Cannes – A+E Network’s newly appointed President of Entertainment and Media, Nancy Dubuc, made her MIPCOM debut on Oct 7, a day before the market opened.
During the company’s annual MIPCOM cocktail reception, she told the crowd that A+E Networks values the creative process above all else.
“At A+E Networks, we are all about people, programming and partnerships. I think that we are a very unique organisation in the way that we support our people and in the way that we really reach out to both the creative community, producers and talent as well – making sure that everything we do is wrapped in a true partnership,” said Dubuc.
Sean Cohan, Executive Vice President, International, echoed Dubuc’s speech. He said the company’s aim at this year’s market is to have conversations with partners on how to grow their relationships further.
Dubuc also spoke about the importance of original content during the event. “We have probably one of the largest programming investment budgets in the U.S. for cable – we really put our money where our mouth is and we spend an enormous amount of time and effort recognising how critical original programming is.”
At her Media Mastermind keynote address on Tuesday, October 9, Dubuc reiterated the need to focus more on the creative. She said, “I think one of the things that I’m troubled by and keeping an eye on and thinking a lot about is that somehow we seem to be spending more time talking about the transaction than we are the creative.”
“These deals have a structure to them, whether that be deals with the talent in the show or the deals that you’ve done with the production company, or the rights sharing between the studios and international channels. All of that is fine and good but when that conversation comes before ‘What’s a great show?’ and ‘Why is this great?’ the scales seem to be tipping in the wrong direction in relation to the audience,” she continued.
“We need to be asking ourselves much bigger questions about what’s next and what’s new instead of ‘Can I get this territory?’ Successful shows will always generate great business deals in the future because there is leverage.”
