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PERSPECTIVE

Viewpoints from the frontline of content.

Spider-Man vs the Justice League in the battle for Formatland

By Siobhan Crawford 05-08-2024

In her second monthly column for C21, the experienced format exec, formerly of DRG, Zodiak and Primitives, examines the classic struggle between the larger production groups and the smaller indies in Formatland.

I will forever be part of the Banijay family. Once you are Banijay, you are kind of Banijay for life. They were and are special people who gave me some of my happiest work years so far.

But Banijay is also the giant in the industry, a giant who by its sheer existence makes the lives of indies harder. Commissions come easier to Banijay, and its scale and size means it has strategic advantages and influence. We could just talk about Marco Bassetti’s “nimble” Banijay, but really it is the ‘groups versus the indies’ landscape, so we are talking about Fremantle too, and to some lesser extent Warner, BBC Studios and ITV Studios, Mediawan-Leonine almost, maybe Paramount and NBC.

The M&A landscape shows no sign of abating. But in a land of giants, does it have to feel like ‘us versus them,’ or do we all have a place in Formatland?

The upper hand
There was a heyday of formats eight to nine years ago. Formats travelled quicker, less strategically, via various partners. It was also roughly when Zodiak and Banijay merged and the beginning of group dominance. Ever since, Formatland has been in the wake of the mergers and acquisitions. For the average neighbourhood indie, the hard lesson was that the Justice League would always be more powerful than Spider-Man alone. The superpowers at hand are collective powers now:
• IP – a superpower by itself, controlling established IP and commissions/recommissions (and the T&Cs).
• Strategy – groups can ‘incentivise’ deals into existing with strategic hubs and cooperations and so on.
• Investment – groups invest so others don’t/won’t have to in development/budget shortfalls.
• Speed – with the size of the machines, actions/knowledge can be faster than average.

These superpowers are appealing. They can be used to reduce risk and spending, and solve problems for broadcasters, which has the knock-on effect of creating an ease – which turns into a preference – for broadcasters to work with groups in the format space.

Alongside this, I was told, groups can deliver an almost guaranteed quality that indies cannot compete with. You might dislike it or argue it is genre-specific, which absolutely could be true, but the reality is still the same. Great power has brought the groups great opportunity to almost become the exclusive provider of unscripted formats internationally. And Spider-Man, as super as he is, remains neighbourhood sized.

For example, in notoriously difficult Australia in 2023, only Banijay managed to launch paper formats – The Summit and Rush. The Summit was nothing special conceptually (we all climb mountains) and the ratings were not spectacular, but it was recommissioned. A CBS commission followed, coming in over budget, and the format has travelled to multiple countries, with regional hubs being set up.

It was such a WTF moment that I had to ask a commissioner why. They said ‘clever gameplay.’ No way. It silently did what indie distributors dream of – multiple straight-to-series commissions. If this was from an indie, it would have been impossible. This format was not built to be a hit; it was the machine.

Competition reality format The Summit

The reality of being an indie
In the current market, an indie prodco can acquire a format from about six to eight good distributors. The number of new launches is reduced, meaning an indie has to create from paper, buy a back-catalogue title, or they have to compete with the big dogs and their big wallets to acquire the hot new titles.

Without the same bank account, they cannot compete on option fees (often exceeding five figures if you want to be competitive) and, therefore, they are forced to sweeten the terms by sharing their producer fee or higher minimum guarantees, shorter durations/holdbacks and so on.

Keep in mind that sharing producer fees is becoming more common and is the one thing the indies can’t really afford to do. Also keep in mind that an indie is meant to be increasing its value by generating its own IP if it ever wants to get sold. If you can’t afford to buy a format, if you can’t develop a show as cheaply or deficit-fill a budget, then you can understand why a medium-sized Nordic indie said to me during Covid that reducing the influence of groups like Fremantle was really the only way to help them. Add this to higher broadcaster confidence in the groups, and being an indie is admirable but extremely hard in today’s climate.

Black sheep
And the groups keep on coming, keep forming. Asacha was basically a newborn when it was acquired by Fremantle. The groups show no concern for overlap when acquiring new companies. Established IP seems mostly unavailable now, so we are just adding to EBIDTA.

But honestly what more is possible? Does the Justice League not have enough members already? Satisfaction is a group on the up with a specific unscripted DNA – does Keshet acquire them? Does Mediawan? Then you have North Road, which must be doing something in Europe soon, despite being one of the only companies to acquire Turkish prodcos.

Monday Group has been primed (a little too late) to be acquired, but almost everyone has Nordic entities (with IP). And then we have the rise of DPG. Are they going to move outside of Benelux? And none of this is looking at the Americans because, frankly, who Paramount CBS ends up with does not really impact Formatland. We are looking at the groups without channel access – they are the ones making the real dents.

I don’t know where the market goes next. I know indies are hustlers, doing what they do best and keeping their heads down and finding solutions. But remember, they are what we make them. So, if this is the future we are creating then the broadcasters can’t be frustrated when negotiating expensive budgets with group companies because you made them the format provider.

For me, I am just going to watch what magic the groups can do next. ‘Tonight Matthew, I’m going to be Starstruck’ – Shaolin Heroes in a post Cobra-Kai world – because that is some serious superpower.

And your accompanying anthem for this one: Milkshake by Kelis. Move directly to Spotify, I insist.

today's correspondent

Siobhan Crawford Founder Glow Media

Siobhan Crawford is a strategic-thinking entertainment executive focused on unscripted formats and originals, expertise in European market and the connection of it to the US market.

She worked in sales at DRG, Zodiak Rights and Banijay International prior to spending six years as head of sales and acquisitions at Belgian formats sales house Primitives. She more recently founded her own format distributor Glow Media.



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