What Slow Horses' production schedule tells us and how online marketing resulted in a box office smash indie hit
Plus TV regulation in an online world; CoComelon & narrative series for Netflix.
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This week, I thought the following would be of relevance to all of us working in TV, film and online content:
Slow Horses’ production schedule hints at a return to shorter breaks between series
How Cineverse built an online horror fanbase, and this week has a smash hit at the box office
Calls for more modernised frameworks for regulation of TV and online content
CoComelon, YouTube & Netflix - and how the latter needs successful YouTube brands to have a story world that can sustain a series.
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Slow Horses production and release schedule
I’ve written previously about the growing sense of frustration with the lengthy gaps between series in the streaming age, in comparison to the traditional model where there has long been a more regular release schedule.
On this point, there was interesting nugget in this (spoiler alert) Variety interview with Hugo Weaving and Will Smith (who knew they were second cousins?):
To channel the spirit of page-turning genre fiction, “Slow Horses” is produced at a rapid clip. “I was doing the room for Series 5 as we were doing the prep and the start of the shoot of Series 4, and as the edits were coming in for Series 3,” Smith recounts, using the British term for TV seasons. This pace allows “Slow Horses” a regular release schedule at odds with the more relaxed rhythms of modern prestige television.
And just this week, series 6 of Slow Horses has been announced.
Vulture have done a long read called ‘Why Is My Fave TV Show Taking So Long?’ and
has a good summary of it in Always Be Watching. In a nutshell, the streaming model thus far hasn’t encouraged timeliness, and instead has been prioritising spectacle. It is suggested we will now see a phase where fiscal discipline combined with the audience desire for procedurals and sitcoms (please) is likely to see a return to shorter gaps between series.The Times (£) yesterday picked up on a Broadcast story (£) about this issue, where Katherine Pope, head of Sony Pictures Television called the gaps between series ‘untenable’, said that the delay is caused by streamers waiting for data on performance before re-commissioning. She added ‘We can’t afford in such a saturated world to lose fans. It is hard enough to get them – God forbid we lose them.’
Separately but on a similar theme, recently Matt Stone, creator of South Park appeared at Bloomberg Live being interviewed by Lucas Shaw, and made a related observation - this time about the psychological impact on the viewer of the streaming age:
A last point about Slow Horses and Apple. This week, Apple TV announced it has put the first episode of series 1 of Slow Horses onto YouTube - presumably to entice audiences to take out a subscription to watch the rest on Apple TV+. This is not the first time a broadcaster has taken this approach, but it isn’t common for Apple and perhaps signifies a shift in how they market their shows.
Online platforms for superfans: how this indie horror film smashed it at the box office
Trade press and online commentators this week have been talking about the smash success of Cineverse’s indie clown horror film Terrifier 3, which has beaten Warner Bros. Joker: Folie a Deux at the box office. The movie had a production budget of $2m and has taking $25m in the first six days. In comparison, Joker: Folie a Deux is anticipated to make a loss of $200m.
The Outside Scoop (£) lists a range of reasons why this particular cult movie franchise did so well, especially in comparison to other bigger franchises.
However what I think has greater relevance to TV producers is the background to this story. According to The Industry, Cineverse got out of theatrical back in 2013, because although at the time they had a hit indie film, cinematic releases were not actually making them money.
Instead, the company “…pulled out of theatres and pivoted to building up this streaming network…”. This appears to involve acquiring two brands in 2021: horror news website Bloody Disgusting which has around 3.5m visits a month, and streamer ScreamBox. They then launched Bloody.fm which is a podcast network of ‘…chart-topping immersive audio dramas, true crime, paranormal, film discussion podcasts…’. They also have a Facebook following of 1m, 280k on Instagram, 350k on X, and 30k on TikTok, plus the Industry piece says they have their own ad sales tech team and technology to reach horror fans around the world.
As an aside, it is noticeable how personal the tone is when talking about this film with their audiences - there is a sense of shared ownership, and that the fans are pivotal in helping this small film win big at the box office.
Together this creates a significant marketing operation that means Cineverse has a direct relationship with a global audience of horror fans. Therefore the company is now in a better position to release theatrically, as CEO Chris McGurk says “…because of the marketing and home platform structure we have built up.”
This seems to follow an increasingly familiar pattern of producers/distributors/rights owners using online for marketing and direct relationship building with large often global niche audiences, which in turn can be used as a launchpad for a range of activities from traditional TV and film output to merchandising and events.
Regulation and compliance of the TV and streaming video market
Compliance in an online world is tricky and inconsistent for anyone at the coalface of publishing and creating content across multiple platforms. In the UK, there is a legal patchwork that ranges from strong and clear rules through to no regulation beyond the laws of the land, all depending on the platform: broadcasting, PSB video on demand services, streamers, social networks, app stores and games platforms. In addition, tech companies also create their own rules on what is or isn’t permissible on their platforms, which can be in conflict with the compliance rules of the country they are operating in.
With the Baby Reindeer case heading to court in 2025 (here is a useful legal summary, thanks to Prash Naik for sharing), combined with the various trials in the US for tech companies, it does appear compliance & regulation across the myriad of media outlets may be moving up the agenda.
Here in the UK, the Media Act of 2024 is in the process of bringing all mainstream video on demand services under Ofcom’s regulated content code - this is a useful summary of how VOD services will be treated under this new act.
Crucially, the act does not yet address other streaming or video-sharing platforms which fall out of its scope. So while it is possible that services like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV+ will be covered (as they are 'TV-like' services), it is not yet clear whether smaller VOD services will be included, or indeed if this will have any relevance to a platform like YouTube.
What’s next? Well Ofcom is designating what platforms will be covered by this Act between now and March 2025, so at some point in the next five months we’ll know which services are included and which aren’t.
Separately, in the last week this piece on TV Rev made the case from a US perspective for an overhaul of how TV and streaming video is regulated. It highlights the ‘regulatory imbalance’ of the American broadcast, cable and streaming video markets, and how outdated the current legislation is, considering the two key laws date from 1934 and 1992.
It is also interesting to see a US-focussed trade publication flagging the reality that digital platforms are global, which challenges how effective national regulations can be: “A new framework must consider international cooperation and harmonization to effectively govern transnational media corporations.”
As a quick summary (but do read the whole piece), it suggests a new framework with the following characteristics:
Consistent rules for all video delivery platforms
Tackle data privacy and transparency so audiences understand how algorithms make recommendations
Modernise public interest obligations and extend these requirements to streamers
Preserve local and diverse content
Tackle antitrust issues
Rules around content moderation and platform liability
Encourage flexibility so these frameworks don’t quickly become obsolete
Foster international cooperation to regulate global media companies across borders.
How mainstream support is for these (or any) remedies, or how much hunger there for a new framework is yet to be seen - and a lot will depend on who is seated in the White House.
The success of CoComelon, YouTube and Netflix
over at The Kids StreamerSphere has published an interesting piece on the YouTube and Netflix juggernaut that is the pre-school title CoComelon. It is well worth you time, even if you don’t work in kids, if for no other reason that many of the behaviours of the kids audience will become commonplace for family and then adult content as they age up.
Emily makes the point that a Netflix series offers validation that their IP’s story world can sustain a narrative-led series:
The biggest diversification swing would be CoComelon Lane, a true narrative-led series based on the IP, that would launch as a Netflix Original at the end of 2023. You don’t get more legitimate than that. Rightly or wrongly, the ultimate goal of digital creators commonly remains validation through traditional TV formats. For Moonbug in particular, being able to prove that they could expand the story world of the IP enough to fill a more traditional 20+ minute TV format was crucial.
If you look at another YouTube preschool success Little Baby Bum (acquired by CoComelon owner Moonbug in 2018), their USP was spotting quite early that parents wanted longer compilations rather than short videos which required an adult pressing play at the end of each video. LBB’s content of colourful animated nursery rhymes stitched together into hour+ long versions have been popular with exhausted parents, but don’t necessarily equate to a story world that could lend itself to a narrative series.
A final somewhat anecdotal observation is that CoComelon has a very specific and narrow age demographic, in the way Bluey does not. In other words, my eight and five year old would never dream of watching the former, but will both happily watch episode after episode of Bluey.
The piece covers a lot more ground, so I’d recommend reading it in full.
Other odds and sods
The Wrap: Australian Reality TV Is on the Rise: How Down Under Shows Are Winning Over U.S. Viewers (thanks to Steven Hindes of Further & Better)
Variety: Meta announces ‘Movie Gen’ - an AI tool that can create 16 second HD Videos based on a text prompt, coming to Instagram next year
Fast Company: The rise of DGAF brands, and how they are embracing absurdity as a way to grab eyeballs
The Hollywood Reporter: The Creator A-List: The 50 Most Influential Influencers
The Streaming Lab: Warner Bros. Discovery’s Expansion Plans in India - Quietly building a Success Story?
The Hollywood Reporter: Behind the Scenes of the Succession Battles Roiling Hollywood.
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I totally get that in the streaming era we all want more of what we love, but there's something to be said too about the 'less is more' approach taken by Denmark's state broadcaster (maker of Borgen, The Killing and The Bridge). Its rule was a drama should be told in three seasons (it broke it for Borgen, which went to four), keeping the narrative arc tight and maintaining quality - so every episode is a key chapter and not just a filler.
Thanks for the shout out!