About Premium Content (APC) is relatively new on the market. Can you present your company?
Laurent Boissel: APC was created in April 2014 by Emmanuelle Guilbart and I. Emmanuelle has 25 year experience in the broadcasting industry in France and she has held senior positions for major groups including Canal Plus, Lagardère and France Televisions. Her last job was Managing Director, in charge of Programmes for the French public service group. My background is more in the financing sector. I have been CFO for more than 20 years for various media groups and I was CFOO for Zodiak Media before going solo with Emmanuelle.
At our company, we have a small team of seven people. Basically, we are a financing, sales and distribution boutique outlet, specialized in premium TV content with an international potential, from scripted, non-scripted, to family and animation.
What makes you stand out on the market?
LB: Unlike major groups such as Zodiak Media, FreemantleMedia that have libraries of 10,000 + hours of programmes, we cherry pick our titles (for the moment we have 12 titles in our line up) and provide tailor-made solutions. We collaborate with independent producers, who are sensitive to the fact that we are a small boutique company with a solid pedigree and financial backing from our majority shareholders Nevision in the UK. We put a lot of passion into what we do.
Do you provide distribution MGs and come on board early in the projects?
LB: Our core business is international distribution. We do take risks by coming on board early at script stage. We then put a distribution advance on the table against worldwide rights. This type of classic worldwide distribution deal is for instance what we signed with Tordenfilm in Norway on the thriller series Valkyrien, produced for NRK.
The second aspect of our involvement is what we call ‘financing search’ where we advise producers upstream on everything. We have the right connections with European broadcasters (commissioners and buyers) to secure production co-financing. We then negotiate worldwide distribution on those projects.
The third aspect is what we call at APC a’ co-pro distribution’ deal, which means that we invest when there are bigger financing gaps (15-20%) than within the framework of a simple distribution deal. On top of distribution rights, we would also have a share of equity in the show. For the producer, the interesting thing is that it’s a financing co-production which means less complexity on a creative standpoint.
What relationships do you have with Nordic producers and what attracts you to the region?
LB: Besides Tordenfilm from Norway, we represent the Danish company Cosmo Film with the Christmas calendar series The Wish/Juleønsket [premiere December 1 on TV2]. It’s a warm and modern show for the entire family created by an experienced team, writer Ina Bruhn (Dicte) and director Carsten Myllerup (Oskar & Josefine).
The Nordic region is attractive to us for various reasons. First of all Denmark and Sweden were ahead of the game in terms of local quality TV drama of international potential. Until 10 years ago it was all about UK and US shows. Then came The Killing, The Bridge, Borgen, Lilyhammer etc. Scandinavia has paved the way for other EU countries, such as France which is finally picking up.
Also, we really like the way people do business in Scandinavia. They are transparent and straight forward.
Are you looking for specific genres in the Nordic region and from your French/European perspective, are you confident that the demand on the market will be sustained for Nordic noir?
LB: We are constantly talking to 13-15 companies in the Nordic region and are looking specifically at a dozen projects right now.
Nordic noir continues to thrive and as long as producers are able to come up with new concepts, the demand will follow. When you look at the original Wallander series, it’s totally different from what’s on the market today. The change has been dramatic in a short period of time. I’m not saying that there won’t be other Wallanders, but the Nordic region has been able to innovate and as long as innovation is there, buyers’ appetite will not wane.