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Unscripted ambition is rising – and so are budgets
Image: I, Sniper for Channel 4.
There has never been more opportunity for producers of non-scripted content, and outrageous ambition is suddenly an option, says Arrow Pictures co-founder John Smithson.
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e’re living through a booming global television drama market, fuelled by the insatiable demand of the streamers. Ambition, production value and star power are soaring, as are the budgets necessary to deliver at this level. And global audiences are lapping them up. What’s exciting for producers of non-scripted content is that boom time is coming to our world. Despite the challenges of working under Covid restrictions and going through seismic changes to our business as the balance of power shifts from
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linear to streaming, there has never been more opportunity for producers. Outrageous ambition is suddenly an option. The first signs are in the specialised world of natural history. Budgets were already high, due to the unique challenges of filming this genre. Now SVOD has become a super catalyst, pushing the creative bar higher and higher and swelling budgets to an unprecedented level.
