Today, Sony Pictures will sound the closing bell for the 2023 L.A. Screenings. The six-day event in which Hollywood’s major studios hosted screenings of the new U.S. TV season’s series included one day for Fox, two days for Warner Bros., and four overlapping days for Disney, NBCUni, Paramount, and Sony, with Disney splitting the buyers between their lot in Burbank and the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood.
The shorter-than-usual windows for each studio meant some overlapping events, so buyers from the same companies at times had to split venues. As usual, the Canadian buyers landed in L.A. prior to May 20, the start of the studio screenings, since their Upfront presentations to advertisers are still coming up.
These 60th annual L.A. Screenings mark a new beginning for the event since they saw the return of Fox (following a three-year absence), and the return of “business as usual” for the licensing of content to third parties, which in recent years was curbed as most of the new series were often reserved for the studios’ own streaming services. In this regard, while other studio executives were touting the return to the “open for business” mantra, Sony Pictures’ Keith Le Goy pointed out that SPI never stopped licensing to third parties.
The number of content buyers was estimated at 800, about half the number that used to attend prior to the pandemic. Nonetheless, all traditional companies and territories were represented. Unfortunately, Cannes decided to challenge Hollywood with its Film Festival running parallel to the L.A. Screenings, so some companies had to divide their time between the two events.
No stars of the new shows worked the tables with buyers during the lunch breaks due to their commitment not to cross the striking WGA’s picket lines, but many still made appearances at the studios’ evening receptions.
In terms of new content, these Screenings saw the adaptation of shows from countries other than the traditional U.K. This time around, FOX-TV network has Doc, adapted from the Italian medical drama (and distributed by Sony Pictures), Paramount+ has The Turkish Detective (filmed in Istanbul and distributed by Paramount Global), and ABC-TV has High Potential, based on the French series Haut Potentiel (distributed by Disney Media). Naturally, no new U.S. TV season can do without a British adaptation, so Amazon proposed Dinner With The Parents (distributed by Paramount Global), a comedy based on the Channel 4 series Friday Night Dinner.
Pictured above: Sony Pictures Television’s Keith Le Goy, chairman Worldwide Distribution & Networks, SPE; Paramount Global Content Distribution’s (l. to r.) Jonathan Greenberg (EVP, Television Licensing Regional Sales, North Asia), María Sanchez (SVP, TV Licensing, Latin America), Matthew Downer (SVP, Regional TV Licensing), Lisa Kramer (president, International TV Licensing, Paramount Global Content Distribution), Dan Cohen (Chief Content Licensing Officer, Paramount and president, Republic Pictures), Nicole Sinclair (SVP, Regional TV Licensing), Doug Smith (SVP, Streaming & Content Licensing), and Bernhard Schwab (SVP, Regional TV Licensing); Fox Entertainment Global’s Fernando Szew, CEO; Disney Media & Entertainment Distribution’s (l. to r.) Barbara Lorenzo, Heather Harris, Santiago De Cárolis, Henri Ringel, Alis Perez, Jack Morera, Fabiola Bovino, Fernando Barbosa, and Agustina Dompé.
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