Patrick Phelan: “Our strategy focuses on nurturing partnerships”

Leonine Studios is an independent German content house that describes itself as a one-stop shop for premium content. The company produces, distributes, and licenses fiction and non-fiction formats all over the world. To describe Leonine's strategy regarding sales and windowing, Señal News spoke to Patrick Phelan, Director of World Sales & Acquisitions.

▸  How would you describe Leonine's global sales strategy?
"Our global sales strategy revolves around capitalizing on the appetite for high-profile international productions, both English-language and local. That offers unique storytelling and an exciting new look. We prioritize combining compelling narratives with the renowned talent behind and in the camera. As a company, we maintain a broad outlook on content and stories, actively seeking the right fit for our portfolio, whether it be an in-house project, an international co-production, or one originating from a third party. If a story resonates with us, we are eager to fully support it and drive its success in the global market. We aim to cater to the global audience's ever-growing interest by leveraging the universal appeal of high-quality international productions. Our strategy focuses on nurturing partnerships, exploring diverse content offerings, and delivering captivating narratives that resonate with viewers worldwide."

▸  What is the market potential for Leonine's dramas?
"Our Australian thriller series 'Troppo' is based on the highly popular 'Crimson Lake' novel series written by New York Times best-selling author Candice Fox. The eight-part, one-hour series takes us right into a criminal case in the wilds of tropical Far North Queensland. 'Troppo' premiered on ABC Australia and is a Freevee US Original, and has been sold, among others, to Canal+ in France, AMC in Central and Eastern Europe, Viaplay in Scandinavia as well as Amazon Freevee in Germany and the UK. Furthermore, 'Bonn' is a six-part political thriller that focuses on a young woman struggling to find her place in a male-dominated society in the 1950s and the political tug-of-war between Germany's two rivaling intelligence services. The series premiered on the German network ARD in January 2023 and was very successful in its linear broadcasting and on the VOD platform ARD Mediathek. This show has been sold to MTVA in Hungary, RTV Slovenia, and SBS Australia, among others."

▸  What is your windowing strategy?
"Windows seem to have disappeared, in my opinion. You are lucky if you can get a pan-regional deal going. I do think that, in windowing in general, what you sometimes can do is get opportunities for non-exclusive SVOD windows, and there still are some titles that you can sell both on free TV as well as pay TV. Everyone is looking for that one piece for themselves, that exclusivity. At the end of the day, you have to develop one specific strategy for each title, as you never know what will work for each show. Nothing is a guaranteed window structure, so it is more about knowing what your clients need and what they possibly could be looking for in the future, and then staying constantly in communication."

▸  Which content are you currently focusing on?
"During NATPE Budapest, we launched our new English-language six-part series 'The Seed,' which has won two Golden Nymph Awards in Monte Carlo (Best Creation & Beta Series Public Prize.) The highly topical series shines the spotlight on a theme that has long influenced international power dynamics but was largely kept from both the media and the public's attention: global food production."

By Diego Alfagemez and Federico Marzullo