As traditional banks retreat from independent media lending, a gap has opened up that presents a significant uncorrelated opportunity, according to Align, the Brussels and Luxembourg based firm seeking to turn media finance into an asset class that can attract more institutional investors.
Founded in 2018 off the back of about two decades of structuring and deploying some €650m across close to 500 film and television projects, it sees an opportunity to bring specialist lending to an area that can involve a complex matrix of up-front funding, tax credits, and payments linked to films being released and sold on.
Co-founder and executive chairman Adrian Politowski comments that “we are lending against very specific collaterals. A good example is you have a producer; he has a deal with Universal, where it is going to buy the movie once it is finished. The problem is the producer needs the money upfront to make the film. So he’s going to come to us. We’re going to cash-flow the Universal contract. We then enter into an agreement with Universal and once the film is finished, Universal will pay us.”
Another key factor in producing films is the prevalence of tax credits in countries such as the UK.
Politowski notes: “In the UK there’s a very strong tax credit. A lot of international production is coming through in the UK. And basically it’s the same thing. The UK government will say, hey, if you come and shoot in the UK, we’re going to give you X amount, but we’re going to give it to you once the film is finished. The same problem. The producer needs the money up front.”
Currently, demand for film and television production is being fuelled by digital streaming platforms. And for investors, the draw is lack of correlation to traditional financial markets.
And there is plenty of interest in what the streamers are doing. It is on record according to a report in The Hollywood Reporter from 4 March 2026, that president Trump was buying more Netflix bonds in January for his personal portfolio, adding to those acquired in December, after the announcement of Netflix’ bid for Warner Bros. Discovery. Ultimately, Paramount bid some $110bn for WBD to beat Netflix’ offer.
“People consume content in good times and bad times,” notes Politowski. He emphasises that the asset class remains independent of broader economic cycles and global interest rate fluctuations.
What needs to be noted, however, is that the lending is not done against how well a particular film may perform at the box office, he stresses.
Align will focus on senior secured and asset backed loans. The collateral focus includes distribution contracts with major studios like Universal, or sovereign tax credits from established jurisdictions like the UK and California. Insurance comes in the form of completion bonds – a specialised form of insurance providing a guarantee that films are delivered on time and within budget, and removing operational and completion risks. And the structure of deals has an eye to being repaid typically before a film’s public release.
The strategy is also focused on being highly selective on which film projects it agrees to fund. A recent example is a film that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and was picked up by Sony Pictures Classics. The comedy – Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass – saw Align provide two instruments: a senior secured loan against the California Tax Credit, with reimbursement expected in March 2026, and an asset-backed loan against the project’s B2B market value.
Additionally, because the average loan maturity in this space is short – typically 14 to 15 months – Align says it can offer a semi-liquid fund structure that allows for quarterly redemptions, providing an attractive liquidity profile for a private credit fund.
With a fund ongoing, the business is also looking to debt funding of medium sized European media companies, another area where it feels banks have been hesitant to lend.
