Media financing is quietly transforming from a niche, relationship-driven business into a professional asset class. Few people embody this shift as clearly as Adrian Politowski, BAFTA-nominated producer and executive chairman and co-founder of ALIGN. Over the past two decades, he has raised and deployed beyond 650 million euros in around 500 film and TV projects, including The Artist, Good Luck to You Leo Grande, and the HBO series My Brilliant Friend.
With ALIGN, Politowski is building a bridge between creative content and institutional capital. His team focuses on senior private debt in the film and TV sector, a 10 billion euro underserved credit market that emerged after banks largely retreated from independent media lending. In this conversation with altii, he explains how structured media credit can offer double-digit returns, strong downside protection, and uncorrelated cash flows for professional investors.
altii: Adrian, many people know you as a successful film producer. How did you transition from film production into the world of institutional finance?
Adrian Politowski: For more than twenty years I have lived at the intersection of media and finance. My background is a mix of engineering and economics. I studied both at Oxford, and my master’s thesis was on film financing. That led me to co-found my first company in Belgium, where new legislation at the time allowed corporations to receive tax benefits for investing in films.
Armed with a healthy dose of naivete, as most young entrepreneurs have, we built what became one of Europe’s largest film financing groups. Over fifteen years we raised around 550 million euros, financed up to sixty films per year, and expanded into production, visual effects, distribution, and sales. It gave us a full 360-degree view of the industry.
After selling our shares, we founded ALIGN to take the same investment philosophy toward a more institutional investor base, with a clear focus on downside protection, predictable returns, and selective upside.
altii: What exactly does ALIGN do today?
Adrian: ALIGN is a specialist private debt manager focused on film and TV financing. The key idea is simple. The majority of films, and about eighty percent of Oscar winners, are not financed by studios. They are independent productions and need third-party capital.
Banks used to operate in this space, but after the financial crisis in 2008, most stepped back. The knowledge needed to underwrite these projects often sits with only one or two people inside a bank. When they retire or move on, the entire department tends to disappear.
This created a ten billion euro underserved credit market. We provide senior secured loans to film and TV productions. These loans are backed by sovereign-supported tax credits or by corporate distribution contracts with companies such as Universal, Netflix, or national broadcasters.
In other words, we operate in the safest part of the capital structure.
A film is financed very much like a corporate balance sheet. You have different layers of financing, such as senior lending, mezzanine capital, and equity.
altii: Senior debt in the film world—why this strategy rather than equity investments?
Adrian: Because equity in film is extremely volatile. It is a hit-or-miss business, quite similar to roulette. You can win big, but the probability of losing money is high.
Senior lending, on the other hand, behaves much more like traditional private credit. We lend against tangible, contractually secured collateral.
- Sovereign-backed tax credits in the United Kingdom, France, Canada, and other countries
- Pre-sold distribution contracts with highly rated counterparties
- Insured completion of the film
- In some cases, the asset value of the film itself, which we underwrite extremely conservatively
This means our capital is typically repaid before the film is even released. We are not exposed to box office performance. Returns are predictable, not correlated with traditional markets, and they remain robust even during periods of disruption such as the time of COVID.
Moreover, because we see more than 400 opportunities per year and invest in only 4 to 5, we can negotiate a small equity kicker in certain cases. This adds uncapped upside without changing the risk profile of the senior loan.
This space is perfect for a private lender like us that has deep industry know how.
altii: You describe film and TV as an institutional asset class today. What changed?
Adrian: Three things.
First, streaming. The shift to content-driven business models created unprecedented demand. Streamers do not compete on price; they compete on content. That requires continuous investment, and independent producers supply most of that pipeline.
Second, uncorrelated performance. People watch films in good times and in recessions. During the dot-com crash, during the financial crisis, and even during COVID, overall consumption of content remained resilient.
Third, banks retreated. The big lenders left the independent segment, but the demand did not go away. Private credit stepped in naturally.
So you now have a fast-growing market, high-quality collateral, and almost no traditional banking presence. That combination is rare.
altii: How do you achieve stable, predictable results in what many people consider a volatile industry?
Adrian: By being extremely selective and extremely structured. We analyze around 400 projects per year and lend to only 4 or 5. Each project must satisfy strict conditions:
- Strong collateral such as sovereign tax credits or distribution contracts
- A completion bond in place, an insurance that guarantees the film will be delivered on time and on budget
- Diversification across regions, genres, production teams, and sales markets
- Intrinsic value, such as an internationally bankable cast, because even a weak film with a strong cast keeps a meaningful floor value
We also take a very hands-on role for a lender. We lead the legal closing, oversee production and revenue collection, and approve all sales deals. That level of control protects our investors capital.
This approach was tested during COVID, arguably the worst period in modern film history. The independent sector saw revenues fall by 61 percent. Yet our senior loans had zero write-offs on tax credit loans and less than 2 percent on distribution-backed loans. Our investors capital was preserved, which is why 74 percent of them committed again to our next fund.
altii: ESG has become a key topic for professional investors, and ALIGN’s strategy is classified as an Article 8 fund under SFDR. What does that mean in practice, and how do you integrate ESG criteria into something as intangible as film and TV content?
Adrian: For us, Article 8 is not a label we stick on at the end of the process. It is built into how we select and structure projects.
Article 8 under SFDR means that beyond pure financial return, our fund explicitly promotes environmental and social characteristics within a fully regulated Luxembourg framework. In practical terms, that starts with what we do not finance. We exclude projects that clearly conflict with our ESG principles, whether that is in themes, governance, or working practices.
Because there are no standard ESG benchmarks for film yet, we developed our own. For every production, we look at four dimensions:
- The carbon footprint of the shoot
- Diversity on screen
- Diversity behind the camera
- The overall themes and potential societal impact of the content
Thanks to a huge deal pipeline, we can apply these filters without compromising on credit quality or returns. The result is a senior debt strategy that aims to deliver double-digit returns and strong downside protection while at the same time supporting more sustainable, inclusive, and culturally relevant content. That is precisely what an Article 8 classification is meant to reflect.
altii: Who are your main investors?
Adrian: Our investor base has been primarily
- Family offices
- Multi-family offices
- Funds of funds
- Wealth managers
- Asset managers
They are typically based in Switzerland, Germany, France, Italy, the Benelux countries, and the United Kingdom.
With the arrival of Manuela Froehlich as Head of Fundraising and Investor Relations, a veteran with thirty-five years in the institutional landscape, we are now expanding further to pension funds, insurers, and cultural foundations.
altii: What does Manuela Froehlich’s arrival mean for ALIGN?
Adrian: Manuela brings institutional credibility and a remarkable network. She has scaled European fund businesses, led distribution teams, and co-founded Fondsfrauen, Europe’s largest network for women in finance.
Her joining sends a strong signal. Media finance is no longer niche. Institutions want uncorrelated private debt strategies with both impact and cultural relevance, and Manuela is helping us position our strategy accordingly.
We see other verticals in media where banks are not present. We want to position ourselves across these underserved niches.
altii: What is next for ALIGN? How do you want the platform to evolve?
Adrian: Film and TV is only one of several underserved credit verticals in media. We plan to expand into lending to medium-sized media companies in Europe. The focus remains private debt with strong downside protection, but in a more traditional corporate lending context.
The bigger vision is to build the category-defining institutional platform for media finance. Film and TV is our first vertical because it is where we have the deepest expertise, but the opportunity is much broader.
altii: How do you see the future of media and culture within institutional portfolios?
Adrian: I see it becoming fully mainstream. Cultural content is now a global commodity with predictable revenue mechanisms, data driven valuations, and stable, contract based cash flows.
For allocators who are looking for
- Uncorrelated yield
- Inflation resilience
- ESG aligned impact
- And diversification
It is an extraordinarily compelling fit.
The creative economy is no longer an exotic alternative. It is the next frontier of private credit.
altii: Adrian, thank you very much for this conversation. It is clear that media financing has matured into an institutional grade asset class and that ALIGN is helping to shape this market with discipline, transparency, and deep industry expertise (csa).
Picture © ALIGN