Distribution in Focus: Hat Trick’s Sarah Tong

With buyers flocking to London TV Screenings and Mip London this week, Broadcast International speaks to Sarah Tong, director of sales at Hat Trick International, about the importance of being nimble and embracing AVOD and FAST for growth.

It’s tough. There have been cuts in budgets (both acquisition and commissioning) worldwide which have seen broadcasters/platforms buying less and paying less. There has also been a lot of consolidation in terms of production companies, which means there are fewer opportunities for independent distributors to acquire and pick up new content.

Finding premium content to represent in an extremely competitive market whilst remaining realistic as to what revenue can be generated from worldwide sales, especially given the downturn in the US. 

For a company such as ours, which has a great reputation for representing quality content and a good customer service with our buyers, we can be quick and nimble and spot gaps in the market and the right homes for our content. There is also increasing interest in AVOD and FAST platforms and we’ve had a lot of success with some of our crime titles such as Killer Women with Piers Morgan and The Insider with Reggie Yates.

They’re buying less as well as wanting to pay less for more rights.

We’re looking to form new relationships with producers (both in the UK and abroad) that we’ve not worked with before. We’re also looking at increasing our revenue streams from AVOD and FAST for crime titles but also looking for more opportunities with our large lifestyle and comedy catalogue.

They’re extremely important, as all potential co-production partners are. Distribution advances, to fill gaps in production budgets, can only be met if there is a future revenue stream for international rights. And we cannot rely on the US filling those gaps as they previously might have.