar to “The Bachelor” and “Love Island.”
Foreign Picks Vital in Content Mix
Within scripted content material, acquisitions are an important a part of the TV gamers’ programming combine as a cheap complement to native productions. “International series allow us to get more diversity in genres and stories, to target younger audiences and/or reduce our programming costs,” says Alduy who’s needed to readjust his technique as France Télévisions’ total finances was axed by greater than $135 million over 2024-25. “We are extra centered on pre-buys and acquisitions within the short-term to ship time-to-market collection to our audiences, he says.
Stable Asking Prices
“Last year’s prices were particularly high in some areas, but have remained largely stable due to a favorable supply situation,” says Kamin. Wiernick concurs, though she feels it’s “since the pandemic that price points have come down in general.”
Flexi-Rights Policy
At Göteborg’s current TV Drama Vision, Morad Koufane, director of worldwide/younger grownup drama at France Télévisions urged all trade gamers – producers, commissioners, distributors to observe their “yoga,” in different phrases to be as versatile as doable in windowing. Here his colleague Alduy says “we’ve become more flexible on windowing, licence periods and exclusivity,” though he insists on “one requirement: free VOD and linear exhibition.”
For all gamers, in a content material market converging in the direction of one dominating distribution channel – streaming – securing all digital rights – subsequent to linear rights – is a problem effectively price preventing for on the negotiating tables.
Buyers Full Answers:
Eva Kamin-VP acquisitions and co-productions, ZDF Studios.
How necessary is the London TV Screenings marketplace for you?
The London TV Screenings is a must-attend occasion that has established itself over time as a useful early-year alternative to get an summary of all of the upcoming collection and to community with quite a few enterprise companions from all over the world.
What kind of content material are you in search of?
At ZDF Studios, we purchase a variety of content material on behalf of ZDF to fulfill the varied wants of ZDF’s distribution channels. On the fiction facet, crime dramas proceed to be a key viewers driver for ZDF. For ZDF neo, we’re in a position to purchase completely different genres and codecs that resonate with the ZDF viewers, and naturally we’re all in search of the large worldwide must-see high-end drama. On the factual facet, we’re notably in search of historic content material, one-offs for the primary ZDF channel and collection for the digital channels.
Has your acquisition finances been affected lately if that’s the case, how has this impacted the sort and quantity of content material you purchase?
We are at the moment navigating a really risky market, which presents challenges for each co-productions and acquisitions. Price stress has all the time been an element, but we’re seeing many attention-grabbing initiatives out there which can be accessible to us.
How do your acquisitions complement the commissions inside your group?
ZDF’s goal is to enrich their commissioned productions with acquisitions in each factual and fictional genres. This permits the ZDF Studios acquisitions crew to safe all kinds of packages for ZDF. In the realm of fiction, this primarily consists of worldwide initiatives with numerous places and casts.
What are your priorities when negotiating rights? Do you are feeling asking costs for collection have shifted within the final yr?
Our major objective is to determine a complete rights framework that ensures early availability by all ZDF distribution channels whereas sustaining exclusivity. Last yr’s costs had been notably excessive in some areas, however have remained largely steady on account of a good provide scenario.
How have you ever tailored your acquisition technique to in the present day’s shifting world market?
We all acknowledge that on-line availability is vital to reaching audiences. Accordingly, we prioritize negotiating complete rights for these distribution channels and are dedicated to not accepting any restrictions on this regard.
Manuel Alduy, head of cinema and worldwide improvement, France Télévisions
How necessary is the London TV Screenings marketplace for you and are you embracing the opening of MIP London?
London TV Screenings are an necessary milestone of the yr, as a result of France Télévisions prioritizes European collection acquisitions over US reveals. A month earlier than Series Mania, we go to London with nice expectations to replace UK broadcasters’ methods and uncover new collection. As far as MIP London is anxious, it’s too quickly to know and remark.
What kind of content material are you in search of?
Our crew will search for high-end & excessive idea miniseries, a restricted variety of returning crime collection, and a few younger grownup excellent tales. In that individual discipline, we need to choose the very best of European YA collection.
Has your acquisition finances been affected lately, if that’s the case, how has it impacted the sort -and volume-of content material you purchase?
Our finances is extra constrained. We decreased the amount of licensed collection in favour of French collection re-runs in non-strategic slots.
How do your acquisitions complement the commissions inside your group?
International collection enable us to get extra variety in genres and tales, goal youthful audiences and/or scale back our programming prices. First, we’re dedicated to persevering with our worldwide co-productions as a result of they supply some “French touch” in places, solid and/or storylines. Three examples in 2024: we’ve completed “Kabul” (2425 Films and Cineteve), “The Kollective” (Submarine) and “Monte Cristo” (Palomar, DEMD) with our European Alliance companions ZDF and RAI.
But co-productions have turn out to be advanced to finance. We nonetheless have 15 developments within the pipeline, so we are actually extra centered on pre-buys and acquisitions within the short-term to ship time-to-market collection to our audiences.
What are your priorities when negotiating rights? Do you are feeling asking costs for collection have shifted within the final yr?
The market is ‘flooded’ with nice collection: unbiased distributors, studios, producers and even streamers are providing acquisition or pre-buy alternatives of nice high quality. So we could be very selective and never pursue a negotiation when the combination of rights and costs doesn’t make sense for us.
How have you ever tailored your acquisition technique to in the present day’s shifting world market?
We’ve turn out to be extra versatile on windowing, license durations, and exclusivity. In a nutshell, we attempt to be pragmatic and alter consistently to an ever-changing market. But we insist on one requirement: free VOD and linear exhibitions. That’s what our viewers wants. The shift to non-linear is so blatant and big: increasingly more prime-time collection now seize excessive volumes of non-linear viewership. We don’t license any collection when preview, replay and AVOD rights are usually not vital.
Cathrine Wiernik, director of packages and acquisitions, TV4 Media
How necessary is the London TV Screenings for you and are you embracing the widening of the market to MIP London?
London TV Screenings are essential to us. These days, it’s one of the crucial worthwhile occasions aside from Mipcom in Cannes and L.A. Screenings. It not solely offers us the chance to fulfill with everybody but additionally offers us a great overview of all the brand new reveals for the yr. It is sweet to get the time to display screen content material and never solely rush from assembly to assembly. We’ve signed up for MIP London and are excited to attend and to see how that pans out. It stays to be seen what influence it is going to have because it is likely to be difficult to coexist with an already very established and jam-packed week of screenings.
What kind of content material are you in search of?
We are as all the time in search of reveals (each codecs and acquisitions) must-see prime cabinets titles, which have the potential to stay out and usher in a giant broad viewers.
With regards to acquisitions we search for English-speaking suspense drama/crime, a big a part of our content material combine which additionally drives a number of consumption in our service TV4 Play. We search for each serialized reveals and procedurals and preserve an additional eye out for shorter runs/occasion collection. US procedurals are trending in the mean time and though we’re eager to seek out the subsequent massive procedural hit (with returning potential) it’s a massive dangerous dedication as we’re effectively conscious of how difficult it’s to launch a brand-new title. It requires a number of work and promotional exercise and even then, it may not find yourself delivering the viewers.
Our urge for food for non-English content material can be rising. We lately launched our second Turkish cleaning soap “Daydreamer” after an enormous success with “Golden Boy”. Soaps are a great instance of excessive quantity, bingeable content material that drives consumption and retains the viewers coming again every day. Another essential half -and a aggressive edge – of our acquisition combine is Nordic drama, particularly Danish crime, however we’re additionally seeing increasingly more thrilling titles popping out from Norway. We are actually wanting ahead to launching new seasons of “Nora Sand” (a stand-out hit for us final yr), “White Sand,” “Sommerdahl Murders” and “Oxen”.
We are additionally all the time looking out for sturdy human-interest tales, documentaries with the potential to stay out and seize the eye of a broad viewers. Preferably with well timed enchantment and a few information edge. Successful examples being “My Wife the Abuser” from ITV and “Untold: Inside the Shein Machine”. Documentaries are additionally a good way for us to herald the youthful demos and assist constructing that very worthwhile attain.
Has your acquisition finances been affected lately, if that’s the case, how is that this impacting the sort -and volume-of content material you purchase?
No not lately.We are nonetheless all the time centered on being cost-effective and ensuring we keep a wholesome sustainable stability almost about our investments. We will in fact go the additional mile for that must-have title however typically, we won’t overpay or get into massive bidding wars that are likely to escalate worth factors past cause.
How do your acquisitions complement the commissions inside your group?
As we’re a giant nationwide broadcaster, serving all of Sweden, you will need to present a broad content material palette, one thing for everybody. As far as complementing our native commissions/codecs we develop the universe by buying the worldwide variations -mostly English-speaking and Nordic variations – of our massive manufacturers similar to “The Bachelor,” “Love Island,” “Survivor,” “The Farm” and so on, with a purpose to preserve followers staying within the service after the native model involves an finish. A great way to spice up consumption all yr spherical.
We are additionally all the time looking out for extra sturdy actuality reveals as that’s a part of the DNA of TV4 Play and key to attracting youthful demographics.
As far as native shows-formats goes, we’re all the time on the hunt for the subsequent massive stand-out hit that brings one thing new and recent to the desk. We need to discover one thing that stands out, and that’s not one more tackle already current codecs. It requires a full bundle with a definite universe, on prime of a recent premise and a intelligent recreation motor. Just like “Traitors” (an enormous success for us) introduced a brand new thrilling world and a recent technique recreation play, we now have excessive hopes for our launch of “The Fortune Hotel” this fall.
What are your priorities when negotiating rights? Do you are feeling asking costs for collection have shifted within the final yr?
There hasn’t been a giant shift within the final yr, however because the pandemic, worth factors have come down typically because the output is larger and there’s extra content material out there. Rights are in fact important, and nowadays we require the total set of rights for all our titles (AVOD/SVOD/HVOD) as content material parity between the tiers within the service is vital.
How have you ever tailored your acquisition technique to in the present day’s shifting world market?
Exclusivity isn’t as essential anymore (relying on the title) however relatively discovering inventive options on methods to window reveals. We are open to all fashions and have had nice success with second home windows with reveals similar to “Yellowstone”. The worth of the window is in fact outlined by what platform the content material has been on first. Another good instance of in the present day’s entire new kind of [windowing] dynamic is the collection “From”that advantages from earlier seasons being supplied on different platforms because it will increase attain and consumption for the brand new season revealed on TV4 Play.
We are additionally at the moment in discussions round potential partnerships and co-production alternatives with our rivals, which might have been inconceivable only a few years in the past. This reveals how rapidly the market is evolving, and the way essential it’s to be agile and get onboard. We have additionally seen a giant upswing in consumption of sturdy library titles and have had nice success with each “The Fjällbacka Murders” and “Worlds Apart,” a TV4 cleaning soap which has delivered unbelievable numbers, even in youthful demos. This is in fact one thing we’re eager to discover extra.
José Antonio Salso, head of acquisitions and gross sales Atresmedia, Spain
How necessary is the London TV Screenings for you and are you embracing the widening of the market to Mip London?
London TV Screenings have turn out to be a key market within the world audiovisual panorama offering worldwide patrons with a possibility to take a deep view into the brand new upcoming titles within the UK and past. This yr is much more interesting as MIPTV Cannes is not working.
What kind of content material will you be in search of at London TV Screenings?
In Atresmedia TV we’re all the time in search of common tales for a broad viewers however being able to embrace with our native viewers. We are notably excited about dramas that evoke sturdy feelings, that includes all of the compelling components that captivate viewers—romance, betrayal, friendship and love.
Has your acquisition finances been affected lately if that’s the case, how is that this impacting the sort -and volume-of content material you purchase?
N/R
How do your acquisitions complement the commissions inside your group?
Commissions in Atresmedia are key for our management in free TV in Spain with every day collection similar to “Dreams of Freedom,” being probably the most watched drama collection in Spain Monday to Friday and prime time collection similar to “Eva & Nicole” or “What are you waiting for?” which have been prime collection in Atresplayer for the previous months. In addition to such astonishing native collection lineup, acquisitions are a great complement for our viewers delivering prime quality worldwide prime content material.
What are your priorities when negotiating rights? Do you are feeling asking costs for collection have shifted within the final yr?
Our priorities in our acquisition technique is to amass a mix of digital rights for Atresplayer along with lineal rights for our channels, which isn’t a straightforward activity on account of worldwide and native rivals.
How have you ever tailored your acquisition technique to in the present day’s shifting world market?
We repeatedly adapt each our acquisition and gross sales methods to fulfill market calls for and align with the evolving world market. As a consequence, Atresmedia has turn out to be the main media group in Spain for the third consecutive yr, and we’re very optimistic in regards to the future.
Additionally, the urge for food for Spanish content material, particularly from Atresmedia, stays excessive, and worldwide audiences proceed to embrace our productions.
Elsa Keslassy contributed to this report.