Tatiana Grinkevich, Head of Sales at Bossanova, details the company’s approach as budgets tighten and the international distribution landscape becomes increasingly complex.

The international content business is adjusting, and for sales teams, simply matching finished programs with buyers is no longer enough. With production budgets rising, license fees under pressure, and advertising revenues declining across markets, distributors must find increasingly creative ways to finance projects and build international partnerships. Tatiana Grinkevich, Head of Sales at Bossanova, is overseeing sales during a period of significant team change; flexibility has become essential. “Funding is probably number one,” she stated when discussing the biggest challenge facing the business today. Once the right idea is identified, the focus quickly shifts to which partners can support it and how the project can be structured to work across multiple territories. That means listening closely to buyers and understanding not only what they want today, but where their needs may be heading. Development meetings, she explains, have become an important part of that process, helping connect producers and broadcasters while offering insight into the projects and formats that could feed the following year's pipeline.

According to Grinkevich, the challenge is particularly acute because the business's economics have shifted. Ad revenues continue to fall in many markets, while license fees are under pressure and production costs are increasing. “Everyone needs to be creative,” she said. One response has been to rethink the traditional structure of international deals. Rather than simply negotiating a license fee, Bossanova’s team increasingly looks at combinations of shorter license periods, shorter holdbacks, and multiple windows across territories. Grinkevich describes this as “smart windowing” or “creative dealmaking.” A project might have one partner taking an initial window in one market, followed by another opportunity elsewhere, while additional third-party sales can help close the remaining financing gap.

It is a more complicated process than it was a few years ago, requiring sales, acquisitions, and buyers to work together earlier. “We do it on a daily basis,” she explained, describing the process of identifying where an additional partner or sale could make the difference. The objective is ultimately straightforward: to make sure the money invested in a production can come back. But achieving that increasingly requires several pieces of the international puzzle to fall into place.

FLEXIBILITY IS CRUCIAL

That same flexibility shapes how Grinkevich approaches programming. With audiences facing an enormous range of choices across platforms, buyers are experimenting with genres and formats that might previously have been considered outside their traditional remit. Her approach is therefore not to make assumptions. “If I just focus on what would be the obvious fit for them. I continue mentioning some new genres to them because everyone is on the search of something new” she explained.

There may still be recognizable patterns. A male-skewing channel, for example, may continue to target a predominantly male audience, while experimenting within genres that have traditionally attracted different demographics. But buyers are increasingly willing to test those boundaries and see what the results reveal.

One example involved a four-part true-crime documentary, “The Flight Attendant Murders,” developed through the company's development process. Grinkevich initially would not have considered it an obvious fit for German public broadcaster ZDF. She was discussing history, mystery and archaeology with the buyer when she decided to mention the project almost as an afterthought. As she says, the experience reinforced the value of presenting buyers with possibilities rather than limiting conversations to what seems like an obvious genre match. “It just teaches me not to assume things,” she said.