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Beyond coproduction

As the last remaining executives emerge from the Palais de Festivals after four days of back-to-back meetings during MipTV 2012, the state of television drama is in rude health. But where does it head next? Michael Pickard reports.

Borgen

Borgen

Though the buzz surrounding international drama coproductions has died down, the subject is now so commonly spoken about that it no longer seems novel. The latest fruits of this way of working across borders, of raising the significant budgets needed to satisfy viewers’ thirst for cinematic production values, are beginning to take shape.

The appetite for multi-national collaborations was demonstrated during the market’s Drama CoProXchange, a series of four panel sessions on Monday that closed with a keynote from Josh Sapan, president and CEO of AMC Networks.

The first session drew contributions from Scandinavian public broadcasters DR (Denmark), SVT (Sweden) and NRK (Norway), which have a rich history of coproduction together, and Swedish production company Tre Vänner.

And those in the audience caught a teaser trailer of the third season of The Killing, the crime drama produced by DR that has sent demand for Scandinavian series soaring. Further deals for DR’s political drama Borgen were also sealed this week.

Another session based on writer/director Jane Campion’s forthcoming miniseries Top of the Lake gathered its partners from BBC Worldwide (BBCWW), See-Saw Films and US cable network Sundance Channel, who all hinted that this would not be their last collaboration.

Coproductions also returned to the headlines when BBCWW announced Franco-German cultural channel Arte was onboard Spies of Warsaw, Fresh Pictures’ adaptation of Alan Furst’s novels that already boasts a coproducer in Polish network TVP.

Arte is also involved in The Spiral, a transmedia project emanating from Nordic broadcasters and partners in the Netherlands, France and Belgium. The show, which will invite viewers to help solve the theft of six priceless paintings from museums across Europe, could become a game changer if its use of online material, social media and live events (the paintings will disappear from their real-life homes at the same time they are stolen in the programme) draw in viewers and create a real-time second-screen model for scripted series. An extended trailer of the show was also screened during the Scandinavian panel session.

Spies wasn’t the only period drama drawing attention this week, as ITV Studios Global Entertainment brought writers Andrew Davies and Stephen Poliakoff to Cannes. Davies is behind Mr Selfridge, a show about the founder of the eponymous London department store, while Poliakoff is now in post-production on his first television series, Dancing on the Edge.

But is the current thirst for period drama a trend that is set to stay? Producers have told C21 they expect demand to die down but are hopeful that costume series have now cemented themselves in the schedules.

Alongside writers, on-screen stars were also present on the Croisette. The cast of Femme Fatales swapped Los Angeles for Cannes to promote the Cinemax anthology series that is now in its second season and is being developed into TV movies.

Members of the cast of Copper, another period drama set in 1860s New York and the first original scripted series from Cineflix Studios, attended a press conference to mark the launch of the series on the international market. Hollywood actor Jean Reno (Leon, Ronin) also came to town to promote crime drama Le Grand, which marks his first foray into television series.

In addition, Germany’s Tandem Communications unveiled its new crime drama Crossing Lines, which will send a team of police officers to solve crimes across Europe. Ed Bernero (Criminal Minds) will exec produce with Tandem and work as showrunner in this English-language series.

Arguably the biggest story of the market in the drama space was the arrival of Sonar Entertainment, the new name for Neverland and Treasure Island producer RHI Entertainment. The company also has a new, permanent CEO in Stewart Till.

However, while the new branding belonging to the miniseries and telemovie specialist could be seen throughout the Palais, of more significance is the company’s intention to move into series, starting with King Tut, the story of the young Egyptian pharaoh, and a small screen adaptation of the Hellraiser film series.

Karoline Spodsberg

Karoline Spodsberg

Ultimately, it was AMC’s Sapan in his keynote speech who reinforced the strength of the drama industry. Good drama series, he said, have become the most important type of content for pay-TV operators as new technology, such as VoD services and digital downloads, allow viewers to catch up on series they may have missed, leading them to then tune into traditional linear channels to watch new episodes.

His thoughts echoed the sentiments of Karoline Spodsberg, MD of Banijay International. She was participating in a panel session – held last Friday to discuss C21’s Formats Report – during one of the opening sessions of MipTV’s forerunner MipFormats when the topic turned to the lack of a breakout hit format over the past five years.

“One of the things that is changing our industry is technology and the fact viewers have so much power over what they want to see, where they want to see it and when,” she said. “They have multiple chances to make all the time and this will influence our industry a lot. That lack of a big hit may mean the way we measure success will change.

“It used to be big numbers but maybe not in the future. Technology will change the way we define a success and I think that’s part of the explanation why a big format has not been there for a while.”

As drama producers team up to build budgets large enough to create epic event series, could changing the measure of success by incorporating new technology – Twitter followers or Facebook ‘likes’ alongside VoD views and downloads – instead of relying solely on instant overnight ratings be a way to attract new investment beyond coproductions as the life of a single series is extended online?

Regardless of the answer, potential finance models and the influence of technology have emerged here at MipTV as the biggest factors affecting the future of television drama.

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