ESI’s Payne hails unscripted ‘stars’

MIPCOM: Unscripted programming is often the “real star” of Endemol Shine International (ESI)’s finished programming catalogue despite the attention given to drama, according to CEO Cathy Payne.

Cathy Payne

Payne, who oversees the global sales of ESI’s giant catalogue of finished programming, told C21 that the value of unscripted series such as MasterChef, Say Yes to the Dress and Ink Masters were “really essential.”

“Often the real stars of your catalogue can be the unscripted; it might not get the biggest or glossiest attention but it’s bread and butter for any distributor.

“With scripted, if you sell a drama to a market like the US, the licence fees per episode can be significant. The difference looking at unscripted is that you might sell them at a different price point but there’s usually a lot more episodes and they’re the types of shows that repeat a lot better.

Payne said that while a “big, big scripted hit” could “really punch through” over the lifetime of a library, unscripted could win out. “I know how much revenue we do on MasterChef finished eps, and it is significant.”

The ESI CEO also said the glossiest dramas were not necessarily the best revenue earners, nor the best in terms of quality, and said returning series remained key.

“I keep saying to people that some of the most commercially successful shows we work on are not the most expensive; it doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg to be good. It’s all about the storytelling and uniqueness of what you deliver.

“When I think of all the shows in the world, if I could have anything, some of the shows I would want in my catalogue aren’t the most expensive – other than Game of Thrones, which everyone would like.”