Amid an industrywide contraction after the end of Peak TV, a group of top industry players told content creators to go local with authentic voices before going global on streaming platforms during a Red Sea Film Festival panel on Saturday.
“Audiences are very smart. The most important thing is authenticity. Write what you know, not intending to make it global,” Tima Shomali, creator of Netflix’s AlRawabi School for Girls series, told a panel on global TV trends in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Global TV production has moved through its recent boom times as the industry starts to contract with other hit TV titles like Squid Game and Narcos. David Davoli, president of international at Anonymous Content, agreed making the most authentic content that travels is the recipe for success nowadays.
“There’s this tone that you have to go mainstream and down the middle. That’s the way to make sure, in this moment, you stay conservative and get your show sold in the most banal way,’ Davoli argued.
The discussion of what genres and TV content are working well after the end of the Peak TV boom went bust had the Red Sea fest panel speaking against the background of global streamers like Amazon and Netflix increasingly looking to local content to drive subscriber growth globally.
Nicholas Weinstock, president of Invention Studios, pointed to the irony of digging into local and especially emotional content that had the potential to resonate with international audiences as the best survival strategy in today’s global market.
“People are smart. When there’s corporate attempts to sort of get broad and reach everyone, it’s an allergy,” Weinstock argued. The discussion of what TV content is resonating with audiences globally also followed last year’s Hollywood actors and writers strikes and a slowdown in new TV production by the major studios and streamers.
Weinstock is working with local creators in Lebanon, Kenya and other international markets, knowing local TV can be cheaper to make in an era where Hollywood is looking to cut content budgets and major streaming platforms still need content to lure new customers.
“Not only can we get our shows made, but we can actually create models in the process that can take us into the future and in conservative times. That’s a real strength,” Weinstock argued. He added his presence at the Red Sea festival aimed in part to discover more Arabic language content to produce.
“That’s why I’m here. Emerging markets excite me the most. There’s such creativity here. If we can create a bridge to Hollywood just by partnering on things, that’s what I’m most excited about,” Weinstock said.
Ritesh Sidhwani, co-founder of Excel Entertainment in India, said content creators needed to believe 100 percent in their own creative voice to produce series that may well take time to find an audience and an acquiring streamer.
“In the last one or two years, I’ve heard streaming platforms give us feedback that, oh, it’s a slow burner in the second episode. Bullshit dude. There are enough instances of successful shows which are slow burners,” Sidhwani insisted.
Content creators were also told to leverage social media platforms like TikTok to redefine what the concept of mainstream TV is and could become. “It’s going to be a tsunami, the creator economy and TikTok. That’s what nobody is looking at, or not strongly, Anonymous Content’s Davoli argued.
