Yahoo News Survive ‘Til ’25… And Then A Bit Longer; Nostradamus Report Author And Industry Execs Look To The Future — Seriencamp
The TV industry can benefit from some of the hard lessons learnt in the film business, Johanna Koljonen, the author of the influential Nostradamus report told a Seriencamp audience in Germany. As a panel of industry experts weighed in, the sense was the much-used “survive ‘til ‘25” aphorism might need to be extended into 2026 or beyond.
“I don’t know if that [phrase] means we survive to ‘25, or through ’25 and to ’26, but we will work through it, and we will maneuver as we’ve always done,” said Danna Stern, who runs In Transit Productions and is the former head of Yes Studios. “Yes, with less commissioning. Yes, with less money. We will try to integrate, new technologies, social media and new ways of communicating what we’re doing to our audiences.”
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Asked if the fever had broken and the industry now had clarity on the road ahead, she added: “There’s never been clarity. There have been good times that we used to look back on and decide were good, and there are currently bad times because we tell each other that constantly, and we commiserate.”
ZDF Studios VP, drama, Robert Franke said we should “hold our breath until 2026 at least.” He added: “What makes me hopeful is that we still talk about stories — we’re still here. There’s also a big opportunity because there’s such a cataclysmic change right now in the industry that it will allow us to explore a lot of new things. Things are broken right now and that allows room for new growth.”
Koljonen got the audience’s attention at the Deadline-moderated session when breaking down the learnings from this year’s Nostradamus report, which is subtitled Paradox of Hope.
“Pretty much everything about how we work is either fundamentally broken, temporarily broken, or at a breaking point,” she said. “But weirdly, when we speak to each other, that’s not what people tend to feel in the industry. Paradoxically, this moment is kind of hopeful. For those who are in the industry right now, many people are almost feeling a sense of relief. When you hit rock bottom, at least your feet are connected to the earth.”
Göteborg Film Festival backs the report. It is ostensibly about the film business, but Koljonen highlighted the transferable lessons for TV folk in the Nostradamus work. One film-to-TV learning is about connecting with audiences, and it’s an area in which the movie industry has made progress.
“Theatrical is not working… except when it is working super well,” said Koljonen. “For that, I’ve used the term ‘engagement theatrical’. This is the kind of theatrical that works. I need to know that [a film] is relevant to me to me, and you need to reach me in advance, and that’s hard. But when you succeed, the audience become engaged with the title and that’s how you get organic reach.
“And after seeing it, especially if I also had a good experience in the theater or a good social experience around watching it, I’ll keep talking about it. The movie has become an engagement, a commitment in the calendar.”
Establishing that deep audience connection ahead of time has rewards in TV too, she added: “Why shouldn’t we also apply this to an idea of engagement television, which is not the same thing as appointment television. I think you don’t get [engagement] by just making something good and putting it out there and hoping for the best. You’re going to have to do all this other work as well.”
Check out the session, below.
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