BossaNova Media’s founder assesses the changing state of the market heading into this week’s Mipcom, where traditional independent distributors fit in and how he plans to thrive (not just survive) in a digital-led world.

The subtle yet continuous transformation that is life continues. And in our industry… OK, maybe a bit less subtle.

I’m talking about how, in this transitional period as digital inexorably takes over, here at BossaNova we’re enjoying a rather peculiar vantage point. We can clearly see that linear television still needs us. The genre mix of unscripted, the mainstay of the past 25 years, remains very much in demand.

We’re certainly not the only people operating in this space but sitting at the top of our launch slate are two heavily originated and exclusively financed new brands. One is a brilliant reimagining of history from our long-term partners at prodco Like A Shot and the other is the series Professor Alice Roberts always really wanted to make with her favourite team.

(I didn’t want to obviously pitch the shows – it’s a bit gauche, isn’t it? Ruins: Rise & Fall and The Land That Made Us. There, I’ve said it.)

These shows each have their own passionate origin stories, but they also happen to reflect exactly what our existing customer base is asking for. Combined with our hard-won experience and it’s increasingly clear that the shape of our launches in the second half of the year is becoming something of a blueprint for our overall direction of travel.

Kids, conviction is back.

It’s what binds producers and distributors together. It’s the recognition that the most interesting ideas rarely arrive with a queue already forming behind them. At some point, somebody has to make the call. Somebody has to back the thing.

The meaning of backing new ideas in this business has changed during my time in television. In the decades long, long ago, the cool execs were taking big swings, helping propel some of the best talent, stories and outright entertainment into the world. Today, the same instinct often appears as a line item, a discussion point or a worrying entry on a spreadsheet.

Now it’s all about how much uncertainty we’re prepared to live with and, frankly, we’ve built up quite a tolerance for it. Ad revenue has fragmented so this situation is perfectly understandable – they’re not big swings anymore. More like a swat.

Armed with as much data as we can get our hands on and an acceptance that short-term discomfort is often part of building something meaningful, we’re learning to trust our judgement.

Without planning it this way, our two biggest launches have both been built from the ground up. We’re cash-flowing and financing key production milestones ourselves. Not because we’re adrenaline junkies – OK, we probably are a bit – but because in today’s market there often isn’t another way. To launch genuinely new series in an increasingly unpredictable world, those of us operating as distributor-platforms have to get comfortable with a few interrupted nights and the occasional moment of self-doubt.

When there doesn’t seem to be enough to go around, criticism is often aimed at linear and streamer commissioners for returning to the same producers time and again. We find ourselves in a similar situation with our own commissioning budget. The reality is that we don’t leave much room for failure in the system anymore. For the people carrying buyer titles, the responsibility, scrutiny and accountability are enormous. We see that up close.

With the courage of our convictions, we now have to back ourselves. Across our sector, distributors are increasingly stepping forward, financing projects long before a channel has attached itself. Development now sits right at the heart of the rhythm of the business, and good commissioning remains hard work.

We’ve all been originating and commissioning in one form or another for years, in my case more than 20, in this particular guise more than 10. We’ve built up a fairly reliable comfort blanket in the form of experience, instinct and a rigorous checklist. The decisions are informed, commercial and considered. But eventually there comes a point where the spreadsheet stops providing answers and you’re left relying on belief. Belief in the project. Belief in your own team and in the team behind it. Belief that audiences will care as much as you do.

Without that, where exactly would this business be?

This time next year – which is about as far ahead as I care to plan these days – the slate will hopefully be augmented by digital-first series emerging from a new Digital Dev Day we’ve scheduled, and possibly even a brand-first title.

The truth is that the ingredients are already there. The talent is there. The ideas are there. The audiences are certainly there. The pieces are sitting on the table waiting to come together.

Somebody has to make the first move. Why shouldn’t it be us?