Please wait...
Please wait...

Shared exclusivity is ‘direction of travel’ in distribution says Cineflix’s Mutimer

Cineflix boss Tim Mutimer at Content London

CONTENT LONDON: Shared exclusivity is the way forward when it comes to distribution, according to Cineflix Rights CEO Tim Mutimer, who said projects with potential for FAST channels have higher value among distributors.

Mutimer was speaking on a panel about distribution and financing at Content London today, alongside colleagues from the UK and France. In a discussion about windowing, he said projects are treated on a case-by-case basis and that while single exclusive rights are still the goal of some platforms, shared exclusivity among networks is becoming more of a trend.

“The direction of travel generally is more towards shared exclusivity, but that is on a case-by-case basis. Something like Tehran for Apple TV+ is really important to be exclusive to them globally, but lots of other content you can share,” he said.

“Property Brothers in the UK works for three different broadcast platforms and, for each and every one of them, takes up a lot of their schedule, delivering huge advertising revenues for them. So you can window successfully across a number of windows.”

Mutimer added that FAST channels provide big opportunities in the distribution space and can make third-party projects more attractive to distributors.

“In the unscripted space, FAST is a really exciting opportunity for distributors because we suddenly have a direct-to-consumer pathway. We can launch our own channels at a cost base that isn’t prohibitive and we then generate a whole new revenue stream,” he said.

“We’ll see more and more of that – distribution partners getting into that space themselves. They’ll see there’s a real value they can share with partners that they can window down the line. There’s going to be an interesting change in dynamics, I think.”

Speaking alongside Mutimer, Guillaume Pommier, co-head of distribution at Federation Studios in France, said the distribution market has “gone back to basics” with shared rights, after a period of the big streamers taking all the rights.

“[It used to be that] with the linear channels, you could do free TV, then pay TV, DVD, TVoD and then SVoD. And then one day a massive streamer came and said they were putting a lot of money up front and taking the world for such a long period. We were like, ‘OK, why not?’ But now we’re coming back because it’s interesting to diversify your number of clients,” Pommier said.

“Because we’re in the middle of the producers and the commissioners, we can have a discussion, a pragmatic one about the needs of the linear channels and the SVoD services.”

Paul Cohen, group commercial director at Hat Trick Productions, said his approach is to do a mix of rights deals. “You need to balance sometimes taking a massive cheque from a big streamer, where they take all the rights, with a multi-windowing approach where you can generate value for many years into the future,” he said.

Please wait...