BBC drama boss says it is harder to find US co-production partners

BBC drama chief Lindsay Salt says the tough economy is making it harder to find US co-production partners and European companies are increasingly stepping in to fill the gap.

“I feel like this has already changed massively,” Salt said on Thursday during a panel discussion at the British television conference Content London. “That doesn’t mean we don’t still travel to the US for certain co-pros: HBO is on Michaela Coel’s show and Richard Gad’s new show and we’re doing the second season of ‘The Night Manager’ with Amazon, that is always still there, but obviously it’s a really difficult time at the moment. But that means we’re just changing. So we are simply open to new models. We’re open to talking to new people.”

Asked if this meant the BBC would look more towards Europe for co-productions, Salt replied: “Oh yes.”

“We need co-production at the BBC,” she added. “We can’t afford to fully fund shows.”

A recent example of a continental European partnership is the recent youth adaptation “A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder”, which was released earlier this year and was a co-production between BBC, Netflix and Germany’s ZDF. It was renewed for a second season.

“Sometimes we can sit here and just say, ‘Oh God, this is really difficult,’ and then just say, ‘Okay, how can we change things?’ Who else do we need to work with? There are a lot of brilliant people out there. “Let’s try different models and different approaches,” said Salt, explaining the changing market. “We have already had these conversations this year and I hope that things are starting to come together. Not to say it’s not a challenge, of course it’s a really challenging time for everyone, but we need to be a little rougher and say, “Okay, okay, let’s find some new rules, some new ways of working, and find Different models and make it easy.’”

“And I hope that producers feel that the BBC is there to support those conversations,” Salt admitted. “Because it’s a hard time for people, especially for indies.”

“So I think however we can make a show that doesn’t jeopardize the show creatively – because we promise the creatives and the producers to say, ‘You will be supported, empowered and encouraged.'” “In what you do “We have to stay true to what we do to take creative risks” – so it’s just a matter of finding partners who are excited about it so that we can then fully finance these shows and bring them to the screen now. Because the audience is still there and still wants to see something, we have to deliver.”

Asked whether the BBC continues to be led by creativity rather than budgets, Salt said: “I’m not going to lie, it’s difficult every day… And everyone feels the pressure, don’t they?”

“I’m not saying I’m not a realist, I’m not saying, ‘Oh, everyone should just do whatever they want and whatever budget they want, whatever, it’ll happen!’ … you always think, ‘Okay, how many big-budget shows can we have?'”

“It would be easy for me to say, ‘Oh yeah, I’ll commission all of this.’ “You go out and find all this money that there is less of,” Salt added. “But when you commission a few big-budget shows a year and then look at other budgets, it feels like it’s fair to do the right thing rather than saying, ‘Just go and stay up.’ Left on your own, figure it out and make sure you deliver to us. “So, yeah, all these conversations are happening all the time.”