Paula Warwick, head of distribution at Avalon, on scripted expansion and evolving ’rights architecture’
As buyers descend on the UK capital for Showcase, London TV Screenings and Mip London this week, Broadcast International speaks to Avalon’s head of distribution Paula Warwick about the key trends and challenges facing the business.
What are your top three growth priorities for 2026?
Our key focus areas this year are:
1. Delivering our enviably strong slate of (unannounced) scripted comedies.
2. Growing our drama slate, both in-house and with our partners at It’s All Made Up Productions and Calamity Films.
3. Broadening our talent and platform partnerships across our slate of digital originations.
Streamers have struck some eye-catching deals directly with YouTube creators over the past year. What do you make of this trend and do you see it impacting your business?
We have worked very closely with YouTube for many years across our portfolio of channels, which include Last Week Tonight with John Oliver with over 10m subs and Taskmaster, which recently hit a billion views. This is a high growth area for Avalon and we’re excited about the opportunities ahead for our clients and brands.
Broadcaster-streamer IP pacts have also become popular across Europe, in particular the TF1/Netflix deal starting this summer. How will such arrangements affect your business; will we see a similar deal in the UK; and, what do they mean for the future of second windows?
These arrangements can be compelling and there will no doubt be more of them in the UK and across Europe - they’re a good way to grow audiences and make sure that great shows get the broad platforms that they deserve. However, the key issue is rights architecture: if second windows compress or disappear, the value that traditionally underpins long-tail monetisation and audience choice can be weakened. We feel strongly that the marketplace needs to work together to ensure fair commercial outcomes - if platforms share content without money exchanging hands, it might be valuable for IP promotion, but the talent and rights owners must be compensated.
If we gave you £2m to invest in a show of your choice with a view to getting the biggest returns within five years, what kind of show would it be?
We back creative talent and empower them to tell compelling stories. It’s what we’ve always done and it’s what we’re doing right now with Tall Tales & Murder. Co-created and written by Stuart Carolan with Chris Addison, who also directs, and produced by Avalon with Metropolitan, it’s darkly funny, ambitious and distinctive. A bit like Avalon. We’re very excited about it.
Tell us about your key title for LTVS and what makes it stand out?
We’re launching our brand new, darkly funny crime drama series, Tall Tales & Murder at London TV Screenings – a two-season commission for RTÉ and BBC in co-production with ZDF.
Based on the Dublin Trilogy novels by Caimh McDonnell and brought to screen by multi-IFTA-winner Stuart Carolan (Love/Hate, The Gentleman) and Emmy-winner Chris Addison (Veep, Breeders) – this is a completely distinctive take on crime as two unlikely misfits are pulled into a world of gangsters, stolen gold and mysterious treasure as they race across Ireland.
Starring Ella Lily Hyland, fresh from her breakout role in Black Doves, delivering a genuinely star-making performance, alongside Aidan Gillen (Game of Thrones) and Packy Lee (Peaky Blinders), this is a crime drama series unlike any other.
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