With the era of easy money long gone, producers are looking to co-production, financing and distribution models pioneered by the independent film industry.

The bubble — that surge of cash that over the past decades helped bankroll an unprecedented boom in TV drama production — appears to have burst. TV producers, gathered in Cannes this week for the MIPTV international television market, are pondering a future in which the cost of TV drama continues to spike while the primary sources of financing, namely broadcasters and online streamers, are slashing their commissioning budgets.