Procedural TV show: the need of a balanced content offer

Hit procedural TV shows like CSI seems to be part of the past for the TV market, where the competition for shorter and mobile content is setting the tone of the new productions and the series tend to be darker and noisy to satisfy the need of branding created by the explosion of the number of channels in the Pay TV segment.

US networks were the traditional suppliers for this kind of shows, but those productions are now rare. During The Dawn of International procedural at NAPTE Miami, a panel of industry experts from the US and Europe discussed about the possibility that international producers, from Europe or other nations, will be taking over the creation of the procedurals, that are still needed and asked for in the global market.

Jens Ritcher, CEO of FremantleMedia International; Rola Bauer, head of production and co-production business in US for Studiocanal TV; Phillipe Maigert, president of ITV Studios America, and Erick Pack, president, International Distribution, Gaumont, took part of the panel.

Ritcher believes that there is a ‘disconnection’ between the needs of the market and the offers that are made, especially for the European market (except in the UK, that behaves more like the US), where hit shows like Breaking Bad or Empire didn’t hit big audience numbers. ‘These markets still have a great demand for procedural, but are not getting it’, he standed.

From the producer point of view, Maigert agrees that procedurals ‘are still on demand in Europe, but not in the US market: ‘We only co-finance and produce if we see the potential for US market, and making a franchise of it, but I still get requests and pressure to produce procedural to increase the revenue of channels in Europe, and I tried, but the US networks are demanding less and less procedural’.

Some of the main characteristics of the procedurals that make them still a good buy for TV channels ‘are the fact that they can be re-run and are easy to schedule’, according to Pack, but at the same time ‘procedural is not sexy, not cool of hip with films talent’.

That’s why Bauer said that nowadays for a procedural to be successful, and work in any market, the principal ingredient is a good history: ‘We don’t need to break the mold, just beginning with a history and build from that’. Since getting the big stars is also challenging, she commented that as a company, Studiocanal TV has been supporting its production with talent from the theatrical world and is working good for some of their new shows.

Another element that is important in the equation is the fact that those programming slot left vacant by the procedural shows need to be filled. All the participants in the panel agreed that TV channels ‘are turning into more local production, and they also believe that in three years the window of opportunities for the procedural may be closed’.

Nevertheless these experts don’t think the procedural is dead, is a matter of cycles they say. ‘Even the cool cable guys and SVOD platforms may be interest in procedural because they need to cover real state. The new procedural need to have the case of the week, the character building and a renewed way to develop the script’. considered Ritcher.

‘There is a business to be fulfill: there is technology to make procedural bigger and more attractive of what is today, we need to focus in technology and new forms of storytelling for the procedural’, said Maigret.

Consulted about the possibility of those new procedurals will be coming from the international market and not from the US, like it has been traditionally, Bauer firmly believe that in a time frame of 24 moths the answer is yes, but some of her colleges think that other conditions needs to be met: ‘Only that is reinvented could be and international procedural, something that build and audience and with the US components’, said Maigert. Pack concludes: ‘The procedural still works very well in the US, the networks still run them, because they get and audience’.

By Emira Sanabria, Prensario Correspondent in Miami

Download the full report at MIPTV 2016 issue, here