Top TV talent will “end up on YouTube or TikTok over time,” Sister boss Jane Featherstone has predicted.
Featherstone, whose credits include Black Doves, The Split and Chernobyl, said the funding model for premium drama on TV isn’t going anywhere for the time being, but she anticipates big changes in the medium to long term.
“Talent is like water, they will find the shortest way to the audience past all obstacles and our job is to make sure we’re on top of where audiences are,” Featherstone told the RTS London Convention. “Talent wants legitimacy and audience on main channels. I think that will change and premium will end up on YouTube or TikTok over time because great talent will jump out of mainstream organizations.”
Sister, which is run by Featherstone, Liz Murdoch and Lucinda Hicks, is keeping up with the times, Featherstone stressed, as she pointed to digital labels the company has struck deals with like After Party Studios and BBC broadcaster Amol Rajan’s new outfit.
“For us to be able to shift in this way is exciting,” said Featherstone.
She was speaking to one of the biggest talking points in the TV industry today on a panel at the RTS Convention alongside the likes of Expectation CEO Tim Hincks, whose firm makes Clarkson’s Farm.
Also looking to the future, Hincks predicted the UK TV industry’s terms of trade, which have been a financial bedrock for UK production companies for more than two decades, are “not long for this world.”
He stressed that indies will survive, adding: “There are lots of great independently minded people who have authority issues and have a burning desire to not be in a meeting for three hours where at the end of it someone says, ‘Shall we have a meeting about this?’.”
The producers were speaking at the same event as head honchos from Amazon, the BBC and Channel 4, along with talent like Jeremy Clarkson.
Get our Breaking News Alerts and Keep your inbox happy.
Comments On Deadline Hollywood are monitored. So don't go off topic, don't impersonate anyone, and don't get your facts wrong.
Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() );