London TV Screenings: What Buyers Really Want, According to France Télévisions, ZDF Studios, TV4 Media and Atresmedia
Content shoppers, kings of the game in today’s TV market are being rolled out the red carpet at this week’s fifth London TV Screenings and first MIP London, touted by organizers RX France as an add-on to the indie distributors’ curated viewing showcase in the U.K. capital.
As more than 900 buyers of scripted, non-scripted and formats are taking the Soho venues by storm, four heavyweight players have shared with Variety their buying wish list and strategies to woo and entertain viewers amid tense global geopolitics.
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Flagging the public service views are Eva Kamin, VP acquisitions and co-productions at Germany’s ZDF Studios and Manuel Alduy, France Télévisions’ head of international fiction and cinema. On the commercial side are Spain’s José Antonio Salso, head of acquisitions and international sales for Atresmedia and Sweden’s Cathrine Wiernik, director of programs and acquisitions for the Scandi group TV4 Media.
Some short takeaways:
London Calling Out Loud
Despite being squeezed between Berlin’s Series Market and Lille’s Series Mania, the curated London TV Screenings showcase is a must-attend for the European buyers, “even more appealing now that MipTV Cannes is no longer operating,” says Salso. Bets are still out on how the inaugural MIP London will play out.
Crime, Emotions, YA
In a flattened market defined by Ampere Analysis’s Guy Bisson as 75% peak TV, crime, which accounted for 25% of global scripted commissions in 2024, stays the No. 1 choice for buyers as “it continues to be a key audience driver,” says ZDF’s Eva Kamin. Other favorite program types are emotional and engaging human stories, across scripted and non-scripted, “preferably with timely appeal and some news edge,” Wiernick observes. Flagship international series with A-list cast are also essential for brand value and consumption across linear and streaming. France Télévisions is also looking for the best of the best in European young adult series. Within formats, Wiernick has an appetite for strong reality shows, key to attracting younger demographics and English or Nordic versions of the big brands such as “The Bachelor” and “Love Island.”
Foreign Picks Vital in Content Mix
Within scripted content, acquisitions are an essential part of the TV players’ programming mix as a cost-effective complement to local productions. “International series allow us to get more diversity in genres and stories, to target younger audiences and/or reduce our programming costs,” says Alduy who’s had to readjust his strategy as France Télévisions’ overall budget was axed by more than $135 million over 2024-25. “We are more focused on pre-buys and acquisitions in the short-term to deliver time-to-market series to our audiences, he says.
Stable Asking Prices
“Last year’s prices were particularly high in some areas, but have remained largely stable due to a favorable supply situation,” says Kamin. Wiernick concurs, although she feels it is “since the pandemic that price points have come down in general.”
Flexi-Rights Policy
At G?teborg’s recent TV Drama Vision, Morad Koufane, director of international/young adult drama at France Télévisions urged all industry players – producers, commissioners, distributors to practice their “yoga,” in other words to be as flexible as possible in windowing. Here his colleague Alduy says “we’ve become more flexible on windowing, licence periods and exclusivity,” although he insists on “one requirement: free VOD and linear exhibition.”
For all players, in a content market converging towards one dominating distribution channel – streaming – securing all digital rights – next to linear rights – is a challenge well worth fighting for at the negotiating tables.
Buyers Full Answers:
Eva Kamin-VP acquisitions and co-productions, ZDF Studios.
How important is the London TV Screenings market for you?
The London TV Screenings is a must-attend event that has established itself over the years as an invaluable early-year opportunity to get an overview of all the upcoming series and to network with numerous business partners from around the world.
What type of content are you looking for?
At ZDF Studios, we acquire a wide range of content on behalf of ZDF to meet the diverse needs of ZDF’s distribution channels. On the fiction side, crime dramas continue to be a key audience driver for ZDF. For ZDF neo, we are able to acquire different genres and formats that resonate with the ZDF audience, and of course we are all looking for the big international must-see high-end drama. On the factual side, we are particularly looking for historical content, one-offs for the main ZDF channel and series for the digital channels.
Has your acquisition budget been affected recently if so, how has this impacted the type and volume of content you buy?
We are currently navigating a very volatile market, which presents challenges for both co-productions and acquisitions. Price pressure has always been a factor, yet we are seeing many interesting projects in the market that are accessible to us.
How do your acquisitions complement the commissions within your group?
ZDF’s objective is to complement their commissioned productions with acquisitions in both factual and fictional genres. This enables the ZDF Studios acquisitions team to secure a wide variety of programs for ZDF. In the area of fiction, this primarily includes international projects with diverse locations and casts.
What are your priorities when negotiating rights? Do you feel asking prices for series have shifted in the last year?
Our primary goal is to establish a comprehensive rights framework that ensures early availability through all ZDF distribution channels while maintaining exclusivity. Last year’s prices were particularly high in some areas, but have remained largely stable due to a favorable supply situation.
How have you adapted your acquisition strategy to today’s shifting global market?
We all recognize that online availability is critical to reaching audiences. Accordingly, we prioritize negotiating comprehensive rights for these distribution channels and are committed to not accepting any restrictions in this regard.
Manuel Alduy, head of cinema and international development, France Télévisions
How important is the London TV Screenings market for you and are you embracing the opening of MIP London?
London TV Screenings are an important milestone of the year, because France Télévisions prioritizes European series acquisitions over US shows. A month before Series Mania, we go to London with great expectations to update UK broadcasters’ strategies and discover new series. As far as MIP London is concerned, it’s too soon to know and comment.
What type of content are you looking for?
Our team will look for high-end & high concept miniseries, a limited number of returning crime series, and some young adult outstanding stories. In that particular field, we want to select the best of European YA series.
Has your acquisition budget been affected recently, if so, how has it impacted the type -and volume-of content you buy?
Our budget is more constrained. We reduced the volume of licensed series in favour of French series re-runs in non-strategic slots.
How do your acquisitions complement the commissions within your group?
International series allow us to get more diversity in genres and stories, target younger audiences and/or reduce our programming costs. First, we’re committed to continuing our international co-productions because they provide some “French touch” in locations, cast and/or storylines. Three examples in 2024: we’ve finished “Kabul” (2425 Films and Cineteve), “The Kollective” (Submarine) and “Monte Cristo” (Palomar, DEMD) with our European Alliance partners ZDF and RAI.
But co-productions have become complex to finance. We still have 15 developments in the pipeline, so we are now more focused on pre-buys and acquisitions in the short-term to deliver time-to-market series to our audiences.
What are your priorities when negotiating rights? Do you feel asking prices for series have shifted in the last year?
The market is ‘flooded’ with great series: independent distributors, studios, producers and even streamers are offering acquisition or pre-buy opportunities of great quality. So we can be very selective and not pursue a negotiation when the mix of rights and fees doesn’t make sense for us.
How have you adapted your acquisition strategy to today’s shifting global market?
We’ve become more flexible on windowing, license periods, and exclusivity. In a nutshell, we try to be pragmatic and adjust constantly to an ever-changing market. But we insist on one requirement: free VOD and linear exhibitions. That’s what our audience needs. The shift to non-linear is so blatant and massive: more and more prime-time series now grab high volumes of non-linear viewership. We don’t license any series when preview, replay and AVOD rights are not significant.
Cathrine Wiernik, director of programs and acquisitions, TV4 Media
How important is the London TV Screenings for you and are you embracing the widening of the market to MIP London?
London TV Screenings are very important to us. These days, it’s one of the most valuable events apart from Mipcom in Cannes and L.A. Screenings. It not only gives us the opportunity to meet with everyone but also gives us a good overview of all the new shows for the year. It is nice to get the time to screen content and not only rush from meeting to meeting. We’ve signed up for MIP London and are excited to attend and to see how that pans out. It remains to be seen what impact it will have as it might be challenging to coexist with an already very established and jam-packed week of screenings.
What type of content are you looking for?
We are as always looking for shows (both formats and acquisitions) must-see top shelves titles, that have the potential to stick out and bring in a big broad audience.
With regards to acquisitions we look for English-speaking suspense drama/crime, a significant part of our content mix which also drives a lot of consumption in our service TV4 Play. We look for both serialized shows and procedurals and keep an extra eye out for shorter runs/event series. US procedurals are trending at the moment and even though we are keen to find the next big procedural hit (with returning potential) it is a big risky commitment as we are well aware of how challenging it is to launch a brand-new title. It requires a lot of work and promotional activity and even then, it might not end up delivering the audience.
Our appetite for non-English content is also growing. We recently launched our second Turkish soap “Daydreamer” after a huge success with “Golden Boy”. Soaps are a good example of high volume, bingeable content that drives consumption and keeps the viewers coming back daily. Another crucial part -and a competitive edge – of our acquisition mix is Nordic drama, especially Danish crime, but we are also seeing more and more exciting titles coming out from Norway. We are now looking forward to launching new seasons of “Nora Sand” (a stand-out hit for us last year), “White Sand,” “Sommerdahl Murders” and “Oxen”.
We are also always on the lookout for strong human-interest stories, documentaries with the potential to stick out and grab the attention of a broad audience. Preferably with timely appeal and some news edge. Successful examples being “My Wife the Abuser” from ITV and “Untold: Inside the Shein Machine”. Documentaries are also a great way for us to bring in the younger demos and help building that very valuable reach.
Has your acquisition budget been affected recently, if so, how is this impacting the type -and volume-of content you buy?
No not recently.We are however always focused on being cost-effective and making sure we maintain a healthy sustainable balance with regards to our investments. We will of course go the extra mile for that must-have title but in general, we will not overpay or get into big bidding wars that tend to escalate price points beyond reason.
How do your acquisitions complement the commissions within your group?
As we are a big national broadcaster, serving all of Sweden, it is important to provide a broad content palette, something for everyone. As far as complementing our local commissions/formats we expand the universe by acquiring the international versions -mostly English-speaking and Nordic versions – of our big brands such as “The Bachelor,” “Love Island,” “Survivor,” “The Farm” etc, in order to keep fans staying in the service after the local version comes to an end. A good way to boost consumption all year round.
We are also always on the lookout for more strong reality shows as that’s part of the DNA of TV4 Play and key to attracting younger demographics.
As far as local shows-formats goes, we are always on the hunt for the next big stand-out hit that brings something new and fresh to the table. We want to find something that sticks out, and that is not yet another take on already existing formats. It requires a full package with a distinct universe, on top of a fresh premise and a clever game motor. Just like “Traitors” (a huge success for us) presented a new exciting world and a fresh strategy game play, we have high hopes for our launch of “The Fortune Hotel” this fall.
What are your priorities when negotiating rights? Do you feel asking prices for series have shifted in the last year?
There hasn’t been a big shift in the last year, but since the pandemic, price points have come down in general as the output is bigger and there is more content available. Rights are of course essential, and these days we require the full set of rights for all our titles (AVOD/SVOD/HVOD) as content parity between the tiers in the service is key.
How have you adapted your acquisition strategy to today’s shifting global market?
Exclusivity is not as crucial anymore (depending on the title) but rather finding creative solutions on how to window shows. We are open to all models and have had great success with second windows with shows such as “Yellowstone”. The value of the window is of course defined by what platform the content has been on first. Another good example of today’s whole new type of [windowing] dynamic is the series “From”that benefits from earlier seasons being offered on other platforms as it increases reach and consumption for the new season published on TV4 Play.
We are also currently in discussions around potential partnerships and co-production opportunities with our competitors, which would have been impossible just a few years ago. This shows how quickly the market is evolving, and how crucial it is to be agile and get onboard. We have also seen a big upswing in consumption of strong library titles and have had great success with both “The Fj?llbacka Murders” and “Worlds Apart,” a TV4 soap which has delivered fantastic numbers, even in younger demos. This is of course something we are keen to explore more.
José Antonio Salso, head of acquisitions and sales Atresmedia, Spain
How important is the London TV Screenings for you and are you embracing the widening of the market to Mip London?
London TV Screenings have become a key market in the global audiovisual landscape providing international buyers with an opportunity to take a deep view into the new upcoming titles in the UK and beyond. This year is even more appealing as MIPTV Cannes is no longer operating.
What type of content will you be looking for at London TV Screenings?
In Atresmedia TV we are always looking for universal stories for a broad audience but having the ability to embrace with our local audience. We are particularly interested in dramas that evoke strong emotions, featuring all the compelling elements that captivate viewers—romance, betrayal, friendship and love.
Has your acquisition budget been affected recently if so, how is this impacting the type -and volume-of content you buy?
N/R
How do your acquisitions complement the commissions within your group?
Commissions in Atresmedia are key for our leadership in free TV in Spain with daily series such as “Dreams of Freedom,” being the most watched drama series in Spain Monday to Friday and prime time series such as “Eva & Nicole” or “What are you waiting for?” that have been top series in Atresplayer for the past months. In addition to such astonishing local series lineup, acquisitions are a good complement for our audience delivering high quality international top content.
What are your priorities when negotiating rights? Do you feel asking prices for series have shifted in the last year?
Our priorities in our acquisition strategy is to acquire a combination of digital rights for Atresplayer together with lineal rights for our channels, which is not an easy task due to international and local competitors.
How have you adapted your acquisition strategy to today’s shifting global market?
We continuously adapt both our acquisition and sales strategies to meet market demands and align with the evolving global market. As a result, Atresmedia has become the leading media group in Spain for the third consecutive year, and we are very optimistic about the future.
Additionally, the appetite for Spanish content, especially from Atresmedia, remains high, and international audiences continue to embrace our productions.
Elsa Keslassy contributed to this report.
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