Self-funding shows: If you build it, will they come?

As I work my way through the third series of Disney’s The Bear, watching Jeremy Allen White’s tortured Carmy agonise over finding the perfect recipes with which to launch his restaurant, it struck me how much I identified with the stress, the risk-taking and the massive highs and lows around trying to find the perfect offering for new and returning customers.

Who would have thought running restaurants had so many parallels with TV?

In today’s evolving market, if content remains king, then cost is certainly prince regent. Every commission is now being scrutinised like never before, and if we want to keep creating and selling great shows and meeting demand, producers and distributors must increasingly step up to absorb more risk, back content that we believe in – and often go into production with an ever diminishing percentage of the budget in place, sometimes even without a commissioning broadcaster.

Self-funding conundrum

Blue Ant Studios is already some way down this fraught path – working with both in-house and third-party producers – and channelling our inner Kevin Costner in Field of Dreams, in the belief that “If we build it, they will come”.

However, we do not take the myriad challenges of self-funding lightly.

Understanding the risks in this house of cards, how you mitigate them and where they leave you if you make a wrong call, are fundamental considerations that require new ways of thinking and working.

In today’s evolving market, if content remains king, then cost is certainly prince regent

When it comes down to it, having guts, understanding the market and knowing where the downstream money is – or might be – for the right show, has now become enough to move a project to greenlight.

With Northwoods Survival, our new adventure series set in the Canadian wilderness, we secured early commitments from National Geographic for the US and, in Canada, Prime Video for SVoD (where the show launches this week as Hard North) and APTN for linear.

However, we were against the clock with the changing seasons and had to start filming with a sizeable funding gap or risk waiting a whole year to start production.

This was a significant risk, especially as we couldn’t expect to recoup the majority of our investment for at least 12 months after launching the completed show, by which time we would have to make a decision to start production on series two for the same reason of the immovable Canadian winter.

Twelve months later, with solid US ratings and other key partners on board we are moving towards having a returning series on our hands.

Targeting intel, trust & tax credits

Building on this model, we have recently greenlit two new long-running shows built for the international market, to be produced by our Studio, and partnered with a trusted third party on three others.

Our sales team provides the market intel, ensuring these shows have a ready customer base. Both being, and working with, trusted producers gives buyers reassurance – even if they’re not always paying what they once did – that they will have quality shows delivered on time and on budget.

The very nature of Blue Ant’s business helps us lean into this new world with an additional degree of comfort not afforded to all. Alongside our production and distribution expertise, we have a rapidly growing international channel network in the family, and when producing out of Canada, we can trigger various tax credits to help close the gap.

Despite all that we can do to mitigate risk, the essential return on investment is still very hard to call with new projects, especially in the current market.

While our aim is to recoup within 12-24 months, missing out on a key sale or a major territory can make it an “if” as much as a “when”, with sometimes a full first sales cycle of 3-5 years being required.

This model does also present several upsides however. With broadcasters acquiring as opposed to commissioning, they can be more amenable to taking fewer rights and being more flexible with windowing, giving us greater opportunities to maximise IP.

Producers, distributors and broadcasters have always been adept at evolving in response to the market. We all need to use our creativity, knowledge and contacts in new ways to survive and thrive. It’s been too easy to say no for some time now; it’s our job to make it easier to say yes.

• Ben Barrett is global head of content financing & partnerships at Blue Ant Studios