RTE on the advantages of partnerships and co-productions

In this episode I speak with Dermot Horan, Director of Acquisitions and Co-Productions at RTE, and Vice President of EBU TV. Dermot Horan is Director of Acquisitions & Co-Productions at RTÉ, Ireland’s Public Service Broadcaster. In his acquisitions role he has secured for RTÉ the likes of The Handmaid’s Tale, Killing Eve, The People Vs O.J.Simpson, The Big Bang Theory, and Homeland. He is also responsible for international co-productions, and pre-buys including the likes of Normal People, The Fall, and Death and Nightingales. He has recently put together the deals on behalf of RTÉ for Smother with BBC Studios and Kin with Bron Studios. He has the role at RTÉ to invest in Irish feature films, including the likes of Oscar nominated Brooklyn with Saoirse Ronan, Rosie with Sarah Greene and The Guard with Brendan Gleeson and Don Cheadle. He co-ordinates RTÉ's partnerships with outside bodies and represents RTÉ in its dealings with the Screen Ireland (formerly the Irish Film Board), SPI (Screen Producers Ireland) and Animation Ireland. He is also a Vice President of the EBU TV Committee which commissions the Eurovision Song Contest and has its own co-production and development fund.

Dermot begins by describing his role in a bit more in detail. He refers to himself as “Mr. International” for RTE, given he is responsible for all kinds of international acquisitions, and in charge of co-productions. He mentions how co-productions have become an important part of his day-to-day job, given scripted content has only gone up in price and therefore led to RTE getting more and more involved with international partners. Dermot is also in charge of digitising the entire RTE archive, both in audio and video, making it available to independents as well as members of the public.

Focusing on co-productions, we reflect on how the nature of co-productions these days has led to more cooperation between studios across the world. Dermot outlines an initiative where heads of drama and producers from the EU have the chance to pitch their projects at an early stage to fellow European partners as potential pre-buys. Dermot describes how there has been an added emphasis between public broadcasters to partner together, through tax reliefs for example, when producing a show. He compares the advantage between working with public broadcasters compared to global streamers. When a co-production is made with a global streamer, that generally leads to the global player demanding global rights. This can lead to the situation were, outside of your market, your show becomes an Amazon or Netflix Original, for example. Making those partnerships with other public broadcasters instead, allows you to not only build relationships, but also to advertise your brand globally.

Dermot brings to light how a decade ago with a smaller amount of money, you could produce several small shows and productions. However, today to make your money go further the real strategy is to develop partnerships. Dermot believes RTE is in a unique position, especially because RTE commissions in the English language, and so it has English language dramas that would be attractive to international players, either as pre-sales to several territories or for a distribution company. A recent example is an Irish show called Smother, which is a co-production between BBC Studios and Treasure Entertainment. The show is currently in its third season, however, the BBC has managed to recoup its investments just from sales of Season 1. There was a bidding war for that show in the US and it has now gone to Peacock. This, Dermot believes, is a good case of a drama that is set in Ireland, shot in the English language with a recognisable cast and sold internationally.

We then move on to talk about Intellectual Property. Dermot admits RTE does not want to own IP, a comparatively different strategy to the global streamers. He believes that one of the ways to progress the local Irish sector is to allow the production companies to own their own IP. Dermot states this allows the production companies to grow instead of selling their entire catalogue to a company like Netflix. If RTE were to commission a show from an Irish company, RTE will get a number of rights, but once those rights expire, RTE can go back to the company and buy those rights again. This can lead to a cycle of investments that can develop new dramas for the company. Dermot says this is why people like working with broadcasters, there is no insistence on the IP being retained by the commissioner as well as allowing production within the region to be sustainable. Dermot explains how owning your own IP can also give you cushioning if for example another international city begins building production facilities and provides better tax relief than the region you operate in, thus putting you at risk of being left out.

Finally, we shift the conversation next to acquisitions and the ever more important role of global streamers in the industry. As our trend report discusses, more and more streamers are withholding content and stashing it within their own pipeline. For some local distributors that can be a problem because they might not be getting any new shows, and perhaps running out of old ones. I ask Dermot what he believes the impact could be for RTE. Dermot says RTE has begun pivoting its strategy. He mentions how 10-15 years RTE would have had a lot of American Network shows, such as Desperate Housewives and Lost, mostly because they were not very expensive. However, as competition between studios become more fearsome, studios, to differentiate themselves, began attracting more and more high-end theatrical talent. To do so, they began producing shorter shows, instead of 22-part series for example, all whilst increasing the production value of the show being developed. Suddenly there is less volume of content, Dermot explains, which as going to the studio’s own streaming services. Dermot explains that to pivot their strategy, RTE has been looking for content outside of the US and the UK. Recently RTE has gotten the rights from The Secret She Keeps from Australia, which has performed really well in primetime. Dermot believes buyers have to pivot strategy and look for content from all over the world.