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MIPTV, TVFI TEAM TO PROMOTE FRENCH CONTENT MIPTV organiser Reed MIDEM and TV France International (TVFI) have signed a major ‘goodwill’ deal that will see the two organisations work in closer partnership to promote French television content to the world. At a signing ceremony in Cannes yesterday, TVFI president Herve Michel and Reed MIDEM president Paul Zilk met to sign the deal and celebrate a joint commitment to champion France’s creative industries. Michel said that the deal had come about after a long period of talks over mutual interests and support, in the face of a rapidly changing and increasingly competitive international marketplace. It was, he added, “logical that we join up our experience and knowledge”. The partnership will lead to further networking support for TVFI members during both MIPTV and MIPCOM, held in October, bolstering a long-term relationship going back to the origins of the MIP markets. Zilk said that after such a long relationship, a formal agreement between Reed MIDEM and TVFI was the right move in a changing global marketplace. “This is the leading French TV organisation internationally; it makes sense to be aligned with the leading market for international programming,” he said. “We are looking for ways to help one another as best as possible. That’s why we exist.” TVFI numbers among its clients more than 140 companies from the French industry, some 43 of which are in Cannes for MIPTV.
CANNESERIES; MIPDoc; MIPFormats; MIPDrama Buyers’ Summit; early MIPTV deals; and more...
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MIPTV delegates have priority access to CANNESERIES’ 10 Official Competition screenings. But seating is limited and doors close 15 minutes before the daytime sessions start, and 30 minutes before the evening sessions start — so please get to the screenings early.
Who’s watching? Audience measurement in a fractured and fragmented global media business
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Welcome to This weekend saw the official opening of CANNESERIES. We caught the stars on camera as they walked the pink carpet to the screenings
The CANNESERIES jury: president Harlan Coben (left), Melisa Sozen, Michael Kenneth Williams, Audrey Fouche, Cristobal Tapia de Veer and Paula Beer
Veteran US actor Antonio Fargas, in Cannes for the CANNESERIES Addict presentation of French police series Cherif
The team from The Truth About The Harry Quebert Affair: author Joel Dicker (left); actors Patrick Dempsey and Kristine Froseth; director Jean-Jacques Annaud; and actor Ben Schnetzer
British actor Michelle Dockery received the inaugural Variety Icon Award which recognises outstanding achievement in acting during the opening gala
Actors Cherif Aurore Erguy and Abdelhafid Metalsi, from French series Cherif
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Stars of CANNESERIES face the national and international press
Stars of Felix: Leonardo Sbaraglia and Mi Hoa Lee
The team from German series The Typist: actor Katharina Schlothauer (left), series creator Nina Grosse, actors Iris Berben and Moritz Bleibtrev, with producer Oliver Berben
Stars of Killing Eve: Sandra Oh (left) and Jodie Comer, with creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge
On- and off-screen talent from When Heroes Fly
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GIVING DOCS A GLOBAL REACH “TO SUCCEED in co-production, you need to be creative, commercial and collaborative,” said Kate Beal, CEO of UK production company Woodcut Media, at the MIPDoc International Co-production Summit. “Domestic-facing single docs are satisfying to make, but they don’t necessarily sell internationally. Our film Damilola: Death Of A Ten Year Old won awards, but our series World’s Most Evil Killers is on to season three and it sells all over the world.” The Co-production Summit was created to allow producers to network with leading commissioners and distributors including Pamela Aguilar of PBS, Kristina Hollstein of ZDF Enterprises, Pauline Mazenod of Windrose and Ellen Windemuth of Off the Fence. It ended with a pitch session in which four lucky doc producers touted for co-production funding. Beal urged producers to embrace distributors, and get them involved early. “A trusted distributor helps us punch above our weight,” she said. “Our shows start with a lead commissioner, but a distributor like TCB Media Rights helps us make them work internationally. They’re on the ground with clients around the world. They’re great in development. And they help us build the show’s brand.”
Woodcut Media’s Kate Beal
Power shift lets distributors drive international co-pros THE MIPDOC Keynote Superpanel — Power Shift: Distributors As Content Kickstarters, — examined the increasing role that distributors are playing, as they step in earlier in the creative and production processes to help make complex and expensive international co-productions work. “We live in a world of content that is a world of plenty. There’s a lot of content and a lot of opportunity. It’s an exciting time,” said Solange Attwood of Blue Ant Media. But, while there are more buyers for stories, delivering premium content is imperative. And that takes money. “We can be a resource in understanding what the market realities are, and understanding where a project might match and ultimately go,” Cristine Platt Dewey of ro*co films international said. “The other piece is putting financing together — thanks to our relationships with US broad-
casters and private funders.” With the rise of global OTT platforms such as Netflix and Amazon, producers often prefer to retain their international distribution rights, the panel said. This shift was leading distributors to act increasingly as sales agents. This could be beneficial both
creatively and financially, according to Terranoa’s Isabelle Graziadey. “When the creative and financial sides come together you get strong navigation of the market earlier on,” she said. “You can craft your film to the market, and think outside your local domestic market with help from international distributors.”
Moderator Pauline Mazenod (left); Terranoa’s Isabelle Graziadey Blue Ant Media’s Solange Attwood; and ro*co films international’s Cristine Platt Dewey
NHK seeks documentary diversity
SAYUMI Horie, head of NHK’s Global Development division, shared her co-production and acquisition priorities for the growing stable of factual channels at NHK — including new 4K- and 8K-specific satellite channels. She also used the MIPDoc Fireside Chat to announce a specific focus for international content: “I personally believe at NHK that we’re lacking documentaries on the emotional side, or narrative-driven approaches,” she said. In the run-up to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, she was looking for shows that promoted inclusion and diversity: “Channel 4 did an important job in making people realise the importance of diversity,” she said, referring to the UK broadcaster’s coverage around the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics.
She highlighted Don Juan, a Swedish film following the romantic travails of Oleg, a 22-year-old autistic man, as an example of the new emotional, narrative style for NHK. These human-focused films worked well for the World Documentary channel audience on satellite, she added, and she was trying to help this audience migrate to
NHK’s terrestrial offerings. Another notable success was The Cleaners, about outsourcing firms patrolling and censoring social media, and she said that big blue-chip science and nature was always a priority. For all of this, NHK preferred to buy in once a production had significant support from several local and international broadcasters.
NHK’s Sayumi Horie (left) and session moderator Kirstie McLure
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HIDDEN HITLER ARCHIVE FOUND “PEOPLE asked me why we need another documentary about Hitler,” said Thorsten Pollfuss of Epoche Media Productions, producer of archive documentary The Hitler Chronicles. “Amateur footage shows history as it was, not how official sources wanted it shown.” Pollfuss — speaking at a MIPDoc session about archives and storytelling — made his point by using a clip of Hitler at a rally in 1932. Newsreel often shows him addressing huge crowds, but amateur footage caught Hitler looking confused, and the spectators not saluting him. It takes time, money and experience to comb the private archives — and to find them in the first place. “German soldiers were allowed cameras, and they found it shameful afterwards,” Pollfuss said. “So they put it in the attic. The next generation didn’t talk about it, and the current generation don’t care. So material is still emerging.” In such situations, Melanie Rozencwajg of Archive Valley is a key ally. Based in France, she helps producers access archives and researchers in 70 countries. James Hunt of BiTC Films emphasised the importance of storytelling. In making Michael Caine feature doc My Generation, about 1960s pop culture, Hunt searched 350 sources, 1,500 bits of footage, 500 of audio and more than 10,000 stills. Hunt showed a sequence of the Beatles’ first performance at The Cavern Club. A well-known clip was intercut with 14 unknown ones by editor Ben Hilton. “It took six months to negotiate the use of clips to make three and a half minutes on screen,” Hunt said. “That sequence probably cost £50k — more than some documentaries.”
Melanie Rozencwajg (left), James Hunt and Thorsten Pollfuss
Players seek global rewards from factual Asian alliances “IT SHOULD be like your marriage: you should be very patient, you should be very faithful!” Sayumi Horie of NHK joked at the Let’s Talk Co-production: Asia’s Global Ambitions Keynote Superpanel. She said the Japanese public broadcaster was well versed in co-producing global subjects, but that its current big production, Japan From Above, was a departure.“This time we’ve challenged ourselves by going into a co-production about local culture,” she said. Kyle Murdoch from NHNZ said he had appreciated previous NHK collaborations: “We were lucky to grow up working with
CJ E&M’s Jaehyuk Lee
NHK, it really helped our company,” he said. NHNZ is now working on The Silk Road, a historical and cultural epic on the ancient trade route, with CCTV and France Televisions. “We were
there right from the initial conversations: the development was done in conjunction with CCTV,” he said. The Korean company CJ E&M is, relatively speaking, a newbie at factual production, with four titles developed last year. However, it was making natural history show Wild Korea with Oxford Scientific Films and Red Bull Media House studio Terra Mater. “It was hard to meet all the criteria with the UK, Austria, Korea and more, but we learned a lot,” CJ E&M’s Jaehyuk Lee said. “We didn’t just invest monetarily, we shot together, planned together. It was a daunting mission but we made it.”
FROM 100 submissions for the MIPDoc International Pitch to one winner: Luisa Schwamborn (centre left) holds the award for Soora: Breaking The Silence, which follows a group of women in Iran whose NGO is fighting for new laws against domestic violence and abuse. With her are: juror Elisabeth Hagstedt (left) Histoire; Reed MIDEM’s Laurine Garaude; and jurors Dr Kristina Hollstein, ZDF; Pamela Aguilar, PBS; and Paul Heaney, TCB Media Rights. The other shortlisted films were: Alzheimer’s: Tracking The Assassin (Axolotl Films), about waterborne toxins and the brain disease; History Uncovered (Zed France), presenting new takes on big events; Man Vs Time (DBcom Media), tracing unlikely time-saving inventions and their impact; and Next: Blockchain, on blockchain beyond Bitcoin.
PBS chronicles Sixties milestones ATTENDEES at the PBS International Fireside Chat got to turn on, tune in and drop out, and then shoot for the moon as the distributor’s Tom Koch and Germaine Deagan Sweet presented two programmes on events that took place weeks apart in 1969. Woodstock will be a two-hour docufeature that uses previously unseen footage and outtakes to tell the stories of people who attended the festival, and the cultural and social impact it had. “What is perceived as an American story is actually a global story,” Deagan Sweet said. “It’s resulted in a healthy portion of
the budget coming from partners: it’s something to be kept in mind when you’re approaching stories that seem very linear — just broaden them out a bit.” Chasing The Moon will be a sixhour film (probably four hours for international) about the effort behind the moon landing, again using a wealth of unseen footage. “It turns everything on its head,” Koch said. “It wasn’t an inevitable, predestined American triumph. In fact, it was almost a no-go at every turn.” Both films will be without “Voice of God” narration, something that Koch said would help them
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appeal to younger audiences. “We’re relooking at the stories that have been handed down to us. We can go back to old stories and add new tricks,” he said.
PBS’ Germaine Deagan Sweet
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PARTNERS ARE KEY TO SMITHSONIAN “CO-PRODUCTIONS are central to what we do,” according to David Royle, executive vice-president and chief programming officer of the Smithsonian Channel, speaking at a Fireside Chat. “We could never have got the channel going without our partners.” Epic Warrior Women is a case in point. Made by Sebastian Peiter of Urban Canyons, it included 15 co-production partners on a three-parter about women soldiers from the Amazons to the Dahomey women of West Africa. Another female-centred project is the un-Smithsonian-sounding Million Dollar American Princesses. This is season two of a series that shows that the North American women who married into European aristocrats long predate Meghan Markle — and even Wallis Simpson. The Smithsonian Channel is better known for archive-led projects, and Royle showed two new ones. The Lost Tapes: Malcolm X and America In Colour both use restored and re-colourised footage. “Life wasn’t lived in black and white,” he said. China’s Dragon Emperor is a documentary about the first emperor and the discovery of his mausoleum and the terracotta warriors that guard it. Royle also introduced The Wild Andes, produced by Light and Shadow. “We’ve seen a lot of African wildlife filming, but we’re looking for something fresh,” he said. “So currently we’re keen on South American and Asian natural history.”
CuriosityStream is proud to be ‘Netflix for nerds’, says Burns STEVE Burns, chief programming officer of factual SVOD CuriosityStream, is happy to acknowledge the epithet “Netflix for nerds” for his platform. “We’re proud that 34% of our subscribers are the hard-toreach millennials,” he said. Speaking at View From The Top, a session focused on what factual buyers and commissioners are looking for, he said these cord-cutters and cord-nevers want new approaches. “We look for new production techniques to tackle science and technology,” said Burns. “Animation, re-enactment, 4K and very entertaining story styles.” Christian Drobnyk, executive vice-president programming strategy and acquisitions at National Geographic Channels USA, is keen to get more host-driven series: “The challenge we all have is to make factual programming palatable to a new generation,” he said. “Morgan Freeman’s The Story Of Us and Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown bring new faces. And in the second season of
Genius, we have Antonio Banderas playing Pablo Picasso.” A big tentpole production in the schedule can drive demand for related content, Drobnyk said. “A movie on the same theme can expand our reach and get more people to want to see some of our big event television.” Recent France 5 titles show what Thierry Mino, deputy head of documentary, looks for: “Khe-
ops: Mysterious Discoveries, with National Geographic; Titanic: The New Evidence with Blink Films; and Expedition New Earth with Stephen Hawking, BBC and Brook Lapping.” Panel moderator Anna Carugati of World Screen closed the session by presenting all three speakers with World Screen 2018 Factual Trendsetter Awards for their contributions to the industry.
World Screen’s Anna Carugati (left), with Christian Drobnyk, Steve Burns, Thierry Mino and Reed MIDEM’s Laurine Garaude
FOX NETWORKS Group Content Distribution welcomed MIPDoc attendees to the Networking Lunch and previewed four factual highlights from National Geographic, including: One Strange Rock, the story of life on earth as told by astronauts, and narrated by Will Smith; and Jane, a feature documentary that tells the story of how Jane Goodall’s groundbreaking work with chimps in Tanzania transformed humanity’s understanding of its relationship with the animal kingdom. “The film had access to over 100 hours of never-before-seen footage from the National Geographic Society archives,” Prentiss Fraser, executive vice-president and managing director of Fox Networks Group Content Distribution, said.
Smithsonian Channel’s David Royle
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Documentary indies size up the impact of the Netflix effect “THIS IS a great moment to be doing what we do,” producer Jane Root, CEO of Nutopia, told the MIPDoc keynote superpanel on independent film-making. “There used to be rules about the shape, the size, the amount of money. All that’s been exploded. Working for Netflix is very different to dealing with somebody with a schedule.” And that is in spite of battles over rights. “It’s become an article of faith with British independents that rights are everything,” she said. “But it’s not the same in America. There’s none of the government provisions that allow people to retain rights. You have
to earn them, or do things differently. There are lots of very successful American companies that have never owned rights.” But Root hints that Netflix may be changing too. “I think you’re
going to see them getting more flexible. They’re starting to do deals where they don’t take [global] rights.” Jamie Isaacs, CEO Avalon Television Factual, still believes rights
Nutopia’s Jane Root
Get ready for real-time reality
JAN SALLING’s Nordic Format Screening always draws the crowds, as delegates flock to see the latest concepts from a region known for its format creativity. This year’s line-up didn’t disappoint. The formats on offer ranged from quirky dating shows and sailing challenges to talent quests and inter-generational gaming contests. Speaking after the session, Salling pointed to two formats — Snowman’s State Of Hate and Aito Media’s Away: Bali — that he believes have particular potential. The former takes two groups divided by hatred —
immigrants and nationalists, or homosexuals and homophobes
— and challenges them to work and spend time together.
Missing Link Media’s Jan Salling
DIRECTOR OF PUBLICATIONS Paul Zilk MARKETING DIRECTOR Mathieu Regnault
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are vital. And volume helps. “It costs a lot to launch shows,” he said. “If you don’t have volume, the sums don’t work.” For Ellen Windemuth, CEO of producer-distributor Off the Fence, it’s about something else too. “Netflix made it okay to make films with purpose again,” she said. “You can make a film like Black Fish now.” Windemuth is bringing in other funders, too. Her documentaries Gorongosa Park and Untamed Romania were made with conservation groups and eco-philanthropists, and partly funded by supermarket chains in Colombia and Romania. She’s currently producing Europe’s New Wild, a show about rebuilding indigenous populations of animals from bees to bison. Produced with the NGO Rewilding Europe, this will be released as a TV series and a documentary feature in 2019.
Away: Bali follows four young adults on a journey of self-discovery via live Q&As, blogs, vlogs and weekly wraps. “State Of Hate is the epitome of ‘entertainment with a purpose’, which is something we do very well in the Nordics,” said Salling, who is CEO of Missing Link Media. “It also comes from Snowman, which created Married At First Sight, so it’s worth paying it attention on that basis alone. And Away: Bali stands out because of its interactivity and multiplatform production methodology. It’s not just a strong idea but it’s also a new genre — real-time reality — and I think we’ll see a lot more of it.”
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EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT Editor in Chief Julian Newby Deputy Editor Debbie Lincoln Reporters Stuart Braun, Ben Cooper, Andy Fry, Juliana Koranteng, Isobel Lee, Max Leonard, Rachel Murrell, Gary Smith, Joanna Stephens Editorial Assistant Hannah Stephens Sub Editors Neil Churchman, Neil Crossley, Nigel Willmott MIPTV News Online Kristine Clifford Editorial Management Boutique Editions Head of Graphic Studio Herve Traisnel Graphic Studio Manager Frederic Beauseigneur Graphic Designers Véronique Duthille, Yovana Filipovic, Carole Peres Head of Photographers Yann Coatsaliou / 360 Media Photographers Christian Alminana, Patrick Frega, Phyrass Haidar, Olivier Houeix, Michel Johner. PRODUCTION DEPARTMENT Publishing Director Martin Screpel Publishing Manager Amrane Lamiri Printer Riccobono Imprimeurs, Le Muy (France). ADVERTISING CONTACT IN CANNES Julie Cazalis: +33 7 78 35 49 24 Reed MIDEM, a joint stock company (SAS), with a capital of €310.000, 662 003 557 R.C.S. NANTERRE, having offices located at 27-33 Quai Alphonse Le Gallo - 92100 BOULOGNE-BILLANCOURT (FRANCE), VAT number FR91 662 003 557. Contents © 2018, Reed MIDEM Market Publications. Publication registered 2nd quarter 2018. ISSN 1967-5178Printed on PEFC Certified Paper.
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OKAN HAILS RISE OF FORMATS OLD AND NEW
Inter Medya’s Can Okan
CAN OKAN formed Turkish distributor Inter Medya in 1992 and is now one of the country’s leading exporters of films, drama and formats. This year, Inter Medya is also a sponsor of MIPFormats. Okan said: “MIPFormats is the perfect platform for us to reach the attention of unscripted content buyers. The sponsorship is not only a great marketing tool to attract attention to our products, it is also a good way to understand and address the needs of buyers.” In terms of trends, Okan said: “The market is growing rapidly with the creation of hundreds of new formats each season. In recent years, we’ve seen competition between the classic “old but gold” formats and the new-generation formats. Formats with a digital element are especially in demand because of technology’s place in our lives.” As for Inter Medya’s key titles, he singled out a new reality dating show, The Perfect Couple, developed with Colombia’s DMT Producciones. “This title presents a good mixture of reality, dating and endurance. What makes it unique and interesting is that the contestants do not only compete during physical challenges but they need to build emotional relations in order not to be eliminated.” Okan also spoke about Inter Medya’s development process: “We have a creative in-house team that constantly develops ideas and we also work with companies across the globe to co-develop formats, including Secuoya Group based in Spain.”
Format jury put their shirts on Axel’s dating show pitch THE INAUGURAL Formagination At MIPFormats International Formats Pitch has been won by dating show Light My Fire, from Axel Fiacco of BicFormats. The format’s hook is that contestants wear “love shirts”, which light up if they are attracted to a potential partner. “We will see exactly what’s going on inside them,” said Fiacco, who was wearing a prototype shirt during his pitch. “We’ll see their excitement. They’ll practically be in flames!” Five new format ideas from around the world and across the genres were pitched to an expert international jury, which included Armoza Formats’ Avi Armoza and Nehama Cohen, CTC Network’s Daria Leygonie Fialko, Alibaba Media & Entertainment’s Qiang Li and Fox Broadcasting Company’s Alex Piper. The event brought to-
gether two long-standing format launchpads — the MIPFormats International Pitch and Armoza’s Formagination competition — with the aim of “identifying early-stage ideas with the potential to make it on international screens,” said host David Jenkinson of C21. The judges’ second-place choice was another dating show, I Need A Hero, pitched by Israeli news anchor and journalist Lital Shemesh. In each episode, five men compete in tough physical challenges to impress a single woman. What the men don’t know is that, when the cameras aren’t rolling, the woman is secretly testing their characters to see whether they are also sensitive and caring. The audience-choice winner was Future Astronauts, pitched by Miroslaw Skowron of Poland’s Mediolia. The show follows a group of teenagers as they em-
bark on an astronaut training course, leading up to a simulated mission to Mars. Observing that many kids dream of exploring space, Skowron said the format would combine individual competition with team co-operation. “It will be a huge adventure for teenagers, and it will also show their hidden talents,” he added.
Format winner: Axel Fiacco
Panel deciphers the data deluge THE CURRENT state of audience analysis came under the spotlight at a MIPFormats panel, The Bigger Role Of Data And Audience Measurement, featuring: vice-president, Eurodata TV Worldwide, Frederic Vaulpre; Courtney Williams, regional director Europe, Parrot Analytics; and Doug Wood, group director research & insight at Endemol Shine Group. “Measurement has always been vital in terms of advertising and buying or selling content,” Vaulpre said. “But the days when the overnight ratings were the yardstick have been replaced by more than 10 data sources. These include live broadcast, live streaming, playback, catchup, OTT, and apps, plus PC, tablets and mobiles. The next step,
which will unlock a golden age for advertisers, is to be able to look behind the screen and understand viewers and their affinities.” But Doug Wood sounded a warning: “The fact is there are still a lot of lost viewers who are not accounted for, and that needs to be addressed,” he said.
“But our main concern currently is that interpreting data requires an intimate understanding of what drives audience engagement.” Courtney Williams agreed about the importance of engagement: “How and why viewers engage is a big part of what we study,” he said.
The MIPFormats panel: Courtney Williams (left), Frederic Vaulpre, Doug Wood, with moderator Marjorie Paillon
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MIPFORMATS HONES IN ON CONTRASTING FORMAT APPROACHES
Vertical Network’s Tom Wright
TWO VERY different approaches to formats were the focus of attention at the MIPFormats Case Studies on Saturday. Taking a thoroughly digital approach was Vertical Networks, a company that focuses on creating shows for mobile phones. CEO Tom Wright admitted that thinking about taking them to TV is secondary. “We wanted to get away from the traditional pitch scenario by using statistics,” he said. “And when you approach TV companies with a show like Phone Swap — which already has 14 million viewers — you can do that. On top of that TV is a bonus for us, we are already profitable through our work with social networks.” An altogether more traditional approach in an already crowded genre — the talent show — has also proved to be successful for Endemol Shine. “We spend our time looking for gaps in the market and with All Together Now, the fact that we have 100 judges makes it a bit different to shows like The Voice, X-Factor and Idol,” said Endemol Shine’s chief creative officer Peter Salmon. “Our choice was for many of the judges not to be professionals and celebs. We preferred to have colourful, engaged people, but you could pack the gallery with celebrities if you wanted to.”
Out with the old as traditional players embrace “new normal” THE DIGITAL disruptors — including Facebook, Netflix, Amazon, Apple and Snapchat — are moving into unscripted, using their unparalleled access to data to understand exactly who wants to watch what, when. Saturday’s MIPFormats session, FAANGS: How To Work With The New Players, explored the differences between digital and legacy formats, and asked how difficult it is for traditional industry players to work with the new arrivals. “I don’t think it’s an either/or — you should be making shows and distributing shows for everybody and anybody,” said Dave Broome, presi-
dent of 25/7 Productions. Tom Wright, CEO of Vertical Networks, offered some forthright advice to MIPFormats delegates intent on exploring the new digital universe: “Don’t pitch shit! If you have things you know aren’t great, don’t share them. And if you have a project that feels an incredible fit for any one of the new platforms, pitch it there.” Jonathan Tuovinen, chief operating officer and head of international at Finland’s Rabbit Films, cautioned against getting stuck in the old models. “Be brave,” he urged. “There are so many opportunities. By 2020,
this is going to be the new normal, so go out there and push your ideas and content.” The postscript came from Lauren Anderson, chief content officer of NBC/Snap Joint Venture: “The entertainment industry has always had to change and adapt. Television didn’t kill film, and MP3s didn’t kill the music industry. Creativity will always win, entertainment will always be valued and consumed, and multiple platforms will be able to thrive and survive together. It’s about keeping things moving forward, and keeping your ideas fresh, whether that’s in deal-making or creative.”
TREASURE Box Japan is “a breath of fresh air”, said The Wit’s Virginia Mouseler, introducing one of MIPFormats’ most hotly anticipated sessions. The eighth Japanese formats showcase presented new concepts from the country’s major terrestrial broadcasters and, as ever, the shows on offer were “lively, fresh and unpredictable”, Mouseler said. “In today’s me-too world of formats, you can count on the Japanese to bring surprising ideas to the market. They may need a bit of reformatting for international audiences, but the core ideas are always inspiring. The Japanese really know how to think outside of the box — or, in this case, outside of the Treasure Box.” Pictured here are NHK’s Hisako Fujioka (left), Asahi Broadcasting Corporation’s Shusaku Inoue, Fuji Television Network’s Francois Grosjean, TV Tokyo’s Naoko Morioka, Nippon Television Network’s Tom Miyauchi, Yomiuri Telecasting’s Akito Sasagawa and Tokyo Broadcasting System Television’s Tomoko Kurokawa.
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FORMAT CREATORS: KEEP IT SIMPLE, KEEP IT FRESH
25/7 Productions’ Dave Broome
AT THE Sunday MIPFormats Case Studies sessions, Avi Armoza, founder and CEO of Armoza Formats, and Alex Piper, vice-president alternative entertainment at Fox, discussed how and why The Four has succeeded in the talent show genre, where so many others have failed. “The key was that the show is clean, and simple and easy to understand,” Piper said. “Previous attempts to create new singing shows have tended to add layers of complexity and they weren’t commissioned because it was clear that the audience would have difficulty understanding them.” Armoza, The Four’s creator, added: “The narrative thread is much more immediate than previous talent shows, because we cut out the fat and kept the meat in order to deliver exciting moments every few minutes.” Dave Broome, president of 25/7 Productions, was the first to sell an unscripted format — Ultimate Beastmaster — to Netflix: “When we first approached Netflix they didn’t even have an unscripted department,” he said. “But we delivered a show that works for a streaming platform and that fits with the binge-watching ethos that those platforms encourage.” Broome also introduced the idea of commentators being included in versions from other countries: “I loved the idea of snippets where the Korean presenter is commentating on what’s happening in the US version, and although Netflix didn’t get that idea until they saw it happening, they let me follow it through to the end.”
Innovation and risk-taking
are essential for success IN A POST-Netflix world, there is still room for traditional broadcasters to champion risk-takers in the formats business, according to Alex Mahon, CEO of ad-funded UK public broadcaster Channel 4. In her MIPFormats keynote interview, the former Shine Group CEO, who joined Channel 4 last year, admitted format producers face major challenges in today’s digitally driven multiplatform business. She agreed that free-to-air TV is in decline, young audiences are deserting legacy screens and the general population is ageing, while budgets and profits are declining. But regarding her ambitions for Channel 4, she added: “The core of our success over the coming years will depend on innovative risk-taking, breaking new talent, representing ethnic and gender diversity, and being more relevant to our audience.” She emphasised that diversity of
all kinds “leads to better commercial success”. Mahon then explained why a free-to-air broadcaster like Channel 4 — launched in the UK in 1982 to be provocative, focused on young audiences and aimed at viewers that other major broadcasters did not reach — is the ideal home for groundbreaking formats.
“Broadcasters have the ability to build brands, develop new talent, be an agent of recommendation for new concepts, and still reach big audiences.” But they must be prepared to take risks. “There is still a tendency in our business to de-risk. If things don’t take off fast, they are abandoned. We must create pockets for risk in our schedules.”
Channel 4 CEO Alex Mahon
Superbrands still key to top ratings
Eurodata TV ’s Avril Blondelot
ENTERTAINMENT is on the up, the superbrands continue to dominate, social experiments are back and digital is driving innovation, according to Avril Blondelot, head of content insight at Eurodata TV Worldwide, during Sunday’s MIPFormats session, The Next Viewing Trends. “Last year saw 37,000 hours of
entertainment programming in primetime schedules, an increase of 612 hours year on year,” Blondelot said. In terms of the strongest formats of 2017, the superbrands still occupy the number-one spots in most territories. “The big brands have been around on average for nine years,” she added. The Great British Bake Off and The Voice illustrate superbrand power. When Bake Off moved to Channel 4 in 2017, it multiplied the channel average by a factor of five. The Voice also increased its numbers when it moved from BBC One to ITV. “Brand size is less a question of channel than intrinsic audience,” Blondelot said. In terms of genre, the 1,234
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original new entertainment formats that launched in 2017 were focused less on challenge, celebrities and talent and more on culture, psychology and history. Social experiments are also making a comeback, and there is a growing emphasis on older demographics — a good example being The Voice Senior. However, cross-generational shows continue to be popular. She added that factual, reality, talent, dating and social-experiment shows, with their youth appeal and ability “to tell a story from one episode to another”, work best on digital platforms. “Everybody is looking for unscripted — even Netflix,” Blondelot concluded, referencing cake-fail format Nailed It!.
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KOREAN FORMATS CONQUER WORLD PROOF of the commercial and creative power of K-Formats was provided by K7 Media’s Keri Lewis Brown at yesterday’s Korean formats showcase. Following an energetic showreel of this year’s hottest new shows from Korea, Lewis Brown delivered an update on the march of Korean formats around the world. KBS’ scripted format Good Doctor is breaking records for ABC in the US; CJ E&M’s Better Late Than Never has been sold worldwide and is set to launch in Israel; JTBC’s Hidden Singer is on four adaptations and counting; and, following its run in Thailand, MBC’s King Of Mask Singer has now been picked up for the US by Fox. “Collaboration and codevelopment is a theme of our showcase,” Lewis Brown added, introducing the K-format class of 2018. First up was KBS Media’s Hanbyul Kim, who presented The Unit and game show, Battle Trip. MBC’s Max Woo had family fun and cute kids on offer with The Game With No Name. He also unveiled Hey! First Time In Korea? InSoon Kim from K-Formats stalwart SBS introduced two shows that harness the power of the crowd: Banijay collaboration Fan Wars, in which viewers create or destroy stars; and trailblazing election-coverage format SBS Story VIPON. VIPON, which stands for Vote Information Processing Online Network, allows for the real-time processing and broadcasting of election data.
SBS’ InSoon Kim
BBC boss Phillips loves falling for fresh formats KATE PHILLIPS, controller, entertainment commissioning at UK public broadcaster, the BBC, is seeking ideas for formats that she can fall in love with, she told delegates during her MIPFormats keynote interview. “There is nothing that gets me more excited than fresh new ideas,” she said. “It’s like the way I felt when I fancied a bloke or had a new boyfriend when I was young. When someone calls me with a format that I like, I fall in love with it.” Phillips, who has been in her job for about 18 months after being promoted from the role of BBC Worldwide’s creative director of formats, is already planning for 2020. Although she wants to hear from producers with slot-focused concepts, she said that need not always be the case. She disclosed that when UK production group Avalon proposed
The BBC’s Kate Phillips
the format for The Button, a new family game show, she was so thrilled, she told colleagues: “Let’s commission it and then worry about where to put it later.” Phillips also said she felt entertainment as a genre gets a raw deal at a time when it should be cherished for the number of viewers it brings to TV screens. “I understand how important
entertainment is for the health of the business,” she said. Entertainment is the lifeblood of our channels.” She is currently keen on factual entertainment. “It’s like having a big sporting event, when everyone comes together to watch but no one knows what will happen next. That is the same with big talent shows.”
China aims to pitch to the world WHILE China has long been a buyer of global content, it is now looking to pitch its own innovative formats to international markets. The inaugural Wisdom In China: The Land Of New Formats presentation at MIPFormats saw superstar TV presenter Dong Qing introduce a range of innovative formats presented by Chinese producers and directors, including from CCTV, Hunan TV, Tencent, and Jackie Chan TV. First up was The Nation’s Greatest Treasures, a 10-part factual series broadcast on leading documentary channel CCTV-3 in which museum directors and ancient cultural artefacts take centre stage in a high-energy format
that mixes variety, game show and discussion formats. With a 50 million-strong TV audience and 700 million online views, the factual format allows viewers to vote via their smartphone for their favourite national treasures. The live culture programme
Everlasting Classics is another CCTV production presented to a full house at MIPFormats. Featuring contemporary stars who reinterpret and revitalise Chinese classical poetry and song, the series has a domestic audience of 90 million.
The Wisdom In China presentation at MIPFormats
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MIPDrama gives buyers first look at new original content
MIPDrama Buyers Networking Lunch
THE THIRD MIPDrama saw the launch of the Buyers’ Summit, offering 450 leading buyers and commissioners an exclusive first look at six original highend drama series that have been singled out for their writing and production values, originality and worldwide appeal. Introducing the new-look event on Sunday, April 8, Laurine Garaude, director of TV division at Reed MIDEM, said the aim of the event is to help buyers “discover fresh drama before anyone else. The six work-inprogress series chosen illustrate
the strength and quality of international drama today.” The six series shown in the Debussy Theatre were Germany’s Pagan Peak, the UK’s Cleaning Up, Spain’s Gigantes, Finland/Germany co-production Arctic Circle, Finland’s Bullets and Russia’s Trigger. The six were shown to buyers as exclusive 15-minute edits, and the winner of the popular vote, which receives the Buyers Coup de Coeur award, is Bullets, distributed by Sky Vision and produced by Vertigo Production, in co-production with Nadcon and
Lunanime/Lumiere. Ahead of the six screenings, buyers were treated to a session in which two analysts provided a snapshot of global drama trends. Avril Blondelot, head of content insight at Eurodata TV Worldwide, said a notable development has been the number of US series commissioned in shorter runs, with 89% of 2018’s new shows being launched with 13 episodes or less. She also pointed to a rise in A-list movie talent moving into French TV drama. In terms of the dramas that work best in multiplatform
Get yourself in the picture on 4K/UHD A CRYSTAL-clear picture of how 4K/ultra high definition (UHD) technology will revolutionise the future of TV’s picture quality is unveiled in a lineup of debates and screenings this week. Located at the Sony 4K Ultra HD Theatre inside the Palais, the series covering a variety of genres kicks off on Monday at 9.30 with Ultra HD Opening
Session And Global Update. This is followed by Exciting Factual In UHD, Reaching Millions Of Viewers in the afternoon at 15.00. This session focuses on how factual content, including documentaries and natural history, benefits from the superior sound and vision in the technology’s high dynamic range (HDR). Then at 15.45, there is the Special Screening of Erased, a high-
end time-travel drama co-produced by Japan’s Kansai TV for Netflix. On Tuesday at 9.30, NHK – Readying For 4K And 8K sees the Japanese broadcast giant offering more insight into UHD and higher-standard versions. At 15.30, expect to discover The Best In UHD, In Music And Entertainment. At 9.30 on Wednesday, Factual
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viewing, Blondelot said the data pointed towards shows about daily life, such as soaps and dramedies. She also said there is evidence that non-linear can help drive linear audiences. Paul Youngbluth, director of TAPE consultancy, added that there is a lot of “fake news” about TV’s performance. “Consumption is not decreasing,” he said, “because there are so many opportunities to view. And new US shows like Good Doctor and Roseanne show that linear TV can still draw very high live audiences.” Youngbluth said the volume of content in the market means there is more emphasis on “events”. But he took issue with the notion that audience tastes in drama are changing, pointing out that crime and period continue to do well. “If there is a shift, it is towards more hybrids, but beware of throwing out old models,” he said. The MIPDrama Buyers’ Summit kicked off with a Buyers Networking Lunch in the Majestic hotel, sponsored by the China Pavilion. Shen Jianing, assistant to the president of CITVC, said: “We are always committed to presenting the most excellent Chinese TV programmes to a global audience, and we cherish every chance to exchange ideas with industry talent. It is a great honour for the China Pavilion to be the sponsor of this year’s MIPDrama Buyer Summit Networking Lunch.”
In Ultra-HD, Winning Critical And Public Acclaim will unveil more about investment in 4K documentaries. Spectacular Sports And Action, In Ultra-HD takes place at 15.30, immediately followed by Connecting With Your Audience Using UHD and HDR at 16.30. Anyone unable to attend the earlier sessions can catch up during continuous screenings during the Non-Stop Ultra-HD session at 9.30 and its repeat at 14.00 on Thursday.
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PITCH DOCTOR WELCOMES FIRSTTIMERS TO MIPTV A REGULAR feature at MIPTV, ‘pitch doctor’ Paul Boross welcomed first-timers to Cannes yesterday evening with the upbeat message that “everyone wants to meet you because you might have the next hit”. Speaking to newcomers in the Agora conference room, he advised them “don’t be overwhelmed or think that you are on your own. Have the confidence and the positive mindset to bridge the gap”. A psychologist by profession, Boross provides a guiding hand to first-timers throughout the week, encouraging them to mingle. “It’s all about building instant rapport and to do that you need the right mentality,” he said. Boross is at MIPTV with his son, Sam Boross, himself a first-timer. “I call him Le Petit Pitch Doctor. Now there are two of us to help first-timers make the most out of their time at MIPTV.” For anyone who missed the Pitch Doctor’s presentation, there are welcome breakfasts every day in the Innovation Hub at 08.30 and discovery tours from Monday to Wednesday at 10.00 and 16.00 — starting at the Agora on level -1 of the Palais des Festivals. Jose Machado, CNO of the International TV Professionals community, will be sharing his experience in the Hub on Tuesday: “At 09.00 I will do my best to help them get the maximum from this amazing week,” he said. There are also First Timers’ coffee & biscuits sessions from Monday to Wednesday from 16.30-17.30 in the Innovation Hub Bar. And there is a First Timers meet & greet corner at the Opening Reception, which starts at 19.30 on Monday in the Intercontinental Carlton Hotel.
Pitch Doctor Paul Boross (left) and son Sam
The future of storytelling is social says Facebook’s Matthew Henick MATTHEW HENICK, formerly the head of Buzzfeed Studios, recently joined Facebook as head of content planning and strategy. In a post on Facebook, Henick stated that the social network is, at its core, a storytelling platform. ”Good stories draw the audience in, but great stories deepen the audience’s connection to each other,” he said. “The future of storytelling is social. As I’ll be outlining in my Media Mastermind Keynote, as media learns to wield the advantages of the digital world, a completely new video experience is emerging on mobile, with a potential for social and interactivity that we’re only beginning to tap. Audiences want to connect both with the content but, more importantly, with each other in their viewing experiences, and Facebook is in an amazing position to offer that kind of experience. It’s a clear extension of the company’s mission to bring the world closer together.” Henick started out selling ring-
tones, and said he had several career plans from the outset. “At first, the plan was to be a computer scientist,” he said. “Then, the plan was to be a movie producer. Now the plan is to combine those two.” Henick may not have been able to predict his own future, but he has a clear idea of what the filmed entertainment world of the future looks like: “I don’t see much of a difference between the digital platforms and the NBCs of this world.” Henick said that Facebook is approaching audiences from opposite ends of the distribution spectrum. “We are distributed, they’re owned and operated, but in the end we will most likely meet in the middle. Entertainment will be audience-focused in its development, distribution and investment.” Away from the Cannes keynote stage, Henick will be exploring the market: “We’re looking for talent, partnerships, co-productions and more. Facebook is a
global company and we’re excited to engage with partners across the world on content that’s built for social audiences,” he said.
Facebook’s Matthew Henick
Honoured for building business bridges YANG WEIDONG, rotating president of Alibaba Digital Media and Entertainment, and president of Business Group, Youku, will receive a Medaille d’Honneur in a special ceremony on Wednesday, April 11. The Medaille is awarded to senior executives who have, through their talent, leadership and passion, made a significant contribution to the world of television and the development of the international TV community. In addition, Yang will deliver a Media Mastermind Keynote in the Debussy Theatre on Monday, April 9, at 10.45. Yang is credited with building business bridges between television and the internet. He has been a key figure in the development of China’s online content
Youku and Alibaba Digital Media and Entertainment’s Yang Weidong
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distribution and China’s digital platforms. Recently, he oversaw a deal which brought thousands of hours of high-quality Disney content to the Youku platform, adding that the company would look for “further co-operation with global entertainment companies”. He has been president of Alibaba Digital Media & Entertainment Group since December 2017 and has held his Youku role since October 2016. Before joining Alibaba Group, he was an executive officer of Youku Tudou, serving as president of Tudou.com from March 2013 to May 2016. Prior to that, he served as CEO of Max Times, a youth content and marketing company, and spent time as marketing activation director of Nokia Greater China.
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VIAFILM ON TRACK TO REPLICATE NORSEMEN SERIES SUCCESS FOLLOWING its hit Netflix Viking dramedy, Norsemen — released in two languages (Norwegian and English) — LAand Oslo-based Viafilms is in Cannes to promote the realtime dating series, One Night, and the supernatural detective comedy-drama, Magnus. “It’s already out in Norway to huge success, and now we are launching the English version,” said Viafilms’ CEO and producer Anders Tangen of One Night, another dual-language series already nominated for major Norwegian TV awards. France’s Federation Entertainment has worldwide rights to One Night which, despite screening in 10 x 30 mins episodes in Norway, was tailor-made for VOD. “It was created to binge watch,” said Tangen of the blind-date drama shot in “real real-time”. Meanwhile, Viafilm’s quirky Viking show Norsemen is quickly becoming an international sensation on Netflix, with season two due and a third season in the works. Tangen is hoping One Night has a similar impact, and believes the key is the ability to sell both Norwegian and English versions. “I don’t believe in remakes,” he said. “The original producer has no control; so why don’t we do it ourselves in English. We get a bigger audience and then we can co-produce with other countries.” This will also be the template for Viafilm’s quirky detective series Magnus, which has only just completed shooting in two languages.
Viafilms’ Anders Tangen
MGM Worldwide unveils strong slate of series and movies at MIPTV MGM WORLDWIDE Television Distribution is at MIPTV with a strong slate of scripted series and movies, according to Chris Ottinger, president, worldwide television distribution & acquisitions, MGM. “We’re right in the middle of the launch of Condor,” he told the MIPTV Daily News. “And we were able to give MIPTV buyers a sneak peak of 35 minutes of The Truth About The Harry Quebert Affair.” Condor, starring Max Irons, William Hurt and Mira Sorvino, is loosely based on the iconic Robert Redford movie Three Days Of The Condor. Set up as a re-
turning series for DirecTV’s Audience Network in the US, Ottinger said: “It is edgy enough to work on pay-TV platforms but would also work well in a 22.00 slot on a free-TV channel”. The Quebert production, which opened the inaugural edition of CANNESERIES, is a limited series based on a popular novel by Joel Dicker. It has already been acquired by TF1 in France and Ottinger is optimistic about more European sales because of the popularity of the novel on the continent. In the US, it will air on Epix. The MIPTV slate also has sev-
eral new movie titles including Creed II, the next chapter in the Adonis Creed story starring Michael B. Jordan and Sylvester Stallone. There is also Operation Finale, the story of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann’s capture in 1960s Argentina. MGM has aggressive ambitions in the non-factual arena and will introduce TKO (working title), an obstacle-course series with a twist, from executive producer Mark Burnett. Ottinger said the company is also in discussion with the BBC about taking its Funderdome format from test pilot to a full series commission.
Joel Dicker (left), author of The Truth About The Harry Quebert Affair; actor Ben Schnetzer; directpr and producer JeanJacques Annaud; MGM’s Steve Stark and Chris Ottinger; with actors Kristine Froseth and Patrick Dempsey
Back of The Net for Beta and Red Bull BETA FILM and Red Bull Media House have joined forces to launch a high-end scripted series project called The Net. Inspired by true events, The Net is framed around the global phenomenon of football. Based on a concept from Matthias Hartmann & Plinio Bachmann, The Net consists of five stand-alone series of eight episodes. The individual series can
be watched alone or as part of the 40-hour interwoven narrative between the five main protagonists. In The Net, characters can be a hero or a villain, it’s just a question of perspective. Each of the five series will be developed with local partners and produced in their respective home markets. Negotiations with producers and potential broadcasting partners are under
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way, with shooting scheduled to commence in 2019/2020. Beta Film managing director Moritz von Kruedener said: “The Net is a unique framework of five character-driven, suspenseful series, each of them specific and authentic to its territory, while forming a part of an epic global story. This will be football as it has never been seen before.”
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HISTORICAL DRAMA CROWNS TVP SLATE POLISH actress Katarzyna Czapla is in Cannes to promote Telewizja Polska’s (TVP) lavish new period drama The Crown Of The Kings. Part of TVP’s expanding slate of scripted series, The Crown Of The Kings launched in Poland at the beginning of the year, securing an audience of three million — a 20% share — for its first five episodes. It portrays the intrigues, affairs and power politics of Poland’s medieval Piast dynasty. Set in the early 1300s, it is centred on the Wawel Royal Castle, a famous meeting place for royalty, aristocrats, knights and international ambassadors. Czapla features in 14 episodes as Elizabeth of Poland, who became the Queen of Hungary through her marriage to King Charles Robert. The story begins when King Wladyslaw I dreams about the unification of Polish lands and plans to weaken the alliance between the Masovia region and the Teutonic Knights. He enters into an alliance with Lithuania by ordering his son Casimir to marry Aldona, daughter of the Grand Duke of Lithuania. Even though she loves another man, she agrees. The series is based on historical facts with faithful reconstruction of the costumes and sets. However, some fictional elements were introduced to enrich the show’s narrative.
Katarzyna Czapla stars in The Crown Of The Kings
NTV’s Tsugiya: how territorial
ambitions drive top drama LEADING Japanese producer Hisashi Tsugiya of NTV is in Cannes amid continuing international success for the broadcaster’s groundbreaking series, Mother. With a Korean version of the powerful drama shortlisted for the CANNESERIES main competition, and talk of a new Ukrainian version of NTV’s most successful scripted format to date, he will speak at tomorrow’s session, Asia: New Producers To Watch. The story of an elementary school teacher who kidnaps one of her pupils to protect her from abuse has also been remade for Turkey, where it was a ratings hit for Fox. The Turkish version, called Anne, has gone on to sell in more than 25 territories. Tsugiya said that the success of drama was now measured not by how many people watch a show in its domestic market, but by how many other territories picked
up the idea. Mother’s appeal, he added, was its combination of “universal message and thrilling story”. It also taps into the current trend for powerful female leads after years of men’s stories dominating primetime drama. “Mother’s underlying message is the power of women,” Tsugiya said. “The heroine’s maternal instinct is awakened by this child who’s in trouble and that spurs her to action.” As a result, the teacher is pursued by both the authorities and the violent boyfriend of the girl’s mother. The Korean remake of Mother debuted on SBS in January. “South Korea is quite good at adapting foreign dramas,” Tsugiya added. “However, it took them a long time to come up with a script. They kept rewriting it so it would appeal to Korean audiences. Korean TV producers have a very thorough process when it comes to dramas.”
NTV’s Hisashi Tsugiya
Sreda invests in drama boom
ALEXANDER Tsekalo’s Sreda Production is at MIPTV with a large slate of Russian drama, including the psychological thriller Trigger, which featured as part of the revamped MIPDrama Buyers’ Summit. Also available in Cannes are new seasons of Method and Silver Spoon, which are distributed for Sreda by Eccho Rights. Trigger, also distributed by Eccho, tells the story of a psychologist who heals people by pushing them to the edge to make them go through their worst fears and problems. But when one of his clients kills himself, the psychologist loses everything. Tsekalo said: “Our company is trying to keep up with the pace, to become a part of the global market. We invest a lot of money and a lot of time in it, because
we want to bring great content to world audiences, and are also enjoying the process.” Sreda’s other projects include Sirens, an adaptation of Israeli format Betoolot in co-production with Amedia. It is also seeking opportunities to create
Silver Spoon (Sreda Production)
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international co-productions, with some fresh ideas being negotiated with French partners. Among projects in development are a horror story set in Napoleonic times and a drama about a Russian princess who became the queen of France.
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US CHANNELS GRAB TCB BESTSELLERS TCB MEDIA Rights has sold three of its best-selling titles — The Private Lives Of The Monarchs, World’s Wildest Weather and Abandoned Engineering — into the US. The deals were brokered by Paul Heaney, CEO of TCB Media Rights Discovery’s Science Channel has commissioned a second season of one of its most successful shows: Abandoned Engineering 2 (16 x 60 mins), co-produced with Like A Shot Entertainment. Season one, which launched internationally at MIPCOM 2016, has now been sold into all the major TV territories, including the UK, Germany, Italy, Nordic territories and central and eastern Europe, Australia and New Zealand. Smithsonian Channel has acquired The Private Lives Of The Monarchs (5 x 60 mins). Like A Shot Entertainment produced this series, which originally aired on UKTV, SBS Australia and Viasat, exploring five monarchs, looking at the real people beneath the robes of state with the help of historian Tracy Borman. The Weather Channel has licensed one of TCB Media Rights’ most popular series — The World’s Wildest Weather (6 x 60 mins), produced by Title Role Productions for commissioning broadcasters Channel 9, Sky TV NZ and RMC Decouverte.
The World’s Wildest Weather (TCB Rights)
Channel 5 buys into eOne’s high-profile scripted series ENTERTAINMENT One (eOne) has sold scripted series The Detail and Designated Survivor to UK broadcaster Channel 5. In addition, The Detail has also been licensed to TNT Nordic, Fox Networks (the Middle East), Yes DBS (Israel), Cosmote TV (Greece) and SBS Belgium. Starring Angela Griffin, Shenae Grimes-Beech and Wendy Crewson, The Detail is a new 10-episode ensemble drama that centres on three talented female homicide investigators who solve crimes while navigating the demands of their personal lives. Dan Gopal, eOne’s executive vice-president sales, EMEA, international distribution said: “We have no doubt that this female-led, contemporary, police procedural will deliver primetime success as it rolls out across the region.” Designated Survivor stars Kiefer Sutherland as Tom Kirkman, a lower-level cabinet member who is suddenly appointed president after a catastrophic attack
Female-led police procedural The Detail
on the US Capitol. The series is also available on ABC in the US, CTV in Canada, Hellenic Communications in Greece and internationally on Netflix. In the run-up to MIPTV, eOne has also closed a number of new deals on its other scripted series. Mary Kills People has been licensed to Fox Networks in the Middle East, Ziggo in The
Netherlands and Movistar+, Telefonica’s leading pay television in Spain. Ice, meanwhile, has been sold to Sony AXN in Germany, Switzerland and Austria as well as AMC Iberia/Multicanal in Spain and Portugal. Finally, Cardinal has been sold in Italy to LaF, the Feltrinelli pay-TV channel available on Sky.
Factual pacts for all3media
ALL3MEDIA international has unveiled deals for factual content with broadcasters across Germany and Benelux. ZDF in Germany has signed Lion Television’s three-part series The Great Fire Of London: In Real Time, produced for Channel 5, while ProSieben has picked up season two of Studio Lambert’s Body Fixers. In Benelux, RTL has acquired Studio Lambert titles Naked Attraction and Gordon Ramsay On Cocaine as well as Maverick Television’s Escape. VRT, meanwhile, has signed a package featuring 20 Kids And Counting, Employable Me, Monty Don’s Paradise Gardens and Rome: Empire Without Limit With Mary Beard. Still in Ben-
elux, Discovery and Fox have both acquired a slate of shows for their channels. Jonathan Hughes, sales manager, finished programmes, German Speaking Europe and Ben-
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elux at all3media international, said the acquisitions highlight the strong performance of factual content across Europe, “where it works well across a variety of platforms”. Monty Don’s Paradise Gardens
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GOQUEST SECURES GLOBAL RIGHTS TO MY DANCE CREW INDIAN content distributor GoQuest Media Ventures’ (GQMV) decision to set up a non-scripted formats division about a year ago is now paying off with a number of deals, GQMV managing director Vivek Lath, said. This week the company has secured the global rights to My Dance Crew, an Anti Inc format that aired on TV2 Norway. “We also recently licensed Dinner Karaoke and Singer Songwriter to Optimystix, the company that produced Rising Star in India,” he added. While most of GQMV’s scripted content originates in India, the situation is different with formats, says Lath: “We don’t have Indian formats at present because the market is only just emerging. So we generally work with international formats that have been created outside India in markets like Italy, Israel and Turkey. We hope to see more Indian IP come through in the next 12 to 18 months.” Lath said GMVQ was also strong in digital. The company’s digital division produces content for its own channels such as Joos Food, Fabula and Bollywood Gossip. It also works with brands to develop formats that can be used by online streaming platforms. Lath is on the lookout for more acquisitions at MIPTV.
Go Quest’s My Dance Crew
Tencent documentary deal with NHK brings format to China DOCUMENT 72 Hours, a documentary format from Japanese broadcaster NHK, will be adapted for the Chinese market. Tencent, China’s major internet service provider, is preparing to launch a local version — its first Japanese format adaptation — with the deal marking the start of a new collaboration phase between Tencent and NHK. Shooting in one location for 72 hours for each episode, Document 72 Hours captures the everyday lives of ordinary people and ranks number one in NHK “viewer satisfaction”. Lexian Zhu, deputy director of Tencent Penguin Pictures Documentary Studio, said: “Document 72 Hours records innumerable ordinary lives and touching moments in three days. The joy and grief, warmth and indifference.” NHK has already produced
more than 200 episodes of the format, which was first introduced at MIPFormats as part of Treasure Box Japan. Consultation and production is already under way, with Tencent shooting in various locations throughout China in prepara-
tion for the launch of a 13 x 25 mins series. Tencent plans to start showing the locally adapted documentary for its subscribers — about 63 million at the end of February 2018 — on its main SVOD platform in May.
NHK’s Hisako Fujioka (left), Takako Ishikawa and Sayumi Horie, with Lexian Zhu and Stefani Sun from Tencent
Nordic World makes music with DCI SCANDINAVIAN distributor Nordic World has entered a new collaboration with Digital Content International (DCI), a multiplatform content licensing aggregator and distributor created by industry pioneer Michael Jay Solomon. “I’ve been looking for a partner to expand to the next level,” Espen Huseby, president of Nordic World, said at MIPTV after DCI recently bought a significant stake in the Oslo-based distributor. By leveraging Solomon’s vast experience in international markets, including as president of Warner Bros., the collaboration would “take Nordic World global”, Huseby said. The leading distributors have secured multiplatform international distribution rights for
New Form’s slate of critically acclaimed short-form scripted series, including the Streamy Award-winning I Ship It and Oscar’s Hotel. “The New Form slate allows us to take premium quality shortform series out internationally to audiences that have accelerated adoption of digital consumption and growth of OTT channels,” Solomon said. The duo are in Cannes to license a raft of short-form content to markets outside the US that they are calling “commuter content”, including Stories From Norway, which was developed and produced by Concorde TV for Discovery Channel. Comedy duo Ylvis, who had an international viral hit with the song The Fox (What Does The Fox Say?) and are at MIPTV,
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are behind a new cross-genre “investigative musicals” format, by which viewers discover how small, rich Norway sometimes struggles to cope with even the simplest things. Created almost entirely in English, the format will be sold ready-made or for adaptation.
Nordic World’s Espen Huseby with DCI’s Michael Jay Solomon
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ZIG ZAG COOKING WITH SOUTH KOREAN PARTNERS ZIG ZAG Productions has struck international distribution deals for two factual series co-produced with South Korean partners. The first agreement is a deal with Blue Ant International which will distribute a new food and travel series starring the world-famous Chinese-American chef Martin Yan. Korean Food Alive (13 x 30) sees Martin set out across South Korea in search of the secrets behind the country’s cuisine, embarking on a journey to shed light on Korea’s extraordinary culture and passion for food. From the north-eastern province of Gangwon, home of the 2018 Winter Olympics, down to Jeju Island off the southern coast, chef Yan meets culinary experts and talented cooks to get the inside scoop on the Korean homemade cooking style called “jip-bop”. The second agreement sees international distributor DRG acquire the global rights to distribute Future Human A.I., outside South Korea and China. The science-documentary series (3 x 60 mins) explores the future of artificial intelligence. Co-produced with South Korean broadcaster MBC and Korean producer Buzz Media, the series was part-funded by KCA, the content agency that sits within the government’s Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning.
Science series Future Human A.I.
Global success beckons for Eve’s new S4C/BBC thriller KEEPING Faith (8 x 52 mins), a thriller commissioned by S4C and BBC Wales and produced by Vox Pictures, is set for worldwide success. APC is handling all UK and international sales and has already secured a co-production deal with Acorn Media Enterprises for all rights across the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, plus home entertainment in the UK and Ireland. APC’s financial partner UK-based Nevision gap-financed the drama. The show stars Eve Myles as Faith Howell in what she described as one of the most intense and exhausting series she has been in: “I’m in every scene, so I was on set for seven months, and in that time I had four days off,” she said. “The character is very complex, also we were filming in Welsh and English, and although I’m Welsh I don’t
speak the language, so I had to take lessons for that.” The plot follows Faith Howells’ voyage of discovery when her husband disappears on his way to work: “Faith thinks she has the perfect life, but as the story unfolds she learns that he was leading a double life. It’s a relent-
less rollercoaster of a story and I needed to invest myself totally in it,” Myles said. “It was a huge challenge and I loved tackling it.“ She is currently working on A Very English Scandal with Stephen Frears and To Provide All People which recounts the history of the National Health Service.
Eve Myles as Faith Howell in Keeping Faith
Breakthrough deals for US and Europe BREAKTHROUGH Entertainment has sold a series of titles including L.M. Montgomery’s Anne Of Green Gables, Charles Manson: The Final Words, Hollywood Homicide, and Resilient Cities. Anne Of
Green Gables (1 x 90 mins) has been bought by Fox Channels Asia, RAI in Italy and RTVE in Spain. It tells the story of an innocent young orphan who is accidentally placed in the care of Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert,
Charles Manson: The Final Words (Breakthrough Entertainment)
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a brother and sister who sought to adopt a boy to help around the farm. While initially unsure of Anne, they eventually grow fond of her upbeat positivity and curious spirit. After securing worldwide distribution rights, Breakthrough has sold Charles Manson: The Final Words (1 x 120 mins) to UKTV in the UK and A+E Networks Italy. The chilling two-hour docu-drama is narrated by musician Rob Zombie and focuses on the notorious Manson family murders. The studio has also sold factual series Hollywood Homicide (6 x 60 mins) to UKTV and Canal + in France, as well as all three seasons of Resilient Cities (16 x 30 mins) to KCETLink for the US and SKY in Germany.
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‘It doesn’t feel like work’ A brand-new game show format starring Ricky Gervais is launched onto the international market at MIPTV this week. The writer, comic, actor and producer spoke to Julian Newby about the show CHILD Support is a one-hour studio-based game show featuring adult contestants and some hilarious, unscripted interaction between Ricky Gervais and a group of five children, aged six to nine. Launched early this year on US network ABC, it’s produced by Banijay Studios North America with Gervais as executive producer. Hosted by actor Fred Savage (The Wonder Years), the game’s adult contestants must answer 10 questions correctly to earn the top prize. If they answer incorrectly, they have a chance to be saved by the five children who have been asked the same question by Gervais. If the children get the answer wrong, the contestant leaves the game empty-handed. But if only one of the five children gets the answer right, the contestants are saved, and continue playing. The germ of the idea came from Banijay, who approached Gervais after seeing footage of him interacting with children. “They put together a little showreel of things like when I was on Ses-
ame Street, and a commercial I did for Audi with a little girl who was reading out mean tweets to me,” Gervais said. “They wanted to see me being me, but with kids — and that’s all they had. So we worked on the idea, and then I pitched it to ABC.” Gervais was insistent that they used “real kids” on the show. “I didn’t want them to be stageschool kids or kids who wanted to be famous, or kids whose parents just wanted them to be on the telly,” he said. “I didn’t want them to be sort of media savvy or aware — just normal kids.” So the production team cast its net wide across the US and ended up with around 20 children who take part across the series, five per show. “Some of them are really funny — because they’re honest, they just say what they’re thinking which is just perfect,” Gervais said. “And it’s good for me because I think a lot of people lose their creativity when they be-
come adults, it’s sort of beaten out of you because I think creativity is playing, I think that’s what it is — saying things without doubting them. And it’s totally unscripted of course. I don’t know what the kids are going to say.” Known for his sometimes risque comedy, was there ever a concern that Gervais might not be the right person to be ad-libbing with a group of young children? “No, in fact if anything I was more cautious [than the producers]. I was cutting out questions that I didn’t like or thought weren’t appropriate. There was one question — something to do with People Magazine’s sexiest man of the year — and I thought, I’m not asking kids about that! So, if anything, I want to be much more careful and ethical than the rules in a way.” While Ricky Gervais is wellknown around the world, he doesn’t believe that he should be on screen wherever the Child Support format might travel. “I think this can work all ove r the world but it wo u l d have to be l o -
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cal. I couldn’t show up speaking English to local kids in lots of different countries.” And while Child Support has gone to a major US network, he doesn’t feel that this is his pathway to the mainstream. “I probably wouldn’t do a sitcom on network TV, you know? Because I’d want to be less reserved, it’s not my sort of thing. I’ve always got final edit whatever else happens. I’ve still had to compromise but that compromise was me going to networks that probably weren’t as big, but who left me alone. So I didn’t go to ABC, I went to HBO. I didn’t go to ITV and BBC One, I went to BBC Two.” But now Netflix is streaming Gervais’ stand-up comedy special Humanity, does this mean he’s finally gone mainstream? “No, because Netflix leaves me alone too. And they’ve got 170 million subscribers so they’re the biggest broadcaster in the world and they don’t give me notes, they just let me do what I want! It’s incredible for me. Because while I’m left alone to do what I want, it doesn’t feel like work.”
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HBO IN DEAL FOR FILMRISE MOVIES US-BASED film/TV distributor FilmRise is at Cannes to announce new cross-platform deals with HBO. The US-based premium subscription-funded service has snapped up US rights to two theatrical movies available from FilmRise: My Friend Dahmer and The Boy Downstairs. The first, which was released in the cinemas last year, is the true ghoulish story of Jeffrey Dahmer, the serial killer known as the Milwaukee Cannibal for crimes committed from the 1970s to the 1990s. The Boy Downstairs is a romantic comedy that premiered at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival. Both films will be available on HBO’s programming services this year.
CURIOUSITYSTREAM WINS THE REAL WAR OF THRONES PERNEL Media has announced that SVOD platform CuriosityStream has acquired the global non-exclusive rights to stream the second season of historical series The Real War Of Thrones: A History of Europe. The move follows a strong streaming performance for season one on CuriosityStream, impressive domestic ratings on France 5 and a raft of international sales including to Foxtel, Viasat World, ZDF and TV5, and an English-language version commissioned for History UK. The second season (6 x 60 mins) will focus on the struggles between Catholics and Protestants in the 1500s, and some compelling historical figures such as Elizabeth I, Mary Stuart, Catherine de Medici and Felipe of Habsburg.
The Real War Of Thrones: A History Of Europe (Pernel Media)
GRB Entertainment rides crimewave of sales deals GRB Entertainment has announced sales of crime series to broadcasters in Africa, Australia and New Zealand. In Africa, e.tv picked up One Bad Choice, a new crime series which follows the lives of teens who have committed crimes that have changed their lives forever. M-Net, also in Africa, will air three of GRB’s top crime shows, including For My Man, which features stories of women who have committed crimes in the name of love – and companion series, For My Woman. Foxtel in Australia is taking on five new GRB crime shows, including FBI: Criminal Pursuit, following elite teams of FBI agents hunting down the world’s most wanted criminals; Killer Kids, the true-crime stories of child murderers; and Wicked Attraction, a look inside the minds of sexual predators. “GRB Entertainment is a mas-
ter of crime programming, with over 700 hours of crime content in our catalogue,” said Michael Lolato, senior vice-president of international distribution.
“We are thrilled to bring these titles to our broadcast partners in Africa and Australia, where they are sure to be big hits,” he added.
For My Man (GRB Entertainment)
Winx Club going live on Netflix NETFLIX is bringing Rainbow we have co-produced the hugely Group’s popular animated fran- successful World Of Winx for chise Winx Club to its subscrib- the last two years. While discussers yet again, this time with a ing further projects, we decided live-action young-adult series. it was the right time to create “The six fairies will turn into real a live-action version of Winx teenagers learning to hone their Club. powers while living together in a “Nearly 15 years have passed boarding school for magic,” said since the original launch of Winx Club creator Iginio Straffi, founder and CEO of Italy’s Rainbow. In 2016, Netflix released two seasons of World Of Winx in a global exclusive. This spin-off from Winx Club paved the way for the next plans, Straffi added. “We’ve been collaborating with Netflix for years now. We sold them our back catalogue and Rainbow founder and CEO, Iginio Straffi MIPTV News 1 • 44 • 9 April 2018
the cartoon. There are lots of girls who grew up with Winx, who are now young adults. We thought they would appreciate a live-action product which speaks their language, but transforms the Winx in human characters. It’s a chance to explore the psychological motivations of the characters in more depth.” Straffi added: ‘Netflix has done an incredible job reimagining some of Marvel’s heroes for live-action TV, proving themselves more than capable of wowing their audiences, so I can’t wait to combine my vision with their outstanding production values.’
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OKIDOKI OKAY WITH KIDS IN GERMANY KIDS CHANNEL Okidoki is now available to Amazon Prime members on OTT platform Amazon Channels in Germany. Okidoki has over 20 properties/licenses and delivers over 1,000 episodes of curated, safe, ad-free content to German-speaking children via a one-click monthly subscription. Okidoki’s original selection of animation, live-action and educational programmes for threeto 10-year-olds, is curated and aggregated by Alchimie and is refreshed monthly. Shows available include favourites such as Molang, Tom The Truck, Hilltop Hospital and Corneil & Bernie. “Our creative data-driven approach keeps a young audience’s attention by offering content that’s relevant to the viewers’ interests, as well as being safe and fun,” said Nicolas D’Hueppe, CEO of Alchimie.
Okidoki: “relevant, safe and fun”
FORCES TV PLANS TO SPREAD ITS WINGS FORCES TV plans to collaborate with UK and international TV companies and distributors, to bring its armed forces-themed, archive broadcast content to a wider global audience. Forces TV is showcasing its latest production, 100 Years Of The RAF (1 x 100 mins/2 x 50 mins), this week in Cannes. The documentary is produced by Andromedia in association with Octopus TV. Narrated by Sir Martyn Lewis, this documentary celebrates the centenary of the RAF by tracking the planes and the people described by Sir Winston Churchill as “The Few”. Pre-sale deals for the documentary have already been concluded in several territories, with UK and Ireland rights secured by Signature Entertainment. A home entertainment release is planned for 4 June in the run-up to Father’s Day.
Next-gen platforms offer a world of new possibilities THE FAANG (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google) services, the next-generation of digital platforms, are providing rights owners with new distribution choices, according to international video-content owners. Canada-based BroadbandTV (BBTV), one of the original YouTube multi-channel networks (MCNs), has seen its international footprint grow since it became part of Germany’s RTL Group in 2013 and formed a multi-year agreement with production juggernaut FremantleMedia in 2014. BBTV already operates in 11 languages in 32 territories and has recorded 341.14 billion views so far. Founder/CEO Shahrzad Rafati, said the FAANG platforms meant it could expect a greater reach in the future. “We’ve seen a significant emergence of the FAANG businesses, and I think everyone is an-
ticipating that they will continue to go from strength to strength this year and beyond,” she said. “As YouTube’s No.1 partner, this puts BBTV in a very strong position and we also have existing and growing partnerships with the other players.” Keshet Digital Studios, a subsidiary of Israeli legacy-TV operation Keshet Media Group, has seen its short-form video productions reach a growing number of young digital-native viewers thanks to next-gen platforms like Facebook, go90 and Snapchat. “This generation wants content which differs from the traditional offering, so this is a fantastic opportunity to tell more specific, niche and left-of-centre stories to underserved audiences that some broadcasters would shy away from,” said Sebastian Burkhardt, senior vice-president, acquisitions and digital, at Keshet International.
BBTV’s Shahrzad Rafati
Dimoba is game on for Cannes debut
Dimoba’s Laurent Alexandre (left) with French presenter Julien Lepers and Dimoba’s Yves Merillon
MIPTV News 1 • 46 • 9 April 2018
MIPTV first-timer Dimoba has created the Bethewone gamification platform, which brings together TV and mobile phones to enable live, synchronised and customised trivia formats. The company produces daily trivia shows in France for the more than 220,000 players who downloaded the company’s trivia app. Every two minutes a new game starts offering trivia fans the chance to pit their wits against other players and the chance to win cash and other prizes. A team from the company will demonstrate Dimoba’s game formats including E-quiz live shows, Quizine, E-terview, and Quizik, on the stand. The demos will feature a mix of text and pictures plus a live feed from the company’s own studio featuring French presenter Julien Lepers.
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DAN IS KING OF SIDELINE’S NEW CASTLES SERIES DUBLIN-based Sideline Productions and Londonbased DCD Rights are building on the success of Secrets Of Great British Castles, which has now sold into some 130 territories, with a new Dan Jonesfronted series that explores the impact of Europe’s great castles on the continent’s history. Mystery Histories With Dan Jones, currently in development, will feature castles built by the Nazis, Dracula, Napoleon, crusaders and various popes, revealing why these impressive fortifications became centres of war, power and death. “This new six-hour series supersizes Secrets Of Great British Castles,” said Billy McGrath, Sideline’s chief creative officer. “Europe is the birthplace of the fairy-tale castle. But behind the royalty and romance, the story is very different. These awe-inspiring buildings have caused wars, hosted massacres, destroyed empires — even founded nations. This is a big series that has the potential to kick-start a successful factual brand.”
Key pre-sales for ITV Studios’ all-star version of Vanity Fair VANITY Fair (7 x 60 mins), ITV Studios Global Entertainment’s (ITVS GE) adaptation of William Makepeace Thackeray’s literary classic, has been presold into eight territories. The series, produced by Mammoth Screen and Amazon Studios, will air on Australia’s BBC First, New Zealand’s TVNZ, Spain’s Movistar+, Canada’s CBC, the Netherlands’ NPO 2, Sweden’s SVT, Norway’s NRK and Finland’s YLE.
Written by Golden Globe nominee Gwyneth Hughes, the series stars Olivia Cooke (Ready Player One) as Vanity Fair’s fascinating but unscrupulous heroine Becky Sharp. Set against the backdrop of the Napoleonic wars, the drama follows Becky’s progress from poverty to the pinnacle of English society. The cast also includes Martin Clunes (Doc Martin), Frances de la Tour (The History Boys), Suranne Jones (Doctor Fos-
ter), Tom Bateman (Murder On The Orient Express) and Monty Python comedy legend Michael Palin. Maria Kyriacou, president of ITV Studios International, said: “Vanity Fair is a period drama for a modern audience, with all the ingredients needed to captivate global viewers.” Vanity Fair is produced by Julia Stannard (War & Peace) and directed by James Strong (Broadchurch).
Olivia Cooke and Tom Bateman in ITVS GE’s Vanity Fair
BBC’s big Russian digital deals
Dan Jones in Mystery Histories
BBC STUDIOS has signed a string of deals with Russian digital platforms, representing more than 1,700 hours of content. Among the titles headed for Russia under an 800-hour deal with OTT service Okko are natural-history landmarks Life and Frozen Planet, and dramas The Durrells and SS-GB. Two other major package deals for 300 hours each have been signed with OTT/VOD platform Megogo and Russian-language film and TV website KinoPo-
isk (Yandex). The former includes dramas Wolf Hall, Father Brown and Dickensian, along with a raft of classic Top Gear content. KinoPoisk has taken a mixed package that includes Born To Kill, In The Dark, Ripper Street and Burton & Taylor. Two 100-hour deals have also been closed with OTT service ivi and TVOD/SVOD platform Rostelecom. Premium dramas acquired by ivi include Call The Midwife and Top Of The Lake. Luther and Diana, 7 Days are
MIPTV News 1 • 48 • 9 April 2018
among the highlights of Rostelecom’s package of drama, natural history and documentaries. BBC Studios’ vice-president and general manager for CEE, Salim Mukaddam, said: “BBC Studios leads the way in supplying premium content to Russian VOD consumers, having built significant partnerships with all the major players in the Russian market. We look forward to expanding our relationships with these key partners in the years to come.”
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LONDON-based kids’ specialist Cake has signed a deal with Glee’s executive music producer Adam Anders to distribute teen musical series Kally’s MashUp. Cake will manage broadcast rights in the UK and Eire, Northern and Eastern Europe, Asia, Oceania, Middle East and Africa for the teen family comedy, which is created by Anders. Inspired by Anders’ own life, the 75 x 60 mins series, aimed at seven- to 14-yearolds, follows a 13-year-old music prodigy as she moves from a small town to the most prominent music Kally’s MashUp (Cake) academy in the country.
DIGITAL-first producer of kids and family content HooplaKidz — owned and operated by YoBoHo — supplies content across 55 YouTube channels in 12 languages. Titles prioritised at MIPTV include: Derrick And Debbie, a preschool series featuring a town populated by dragons; Time Travel Adventures Of Annie & Ben, a pre-school series following the adventures of Annie, her loyal dog and mischievous monkey, as they travel to fantastical new places; and Captain Fun Time, about four best friends who are inspired by a television Derrick And Debbie (HooplaKidz) show featuring a superhero.
Reaching For The Stars (DW Transtel)
DW TRANSTEL REACHING For The Stars (7 x 30 mins) is an HD/4K documentary series available in English, Spanish and Arabic. Brought to Cannes by Germany’s DW Transtel, the series looks at the history and future of space exploration — the astronauts, the aeronautics, the Apollo missions — and considers if living in space is fantasy or imminent reality.
ECCHO RIGHTS NEW DRAMA Conspiracy Of Silence will be premiered at MIPTV before its launch later this year on Viaplay’s platforms across Scandinavia. Produced by Brain Academy and brought to Cannes by Stockholm-based distributor Eccho Rights, the series stars Jens Hulten as a reformed arms dealer determined to have his revenge on a former colleague who tried to murder him 30 years ago. However, he finds out that his enemy’s daughter is in fact his own. Eccho Rights is also highlighting scripted reality series Centro Medico, a Spanish-language version of Belgian format The Clinic.
Conspiracy Of Silence (Eccho Rights)
MONDO TV ANIMATION specialist Mondo TV brings a portfolio of established, recently launched and upcoming shows to MIPTV. Mondo’s first live-action show Heidi Bienvenida, a co-production with Alianzas Producciones, is about a girl who leaves her mountain home to live in the city. The first season, Heidi Bienvenida A Casa (60 x 45 mins) will air on Rai Gulp, and the second season, Heidi Bienvenida Al Show (60 x 45 mins) is due in 2019. Other titles include: animation series Robot Trains (32 x 11 mins); Invention Story (104 x 11 mins), a 3D CGI show about a fox inventor; and YooHoo To The Rescue (52 x 11 mins), a new 3D CGI animated series for three- to six-year-olds based on the Heidi Bienvenida A Casa (Mondo TV) line of plush toys.
HAT TRICK INTERNATIONAL A KEO Films production for BBC 2, The Year Of The Tribe: In Search Of The Real Korowai (3 x 60 mins), is brought to Cannes by the UK’s Hat Trick International (HTI). The Korowai tribe was only discovered in West Papua 40 years ago. Since then they have had to adapt to the outside world. Writer and adventurer Will Millard visited them to better understand the pressures they face, how much of their traditional hunter-gathering lifestyle still exists, and to witness the last gasp of an ancient way of life.
The Year Of The Tribe: In Search Of The Real Korowai (HTI)
MIPTV News 1 • 50 • 9 April 2018
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FRANCE’s Federation Entertainment has acquired international rights to Secret Enemies (10 x 60 mins), a Finnish political thriller, adapted from the Arto Ratamo novels by Taavi Soininvaara. Produced by Moskito Television in co-production with Federation, the series is launched at MIPTV. Another Cannes launch is Undercover (10 x 50 mins), a Flemish drug crime thriller inspired by real events.
THE THIRD season of Van Helsing (13 x 52 mins) is a total re-imagination of the brand, set in a world dominated and controlled by vampires. This series follows Vanessa, Scarlett, Axel and the others as they continue to struggle against the vampire apocalypse. The action-horror series stars Kelly Overton, Missy Peregrym, Jonathan Scarfe, Christopher Heyerdahl, Vincent Gale, Rukiya Bernard, Trezzo Mahoro and Aleks Paunovic. It is produced by Nomadic Pictures and Dynamic Television handles the worldwide distribution, excluding first-run US television and Canada.
Van Helsing (Dynamic Television)
Secret Enemies (Federation Entertainment)
RAINBOW
FILMRISE NEW YORK-based distributor FilmRise returns to Cannes with a packed catalogue, including: Dark River (1 x 89 mins), about Alice, who returns home for the first time in 15 years to claim the family farm after her father’s death; Breath (1 x 115 mins), about two teenage boys in 1970s Australia who take dangerous risks after encouragement by someone older; Gamechangers: Dreams Of Blizzcon (1 x 91 mins), featuring the professional e-sports lifestyle; The Neighbourhood (1 x 108 mins), about petty thieves; The Red Maple Leaf (1 x 133 mins), a political kidnap story; documentary Hobbyhorse Revolution, about a new girls’ sport in Finland; and new digital series Modern Hero (18 x 7-12 mins), celebrating impressive women.
Dark River (FilmRise)
ANIMATION series Winx Club was created and produced by Rainbow, and was one of the first Italian series to be sold in the US. The series now totals 182 episodes, and there are four TV movies and three theatrical releases. The eighth series of 26 episodes is due in 2019, and a new live-action series — in a collaboration with Netflix — is coming. Other priorities include: Regal Academy, which features a school for fairy-tale characters; 44 Cats (52 x 13 mins/ CGI), a pre-school comedy about a garage band of cats; and live-action show Maggie & Bianca Fashion Friends, about an American girl who wins a scholarship to the Milan Fashion Academy, where she meets Bianca.
44 Cats (Rainbow)
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AB INTERNATIONAL HITLER’s Last Mystery (1 x 52 mins), explores the questions surrounding the death of Adolf Hitler, and is brought to Cannes by France’s AB International. The historical investigation is supported by scientific assessments regarding the final remains. Tests are performed by a French forensic expert, Dr Philippe Charlier, and for the first time archival documents belonging to the Russian secret service are examined.
Hitler’s Last Mystery (AB International)
MGM TELEVISION MGM TELEVISION’s MIPTV line-up is headlined by Condor (10 x 60 mins), following a young CIA analyst who stumbles onto a terrible but brilliant conspiracy, starring Max Irons, William Hurt, Mira Sorvino, Bob Balaban and Brendan Fraser. Also on the slate is: two new Mark Burnett competition series, TKO (10 x 60 mins/working title), featuring an obstacle race, and The Contender (12 x 60 mins) a new version of the Contender boxing franchise; The Truth About The Harry Quebert Affair (10 x 60 mins), a murder mystery series, based on the novel by Joel Dicker; Tomb Raider starring Alicia Vikander as young Lara Croft; and Creed II, the next chapter in the Adonis Creed story.
Condor (MGM Television)
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GAUMONT TOPPING the MIPTV priorities for Gaumont is Narcos (40 x 60 mins), the fourth season of which is currently in production — by Gaumont. The story features the dangerous world of Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar. Season three explores the Colombian cocaine trafficking business in the wake of Escobar’s death, when the Cali Cartel, led by four godfathers, operates differently, preferring to bribe government officials and keep out of the headlines.
Narcos (Gaumont)
NPO SALES DOCUMENTARY series The 5 Tastes Of Joel (5 x 34 mins), features self-proclaimed omnivore and culinary journalist Joel Broekaert on an adventurous investigation around the world and into the history behind the five basic tastes — sweet, bitter, salt, sour and umami. Amid The Peaks Of The Andes (6 x 43 mins), looks first-hand at the changes taking place in Latin America. Through The Heart Of China (7 x 43 mins), is hosted by Ruben Terlou as he travels from the north to the southern tip of China, from the parched steppes of Inner Mongolia to the tropical coast of Macau.
The 5 Tastes Of Joel (NPO Sales)
MEDIA RANCH DISTRIBUTION MONTREAL-based Media Ranch returns to Cannes with: Face It, a format that puts celebrities in a room with their most vocal online trolls, encouraging each side to find the humanity in one another; Back To School, in which 10 years after graduation, three students reunite to compete against three former teachers in a studio-based quiz-style game show; and True Sex Confessions, which originally ran as a 13 x 30 mins series on the Canadian French-language channel Moi & Cie as Vraies Histoires De Sexe. Italian free-to-air channel Cielo True Sex Confessions (Media has acquired the rights to remake the show. Ranch Distribution) MIPTV News 1 • 55 • 9 April 2018
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ABC COMMERCIAL ABC Commercial brings factual, drama, comedy and kid’s series to Cannes, including: Growing Up Gracefully (6 x 30 mins) following two misguided young women as they test etiquette guides; Hawke: The Larrikin And The Leader (2 x 60 mins), about former Australian prime minister Bob Hawke; Making Muriel (1 x 60 mins), about the first stage production of Muriel’s Wedding; Matilda & Me (1 x 60 mins), following the Australian debut of Matilda the Musical with composer Tim Minchin; Pulse (8 x 60 mins), a drama set in a transplant ward of a hospital; Story Time (7 x 5 mins); and Wiggly, Wiggly Christmas! (1 x 45 mins). Growing Up Gracefully (ABC)
DRIVE THE UK distributor Drive brings onehour special The Good Nazi to Cannes, the story of a high-ranking Nazi officer who risks his own life to save others, employing more than 1,000 Jews. Other programmes on the roster include: Invitation To A Royal Wedding (1 x 60 mins), looking at plans for the wedding between Prince Harry and Meghan Markle; Undercover (10 x 60 mins), which investigates the rapidly growing world of fraud and scams; Mafia Killers With Colin McLaren (6 x 60 mins), focusing on six mobsters; and Inside The EU (3 x 60 mins), looking at the inner workings of the European Parliament. The Good Nazi (Drive)
THE TELEVISION SYNDICATION COMPANY (TVS) TVS BRINGS an international catalogue to Cannes, including: two travel-related programmes from Latin America, Trip (12 x 30 mins/4K/HD/Spanish), looking at the eco-tourism of Ecuador, its people and customs, and Living Treasures Of The Yucatan (10 x 30 mins/HD), exploring the Mayan civilization; Frontier Tastes And Tales (13 x 30 mins/4K/HD), an exploration of the North American frontier, including hole-in-the-wall restaurants, haunted hotels, fabled characters and sordid saloons; and Food Quest (13 x 30 mins), in which Robin Leach and Kim Alexis travel the world to learn industry secrets and the stories behind favourite foods and drinks.
Living Treasures Of The Yucatan (TVS)
MIPTV News 1 • 56 • 9 April 2018
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KEW MEDIA GROUP
ZED
DISTRIBUTOR Kew Media Group is presenting The Radical Story Of Patty Hearst (6 x 60 mins) at MIPTV, the new CNN Original Series following the transformation of Patty Hearst from heiress to terrorist, a story of privilege, celebrity, politics, media, revolution, and violence. Over 40 years later, newly discovered evidence, archival footage, cinematic recreations and exclusive first-hand accounts shed light on one of the most bizarre stories in modern American history.
A SLATE of scientific projects is brought to Cannes by Paris-based ZED, including: Apollo, The Ultimate Experience (2 x 45 mins), using colour archival images and 3D re-enactments; The Weather: The Race To Forecast (1 x 52 mins), an exploration of weather forecasting over the course of a year; Genius Sea Hunters, The Third Dimension Unveiled (3 x 52 mins/4K), looking at the wealth of tricks used by deep-sea hunters, thanks to cutting-edge drone technology; and Tsunamis (1 x 52 mins/4K), an international investigation using CGI to predict the tsunamis.
The Radical Story Of Patty Hearst (Kew Media Group)
DARO FILM DISTRIBUTION DARO Film Distribution is highlighting its latest line-up of female-led programming at MIPTV. The Monaco-based distributor has expanded its production partnerships to include Dynamic Television on the recently wrapped thriller Parent’s Nightmare. Other titles include murder-mystery thriller Muse from Starfall Media and Gone: Finding My Daughter from 3Brane Entertainment, with Daro representing worldwide rights excluding USA/Canada.
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MIPTV News 1 • 58 • 9 April 2018
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ONE TAKE MEDIA
TEAMTO/CAKE
ONE TAKE Media is a producer and distributor based in Mumbai, India. Shows on offer include: The Great Indian Global Kitchen, featuring Indian celebrity chefs Vicky Ratnani, Aditya Bal, Harpal Singh Sokhi, Ajay Chopra, Bhairav Singh and Nilesh Limaya; Table Top Cooking Videos, comprising over 1,000 two- and three-minute demonstrations; Bollywood Spice Music Videos, a mashup of music videos from popular Bollywood movies; and pre-school animation Nyra’s World – Kids Nursery Rhymes, featuring more than 500 nursery rhymes and a little girl who loves singing and playing with her friends, including a dog, bunny, donkey and butterfly.
MY KNIGHT And Me is created by French producer TeamTO and Belgian producer Thuristar. The medieval comedy, aimed at six- to 11-year-olds, follows a charismatic trio of knights as they battle witches, dragons and giants. Distributor Cake has recently sold the series to Hulu (US), UYoung (China, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore and Taiwan), YLE (Finland), SVT (Sweden), Televisio De Catalunya (Spain), E-Vision (Middle East) and Showmax (Africa).
SYNDICADO SYNDICADO, a digital distributor for VOD platforms, brings Tank Biathlon (8 x 60 mins) to MIPTV, which premiered on Russia 1, featuring competing tanks battling it out in a series of military challenges and manoeuvres. Other titles include: Rich Bride, Poor Bride (97 x 22 mins), and further wedding-themed reality shows Petal Pushers (13 x 22 mins) and Cake Walk (13 x 45 mins); and Keys To The VIP (39 x 22 mins), which airs on Comedy Network and Fuse TV. The slate also includes The Dambusters Raid, Great American Generals, Memphis Belle, Battle Of Britain, After Desert Storm, Stealth: The Art Of Deception and Prelude To War — the classic Frank Capra 1943 documentary.
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Tank Biathlon (Syndicado)
My Knight And Me (TeamTO/CAKE)
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MIPTV News 1 • 59 • 9 April 2018
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CINEFLIX RIGHTS THE UK’s Cineflix Rights brings its biggest slate ever of new programming to MIPTV. Launching in Cannes is Sinking Cities (4 x 60 mins), which follows planners, responders, scientists and engineers in four of the world’s coastal cities as they prepare for climate change. Expecting (17 x 30 mins) allows couples to film their pregnancy milestones, with no camera crews. My Family And The Galapagos (3 x 60 mins) follows a marine biologist and his family to the Galapagos Islands. Secrets Of The Morgue (13 x 60 mins) explores high-profile murder cases from the perspective of the medical examiner. Going To War (1 x 60 mins), is a powerful look at soldiers’ experiences.
LOOKING GLASS INTERNATIONAL LOOKING Glass International is highlighting documentary Harry And Meghan: A Windsor Wedding at MIPTV. Produced by the UK’s Entertain Me, the one-hour show features the first public interview of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle together by the English press, and includes testimonials and interviews from the people who know Harry And Meghan: A Windsor Wedding (Looking Glass International) them the best.
ONZA DISTRIBUTION EVEREST, produced by Onza Entertainment, follows the challenge taken on by two climbers when they climb the tallest mountain in the world in winter with no supplemental oxygen. Spanish distributor Onza Distribution also highlights: telenovela The Gipsy Heiress, filmed in Spain, Portugal and Mexico, a story of love, drug trafficking and gypsy culture; and Double Game, a love story set in the crime world in Macao.
Sinking Cities (Cineflix Rights)
DCD RIGHTS
Dog Tales Rescue (DCD Rights)
DOG TALES Rescue (10 x 30 mins) is brought to Cannes by the UK’s DCD Rights and features Dog Tales Rescue and Horse Sanctuary rescue centre. Co-founders and married couple Danielle and Rob, with their dedicated staff, take in sick, elderly or abused animals and provide rehabilitation until they are adopted. The sanctuary regularly holds over 100 dogs, 80 horses, pigs, cows and donkeys.
JETSEN HUASHI TV BEIJING-based Jetsen Huashi TV is in Cannes with China rights to a number of animation series. Russian series Yoko follows the adventures of three children who turn games into adventures, and is produced by Wizart Animation, Somuga and Dibulitoon Studio. Season two is scheduled for completion later this year. Other titles include: French 52-part series The Pirates Next Door, currently in production, from Cyber Group Studios; two seasons of Monster Entertainment’s pre-school series The Day Henry Met; and Dandelooo’s The Treehouse Stories, featuring 26 classic stories from around the world. Yoko (Jetsen Huashi TV)
Everest (Onza Distribution)
ZDF ENTERPRISES GERMANY’s ZDF Enterprises brings a range of programming to Cannes. Live-action kids shows include: The Bureau Of Magical Things (20 x 25 mins), about Kyra, who is magically transformed into a Tri-ling when caught in a clash between an elf and a fairy. Other kids titles include animation Lassie (52 x 22 mins), and tween series Find Me In Paris (52 x 26 mins). Unscripted highlights include: The Story Of Europe (6 x 50 mins), from early geography to the first human settlers; History Of Weapons (10 x 50 mins); and natural-history series Africa River Wild (7 x 50 mins). The entertainment slate includes 55-minute daily show Cash Or Trash, and 90-minute quiz show You’ll Never Get It!, featuring two teams of celebrities. Drama titles include: The Crimson Rivers (8 x 50 mins/4 x 100 mins), set in a world of gruesome criminal cases, creepy rituals and mysterious incidents; Ku’damm 59 (3 x 90 mins); and Australian comedy web series Other People’s Problems. The Bureau Of Magical Things (ZDF Enterprises)
MIPTV News 1 • 60 • 9 April 2018
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BANIJAY RIGHTS BANIJAY Rights is launching a diverse range of factual content at MIPTV. From Welsh producer Nimble Dragon comes Sun, Sea And Brides To Be, a 20 x 60 mins series produced for the UK’s Channel 4, following wedding parties heading to Cyprus. Other titles include: 7Wonder’s Back To The Land (15 x 50 mins), presented by Kate Humble; Putin And The Mafia (1 x 60 mins); Inside Lehman Brothers (1 x 60 mins); Carlos The Jackal; series three of SAS: Who Dares Wins (5 x 60 mins); and a fifth season of The Supervet (20 x 60 mins).
HG DISTRIBUTION (HGD) QUEBEC’s HGD is at MIPTV with Ouisurf Africa (13 x 48 mins), a sport documentary series about two surf-addict buddies. Africa is one of the best kept secrets in surfing, and the 13-part series features the waves of Senegal, Morocco, Cape Verde, Namibia, South Africa, Mozambique and Madagascar. The French-language series is available with English subtitles. The company also brings English-language special Fight Knight (1 x 52 mins), which follows a suburban American father who goes on a quest to win the world championships of medieval armed combat.
BOAT ROCKER RIGHTS PRODUCED by Crooked Horse productions, History In The Making (13 x 30 mins) travels the world visiting dedicated craftsmen who create unique pieces using methods of the past, from decades, centuries, and even millennia ago. Another highlight from the UK-based Boat Rocker Rights is pre-school animation series, The Polos (52 x 5 mins), currently in production from MarcoPolo Learning, Radical Sheep Productions, and with 3D animation provided by Jam Filled Entertainment. Based on the educational apps from MarcoPolo E-Learning, the series follows a quirky group of friends who take off on epic road trips to experience the wonders of the natural world in their Polomobile.
Ouisurf Africa (HGD)
MEDIASET TWO SERIES top the slate for Spain’s Mediaset. Truth (La Verdad) is a 16-episode drama, produced by Mediaset Espana and Plano a Plano, about a missing young girl who reappears 10 years later, and the young policeman charged with the investigation. Unauthorized Living (Vivir Sin Permiso) is a 13-episode series about a successful Galician drug dealer who is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and must search for his successor, while trying Truth (Mediaset) to hide his disease.
History In The Making (Boat Rocker Rights)
FLAME DISTRIBUTION FLAME Distribution returns to Cannes with a slate of 190 hours of factual content. Highlights include: Discovery series Outback Opal Hunters, which follows crews of fearless opal miners in some of Australia’s harshest and most remote landscapes; Off The Beaten Track With Kate Humble, exploring the Welsh countryside; the six-part art series The Sense Of Beauty; science documentary The Kingdom: How Fungi Made The World; two part docu-drama Nicholas And Alexandra: The Letters; food science series Food Lab; 4K adventure series Conquering Northern China; and travel series Seeing Canada.
Outback Opal Hunters (Flame Distribution)
POKEMON POKEMON The Series: Sun & Moon—Ultra Adventures features Ash, who sees Pokemon Solgaleo and Lunala in a dream, and makes a promise to them. But when he wakes up, he can’t remember what it was. Along with their new friend, Pokemon Nebby, and the rest of the students at the Pokemon School, Ash and Pikachu explore the Aether Foundation, an organisation dedicated to Pokemon conservation and care. But it may not be as innocent as it seems, and Ash and his friends have to work together to protect the people and Pokemon they care about.
Pokemon The Series: Sun & Moon—Ultra Adventures (Pokemon)
MIPTV News 1 • 62 • 9 April 2018
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INDIACAST
GOQUEST MEDIA FORMATS DISTRIBUTOR GoQuest Media Ventures’ subsidiary GoQuest Formats unveils format Hell Of A Trip (15 x 45 mins) at MIPTV. In the show five participants set out on a journey to three countries. With limited time and budgets each contestant plans a different day of the group’s trip, knowing that they share the trip with a significant person from their past who has left them scarred. The winner receives two tickets for a holiday of a lifetime — who will they take? The company also brings reality show Sing-A-Songwriter (20 x 45 mins), which challenges contestants to create new songs.
ALL MEDIA COMPANY BETTER Than Us is a sci-fi drama set in the near future where humans co-exist with androids, which is brought to Cannes by All Media Company. The Russian company also brings the following to MIPTV: Cleaned Up, following ex-drug addicts going through rehab; The Counted, about a team of epidemiologists sent to a remote region of Russia to find the source of a rare fever; and format Kitchen, which has adaptations in Greece, Estonia, Portugal, Slovakia, Georgia and Croatia.
INDIACAST returns to Cannes with a wide catalogue, including: Ishq Mein Marjawan/To Die for Love (260 x 30 mins/HD), a mysterious story about Aarohi, who married into a fake family set up with con artists; Bepannah (260 x 30 mins/HD), about two strangers brought together when they lose their spouses in an accident and discover that they were having an affair. Out of this cha- Ishq Mein Marjawan (IndiaCast) os, they find love; Tu Aashiqui (260 x 30 mins/HD), about Pankti who has been sold by her mother to a wealthy man, however his nephew tries to help her; Dil Se Dil Tak (260 x 30 mins/HD), about a loving couple who choose a surrogate to help them have children; and Laado (260 x 30 mins/HD), about Ammaji, a retired woman who tries hard to protect her two granddaughters.
RED ARROW STUDIOS INTERNATIONAL
Better Than Us (All Media Company)
LAUNCHING at MIPTV, Lice Mother (10 x 25 mins) is a new comedy from Bing Film & TV for AvroTros/NPO3 Netherlands. Brought to MIPTV by Red Arrow, Lice Mother is set in a primary school and is available as a scripted format. Newly divorced, child psychologist Hannah tries to avoid the ‘mom mafia’ and the weird teaching staff; but she soon finds herself fully involved — a member of five group apps, the overseer of the charity pot, and with the dubious honour of being nominated as the official Lice Mother — checking the kids Lice Mother (Red Arrow Studios International) for head lice.
ATRESMEDIA TELEVISION
SAINT THOMAS PRODUCTIONS
HEROES Wanted (Cuerpo De Elite/13 x 70 mins) is an original comedy series from Spain’s Atresmedia Television, produced in collaboration with MOD Producciones, about a top-secret police unit. New agents include a strict policewoman, an action-obsessed mother, a bomb-squad expert, a religious zealot and a thief. Atresmedia also brings documentary Privileged Observer (Enviado Especial), which follows journalist Jalis de la Serna on his worldwide travels.
A MIPTV highlight for Marseille, France-based Saint Thomas Productions is Space Smash (1 x 52 mins). Co-produced with ARTE, the documentary is concerned with space debris which has become a hazard for astronauts. Engineers have been investigating more and more inventive schemes to clear the trash — magnetic nets, disintegrating lasers, garbage collecting satellites, waste hunting vessels and gas atomizing rockets. The war on this waste has been declared.
Heroes Wanted (Atresmedia Television)
Space Smash (Saint Thomas Productions)
MIPTV News 1 • 64 • 9 April 2018
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A+E NETWORKS
GAD
TOP FORMAT titles from A+E Networks include: Vintage Queens, focusing on how vintage clothing offers an alternative to fast fashion for creating a unique style; Love At First Flight, featuring four ideally-matched couples who fly across the US; and Glam Masters in which Kim Kardashian West searches for America’s next Superstar Beauty Influencer. The scripted genre includes: Knightfall (10 x 60 mins), about the Knights Templar; American Princess (10 x 60 mins), about a jilted New York socialite; and Project Blue Book (10 x 60 mins), chronicling UFO investigations. Factual titles include: Football’s Greatest Moments (5 x 60 mins); Football Godfathers (5 x 60 mins); The Men Who Built America: Frontiersmen (4 x 120 mins); and Live PD: Police Patrol. The company also brings TV movie Harry & Meghan: A Royal Romance (1 x 120 mins).
NEW FROM France’s GAD comes: Easter Island: The Truth Revealed, about the Rapa Nui people who created the stone statues then inexplicably disappeared; SOS Vessel In Distress! (8 x 52 mins), looking at historical disasters; Masters Of Bees (7 x 52 mins), a worldwide exploration; Monuments In Motion: The Great Ghosts, featuring the modern dance of Yoann Bourgeois; and short opera Miranda, After William Shakespeare And Henry Purcell. International pre-sales are sought for Back To The Moon, a documentary inspired by the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11; and Louis Bleriot, The Impossible Crossing about the first flight across the English Channel, relived by fans who built a reproduction of the plane.
Easter Island: The Truth Revealed (GAD)
TV3-TELEVISIO DE CATALUNYA TOP TITLES from the slate brought to Cannes by Spain’s TV3-Televisio de Catalunya include: Private Life, a two-episode mini-series set in Barcelona at the end of the 1920s, about three generations of one bourgeois family; Sagrada Familia: Countdown, a documentary about Antoni Gaudi’s cathedral, due to be completed in 2026; political profile Decisive Days For Catalonia; and Serrat El Noi Del Poble Sec, featuring singer Joan Manuel Serrat.
Vintage Queens (A+E Networks)
BETA FILM HIGHLIGHTS for Germany’s Beta Film include 12-hour series Cacciatore – The Hunter, a mafia story based on true events beginning in Palermo in 1993. Produced by Cross Productions and Beta Film in collaboration with Rai Fiction, the action concerns the war between two mafia clans that claims the life of criminals as well as the innocent. Another priority is Farina – Snow On The Atlantic, set in Galician drug trafficking rings, based on real events and characters from Nacho Carretero’s non-fiction bestseller.
THE JIM HENSON COMPANY AT MIPTV The Jim Henson Company is in Cannes to debut the second season of Doozers, a Hulu Original Series for kids featuring characters from the classic Henson series Fraggle Rock. The animated Doozers encourage pre-schoolers to create and innovate with The Pod Squad — Spike, Molly Bolt, Flex and Daisy Wheel. Stories include saving Doozer Creek from an avalanche and saving a butterfly cocoon.
Doozers (The Jim Henson Company)
Private Life (TV3-Televisio de Catalunya)
FREMANTLEMEDIA INTERNATIONAL MY BRILLIANT Friend (8 x 60 mins), from HBO, Rai Fiction and TIMVISION, is the first of the Elena Ferrante novels about Elena Greco and Rafaella Cerullo to be brought to screen. When her friend disappears Elena Greco begins writing the story of their more than 60-year friendship in Naples. Other FremantleMedia programmes include: Hang Ups (6 x 30 mins), adapted from the series Web Therapy created by Lisa Kudrow, Dan Bucatinsky and Don Roos; and Secret Admirer, a reality show in which admirers from all walks of life to talk about the objects of their affection, and then meet them for a date. My Brilliant Friend
(FremantleMedia International)
MIPTV News 1 • 66 • 9 April 2018
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3C MEDIA
PORTFOLIO ENTERTAINMENT
BEIJING-based 3C Media is highlighting two titles from its MIPTV catalogue. Words Of Life (12 x 70 mins) is a studio-based entertainment show format featuring celebrities interpreting true stories by reading letters from wellknown as well as unknown people, and using archive photos, videos and stage effects. The set, a giant wave-shaped construction of cubes, transforms as information is revealed, by 3D and CGI projection. When Dogs Meet Kids (12 x 70 mins) is a format in which six pre-school kids join the Pet School. Guided by two celebrities, the kids team up with dogs for challenges to improve abilities including independence, friendship and emotional control.
PORTFOLIO’s kids catalogue features two new animated series, Addison (50 x 11 mins), a CBC Kids-commissioned STEM-centric series chronicling the adventures of a young, female inventor, and Bubu And The Little Owls (26 x 11 mins/13 x 30 mins). The Canadian producer and distributor also brings cooking series Sailing Chef (30 x 30 mins), Cafe Maria (30 x 30 mins) and Fast Indian Cooking With Sapna (6 x 30 mins). Other highlights include the millennial-geared behind-the-scenes series The Gig Guys (6 x 30 mins), reality series Small Town, Big Mayor (10 x 30 mins), a second season of CBeebies-branded kids’ factual series Do You Know? (25 x 15 mins); and the STEM-based new season of The Cat In The Hat Knows A Lot About That! (20 x 30 mins/40 x 15 mins).
Words Of Life (3C Media)
OCTOPUS TV
Addison (Portfolio Entertainment)
THE UK’s Octopus TV is launching Fascinating Failures, in association with Boxatricks, at MIPTV. The studio-based series celebrates diverse failures in an entertaining but also insightful and inspiring format. Failures explored include: Colgate beef lasagne; Nokia’s N-Gage, a failed game and smartphone combination; and a Harley Davidson eau de toilette. Each series culminates with the Fascinating Failures Awards recorded at a large venue with a star-studded audience.
FRANCE TV DISTRIBUTION MOTHER Is Wrong (6 x 52 mins) is a new drama series brought to Cannes by France tv distribution. In the story, police captain Marianne Aubrais must decide if she should believe a child who claims that his mother is not his real mother. The distributor also brings Infidelity (1 x 90 mins), about a young girl who moves away from home and begins an affair with a married man. The film frankly explores the consequences of adultery. In the documentary genre France tv distribution brings Apocalypse, War Of The Worlds (6 x 52 mins), a cold-war history; Beyond The Clouds (1 x 45 mins), about the aftermath of the Nepal earthquake; and The Secret Life Of The Garden (1 x 52 mins).
Mother Is Wrong (France tv distribution)
ZEE ENTERTAINMENT ENTERPRISES PIYA Albela/Temptress (270 x 30 mins) tells the story of a young talented girl who is offered a job by a business tycoon to help to get his son out of the wasteful life he has been living. The Indian multi-media company also brings Life Of Earth From Space (2 x 60 mins), a cinematic documentary using the latest hi-res imagery from the International Space Station, Gyro-stabilised 4K drone cinematography and new techniques in 3D digital mapping; and Altar’d (6 x 60 mins), a series that follows a couple as they try and get fit in the 12 weeks before their wedding. A second season of Altar’d is due for completion.
Piya Albela (Zee Entertainment Enterprises)
MIPTV News 1 • 68 • 9 April 2018
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TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX TELEVISION DISTRIBUTION
GRB ENTERTAINMENT
AMONG the programmes on offer from Twentieth Century Fox Television Distribution are: 9-1-1 (10 x 60 mins), which follows the lives of emergency responders — cops, paramedics and firefighters — who try to balance saving lives with solving their own problems; The Resident (14 x 60 mins), a new hospital medical drama that goes behind the scenes; comedy The Orville (12 x 60 mins), a sci-fi action-adventure set 400 years in the future; and Trust (10 x 60 mins), inspired by actual events in the Getty family.
ON THE slate for California-based GRB Entertainment are: Whacked Out Sports (66 x 30 mins), a new clip show featuring professional and amateur sports; The Bay (42 x 30 mins), a drama set in a seaside town; The Stalker Files (10 x 60 mins), about celebrity stalkers; Man At Arms (18 x 60 mins), in which expert craftsmen recreate weapons from video games, movies and comics; gadget show Tech Toys 360 (65 x 30 mins); It Happened Here (10 x 60 mins), featuring locations connected to pop culture; For My Man (46 x 60 mins), about women who have committed crimes for love; The Expedition: Mars 2030 (1 x 30 mins); King Of Seas (1 x 30 mins); and Hollywood Divas (28 x 60 mins).
9-1-1 (Twentieth Century Fox Television Distribution)
RAJSHRI ENTERTAINMENT VARUN Inamdar presents world cuisine in his own quirky style in The Bombay Chef (200 x 6 mins/HD), brought to Cannes by India’s Rajshri Entertainment. The English-language series, which is a social-media success, demonstrates many varied dishes from around the world.
Whacked Out Sports (GRB Entertainment)
ANIMA KITCHENT
The Bombay Chef (Rajshri Entertainment)
ENTERTAINMENT ONE (EONE) TOPPING the highlights for MIPTV from eOne is The Detail (10 x 60 mins), a police procedural chronicling the professional and personal lives of three female homicide detectives. Other titles include: Let’s Get Physical (8 x 30 mins), a comedy set in the world of competitive aerobics; Burden Of Truth (10 x 60 mins), about Kristin, a city lawyer who returns to her hometown for a mysterious case; Caught (7 x 30 mins), about an escaped convict on the hunt for his ex-partner; political thriller Designated Survivor (season 1: 21 x 60 mins/ season 2: 22 x 60 mins); three 6 x 60 mins series of crime drama Cardinal; and three seasons of Private Eyes.
The Detail (eOne)
Cleo & Cuquin (Anima Kitchent)
MADRID-based Anima Kitchent brings a range of kids content to Cannes. Cleo & Cuquin (52 x 7 mins) is a transmedia brand that comprises TV, YouTube videos, an app and online content. The series features a family of six kids who go on exciting adventures. At the end of each episode, Cleo decides what she wants to be when she grows up — until she discovers something new. Another transmedia brand PINY, Institute Of New York is about a talented 14-year-old girl who receives a scholarship to a world-famous institute. Flo & The Intrepids is about a secret society that manages emotions in the world.
SINKING SHIP ENTERTAINMENT SINKING Ship Entertainment brings two new series to MIPTV. Pre-sale partners are sought for The Unlisted (15 x 22 mins), aimed at eight- to 12-year-olds and filming soon. Hidden-camera show Rank The Prank (13 x 22 mins) is produced by Apartment 11 Productions in association with CBBC and Nickelodeon. Other priorities include more seasons of Dino Dana (52 x 22 mins), Scout And The Gumboot Kids (30 x 11 mins) and Dino Dana (Sinking Ship Entertainment) Odd Squad (80 x 22 mins).
MIPTV News 1 • 69 • 9 April 2018
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COTE OUEST AUDIOVISUEL IN DRAMA series 40 & 40 & Single Single, Ebaner Temple is (Cote Ouest Audiovisuel) a glamorous and smart 36-year-old who designs wedding dresses, but vows to never get married. Then to her puzzlement Mr Right knocks at her door. The cast includes international stars. Ivory Coast-based Cote Ouest is also highlighting another drama series at MIPTV, Hospital I.T. (26 x 26 mins), which deals with the complex coexistence between traditional and modern medicine in Africa. Hospital I.T. tells the story of the intellectual battles between Tanya, a general doctor, and Idriss, a handsome traditional doctor, and their growing love story.
DOGWOOF DOCUMENTARIES are the speciality of London-based Dogwoof. Highlights for MIPTV include: The Ice King, profiling ice skater John Curry who came out on the night of his Olympic win in 1976, becoming the first openly gay Olympian; The Price Of Everything, exploring the contemporary art world, featuring collectors, dealers, auctioneers and artists; Studio 54, about the New York nightclub that came to symbolise an era; and MATANGI/MAYA/M.I.A. about the journey of the immigrant London teenager who rose to become an international pop star. The Ice King (Dogwoof)
FOX NETWORKS GROUP CONTENT DISTRIBUTION ORIGINAL drama series Mr Inbetween (6 x 30 mins) is launched at MIPTV by Fox Networks Group Content Distribution. Ray Shoesmith (Scott Ryan), is a man trying to balance life with his young daughter, new girlfriend, ex-wife and sick brother on one hand and his career as a hitman on the other. The dark comedy drama is produced by Blue-Tongue Films and Jungle Entertainment, in association with Screen Australia and Create NSW.
Mr Inbetween (Fox Networks Group Content Distribution)
SONY PICTURES NETWORKS INDIA RISHTA Likhenge Hum Naya (The Royal Guardian) is a new series brought to the international market by Sony Pictures Networks India, portraying a young woman who is appointed as the guardian to a Prince. Diya is under oath from the deceased King and Queen to marry and keep the young Prince protected. As Diya honours her promise, she faces the wrath of the family who see her as an obstacle to inheritance. Another priority is Yeh Un Dinon Ki Baat Hai, set in the 1990s, about a naive girl who crosses paths with a brattish boy in school. As the two opposites attract they must negotiate a Rishta Likhenge Hum Naya (Sony Pictures Networks India) myriad of teenage emotions.
ZIG ZAG PRODUCTIONS THE FOOTBALL Show (6 x 60 mins), from Zig Zag Productions and Infinity Creative Media, profiles 24 of the world’s leading football players and managers, off the pitch. Shot in Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Lisbon, Barcelona, Manchester and Rome, the series gives unprecedented access to the some of the sport’s biggest names, including Ander Herrera, Marcos Rojo, Alvaro Morata, Marcelo, Ramirez, Ronaldinho, Juan Mata, Edison Cavani, Pablo Zabaleta, Rafael Benitez, Hernan Crespo, Michael Owen, Javier Zanetti and Ramires. Dick Clark Productions is distributing the series.
DRG DRG BRINGS a slate of international drama to MIPTV, lead by two new series from Australia. Dead Lucky (4 x 60 mins), produced for SBS by Subtext Pictures, is a character-driven story about two very different detectives who are thrown together to solve a murder, starring Rachel Griffiths and Yoson An. Underbelly Files: Chopper (3 x 60 mins/2 x 90 mins), produced by Screentime for Nine Network, is based on the true story of notorious criminal Mark “Chopper” Read, and stars Aaron Jeffrey. Read attempts to go straight to keep the woman he loves, but an ongoing feud makes it impossible.
Dead Lucky (DRG)
The Football Show (Zig Zag Productions)
MIPTV News 1 • 70 • 9 April 2018
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product news
ARGONON INTERNATIONAL
AMC STUDIOS
UK DISTRIBUTOR Argonon International is launching comedy format Ready Or Not at MIPTV, from UK producer Remedy Productions for BBC One. The show combines a hidden-camera prank show with a play-along game. Fronted by a team of hosts around the country, every episode begins with an unsuspecting member of the public joining the show. Contestants can win cash or prizes, and one competitor plays for the top prize of £1,000.
SCRIPTED highlights for AMC include: Lodge 49 (10 x 60 mins), about a Californian ex-surfer attempting to maintain his positive outlook on life while coping with the death of his father and the collapse of the family business; Dietland (10 x 60 mins), a dark comedy about a ghost-writer for a New York fashion magazine set against a spate of deaths of men accused of sexual abuse and assault; This Close (6 x 30 mins), about young deaf friends tackling their own issues while putting their friendship to the test; the second season of Brockmire; and three seasons of horror comedy Stan Against Evil. Non-fiction titles include: The Jonestown Massacre (4 x 60 mins); Ministry Of Evil: The Twisted Cult Of Tony Alamo; and two 6 x 60 mins series in the AMC Visionaries strand, James Cameron’s Story Of Science Fiction and Eli Roth’s History Of Horror.
Ready Or Not (Argonon International)
Lodge 49 (AMC Studios)
ARMOZA FORMATS NEW FACTUAL entertainment format, The Surprise Teacher, is launched internationally at MIPTV by Armoza Formats. Locally titled Il Supplente, and created and produced by Palomar Productions, the show is set to air in Italy. In the 60-minute format each week a new celebrity surprises a class of highschool students, becoming their substitute teacher, and giving them a master class that reflects their passion and experiences.
ONE LIFE STUDIOS MUMBAI-based One Life Studios is in Cannes to highlight worldwide rights for: Porus, a drama featuring Emperor Porus as he defends his motherland against the Western invader Alexander the Great; Dropout, a competition to transform dropouts into the ultimate startup team; Baal Krishna, a drama about the most beloved God in Hindu mythology; A.I.SHA, about a genius app developer who creates the woman of his dreams — and nightmares; Hip Hop Homeland, about India’s underground hiphop scene; and Tenali Rama, a drama about the legendary poet Ramakrishna. Porus (One Life Studios)
BLUE ANT INTERNATIONAL The Surprise Teacher (Armoza Formats)
MEDIABANK BARCELONA-based MediaBank brings Mars On Earth (1 x 46 mins) to Cannes, a scientific documentary about the Tinto river in southern Spain, which may help solve the mystery of life on Mars. The company also brings Latinos Por El Mundo/Latins Around The World (14 x 50 mins); La Entrevista/The Interview (1 x 63 mins), about a job interview; and a catalogue of children’s animation, feature films, food programming and sports. Mars On Earth (MediaBank)
TORONTO-based Blue Ant International brings a catalogue of new original content and third-party programming to MIPTV. A launch from the newly expanded Scripted & Digital Studios slate is adult HD animation series Gary And His Demons (8 x 30 mins/16 x 11 mins), about a cantankerous ageing demon slayer. HD factual additions include: The Weather Files (8 x 60 mins); the fourth season of supernatural series Paranormal Survivor (10 x 60 mins); Brojects: Built For The Weekend (6 x 30 mins); Best Cake Wins (10 x 30 mins) and Lakefront Luxury (10 x 30 mins). Documentaries include: The First World War: The People’s Story (3 x 60 mins); and I Am War (1 x 60 mins); and the third season of Africa’s Hunters (6 × Gary And His Demons (Blue Ant International) 48 mins/4K).
MIPTV News 1 • 72 • 9 April 2018
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4K ULTRA HD SESSIONS
Sony 4K ultra HD Theatre (Audi I) – Palais
MONDAY 9 APRIL 09.30-10.30 ULTRA HD OPENING SESSION AND GLOBAL UPDATE Yoshiaki (Joe) Nakata (Sony Corp) Stuart Smitherman (Vivicast Media) Michel Chabrol (Eutelsat) Claudia Vaccarone (Eutelsat) Paul Gray (IHS Technology) 15.00-15.45 EXCITING FACTUAL IN UHD, REACHING MILLIONS OF VIEWERS Giuliano Berretta (Oberon Media) Bertrand Loyer (Saint Thomas Productions) Steve Burns (CuriosityStream)
TUESDAY 10 APRIL 09.30-10.30
NHK – READYING FOR 4K AND 8K Yukari Hayashi (NHK) Tadatsugu Uesugi (NHK) Atsushi Murayama (NHK)
15.30-16.30
THE BEST IN UHD, IN MUSIC AND ENTERTAINMENT Peter Worsley (Eagle Rock Films) Dan Fahy (Viacom Int’l Media Networks) Wolfgang Bergman (ARTE-Germany ZDF Enterprises)
15.45-16.30 SPECIAL SCREENING OF ‘ERASED’ DRAMA FROM KANSAI TV AND NETFLIX Ms Miho Okada (Kansai TV) Kazuhiro Sato (Kansai TV)
WEDNESDAY 11 APRIL 09.30-10.30 FACTUAL IN ULTRA-HD, WINNING CRITICAL AND PUBLIC ACCLAIM Ed Sayer (Discovery) Olivier Chiabodo (The Explorers) Serge Laroye (Orange Content) 15.30-16.30 SPECTACULAR SPORTS AND ACTION, IN ULTRA-HD Jon Smith (Hoplite Ent.) Pascoe de Glanville (Ananda Media) Amy Shapiro (Vivicast Media) Justus Verkerk (FCCE)
THURSDAY 12 APRIL 09.30-11.30 NON-STOP ULTRA-HD Continuous screenings of the best in UHD from our speakers and panellists 14.00-15.00 NON-STOP ULTRA-HD Continuous screenings of the best in UHD from our speakers and panellists
16.30-17.30 CONNECTING WITH YOUR AUDIENCE USING UHD & HDR Peter Sykes (Sony Professional Solutions Europe)
Chairman: Chris Forrester, journalist and industry consultant In partnership with
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MONDAY 9 APRIL 4K ULTRA HD
INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT
NEXT GEN
9.30-10.15, Esterel
9.30-10.30, Sony 4K Ultra HD Theatre
10.30-11.00, Auditorium A
ONE TV YEAR IN THE WORLD: CRACKING AUDIENCE TRENDS
ULTRA HD OPENING SESSION AND GLOBAL UPDATE
IF CONTENT IS KING, WILL BLOCKCHAIN SPARK THE REVOLUTION?
By Eurodata TV Worldwide & Tape Consultancy
10.45-11.15, Agora
11.15-12.00, Auditorium A
REGULATORS: CATCHING UP TO CONTENT VIEWING BEHAVIOURS In partnership with CSA
PRODUCING A SERIES FOR SNAPCHAT: AN EPHEMERAL PRIMER
REGIONAL FOCUS 9.50-10.20, Auditorium A
CHINA SHOWCASE By China Pavilion
MEDIA MASTERMIND KEYNOTE 10.45-11.15, Debussy Theatre
YANG WEIDONG, PRESIDENT OF YOUKU, ALIBABA MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT GROUP
MEDIA MASTERMIND KEYNOTE 11.30-12.00, Debussy Theatre
MATTHEW HENICK, HEAD OF CONTENT STRATEGY AND PLANNING, FACEBOOK DRAMA
12.00-13.00, Grand Auditorium Lumiere Doors close at 11.45
12.30-14.30, Majestic Hotel
CANNESERIES SCREENING ‘MOTHER’
Doors open at 12.00 By invitation
INTERNATIONAL DRAMA CO-PRODUCTION LUNCH
JUNIOR
15.45-17.00, Auditorium A
‘CONSPIRACY OF SILENCE’, A VIAPLAY ORIGINAL SERIES
14.30-15.45, Esterel
14.15-14.45, Auditorium A
KIDS ANIMATION: NEW DIGITAL CREATORS TO WATCH
VR/AR- LATEST TRENDS AND DEVELOPMENTS
Followed by pre-booked meetings with the Speakers* (16.15-17.00, Verriere Californie)
Screening presented by Eccho Rights
17.15-18.30, Auditorium K
‘FÉLIX’
16.00-16.30, Esterel
Screening presented by Movistar+
18.00-19.00, Verriere Californie
RUSSIAN SERIES ROULETTE: WHAT’S IN THE NEXT CHAMBER
INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT 15.00-15.30, Agora
KIDS – GETTING TO KNOW THE 6-12!
TECH PITCHING SESSIONS
17.00-17.30, Esterel
16.00-17.15, Agora
FRESH TV KIDS LIVE-ACTION SCRIPTED SERIES
Presented by TV3 By invitation only Presentation followed by cocktail
IMMERSIVE CONTENT
4K ULTRA HD 15.00-15.45
Sony 4K Ultra HD Theatre
EXCITING FACTUAL IN UHD, REACHING MILLIONS OF VIEWERS 15.45-16.30
Sony 4K Ultra HD Theatre
SPECIAL SCREENING OF ‘ERASED’ DRAMA FROM KANSAI TV AND NETFLIX
TECH PITCHING SESSIONS
NEXT GEN SHOWCASE 17.00-17.30, Debussy Theatre
USER GENERATED CONTENT AND THE FUTURE OF STORYTELLING By Jukin Media
MEDIA MASTERMIND KEYNOTE 17.45-18.15, Debussy Theatre
VARIETY’S 2018 ACHIEVEMENT IN INTERNATIONAL TELEVISION AWARD AT MIPTV: DATO’ ROHANA ROZHAN, GROUP CEO AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ASTRO MALAYSIA HOLDINGS From 19.30, Intercontinental Carlton Hotel
MIPTV OPENING RECEPTION
19.15-21.15, Grand Auditorium Lumiere Doors close at 18.45
CANNESERIES SCREENINGS ‘AQUÍ EN LA TIERRA’ & ‘CACCIATORE - THE HUNTER’
SCREENINGS MATCHMAKINGS
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CANNESERIES SCREENINGS Open to all MIPTV badge holders (Within the limit of seats available)
* Meeting booking at the end of the session.
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OFFICIAL CONFERENCE & SCREENINGS HIGHLIGHTS MEDIA MASTERMIND KEYNOTES 10.45-11.15
Debussy Theatre, Palais 1
11.30-12.00
Debussy Theatre, Palais 1
17.45-18.15
Debussy Theatre, Palais 1 VARIETY’S 2018 ACHIEVEMENT IN INTERNATIONAL TELEVISION AWARD AT MIPTV
Dato’ Rohana Rozhan
Yang Weidong
President of Youku, Alibaba Media & Entertainment Group
Group CEO and Executive Director Astro Malaysia Holdings
Matthew Henick
Head of Content Strategy and Planning Facebook
NEXT GEN SHOWCASE 17.00-17.30
JUNIOR 17.00-17.30
Debussy Theatre, Palais 1
Esterel, Palais 5
USER GENERATED CONTENT AND THE FUTURE OF STORYTELLING
FRESH TV KIDS LIVE-ACTION SCRIPTED SERIES Jon Skogmo
Founder and CEO Jukin Media
MARKET SCREENINGS 15.45-17.00
Presented by
CANNESERIES SCREENINGS
Auditorium A, Palais 3
‘CONSPIRACY OF SILENCE’, A VIAPLAY ORIGINAL SERIES Presented by Eccho Rights
12.00-13.00
Grand Auditorium Lumiere, Palais 1
‘MOTHER’ 19.15-21.15
Grand Auditorium Lumiere, Palais 1
17.15-18.30
‘AQUÍ EN LA TIERRA’ & ‘CACCIATORE - THE HUNTER’
Auditorium K, Palais 4
‘FÉLIX’
Presented by Movistar+
Additional information in the MIPTV Handbook and the MIPTV app
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COMING NEXT
TUESDAY 10 APRIL 9.00-10.00, Verriere Californie
MIPTV FORMAT BREAKFAST: TV FORMATS FROM ONLINE GAMES By Atom Media
SCREENING
NEW
SCHEDULE
9.30-10.30, Grand Auditorium Lumiere & Balcony
FRESH TV FORMATS DRAMA
JUNIOR
REGIONAL FOCUS
NEXT GEN
9.00-10.15, Auditorium K
10.00-11.00, Esterel
10.30-11.15, Auditorium A
10.45-11.15, Agora
‘KEEPING FAITH’
INTERNATIONAL EMMY® KIDS AWARDS NOMINEE SHOWCASE
ASIAN DRAMA SERIES – LOCAL ORIGINALS WITH GLOBAL AMBITIONS
HOW TO PRODUCE A SERIES FOR FACEBOOK WATCH?
Screening presented by About Premium Content
Followed by Networking with the Nominees
9.30-10.30
Sony 4K Ultra HD Theatre
11.30-12.00, Auditorium A
ASIA: NEW PRODUCERS TO WATCH
NHK- READYING FOR 4K AND 8K KEYNOTE PANEL
‘THE BIG SHIFT’ MEGA PANEL – DISTRIBUTORS WITH A PRODUCERS’ MINDSET FUTURE OF STORYTELLING KEYNOTE 11.25-12.00, Debussy Theatre
BLOCKBUSTER ORIGINAL SCRIPTED VR SERIES ‘THE LIMIT’, FEATURING ROBERT RODRIGUEZ By STX Entertainment Partners
12.00-14.00, Grand Auditorium Lumiere - Doors close at 11.45
CANNESERIES SCREENING ‘STATE OF HAPPINESS’ DRAMA
JUNIOR
14.15-15.30, Auditorium K
14.15-15.15, Esterel
‘MYSTERY ROAD’
KIDS LIVE-ACTION PITCH
Screening presented by all3media international
Followed by pre-booked meetings with the Speakers* (17.30-18.30, Verriere Californie)
15.45-17.00, Auditorium A
15.30-16.10, Esterel
‘LODGE 49’ & ‘THIS CLOSE’
LIVE-ACTION SCRIPTED SERIES – CHANNEL & PLATFORM STRATEGIES
Screenings presented by AMC Studios
17.15-18.30, Auditorium K
‘LIFELINE’
IMMERSIVE CONTENT
INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT
14.00-14.30, Auditorium A
14.00-14.20, Agora
HOW AR WILL AFFECT THE CONTENT INDUSTRY?
KBS DRAMA SCREENING
14.45-15.15, Auditorium A
15.00-15.30, Agora
TRUE VR: GEARING UP FOR AN ‘INTERACTIVE WATCHING EXPERIENCE’
16.00-17.15, Agora
By KBS
TECH PITCHING SESSIONS TECH PITCHING SESSIONS
17.30-18.30, Esterel
Screening presented by ATV
KIDS WORLD PREMIERE TV SCREENING: ‘FIND ME IN PARIS’
4K ULTRA HD
Presented by Cottonwood Media / Federation Entertainment
15.30-16.30
Sony 4K Ultra HD Theatre
8.00-18.15, Gare Maritime - By registration, space limited
10.30-11.10, Debussy Theatre
IN DEVELOPMENT, THE CANNES DRAMA CREATIVE FORUM - Co-organised by MIPTV and CANNESERIES
(11.00-12.00, Verriere Californie)
4K ULTRA HD
NEXT GEN SHOWCASE 16.15-16.45, Debussy Theatre
VIRTUAL HERO: WHEN A WORLD LEADING INFLUENCER BECOMES AN ANIMATED HERO
THE BEST IN UHD, IN MUSIC AND ENTERTAINMENT
By Movistar+
KEYNOTE SHOWCASE 17.00-17.45, Debussy Theatre
WHY SERIES TRAVEL? INTRODUCING HARLAN COBEN’S ‘SAFE’, FEATURING MICHAEL C. HALL & HARLAN COBEN 19.30-22.00, Intercontinental Carlton Hotel By invitation
INTERNATIONAL EMMY KIDS AWARDS ®
SCREENINGS MATCHMAKINGS
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CANNESERIES SCREENINGS Open to all MIPTV badge holders (Within the limit of seats available)
19.15-21.15, Grand Auditorium Lumiere - Doors close at 18.45
CANNESERIES SCREENINGS ‘MIGUEL’ & ‘UNDERCOVER’
IN DEVELOPMENT, THE CANNES DRAMA CREATIVE FORUM By registration, space limited
* Meeting booking at the end of the session.
06/04/2018 16:40
FEATURE: DIGITAL SERIES
How to join the
FAANG club
Rabbit Films’ Ultimate Expedition
How to produce premium series for platforms once linked exclusively to social media — Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, even Amazon’s Alexa — is a hot topic this week in Cannes. Juliana Koranteng looks at how the legacy TV players are rising to challenge of producing snackable short-form video for young consumers
A
CCORDING to Sean Cohan, president of international and digital media at A+E Networks, producing content for the likes of Snapchat, Facebook and Twitter is “a natural extension” of what A+E has always done as a TV
network. “There has to be a beginning, middle and end to the story arc,” he adds. A+E Networks is among the legacy-TV operators engaging with a phenomenon that has seen the digital platforms Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google (FAANG) offering dedicated ser-
vices to video entertainment. And they are competing against Instagram and Snapchat, messaging apps that have also now evolved into short-form video distributors. “We used to focus on short-form only,” Cohan says. “Now it’s about producing an organic length — whatever it takes to tell the story
MIPTV News 1 • 77 • 9 April 2018
right. Our young viewers have appetites for 15- to 20-minute episodes, even longer.” A+E Networks’ US-based dedicated digital studio develops and creates high-end original series or shows influenced by its linear-network brands such as Lifetime and History. For example, the Bae Or
FEATURE: DIGITAL SERIES Bail prank show on Facebook’s Watch platform is nothing like anything on an A+E Network channel. But Cohan believes viewers of the Lifetime channel, which features romance dramas, will connect with Second Chance, a Snapchat series about young couples trying to get back together. “What we do on digital is different from and yet similar to our linear-TV services,” Cohan adds. “We’re untethering ourselves from our TV brands. And yet we’re thinking as a studio: what does the audience want? Is the series in a format we’ve played in before?”
Sean Cohan:
“What we do on digital is different from and yet similar to our linear services. We’re untethering ourselves from our TV brands. And yet we’re thinking as a studio” A+E Networks is replicating its digital studio’s achievements in other territories via its A+E
Digital International initiative. The first stop was Singapore this February to produce digital-first series for Asian audiences. Where required, the digital studios will also collaborate with 45th & Dean, A+E Networks’ in-house digital-centric branded-content subsidiary. NBCUniversal (NBCU) is another linear-TV owner that embraced the digital-first production space when it jointly launched a scripted-content studio with Snapchat last year. “There’s room for shortand long-form, for mobile, digital and linear. If the goal is premium content, there are some pretty tried-and-true ways of accomplishing that,” says Lauren Anderson, the NBCU-Snapchat joint venture’s chief content officer. She adds: “One of the greatest strengths of digital is the ability to experiment with content type, distribution and creativity.” Joanna Wells, vice-president of digital content at MTV and Comedy Central International, says legacy-TV operations need not lose their young audiences when they add digital platforms to the mix. “It’s incredibly important to be authentic to the audience across each platform,” Wells adds. “We’re delivering content that’s bespoke to each
Female-targeted YouTube channel WIGS
and every platform.” Wells says that posting MTV’s original digital shows, which include MTV News, memeTV, Courtney Act and Single AF, daily and round-the-clock, is intensive work. Twitter is used for promoting MTV’s linear-TV shows, while Instagram hosts the Most Wanted series, which features the most-recommended music videos. Other music-centric shows, such as the MTV Europe Music Awards, can be found on YouTube. Meanwhile, content involving celebrities, such as supermodel Kylie Jenner and pop singer and actress Ariana Grande, feel right at home on Snapchat. Wells’ team is among the first to produce original content distrib-
uted via Alexa, the AI voice-activated speaker produced by e-commerce giant Amazon. “We recently launched Flash Briefing on Amazon Alexa, featuring MTV News, a bulletin of the day’s biggest pop-culture stories, in the UK, along with Comedy Central’s flagship late-night talk show, The Daily Show With Trevor Noah,” Wells adds. Whatever the distribution platform, quality is a priority, says Stone Roberts, senior vice-president of global video strategy at Refinery29, the digital media firm and publisher aimed at young women that includes Time Warner’s Turner Broadcasting among its investors. Refinery29’s hit scripted comedy series Strangers is on Facebook’s Watch. “We look at ‘standard TV networks’ as another platform and consider all platforms to be digital,” Roberts adds. “The social layer simply enhances our ability to spark conversations in the community and to bring the audience into the story in a deeper, more significant way.”
Stone Roberts:
“We look at ‘standard TV networks’ as another platform and consider all platforms to be digital”
60 Second Docs, short documentaries on Facebook’s Watch
MIPTV News 1 • 78 • 9 April 2018
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Driving the content economy
FEATURE: DIGITAL SERIES For mobile-first shows, the competition is not only entertainment on other platforms, but the fact that mobile users can be distracted by multiple smartphone-related activities, from voice conversations and messaging to simply checking the time. “When you produce for mobile, you are ever-mindful of everything and everyone competing for your viewers’ time on the exact same screen,” Roberts says. With star-studded digital-only movie adaptation of Macbeth set to be released on multiple platforms on April 23 — the alleged date of Shakespeare’s birth and death — producing digital series is gradually moving from novelty to mainstream. “You have to understand how people watch content and the unique tools each platform provides,” says Jake Avnet, chief operating office at US-based film, TV and digital production group Indigenous Media. Examples of Indigenous’ work includes the female-targeted YouTube channel WIGS; 60 Second Docs, a series of one-minute documentaries on Facebook’s Watch; and Sickhouse, a feature film screened on Snapchat. “Sickhouse was shot on an iPhone with the vertical-screen orientation, and delivered in 10 second-maximum clips, with 500plus clips in total,” Avnet says. “We didn’t tell the audience it was a movie. But it worked and it’s had 110 million views.”
Jake Avnet:
“Sickhouse was shot on an iPhone. We didn’t tell the audience it was a movie. But it worked and it’s had 110 million views” Another requirement for digital-first series is scalability. The digital content must be able to evolve and grow, irrespective of which
Sickhouse, a feature film screened on Snapchat
platform the viewer is using, including traditional TV sets. “Our distribution strategy in short is Refinery29 everywhere,” Roberts says. Scalability into TV is also the approach adopted by Vertical Networks, the California-based venture founded by media entrepreneur Elisabeth Murdoch. “We launch digital formats for Facebook and Snapchat to see if there is an audience for them and then translate that into TV,” says the company’s CEO Tom Wright. Brother, Vertical’s men’s lifestyle channel on Snapchat, reports an average of eight million views daily. With an average of 12 x four to five mins a series, there are plans to produce 10 series this year. Vertical’s dating show Phone Swap reported a peak audience of 14 million last year. The company is now producing Ghost Stories (formerly known as Ghost Hunt) with UK producer Avalon Television for Snapchat. I Have A Secret, meanwhile, is one of its successes on Facebook’s Watch. In addition to scripted and non-scripted series, is there room for digital-first formats? “Some could work as straight-to-digital shows, as long as they are not derivative of what already exists on linear,” says A+E Networks’ Cohan.
David Broome, CEO and executive producer at Los Angeles-based 25/7 Productions, is adamant that a linear-TV channel would not have been able to deliver Ultimate Beastmaster, his company’s obstacle-course competition format now entering its third season on Netflix. Jointly executive produced with Hollywood star Sylvester Stallone, Ultimate Beastmaster tasks 100plus competitors from up to nine countries with navigating a 650foot long, 80-foot high obstacle. In addition to the global edition, local versions air in each of the participating countries. “You could not do this for a broadcast network this way,” Broome says. “The Netflix audience is all around the world. The main format could be done for a regular broadcaster but, with the localisations, that would be questionable.” He adds: “Not only is the way we watch video content changing, but it will also have to evolve. And although broadcasters are not going away, they will also have to evolve.” The emergence of digital platforms is helping Rabbit Films, the Finland-based international production house, to find new markets for its formats. Already famous for The Dudesons, the globally distributed reality-TV
MIPTV News 1 • 80 • 9 April 2018
YouTube channel featuring extreme sports and stunts, Rabbit Films wanted to find an international audience for Ultimate Expedition, a celebrity mountain-climbing reality-TV show only available on the Finnish free-to-air commercial network MTV3. “Digital gave us our first largescale US commission in 2017 from YouTube’s subscription service YouTube Red,” says Rabbit Films CEO Olli Suominen. “We did the pitching, planning and production as if the client was a terrestrial network. The only major difference was that we created an ecosystem of content, which included 10 full-length episodes and then additional clips for every episode published on the YouTube channels of the talents involved. [This served] to engage their audiences in several different ways.” Also in Finland, the drama division of public broadcaster YLE is on a mission to become an original digital-first pioneer, not only on its on-demand platform Areena, but also on its numerous branded YouTube channels, Instagram and Snapchat. YLE’s youth content department operates a dedicated YouTube channel with more than 56 million views. Its first international success was #lovemilla, a 2013
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FEATURE: DIGITAL SERIES transmedia teenage drama story on, among others, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Tumblr. In 2017, it created a YouTube channel for DragonSlayer666, a new drama series about an ambitious e-sports player aimed at young male viewers. By getting to know the targeted audience, the production team made and uploaded content purportedly made by the fictional hero for the YouTube channel. This attracted 63,000 subscribers in three months, long before the actual series started. “We knew the young men would not be interested in watching TV on YLE,” says Hyppe Salmi, a YLE drama executive producer. “So we created a popular YouTube channel first to catch their interest and, step by step, let them discover something even better as they waited for the drama series to begin. We aired the first episode on YouTube and led the audience to our own VOD service, Aree-
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Vertical’s dating show Phone Swap
Avalon’s Ghost Stories for Snapchat
na, to see the rest. It worked. The first episode has been watched 560,000 times on YouTube and Areena had 6.5 million views in a couple of months. Not bad for a country with a population of only 5.5 million.” Mental, another YLE YouTube short-form drama series that
addresses mental-health issues among young people, is getting a localised edition in Germany. Another success is drama, Karma, which was shot last year on a vertical-screen iPhone. The series was released in a series of short episodes, in real time, on Instagram, with viewers’ simultaneous
comments being added to the narrative. The second season was even more interactive, with viewers taking part in the storyline. “When we produced Karma for Instagram, we had to do a lot of quick rethinking,” Salmi adds. “There was no time at all for editing or post-production. You shot and you delivered — it was almost live. The audience was following and commenting, and then the whole drama disappeared within 24 hours. It really was different from traditional TV.” YLE’s next production is a 360-degree, teen-targeted drama series for Snapchat. It will have multiple storylines, allowing viewers to choose which ones to follow. As Salmi says: “Apart from YouTube, producing for other digital-first platforms is tricky. You have to know the audience or find people who do. It’s too easy for viewers to know when your content does not belong there, because there are so many unwritten rules for each platform.”
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FEATURE: AUDIENCE RESEARCH AND TRENDS
ITV’s Trauma – beyond gender stereotypes
Who’s watching?
How the industry assesses which programmes to offer audiences and measures their subsequent success has never been more important — or more challenging — in a fractured and fragmented global media business. Juliana Koranteng reports MIPTV News 1 • 84 • 9 April 2018
FEATURE: AUDIENCE RESEARCH AND TRENDS
looked out for the overnight ratings figures at 09.00 daily to find out how their shows had performed, with producers screaming at disappointing figures — even crying — and the stars of the shows doing the same. Today, the situation is much more complex,” Vaulpre says. Virginia Mouseler, CEO of audience-tracking specialist The Wit, also highlights the need for more data to enable buyers, distributors, broadcasters and advertisers to see immediately which shows stand — or fall. “It gives them a view of what within the content is being positively or negatively received by social-media users and where to invest,” she adds. “It helps them navigate quickly and in a smart way within the ocean of content on offer.” To this end, MIPTV is offering a variety of research-related panels at this year’s MIPTV, over and above ever-popular Fresh TV sessions, presented by The Wit.
A
TRENDING topic this week in Cannes is the industry’s growing need to measure, monitor and evaluate consumers’ constantly changing viewing habits as they flit between TV sets, computers, laptops, tablets and mobile. As a result, the value and complexity of audience research
has grown markedly in recent years. The expanding number of broadcasters, TV networks and internet-distributed streaming platforms need to understand audience behaviour, especially among the coveted millennial and Gen-Z demographics. Consequently, producers, rights-owners and distributors now want more
than the traditional sample-based ratings. They need to know who is watching what, where, how and why in today’s content-everywhere environment, according to Frederic Vaulpre, vice-president of France-based international audience-research company Eurodata TV Worldwide. “For years, industry executives
MIPTV News 1 • 85 • 9 April 2018
Eurodata TV is publishing the 24th edition of its One TV Year In The World report in 2018, which will reveal the number of hours consumers worldwide spent watching TV daily in 2017. With figures collected from more than 110 territories and aimed at users that include the world’s biggest TV-platform operators, Eurodata TV’s previous report concluded that individuals globally spent an average of three hours a day watching TV in 2016. As the company gets ready to report the 2017 viewing data, Vaulpre says the key point for all concerned is the viewing time among the young, which dropped signifi-
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FEATURE: AUDIENCE RESEARCH AND TRENDS
Eurodata’s Avril Blondelot
Parrot Analytics’ Courtney Williams
cantly to just over two hours daily in 2016. He is confident, however, that demand for TV entertainment will remain high. “But the challenge will be measuring the viewing habits of young people, since most international viewing times refer to TV sets,” Vaulpre adds. “We’re trying to find out how young people consume TV content today because, on TV sets, it will certainly be decreasing.” Eurodata TV has been focusing on its four-screen audience service, which has been a pioneer
K7 Media’s David Ciaramella
in measuring who watches video content on traditional TV screens compared to viewing it on computers, tablets and smartphones. The studies include tracking non-linear catch-up, on-demand and on-the-move viewing habits, figures for which have been elusive but are very relevant when trying to understand what young viewers want. Eurodata’s fourscreen measurement system is already established in France and the Netherlands. Norway and Denmark are catching up, and
Endemol Shine’s Doug Wood
developments are taking place in Sweden. Vaulpre says the stumbling block in many countries is that the local organisation that measures digital viewing is different from the one that measures traditional TV viewing. “It would be easier if the same organisation is measuring all the different screens,” he says. That approach, he adds, would challenge the prevailing opinion that millennials and Gen-Z viewers do not watch TV. He underlines the point by citing Demain Nous Ap-
MIPTV News 1 • 87 • 9 April 2018
Eurodata’s Frederic Vaulpre
partient (Tomorrow Belongs To Us), a youth-targeted soap made by Groupe Telfrance. Shortly after Demain Nous Appartient’s debut on French commercial network TF1 last year, catch-up accounted for 30% of the total viewing share. But as its popularity grew, that share fell to around 20%, indicating that the share of live viewing among the targeted youth audience increased. “It showed that, when the storyline is compelling, more viewers want to watch a show live,” Vaulpre adds.
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FEATURE: AUDIENCE RESEARCH AND TRENDS Frederic Vaulpre:
“Demain Nous Appartient showed that, when the storyline is compelling, more viewers want to watch a show live” Three-year-old Parrot Analytics is introducing new yardsticks for measuring a show’s popularity in the multimedia environment. Courtney Williams, Parrot Analytics’ European regional director, explains the US company’s Demand Expressions data as including “content travelability, which quantifies how popular a show may be in a foreign market as a percentage of the demand in its home market”. The company also measures “affinity”, or “the predictive correlation between shows”. Parrot Analytics’ goal is to give
clients the tools to make decisions to help increase their return on investment (ROI) on content. UK-based K7 Media’s annual report, Tracking The Giants: The Top 100 Travelling TV Formats, ranks the formats that have resonated with the most countries around the world. David Ciaramella, K7 Media’s communications manager, uses its analysis of groundbreaking quiz format Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? as an illustration: “We found that 36% of the top-100 formats are game shows, the majority of which are quiz shows, so it’s really no surprise that the top show is Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? The format has been on air in 100 territories since 1998 and is soon to make a reappearance on ITV in the UK, celebrating its 20th anniversary with a weeklong nightly run.” K7 Media’s services include predicting which format genres have a high probability of being successful. Currently, it predicts that “adventure challenge” is set to
become one of the most popular genres internationally. Ciaramella cites two motoring-themed shows for the UK’s Sky — Faster: Race The World and Carnage — as well as Back To Earth, a disaster-horror reality show on Chinese digital platform Mango TV, and Amazon India’s adrenalin-driven dating show Skulls And Roses. Additionally, he points to the growth of formats centred on invention and innovation startups, such as Million Pound Menu by the Sony Pictures Entertainment-backed Electric Ray in the UK; NTV Russia’s new Ideya Na Million; and Das Ding Des Jahres by Raab TV-Produktion for Germany’s ProSiebenSat.1. Eurodata’s head of content insight, Avril Blondelot, believes that the current focus on diversity is influencing scripted narratives in unexpected ways: “In the UK, ITV’s Trauma plays on a father’s grief over losing his son. In his search for revenge, he encounters another dad. This is a new
MIPTV News 1 • 89 • 9 April 2018
way to represent families, as seen in NBC’s This Is Us and ITV’s Broadchurch. This goes beyond gender stereotypes, which has mainly addressed strong independent lead female characters.” Blondelot foresees the growth of more entertainment formats aimed at senior citizens: “With seniors, it is about the unique stories and histories they can bring to the audience.” The Wit’s Mouseler, meanwhile, sees a growing demand for superhero protagonists on the one hand, and stand-up comedy at the other. “Sci-fi/fantasy/superheroes will be drivers of interest among the most coveted young audiences, as Marvel-branded content always stands out on linear and digital platforms, as well as at the cinema,” she says. “We should also keep an eye on stand-up comedy, which is doing incredibly well on Netflix. Although most comedians do not have global appeal, Netflix just might help them become global stars.”
FEATURE: AUDIENCE RESEARCH AND TRENDS Virginia Mouseler:
“Keep an eye on stand-up comedy, which is doing incredibly well on Netflix. Although most comedians do not have global appeal, Netflix just might help them become global stars” Content creators have started to include research findings in their development and production strategies. Doug Wood, Endemol Shine’s group director, research and insight, says production and distribution companies devour audience data from a variety of sources, especially as the distribution platforms also include social-media networks and tele-
communication conglomerates such as the UK’s BT Group, Telefonica in Spain and the US’ Verizon Communications. Wood is constantly examining social-media activity via the likes of Crimson Hexagon to see what is working and what is not. “We look at a wider variety of measurements,” he says. “It can be re-commissions or the success in specific markets such as India, where we might have developed a localised version. We look beyond ratings to understand if there is a buzz around titles of shows.” Wood would like to see a time when a measurement organisation could track the reach of niche genres in different countries and connect their fans to create a larger global audience. “There are some shows for audiences that are too small to sell for one market,” he adds. “But what if you could connect them internationally to get a decent size?” Andrew Cole-Bulgin, group chief creative officer and head of film and TV at UK-headquartered Komixx Entertainment, has his
own approach for measuring what is likely to be a hit among young adults (YA). He visits websites dedicated to self-publishing books and fan fiction, such as Wattpad, which has a combined readership of 95 million worldwide for YA-inspired ideas. Komixx’s current YA-fiction adaptations include The Kissing Booth, co-starring 1980s teen queen Molly Ringwald, which is being made for Netflix. It has also optioned the worldwide screen rights to CHERUB, Robert Muchamore’s award-winning YA book series about a group of teenage secret agents. “We’re going to concentrate more on young adults, which I think are underserved,” Cole-Bulgin says. “Once kids get over their love for animation, they want live action that deals with the issues affecting them. Rather than creating content we felt was right, a lot more goes into understanding what that young audience wants.” The subscription-funded on-demand operators such as Netflix and
Komixx’s The Kissing Booth
MIPTV News 1 • 90 • 9 April 2018
Amazon are notorious for refusing to disclose viewing figures based on the data produced by their respective proprietary algorithms. But that might change, says Eurodata’s Vaulpre. Social-media goliaths Facebook and YouTube have been criticised for publishing their own questionable data about audience behaviour. Media multinationals including The Walt Disney Company are planning to launch rival streaming platforms. Against this backdrop, the need to measure success on on-demand services via independent third parties has started. Last October, Nielsen launched the Nielsen Subscription Video On Demand (SVOD) Content Ratings in the US. The Wit’s Mouseler believes that as more broadcasters such as the BBC co-produce or joint commission with Netflix and Amazon, “a win-win may be possible” as they compromise on what data to make public. Eurodata’s Blondelot believes it is inevitable: “It has to happen, but it has to be done the right way. You need data that is recognised universally.”
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