Former Endemol Shine exec David Flynn, the UK format exec behind shows such as Pointless and Money Drop, discusses his new firm Plegazoid, its recent partnership deal with Banijay France and whether it’s the state of the UK format biz that’s forcing him to look further afield.
David Flynn is the UK format exec behind shows such as Pointless and Money Drop
Why is Plegazoid called Plegazoid?
When we first came up with Pointless we didn’t actually have the title Pointless. We tried to come up with what we would call a pointless answer, the answer that nobody else could think of, and we came up with this mad e-up word, Plegazoid. We got very excited for about a week that everybody in the world would be talking about plegazoids and trying to get plegazoids. Then a week later we came up with the title Pointless and this made-up word was left behind. It always stuck with me because nobody knows what a plegazoid is, but you know it when you see it.
How’s it going so far?
It’s been good fun. I’ve set up so I can be independent and partner with people around the world and that’s working well. We just got our first commission in coproduction with South Shore in the UK, a new quiz for ITV called Time is Money that’s in production right now. We’ve got other things in the works as well. I like nothing more than working on brilliant ideas with people I like, and Plagazoid allows me to do that.
How does the partnership with South Shore, an ITV Studios company, work?
We have a development partnership to work on ideas together and the first of those is Time is Money. The way I’ve set up Plegazoid is we’re able to have those partnerships where they make sense for both parties and it’s a model that we’re now sort of moving forward with.
Tell us about the latest partnership with Banijay France, announced last week.
I’ve always believed brilliant ideas can launch anywhere. When we set up Youngest Media we had shows launch in Holland and Israel before travelling. I’ve always wanted to be more than just a UK company. Banijay France is a brilliant premium company and is known for launching new formats as well as catalogue formats and making a success of that. France as a whole is a really interesting market now. It’s a very competitive TV market. It’s hungry for new ideas. And whereas in the past it was more reliant on ideas that had been proved elsewhere, more and more France platforms and broadcasters are taking risks on new IP, because they’ve realised that any original content raises you above your competitors. So I saw it as a big opportunity, particularly working with the brilliant teams in each of the companies that make up the group.
How’s it going to work practically?
The brilliant creative leaders at Banijay France are experts in their markets and in their clients. We’ve had a deep dive into their needs together to get to the bottom of what they might be after. But then the difference I think is when you’re coming from the outside, you have a slightly different perspective than somebody who’s constantly trying to deliver on their own particular needs. So I’ve then brought creativity of my company to bear on those challenges. From there the process is I bring back these headline thoughts to each individual company, we work on those together in the knowledge that they have that sort of industry and territory expertise to make sure the ideas are delivering for them, and then I rework and we pitch them together and join them on success.
Who keeps the rights if you get a good one away?
We’re doing this together so we co-own.
Is the plan to repeat this model in other territories as well?
I think it’s all about the right opportunities. So absolutely, I think partnerships to land ideas above and beyond your home territory makes absolute sense. It needs to be with the right partners and in the right ways.
When you were describing the French market, it sounds very different to the UK where reboots and cautious commissioning seem to rule at the moment, do you recognise that criticism and is that why you’re looking further afield?
I think all commissioners would love to have their new original format. When we look at what’s happening in the UK, Time Is Money is an original format ITV took a risk on with a straight to series order and I think that’s a mark of a need for new IP that all channels are recognising. Taking that risk can really make the difference in the longer term. Reboots can help you in the short term but it’s how you build those longer-term hits that can become like Pointless on the BBC which has now been going since 2007. Those things are really sort of challenging to land and grow and there’s a sort of dual thing going on.
When times are tough for our clients in terms of the economics it can be tempting to go to what feels like a tried and tested formula but actually what you see, and it’s happened time and time again, is when risk goes up even further and becomes potentially existential, taking a swing at something new is almost like the only way out. When you look at some of the biggest hits that are still with us today, they were formed at the moments of biggest existential risk for their particular channels, where actually you might as well take a swing. I’m hopeful that there will be more big swings into different pieces of IP, new creations, because the survivors will be the people who take those swings and land them successfully.
TV takes a little while to get out. I think probably what we’re seeing on our screens now is a product of the well-documented downturn in commissioning that was going on about a year and a half ago. That does have an impact down the line. In the conversations that I have, people are looking for that big new thing. I think it’s sort of incumbent on us as creatives to come up with those ideas that can help our clients survive and thrive.
Are there current trends in formats you’re looking to take advantage of, or indeed steer clear of?
It’s always nice when you do something different. Channel 4 weren’t looking to do a live gameshow in primetime when we launched Money Drop with them. Julian Bellamy, who was running it at the time, was visionary enough to go, actually, you know, we may not want this, but let’s give it a go. It’s always fun to find what the market doesn’t know it needs as well as what it knows it needs. I’d say the one interesting trend at the moment is the game and the format is now driving out into non-studio spaces through reality. And I think you’re seeing that in lots of different ways and in lots of different games. I think there’s a long way to go in that particular trend.
