Cineflix Rights duo on seeking success in a shifting market

James Durie, head of scripted at Cineflix Rights, and Sandra Piha, senior VP of sales for the UK, Ireland and Scandinavia, discuss the changing market and the distributor’s scripted and factual slates for Mipcom.

What are your thoughts on the state of the market right now?
DURIE: Clearly, events of the last six months, heightened by the US strikes, have put an element of uncertainty into the business, which we’re hoping we’ll see the end of quite soon. But there are always opportunities. I still think that for the right kinds of shows at the right price point in the market, there are still a lot of places to take them and find success.

How have the strikes and the downturn in the economy impacted the factual market?
PIHA: The strikes and the advertising recession have inevitably affected our business. There are fewer commissions, smaller budgets and more curated acquisitions from channels instead of the usual big volume deals. We’ve continued working with our producing partners to help get projects greenlit via different funding models. We’ve seen some strong development slates on which we can’t wait to work together with our partners – let’s hope things turn around soon. The good news is that broadcasters have remained committed to successful returning brands that perform well.

Are we seeing the end of the global production boom?
DURIE: There are cycles, for sure, and the period in which a lot of shows were being made for a lot of different broadcasters and platforms is changing. It’s becoming more local, which isn’t necessarily a negative thing. Previously, people were thinking very much globally or pan-regionally, but now we’re going back to local territories, local commissions from broadcasters and platforms, which offers great opportunity for distributors like us.

How is the growth of FAST changing your distribution strategy?
PIHA: The growth of AVoD and FAST has provided a hugely beneficial complementary revenue stream to our core distribution business. Building and scaling our AVoD partnerships has enabled us to monetise more efficiently the full breadth of our catalogue, and developing owned-and-operated FAST channels brings us one step closer to the consumer.
We’ve now launched five FAST channels in three markets across 10-plus platforms, including genre-based channels such as the Real Disaster Channel (featuring 20-plus seasons of Mayday: Air Disasters) in the US and Canada, and single-brand channels such as American Pickers in Canada. Both AVoD and FAST give us the opportunity to reach those audiences who may be moving away from the conventional TV viewing experience, and we see this is a high-growth area for our distribution business in the years to come.

DURIE: FAST is a fantastic opportunity. Every time there’s a new platform, there’s always a scramble towards it. Our non-scripted division, in particular, has had great success setting up channels directly. The impact for scripted at the moment is a little different. There are some success stories with long-running drama brands in the FAST space, but you need to have at least 100 hours so there aren’t many shows that are able to do that. But as time progresses, we’ll see the opportunities for scripted as well.

What shows are you lining up for Mipcom and is there something they have in common?
DURIE: It’s hard to find a thread that unites all the shows and, actually, that’s really the aim. We don’t want to be labelled as the distributor of just one kind of show. We have traditionally leant in on crime; it is a genre that will never cease to be a part of the schedules. There’s an appetite for it from viewers, producers, platforms and broadcasters, so we will always have an element of crime within our slate. But we’re also looking to really good, high-profile projects from talented production companies, like Men Up (1×90’) from Quay Street and BOOM, The Doll Factory (6×60’) from Buccaneer and Last King of The Cross (Seasons 1&2, 18×60’) from HELIUM, which really stand out for us.

Headlining the scripted slate is a gothic thriller about a taxidermist. What can you tell us about The Doll Factory?
It’s based on a bestselling book by Elizabeth Macneal that she wrote in the heart of the #MeToo movement. She really wanted to write a book from the female perspective about the sort of themes that were coming up during that era. It’s set in Victorian London but plays with a lot of modern themes and styles to set it apart from your traditional period drama. It’s very suspenseful and shocking in parts, but at the same time has a beautiful love story and compact thriller story that runs through it.

Men Up is a movie for TV; what is the demand in the market for that format?
DURIE: I call it an indie movie. My background is in the movie business, with seven years at Miramax, and we had great success selling a lot of independent films into the TV market, to pay TV and free TV. It was always traditionally the Pay-1 and Free-1 windows. Those slots are still there but the movies aren’t going to theatres in quite the same way they used to. The appetite for films from broadcasters and platforms, as well as viewers, is still large. The 90-minute slot works well with broadcasters, and Men Up, which comes from the incredibly talented Russell T Davies and Nicola Shindler, plays on a lot of themes that we know are very successful in other light, heartfelt British comedies such as The Full Monty or Kinky Boots.

You also have a half-hour comedy series on the slate. How did that come about?
DURIE: Late Bloomer (8×30’) is from Pier 21 Films in Canada. Bell Media commissioned it for Crave, so it came through our Canadian office and was something we jumped on really quickly. Comedy can be difficult, but this is a very universal story, albeit based in a very local environment, about a young Sikh guy growing up in Toronto and still living at his parents’ house.

On the factual side, how is the market for travel programming changing?
PIHA: Travel programming continues to remain in demand and on many channels’ wishlists, especially in the current economic climate – people are looking for that escapism. Content that is talent-led, full of adventure, aspirational and a visual feast features throughout our Mipcom slate.
We’ve got a strong food slate, and this autumn, we’re adding Jason Atherton’s Dubai Dishes (10×60’, Rock Oyster Media Productions for ITV, UK). Our new adventure-travel series Hidden Frontiers Arabia with Reza Pakravan (6×60’, A-OK Media House for Discovery, US) follows the award-winning explorer and filmmaker as he ventures into unchartered and often dangerous territory to unlock the secrets of the mighty Arabian Peninsula. Whether it’s an exotic location or a local story, these programmes need to be rich with beautiful visuals and some strong take-home info.

How do you explain the ongoing true crime boom, and where is the genre going next?
PIHA: True crime is here to stay and will continue to evolve. People are just captivated by the genre, whether it’s macabre intrigue or just a fascination with the psychology of it all. And there are so many formats and ways of telling these stories. Limited series or feature docs that dive deep into a subject are still very much in demand. We’re excited to be launching King Con: The Life and Crimes of Hamish McLaren (2×60’, Perpetual Entertainment for Channel 7, Australia and Paramount+, UK) in Cannes, which is the unbelievable true story of the ruthless Australian who conned his lovers of more than US$70 million. Authentic storytelling with little use of reconstruction is another theme we’re seeing more of: visceral storytelling told via footage from the interrogation room, CCTV and police body cams. Our new series Murder Uncut (10×60’, Law&Crime Productions for True Crime Network, US) features cases driven by this compelling footage.

How important is having returning series on your Mipcom slates?
DURIE: It’s not easy getting recommissioned in this market at the moment, a market that is shrinking, so the fact we have shows like Last King of The Cross, Reginald the Vampire (Seasons 1&2, 20×60, Great Pacific Media, Modern Story, December Films and Cineflix Studios for SYFY, US) and Irvine Welsh’s Crime (Seasons 1&2, 12×60’, Buccaneer and Off Grid Film and TV for ITVX, UK) running into their second season is fantastic. With all three of those shows, we’re really building a franchise and hopefully they can play across multiple seasons.

PIHA: In Cannes, we’ll be launching a new season of ratings hit The Yorkshire Auction House (Seasons 1-3, 65×60’, STV Studios for Discovery+, UK, Really, UK), along with a second season of Nine Network’s successful medical series RPA: Royal Prince Albert Hospital (Seasons 1&2, 18×60’, McAvoy Media for Nine Network, Australia) and a fourth season of Expert Witness (Seasons 1-4, 60×30’, Rare TV for BBC 1, UK), which continues to perform extraordinarily well for BBC One.

What other shows in development can you tell us about?
DURIE: One would be Virdee (6×60’), a detective series based on AA Dhand’s bestselling crime novels, being produced by Magical Society and starring Sacha Dhawan. The BBC announced it at the Edinburgh TV Festival as one of the big shows for 2024, and we’re really excited about it too. It’s the first time we’re on board a big BBC drama like that. It really stood out for us and we wanted to get on board for multiple reasons. In Cannes, we’ll be having conversation about pre-sales and coproduction for Virdee.