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Playing it safe

Posted By AndyDickens On 28-08-2014 @ 5:52 pm In Features | Comments Disabled

With French TV networks coming under fire for failing to take risks with drama, what impact will Netflix’s imminent arrival have in an increasingly tough market? Andrew Dickens reports.

Jo

Jo

When the head of one of France’s leading television organisations calls on the country’s networks to take more risks when commissioning drama series, you’d expect a few heads to turn.

Jean-François Boyer, president of the Association Pour la Promotion de l’Audiovisuel (APA), did exactly that last month when he declared that French broadcasters should “place the search for quality at the heart of their work” and refrain from chasing ratings with safe programming.

“I was troubled when I heard a top commissioner at a major French network recently say she wasn’t there to innovate but to keep with the same old programmes that work,” Boyer told delegates at an APA conference during the Série Series drama festival in Fontainebleau, France, this summer. “In saying this she was summing up the culture of ratings and showing there is a lack of risk-taking. Television is a cultural production, and the search for quality should be there for all French television channels.”

While Boyer, also CEO at Tetra Media, may have polarised opinion in Fontainebleau, few would deny that French networks have been relatively slow to produce ambitious, cutting-edge drama on a mass scale when compared with their counterparts in the UK, the US and Scandinavia.

Scriptwriter Jérémie Kaminka, whose credits include Nickelodeon cartoon Marsupilami, is now moving into drama writing. But he feels the lack of boundary-pushing from French networks has left the country’s creative minds “frustrated.”

“There are a lot of producers, writers and screenwriters out there looking to do some good stuff but the broadcasters only think about the ratings and numbers in terms of shows that work and it limits the categories we write for,” he says.

But away from the free TV sector, France’s leading pay platform, Canal+, has been flying the drama flag for some time with its ambitious Création Originale production policy.

Nonce Paolini

Nonce Paolini

Priding itself on daring and innovative screenwriting, the channel has broadcast dramas including Engrenages (aka Spiral) from prodco Son et Lumiére; epic pan-European copro Borgia, from Atlantique Productions and EOS Entertainment; Sky Atlantic copro The Tunnel, from Kudos Film & TV; and crime drama Braquo, from Capa Drama.

Meanwhile, Haut et Court’s supernatural thriller Les Revenants (The Returned), which premiered on Canal+ in 2012, has gone on to sell around the world, even securing a remake deal with A+E Studios in the US and FremantleMedia North America.

Speaking at Série Series, Dominique Jubin, Canal+’s director of French drama and coproductions, said the broadcaster needs to “offer subscribers truly exclusive programmes that are different from everything else.”

“The programmes that we develop must have a strong French and European identity and, one way or another, should be based in France or Europe,” she added. Forthcoming projects include multimillion-dollar drama Versailles, a copro with Zodiak Media and Canadian outfit Incendo.

But while Canal+ series generally score good domestic ratings, French networks’ have sometimes failed to capture the attention of local audiences with drama series.

Jean Reno crime drama Jo (fka Le Grand), from Borgia producer Atlantique Productions, was axed by TF1 after just one season in 2013 following a fall in ratings. In spite of this, the 8×60’ series found enormous success abroad, selling into more than 130 territories through distributor Red Arrow International, prompting Atlantique to consider a revival.

Les Hommes De L’Ombre

Les Hommes De L’Ombre

Indeed, cracking the French market is no small feat and Sahar Baghery, international TV formats and content director at Paris-based market intelligence firm Eurodata TV Worldwide, believes this is partly down to a plethora of US series dominating primetime schedules.

“More than half of the slots in French primetime are dedicated to US series,” Baghery says. “I would also say that back-to-back scheduling can affect audience share, with decreasing performances for a back-to-back episode broadcast at 23.00.”

However, Baghery believes this trend is slowly changing due to an increasing number of smaller French broadcasters investing in original series. “Smaller channels, such as Orange Cinéma Series, with shows like Lazy Company and France Kbek, and France 4 with Metal Hurlant Chronicles, Hero Corp and Anarchy, are now really starting to invest in original content,” she adds.

But this could all change soon because the catalyst for what could be the biggest shake-up in French TV’s recent history is looming.

In September, US subscription video-on-demand giant Netflix will enter the French market, as well as five others across Europe. But leading industry figures in France remain divided about its potential impact.

At Série Series, industry executives called for French linear broadcasters to offer “stronger original content” in order to compete with the Californian streamer.

Nonce Paolini, CEO of TF1, said French broadcasters and producers should work together to create new content to “fight the newcomers,” adding: “Revenue for TV channels is going down but we have to do what we can within our own parameters. We have to create a think tank that will help create new content so we can become more productive.”

Olivier Bibas

Olivier Bibas

Rémy Pflimlin, president of pubcaster France Télévisions, agreed that stronger content on linear channels would prevent viewers from switching allegiance to Netflix.

But Bénédicte Lesage, a producer at Mascaret Films, fears France has been “too hesitant in anticipating Netflix’s arrival” and would consequently pay a “very high price.”

From the scriptwriters’ point of view, Alexandre Manneville, whose credits include animated series Kaeloo, tells C21 the new competition would be welcomed.

“If Netflix wants to be a real challenger in France it needs to produce local TV shows, and at a high-level,” he says. “When I look to US cablenets like AMC, it reminds me that we can’t do those sort of shows because we don’t have enough competition for edgy content. So one day, French broadcasters will be forced to do blood and violence, something that will compete with the likes of TF1, because of Netflix.”

And that day could be soon. Netflix is reportedly set to order an exclusive original series for 2015, with local media suggesting the firm has lined up Gaumont TV or Haut et Court to work on the project.

But for Atlantique Productions’ CEO Olivier Bibas, Netflix is far from a guaranteed success in a “tough French market” that is already seeing an increasing number of players producing English-language dramas to appeal to wider audiences.

Taxi Brooklyn

Taxi Brooklyn

“Atlantique has been one of the pioneers in producing English-language drama here, with series like Borgia and Transporter,” he says. “But this is not an easy thing to achieve. You need to have access to finance, be a solid production company and have access to the right talent. You can’t do that sitting in France, you have to go to the US and the UK and meet with their writers and producers.

“Today, when you see the ratings in France, US series are still very strong, so at Atlantique we have tried to reverse this trend a bit.”

Market-leading French broadcaster TF1 (with a 24% share) also recently launched its first fully commissioned English-language action series, Taxi Brooklyn, a Europacorp spin-off from the Luc Besson movie franchise Taxi. The network is also working on a couple of scripted formats, including supernatural drama Marshland.

And with highly anticipated crime series including Cinétévé’s Les Témoins (6×52’) and the second season of political thriller Les Hommes De L’Ombre (6×52’), from Macondo and Tetra Media Fiction, coming to pubcaster France 2, drama appears to be in good shape on France’s linear channels.

However, its future may also lie in coproductions, a trend pioneered by the likes of Canal+ and Atlantique Productions, which recently teamed up with Keshet UK to develop eight-part drama Crater Lake.

Sahar Baghery

Sahar Baghery

It was a point raised at Natpe Prague in June by Rola Bauer, president and partner at Studio Canal-owned Tandem Communications, who said there is a need for international coproductions to fill a gap in European schedules that US studios are not filling.

Indeed, Tandem copro Crossing Lines debuted strongly on TF1 in November 2013 with 7.4 million viewers but lost two million over its run, the same amount as Atlantique’s Jo. But while Jo was cancelled, a second season of Crossing Lines is now in production.

Elisabeth Durand, programming director at TF1’s flagship channel, told C21 recently that TF1 would consider more projects with several partners onboard to “access series with higher production values.”

However, as only 10% of TF1’s drama investment can be made up of international dramas, there may be few such series in the pipeline.

The message is clear: many paths lead to success in the French TV drama industry. The problem is, which one do you take?


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