UK Screenings 2018 TBIvision.com February 2018 Take your seats The definitive guide to the UK Screenings Featuring BBC Worldwide Showcase plus MGM, ITV Studios, All3Media, FremantleMedia & more drama that captivates from talent that resonates FROM MULTI-AWARD WINNING WRITER JACK THORNE STARRING SARAH LANCASHIRE @all3media_int all3mediainternational.com pXX All3Media UK Screenings Feb18.indd 1 14/02/2018 10:48 TBI UK Screenings spotlight y some distance, the BBC Worldwide Showcase is Contents the largest international programming market held 4 UK television stats Bby a single distributor away from Data shows UK production is booming, but is Brexit about to the Hollywood studios and their LA derail the party for everyone? Screenings in May. Just as any decent festival spawns fringe events, the 700-plus buyers 6 BBC Worldwide Showcase An in-depth preview of the largest single-distributor event in expected at the ACC conference international television away from the LA Screenings centre in Liverpool between February 18-21 has led to clever indie distributors scheduling their own gigs around the big event. Success breeds success, as the old adage goes. 14 UK distributors This is the second time TBI has dedicated an online magazine What are the likes of All3Media, FremantleMedia, MGM, to the various screenings and programming showcases taking Cineflix Rights, Lionsgate and ITV Studios doing to capitalise place around the UK this month, and there’s no doubt the period on the raft of buyers in the UK? TBI speaks with the key players is becoming an increasingly important time for all involved. Of course, the majority of our reporting goes on the BBC and 26 Last Word its giant content event, which brings together the biggest stars Dan Whitehead from K7 Media predicts seven trends for 2018 the Corporation has to offer with the highest profile buyers on the planet. Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google – the ‘FAANGs’ – will all be in town. It usually takes a home game for Everton or Liverpool to get so many people in one place on Merseyside these days, so credit to BBC Worldwide for the scale of its ambition. The other distributors – all thankful for the passing trade Showcase brings to the UK – are carefully to schedule their events around and not during the main show, and we profile the new shows debuting before MIPTV comes around in April. Distribution itself is a changing game, and K7 Media’s Dan Whitehead uses his Last Word article to predict that Western distributors will need to adapt their formats to suit Eastern tastes. Read on to find out more, and TBI hopes to see you at the ACC. Editor Jesse Whittock • [email protected] • @TBI_Jesse Television Business International (USPS 003-807) is published bi-monthly (Jan, Mar, Apr, Jun, Aug and Deputy editor Kaltrina Bylykbashi • [email protected] • @bylykbashi Oct) by KNect365 TMT, Maple House, 149 Tottenham Court Road, London, W1T 7AD, United Kingdom. Sales manager Michael Callan • [email protected] The 2006 US Institutional subscription price is$255. Airfreight and mailing in the USA by Agent named Air Business, C/O Priority Airfreight NY Ltd, 147-29 182nd Street, Jamaica, NY11413. Periodical postage Art director Matthew Humberstone • [email protected] paid at Jamaica NY 11431. US Postmaster: Send address changes to Television Business International , Marketing manager Marita Eleftheriadou • [email protected] C/O Air Business Ltd / Priority Airfreight NY Ltd, 147-29 182nd Street, Jamaica, NY11413. Subscription Commercial director Patricia Arescy • [email protected] records are maintained at KNect365 TMT, Maple House, 149 Tottenham Court Road, London, W1T 7AD, United Kingdom. Air Business Ltd is acting as our mailing agent. Published by KNect365 TMT, Maple House, 149 Tottenham Court Road, © 2018 Informa UK Ltd All rights reserved London, W1T 7AD Reproduction without permission is prohibited Tel: +44 (0)20 7017 5000 e-mail: [email protected] web: www.tbivision.com @TBImagazine For the latest in TV programming news visit TBIVISION.COM TBI UK Screenings February 2018 3 PRODUCTION UK DATA Can Brexit-bound Britain keep T h e M production boom going? in i a t u r Though the uncertainty over the UK’s economy intensifies daily and the territory’s population war over i s the future, television production has never been better, new stats reveal. Distributors are going big this t month, but will Brexit derail the progress? n often-used phrase in British production industries are reaching record like one of them good problems”. However, politics, especially at times of levels, aided by helpful tax breaks, talented research from the Commercial Broadcasters uncertainty, is the UK is ‘open workers and expert producers. Association paints another picture. for business’. You can usually Things have become so good that there’s a It claims that unless the UK and Europe guarantee the opposite is question of how the demand can be met – the start talking about a deal fast, as much as£1 trueA when the expression is employed, but for studios are creaking under the weight. billion (US$1.4 billion) of inward international British production it’s no lie – for now at least. That poses it’s own questions, but as street channels investment could fall away, leaving the Stats from the British Film Institute kingpin Marlo Stansfield memorably said in industry in turmoil. (BFI) show that the UK’s film and television HBO’s seminal drama The Wire, “that sounds Winter could be here to stay to the UK. Dreams ctric Ele k’s s d ic er n R . D d s E e K in rd ll l a ik lip B i y w h k o P a H e P hite Dragon G W a H m ar e d o S f un T h r o n e s r e d n a tl u O n o g a r D e t i h W Shows pictured are UK-based productions 4 TBI UK Screenings February 2018 For the latest in TV programming news visit TBIVISION.COM PRODUCTION UK DATA * Stats courtesy of the BFI’s Research and Statistics Unit Research * Stats courtesy of the BFI’s i r i K T h e M in i a t u r i s t V an it y Fa ir Overall spend on film production and high-end TV £2.84 billion +11% nd R s E e rd ll a ik ow H Inward investment on high-end TV £684 million (highest ever level) +27% G am e o f T h r o n e s Spend on high-end TV £938 million 21 animated shows produced in the UK at a total cost of £54.1 million n o g a r D e t i h W For the latest in TV programming news visit TBIVISION.COM TBI UK Screenings February 2018 5 BBC WORLDWIDE SHOWCASE OVERVIEW Worldwide ambitions open the Showcase BBC Worldwide’s annual four-day programming sales event in Liverpool, England, is a regular trip for 700-plus buyers. TBI looks what the commercial arm of the BBC is planning in 2018 hese are momentous times for such as Blue Planet II, and commercial arm of its broadcaster parent in April 2017, with the BBC, the UK’s public service BBC Worldwide (BBCWW) continues to profit some previously in-house shows going out to broadcaster. While it is under handsomely as a result. tender. Now developments are going one stage constant ideological pressure Times are a-changing, however, and the tax further. from some corners of the British payer-funded BBC is changing with them. This April, BBCWW and BBC Studios are Tmedia and political forums, its continues to BBC Studios, the production wing, became a merging under the latter’s name, bringing impress creatively through flagship series commercial entity and wholly owned subsidiary together production and distribution for the 6 TBI UK Screenings February 2018 For the latest in TV programming news visit TBIVISION.COM BBC WORLDWIDE SHOWCASE OVERVIEW Depsite all this change and upheaval, the creative officer of the new operation, which this BBC Worldwide Showcase, the BBC’s major month secured its first non-BBC commission, programming event held in Liverpool, England, Discovery Channel conservation documentary every February remains of massive importance. The Red List and followed that up with another BBCWW estimates that more than 700 for Channel 4, the 1x60mins Fatberg Autopsy. buyers will attend the 42nd iteration of show, Davie and his chief sales lieutenant, where they will have access to thousands Dempsey, will be in Liverpool courting its of hours of TV programming through 600 biggest ever number of tech giants – Netflix, specially designed digi-booths. Amazon, Google, Facebook, Apple and Top British talent such as the new Doctor Microsoft will all be in attendance, along Who, Jodie Whittaker; Luther’s Idris Elba; with local SVOD services such as Hulu, iFlix, Alan Partridge creator Steve Coogan and Showmax and Stan. Ricky Gervais collaborator Karl Pilkington Along with the hard sell, BBCWW will be will all descend on Liverpool’s Albert Dock to hosting a coproduction forum, with many help entice buyers, as they are presented with buyers in town to find great British projects to numerous shows for the first time. invest in and market locally as originals. While the BBC does not break out how much “It’s been a good year so far in content sales,” it costs to put on the event, estimates from says Dempsey. “Foreign exchange has gone informed sources suggest it accounts for as against us in recent months, but our content much as 20% of the entire year’s programme continues to perform very well.