CONTENT AMERICAS: Unscripted trends and talking points from this year’s Miami market included the potentially industry-reshaping merger between Banijay and All3Media, the fast-morphing world of microseries and the sometimes-uneasy relationship between traditional producers and the creator economy.
Left to right: Hannah Mabruk, Lucas Green, Mike Beale, Nadav Palti
Momentum behind Banijay/All3Media
Banijay’s mooted merger with All3Media promises to give the global production sector, particularly unscripted, its biggest shake-up since the French-headquartered giant acquired Endemol Shine in 2020. If a deal to merge their production assets comes to fruition, the combined entity would span around 170 labels globally and create a true global juggernaut.
Execs on the ground in Miami were mum on the potential deal, as one would expect given talks are ongoing. But as it stands today, there is a broader consensus that a deal will eventually be struck. The exact shape of that deal, however, is unclear. While Banijay execs, including Banijay Americas CEO Ben Samek, declined to comment on the potential merger, they reiterated Banijay Entertainment CEO Marco Bassetti’s prior comments about the “value” of scale in today’s industry.
It appears clear the industry landscape will be greatly altered this year, with a potential tie-up between French media group Mediawan and Peter Chernin’s North Road also reported just days after the Banijay/All3 news broke.
This would also leave ITV Studios – which was previously reported to be in talks about a merger with RedBird IMI-owned All3Media – as the odd man out. The future of ITV Studios could be dictated by whether or not Comcast/Sky reaches a deal to buy ITV’s broadcast business, which would make the studio division a compelling takeover target.
An uneasy relationship between creators and the traditional formats biz
While many of the large production groups are making forward-looking moves to embrace the creator economy, there remains a slightly uneasy relationship between YouTube and traditional business. On the one hand, it is indisputable that broadcasters and producers have accepted that they need YouTube. In a landmark deal, BBC confirmed this week that it will greenlight shows that will launch first on the Google-owned platform. But on the formats side, where YouTube remains something of a Wild West, there remain questions of copyright infringement and format copycatting.
“[The format business is] in rude health. So rude in fact that most YouTube creators are copying most of the formats that exist,” quipped ITV Studios managing director, global creative network, Mike Beale.
He later praised YouTube creators as the “entrepreneurs of today,” comparing them to pioneers of the initial reality TV boom including John de Mol, Peter Bazalgette and Mark Burnett.
“These are the new entrepreneurs, but they learnt their TV skills from watching all of those [classic reality] shows, so it’s only natural that they’re going to be inspired by all that stuff,” said Beale.
Banijay’s Lucas Green, who serves as chief content officer, operations, concurred with Beale, adding there will be growing pains as the creator economy continues to blend with the traditional business. “They’re learning along the way. What they learn is: if you infringe on those formats, then ITV and Banijay will come after you. We are pretty determined to protect those IPs and the creative behind them, and I think we both want them to work with us, not against us.”
Siobhan Crawford highlighted international formats ripe for adaptation in Lat Am
How ‘clippability’ is changing the unscripted business
Given the explosion of vertical video in recent years, the iPhone has now become the primary discovery vehicle for content, especially unscripted formats. This shift has meant the process of ‘clipping’ (ie. using short snippets from shows to drive awareness and viewership on other platforms) has become an integral part of the unscripted business, influencing everything from what gets renewed to what gets put into develop to what gets rebooted or spun off.
Hannah Mabruk, senior VP of format sales and production at NBCUniversal Formats, cited The Tonight Show and Saturday Night Live, both stalwarts of US broadcaster NBC, as examples of properties that have evolved after finding new audiences through social clips.
“You might think that because it’s a talkshow, it’s not really a format. But because of the power of the clips and social media, The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon… is seen pretty much everywhere, every day,” said Mabruk. “That is a brand that’s now interesting for format buyers, because it is already known. And so some of that marketing heavy lift isn’t required, and there’s a cache and kudos to being the ‘local’ Jimmy Fallon.”
Elsewhere, format watchers were treated to a special session with Siobhan Crawford, who spotlighted several key international formats that would be ripe for adaptation in the Lat Am region, including B&B of Love (Banijay) and The Power (Dreamspark).
Using AI to reduce costs of developing and producing formats
Much has been made about the potential for new AI tools to reduce the costs in unscripted. As it has across the entire industry, the possibility that certain job roles and functions could be rendered obsolete has triggered a wave of mass panic. It is still early days though, and the majority of execs at studios, networks and streamers have called for calm, though many are actively exploring ways to integrate AI into workflows to reduce costs and production timelines.
Nadav Palti, CEO and president of Israel’s Dori Media Group (Power Couple), spoke of an Israeli tech company that reduce the cost of producing a season of unscripted television by 70-80%, while reducing the cost of the pilot by 20-50%. Especially for gameshows, Palti believes this kind of tech is going to quickly be adopted globally.
“It’s going to be all around the world,” he said, claiming that the pilot episode could be made for US$350,000-$400,000 but after that episodes can be made for US$20,000-$30,000. “Then you can take the same pilot to all countries around the world and adapt it,” he said.
Carolina Leconte, Netflix’s VP of content for Mexico and licensing for Latin America
New genres, and the rise of micro-reality?
Mabruk said that the “comedy competition” was a new hybrid genre being explored by NBCUniversal, with the term being coined by Bravo and Peacock unscripted boss Frances Berwick. House of Villains, a competition series that brings back ‘bad guys’ from previous reality series to crown the ultimate super villain, is an example of a reality show that “merges genres,” said Mabruk.
Outside of the Banijay/All3Media chatter, the rise of microdrama was the talk of Content Americas. Even Netflix got in on the action, with Carolina Leconte, Netflix’s VP of content for Mexico and licensing for Latin America, revealing the streamer was exploring the nascent medium in Lat Am. The arrival of microseries is raising questions about which new genres could emerge. ITV Studios’ Beale offered a compelling suggestion: “Watch out for micro-reality,” he said, noting that his company has been working on ideas for a couple of months.
