On Monday, Stan announced that a brand new reality dating show will be coming to Australian screens soon, in the form of a steamy new series called Love Triangle.
Six singles will be challenged to find love without knowing what their potential partners look like. They will be able to text and call their matches as they get to know each other, but they won’t know what the person they’re messaging looks like until they choose someone to go on an IRL date with.
It’s the latest in a line of original commissions for the streaming service, with the slate well and truly broadening out from its drama-loving roots.
Mediaweek spoke to Cailah Scobie, chief content officer at Stan about commissioning Love Triangle, and what it takes to succeed in the Australian market.
With original dramas like Wolf Like Me, Eden, and Bloom on the slate – to name a few – Stan has long taken pride in being a major hub for drama. As the platform adds titles like RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under and now Love Triangle, Scobie says that reality is a genre that Stan is increasingly looking to move into.
“We’ve announced that we are intending to move towards 30% of our first run programming being Stan original commissions, and with that is the ability to move into genres outside of drama – which has been our traditional strength. At the end of the day, it is what streaming services have originally been built on, whether that’s licenced or commissioned content.
“I think reality presents a really new and exciting audience space for us to move into. We’re seeing that the global streamers are commissioning in that space, and the content is popular and is working for them.”
As for what Stan looks for when commissioning a show like Love Triangle, Scobie says that it really comes down to two things.
“It has to be noisy, and it has to be elevated. At the end of the day, we’re a paid service, so it has to be something that people go, ‘I’m so excited by that, that I’m willing to subscribe to a service.'”
At the end of the day, however, Scobie says that it’s important to keep the main goal in mind: to deliver content that brings audiences to Stan.
“We try not to be too prescriptive, because two things can meet that criteria and look completely different.
“With something like Love Triangle, what was so appealing about it was that it was a new, fresh take on, on modern dating – it was exciting to be doing something that ultimately wasn’t an Australian version of some other format. And who better to do it with than the experts at Nine and the strong partnership that they have formed with Endemol Shine Australia?”
Taking the wheel of Love Triangle are with Endemol Shine Australia director of content Tara McWilliams and Nine Network executive producer John Walsh – both names behind the ratings juggernaut, Married At First Sight. Working for a show exclusive to Stan has meant that the pair didn’t have to work within the constraints of broadcast.
See Also: How Stan dialled up the dating drama with original series Love Triangle
“That’s the beauty of Stan,” says Scobie. “Something doesn’t have to be exactly 44 minutes long because it needs to fit in a time slot. You don’t have the interruption of commercial breaks, and the storytelling can just continue. Hopefully, that makes it a really enjoyable and organic ride for the audience.”
Tara McWilliams and John Walsh
Having worked with such a laser focus on the Australian streaming market since its launch in 2015, Stan knows a thing or two about what it takes to succeed in the Australian landscape. Scobie says that there are a few key factors to consider.
“Great content, obviously, that goes without saying. We market our content in an incredibly impressive way, so you need people to know about the great content.
“Apart from that, there’s the platform and the technology – the ability for people to watch it and for that to work, the ability for people to have a great customer experience all around. At the end of the day, that’s what Stan represents – delivering something to audiences that they want.”
Competitor platform Netflix is the original Goliath of streaming services, but recently, headlines have been popping up more and more often about the loss of subscribers. When asked whether or not that presented an opportunity for Stan, Scobie says that it’s not something that’s front of mind.
“We focus on what we’re doing, being the best that we can be, and bringing the unique storytelling that we can bring. If you focus on that, and you do that really well, the rest takes care of itself.
“The streaming world is unique in that most people don’t just have one service – just because someone has Netflix doesn’t mean they’re not also going to have Stan. It’s about making sure that you are a service that people can’t live without, and that’s largely about ensuring that you have something that people want to see that they can’t see anywhere else. I think Love Triangle is a perfect example of that.”