How Major TV Distributors Came Together to Form the London Screenings
After the inaugural 2021 edition of the London Screenings was held in the virtual world due to the pandemic, the second — and mostly physical — round of the growing TV event kicks off this week, with hundreds of buyers from the U.S., Europe and Australia having descended upon the British capital (alongside many from the growing locally-based acquisitions teams of studios and streamers).
First set up by distributors as an informal way to capitalize on the well-established BBC Studios Showcase in Liverpool and the flood of TV execs it would bring to the U.K., five of the biggest distributors — All3Media International, Banijay Rights, eOne, Fremantle and ITV Studios — eventually decided that they were better off working together, in 2020 announcing that they were organizing under one main banner. What was five has since become 16, with more companies — including StudioCanal and Hat Trick International — joining the lineup for what is now four days of back-to-back screenings and events showcasing the very best TV that they each have to offer.
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Among those who were involved in initially setting up the London Screenings was Adrian Last, Chief Marketing Officer at ITV Studios (which this year is pitching its timely David Tennant drama Litvinenko, about Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko). Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter ahead of the event, Last discusses the decisions that led to the formation of the London Screenings, the key principles behind it, and where it plans to go from here.
What was behind the initial decision to formalize and create the London Screenings?
We had an informal kind of thing that was taking place every year. We were doing things in that week in February because of the BBC Showcase, which has always been such a successful event, is well established here and had buyers coming into town. So as the studios and distributors were looking to spend time with customers and to get them into our worlds, there was always an informal thing here anyway. But what happened about fix, six years ago was a realization amongst essentially the five that set this up, whereby we actually realized that that in that particular year, there were a number of events that were just clashing with each other. And we came together to have a chat about it, because actually it was in his really nobody’s interest for those sorts of events to clash. And we said, look, what can we do here which is going to be in the best interests of everybody. It wasn’t a good situation for customers whereby they were being forced to choose — do I go to a Banijay event or do I go to ITV Studios? So we came together and basically said, let’s try and coordinate this.
What were the first agreements made between yourselves and the other four distributors?
We have a couple of founding principles. Number one is that, where we can, we avoid clashing. And secondly it’s to try to hold our events in a tight geographical area, so that customers don’t have to, for example, go all the way over to west London and then to east London. So it’s all about making it easy for them. And it also made sense for us to sync up. We are competitors. But if we work together on certain things, it can actually be beneficial to everybody. So that’s where it started and off the back of that we started meeting on a fairly regular basis, just to talk about things going on in the industry. And in one of these meetings at the end of 2020 we basically said, look, why don’t we try to this more of a tangible thing? And what can we call it? And most people called it the London Screenings. So that’s where it came from.
The first London Screenings were obviously virtual due to the pandemic, but what benefits have you seen it bring already?
The benefits we’ve seen are really about actually giving the best experience for customers. Obviously it didn’t quite work in the way that we wanted it to for 2021 because we were still in a lockdown situation here, but even then we were still syncing up to make sure that we weren’t putting on virtual sessions and events when others were doing so. That is the key benefit. So there was a curated set of events for customers which is well-communicated, aligned and available to look at on websites. Really, the key benefit is a smooth customer experience.
Obviously we’re not fully out of the pandemic and some people can’t travel, so are the London Screenings going to be fully physical this year?
There are some that are happening in person, and some who were planning for them to happen in person, but have now moved to virtual. And then, in some situations, there’s a hybrid. At ITV Studios, we’ve got our in-person drama festival, which is on March 2 at the Odeon Luxe in Leicester Square. We’re expecting a good turnout, based on the numbers that we’re seeing at the moment. That’s going to be a three-hour show, where we’ve got various talents to come on stage, and the audience will get to watch the content. We will then do a virtual version of that, using the same content that’s being shown in a virtual kind of way. We’ve filmed some links with the presenter. We know that certain people can’t travel or don’t feel comfortable and it really is important to make sure nobody misses out. But if you do attend in person, we’ve got talent, plus producers and directors who will be joining us on stage for a bit of a deep dive.
In addition to the five companies that set up the London Screenings for their first official edition last year, you’ve had seven more distributors join this time. Is this a case of them reaching out to you or were they a part of the initial discussion but weren’t sure? How does it work? Is there a process for establishing which companies should be allowed to come under the London Screenings umbrella?
It’s interesting that the use of the word allowed, because I don’t think any of us really see it like that. It’s an open route where we encourage distributors and studios, who particularly have got a base in the UK, to join in. Some of people in that second announcement were part of the wider group, some joined later. We’re a small industry, so most people know each other, even at the smaller distributors. And actually there are a few others who are part of the wider group who decided not to run events this year, or are just sitting and watching what happens. The more partners that join this week, the more compelling it gets, and we’ve all got a joint interest in making the London Screenings the thing that buyers and customers really want to come to.
So there is room for expansion? Doesn’t adding more companies to the week not make scheduling more complicated?
It does become complicated and we know that buyers have a limited amount of time. We know from travelling around to different parts of the world that there’s there’s a finite time that you want to be somewhere. So that’s always going to be a factor. But I think we go back to the ethos, which is that we all have an interest in this and we all want to make it work for the customers that are coming into London. So as more companies join us, we’ll work together to find a way through it that makes it the best experience possible.
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