EXCLUSIVE: The producer behind a high-profile ITV documentary featuring Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers speaking about their experiences of the war in Gaza has put its film on YouTube. Zandland has swerved the usual distribution models for Breaking Ranks: Inside Israel’s War, which is now available on the Google-owned video platform.
Typically, a doc for a major UK broadcaster such as ITV will have a distributor handling sales to international channels and streamers in return for a license fee. A combination of buyer nervousness about a film covering such a contentious conflict and producer Zandland’s attempt to build an online community, however, mean Breaking Ranks has taken a different route to market.
“It’s that assessment of, yes, we could get a license fee for this from different places, and we’re actually not excluding those conversations…but it’s a different conversation,” Zandland founder Ben Zand told Deadline. “You can license it for your TV channel, but it’s not fully exclusive, we’re still going to have the film on YouTube because the primary goal for us here is to build the Zandland brand and the audience that comes directly to us.”
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The doc, which was commissioned by Tom Giles, Controller of Current Affairs ITV, played on ITV on November 10. The testimony and claims of the IDF whistleblowers in the film generated headlines in the mainstream UK press. Zand said that ahead of time “people were uneasy about taking the film” but potential buyers have since been in touch about acquiring the finished product. “Since the film’s come out, it’s the exact opposite response. We’ve had multiple channels get in touch with us and say, ‘can we now take this film?’”
The indie boss also admits the returns on an individual one-off film – especially one that makes buyers nervous – are small. “It’s not like these films make huge amounts of money, so you’re effectively doing it for this kind of earnest reason of wanting to bring truth into the world and tell important stories.” Zand said, adding that it is “critical right now to find a way to make journalism commercial.”
Producers are increasingly building YouTube into their business models, with monetization possible via AdSense, the system that connects content creators and advertisers, and working with brands and partners. For Zandland, the goal is building an online community for its programs, which lead on investigative work and on-the-ground journalism.
Zand said: “We’re not going to recoup the money from YouTube. We’re not really thinking about that, but we will recoup it in the sense of a combination of branded partnerships, integrations and licensing. That’s really the rationale.”