Newen Connect Boss Rodolphe Buet Says Company Plays a More ‘Central Role’ in Content Financing Within ‘Conservative’ TV Market
variety.comElsa Keslassy International Correspondent Unveiling a raft of international shows at Mipcom, Newen Connect‘s managing director Rodolphe Buet said the distribution arm of the TF1-owned company is seeing its business model go through “drastic changes” as it now plays a more central role in financing content.
In the next two years, Buet said roughly 70% of Newen Connect’s revenues will stem from content it pre-finances and/or co-produces, rather than licensing deals. “We use to be gap deficit-ers, bringing minimum guarantees against rights for international.
We’re now at the center of the equation, co-producing or co-financing to speed up the process of production,” said Buet, citing collaborations with in-house and third-party producers, alongside ongoing partnerships with TF1, Sweden’s TV4 and CMore, Germany’s ZDF and Amazon, among others.
Buet says partners have become “extremely conservative” in recent years and are on the lookout for existing IPs to limit risk.
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