What Disney's TV Buyers Want at Hulu, FX, ABC & Disney+
Part II of our Fall Market Guide covering each streamer and studio's wish list
Elaine Low covers the TV market from L.A. This story is part of her exclusive tour of what every studio and streamer wants right now — and how to pitch them. Last week, she covered Apple TV+ and its evolving wish list. As a paid subscriber to Series Business, you’ll receive richly reported dispatches from both Elaine and Manori Ravindran for a global perspective on the TV business. This is a standalone subscription separate from The Ankler. For access to Series Business and everything The Ankler publishes, including Sean McNulty's The Wakeup and columns from Richard Rushfield, you can subscribe here.
To market, to market. Happy Monday, Series Business readers. Ready for another installment of our Fall Market Guide? This week we’ve got a hefty one, looking across Disney and its various networks, cablers and streaming platforms.
With ABC and Hulu recently consolidating their scripted comedy and drama executive teams, and ABC Signature being absorbed into 20th Television, the ground has been shifting over at the House of Mouse on both the network and studio side. Some of it isn’t terribly seismic; familiar faces abound, including Hulu’s scripted chief Jordan Helman, who added broadcast drama to his portfolio with the reorg, and Simran Sethi, who now oversees the merged Hulu and ABC teams.
About 30 people were cut in the consolidation, including ABC comedy head Erin Wehrenberg. The corporate shrinking hardly comes as a surprise to the town, which had long expected it on the studio side, at least, after the Disney-Fox merger five years ago. Rumors of the exec team reorg had been swirling for months. But it still stings all the same.
Although some writers and agents are waiting for the dust to settle before they take their ideas to Disney, it remains an active buyer and there’s ABC, FX, Hulu, Disney+ and even Disney Channel to pitch.
In this week’s Series Business, let’s dig into:
The next star Disney executive you need to know
How one director sold a show out of a general meeting
The one thing ABC “desperately” wants right now, according to agents
What Disney now has in common with NBCUniversal when it comes to pitching
The demographic Hulu most wants to reach right now
The two types of shows Hulu wants to solidify its identity
Why ABC Signature’s closure has created complications for anyone pursuing Hulu
The two “risky” FX shows agents are thinking about — and neither is The Bear
What IP is currently in demand at Disney+
The broad concepts development execs will throw out