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In this episode I speak with André Renaud, Vice President of Global Format Sales for BBC Studios. André leads all commercial sales and strategic activities for formats globally, outside of owned and invested production companies. In his current role, he works closely with partners to licence and localise formats such as Dancing with the Stars, The Great Bake Off and Doctor Foster and leads a dedicated format sales team across BBC Studios offices around the world including London, Miami and Sao Paulo. Prior to these roles, André worked at ITV Studios for 12 years, managing content and format sales across various regions in EMEA as well as format production partnerships, bringing format brands like Come Dine with Me to Belgium and South Africa, and Hell’s Kitchen to Italy.
We begin our conversation to discuss the various brands André works on. André begins by telling me how only a small handful of shows have been around for a long time. One example is Dancing like the Stars, which has over 350 series that have been made around the world, with more and more territories being added such as Mongolia, the most recent addition to the pipeline. However, André reassures the business is not concentrated on one specific title, but instead focuses on partnering with new ideas from BBC Studios and from third parties that add on to these shows. “We localise these ideas, by directly licensing to broadcasters, to production partners to services, whilst also connecting them to our team of experienced international production consultants.”
André goes on to discuss the specific procedure to find new shows that might have a relevance for today’s day and age. He mentions how he and his team, research the specific trends happening in up-and-coming TV shows, but also stories and shows that are in their own BBC Catalogue that can continue to remain relevant. One example André mentions is how when COVID really began hitting production and TV schedules, broadcasters were especially interested in shows that could be safely made in a small-closed environment instead of large open live-events. At the same time, COVID really gave his team a chance to find things in the catalogue that could have a new moment or new resonance.
We then moved on to discuss growth and where and how André and his team are experiencing this growth. André mentions how he is lucky to see trends holistically as they go around the world. However, at the same time appetites vary by location and genre so it really depends. He goes back to his earlier example revolved around COVID and how the pandemic really shifted demand and programming for specific formats. This was especially tied to game shows, given their safe production, with shows such as the weakest link coming back in the US, UK, Netherlands, Greece and Russia. However, it also led to the format of the traditional game show to develop, with more and more games revolving around guessing game formats instead of having the knowledge to a specific topic or answer, one recent example is My House on BBC One. Moving on André also talks about how at home, we wanted shows that we could all watch together, such as Bake-off. New versions of Bake-off were being commissioned by Amazon and HBO Max in Spain and Mexico respectively. At the same time, André explains how also scripted shows have really started becoming more popular, one obvious example is The Office. However, André believes that as producers and writers were home during the pandemic, it was the right moment for people to start understanding the idea of being able to take a scripted format and localise it. In Korea alone, the BBC licensed Dr. Foster. At the end of the day, a show like Dr. Foster is about a husband that is having an adulterous affair with a mistress and the dynamics developed from the wife investigating the relationship. The core premise can easily travel between different territories, it is then the responsibility of the region that has commissioned the show to add the level of culture to make it relatable to the specific region it is being aired. In fact, the South Korean adaptation of Dr. Foster is the highest rated cable drama of all time. André attributes this success to a large extent to a story that feels universal. He mentions that The Office, at the end of the day is about a group of people in an office messing about and this can resonate to many different independent of culture.
André then moves on to talk about the “creative control” between specific regions and the producers of formatted shows. Presumably, whoever is involved in creating the original show, wants to also have a say in the form that it takes in a new version. André reassures that it’s the responsibility of his team and the BBC to learn from creators and understand the show they are trying to format elsewhere. André and his team spend a lot of time working with production companies who represent programmes. The intention is to get to the core of the story so that when it comes to working with potential buyers internationally these parties know exactly what they are buying. At the same time, it’s the responsibility of André and his team to be understanding of local customers and being culturally sensitive, such as understanding family dynamism in the Philippines to help localise a story better. André also believes it is the salespeople need to understand this aspect, so that when it comes to having conversations with potential buyers the salespeople can clearly outline what the show is and isn’t.
We moved on to discuss some of the BBC’s more recent involvement with larger streamers. André states that the expansion of SVOD services globally has led to larger opportunities for the BBC in selling formats. “Knowing that they’re launching in other markets around the world is the nice thing about working with these partners now, it gives us an opportunity to find voices for their stories, and to give them access to international markets who are different to their local audience.” This is where André sees an opportunity for selling formats. It has led for example to the rise of more local commissioning, more recently Sons of Soil on Amazon Prime in India, produced from BBC Studios. The rise of global services has presented more opportunities for looking at new IP for these large services as well and originating IP for them and their local audiences.
The next topic we discuss is how international content for a specific region travels. André believes audiences have become more comfortable in seeing global non-English shows from around the world. This has led to, for example, a tailored format for a specific region travelling well across other countries as other audiences become more engrained and interested in international cultures. What André finds very interesting is this also applies to content in the same language, which may have different cultural nuances which other international audiences are not familiar to. One example is the Great Australian Bakeoff which is now on Channel Four.
The last topic we discussed was regarding creating successful global formats. The key ideas André shares are whether the idea is unique, original, whether it can easily travel from country to country, whether it is adaptable to other international cultures, whether it is scalable and whether people would return to watch the program. Finally, André mentions an important element of feel good entertainment that has to be present in the idea and which hasn’t been explored before in other formats.
Here is breakdown of the topics discussed in this episode:
[1:55] BBC Studios formats business
[5:08] Process of finding a successful format
[7:14] Growth of Formats for BBC Studios
[15:39] Creative relationship between regions and producers of formatted shows
[18:48] Partnering with streamers
[22:32] How localised content and formats can travel globally
[25:58] Formula for a successful format
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