Israel’s Rising Star of global content

When asked what he thinks is missing from the UK’s non-scripted market, Keshet International’s enthusiastic and fast-talking chief executive Alon Shtruzman doesn’t miss a beat: “Rising Star.”

The distributor/producer’s interactive shiny floor entertainment show was famously optioned by ITV four years ago after a fierce bidding war and then unceremoniously axed by the broadcaster before it went to air.

While many companies might have taken the fee (“the most expensive option fee for a show that was never made in history”, says Shtruzman proudly) and moved on, the fact that Keshet has such unwavering faith in its formats must be reassuring for the newer members of its fold.

These include the 13 indies operated by Greenbird, in which Keshet took a majority stake this March. While Keshet has found success in scripted formats with Homeland, False Flag and The A Word, the Greenbird investment gives the Israeli firm a stronger foothold in the UK’s factual and entertainment markets.

According to Shtruzman, who has flown over from Los Angeles to meet and greet his expanding UK team, the indie incubator founded by Jamie Munro and Stuart Mullin shares “the same entrepreneurial spirit and the same DNA” as Keshet.

“You see how Greenbird has grown in five years – then extrapolate that. It’s outstanding,” he says.

“When you buy one holding company, actually you buy an empire because they have the foundations to become one of the biggest players in the UK and beyond in unscripted.” And he isn’t ruling out further UK acquisitions either.

Recent M&A activity, which includes last year’s purchase of German format producer Tresor, is also motivated by a desire to expand Keshet’s production pipeline to feed its increasingly global footprint.

Keshet International – which, like Greenbird, was founded in 2012 – comprises many different distribution, production and co-production units operating out of multiple global locations, including Los Angeles, London and Mumbai.

As Shtruzman says: “With these 13 Greenbird companies, that’s a pretty nice chunk of IP we’re getting that we can monetise. Keshet needs IP to feed these global companies and Greenbird increases this pipeline significantly.”

According to Shtruzman, Keshet’s recently launched $55m (£41m) drama fund is another tool to make shows and fuel this IP pipeline, “especially now that the market is more open to independent funding”.

Initially looking to prioritise English-language projects with a broadcaster attached, its debut investment, announced in May, was Ecosse Films’ six-parter The Trial Of Christine Keeler for BBC1.

Hungry for content

There is also an appetite for more content to be fed back to the mothership, now that the broadcasting side of the business, Keshet 12, has its own 24/7 channel in Israel (it previously shared half the week’s airtime with its rival Reshet).

Greenbird’s companies all operate out of its Holborn offices. Details of how the indies will integrate with other units – including the firm’s local production company Keshet UK, based in Camden – are still being thrashed out.

However, Sammy Nourmand, Keshet’s managing director for the UK and Western Europe, expects the appeal of Greenbird to work both ways.

As well as using a roster of formats that includes Bad Habits, Holy Orders and Stupid Man, Smart Phone – to expand into other territories, Keshet has more vehicles through which to funnel formats into the UK.

“We’ve got such a vast catalogue that Keshet UK can’t represent all of it as a small independent company sitting in the UK,” Nourmand says.

“We now have a spread of companies that can take a look at our catalogue and decide if they want to run with anything.”

The former DCD Media boss predicts that in the next year to 18 months, the Greenbird collaboration will result in several Keshet formats being made by the UK companies.

Such an amalgamation of local and international production and distribution units feeding a global content conveyor belt might seem a tad impersonal, but Nourmand insists this is not the case. “We don’t see it as a huge faceless structure,” he says. “It’s always been grown and built as a family of companies.

Every part collaborates and works together. Every bit of Keshet we look at has to not just be a standalone company but also help and fit in with other parts of the group.”

As the company swells in size, though, it has become more important to bring in key hires to co-ordinate distribution, production and co-production activity.

To reinforce its commitment to non-scripted following the Greenbird purchase, Keshet recently hired third-party co-operations and distribution veteran Revital Basel, who joins from the Israel arm of rival international formats distributor Dori Media.

Reporting into chief operating officer and president of distribution Keren Shahar, Basel will oversee and facilitate the creative collaboration and flow of information between Keshet’s production hubs around the world.

Keshet UK is also expanding and has made some key appointments over the past couple of years. Following ITV’s cancellation of Rising Star, Shtruzman and Nourmand decided to retool the independent production company as one that develops and produces ideas for the local market, rather than acting as a co-producer on ideas deriving from Israel.

“Any company facing the local market has to be working for the local market – because as good as the content pipeline is, you can’t rely on four to six pieces of IP a year because half of them will be wrong for any territory,” Nourmand says.

He adds that the ratio of formats from Keshet’s catalogue against formats originated in the UK is currently about 60/40.

This led to the appointment of David Williams, prized away from BBC Entertainment North two years ago to head up Keshet UK’s unscripted output.

This move has already resulted in two successful commissions: Celebrity Showmance for ITV2 and the E4 pilot Walk Of Shame Shuttle.

Meanwhile, Spooks co-creator Howard Burch was hired in 2015 to executive produce The A Word (which was made through Endemol Shine indie Fifty Fathoms) for the BBC, and to head up Keshet UK’s scripted operations, with three drama projects expected to be announced by the end of the year.

After Keshet UK’s talent boost and the Greenbird investment, is Keshet now looking to relaunch Rising Star on the market?

“Yes, we’re looking at bringing it back to the UK,” Shtruzman says. He believes passionately that the format can be a hit on British primetime.

“No one else has managed to do live voting on primetime in a talent show. This format came along and said ‘no more cynical judges’. It’s complicated because you need to be able to get a response from every part of the country – and it has to be accurate. But we managed to grasp these complex technological challenges and have proven that it can work in more than 20 countries.”

ITV’s option on the show has expired and Shtruzman believes it may even increase Britain’s chances of winning Eurovision – this year’s winner, Netta Barzilai, was selected through Rising Star Israel.

“She looked and sounded like nothing you’ve ever seen,” he enthuses. “The UK needs this.”