The executive spoke to ttvnews at Natpe Global about the successful deals they’ve signed recently and the titles they’re presenting for the international market.
*By Luis Cabrera, from Miami
Having signed multiple deals with major platforms and partners in the international market, Fifth Season has finished a very busy 2024, in which its titles reached new audiences around the world. Most recently, the company signed a deal with Hulu in the US across a raft of its premium scripted and unscripted titles which began rolling out on the service in December, including Roughcut TV’s critically acclaimed comedy series Big Boys and Academy Award-winning producers Lightbox’s docuseries Bad Host: Hunting the Couchsurfing Predator.
“I joined the company in 2023 and built a relationship with Hulu in that time and it just so happened that things aligned”, Travis Webb, SVP of Sales for the Americas at Fifth Season, explained to ttvnews at the current edition of Natpe Global in Miami. “They had budget and availability for several things that they liked, and we had several titles that were ripe and ready to go at the end of last year. It was the culmination of several different conversations that came together in one deal”, he added.
Now, Fifth Season is in Miami, ready to find further deals for its coveted and best-in-class titles. And when it comes to Latin America, it’s all about finding the right deals and partners.
“Latin America is a unique and dynamic market, but challenges do still exist,” Webb explained. “The good news is that we’re seeing growing interest from networks and platforms eager to bring fresh shows to their audiences. The key for us is finding partners who are excited to invest in first-run content and dubbing, which really helps us expand our reach. Shows that have done well on US broadcasters often resonate with Latin American pan-regional networks or regional platforms, opening up new avenues for success.”
He added, “Our library includes evergreens like Killing Eve, already dubbed in Spanish and Portuguese, and we’ve done fantastic business with it. Killing Eve is like the gift that keeps on giving—we keep presenting it in the market, and it continues to deliver.”
“The big question for us is always what we think the long-run prospects are. I think more and more buyers are open to windowing content, and the idea of something being exclusive for years as a first window isn’t necessarily mandatory. A lot of times we’re trying to figure out creative ways to have that first partner get the dubbing in place and exploiting that title later down the road. Whether is the partner taking it on, us taking on some of it, it’s always part of the negotiation”.
In addition to Killing Eve, the executive highlighted another genre that is gaining traction in the region. “We’ve got some fantastic US and Canadian police procedurals that have been sparking strong interest, such as the CBC’s newest ratings hit, Saint Pierre. We’ve had great conversations around these titles, especially the ones coming out of the US and Canada. It’s exciting to see this genre back in demand, and we’re optimistic because there’s a real appetite in Latin America for US shows with multiple seasons,” he concluded.
