Highlights Case Study: Lionsgate TV’s Unexpected Success Story Amid Challenging 2022 Broadcast Renewal Negotiations

Since the loss of mainstream indie Kars-Werner, no studio has focused on releasing comedy series. Surprisingly, another indie, Lionsgate Television, turned out to be a CW mantle train. In a tough economic environment, Lionsgate managed to go 3 to 3 with its current broadcast series CBS. ghostsA B C local economy and the fox Welcome to Flatch – All of these have been updated for the next season. They’re all one-camera comedies—a genre that is struggling financially in the face of an increasingly fragile model—and number three overlaps with much of Lionsgate’s previous work at Fox. wild run, A B C Neşvili and NBC Zoey’s extraordinary playlist.

Among the purchases are an impressive 16 updates for 15 shows, and no cancellations for the Lionsgate series across multiple platforms that were released in July 2021. The company’s television production division reported revenue of up to 75.7% before Lionsgate recently announced quarterly earnings. $370.2 million was $33.1 million, a profit of 263.7 percent from the prior quarter.

Cancellation/Renewal Report Card: Series ended or will continue for the 2021-22 season

Lionsgate TV’s broadcast slide makes headlines as one of television’s biggest half-hour hits. ghostsis the most-watched new comedy of the season and the second-most-watched comedy series overall. Its growing success during the show’s first year was so great that CBS showed it for the first time with a sophisticated musical number performed by the actor. He also helped Lionsgate secure a rich SVOD library deal for the show with Paramount+.

however ghosts It was a huge success, got an early update in February! local economy He was in a moderate bubble for a while Welcome to Flatch Healing the fence was difficult. In addition to finding buyers on both shows, NBC is piloting a multi-camera Lionsgate TV comedy from Mike O’Malley, starring John Krier and giving the studio a green comedy project on all four major broadcast networks.

The update came amid some of the toughest budget negotiations between publishers and studios we’ve seen, exacerbating the 20-25% additional costs associated with Covid, which is difficult to absorb as the release model is so stable. Conditions of what kind of income can be obtained. In the industry, which has grown in recent years with single-camera comedies among the genres in which profitable production efforts are most intense, the budget conflict for television series has surfaced.

So how does a studio like Lionsgate manage to produce a single comedy series for the current trio before the 2010 Fox show? run wild As Will Arnett and Carrie Russell become a force in the comedy genre with as many or more comedians as the biggest networked studios on the fall show? How the studio was able to achieve a 100% refresh rate in one of the most demanding environments, especially for third-party providers who have seen shows like Suddenly cancelled. big rope Y rotation?

Some were a good fuss for small businesses to make in order to get ahead and compete with larger competitors. No one is going to comment on this story, but I understand that it’s all up to them, the entire top management of the company, Lionsgate CEO John Feltheimer, Lionsgate TV President Kevin Baggs and Lionsgate TV President Sandra Stern are using their Relationship and it’s Jobs. phones. In the last days before the Fox acquisition, I heard about 10 calls a day at various levels where network administrators asked for updates.

For this Welcome to FlatchEntertainer Jenny Beaks has released new characters for season two, among other creative ideas. For this local economy, There was a sophisticated deck available to ABC. Also, for ghosts Y Welcome to Flatch, Based on UK formats with BBC Studios Lionsgate, BBC Studios’ Matt Ford also spoke to US networks to share the original series’ creative kit and roadmap for adaptation.

Beyond the hassle, besides agreeing to co-produce with the network’s internal studios and granting all the network rights to the season, which has become standard these days, there’s also a unique framework agreement that helps Lionsgate get your streams. Publishing the series and keeping it there, I get it. (Seasonal stacking allows networks to stream all episodes of the current season of the series only on streaming platforms.)

“All transactions with Lionsgate are done by hand,” said a source on the network. “They are resourceful, ultra-flexible and excellent partners.”

The basis for the studio’s recent attack on broadcast television is the company’s approach, based on the view that the broadcast network is no longer the center of the world for media companies that had broadcast platforms other than television a few years ago. And I understand cable networks in most cases.

With that in mind, and probably because Lionsgate doesn’t have a general entertainment streaming platform (it does have Starz and SVOD service), I understand that Lionsgate offers the flexibility of the streaming network platform for a fee. . This allows the network to put it on any linear or digital platform in the US without asking permission from the studio (or even licensing an outside streaming platform) when you buy the show from Lionsgate, I get it. This includes the SVOD library in the United States for a long time at a reasonable price, ensuring that the network parent does not have to offer SVOD rights to the open market.

I understand that Disney made such a deal with Lionsgate to play Topher Grace. local economyThis gives the company the US broadcast rights for a second-rate comedy in which the two companies split the unit. Two current seasons of the show are currently available on the Disney streamer Hulu.

I’ve heard that CBS has been offered a similar deal. ghosts And he refused, opting instead for a traditional broadcast licensing deal (season 1 rights were stacked on Paramount+). Something surprising – like ghosts An unprecedented comedy with a camera without big stars: it turned out to be a huge success. Looks like one is trying to avoid yellow stone-Paramount’s hit linear network series has been released exclusively on Paramount’s non-Paramount streaming platform (Peacock), the Breakdown-style, Paramount+, announced that it has acquired the SVOD rights. ghosts From what I understand from Lionsgate there was a competitive offer that resulted in a rich deal. These are the rights a Paramount publisher would have under the original deal offered, resulting in a significantly higher license fee, but the price difference would still be lower than the SVOD’s final market price. superior offer ghostsThe SVOD rights came after analyzing the streaming performance of season 1 of the series from the company’s season stack.

By the way, I understand that when it turns out that Fox holds the rights to Unified Cross-Platform Welcome to FlatchSince they could not fully monetize the series on the AVOD Tubi platform, I understand that Lionsgate was offered to return these rights to the studio to sell them as is. ghosts However, I understand that adding the original deal reduced the amount Fox paid for the show and helped renew the second season. Welcome to Flatch’Make modest linear estimates.

The moderate comedy value starring up-and-coming actors and Sean William Scott also helped. It is said to be one of the low budget comedies ($2-2.2 million per episode) to the regular budget ($2.5-3.5 million per episode). Another top-notch comedy from Fox, rotate, Warner Bros. his television had famous stars and a great price tag, as they say, in the range of episodes from $ 2.5 million to $ 3.5 million. Attempts to significantly reduce the budget have failed. Meanwhile, Fox is ordering the series for a WBTV budget sitcom. cindy snowIt is expected to cost $2.2 million per episode.

Although this year’s budget talks have been tough, I understand that there are no budget cuts in the current Lionsgate series. Negotiations focused on reducing the increase in the established budget that studios and chains have agreed upon.

Budget is an issue in the face of the complex economy of the TV business, ubiquitous, premium cables and streaming, even when it comes to a sister network like Lionsgate’s Starz. This makes Lionsgate TV a series of 16 updates back-to-back with programs like: legendary Quest, Updated for two seasons by Apple TV+ and Julia It’s even more impressive on HBO Max. (Full list can be found below.)

As for streaming, Lionsgate is also said to be open to drama series and has gone through several printing processes, despite accidentally becoming the center of comedy streaming.

Welcome to Flatch Season 2 (Fox) – ½ Hour Comedy (Pick 5/14/22)
local economy S3 (ABC) – ½ Hour Comedy (Reception 5/14/22)
Book of Power III: Cultivating Canaan S3 (Starz) – 1 hour drama (05/10/22)
Book of Power IV: Power S2 (Starz) – 1 hour drama (9/5/22)
Martha S2 (HBO Max) – ½ Hour Drum (Reception 5/5/22)
Julia S2 (HBO Max): 1 hour of drama (lasts 4/5/22)
haitown S3 (Starz): 1 hour of drama (receiving 01/31/22)
acapulco S2 (Apple) – ½ Hour of Drama (Intake 1/28/22)
ghosts T2 (CBS) – ½ Hour Comedy (Reception 1/25/22)
Book of Power II: Phantom S3 (Starz) – 1 Hour Drama (Pickup 12/7/21)
high heels S2 (Starz) – 1 Hour of Drama (Reception 11/03/21)
legendary quest S3 and S4 (Apple) ½ Watch Comedy (Pickup 10/21/21)
BMF S2 (Starz) – 1 Hour of Drama (Pickup 09/30/21)
blind spot S2 (Starz) – ½ Hour Comedy (24/09/21 Intake)
rule the world S2 (Starz) – ½ Hour Comedy (Pickup 8/23/21)
Book of Power III: Cultivating Canaan S2 (Starz) – 1 Hour of Drama (Reception 7/12/21)