Hat Trick International
Hat Trick International’s director of sales Sarah Tong previews the UK distributor’s new programming slate ahead of its participation in the London TV Screenings this week.
UK-based factual and scripted distributor Hat Trick International (HTI) arrives at the London TV Screenings to showcase a slate of mostly third-party programming.
HTI will shop multiple titles spanning genres such as premium documentaries, motoring formats, police procedurals, travelogues, crime thrillers and edgy comedies on Tuesday February 27, from 4.30pm to 5.15pm at The Vue cinema in London’s West End.
These include 6×30’ series Spinal Destination, a black comedy from New Zealand. Made by Auckland’s Whitiora Productions and Great Southern Film & Television, the show was originally commissioned by Sky Originals NZ.
Partly based on writer-director Paula Whetu Jones’s own medical experiences, it follows a go-getting Kiwi mum, played by Bree Peters (Good Grief), who is suddenly paralysed after a mystery illness.
“It’s very rare for us take a third-party comedy because it’s the hardest genre to sell,” says Sarah Tong, director of sales at HTI. “Comedy is completely subjective and if a buyer doesn’t find a title funny, you’re on a hiding to nothing.
“But we picked up Spinal Destination over a year ago because Great Southern know what they’re doing, and I thought the script was really funny. Paula Whetu Jones herself was actually treated in a spinal rehabilitation centre 15 years ago, so the show has real authenticity.
“However, Spinal Destination is not just about a bunch of people who can’t walk, it’s a comedy about a group of friends who happen to be in wheelchairs. They have a series of very funny scrapes while struggling to adapt to their new lives.
“We all want to laugh and the market is looking for comedy right now. The New Zealand sense of humour is very close to that of Brits.”
Meanwhile, factual series Michael Mosley: Secrets of Your Big Shop (4×60’) is a Plum Pictures production for UK commercial pubcaster Channel 4. It sees journalist Mosley go undercover in supermarkets to discover the impacts of our shopping habits on our health.
“Michael is coming to our event at the London TV Screenings to talk all about the show,” reveals Tong. “UK audiences are already familiar with it because it did fantastically well for Channel 4, and we’re already getting offers from other territories too.”
Another factual title taken by a UK pubcaster is The Idaho Murders: Trial by TikTok (1×60’), commissioned by BBC Three and produced by London-based prodco Summer Films. The documentary sees presenter Zara McDermott travel to the small town of Moscow, Idaho, to uncover the story of a social media frenzy.
In November 2022, Idaho University students Ethan Chapin, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Madison Mogen were all stabbed to death. McDermott details how every detail of the investigation into their murders was turned into social media content.
“Zara is a relatively new presenter but she’s fantastic,” says Tong. “We’ve got three true crime shows with her including Zara McDermott: Inside Ibiza (working title), which is also part of our London TV Screenings slate.
“The Idaho Murders is a fascinating documentary about how the world of social media and YouTube became obsessed with this horrendous murder case. Zara talks to some of the content creators who caused havoc during the police investigation.”
The titles – ranging from comedy to lifestyle factual to true crime – show the breadth of HTI’s catalogue, which currently runs to around 2,700 hours.
Launched in 1998, the London-headquartered company represents programming from more than 30 third-party prodcos, including Plum Pictures, Keo Films, Outline Productions and Summer Films.
“We’ve got a very broad range of programming, from highbrow documentaries and lifestyle to some really fun titles and scripted drama,” says Tong. “Our non-scripted content is almost exclusively third party and has been a growing part of our business for over 10 years.”
As well as Spinal Destination, the scripted side of HTI’s London TV Screenings slate also features two crime dramas from HTM Television, the UK prodco co-owned by Hat Trick Productions and Jed Mercurio, the creator of Trigger Point and Line of Duty.
ITV-commissioned Payback (6×60’) sees Morven Christie (The Bay) play an accountant enmeshed in a perilous police operation to topple a crime lord.
D.I. Ray, meanwhile, now in its second season, is a 10×60’ series starring Parminder Nagra as a detective inspector who investigates the high-profile murder of a gangster and a local nurse who was caught in the crossfire.
“Crime and police procedurals still do very well for us,” says Tong. “A good whodunnit with a compelling story will always sell. We launched the first series of D.I. Ray at the 2022 London TV Screenings and now we’re showcasing the second season, which hasn’t yet aired on ITV and is even better than season one, in my opinion.
“Scripted is a very competitive space. The budgets and deficits for British drama are now tough. Hat Trick International is a wholly independent company competing against these huge groups with very deep pockets.
“We offer a very difference service to those huge group distributors. We’re more bespoke and we look after all programming that comes to us for the total duration of its lifespan. We’re always re-selling content and working with different windowing opportunities.”
It’s no secret that 2023 was a very challenging year for the global TV industry, with economic headwinds, inflation and commissioning cutbacks hitting hard. However, Tong is optimistic about HTI’s ability to weather the storm.
“Hat Trick International is a lean team and we’re in a very good place with our profitability and standing,” says Tong. “We will probably take a bit of a dip this year as a result of the reduced number of productions, not necessarily from Hat Trick Group but from the overall global market.”
With the Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA strikes in the US last year causing long production delays for many scripted series, have buyers proved more likely to acquire finished programming from distributors like HTI?
“Everyone was hoping that might be the case, but people used it as an opportunity for belt-tightening,” says Tong. “It seems that the strategy was for more re-runs of content that clients already own, rather than going out to buy loads of stuff from distributors.
“Business certainly slowed down slightly but it’s absolutely picking up again now.”
HTI has an extensive network of broadcast partners as well as good relations with streamers such as Netflix, Hulu, HBO Max and Australia’s Stan.
Many distribution houses have now adopted free, ad-supported streaming television (FAST) as an alternative method of distributing content and generating additional revenue streams.
“You can make a lot of money from FAST if you have many episodes of a big brand for a single IP channel,” says Tong. “However, we don’t tend to have that kind of content. HTI is known for low volumes of very high-quality programming.
“A lot of shows from our catalogue are streamed on FAST channels, so we’re very much in that space. It’s an important revenue stream, but not a priority for us at the moment.”
Rounding out HTI’s current slate are George Clarke’s Adventures in Americana (4×60’) and Bangers: Mad for Cars (4×60’), both from Plum Pictures; Lake District Rescue (4×60’) from Summer Films; Great Climate Fight (2×60’) from Keo Films; and two seasons of Paul Martin’s Antiques Showdown (each 40×60’) from STV Studios.
With more than 500 buyers set to attend the fourth edition of the London TV Screenings, HTI is looking forward to connecting with clients both new and old.
“What I like about this event is that it’s very different from markets such as Mipcom,” says Tong. “Instead of scheduling half-hour meetings to pitch really quickly to buyers who are rushing all over the place, at London TV Screenings each distributor presents to a roomful of executives. It’s a different way for us to showcase our content.”
