Fifth Season’s Chris Rice: “Media Stocks Crash Creates Co-Production Opportunity”

deadline.com:

Fifth Season Co-CEO Chris Rice has said the pressure on media stocks is creating a by-product for globally-minded production companies: more co-production opportunities. “Public media stocks are down 40-ish% since the start of the year and that’s created some pressure,” he said. “We’ve all seen the pressure on media companies, but for us, we see that as much as an opportunity as a challenge.  “I don’t think we will see a collapse in shows being bought.

It’s strange to hear a Brit being optimistic but we feel unbelievably excited by what challenge can bring to the market and what that can mean for co-productions with networks who were before looking to fully own something.

We’re very purposely in lots of different segments because we’ve weathered a lot of these cycles before.” He said it was possible the number of shows in the $15M per hour region would reduce and be replaced by others in the $5M region, and that focus might switch from scripted to non-scripted. “If you didn’t have a looming recession and stock market problems, I’m not sure it would have led to collaboration,” he added.

His comments, made during a keynote interview at Content London, are a positive spin on a challenging time for media companies.