It’s no secret that the unscripted television business has been struggling recently with numerous companies closing down and the number of projects bought is stagnant.
This is an issue that is also concerning Lionsgate, which is behind series such as Discovery’s Naked and Afraid.
CEO Jon Feltheimer, talking to analysts after its “disappointing” financial quarter, admitted that “our unscripted business is feeling the effects of a continuing market correction”.
“In the meantime, our television business is doing everything you would expect us to do: reducing costs; consolidating smaller labels to create greater efficiencies in our unscripted business; and continuing to evaluate the mix of business models on our scripted slate to mitigate risk and maximize our upside,” he added
The consolidation Feltheimer is referring to is the launch of Lionsgate Alternative Television at the start of the year, designed to bring eOne’s unscripted assets together with its own non-fiction division after closing its $375M deal.
Lionsgate Alternative Television, which is run by Craig Piligian, consists of Piligian-founded Pilgrim Media Group, which produces series such as Discovery’s Dirty Jobs, Naked and Afraid producer Renegade, Blackfin, which produced Netflix’s Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez, The Yorkshire Vet producer Daisybeck and eOne UK, which is behind MTV’s Ex On The Beach.
Feltheimer said that this market correction has also impacted the scripted landscape with “buyers continuing to order fewer shows and disrupting longstanding business models”.
In scripted, Lionsgate Television is behind series such as Ghosts, The Rookie, Acapulco, Mythic Quest, Raising Kanan and BMF as well as new titles including Spartacus, The Hunting Wives, the Twilight TV adaptation Midnight Sun, the John Wick TV adaptation John Wick: Under the High Table; and the show business comedy The Studio from Seth Rogen.
“It’s a deep slate of high-profile properties that creates significant growth opportunities for the future while adding tremendous value to our library,” he added.
Feltheimer said that it has sold 40 scripted projects to platforms since the start of the year and was “drawing upon our ability to create new business models”. “We expect the pendulum to begin to swing back to a ‘new normal’ as our platform partners grow their profitability and fine-tune their content strategies,” he added.
