Mediawan, Sony Execs Predict A European TV Project Will Soon Be Same Quality As American But For Half The Cost – MIA Market

Max Goldbart
·4 min read

A European TV project will soon be on the same quality level as American but for half the cost, predicted Mediawan and Sony execs today.

As the TV world gets set to emerge from the dual U.S. labor strikes, Mediawan CEO Elisabeth D’Arvieu said European production now has a “big competitive advantage” over America, pointing to tax credits across the continent during a panel at the MIA Market.

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“We have a very favorable environment in terms of cost in places like Spain, Italy, Greece and Belgium,” she added. “The combination of a very cost-effective system and pool of talent is an incredible competitive advantage for European studios such as ours.”

Brendan Fitzgerald, Sony Pictures Television’s SVP International Co-Productions in Spain, pointed to shows from Sony labels Bad Wolf, Left Bank and Eleven shooting in CEE and Greece, which “work well in terms of location, crew, talent and tax credit.”

“All the skills are there to make Europe an equal pole in this business and start to export in the other direction to the U.S.,” he added.

Fitzgerald predicted that “at some point soon Europe will be able to pioneer a series for 55% of the costs of a U.S. show and achieve 90% of the quality.”

D’Arvieu said she would dial the quality figure up to 100% and that Europe is already there. Tesha Crawford, Universal International Studios’ SVP Global Scripted Series, concurred and also said the European industry has achieved this parity already.

“The barrier [in the past] was tech, language and making sure people were able to consume that type of programing,” she said. “But we’re already there.”

The execs were speaking in Rome, Italy at the film and TV industry event MIA.

Studiocanal’s Françoise Guyonnet, who has just been promoted to CEO Copyrights Group and EVP Kids’ Brands, said European TV makers “don’t have to prove we can produce in Europe” anymore.

English-speaking content still tends to be easier to sell than foreign-language but dubbing is improving the landscape, added Guyonnet, who pointed out that Another Round auteur Thomas Vinterberg chose to make upcoming Studiocanal TV series Families Like Ours in Danish over English. “So we had to consider from the beginning that this meant a certain budget and we have to make it work in this business model,” she added.

While many buyers are still opting for English-language shows, D’Arvieu, whose outfit will be selling the likes of Zorro at Mipcom Cannes next week, also pointed out that the market is growing for foreign-language scripted formats to be remade in English, which is a “very good selling argument.”

Rediscovering the value of local broadcasters

In amongst the strikes, one boon for the European sector has been a resurgence in European public broadcasting, the storied execs said, coming a day after three more PSBs joined the Nordic Twelve co-production group to forge what they have called the “biggest drama collaboration in Europe.”

“We have rediscovered the value of local broadcasters in France and the rest of Europe,” declared Guyonnet. “They have always been good local partners and are more open to ambitious shows and sharing rights with other PSBs, streamers or international distributors.”

Gone are the days when Sony was only pitching its best projects to the streamers before “dusting off the idea” if it was rejected and going to a broadcaster, Fitzgerald added.

“We have been guilty in the past of only going to [PSBs] after the streamers have passed,” he said. “My colleagues in Culver City are 90% focused on SVoD but in Spain we are looking at life from the point of view of a linear broadcaster.”

D’Arvieu said a boost in costs has triggered increased demand for the likes of docs and unscripted, which the broadcasters have specialized in for years, and she praised the co-production model for helping keep these players in the game.

The TV market contraction, which Miramax’s Marc Helwig spotlighted yesterday at MIA, has also helped improve speed of response from commissioners, Fitzgerald went on to say.

“Our clients are much clearer about what they don’t want and they give passes very quickly,” he said. “They realize there is no benefit to us guessing what they want but want to let us get to work on something that works for them.”

MIA is running all this week, featuring talks from Paramount’s Nicole Clemens, Skybound’s Marge Dean and director Ari Folman.

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