Quality Drama as Transnational Expansion: Exports and Local Specifics

Abstract

This chapter analyses how practitioners are negotiating the transnational expansion of German television fiction and its industry in their discussions on quality TV. In doing so, this chapter takes into account local aspects and particularities that accompany processes of globalisation and transnationalisation in the sense of “glocalisation”. The chapter’s second part specifically deals with negotiations on series exports, which historically have taken place sporadically in the German context but for which, today, a larger number of licensees in different countries and territories are available, through transnational streaming services. English-speaking markets in particular are now showing greater openness to non-English (i.e. also German-language) series, although these remain niche programmes in the Anglo-American distribution context. The third and final part of Chapter 5 demonstrates how individual project networks and screen idea work groups and their practitioners are transnationalising in the context of export ambitions and the expanded television industry. The transnationality of individual screenwriters and other players, working groups and production companies, as becomes clear, can become a decisive criterion for evaluating, selecting and finally greenlighting television dramas, alongside the transnational potential of the content, narrative style and aesthetic at the textual level.

6.1 Transnational and Local Dimensions of the Television Industry

In the recent past, through “platforms that span activities over different countries (and continents)” (Evens and Donders 2018, 3) and the “rapid growth of internet-distributed television services worldwide” (Lotz et al. 2018, 35), television has transformed “from a national, largely broadcasting, market to a transnational multiplatform market” (Turner 2018, 137). The German television industry is an obvious example, as it now includes new transnational commissioners, especially in the segment of pay TV and subscription video-on-demand (SVoD). This has, quite plainly, led to increased production of German-language series. In German drama projects for US-dominated streaming services (e.g. Netflix), the expansion and transnationalisation of the Hollywood film and television industry is also apparent. The economic basis of the global screen industry is shifting “from only being centred in Los Angeles and this is creating more opportunities to make and sell content by others outside of the traditional Hollywood elite” (Meir 2019, 214–215).

In light of these transnational developments, many of the interviewed and observed practitioners hoped for new commissioning and licensing opportunities, especially in the area of quality TV drama. Frequently, they diagnosed a greater openness towards non-English-language series,¹ in the Anglo-American markets and beyond (see Harris 2018, 327). Regarding distribution in non-German territories, the TV professionals generally negotiated just how transnational the television industry in Germany is and can be. In this context, they also dealt with local and national specifics, which clearly show that the transnational, the national and the local intertwine, as has been analysed on a theoretical level numerous times (e.g. Kuipers 2011, 555). Furthermore, the practitioners’ simultaneous discussion on local peculiarities illuminates how the nation retains its relevance as a historical and systematic point of reference for transgressing and overcoming borders in terms of cultural production (Wessler and Brüggemann 2012, 4).

The scalar model of glocalisation (Roudometof 2016; Hansen 2020) is helpful for ordering the different levels of production, content and distribution that practitioners mentioned in their negotiations on quality TV and that characterise the contemporary German television fiction industry. Kim Toft Hansen (2020, 87) visualises the scalar hierarchy as a circular model running from local → national → regional → global. However, departing from Victor Roudometof, he argues that the glocal is “a consequence of – and not part of – processes that oscillate between the local and the global, including the intermediate national and transnational opportunities” (86; emphasis in original). In Hansen’s model, the “glocal” forms the context of the levels local → national → regional → global, and the “transnational” is located between the national and the global (see Fig. 6.1).

Fig. 6.1

(My illustration based on Hansen [2020, 87])

Scalar model of glocalisation

Other discussions of the term “transnational” highlight that cross-border media communication no longer takes place solely between countries, as “international” implies, but also extends beyond and across nation states and national cultures. Hartmut Wessler and Michael Brüggemann (2012, 3–4) also argue that most cross-border media do not have a truly global scope. Therefore, they argue that the term “global” often can be replaced by the term “transnational”, which implies an exchange between individual countries but not necessarily a worldwide extension. Indeed, most TV series only travel to some countries, if any. Given such limits of global circulation, it is logical for television studies to more frequently use the term “transnational”. Still, according to Hansen (2020, 85), the concept of transnationalism remains insufficient because it fails to inscribe the important dimension of the local or sub-national, other than through the term “glocal”. Following this argument, I regard the industry discourse on German quality TV as glocal (see also Krauß 2023b).

6.1.1 Transnationalism and Regionalism in the German-Speaking Television Landscape

Aspects of glocal, transnational and regional traits first came to light when the interviewees referred to the tradition of addressing audiences not only in Germany but also in Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Luxembourg. The tendency for media markets to expand to territories with the same language and a similar culture (McElroy 2020, 64) clearly manifests in the German-speaking world. This territory exemplifies the region that ranks above the nation in Roudometof’s scalar model of glocalisation (2016, 32) and its adaptation by Hansen (2020, 87). Traditions of cooperation between Germany, Austria, Switzerland and, to a certain extent, Luxembourg and Liechtenstein show that drama production and distribution—as well as transnational media communication in general—are oriented towards specific geo-cultural markets, which traverse nations but are rarely totally global (Przybylski et al. 2016, 240–241).

Regarding recent quality drama projects, several collaborations have come to fruition in the German-speaking countries. Two of the many examples are Davos 1917 (SRF/ARD, 2023), a Swiss-German period drama on the noble spa town in the Swiss Alps during the First World War, and Freud (Netflix/ORF, 2020), a crime television series about the young Sigmund Freud, which was mainly shot in Prague and first aired on the Austrian public-service channel ORF before its release transnationally by Netflix. In some cases, the interviewed practitioners took a critical view of the size of the German-speaking region because, in their view, it leads to unproductive self-centredness. Edward Berger (2018), director of several episodes of Deutschland 83 (RTL, 2015) and the award-winning anti-war film Im Westen nichts Neues/All Quiet on the Western Front (Netflix, 2022), spoke specifically of a “self-satisfied market that […] can survive if it produces for Germany, Austria and Switzerland instead of for the world” when he discussed structural reasons for German series’ alleged quality deficit. Berger noted a difference in comparison with smaller countries such as Denmark, which is often referred to in the industry and media discourse on German quality drama. Smaller nations, he and others suggested, are forced to sell their series to foreign territories in order to secure larger budgets. A sense of self-centredness and intense closeness, as observed in past studies on TV drama production in Germany (e.g. Mikos 2016, 156), has also been discussed with respect to other larger European markets. For example, Marco Cucco (2018, 204) reflects critically on various obstacles to transnational cooperation in Italy, including “unambitious companies, […] that are unwilling to take risks and whose objectives do not transcend the limits of the nation”. Germany’s television and film industry has faced similar accusations of a lack of transnationalisation and, linked to this, of conservatism and low levels of innovation (e.g. Fröhlich 2010, 131).²

As far as the transnational networks of Germany’s television landscape are concerned, the country’s size and economic power can at the same time be seen as beneficial. Martin Behnke (2018), one of the writers of the political drama Die Stadt und die Macht/The City and the Power (ARD/NDR/Degeto, 2016) and the Netflix hit Dark (2017–20), argued that the German-speaking region is an “insanely financially strong […] interesting market” for foreign and transnationally operating programme providers (when he was asked to assess the status quo of German TV series and their production conditions). In the same vein as the scriptwriter Behnke, many other practitioners diagnosed increased transnationalisation in the German television sector. Further, against the background of this changing landscape, they discussed how the transnationalisation of German drama can be accelerated and intensified.

6.1.2 Advancing Transnationalisation

The TV professionals dealt with media and film funding, among other things, when they discussed how German TV series may transnationalise. Some funding pots and programmes specifically aim towards transnational, and above all European, cooperation. Sometimes funding from Germany flows into foreign or transnational projects with the aim of obtaining production knowledge from other countries’ industries and thus promoting national or regional series production at another level. Accordingly, during a presentation at the Winterclass Serial Writing and Producing industry workshop, Veronika Grob and Oliver Ossege (2016) from Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg (the body responsible for film and TV series in the states of Berlin and Brandenburg) justified their investments in the fifth season (2015) of the well-known US drama Homeland (Showtime, 2011–2020), which was substantially shot in Berlin and Brandenburg. In the Medienboard representatives’ praise for the local revenues generated through the production of Homeland, we can find the “neo-liberal ideology of supporting incoming investment and its spill-over effects, labour mobility, international competitiveness and knowledge transfer, and of de-provincialising the local film culture”, which Petr Szczepanik (2018, 168) ascribes to funding policies in the Czech Republic.

In addition to the public subsidies available through Germany’s various local film-funding institutions, foreign production companies, broadcasters and platforms have several other reasons for increasing operations in the country. First, the existing transnational connections in the German TV industry can be an asset to producers. Many Germany-based producers are affiliated with transnational conglomerates. Frequently and traditionally, such subsidiary firms act highly independently to adjust to national and local market conditions (Przybylski et al. 2016, 223). But transnational links within media groups can also be relevant, as the example Deutschland 83 proves. Producers from this show and its production company, UFA Fiction, argued that an existing link to the mainly British Fremantle company played an important role by making the export of their show much easier (e.g. interview with Kosack 2019). Both RTL, the German commissioning broadcaster of the first season of Deutschland, and the German production company UFA Fiction belong to the Bertelsmann conglomerate alongside the transnational Fremantle. The exchange within Bertelsmann points to the “networked activities […] from a local to a global level” brought up in Hansen’s model of glocalisation (2020, 86) and to traditions of transnationalisation in the German TV market.

With respect to the industry’s increased transnationalisation, Bob Konrad (in the interview with Hackfort, Konrad and Kropf 2018), one of the writers of the gangster drama 4 Blocks (TNT Serie, 2017–2019), emphasised the new commissioners, especially SVoD services, that have entered the German television market. Through these new players, German television drama has also become more interesting to production companies abroad. According to Konrad, British producers in particular have started to produce shows for the German-speaking region, under the purview of these new commissioners and distributors. In line with this diagnosis, in 2020 BBC Studios announced it was founding the production company BBC Studios Germany. In 2019, this commercial production and distribution subsidiary of the BBC—British Broadcasting Corporation had already entered into a strategic partnership with the German public-service broadcaster ZDF to develop and produce “high-end” content. The Mallorca-based crime action comedy The Mallorca Files (BBC One/ZDFneo/France 2, 2019–) was the first project to emerge from this British-German cooperation and points to the transnationalisation of public-service broadcasting.

6.1.3 Public Broadcasters as Glocal and Crucial Players in German Television Drama

According to the practitioners’ discourse on German quality drama, public broadcasters, despite engaging in co-financing and co-production arrangements, have often served as an example not of transnationalisation but of national and local characteristics or—with a clear negative connotation—of provinciality. “They are still incredibly local. That’s their job”, the scriptwriter Konrad (in Hackfort, Konrad and Kropf 2018) said about ARD, the joint organisation for Germany’s regional public-service broadcasters (this response came when I asked him and his two writer colleagues about the possible transnationalisation of the German TV industry). Indeed, the broadcasting mandates of ARD as well as ZDF explicitly include regionalism (Gransow 2018, 217), in the sense of local content and local specifics (distinct from Hansen’s and Roudometof’s understanding of the region ranking above the nation; see Hansen 2020, 87). Such regionalism can be a criterion of “quality journalism” as well, and as such might influence the discourse on the value of public-service media (Mayer 2013, 91). Nevertheless, in the analysed practitioners’ negotiations, the federalism of ARD in particular was often framed as a problem: a structure of excessive bureaucracy that complicates screenwriting processes.

But for all their federalism and locality, public broadcasters also have transnational features to varying degrees. In a sense, transnationality is inscribed in their founding histories, as Britain’s BBC was the central model for the organisation of television in the Federal Republic of Germany (Garncarz 2016, 175). For years, ARD and ZDF have transnationally networked through joint niche cultural programmes with foreign public-service partners. In the German-speaking context, it is 3sat (a joint project of the German ARD and ZDF, Austrian ORF and Swiss SRF—Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen [Swiss Radio and Television]). Arte, on the other hand, is a German–French TV channel. Financial participation through co-financing and co-production by the subsidiaries ARD Degeto and ZDF Studios (formerly ZDF Enterprises) as well as shares in foreign media companies (in the case of the latter) also point to transnational dimensions.

In particular, ARD and ZDF have acted as minor co-financiers of Scandinavian and especially Danish series (e.g. Hansen and Waade 2017, 150–151; Redvall 2020, 127–128), which are often labelled “Nordic noir”. These series were frequently discussed in the interviews. For some practitioners, such foreign investments by ARD and ZDF represented a controversial topic. For example, Ulrike Leibfried (2016), formerly a freelance editor at RTL and now managing director of UFA Fiction, criticised the outsourcing of creativity. From her point of view, the willingness to take risks with co-financing is greater than with internal German productions. One might read this assessment as an almost nationalistic argument, according to which German funds should be spent on German content and should flow only to producers in Germany. The commissioning editor Harald Steinwender (in the interview with Simionescu and Steinwender 2018) also identified “a certain nationalistic note” in the preference for German productions as demanded by the public broadcasters. First and foremost, however, Leibfried complained about the lack of willingness to take risks—a commonly voiced and long-held criticism of public broadcasters and the German television market in general (e.g. Fröhlich 2010, 130).

6.1.4 Germany as a Conservative Import Market

Several interviewees also criticised the long-standing commercial, ad-funded channels RTL, Sat.1 and ProSieben (run by two opposing media conglomerates: Bertelsmann’s RTL Group and ProSiebenSat.1 Media) for commissioning original fiction that is too formulaic and conservative. Furthermore, several TV professionals complained, the commercial broadcasters relied primarily on US series imports to fill their broadcast slots from the 2000s onwards. Usually, such imports are significantly cheaper than German originals. But, at some point, the supply in mainstream US procedurals broke off.³

Several practitioners at commercial broadcasters in Germany—which have long banked on linear schedules—described recent US series as too “niche” or too complex in their serial storylines as compared to the former “monster of the week” format. Several more recent hit US series, such as This Is Us (NBC, 2016–2022) and Empire (Fox, 2015–2020), indeed have achieved only low viewing figures in their linear broadcasting on commercial German channels. The commercial networks’ partial efforts during the sample period (2015–2023) to commission more German-language productions—again, in view of the current state of US series and their declining ratings—illustrate how transnational, and specifically US, developments affect the German television market.

Public broadcasters have a long history of focusing on German fiction, partly with the intention of strengthening the local production landscape. Claudia Simionescu and Harald Steinwender (2018) from BR (part of the ARD network) criticised, however, that the corresponding focus on German drama “weaned” audiences from international programmes, and “international cinema” in particular. In addition to US cinema productions, Simionescu and Steinwender’s use of the term “international” presumably also refers to European films with transnational distribution. In their argument, which is strongly related to the context of individual films and cinema (rather than serial television drama), the lack of imports leads to a narrowing of the programme. In my interviews with German practitioners of television screenwriting, public-service commissioning editors (e.g. Gleim 2016) in particular addressed the absence of US drama in the current and recent prime-time and early-evening programmes of ARD and ZDF, and they often criticised the supposed self-centredness of German television fiction.

For contemporary quality drama projects from Germany, it is obvious that productions from the US have served as models. By orienting themselves to the narratives and habits of other Western television markets, German television professionals expressed hope that their productions could come to circulate transnationally, like those foreign models, and generate international attention.

6.2 Serial Exports and Transnational Distribution

The industry discourse on German quality TV drama has for a long time revolved around the question of how these productions can achieve increased distribution abroad. Such desires are not new, as a look at German film history shows. Already in the early 1930s, German film producers sought to make high-quality Großfilme (big films) that also circulated on the international market and had potential to become successful on a broad economic basis (Garncarz 2016, 132–133). But, unsurprisingly, in accordance with the recent shifts related to serial television drama and streaming distribution, the discourse on transnational exports no longer focuses on cinema and the single feature film; rather, it is tied to serial content and the various platforms available in today’s transformed and digitised television context.

Many studies on German television have noted a lack of exports, often attributed to the tradition of the “total buyout”, according to which producers cede all rights to the commissioning broadcaster.⁴ It is argued that in giving up all rights German producers are left with fewer opportunities to generate funds through foreign sales. Thus, they also have fewer incentives to attempt to reach foreign markets and are also less able to invest additional income through transnational sales via foreign subsidiaries. British production companies, by contrast, are said to have succeeded in penetrating external markets, such as Germany, through their local subsidiaries and format sales, thus strengthening their transnational position (Castendyk and Goldhammer 2018, 38).

Of course, the transnational television business consists of not only the direct export of programmes but also the trade in format rights, which has become significantly more dynamic due to transnational streaming companies and digital distribution. The procedure that was common for many years, whereby a format first had to succeed on the domestic market and then, where necessary, could be adapted for other countries, has been suspended to a certain extent by simultaneous publication on platforms such as Netflix. In the transnational format trade, seen as an “Anglo-American invention” (Chalaby 2012), and which shaped German television from the 1990s onwards, Germany generally appears more as an importer than an exporter. Additionally, several TV dramas from the sample period were based on foreign formats. These include, among others, DRUCK/SKAM Germany (Funk/ZDF, 2018–), the German version of SKAM (NRK, 2015–2017); Bonusfamilie/Bonus Family (ARD, 2019), based on the Swedish dramedy Bonusfamiljen/Bonus Family (SVT/Netflix, 2017–); and the medical youth drama Club der roten Bänder/Club of Red Bracelets (Vox, 2015–2017), based on the Catalan Polseres vermelles (TV3, 2011–2013), alongside further “original” dramas by the commercial broadcaster Vox (e.g. Milk & Honey, 2018). But, on the flip side, the British subsidiary Studio Hamburg UK produced The Cleaner (2021–), a British adaptation of Der Tatortreiniger/Crime Scene Cleaner (NDR, 2011–2018) for BBC One (Niemeier 2020a). Previous to that, a Dutch, Belgian, Ukrainian and Russian version of Danni Lowinski (Sat.1, 2010–2014) was produced. In the US, one pilot was filmed based on this Sat.1 dramedy about a lawyer offering her services in a shopping mall (Niemeier 2017). Against this background, alongside a great many series exports, the thesis that German television drama has hardly found any distribution beyond the German-speaking countries cannot be consistently upheld.

6.2.1 Serial Export Traditions

In less “prestigious” non-English-speaking markets and in the daytime programming of various nations, German series have been present for some time. The long-running crime procedurals Derrick (ZDF, 1974–1998) and the daily soap Sturm der Liebe/Storm of Love (ARD/WDR/BR, 2005–), licensed to more than 20 countries, are particularly well-known and successful examples of drama exports from Germany. Heimat, especially the first season, subtitled Eine Deutsche Chronik—A German Chronicle (ARD/SFB/WDR, 1984), as well as the Rainer Werner Fassbinder drama Berlin Alexanderplatz (ARD/WDR/RAI, 1980) were likewise critically acclaimed beyond West Germany. The interviewed practitioners also repeatedly referred to these two examples of auteur work for TV, clearly influenced by New German cinema, when exploring quality drama in German television history and bringing national traditions into the discourse on transnationalisation (Krauß 2021a).⁵

Later event miniseries, such as Die Flucht/March of Millions (ARD, 2007) and Dresden (ZDF, 2006), both mostly set during the National Socialist era and originating from the production company UFA Fiction and its predecessor teamWorx, also circulated beyond the German-speaking world (see Cooke 2016). However, the US distribution of the three-episode period drama Unsere Mütter, unsere Väter/Generation War (ZDF, 2013), following five young German friends and their different paths through Nazi Germany and the Second World War, took place in only a few arthouse cinemas (Scott 2014). Nevertheless, Florian Cossen (2018), one of the two directors of Deutschland 86 (Amazon Prime Video, 2018), and other television professionals presented this production as a turning point towards the more widespread distribution of German television drama. Still, harsh accusations of revisionism, which Generation War faced especially in the US (see Scott 2014) and Poland (see Saryusz-Wolska and Piorun 2014) due to its focus on young, “good” Germans in contrast to negatively portrayed Polish minor characters, can also be interpreted as a problematic and ultimately hindering the reputation of German television fiction abroad. Among the television professionals interviewed were equally critical voices about such “event” dramas on National Socialism. Some complained about the formulaic narration and a falsification of history or feared a thematic narrowing. Meanwhile, Kosack (2017, 2018), from his perspective as UFA managing director, argued at industry workshops that German television drama on the National Socialism era in particular has sold well transnationally. Robert C. Reimer, Reinhard Zachau and Margit M. Sinka (2017, 244) state similarly in their introductory volume on German cinema: “Movies dealing with Nazi themes had been of the largest export successes”. From an economic point of view, it thus seems understandable that, according to Kosack (2019), UFA Fiction continued to stick with the 2019 series project on the life of the young Adolf Hitler, which received a lot of (negative) media attention and faced accusations of glorification even in its nascent state, before any greenlighting or shooting had occurred. While the transnational distribution company Beta Film is said to have been quick to take a financial stake in the miniseries, which is based on books by Hark Bohm and Nicki Stein, other potential financiers, including from the US, kept their distance. The industry magazine DWDL.de emphasised the reluctance of ARD and ZDF, in particular, to support the Hitler miniseries after the commercial broadcaster RTL dropped the project (Niemeier 2019). The supposedly successful model of “UFA series and films on National Socialism” thus seems to have reached its limits.

Deutschland 83 and its two sequels, Deutschland 86 and 89 (Amazon Prime Video, 2018/2020), with their 1980s settings, pop culture references and strong serialisation, have taken different paths than previous period dramas from UFA, which were strongly anchored in the television film format of two or three 90-minute parts. Further, Deutschland 83 represented a change in drama exports from Germany by breaking through to English-speaking markets.

6.2.2 Series Exports in a Changing Media Environment

Deutschland 83 was the first German television drama to run on a US channel (Rogers 2018), albeit only on the niche pay TV channel SundanceTV. However, when broadcast on Britain’s Channel 4 in 2016, the production became the “highest-rated subtitled drama in television history” (Oltermann 2016), and many English-language reviews were favourable (e.g. Genzlinger 2016). Several production members of Deutschland 83 and the sequels Deutschland 86/89 (Fig. 6.2) emphasised the series’ transnational success, especially in English-speaking markets, while other practitioners relativised or even questioned the show’s great fortune. Gebhard Henke, for example, who was still an influential executive at WDR (a constituent member of the ARD network) at the time of the interview, argued that one could hardly assess the claim that Deutschland 83 was an international hit: “They don’t tell you that they’re selling it to Lithuania for 1,000 euros; I’m just going to say that mockingly” (2018). Henke’s statement might be interpreted as malice from an arguably less transnational or less successful competitor, but it also points to the lack of transparency when it comes to television exports. The details of licence payments are rarely made public, and so the economic significance of foreign sales of German television fiction can often only be guessed at. When asked about the relevance of this situation from UFA Fiction’s perspective, Kosack (2019) noted that the individual sums may not be huge but transnational sales nevertheless make an important difference, as the production company can invest these additional revenues into story development. According to this line of argument, export earnings are relevant precisely for funding screenwriting.

Fig. 6.2

(© UFA FICTION/Anika Molnár)

Series export in a changing TV landscape—a still from the second-season Deutschland 86

Regardless of the actual licence payments made, the production of Deutschland 83 represented an innovation for TV drama exports in the German context—on the one hand because it reached the US market, which until then had been closed to German television fiction, and, on the other, because the US broadcast took place before the German one. The long-standing rule that a series must first succeed in the German market before being exported to other countries no longer seems compelling.

Eva Novrup Redvall (2018, 148) differentiates between series that are sold transnationally as finished, filmed and usually already nationally distributed products and those still in production during licensing. In Germany, the latter scenario is now also conceivable, where producers begin thinking about foreign distribution from the outset. For Babylon Berlin, for example, the “venture capital” (Henke 2018) flows through Beta Film. This transnational distribution company from Germany thus also acts as a producer, “in the certainty that it will be refinanced by international partners”, as noted by Henke, who was involved in the development and production of the show’s first two seasons.

This certainty likely stems from the described expansion of channels and platforms. Even if the “gold rush mood” (Winger 2019) propelled by the plethora of commissioners has increasingly dimmed since 2020, it is still true in principle that the demand for series has increased across countries because filling online offerings demands different content. In view of digital distribution, broadcasters and platforms can also include “niche” dramas in their programming, such as German-language series, which in many countries and distribution contexts are only or primarily distributed with subtitles.

There is also a certain interest in German series from transnational and European programme providers because of the Audiovisual Media Services Directive. According to these guidelines on audiovisual media services drafted by the European Commission, EU member states must ensure that the share of “European works” (European Commission 2020) in video-on-demand catalogues is at least 30% (see also Eichner 2021). In his keynote speech at the 2020 Berlinale Series Market, media lawyer Christoph Fey (in Fey et al. 2020) problematised the fact that the instrument of the programme quota still stems from “linear times”. The quota provides streaming portals the loophole to hide purchased local goods in their large offerings. According to Fey, rules on commissioning independent production companies to create “local content” therefore make more sense as a way to strengthen the local television industry. What “local” content ultimately is, however, is not always easy to determine. The European Commission includes in its definition of “local works” co-productions between the EU and other countries (European Commission 2018). Against the background of this understanding, a further increase in European and transatlantic co-productions is to be expected.

Fig. 6.3

(© Netflix)

Release in different territories—posters for season two of Dark

The co-productions discussed in Sect. 5.2 as an economically minded approach are also one way of working towards transnational distribution of largely German series. With the participation of different broadcasters or platforms, distribution beyond Germany seems guaranteed. Alongside conventional co-productions, another scenario has emerged: productions for transnational SVoD platforms, where transnational distribution is already baked into the deal. Individual streaming services—first and foremost Netflix—release series mostly simultaneously in different territories (see Fig. 6.3, see also Lobato 2018, 69) such that export occurs almost automatically and without the intermediate step of licence trading. This process can be problematic for production companies. Producers at the 2020 Berlinale Series Market complained that Netflix only pays local prices, and they highlighted the loss of additional income through licence sales (Fey et al. 2020; see also Krauß 2020e). In the interviews, corresponding criticism of Netflix’s inadequate pay was hardly ever voiced and, when it was, only “off the record”. Probably, the practitioners were careful not to discredit Netflix as a potential or actual partner. Given the time of most interviews (2018–2019), it is also likely that many of the practitioners had not yet cooperated with this or other similar transnational SVoD platforms and still looked at them optimistically.

Particularly in relation to Netflix, the television professionals also dealt with the question of language. Often, they regarded the German language as a hurdle when it comes to the transnational distribution of local productions. However, in this respect, the television landscape in and beyond Germany also appears to be in a process of transformation, as conveyed through the practitioners’ self-reflections.

6.2.3 The Dilemma of Language(s)

Are subtitled TV dramas becoming increasingly accepted, even in English-speaking countries, in light of the diversified, transnational television market, facilitated by digital platforms and the option they give viewers to consume content in different languages (including with various subtitles)? The interviewed television professionals regularly expressed this hope. Such faith stems from the relative success of some Danish series in the UK in the 2010s (see e.g. Eichner and Esser 2020). “All non-English is completely exotic, still”, however, emphasised Frank Jastfelder (2018a), director of original drama productions at Sky Deutschland. For the period drama Das Boot/The Boat (Sky Deutschland, 2018–), which had not yet been released at the time of the interview, Jastfelder predicted a comparatively large audience in Sky’s territory of Great Britain, as one of the show’s original languages is English (alongside German and French).

Thus, one strategy to succeed transnationally is to include English dialogue. In fact, English dialogue and English-speaking characters appear in several contemporary quality drama productions from Germany. For example, Deutschland 86 and 89 have increased English compared to the first season, Deutschland 83. In Unorthodox (Netflix, 2020, see Fig. 6.4), the follow-up (and still German) project by the head writer of Deutschland 83 and 86, Anna Winger, English clearly dominates over German and Yiddish, the other, comparatively exotic, language of this miniseries about a young Jewish woman fleeing her ultra-Orthodox community in New York to live in Berlin.

Fig. 6.4

(© Anika Molnar/Netflix)

English, Yiddish, German—the multilingual Netflix series Unorthodox

The mystery drama Dark represented an innovation in dealing with the language question, as its commissioner Netflix also made a dubbed version available in the English-speaking market, where foreign films and television programmes (excepting children’s and animated formats) are usually only subtitled. But some practitioners regarded Dark’s dubbed version in English as a mere “test balloon” (Jastfelder 2018a) and a clever marketing tactic with which Netflix continued to make a name for itself. Thus it was not always viewed as a sustainable approach pointing the way to the future or as a way to generally increase export opportunities for German drama productions.

Discourses on language also affect the production and screenwriting steps. Several quality TV drama projects from Germany have been characterised from the outset by English-German bilingualism in their script development and therefore by interconnected globalisation and localisation processes. Sometimes, writers also wrote treatments, concepts or first dialogues primarily in English. English-speaking consultants were brought in, or editors from non-German commissioners such as Netflix gave notes in English.

6.3 The Transnationalisation of Project Networks and Actors

In meetings with foreign or at least transnationally oriented financiers, economic and creative exchange processes occur via the linked co-productions and co-financing arrangements and in the emerging project networks, alongside a potential transfer of knowledge (Szczepanik 2018, 168). In screenwriting, approximations of processes from the US industry, especially the “showrunner” and “writers’ room” models,⁶ emerge, but national specifics also come to light. In addition to such ways of writing and producing television dramas, the interviewed practitioners negotiated how they and their colleagues transnationalise their profiles and cooperation, at the micro-level, within individual project networks and screen idea work groups.

6.3.1 The Transnationalisation of Individual Actors

At least some players in the German television industry are now taking a more transnational approach to television production. Jörg Winger, for example, the co-creator of the Deutschland trilogy, founded Big Window Productions within the UFA group. Under Big Window, he aims to develop both English- and German-language series for transnational distribution.⁷ Likewise, Hanno Hackfort, part of the “HaRiBo” writer trio behind the gangster drama 4 Blocks and the Netflix action thriller Kleo (2022), expressed interest in doing “something in a more international framework” (in Hackfort, Konrad and Kropf 2018). Hackfort referred to communication with a British production company that had shown interest in one of HaRiBo’s ideas but insisted on having a German co-producer on the project as well. Here, the relevance of national considerations within the context of the tendency towards transnationalisation emerges once again. This specific anecdote brings to mind the theoretical approach of glocalisation and suggests limits in the globalisation or transnationalisation process.

Bernd Lange (2018), a well-known screenwriter of several feature films and the crime miniseries Das Verschwinden/The Disappearance (ARD et al. 2017), addressed barriers to transnationalisation specifically with regard to his profession and the language used in the writing process:

When it becomes more specific, when it has more to do with what surrounds you […], then the path from the mother tongue to writing in a second language is a really big step for a writer. That is a handicap and a strength: yes, you are close to what surrounds you and can articulate that well. And a handicap when it comes to internationally understandable dialogue. And here, of course, you are less cosmopolitan than Eddie [Berger] or Christian Schwochow or someone.

The directors Edward “Eddie” Berger and Christian Schwochow mentioned by Lange are well-known, repeatedly cited examples of transnationalisation on an individual, personal level. Both have now also directed English-language series: Berger The Terror (AMC, 2018–2019) and Patrick Melrose (Sky Atlantic/Showtime, 2018), and Schwochow several seasons of The Crown (Netflix, 2016–2023). For the director, Lange’s statement implies, the move abroad or to another language seems easier than for the screenwriter.

The migration of individual professionals to the US and UK is one factor in the current industry discourse surrounding a “war on talent”. Several practitioners lamented the struggle to secure for their projects “the top people in the profession” (Zöllner 2018), in view of the increase in TV drama production in and beyond Germany and the expansion of commissioners. Such intensified competition is similarly evident in other European markets and is related to the transnational networks of television financing, if we follow Redvall (2018, 148). She states: “[I]nternational funding opportunities mean new and fierce competition around securing the best talent, in front of and behind the camera”. To contend with this situation, producers from Germany also resort to hiring from abroad; at the same time, German television professionals (at least in individual cases) find themselves in a transnational competition.

6.3.2 Transnationality as a Selection and Quality Criterion

The transnational appeal of individuals, teams, groups and production companies can constitute an important selection criterion when composing screen idea work groups and broader project networks. Furthermore, transnational appeal affects production companies’ promotion of series to potential financiers as well as the commissioning and later greenlighting of projects. When acquiring financiers and licensees for Babylon Berlin, the internationally renowned director Tom Tykwer took on an important role, according to Gebhard Henke (2018). For the first German Netflix series, Dark, the transnational selection criterion was decisive as well. Netflix likely selected the production company Wiedemann and Berg for this project because it had been responsible for the earlier transnationally successful feature film Das Leben der Anderen/The Lives of Others (2006), winner of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2006. Further, writer Jantje Friese (2019) suggested that her and partner Baran bo Odar’s first work experiences in the US industry, along with their idea for Dark and the notable success of their German cyber thriller Who Am I (2014), were important factors behind Netflix selecting them:

[For Netflix], it was totally great that we had already learned this American way of working. […] When they were looking, they had the feeling: Okay, you can somehow work with them, and they speak our language. By that I don’t just mean English.

This claim of experience in the US industry, as well as those by other interviewees (especially Winger 2017; Berger 2018), must be seen against the background of “self-interest, promotion, and spin”, which, according to John Thornton Caldwell (2008, 14), generally characterises interview statements by television and film producers. Like Friese, several interviewees seemed keen to appear transnationally versed and networked, at least in the direction of the US and Western Europe.

The transnationality of individual projects and their actors can also play an important role long after the initial idea development and screenwriting stage, during evaluation of a series’ first season and the question of continuation. The director and writer Achim von Borries (2019) minimised the significance of viewing figures for the linear broadcast of Babylon Berlin on the German public broadcaster Das Erste (The First, by ARD), which some in the television industry regarded as rather disappointing, claiming that the series was “an international super-success […] a huge thing”. The screenwriter Hackfort (in Hackfort, Konrad and Kropf 2018) stated that recognition abroad should be considered alongside or instead of audience ratings in a national context. Transnationality is thus positioned as an important criterion. In this sense, it is closely related to the debates on quality in German TV drama.

With regard to transnationality in narration and content, the analysed practitioners tended to also emphasise local traits. For instance, Hackfort and Konrad (in Hackfort, Konrad and Kropf 2018) pointed out with an ironic undertone:

Hanno Hackfort::

There’s this famous saying.

Bob Konrad::

The more local, the more global.

Accordingly, the practitioners spoke of “local stories […] with universal problems or universal characters” (Jastfelder 2018a). “Why shouldn’t a series set only in the Ruhr Valley […] or only in the Swabian Jura work internationally?” continued Hackfort rhetorically, naming very specific regions of Germany and referring to the BBC drama Happy Valley (2014–), set in Northern England. Dark, on the other hand, was seen by some practitioners as “locally detached” in its mystery setting or, as Deutschland 86 director Florian Cossen (2018) put it, “completely international”:

[It] simply doesn’t matter that the actors speak German, but the whole impression, the aesthetic, the atmosphere, this mystery, this secret about a missing child. […] It just seems to work internationally.

In addition to subjects, setting and characters, the narrative style may be decisive in determining whether a series circulates beyond the German-speaking world and, more precisely, in Anglo territories. After all, it was not only a shared language but also the “common story-telling culture among the Anglo Saxon nations” (Horan 2007, 111) that made English-language broadcasters buy English-language television fiction from other English-language countries for a very long time.

Clearly, the practitioners were not only concerned with the content and form of a series in relation to transnationality. Rather, the textual characteristics played a central role in their discourse on quality TV drama in general, alongside questions about financing and production methods. The following chapter looks more closely at how the practitioners negotiated contents and forms, both present and past, of German television series. With this discourse, they also reproduced the notion of a national, or at least German-language, television culture unifying the television industry and the audience, which is presumably very much shaped by local productions.

Notes

• 1. See also the discussion of co-productions and co-financing in Sect. 5.2.

• 2. Chapter 7, which explores the practitioners’ text-related criticisms of German television fiction, looks more closely at this supposed conservatism in the forms and contents of television.

• 3. See also Sect. 5.2 on transatlantic co-productions that were supposed to fill the gap of mainstream US procedurals.

• 4. Chapter 4, on financing and distribution, offers a more in-depth look at the “total buyout” model.

• 5. For the historical traits mentioned in the practitioners’ discourse on quality TV drama, see also Sect. 7.3.

• 6. For in-depth discussion of the discourses and practices of the “showrunner” and the “writers’ room”, see Chapter 8.

• 7. Big Window’s first released project was Sam, ein Sachse/Sam, a Saxon (2023) for Disney+, a drama based on a real Afro-German policeman working in East Germany, which was internationally marketed as a “Hulu original”.