Dealmakers


ALISON RAYSON Chief executive, Target Entertainment


I CAREER


2010 Joins Metrodome Group 2008 Acquires Jill Green drama outfit Greenlit 2007 Acquires Minotaur International catalogue 2004 Launches Licensing Dept, goes on to rep Keith Chapman properties Fifi And The Flowertots and Roary The Racing Car 2002 Takes Target into CSS Stellar, but later leaves the group 1998 Launches Target Distribution, later renamed as Target Entertainment


f Alison Rayson ever appeared on The Apprentice, it would be risky to bet against her winning. Since


founding Target Entertainment in 1998, she’s exhibited the strong entre- preneurial streak so loved by Lord Sugar, both in terms of the way she has diversified the company and the corporate backers she has worked with. The fact that she’s still running the £10m rights management outfit after two recessions suggests she’s a tough competitor and has a persua- sive boardroom patter. Rayson’s most significant deal in the


past couple of years is the one that led to Target becoming part of indie film distributor Metrodome. Speaking to Broadcast at the time, she said the deal would create “a market-leading inde- pendent rights business” with “more firepower for acquisitions”. According to Rayson, a good indica-


tor of this increased clout is the acqui- sition of international sales rights to Cloudstreet. Picked up by Target in August this year, UK rights to the show were sold to Sky Atlantic within three days, making Cloudstreet the first Australian series Sky Atlantic has bought – a bullseye for Target. Rayson says Cloudstreet stands


alongside critically acclaimed Aussie gangland drama Underbelly, New Zea- land-produced This Is Not My Life and ABC TV Australia’s The Slap, based on the Booker-listed novel, which was recently acquired by BBC4.


Changing perceptions Rayson, who has been harvesting Australian and New Zealand content for more than a decade, believes its increased global profile is merited. “There has been a shift in the percep- tion of Australian drama in the global marketplace, and Cloudstreet is a part of this,” she says. “Yes, the story and the characters celebrate Australia, but it’s simply an amazing, classic drama, and it stands up against any American or British network drama.” Cloudstreet, which runs either as a


six- or three-part series, each with a bumper climactic episode, is based on a modern Australian novel by Tim Winton. The story follows the lives of two very different families who move into a house in Cloud Street, Perth, in 1943. The TV adaptation, which stars the cream of Aussie acting talent, was made by Underbelly producer Screen- time, and aired on Showtime Aus- tralia’s Showcase channel.


www.broadcastnow.co.uk


Cloudstreet “A lot of people talked about bring-


ing it to the screen but Showtime chief executive Peter Rose had the vision to do that,” says Rayson. “They’ve done it in a faithful way, and invested a lot in screen quality.” Sky Atlantic execs had been track-


ing the production before broadcast, and had followed the plaudits as it aired in Australia. “They had huge warmth for it,” says Rayson. “When we acquired it, we thought about where it would be best placed in the UK, and we felt it was of the calibre that could sit well on a channel like Sky Atlantic. “It’s been quite a bold move for


them, but they’re passionate about it. If you look at the exceptional market- ing campaigns they’ve been doing for their HBO content and on The Borgias, that’s a big pull for any pro- ducer or distributor.” The quick, prestigious deal con-


firms the series’ potential and sets the bar high for other broadcast partners, says Rayson. Target is taking some cast and crew to MipCom to launch the show, and is in discussions with networks in markets such as the US. “It will play on premium pay, and on both public and commercial net- works,” she says. Many distributors have turned to


Aussie drama as a way to offset the rising cost of acquiring US drama rights and the consolidation of UK


‘Australians tend to commission in volume, which plays well to an


international audience’ Alison Rayson


drama rights within super-indies. For- tunately, says Rayson, that shift has benefited from the emergence of channels such as BBC4, Sky Atlantic and Showtime, which need to take risks on original ideas, and may have exhausted home-market suppliers. Aside from the Cloudstreet deal, for


example, Target has just sold another Aussie drama series, East West 101, to Franco-German culture channel Arte. Also selling well for Target this year is Crownies, another Screentime produc- tion set in the Aussie legal system. Besides, adds Rayson: “Australians,


when they commission, tend to com- mission in volume, which plays well to an international audience. Also, Aus- tralian producers have always had that challenge financing drama and film that we haven’t had as much in the UK. You have these chunkier deficits. Australian producers have had to be entrepreneurial and they’ve taken the international market seri- ously. They’ve developed awareness of what the market wants in terms of production values, style, writing, pace – everything.”


30 September 2011 | Broadcast | 49


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