There may be a surplus of drama on the international market, but that won’t stop A+E Networks pushing further into the genre, Joel Denton tells Nico Franks.

What with its dominance at industry events and the presence of its stars on billboards worldwide, there’s no ignoring the international boom in televised and on-demand drama over the past five years.

Even the distinctive beard and shaven head of the barista serving Joel Denton his morning coffee in LA as we speak reminds the industry veteran of Breaking Bad’s anti-hero Walter White.

“When you’re in the States you can’t avoid it,” says the Brit, who became head of US channels operator A+E Networks’ international content sales arm in August last year, following the boom in drama production.

“There’s something like 61 outlets now making scripted content here. The economics of that are challenging, so is there too much being made? Possibly, yes. But the quality of a lot of the stuff is so high that it’s finding a market, in both audience and sales terms.”

Indeed, the popularity of the genre has spurred a number of US channels previously known only for their reality or factual fare to get into scripted. And A+E’s own channels are increasingly being defined by their scripted programming, such as Bates Motel (A&E) and Vikings (History).

“Those are the shows that we always reference when we’re talking about the channel, its ambitions and its tone,” Denton says.

A+E blazed a trail in factual channels moving into scripted with 2012 miniseries Hatfields & McCoys (History), and later the same year Longmire (A&E), followed by Sons of Liberty (History) in 2014 and Texas Rising (History) this year. But while Bates Motel has recently been renewed for two more seasons, the Carlton Cuse-penned US remake of French drama The Returned (A&E) was cancelled. Has a drama bubble been inflated to the point of bursting?

“Not really,” Denton says. “Trends tend to tail off rather than explode and stop. I can see fewer broadcasters, particularly in the States, being involved in scripted because the economics are so challenging. Channels like Bravo, for example, seem to be half in and half out.”

Scripted has now become “really vital” to A+E – which was celebrated as Company of Distinction at the Banff World Media Festival last month – and it is making efforts to increase its ownership of the shows it produces and airs, for both distribution and its international channels, Denton adds.

Nancy Dubuc, CEO of A+E and a Banff keynote, told advertisers at the company’s Upfronts presentation in May that the creation of A+E Studios has been key to delivering more original scripted content.

Ironically, the division’s first scripted show, UnReal, is set against the backdrop of a hit dating format – something of a rarity in the world of television nowadays. It follows a young producer whose sole job is to manipulate the contestants in return for juicy footage. UnReal began airing on Lifetime in the US at the beginning of June, and will be seen later on Lifetime channels internationally as well as TF1 in France and Antena 3 in Spain.

One of the reasons Denton is confident in the resilience of drama is that the economics of producing it in the global marketplace have changed radically, resulting in more investment as well as alternative distribution outlets.

“OTT services and co-operation across markets in coproduction or pre-sale terms have made the market for scripted truly global, not just in sales terms but in idea terms. And that’s a permanent change,” he says. “The largest secondary market in the States for most of the studios and the independents is no longer syndication or secondary cable sales, it’s the OTT players like Hulu, Amazon and Netflix.”

This development has evened up the playing field considerably, as it has allowed scripted programmes from cablenets to make as much money as those from the major broadcast networks. “Now, scripted shows from basic cable and network go directly to Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, whoever it may be, and they’re coming in early. They’re not waiting for five or six seasons.”

Moreover, Denton adds, OTT buyers are keener on the slightly more complex, non-procedural shows, which plays into the hands of the cable channels rather than the networks. Cable channels like those run by A+E.