Cultural Diversity in Internationally Coproduced High-end Drama

Abstract

In January 2023, yielding what was described as a “landmark moment for the creative industry in Wales” (Morris, 2023) it was announced that Netflix had purchased Welsh heist drama Dal y Mellt [Catch the Lightning] (S4C, 2023-present). This acquisition has further extended the already impressive linguistic diversity of Netflix’s TV drama catalogue, will be the first long-form drama on Netflix which was filmed entirely in Cymraeg (Welsh language), and it allows this Welsh drama and Cymraeg itself to reach a multinational audience (Morris, 2023). Since this acquisition occurred within just a few months of this drama’s S4C debut in October 2022, Netflix’s purchase of Dal y Mellt suggests a pleasing level of confidence in its potential to engage this streamer’s nearglobal audience. Although an acquisition rather than a full commission or coproduction for Netflix, this decision provides further evidence of the increasing cultural diversity and specificity of the high-end TV drama that is now on offer to international audiences and of the contributions of Netflix and other multinational premium providers to this development. Entitled ‘Cultural Diversity in Internationally Coproduced High-End Drama’ this themed issue examines an increasing flow of high-end drama productions being produced outside the US, often facilitated by means of transnational coproduction deals that entail full financing or co-financing from leading US-owned premium players. While TV drama continues to be facilitated and produced in traditional ways, and national broadcasters remain the mainstay for this, the most notable recent change, in terms of sustaining this flow of transnational high-end dramas, has been the increasing commissioning activity of multinational subscription video-on-demand (or SVODs), indicatively Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, HBO Max, and Disney+. As the TV drama case studies that comprise this