Crime, ‘Light-Toned’ Shows and Youth Programming: What Buyers Are Looking For at the London TV Screenings

variety.com:

London TV Screenings, one of the fastest growing TV markets in the world. But will buyers buy? Fielding a questionnaire from Variety, five acquisition execs from Europe outlined their interests.

Questions were answered by buyers at three of Europe’s principal public broadcasters, still a massive presence on the market: Sebastian Lückel, head of acquisition and co-production at ARD Degeto, the production-acquisition arm of Europe’s biggest public broadcaster, Germany’s ARD; Mignon Huisman, head of series acquisitions at NPO, the Dutch state TV service; Sven Van Lokeren, head of international fiction series acquisition at VRT, serving the Flemish community in neighboring Belgium.

Broadening the range of interests, further respondents took in José Antonio Salso, head of acquisitions and international sales, at the Atresmedia Group, one of Spain biggest commercial free-to-air players with a highly active SVOD service, Atresplayer Premium; and Filippa Wallestam, CCO of Viaplay, the fastest expanding of European SVOD services which, from a Nordic base, now buys for 11 European markets and has just launched in the U.S.

on Feb. 22. Some provisional conclusions: Super Indies Replace Studios as Open Market Purveyors U.K. distributors, led by the super indies, are still taking up the slack left by Hollywood studios as the majors retain more of their content for their own streaming services. “U.S.