In this week’s episode of The Screen Podcast, our team is at the Series Mania festival, where leading execs from the European TV drama sector have descended on Lille this week.
Watch above or listen below.
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Screen’s Europe editor Tim Dams and French correspondent Rebecca Leffler join host Wendy Mitchell to discuss the challenges faced by European drama producers in the post-‘peak TV’ era and why co-producing is now key.
“It’s tough to make series at the moment,” says Dams. “It costs a lot, so [Series Mania] is designed to make it easier to co-produce across the patchwork of territories… this is at a time when co-producing has risen up the agenda and has become so important. The budgets are so high and broadcasters themselves can’t afford to fund these series. You have to partner up to reach these large budgets.”
Another theme of the festival is the continued consolidation amongst Europe’s big players. Leffler says: “You have all these European powerhouses like Federation and Mediawan, the ecosystem needs them and they are making prestige TV with bigger budgets that can travel. But what a lot of the industry worries about is where does independent production fit in?”
The team also discusses how Europe is now luring Hollywood talent, and picks out some of the hottest new dramas at this year’s edition of Series Mania (which finishes on March 27).
The Screen Podcast is hosted by Wendy Mitchell and produced by Ellie Calnan. New episodes every other Thursday.
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