The leaders of Fremantle & Mediawan discuss the challenges of the industry and YouTube T
“There is no longer any space for lukewarm or lukewarm content,” concluded David Atlan-Jackson, director of the European cinema group and Vuelta television this morning, concluded this morning during the first session of the San Sebastian creative conference of investors.
Atlan-Jackson was joined in the session entitled “The New European Powers” by Christian Vesper of Fremantle, Rodolph Buet of Studio TF1 and Elisabeth d’Arvieu in Mediawan. The session was chaired by Wendy Mitchell, who questioned leaders about how they see contemporary affairs and the strategies they use to continue to grow in scale and ambition.
Atlan-Jackson continued to say that for him, the main challenge is the “fragmentation of the landscape” with regard to distribution.
“TV platforms, cinema and computer competition, even YouTube is now one of our main competitors,” he said.
“The public has become very selective and competent. The main challenge is to give them content with which it can connect. There is no more space for lukewarm or lukewarm content. You must stand out for one reason or another.”
The Atlan-Jackson point has been resolved, to various degrees, by all the panelists, including Vesper, who also underlined what he described as the unique challenge of continuing to develop production companies that are currently working under the banner of Fremantle, while not dying the ambition of the projects they produce.
“What does growth look like?” He thinks. “How do we create an environment where you can have the Bugonias alongside the pillors, which is a film of 3 million pounds sterling against a film of $ 40 million. This was our challenge. To make our companies survive and thrive, we must find this level of scale and diversity.”
However, Vesper noted that it was still much easier to make films in Europe than to “make television elsewhere in the world” thanks to “financing criteria” and the ease with which they can work with partners in Europe.
“The way we work is, how do we best support our production companies in making the films they want to make? The producers are talent to a certain extent. For Bugonia, for example, with Element, what we have done is Greenlight IT before putting it on the market, which is by putting our weight behind a project,” he said. “On the other side, there is something like Kristen’s film Water chronologywhich rests a lot on our belief in it as a filmmaker and talent. »»
Vesper said THE Water chronology The producers were able to reconstruct the financing of the film because Kristen was a filmmaker who “understood that to make his first film, it had to be done in this way that minimized the risk”.
“For example, she wanted to shoot in Portland, Oregon. But we ended up shooting outside Riga, in Latvia. So it’s about using our expertise in Europe to make things happen,” said Vesper.
Elsewhere during the session, Buet was questioned about the philosophy behind the historical agreement of TF1 with Netflix. In June, the pair signed a pact that will see TF1’s commercial stations and on -demand content on Netflix. The agreement will be active from next summer.
“We decided to associate ourselves with Netflix to ensure that we reach a wider audience,” said Buet to the public in San Sebastian.
“Advertising income decreases throughout Europe. People watch less television, and we are faced with competition on the Internet, places like YouTube. And we are faced with competition from VOD platforms. For example, in France, 50% of Netflix subscribers never watched TF1 +.
D’Arvoieu de Mediawan, however, warned everyone in the room against the trends in the aimless market.
“We are very proud of the series we have produced this year Adolescence. And this is exactly the opposite of what the market told us was sought. He said people wanted the dominant and happy current. And then there is this series which is extremely powerful, extremely well written and beautifully turned. And deeply significant.
D’Arvieu has continued to say that when you can bring together talents and high -level execution, you can always attract the public.
“It is now the 2nd most watched series on Netflix, just behind Wednesday“Said Arvieu.” It tells us that it is increasingly difficult to gain public attention. But when you treat the public with respect and bring them premium work, they are committed. »»
San Sebastian takes place until September 27.
