Warner Bros. Discovery’s (WBD) Jamie Cooke is supercharging “original documentaries that push the boundaries” from his Central & Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Turkey region.
Cooke took charge of the vast territory following the WarnerMedia/Discovery mega-merger and was speaking to Deadline prior to a NEM keynote as he nears one year in post.
While WBD is taking a light-touch approach to ordering original content from the region, especially prior to the launch of the rebranded Max streamer, Cooke said it is documentaries where he is most looking to make an impact.
“Pushing the boundaries and shining a light on topics that are challenging is really important for me,” he told Deadline. “We need to be measured and cautious in the investments we are making right now and the focus for me is really on the docs side.”
The Discovery vet, who is responsible for a team of around 600 to 700 people, cited examples including the soon-to-launch First Five about the inner workings of Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin’s all-female cabinet, Polish LGBTQ+ doc Naked.Loud.Proud and Arab influencer series Dare to Take Risks.
The latter, Cooke said, “really challenges perceptions of what a Middle Eastern woman is.”
Opportunities for scripted originals such as HBO Max’s Berlinale Series Award-nominee Spy/Master starring Happy Valley’s Alec Secăreanu still exist but, at present, these original bets will be few and far between. “There is room for scripted but the question is what kind of scripted and how successful can it be,” added Cooke.
WBD-owned HBO Max pulled commissioning from the Nordics and Central Europe last year, leading to around 30 redundancies, with Comcast/Paramount Global streamer SkyShowtime subsequently picking up exclusive rights to 21 HBO Max Europe originals.
Opportunities
While Cooke remains cautious on originals, he acknowledged that, “putting the writers’ cause to one side for a second,” the ongoing U.S. strike could afford opportunities to local talent.
“There are incredibly talented people out there making great content and we need to find ways to tap into that more,” he added. “That is why I am starting to be more present in the market, it feels like a starting point.”
Speaking yesterday in Dubrovnik, The X Files EP Frank Spotnitz said the “erosion of the power of writers in the U.S.” can serve as a “learning opportunity” for European storytellers.
The rebranded Max streamer launched late last month in the U.S. and will come to Cooke’s region soon, bringing the might of HBO’s scripted catalog together with Warner movies and high-volume Discovery factual.
Cooke has been having multiple strategic conversations with his U.S. counterparts and this will ramp up as his region’s Max launch draws nearer, with the content offering expected to be similar to the U.S. bar news and sport.
The jury is out on how deeply Max can permeate the region, however, with Cooke pointing out that CEE and Middle Eastern consumers have not embraced the streaming revolution as much as some other territories.
“Strategically, the question for me in this region where there is lots of competition and price sensitivity is how many players and subscription services can the market sustain,” he added. “There is space for maybe one or two [per consumer]. We hope a broad content offering is going to help us deliver. Discovery+ and HBO Max were more niche products targeted at specific consumers and I’m not sure you can survive with a niche product.”
Cooke was speaking a few weeks after WBD boss David Zaslav suggested rival streamers will bundle together in future to attract consumers amidst fierce competition.
Free-to-air and pay-TV is still thriving in his region, Cooke stressed, with these traditional players remaining key.
“Linear TV is not dead in my markets,” he added. “HBO was one of the early movers here and has the knowledge that you need linear channels as well as streaming. If cord cutting is not happening in a meaningful way then the opportunity to push streaming is much harder.”
His task is not an easy one and he is responsible for a huge, disparate team, but he said he relishes bringing together different cultures.
“I love it,” he added. “Yes it means dealing with time zones, personalities and cultural nuances but there is so much talent out there that often doesn’t get the spotlight. It’s that old adage about how culture eats strategy for breakfast.”
NEM is taking place in Dubrovnik from June 5 to 7, featuring keynotes from SkyShowtime, Movistar, Sony and All3Media International execs.
