Aiming to capitalize on a hot trend, Aliza Rosen launched AYR Media in 2020 with a very specific approach: Mine great stories and produce them first in podcast form; then adapt and sell that IP as TV series and films. At this point, she’s produced and released six different successful podcasts – the most recent, Funny My Way, was produced with Conan O’Brien’s Team Coco and hosted by comedian/actor J.B. Smoove, while others include true crime series such as Bitter Blood, Queen of the Con and The First Wife (a Dirty John prequel). Rosen explains why her strategy is paying off.
Can you touch on why you’ve chosen this particular business strategy for AYR Media and path to creating content?
My background is in unscripted and documentary television production, but I’ve been obsessed with podcasts since the early days. I’m a big fan of so many different podcasts, and I even created and hosted my own show, interviewing industry insiders, for five years. So when it came time to launch my production label in 2020, I feel like I was uniquely equipped to lean into a model that embraced podcasting as the debut medium for new IP, but focusing specifically on stories that have the potential to travel across platforms and into the world of television and film (both scripted and unscripted).
It’s hard to deny that podcasting has replaced books and magazine/newspaper articles as the content business’ favorite incubator. It’s economical, it offers producers a long leash to flesh out the material, and most importantly, it gives stories the opportunity to find their audience.
It’s become such a popular approach that, recently, we’ve had networks and studios coming to AYR with IP and asking us to create a podcast that can serve as a pilot for a future series or film.
What would you say are the main benefits of being equipped with a fully produced podcast when pitching TV buyers?
I feel it’s the best piece of material you can present to a television buyer. By coming to the table with a completed, launched and successful podcast, you’re removing so much guesswork from the equation and making it as easy as possible for them to say “yes.” You have real, concrete metrics you can point to that prove the story has an audience, while also showing the different types of people who are responding to that story, and where the crossovers are. Not to mention, you have a compelling, fully formed series that’s incredibly easy for a network or streaming executive to consume and envision coming to life on screen.
What makes a podcast worthy of a television adaptation? What are the key ingredients?
This is obvious, but first and foremost, it needs to be a good podcast. You can’t rush it or skimp on any of the necessary ingredients of great audio storytelling because you’re already looking further down the road at TV and film adaptations. The podcasts with the most potential to convert are the ones that leave listeners wanting more – hopefully, the audience loved the story so much that they’re now seeking out any other available piece of content on it (articles, local news segments, etc.).
Also, all of our projects that are currently being adapted for scripted series have incredibly vibrant and complicated characters at the center. This gives potential directors and showrunners a lot to chew on and explore when creating the series for the screen, and it attracts incredible actors eager for the opportunity to bring these characters to life.
Lastly, I’ll say that the sweet spot for us has been pursuing true, timely, ripped-from-the-headlines stories that many people might have a surface knowledge of, but of which very few have a deep understanding. A great podcast can go in depth, revealing and presenting all of the interesting, weird, mysterious, funny and dramatic facets of a story, in a way that makes it incredibly appetizing to buyers.
