Disney EMEA bosses gave MIPCOM attendees a ‘window’ into their thinking over a new era of flexibility in the international TV market this morning.
Far from holding back all original content for its own platform, EMEA content chief Diego Londono said “we are open to different models” and are “more flexible in terms of the types of deals we do.”
He flagged two readymade examples: Swedish series Whiskey on the Rocks, which is co-produced with SVT and will launch on the local broadcaster in that nation first, and the upcoming French remake of Ghosts with commercial net TF1.
“Out of the gate there was a focus on ‘full commissions’ but as things have evolved we are definitely much more flexible,” said the exec who has overseen Disney+ in EMEA since its inception.
Paolo Agostinelli, Disney EMEA’s SVP, Affiliate and Content Distribution, said the streamer has entered a “different stage of the life cycle” and “now it’s about windowing.”
“If there is one approach we must follow it’s that we don’t want to be too dogmatic,” he went on to say. “We have strategic priorities and ideas and are open to dialogue.”
Disney+ can also acquire content locally, Londono added, which he said “increases our volume of local content and gives additional funding to free-to-air players at a difficult time.”
With the landscape shifting and “local for global” coming out of vogue, Londono said the originals strategy is very much based around “how to make the biggest impact in the local market.” “We don’t to adjust a story to make it more ‘travellable’,” he said. “But the good thing is there is more appetite for international content anyway nowadays.”
The Disney execs showcased trailers for UK originals Rivals and A Thousand Blows, which Londono said comprise two planks of the local originals strategy as one is based on a famous book and the other is an original from a top creative in Steven Knight. Londono said he hopes the latter can attract fans from Knight’s smash BBC series Peaky Blinders.
Londono was speaking at MIPCOM a day after Sony Pictures Entertainment’s Tony Vinciquerra and Warner Bros. TV’s Channing Dungey. Earlier this month, we revealed Liam Keelan, Disney’s SVP of Original Content, EMEA, was exiting after five years.
