Dynamic deal-making around completed shows, formats and coproductions, not to mention a few high-profile channel launches and corporate acquisitions, underlined MIPTV’s undisputed status as the engine room of the new global entertainment economy. Drama, as always, was in strong demand. High-profile deals saw MGM sell Fargo to Soho New Zealand and eOne sell AMC’s Halt and Catch Fire to Canal+ and HBO Nordic. Similar scale deals included All3Media International’s Anzac Girls to Globo/GNT Brazil and TV2 Denmark; BetaFilm’s Velvet to Rai Uno and M6; and Tandem/Lionsgate’s Sex, Lies And Handwriting to Bell Media Canada, TFI France and Pro7Sat1 Germany. BBC Worldwide screened its new political drama series The Honourable Woman starring Maggie Gyllenhaal (photo), who took part in a Q&A after the screening. Just hours after screening, BBCWW reported sales to Norway and France. There was also good news for Atlantique action series Transporter, which has sold to a range of markets including Italy, Turkey and Latin America.
Business in the factual TV arena was equally brisk, with BBC Worldwide selling titles to TVB Hong Kong and VOD platform Tencent in China. Other companies to report strong trade included Off the Fence, which sold a slate of factual shows to Hubu Media Group in China; TCB Media, which secured a range of deals with SBS Belgium, TV4 Sweden and Nine Network Australia; Zodiak Rights, which unveiled a content partnership with Ovation; Prime Entertainment Group, which licensed packages to Chello Central Europe and My Sport Channel; and GRB which sealed agreements with broadcasters in Asia, Africa and Europe.
UK-based distributors continued to be strong performers in this genre, with Shine International selling Educating Yorkshire to broadcasters including TVNZ, SVT and ABC Australia and DCD Rights selling music and documentary programming to DirecTV Latin America, Globosat Brazil and Phoenix Satellite TV China. There was also interesting news at France TV Distribution, which signed a multi-year factual output deal with Red Bull Media-owned Terra Mater Factual Studios. ARTE, too, had a successful market, licensing documentaries to Italy’s Channel 50.
A key feature of deal-making at recent markets has been diversification in the kind of companies buying and selling content. A great example of the new breed of deal-making was Red Bull Media House’s sale of 150 titles to Korea Telecom’s VOD service Olleh. Another next-gen partnership saw Fuji TV licence Japanese drama to Crunchyroll for Europe and the Americas. Linked to this expansion in deal-making has been an increased appetite for volume arrangements. ITV Studios Global Entertainment, for example, sold more than 500 hours of content to digital platforms and TV broadcasters across China and Thailand, including the crime drama Endeavour. Deals included a multi-year drama output deal with Tencent and a deal with Thai pay-TV broadcaster Next Step for 300 hours of factual TV.
Kids deal-making was also busy. DQ Entertainment and Method announced a second series of Peter Pan for ZDF, France TV, De Agostini and Tele-Quebec, while 9 Story Entertainment revealed a slew of international partners for Camp Lakebottom including Disney. Other noteworthy kids deals included Saban Brands’ Julius Jr. to Disney
Junior in Italy; BRB International’s Canimals to Hulu Kids; PGS Entertainment’s Super 4 to Cartoon Network in Italy and LatAm; and Red Arrow International’s Esio Trot to ARD.
Normaal’s Peanuts production will be distributed by France TV Distribution while UK indie Zig Zag revealed that it has acquired Japanese format Ultimate Brain to remake for children’s BBC channel CBBC. As the above kids deals demonstrate, global pay-TV broadcasters continue to be hugely-important customers for content creators. Other illustrations of this saw Turner take Platinum’s Matt Hatter Chronicles and D-Rights’ Beast Saga for its Asian services.
Some international deals cross both genres and territories. Among the most strategically significant alliances to be announced during the market was Modern Times Group’s content partnership with SPT, which covered film and TV content for the Nordic market. Channel launches included Azteca and Cisneros Media Distribution’s partnership with content distributor AfricaXP to launch Romanza+Africa, a telenovela channel targeting English-speaking audiences in Africa. MIPTV also saw Vice Media and Fremantlemedia launch food channel Munchies. Other deals of significance included the company acquisition of Eagle Rock by United Music Group.
There was a 4K co-production deal involving Chinese producer Rare Media and French company Camera Lucida to make 4K documentary Moon for Planete+ and France Televisions. A reminder that home entertainment is still a significant market for content owners was Gaumont International Television’s deals for supernatural drama Hemlock Grove with Shout!Factory and Kaleidoscope.
This and more in the MIPTV News Review, which resumes the entire market in just 15 pages! Download here…
