Factual acquisition strategies evolve as partnerships take centre stage
Nat Geo and Channel 4 are ramping up the number of pre-buys and co-productions they strike to deal with increasing production costs and squeezed budgets.
Factual commissioners have been keen to talk up their financial flexibility this week at Sunny Side of the Doc in La Rochelle, with international partnerships being sought to fill budgets.
Rachel Bailey, senior acquisitions manager at C4, said the UK broadcaster was “increasingly doing more and more pre-buys across genres,” with a focus on shorter run series.
Ben Noot, director of global acquisitions for Nat Geo in EMEA and UK, added that the Disney-owned operator is doing “signifcantly more” coproductions.
Bailey added that C4’s pre-buys “tend to be shorter run series of around six episodes and singles”, which sit the alongside the big US studio deals that deliver genres such as true crime and reality.
“Those studio deals tend to be stripped and multiple series, so I spend more time on pre-buys, which take more time because you’re coming in at treatment time and you need those conversations with producers and other channels.”
Noot added that Nat Geo is looking for shows with a lighter feel to contrast the “dark scary place that our world is now”, with “entertainment-driven programming” in demand.
He pointed to CNN Films and Windfalls docuseries Chernobyl: Inside the Meltdown as an example of a show that worked because while it dealt with the “horrific event, we also also saw the pepole who became heroes, and that side is really connecting with audiences.”
Jo Lapping, head of factual acquisitions at the BBC, added that she is looking for “deep-dive, focused storytelling” that doesn’t replicate what’s being commissioned elsewhere across the broadcaster.
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