Indie TV Playbook Goes Global: How a Low-Budget Hockey Romance Captured the World
Accent Aigu founders Jacob Tierney and Brendan Brady built a cost-efficient, indie-film–style model for premium scripted TV—one director per season, long takes, limited locations—while developing Heated Rivalry from a $3 million‑per‑episode budget; after turning Rachel Reid’s queer hockey romance into a TV series and riding a rabid BookTok fanbase, they faced low global offers until HBO picked up U.S. and many international rights with day‑and‑date Canadian premiere, fueling Crave’s biggest original debut and strong streaming milestones (tens of millions per week, rising to hundreds of millions). The lesson: trust a weird, specific creative vision and build for underserved fans to break through.”