There were 1,200 buyers in Cannes and 145 exhibitors from 35 countries. With 14 country pavilions and a cohort of 250 journalists, there was a buzz about MIPCOM 2021 which augurs well for 2022.
While the safety of MIPCOM’s visitors was the paramount concern, it was also encouraging to see that the face-to-face format also generated some serious business. Across the week, there were plenty of deals that indicated that MIPCOM is still a key platform for tape sales, format deals and co-productions.
One highlight of the market was the number of volume deals, with leading distributors selling multi-hour, multi-genre package deals to clients. BBC Studios, for example, agreed its first-ever content package with Warnermedia Latin America for HBO Max. The deal covers over 100 hours scripted, children’s and factual content, and includes some regional premieres. Titles include limited drama The Pursuit Of Love.
New York-based FilmRise, meanwhile, entered into a volume distribution deal with TMS Entertainment, one of the world’s largest anime studios. The deal gives FilmRise AVOD rights for the US and Canada to 38 anime television series and films — comprising over 1,100 episodes.
Europe’s major content studios enjoyed a strong market. All3Media International licensed Netherlands entertainment format Traitors to NBC Universal US and the BBC UK; and UK format Love Trap to TF1 in France. It also enjoyed success with Optomen Television’s factual entertainment format Sort Your Life Out, picked up by Netherlands’ SBS6 and TV2 Denmark among others.
Studiocanal, meanwhile, sold three seasons of children’s animation series Esther’s Notebooks (Les Cahiers D’Esther) to Italy’s RAI. It also sold its ratings hit and CANAL+ Creation Originale comedy drama series All The Way Up (10 x 30 mins) to WarnerMedia Latin America for HBO Max, and to Radio-Canada. Other sales included 255 episodes of Spanish daily drama Dos Vidas (Two Lives) to RTI Mediaset in Italy.
There were deals across all the major genres. In drama, Beta Film closed a raft of global deals for its glamorous six-hour period drama, Sisi, which held its world premiere at MIPCOM. Buyers included Mediaset in Italy, Globoplay in Brasil, NPO in the Netherlands, RTL in Hungary, RTVS in Slovak Republic and Viasat World’s Epic Drama channel for use in Eastern Europe, Greece, Cyprus and Turkey. Beta Film also inked pre-sales for its period drama series, Hotel Portofino. Dutch broadcaster NPO picked up the series, as well as DR for Denmark, SVT for Sweden, NRK for Norway, YLE for Finland and SYN for Iceland.
Still in scripted, France tv distribution sold a raft of drama series to broadcasters in Europe, Latin America and Asia. Sales to Portugal included Alex Hugo, Bright Minds, Perfect Crimes, Mystery In Paris and the Murder In… collections, destined for Fox Crime. The Wagner Method along with Murder In… and Bright Minds are making their way to Japan where they will air on AXN Mystery Channel.
Russian drama also continued to be popular with international buyers. Period crime thriller Noble Detective, produced by Moscow’s NTV, was acquired by Japan’s NHK Enterprises.
In factual, channel owner Quintus Studios acquired over 100 hours of factual content for its growing portfolio of AVOD channels. Deals were struck with producers and distributors including Hat Trick International, 3DD, Albatross World Sales, WAG Entertainment, Drive and Federation Entertainment. The content featured genres including real life, history, natural history and feature documentaries.
Factual covers a broad spectrum of content, and one of the best-selling sub-genres is true crime. Among deals in Cannes, Espresso Media International licensed three-parter Monster In The Shadows to NBCUniversal streaming platform Peacock. Monster In The Shadows has also been licensed to Foxtel in Australia. Still in factual, Big Little Fish TV’s new documentary Sir David Jason: The Lancaster At 80 was acquired by the UK’s Channel 4. International distribution is being handled by Abacus Media Rights.
In kids, Canadian prodco Epic Story Media (ESM) signed deals for several titles across its children’s slate. Educational series Pocoyo (209 x 7 mins) landed with WarnerMedia Kids & Family US for its Cartoonito pre-school block, and was also picked up by Knowledge Network for broadcast in Canada.
Elsewhere Canada’s Guru Studio scored a raft of deals for True And The Rainbow Kingdom, its pre-school animation. The series was picked up by Clan RTVE (Spain), Carousel (Russia), WarnerMedia Boomerang (France, Africa) Mediacorp Okto (Singapore), EBC Yoyo (Taiwan), TG4 (Ireland), Spacetoon (Middle East), Channel 4 (Finland) and Pixel (Ukraine).
Formats, as always, saw vibrant trading. In addition to the deals already referenced, Talpa secured season renewals from Dutch network SBS6 for Hunting Season and Dream Duets. Talpa’s new talent contest Avastars, has also been commissioned by the Middle East’s MBC Group.
Fuji TV Japan’s iconic format Iron Chef was licensed to FilmRise, which secured all SVOD and AVOD rights; while STV Production’s Long Lost Family has been licensed to Denmark’s DR by distributor Lineup Industries. Elsewhere, format production and distribution company Media Ranch unveiled a raft of deals, based on IP developed by participants in its Horsepower format incubator. President and founder Sophie Ferron said the company would be partnering with The CW on eco-focused competition format – Racing To Survive.
On the co-production front, millennial-focused channel and content producer Insight TV teamed up with China Media Group (CMG) to co-produce a new documentary series about a group of athletes preparing for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
Check our exclusive interviews & articles in the Previews to stay tune with the full MIPCOM & MIPJunior experience.
Discover our new platform onemip ! Coming up – 2022 exclusive content spotlights
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