Up until a few short years ago, French scripted dramas offered terrestrial viewers and international buyers the same steady promise: Be they criminal investigators or 17th-century dukes, rarely would a series’ cast skew too young.
“Under the traditional model, [public] broadcasters couldn’t take as many risks because they were targeting so many million viewers per night,” Lavigne says. Public broadcasters including For France TV’s distribution arm, this new slate of series has had an even more marked effect on the business front, with a number of YA-skewing series opening doors previously out of reach.
“These series were even more exposed internationally than in France,” says Schulte. “We were able to sell them to linear and pay TV broadcasters, which went beyond how they were positioned at home.