The True Crime boom continues. And evolves. Ampere Analysis‘ findings presented at the recent MIPDOC capture how True Crime (in light blue) dominates all other genres in net added programs on four of the Big 5 major streaming platforms. And ID‘s disturbing Nickelodeon expose Quiet On Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV dominated minutes viewed and the social conversation for documentaries in Q1 2024.   What’s New? We continue our survey of the ever-evolving genre with 19 new projects from ID, Netflix, Max, Apple TV+, Paramount+, Oxygen, Hulu and more. Our update helps answer the key questions ..read more

Independent producer / director Matt Hamilton created for Terra Mater Studios and PBS’s NATURE series, a superb two-parter that reveals the magnificent world of raptors to a global audience. For our RAPTORS Case Study, I connected with Vienna-based Sabine Holzer, Head of Specialist Factual, Terra Mater Studios,  Nature’s Executive Producer Fred Kaufman, and Matt Hamilton. THE FILM: Title: RAPTORS– A FISTFUL OF DAGGERS Tagline: The Secrets Behind Their Astonishing Success Elevator Pitch: From distant lands to our own backyard, RAPTORS is an insightful and spectacular celebration of the wo ..read more

The 26th International Documentary and Factual Co-Production Market & Screenings is back again this year during a dedicated weekend ahead of MIPTV. Gathering the international doc & factual community, MIPDOC offers 2 days of networking, screenings, pitch, and conferences. I produced the inspiring Co-production Case Study and two Meet the Expert sessions, and helped arrange Dawn Porter’s powerful Keynote. Read the full MIPDOC programme. Here are the details… Our MIPDOC Co-Production SUMMIT will focus on the future for factual programming. The industry is changing fast: hybrid commercia ..read more

I caught up with Noel Kok, the co-executive director of NEWF, Africa’s Nature, Environment & Wildlife Filmmakers Congress. In our webinar, Noel described how NEWF moved at full speed into training and mentoring filmmakers from all over Africa from its Durban base and brand new facility nearby in KwaZulu Province. National Geographic Society‘s Storytelling Program is NEWF’s key funder. It’s a special thrill for me to hear of NEWF’s progress: I was there at the beginning with Noel and his partner Pragna as they figured out their strategy on the back of an envelope. Watch Noel recap ..read more

The 2024 Conference season kicked off in earnest in January with back-to-back-to-back events in Miami (NATPE) and New Orleans (Realscreen). Producers, distributors, and content platforms all gathered once again to network and pitch as our industry tries to steady itself coming out of a challenging 2023. Cactus Tree Entertainment President Liz Levenson and True North’s Chief Creative Officer Katy Thorogood joined industry veteran and Senior Consultant Dan Salerno to get their thoughts on where the Factual business is heading in 2024. Watch here (30′) Highlights [3:30] NATPE relaunches under B ..read more

Netflix rolls on, leaving its competitors far behind! Netflix just announced the second largest quarterly uptick in subscribers (13.1 million) in the company’s history, second only to Q1 2020 (15.8 million), which benefitted from the onset of the COVID pandemic. Cutbacks in spending on programs and marketing by Netflix’s streaming rivals is a key factor driving its momentum. Netflix’s dominance is captured in my survey of the audience for US streamers in Full Year ’23 in which I focus on the Top 2 Documentary and Reality programs for eight platforms. The chart tells the story: Legend The blu ..read more

Producers submitted 1,809 feature documentaries for the Sundance program. Thirty-four films were selected, as I reported here. Six of the 34 selections (18%) had received prior Sundance support through labs or grants. That’s comparable to 19% in 2023, and 22% in 2022. Selected documentaries for 2024 in the ‘Prior Funding’ category are: Igualada / Colombia, U.S.A., Mexico (Director, Screenwriter, and Producer: Lucy Lawless) Realm of Satan / U.S.A. (Director and Screenwriter: Scott Cummings) Agent of Happiness / Bhutan, Hungary (Directors: Arun Bhattarai and Dorottya Zurbó) Nocturnes ..read more

A Sundance Film Festival award lags only behind an Oscar nomination as a measure of success for documentarians. 1.9%! Are those really the odds that a documentary will earn a slot on the Sundance program? $887 million! Did producers spend close to a billion dollars on all those submissions that missed out? Here is my 2024 update on the Sundance Documentary Economy… Photo courtesy of Sundance The Entries The 2024 Sundance Film Festival opens on January 18. Sundance will screen 82 feature-length films and 53 short films, both scripted and documentary, from 32 countries and including ..read more

  I dipped into my African photo library to celebrate the New Year because the pic of my surprise meeting with the superb Nyala somehow captures why so many of us do what we do. We search out the people, places, creatures, and landscapes that inspire compelling storytelling. My editorial goal for Documentary Business is to throw some light onto how industry veterans and rookies alike can tell our stories amidst the ever-changing — and challenging — unscripted ecosystem. Posts The fifty posts I published in 2023 often returned to the #1 trend:  “How Netflix and the streame ..read more

Dan Salerno shared his big Takeaways from the World Congress of Science & Factual Producers (WCSFP) which just wrapped in Seattle. Dan co-produced the famous What’s the Buzz session (covered in our post here). Here are his Takeaways: TOUGH YEAR 2023 was tough everywhere. On panels and in meetings, stories of budget and commissioning cuts were ever present. The impact on producers’ development activities are the most visible aspect. Concerns about contraction in the broadcast and production sectors are on everyone’s minds. OPPORTUNITIES And yet, there are opportunities. Panel conver ..read more