FACTUAL TV


HIGH-END DOCUMENTARY


THE RISE OF THE SUPER DOC


Premium documentary is proving to be as defining for SVODs and PSBs as drama, but only docs that can take the form to another level. Pippa Considine reports


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usiness for production companies that have mastered the art of stand-out documentary is strong. While there are fault lines in the


SVOD world, with consolidation beginning and investors quavering about the cost of content, top notch documentary is still riding high. “Right now, there’s a war over content,” says


Jane Root, founder and chief executive of Nutopia, the production company behind global megadocs, such as landmark series Mankind The Story of All of Us for the History Channel and, more recently, A World of Calm for HBO Max. According to Ampere Analysis, global content


spend reached US $220bn in 2021, driven by SVoD services, and is set to exceed $230bn this year. Of course, a fraction of this is for unscripted originals. But a recent report from Enders Analysis, while suggesting that SVOD content creation in Europe will slow as subscriptions plateau, also observes that non-scripted commissions from streamers are on the increase.


SOLID AS A DOC Audiences are no longer suspicious of documentary. Netflix launched Raw TV’s feature documentary The Tinder Swindler on 2nd February this year, with significant promotion. It went to number one of most-watched Netflix films within days and within 18 days – remaining at number one - had already clocked over 140 million views. “They’ve realised that if you’ve made really


high-end documentaries, they have the same gloss and tone as a premium drama,” says Karen Edwards, executive producer at Zinc Media, where her credits include Brook Lapping’s Emmy- nominated The Hunt for Gadafi’s Billions. “What they don’t want is the humdrum. The shackles are off and we can be really ambitious.” Nutopia is master of uber documentaries that


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