Brianne Bonney: "The importance of delivering consistently high-quality content is the key"

Global Screen is looking to grow its catalog in 2024, led by its Head of TV Sales, Brianne Bonney, who took on the role in November 2023. Bonney talked exclusively with Señal News and highlighted the company's launches for MIPTV and its goals for 2024. "I'm extremely lucky that I walked into a position with an incredibly talented, experienced, and hardworking team, so despite 2023 being a challenging year for the TV industry, we achieved higher sales than expected," Bonney stated.

According to the executive, Global Screen is not just a distributor but also a content provider. She explained that the company focuses on the fact that its clients need the correct programming and formats to fit their needs rather than just selling titles to provide them with a premium catalog that meets these needs. To do so, Bonney highlighted the use of AI on a more frequent basis to help truly understand the client's requirements in a more detailed way and help create even more tailor-made recommendations. "What used to take up time doing endless research has been streamlined by utilizing new tools and making our clients' jobs easier, which ultimately leads to larger deals and higher sales," she added.

Regarding the objectives for 2024, Bonney explained: "This year, our goal is to keep up that momentum and expand upon our already solid catalog and sales successes while also gaining new momentum with our scripted format catalog and looking forward to new productions. There's always the discussion about new technologies, new platforms, and new sources of revenue that haven't been explored in-depth. That is all extremely relevant to keep up with in an exciting and changing industry; there is a lot of growth. Ultimately, the importance of delivering consistently high-quality content is the key."

In an ever-changing industry, Bonney said the keys to keeping up to answer the client's needs are "flexibility and life-long learning. If a client asks for something new, you do your best to deliver, or learn how to deliver it." Related to this, she defined the key to achieving great sales today as always talking and looking around, informing yourself, and observing. "We are lucky that we have a diverse catalog that can deliver the content for changing demands. Currently, most of our buyers are looking for 'comfort food' content. Titles that are familiar, like procedurals, but have some unique aspects, like our popular series 'The Undertaker.' They're also looking for exceptional period titles, like our spy thriller 'Davos 1917', which takes place during WWI in Switzerland."

NEW FEATURES
For the recent MIPTV, Bonney announced that Global Screen premiered "Fritzi and Sophie – A Borderless Friendship" at the market. "It's a loveable animation about a girl, a little dog, and the goal to reach her best friend while set against the time of the Fall of the Berlin Wall." Moreover, "Chameleon" is an urban dramedy series about a group of friends who live in a low-income neighborhood but are doing their best to make better futures for themselves while also dodging the daily problems that arise from their current situations. The company is also introducing "The Hunted," a documentary about Jan Ullrich, the famous ultimate-athlete Tour de France winner, who experienced a fall from grace. It features interviews with Lance Armstrong and a deep insight into doping in athletics. Also, the company will feature a true story movie called "Kidnapped," a thrilling drama about an extremely wealthy family in the 80s whose young son was kidnapped for 14 days while the patriarch was in prison for fraud, and the family was in a race to find ransom money, they no longer had access to. Finally, Global Screen will present "Curious Tobi," a huge box-office hit family adventure film that takes viewers on an exciting trip around the world on a journey to unlock a treasure chest.

By Federico Martinez