SURVEY
PRODUCTION 100 SUPER INDIES
For superindies, there’s a
grudging acceptance that they can no longer expect to hold on to all rights. But this is balanced by the fact that streamer shows are fully funded, so there is little risk to absorb. The money is also paid on delivery, rather than trickling in over several years through rights income. The premiums that streamers pay are also highly attractive themselves. And as the streamers invest more and more in content, they are recognised as a growing source of business. At the same time,
superindies are keen maintain strong relationships with PSB broadcasters, and to ensure that the Terms of Trade endure so they can hold on to rights for many of their programmes. In other words, superindies
want to ensure they have a mixed portfolio of commissions coming in through their production companies, from both streamers and PSBs.
EUROPEAN BUYERS There are other factors at work in the M&A market too. There are a growing number of consolidators, beyond the traditional buyers such as the US studios and All3Media, Banijay, Fremantle, Sky and ITV Studios. Asacha, Mediawan & Leonine
Studios and Newen are among the new European buyers who have entered the UK with an ambition to build pan-European groups, joining the likes of StudioCanal and Red Arrow which also have significant UK interests. In some ways, this is a
continuation of a theme. France- based Banijay, for example, grew on the back of its merger with European indie Zodiak, which owned UK indies such as RDF. But now that the UK is out of
the European Union, one senses that the attention of many buyers is turning to Europe itself. Many
fear that UK productions will, eventually, no longer qualify as European works – meaning they will not quality for EU content quotas. Under the EU’s audiovisual
media services directive, European content must make up a majority of airtime on terrestrial television channels and account for at least 30 percent of titles on video-on- demand platforms such as Netflix and Amazon. Individual EU countries have even stricter quotas. France, for example, requires fully 60 percent of VOD titles to be of European origin and that platforms invest at least 15 percent of their turnover in European production. Such a move could severely hit international sales of UK TV series to the EU. This may explain why the
likes of ITV Studios, for example, has been expanding its European footprint too. The possibility of combining UK and European talent on productions could be a way round any quota changes.
M&A DRIVE Looking ahead, all the signs are that M&A activity will only increase in the coming years, reflecting the ongoing boom within the UK television industry as the streamers in particular up their spend on content. Thames and Naked owner
Fremantle, for example, has embarked on an M&A drive in a bid to double its revenues to £2.6bn by 2025. “To reach this goal and keep
up with the increasing demand for content, RTL Group will significantly invest in Fremantle – both organically and via acquisitions – in all territories across scripted, non-scripted as well as factual shows and documentaries,” said parent group RTL in August. They are unlikely to be the only
ones. Autumn 2021 P43
televisual.com
T ISUPERNDIES WANTO ENSURE THEY HAVE A MIXED PORTFOLIO OF SHOWS FROM STREAMERS AND PSBS
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140
