Arriving in Cannes with a true-crime slate that includes Spy Next Door: The Anna Chapman Story, Harry Arkwright, VP of global content for scripted and unscripted at ITV Studios, joins ScreenMDM Talks to discuss true crime trends and ITV Studios’ overall positioning in the factual landscape.
“Buyers are being a lot more selective now over what they’re looking for,: Arkwright says on the episode. “I think in a particularly crowded market where budgets are being tightened, buyers need something that’s going to pop for them. Perennial staples such as true crime and specialist factual remain areas of focus for them. When you’re in a very busy market, buyers are fighting for audience attention. Shows really need the ability to cut through the noise and stand out on their EPG or their VOD platforms. Either because they’ve got a built-in audience already or some undeniable hook to them.”
The demand for true crime remains strong, he said, with the company landing in Cannes with Spy Next Door: The Anna Chapman Story as one of its lead titles. From Curious Films for Channel 4, “on the surface it’s a true crime story in the sense that there’s this femme fatale who is working her way through British society in order to steal state secrets. And then that story is a Trojan horse into a much wider geopolitical backdrop. And it sits across two different genres. You’ve got this true crime mechanic at the heart of it, even though it’s not blood and guts and murder. It’s something adjacent to that, but it manages to be a really compelling story at its heart, and it also plays to a much wider story that feels current right now, given the state of the geopolitical situation with Russia. Also, it has something quite primal about it. You’ve got people getting their lives turned upside down by someone, and that makes it feel quite relatable in an odd way.”
Watch the episode on YouTube (embedded below) or Spotify and listen on Apple Podcasts.
Both a political and true crime story, the series is part of a wave of hybrids emerging in the landscape. “There are more and more examples of that. They can work really well. They need to still feel like a true crime show. That’s when they’re going to be most effective. If they try to serve two different audiences and don’t serve either, then they’re not going to work.”
