Andrea Scrosati, who is group COO and continental Europe CEO of Fremantle, isn’t too worried about various types of turbulence that are currently creating anxiety in the U.S. media market such as draconian cost cuts being made by juggernaut groups and the impending prospect of a Writers Guild of America strike.
Speaking in Italy at a film and TV conference organized by the IDM-Film Commission Südtirol titled “Less is More – What to Do When the Streaming Boom is Over” Scrosati noted that the effect of market consolidation in the U.S. and fear due to plunging stock market results that is prompting cost cuts at Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery certainly means that “some of the big buyers are in a conflict.”
Which, in turn, “makes it more complicated sometimes to have discussions.”
But, he said, “The amount of content that is required by consumers across the world is not going to change. These big companies are still looking for content, for great international content,” Scrosati went on to add.
As for the possibility that the Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Pictures may not reach an agreement by May, leading to the first writers’ strike in Hollywood since 2007-08, Scrosati pointed out that he sees that prospect as bolstering his firm belief that “In challenging times there are opportunities.”
“Frankly, if the WGA enters a strike, it’s going to be a big issue for the U.S. scripted business; but it’s going to be a huge opportunity for the European business, especially producing international high-level shows, because the U.S. market tends to look for those quite a lot,” Scrosati said.
He also noted that over the past decade “Europe started producing content that travelled across the world, and was incredibly successful in the U.S.” As examples he cited 2015 show “Deutschland 83” directed by recent Oscar-winner Edward Berger (“AllQuieton theWestern Front”) and by Samira Radsi, and also “My Brilliant Friend” and Paolo Sorrentino’s “The Young Pope.”
“That product became successful in the U.S., proving that the paradigm where there was only one direction across the ocean – from the U.S. to Europe – actually was wrong,” he said.
The super indie owned by German giant RTL has a business model that involves a cluster of companies mostly across Europe that they either fully own or are majority investors in.
Following a buying spree over the past 18 months Fremantle’s constellation of shingles now includes: U.K. production company Dancing Ledge (“The Responder”); scripted Italian production companies Wildside (“The Eight Mountains”);The Apartment (“Bones and All”); and Lux Vide (“Devils,” “Leonardo”);Los Angeles-based international development and production company Fabel (“Bosch”); Australian-American television production company Eureka Productions (“Finding Magic Mike”) and 12 production labels in Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark from Nordic Entertainment Group (This is Nice Group); plus Irish production company Element Pictures (“Normal People,” “The Favourite”); 72 Films (“All or Nothing: Arsenal”) and Silvio Productions (“Shadow of Truth”).
