Buyers are demanding shows with ‘global appeal’ as they prepare to tentatively lift the commissioning shutters after a summer drought. But what does that actually mean and what funding models provide it at a time of constrained budgets?

If you’re to believe the news, we in the TV industry are in a bit of a mess. The word “gloomy” was used by one observer last week.

It’s not difficult to find reams of predictions about what’s going to fill the inevitable hole in global schedules as a result of the creative strikes in the US. Throw in an overcommitment on scripted content, a slowdown in advertising revenues worldwide and streamers inevitably taking a moment and checking their stride.

But even with all of this happening simultaneously, it’s still not a recession, more an inevitable confluence of challenges – a wobble, not a crash. Margins have been tight for some time in some quarters which made the situation all the more precarious. So let’s not blame a single channel or platform here, we all have to get through this as an industry and maybe nod knowingly to each other once we’re out the other side. Okay, that’s maybe a bit of a stretch.

If my mixed metaphors are already making your head swirl, you’ve hit your head on the nail there.

When the revenue and commissioning tap gets turned back on (and we don’t know whether it will it be a trickle or a full-on surge) at the end of the year, as most are predicting (stop press: some are predicting it will be comfortably into 2024), it will be like that pool party analogy I love: once one jumps in, they all will.

This is where the phrase ‘shows with global appeal’ will be at the heart of many commissioner briefs.

Data from our BossaNova Development Days chimes with this. It’s the central request from most buyers we speak to, even in very diverse territories. They’re crying out for producers to help them create the shows they need for budgets that are less than comfortable. But what does global appeal actually mean and how do we respond to the brief to keep the production pipeline open, keeping indies doing their day jobs and distributors with something to sell?

It might be a case of just holding your nose and looking away, but at times when demand shifts, currently global appeal means a bit of compromise editorially in order to get more or less the show you want at a price you can pay.

Margins are tight, that’s definitely not news, but due to all of the above it’s the funding model that is driving this need, not just audience demand. We are more open as audiences, no doubt, but the deal infrastructure that allows these projects to happen has also changed and presents a huge opportunity once you master it.

This means the challenge to meet is what can you make with a particular budget that also has global appeal. We do not suffer from a deficit of brilliant ideas but we need equally brilliant indies who can think of a new funding model, execute creatively and deliver to a strict timeline.

Obviously, we run a distribution company and I would advocate for a distributor-led model, such as the one used on our shows The Ottoman Empire by Train and The Flight Attendant Murders, but not all the time. Risks need to be shared. For now, the players that have a global network of contacts, a view of trends and habits and can see the whole of the puzzle that needs to be solved should make international coproductions and funding models that work part of the mix. This is what distributors like BossaNova and others do all day: try to solve these puzzles, sometimes successfully sometimes not. Right now, this is very much the only way. We are in the world of the copro, with all its meanings and nuances.

By my third start-up, I’d sort of worked out you are not getting very much for free, content wise. It’s a calculated risk whether content you acquire will cover your investment based on an alchemy of historical data, experience and – the most important one – gut feeling. Which can sometimes be hilariously wrong all the same. It’s also not a good situation having to refer a great idea back to its budget, but this is the first building block to making it into production.

BossaNova is set up for this, a team of nimble, canny operators all working together to create and nurture standalone, noisy hits or returning franchises. Saying that, you can be as fast-moving as you want, some projects just take time, so we have to live with it. Ask a distributor if they know how to make a show, the answer should be, ‘Don’t be ridiculous.’ But the answer to, ‘What should a hit show look like?’ we hope would be yes.

It’s the mix of budgets, small and large, that will encourage more likely survival for all. The more diverse your approach to deals, partnerships and the opportunities that lie within, the more global your appeal. Like winter, Q4 is coming. Be ready.