Welsh language broadcaster S4C has entered into a commercial output deal with Hollywood star Ryan Reynolds, as part of a partnership between his Maximum Effort production company and Fubo, a US-based online streaming platform.
Maximum Effort produces films and TV shows that Reynolds stars in, such as the Deadpool Marvel movies and Welcome to Wrexham, a documentary about the football team the star co-owns with It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia creator Rob McElhenney.
The deal will see S4C supply six hours a week of Welsh language content for the Maximum Effort Channel, aired on “Welsh Wednesdays”. The weekly programming will include dramas, documentaries and entertainment formats and is meant to generate income to invest back into Wales’ creative sector. The deal aims to take Welsh language content to “Hollywood and the world” and, in return, benefit the entire creative sector and talent pool in Wales.
Reynolds, co-founder of Maximum Effort, said: “There is an alarming lack of Welsh content available for American viewing pleasure. That stops today. Well, actually Wednesdays.”
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Since Welcome to Wrexham debuted last year (on Disney+ in the UK), the football team was promoted to the fourth tier of the English football league system, a major achievement for a team that is at the heart of an old Welsh coal mining town.
It’s unusual, meanwhile, that a production company would commission a specialist broadcaster like S4C to make some Welsh language programming — normally the reverse would be commonplace.
But for the highly entrepreneurial Reynolds and co-owner McElhenney, it’s a great piece of intellectual property that may prove to be at the centre of many more deals should the club continue to rise up the ranks and gain greater fame. As well as producing films and TV shows, Reynolds founded the Aviation Gin brand, while Maximum Effort has made ads for brands Mint Mobile and Match.
But, by partnering with Maximum Effort, S4C is able to showcase Welsh culture, language and talent on an international stage. The deal also highlights the potential for smaller broadcasters to reach wider audiences by partnering with larger and more established platforms, such as Fubo, an eight-year-old live-sport streaming TV service that operates in the US, Canada, and Spain.
This may be crucial for S4C in particular, whose income relies on the BBC licence fee. Although its funding increased last year with a new BBC settlement, the Government froze the overall amount the Corporation receives. This is likely to directly impact S4C, given that the BBC provides around £20m of S4C programming annually, in addition to Welsh-language services on Radio Cymru, Radio Cymru 2 and Cymru Fyw.
Maximum Effort Productions, co-founded in 2018 by Ryan Reynolds and George Dewey, entered into a multi-year, multi-pronged partnership with FuboTV last year that includes a first-look deal for unscripted content.
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The partnership between S4C and Maximum Effort is a also an example of cross-border collaborations in the creative industries, particularly at a time following the pandemic that disrupted traditional ways of working and forced broadcasters and streaming platforms to adapt. The deal demonstrates the need for broadcasters and other content producers to think creatively and take advantage of new opportunities to reach wider audiences.
The deal also highlights how smaller broadcasters may look to reach wider audiences by partnering with larger and more established platforms, particularly one which uses a lesser-spoken language such as Welsh which is underrepresented in mainstream media.
