Netflix sees itself as a platform where everyone in the household can find something they love to watch. Broad demographic reach that hits on multiple taste clusters is the biggest appeal, Dominique Bazay, director, originals—global indie TV, told audiences at this year’s Kidscreen Summit.
“Being a streamer, you want to please everyone—from two-[year-olds] to grandparents,” she said. “But we [also] love it when a show is super girly or super action adventure because those shows will get found by their audience.”
It’s a balancing act, she says, between programming for sometimes niche tastes versus the whole family, particularly as co-viewing trended upwards as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. (Family viewing around unscripted series, like The Floor is Lava, is an effective family approach.)
With such a wide audience, Bazay and the Netflix team rely on a show's producer or creator to know and understand the potential audience. “I put a lot of value on a creators’ view on audience,” she says. “I look to producers and creators to say ‘I know there’s an audience for this, and this is who that audience is.’ If it’s a compelling show that’s really impactful for a small audience, we’ll totally consider it—we’ll just spend accordingly.”
This broad reach makes detailing current buying needs difficult. Action-adventure, sports-themed comedies, musicals, bright-sparkly shows, super-targeted heroes—she's open to it if producers can show an audience is out there.
And just as important as understanding who will be tuning in, Bazay says it’s important for creators and producers to think through how to best use the platform itself in the storytelling. Serialized content, for example, works really well, as do really strong images.
“We get pitched a lot of slick CG images, and it works really well for us,” she says. “But I would say, some of our most beautiful and amazing films are 2D and creator driven.”
On the preschool front, while most kids shows (especially those aimed at preschoolers) tend to have at least some cognitive and socio-emotional curriculum, Netflix wants to take the content it commissions a step further, and is looking for specific lessons on topics like marine biology, math and early reading, Heather Tilert, director, preschool content, previously told Kidscreen. Series box art needs to be bright, colorful and eye-catching, while content itself needs to be a mix of education and laughter.
For those with an animated pitch, Bazay wants producers to understand the new-ish structure to the Netflix animation team. Formerly broken down by geographic location, the new animation division is split along in-house content (headed by Curtis Lelash, director), acquisitions (headed by Ed Horasz, director, head of kids content acquisitions and live-action) and producer/studio-led series (headed by Bazay).
The creator-led team works largely with in-house talent and established creators to fully staff up and manage a series, such as Craig McCracken, the creator of Powerpuff Girls, or Chris Nee, creator of Doc McStuffins, says Bazay. “There are first-time creators there as well, but they usually come through an agent or come packaged with a project.”
In comparison, the indie team, tends to work with independent producers and studios globally. “We call that partner managed.”
“We realized there’s a different level of involvement when you’re dealing with a partner—let’s say a 9 Story— versus our own studio,” she says. “9 Story has a business affairs team and a production staff, and a whole organization that manages productions. Our only involvement is creative. On the studio side, we’re doing everything—crewing up, hiring board artists. It’s a different jobs. What was happening was the creative execs in LA were doing both and getting really involved in the indie producer's job, which isn’t necessary. We’re doing business with them because they know what they’re doing.”
The work coming out of Lelash’s team tends to skew towards creator-driven comedies, alongside some experimentation. In comparison, Bazay’s team is on the hunt for everything else.
For smaller producers or first-time creators who may be feeling left out of the equation, Bazay suggest partnering with a local production company to help sell the idea.
“Our strategy is really to work with the best possible studios and establish a relationship [where we can create] a bit of a shorthand. We love working with Xilam for example because they’re incredibly good at non-dialogue physical comedy,“ she said. “We want to leverage what studios do best. ”
Team
Heather Tilert Director, Preschool Content
Dominique Bazay Director of Original Animation, Global Indie TV
Aram Yacoubian Director of Original Content - Animated Film
Ted Biaselli Director of Original Series for Kids and Family
Demographic
Netflix, broadly, creates content for all demographics.
Format
2D Animation
3D Animation
CG Animation
Mixed Media
How to Pitch
Bazay suggests putting art front and center—with much of Netflix’s discoverability driven on the strength of the thumbnail, understanding the visuals quickly is very important for IP.
Those without visuals should ready mood boards and help set the stage.
Netflix cannot accept unsolicited pitches, and Bazay suggests going through an agent or approaching local producers and studios with established relationships with the SVOD to bring forward the idea. Markets are also a primary place for her to find new ideas, and she’s eager to return to the conference circuit in the post-pandemic future.
