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Speaker 1: Welcome to Daily Variety, your daily dose of news and

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Speaker 1: analysis for entertainment industry insiders. It's Tuesday, October fourteenth, twenty

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Speaker 1: twenty five. I'm your host, Cynthia Lyttleton. I am co

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Speaker 1: editor in chief of Variety alongside Ramin Setuda. I'm in

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Speaker 1: La He's in New York and Vrity has reporters around

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Speaker 1: the world covering the business of entertainment. In today's episode,

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Speaker 1: we'll talk to Leo Barakluff, Variety's International features director, about

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Speaker 1: his sit down with Mattel's Studio's president Robbie Brenner on

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Speaker 1: day two of MIPCOM, the International Content Market in can France.

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Speaker 1: Today's episode is entirely mipcom tastic. After we hear from Leo,

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Speaker 1: we'll have highlights from Variety's C Suite Conversation track. On Monday,

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Speaker 1: Fanaje CEO Marco Bissetti discussed how the French TV and

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Speaker 1: film production conglomerate that he leads has grown by adhering

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Speaker 1: to strong business fundamentals. He's more than happy to admit

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Speaker 1: that he'd much rather make money than win an oscar

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Speaker 1: or a golden lion at Venice. But before we get

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Speaker 1: to all that Here are a few headlines just in

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Speaker 1: this morning that you need to know. This is a

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Speaker 1: whole different kind of Pentagon papers. The nation's largest news

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Speaker 1: organizations are standing up to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and

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Speaker 1: his troubling efforts to clamp down on traditional news gathering.

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Speaker 1: The Department of Defense has been trying to force journalists

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Speaker 1: to agree to restrictions on reporting in order to maintain

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Speaker 1: their access to the Pentagon compound in Virginia. The joint

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Speaker 1: statement issued Tuesday morning by ABC News, CBS News, CNN,

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Speaker 1: Fox News, and NBC News says, in part, the policy

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Speaker 1: is without precedent and threatens core journalistic protections. We will

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Speaker 1: continue to cover the US military as each of our

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Speaker 1: organizations has done for many decades, upholding the principles of

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Speaker 1: a free and independent press. En Netflix is inc To

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Speaker 1: deal with Spotify to bring a batch of top original

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Speaker 1: podcasts to its platform. The trend of podcasts to TV

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Speaker 1: is unmistakable. Just take a look at ESPN's afternoon lineup.

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Speaker 1: One of the very buzzy topics at Mipcom this week

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Speaker 1: is microdramas, or vertical dramas as they're sometimes called. This

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Speaker 1: is content designed to be watched on the iPhone vertically.

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Speaker 1: Sag After has jumped on this trend and has unveiled

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Speaker 1: a new contract that it calls a Verticals Agreement for

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Speaker 1: projects with budgets under three hundred thousand dollars. This is

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Speaker 1: a space to watch. All of these stories and so

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Speaker 1: much more can be found on Variety dot com right now.

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Speaker 1: Now it's time for conversations with Variety journalists about news

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Speaker 1: and trends in show business. Here's Leo Baraklof talking about

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Speaker 1: his busy day two at MIPCOM on another beautiful day

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Speaker 1: here in the South of France. Leo Beerakluff, Variety's International

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Speaker 1: Features director, Thanks.

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Speaker 2: So much for joining me, my pleasure.

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Speaker 1: Well, you're in the Midcom press room, which is a

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Speaker 1: good place to be. How is your day too of mipcom.

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Speaker 2: So my main task this morning was interviewing Robbie Brenner,

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Speaker 2: the president of Mattel Studios, and we looked at the

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Speaker 2: full kind of range of projects that are being developed

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Speaker 2: or in production. And it's impressive because she comes out

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Speaker 2: of the independent film world and they have faith in

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Speaker 2: her to take their toys and make them into fantastic

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Speaker 2: stories and amazing films and tvc She does.

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Speaker 1: Have that infectious producer's enthusiasm. She was an independent producer,

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Speaker 1: a scrappy independent producer, pulling together financing for adult dramas,

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Speaker 1: nothing that was terribly family friendly. But she has always

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Speaker 1: credited Mattel's CEO Inon Cries as seeing that she had

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Speaker 1: the skills, even if nothing in her background said family entertainment.

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Speaker 1: He saw something in her, and she really credits that,

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Speaker 1: and she always says she's surprised herself that she took

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Speaker 1: this turn in her career. She obviously absolutely hit it

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Speaker 1: out of the park with Barbie. That's a well known

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Speaker 1: story now of Greta Gerwig coming in but two summers

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Speaker 1: ago now that Barbie lit up the box office, and

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Speaker 1: you can tell that, like all good producers, they recognize

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Speaker 1: that there is a bit of luck and magic and

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Speaker 1: all of that stuff to every big hit. So it

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Speaker 1: was interesting to see her reflect on that with a

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Speaker 1: little bit of distance from Barbie.

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Speaker 2: Yes, and she understands as well. Producers understand that you're

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Speaker 2: only as good as your last here. So there's a

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Speaker 2: lot riding on the next films, including Matchbox, which is

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Speaker 2: going to be an action thriller and Barney. There's a

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Speaker 2: whole range of films and series coming up.

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Speaker 1: It's definitely not cookie cutter, made for low end video

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Speaker 1: like the Barbie related content used to be.

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Speaker 2: She says she wants to choose projects that scare her

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Speaker 2: a little bit, that kind of push it to the

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Speaker 2: edge and surprise her.

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Speaker 1: From my vantage point, the body language was extremely confident,

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Speaker 1: a lot of excitement. What else did you in your

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Speaker 1: travels walking around seeing people? What was your sense of

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Speaker 1: the crowd on day two.

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Speaker 2: One thing that comes up time time again is that

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Speaker 2: the convergence that we've been speaking about for years, if

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Speaker 2: not decades, is actually real.

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Speaker 3: Now.

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Speaker 2: People like Banejet as well as the TV series are

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Speaker 2: now stepping up their activity in film, but they're also

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Speaker 2: investing in YouTube creators and that they're pushing further into

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Speaker 2: live events, so that diversification is going on everywhere that

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Speaker 2: you look. BBC, ITV, a Freemantle talk about it. I mean,

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Speaker 2: Freemantle have this show that was a great success in

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Speaker 2: the Netherlands on YouTube and they took it and the

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Speaker 2: creators on that show and they put it on a

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Speaker 2: mainstream streamer in the Netherlands and they didn't sanitize it.

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Speaker 2: It's quite edgy, and it's brought the audience over from

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Speaker 2: YouTube and that they think it's great, but it's a

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Speaker 2: little bit risque, but people have realized that they've got

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Speaker 2: to do it like that.

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Speaker 1: There's optimism among the Europeans that the European majors are

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Speaker 1: in better financial shape than a lot of their counterparts

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Speaker 1: in the US. And you can just sense that there

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Speaker 1: is a feeling of truly global opportunity and a sense

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Speaker 1: of going for it. And a lot of the Americans

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Speaker 1: that I talked to here are like, Wow, there's a

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Speaker 1: lot of optimism. There's a feeling that people are like

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Speaker 1: hoping to also tap into and you know, maybe bring

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Speaker 1: some of that back with them from can. I found

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Speaker 1: that interesting. Leah, you live and work in the UK.

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Speaker 1: What do you think the mood is?

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Speaker 2: No, you're You're right. They're very confident. You know, they've

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Speaker 2: grown to a size that they believe works. So there's

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Speaker 2: been a lot of consolidation, but it's working. It's delivering

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Speaker 2: and the quality of the shows is quite high, whether

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Speaker 2: it's scripted or unscripted, and so they're finding buyers worldwide

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Speaker 2: and they're making the ecosystem work for them. So you know,

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Speaker 2: there's been quite a few deals here, which is a

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Speaker 2: sign that business is good. And I think people think

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Speaker 2: that Europe is a good place to work and that

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Speaker 2: are quite happy to push their careers forward in Europe

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Speaker 2: rather than maybe in the past people decided to go

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Speaker 2: over to la I don't get that feeling anymore.

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Speaker 1: It's very interesting and it's again why you travel and

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Speaker 1: why you go to a place to really sense it. Also,

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Speaker 1: you know, again a big Asian footprint. Korea is the

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Speaker 1: country of showcase this year. I went to a content

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Speaker 1: showcase and boy was it rapid fire. It was just

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Speaker 1: one right after the other. Boom boom boom, the super

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Speaker 1: super concentrated sales pitch. It was really funny. It actually

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Speaker 1: made me think put a little shark tank in it

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Speaker 1: and this really could be a television show. But anyway, Leo,

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Speaker 1: thank you for being here and juggling panels and writing stories.

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Speaker 1: That's the way of a market.

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Speaker 2: I'm very happy to chat to you and look forward

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Speaker 2: for another day. Here.

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Speaker 1: Now we turn to some highlights from the conversation that

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Speaker 1: my colleague Elsa Keslassi and I had at MIPCOM on

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Speaker 1: Monday with Marco Bissetti, CEO of Banaje. Bassetti is this

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Speaker 1: year's recipient of the Variety Vanguard Award, which recognizes individuals

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Speaker 1: who have made significant contributions to the global television business.

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Speaker 1: Bassetti worked his way up to the CEO ranks after

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Speaker 1: starting at the bottom of the ladder as a producer

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Speaker 1: in his native Italy. Here he talks about the company's

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Speaker 1: big bet on buying Endemol Shine in October twenty nineteen.

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Speaker 1: It could have easily tanked the company. Instead, it positioned

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Speaker 1: Banajet for much growth.

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Speaker 3: It was the only way to survive in this market,

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Speaker 3: and we were a lot of concern because, as you remember,

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Speaker 3: the integration between andemon Shine and Core was not so successful,

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Speaker 3: so everybody was looking as how you could be successful.

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Speaker 3: There are a few reasons why we were successment. First

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Speaker 3: of all, because Stefan is coming from Mdemore like me.

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Speaker 3: I was in charge of Mdemore for a few years,

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Speaker 3: so I know quite well the company. But we strongly

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Speaker 3: believe that if you want to slive in this market,

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Speaker 3: you know, you should have a very strong footprint, you

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Speaker 3: should have a lot of strong ip in order, let's say,

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Speaker 3: not just to be very frank with you not to

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Speaker 3: be screwed by your kind and to have leverage it

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Speaker 3: means to retain IP. It means a so that you

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Speaker 3: are in control of your IP and you can exploit

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Speaker 3: it in a different way your AP not only in

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Speaker 3: the channel that you are to selling the IP. And

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Speaker 3: that was the decision, the rationale of this acquisition, by

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Speaker 3: the way, this time, but the Jay we don't We

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Speaker 3: did not have the footprint that we have now. We

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Speaker 3: don't have such a strong distribution that and the Mahas

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Speaker 3: at this time we don't have the scripted business and

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Speaker 3: we saw the descripted business we stream will start to growing.

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Speaker 3: So for us was a perfect match.

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Speaker 1: But speaking of your m and A strategy, do you

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Speaker 1: feel now that you achieved like the scale that she

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Speaker 1: wants or are you still looking for opportunities.

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Speaker 3: Let's elaborate a little bit. Yes, I think that we

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Speaker 3: have the scale in our business that we should have.

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Speaker 3: I don't think that geography is speaking. We need to

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Speaker 3: have the other territory. Maybe we need the same to

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Speaker 3: improve in some genera in charity that maybe we are

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Speaker 3: not so strong. It should be until twenty twenty two

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Speaker 3: or be too twenty three. We did a lot of

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Speaker 3: after random, a lot of small acquisition ergy. You know that,

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Speaker 3: let's say two to feed our machine and to have

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Speaker 3: everything we need so we can give to our client,

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Speaker 3: to a commissioner, what they're asking for today, just a

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Speaker 3: pure many market buying small company. I don't think that

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Speaker 3: is anymore there because there is a significant difference compare,

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Speaker 3: which is let's say the demand that you offer. Okay,

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Speaker 3: if you saw the multiple today where other company are

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Speaker 3: listed and the money that we could pay. By the way,

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Speaker 3: we never buy a company because we want to buy

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Speaker 3: a bida never, so we will never on this game.

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Speaker 3: We believe that this game was very dangerous. Today we

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Speaker 3: saw that we are positioned in the market like a

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Speaker 3: kind of natural consolidator. There are more and more talent

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Speaker 3: that they like to come to work with us, and

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Speaker 3: we split with them the value that we can create together.

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Speaker 3: That it makes much more sense. We saw every day

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Speaker 3: small company, but also medium company. They cannot survive anymore

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Speaker 3: on the market, so that's for us and it's a

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Speaker 3: real opportunity for increase our market share, but also to

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Speaker 3: create a new ap so instead of spending money with

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Speaker 3: their office, with their service and every day they could

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Speaker 3: spend their money in creativity. That's for us and OPITU

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Speaker 3: need not only for us, so for some of our

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Speaker 3: competitor and I never saw so many talent deals like

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Speaker 3: last year. Talent they would like to have a safe

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Speaker 3: home where they can keep their own independence and they

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Speaker 3: can also to work just not just for one or

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Speaker 3: T to streamer o client, but they have the capability

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Speaker 3: to work with all of them. That's something that is

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Speaker 3: coming more and more. And on the other side, I

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Speaker 3: should say that also the Globals team they feel comfortable

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Speaker 3: to work with the kind of natural consulator like us

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Speaker 3: because they could have much more opportunity, a big range

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Speaker 3: of opportunity for talent and geographic clicking, also to decentralize

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Speaker 3: some stuff hub on this kind of thing. So I

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Speaker 3: believe that this is an opportunity for international producers like

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Speaker 3: us and coming here.

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Speaker 1: As we close out today's episode, here a few things

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Speaker 1: we're watching for. It's hard to believe, but earning season

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Speaker 1: is upon us. Netflix kicks it off as usual with

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Speaker 1: its third quarter report on October twenty. First. Friday is

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Speaker 1: going to be busy at two film festivals over the

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Speaker 1: next two weeks. This week at the Middelburg Film Festival

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Speaker 1: in Virginia. We will honor Wicked director John M. Chew

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Speaker 1: with our Creative Collaborators Award the following week at the

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Speaker 1: Savannah Film Festival in Georgia. We'll unveil our ten artisans

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Speaker 1: to watch selections before we go. Congrats to Mark Hamill.

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Speaker 1: The Star Wars Legend will receive the Gregory Peck Award

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Speaker 1: at the San Diego Film Festival on October sixteenth. Thanks

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Speaker 1: for listening. This episode was written and reported by me

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Speaker 1: Cynthia Littleton, with contributions from Leo Baraclub Stick's Next Hick Picks.

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Speaker 1: Please leave us a review at the podcast platform of

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Speaker 1: your choice, and please tune in tomorrow for another episode

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Speaker 1: of Daily Variety. Add you