Distribution in Focus: Cineflix Rights’ Tim Mutimer

With buyers flocking to London TV Screenings and Mip London this week, Broadcast International speaks to Tim Mutimer, chief exec at Cineflix Rights, about balancing budgets, the benefits of being part of a Canadian parent and ’acquimissions’.

Licence fees from linear TV networks are static or dropping while costs of production, particularly in scripted are still rising. At the same time consolidation, cost cutting and oversupply means a challenging market in the US and globally. Seeking new global partnerships and international collaboration between producers and networks will be more critical than ever. Soft money through national tax incentives and screen agencies is becoming more and more important to fund content. 

But we remain optimistic that our ability to broker co-financing initiatives between networks, streamers, producers and distributors will help overcome this funding crunch and enable greenlights for production. Our key scripted launch at London Screenings, Sunny Nights is a good example – with Stan as the commissioner and Echo Lake on board to provide additional funding.

The market seems to have acknowledged that distributors don’t have bottomless pockets and, therefore, we have to be more creative in our deal making. It is about understanding our buyers’ needs and working with them to offer solutions in what is a challenging environment for the whole industry. For example, we work closely with our partners to figure out how to fill a deficit by looking at a number of options – such as bringing in tax credits – and as a Canadian-owned company, we’re able to tap into the soft monies available in Canada for producers to help finance shows.

With the squeeze on budgets, there is a real opportunity right now to work with broadcasters’ acquisitions teams in key territories such as UK, US, Australia and Germany – as well as finished tape, they are pre-buying both non-scripted and drama as a more cost-effective way of securing content and in some cases having some editorial input. This ’acquimission’ model represents an opportunity for distributors and producer partners who have been frustrated by the commissioning slowdown of originals.

AVOD/FAST is a high-growth profitable line of business for Cineflix Rights that has enabled us to monetise our deeper library and key IP, delivering significant returns to our producers. Our leading FAST channel, the Real Disaster Channel, anchored by long-running factual hit Mayday: Air Disasters, is live on 10+ platforms in North America, and we’re also seeing success through single-IP FAST channels such as American Pickers and Property Brothers. In addition, we’ve supercharged our YouTube business next year, further demonstrating our strategy to reach the fans of shows wherever they consume content.

On the content side, we’ve significantly expanded our catalogue over the last year by bringing in big deals with production partners who are keen to work with a distributor combining scale and independence, which we’re uniquely placed to offer. Cineflix Rights is now the home for three of Channel 4’s most popular lifestyle franchises, as the exclusive worldwide distribution partner for A New Life in the Sun (True North) and Château DIY (Spark Media Partners) and Help! We Bought A Village (True North).

We’re also doing more deals to greenlight multiple hours of content from producers, building on our work with Go Button Media and Law&Crime Productions in North America and Rock Oyster Media in the UK.

On the format side of things, we’ve seen success with Tempting Fortune rolling out in multiple territories. With second seasons coming in the UK and other territories in 2025, we’re confident we’ll see it roll out in new territories over the coming year. We’ve also seen an Australian version of Château DIY and invested in new formats which we will launch later this year.

We partnered with Tubi on the next chapter of the Wynona Earp franchise and have been able to strike flexible deals to secure windows for both Tubi and other partners in key territories. The increased flexibility in terms of rights is now a reality with many streamers and linear networks who recognise that in order to secure must-have content at affordable licence fees, there needs to be a softening on exclusivity and/or licence periods.