TV Formats June 2025

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TV Formats Festival Recap

JUNE 2025 EDITION

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TV FORMATS

CONTENTS BBC STUDIOS’ MATT FORDE On the heels of his recent promotion to president of global production at BBC Studios, Matt Forde opened the TV Formats Festival with a keynote conversation about scaling the powerhouse’s remakes business across entertainment and scripted.

Ricardo Seguin Guise Publisher

ITV STUDIOS’ MIKE BEALE & LISA PERRIN ITV Studios’ Lisa Perrin and Mike Beale joined the TV Formats Festival to discuss group-wide creative collaboration, scouting for new ideas and managing format megahits.

Jamie Stalcup Managing Editor

WARNER BROS. INTERNATIONAL TELEVISION PRODUCTION’S ANDRÉ RENAUD As the group VP for format and finished sales at Warner Bros. International Television Production (WBITVP), André Renaud took part in the TV Formats Festival to discuss how he is amplifying the division’s presence worldwide across scripted formats and entertainment properties.

ZDF STUDIOS’ RALF RÜCKAUER Ralf Rückauer, VP Unscripted at ZDF Studios, shared with TV Formats Festival viewers how the factual, scripted and kids’ powerhouse is approaching the factual-entertainment and quiz-show landscapes.

Mansha Daswani Editor-in-Chief

Grace Katich Associate Editor David Diehl Production & Design Director Simon Weaver Online Director Dana Mattison Sales & Marketing Director Genovick Acevedo Sales & Marketing Manager

FORMAT TRENDS WITH THE WIT Tapping into The WIT’s extensive global database tracking content worldwide, Caroline Servy joined the TV Formats Festival to showcase the titles, markets and companies leading the global non-scripted format business today.

Ute Schwemmer Bookkeeper

ALL3MEDIA INTERNATIONAL’S SABRINA DUGUET All3Media International’s Sabrina Duguet highlighted how the company is navigating the format business across the Asia Pacific at the TV Formats Festival, with the company seeing traction on game shows, reality and scripted.

Ricardo Seguin Guise President

ASIAN INNOVATION: RIDING THE K-CONTENT WAVE Amid the booming interest in Korean content globally, the TV Formats Festival heard from Jin Woo Hwang of Something Special about the prospects for Korean remakes across scripted and non-scripted.

ASIAN INNOVATION: THE VIEW FROM JAPAN Fuji Television Network’s Ryuji Komiya joined the TV Formats Festival’s Asian Innovation strand to highlight Japan’s gains in the global format business.

Mansha Daswani Associate Publisher & VP, Strategic Development TV Formats ©2025 WSN INC. 401 Park Avenue South, Suite 1041, New York, NY 10016, U.S.A. Phone: (212) 924-7620 Website: www.formats.ws

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TV FORMATS

BBC Studios The Honesty Box / Nation’s Dumbest / The 1% Club BBC Studios is looking to drive its presence in the reality formats space with The Honesty Box. Created by Mettlemouse, the dating show gave Channel 4 its biggest-ever launch on streaming for a new E4 original commission. Sumi Connock, executive VP of global creative networks and formats, also highlights Nation’s Dumbest, featuring a celebrity cast. It delivers a “broad mix of challenges and a warm and humorous approach, so it’s family friendly, with a narrative arc that hooks you in from week to week.” The 1% Club has been licensed in 12 markets, including the U.S.

Nation’s Dumbest

“We will continue to develop our own formats, nurture those already in our portfolio and bring in exciting new formats that we can exploit around the globe.”

—Sumi Connock

Fremantle Bride in the Kitchen / The Ultimate Entertainer / What’s My Line?

Newlywed brides and their mothers-in-law take part in a culinary showdown in Fremantle’s Bride in the Kitchen. In The Ultimate Entertainer, ten musicians must adapt to a new genre. Fremantle is also showcasing the celebrity panel game show What’s My Line? Andrea Gavacova, consultant VP for CEE, commercial and international, notes, “Game shows are difficult to get right, but when you get them right and they do well, they’re costeffective, advertisers and audiences like them, and you can keep reinventing with fresh hosts and making them feel relevant for audiences.”

What’s My Line?

“New, original, noisy IP has great appeal, and these formats all resonate in different ways.”

—Andrea Gavacova

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Inter Medya Crossover / The Box Challenge / Dream Couple Over 13 weeks, musical artists step outside of their comfort zones in Crossover, one of a selection of formats on offer from Inter Medya. The company says that this is more than just another talent format, with the show promising to deliver a transformative musical journey where identities, cultures and creativity collide on stage. On the studio game show front, The Box Challenge sees teams of contestants vie for a cash prize as they open 30 boxes, each with a different prize inside. Inter Medya is also seeking commissioning partners on Dream Couple, a dating format set in a lavish mansion.

Something Special Unforgettable Duet / Still Alive / All Aboard After receiving new investment earlier this year, Something Special is embarking on a growth strategy to position itself as a one-stop shop for all kinds of formats from South Korea. “We are currently working hard to finalize agreements to represent multiple A-list format titles,” says Jin Woo Hwang, president and founder. On the slate at the company are Unforgettable Duet, “a heartfelt series about the power of music, family and memories,” Hwang says; the reality competition Still Alive, optioned in 14 markets; and the dating format All Aboard.

Dream Couple

Unforgettable Duet

“Something Special is the one-stop shop for Korean formats.”

—Jin Woo Hwang

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Warner Bros. International Television Production (WBITVP) 24 in 24: Last Chef Standing / Cash or Trash / Impractical Jokers WBITVP is showcasing a diverse array of formats that promise to be universally relatable while still easily adaptable to local tastes. The lineup includes the cooking competition 24 in 24: Last Chef Standing, the factual-entertainment series Cash or Trash and the comedy format Impractical Jokers.

“Each of these titles taps into something universally relatable while giving space to create something that feels locally relevant and resonant,” says André Renaud, global VP for format and finished tape sales.

ZDF Studios

24 in 24: Last Chef Standing

“We remain focused on bringing highperforming, flexible formats to the table.”

—André Renaud

Magic Moves

Magic Moves / Wanna Bet? / Skydive Quiz A powerhouse in documentary, kids and drama, ZDF Studios has been steadily scaling its format business under VP Unscripted Ralf Rückauer. That initiative included the launch of CONTENT LADEN with Tom Gamlich and Jan Fritzowsky in 2023. The first format to come out of that alliance is Magic Moves, in which magic tricks are used to help children with hemiparesis. The iconic studio show Wanna Bet? continues to deliver for the company, with the U.K.’s ITV recently taking a second season of its local version. Another highlight is Skydive Quiz.

“We’re free to think about the best partner for a specific format in different countries and territories.”

—Ralf Rückauer

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MATT FORDE

On the heels of his recent promotion to president of global production at BBC Studios, Matt Forde opened the TV Formats Festival with a keynote conversation about scaling the powerhouse’s remakes business across entertainment and scripted.

TV FORMATS

We have a big scripted division as a vertical; we have a big consolidated unscripted business now.

And then we have global production, which is a true multi-genre business that goes across them. It makes it much simpler to look at the world. Everything ex-U.K. is now global production, and we will deliver in different genres, even within unscripted. In addition to our day-to-day, Saturday night, shiny floor gaming and quiz, we’re now pushing into reality with shows like The Honesty Box. And we’ve seen a lot of success with scripted shows. We’ve proven that we can deliver these great shows to local audiences. Is there more to do?

This is our opportunity to continue to grow across more territories and grow deeper into the individual genres and branch out to be true studios to local audiences.

”

TV FORMATS

MIKE BEALE & LISA PERRIN

ITV Studios’ Lisa Perrin and Mike Beale joined the TV Formats Festival to discuss group-wide creative collaboration, scouting for new ideas and managing format megahits.

TV FORMATS

When you make massive, wild format changes, the viewers don’t like it.

They like it to feel familiar, but there’s just enough newness to feel fresh and interesting.

That could be coaches or little tweaks around the edges. People don’t want big changes.

One of the lovely feelings about The Voice is that you know it’s going to be a warm bath. It feels familiar and people love that. The same with Love Island, too. We’ve tweaked that a lot, but still at the heart, it’s about love and people finding love. —Lisa Perrin

”

The creative network is across non-scripted development for the entire group—U.K., U.S. and international.

We’re tracking everything that’s coming through various stages of development with broadcasters or streamers or within the group. Over the last two or three years, we’ve seen the growth of collaboration between labels, both in the development and production of ideas going forward.

” —Mike Beale

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TV FORMATS

ANDRÉ RENAUD

As the group VP for format and finished sales at Warner Bros. International Television Production (WBITVP), André Renaud took part in the TV Formats Festival to discuss how he is amplifying the division’s presence worldwide across scripted formats and entertainment properties.

TV FORMATS

It’s an interesting one when we talk about chasing global hits, because I guess the question is, how are we defining what a global hit is nowadays? You need 21 versions of a format to make the top 100 most-traveled formats globally. I only know of one format that’s reached that magic number in the last few years, and it’s The Traitors, which is nearly five years old. LOL is actually a ten-year-old format, and that growth has only been driven by one commissioning entity, Amazon. Maybe we should look at redefining what a global hit should be. We need to stop burdening ourselves by saying what a global hit feels and looks like. Success probably isn’t defined in the same way anymore.

”

TV FORMATS

RALF RÜCKAUER

Ralf Rückauer, VP Unscripted at ZDF Studios, shared with TV Formats Festival viewers how the factual, scripted and kids’ powerhouse is approaching the factual-entertainment and quiz-show landscapes.

TV FORMATS

The buzzwords are budget cuts and risk aversion. Most commissioning editors that you are talking to don’t want to invest too much time in a show that might not perform. Most of the decisionmakers on the management level trust more in something that has proven success or is a reboot because people know the brand. But that said, there is also a lot of creativity coming up at the moment. Broadcasters are thinking about teaming up with other territories and creating a big hub in one city, and then you can share costs. There’s a whole new world of thinking creatively and creating something new.

”

TV FORMATS

FORMAT TRENDS WITH THE WIT

Tapping into The WIT’s extensive global database tracking content worldwide, Caroline Servy joined the TV Formats Festival to showcase the titles, markets and companies leading the global non-scripted format business today.

TV FORMATS

We counted a total of 380 new format adaptations generated by 249 different formats, which is a relatively low average of 1.5 adaptations by format.

Those new adaptations represented 4.6 percent of all new unscripted shows around the world, which includes documentaries. This figure is slightly down compared to the previous year, from 5.2 percent in 2023…. All in all, we have the indicators of a highly concentrated format market with the top ten distributors accounting for over 67 percent of the total number of adaptations and only six distributors are able to boast a portfolio of over ten active formats.

”

TV FORMATS

SABRINA DUGUET

All3Media International’s Sabrina Duguet highlighted how the company is navigating the format business across the Asia Pacific at the TV Formats Festival, with the company seeing traction on game shows, reality and scripted.

TV FORMATS

We’ve got a fantastic support team in London, and their job is to help the producers internationally from the beginning till the show is on air. It’s not just about getting the deal signed, but it’s about supporting our partners as much as possible, trusting them and giving them the freedom required. Probably even more in scripted, adaptation is everything.

Adaptation is done well when people don’t know that this is a format because they don’t have to. The reason people come to us to adapt scripted formats is that we have fantastic stories. Award-winning writers have written fantastic scripts; it’s great that writers around the world can access them and make them their own, but use the backbone of the story. We do give quite a decent amount of flexibility to our clients.

”

TV FORMATS

JIN WOO HWANG

Amid the booming interest in Korean content globally, the TV Formats Festival heard from Jin Woo Hwang of Something Special about the prospects for Korean remakes across scripted and non-scripted.

TV FORMATS

The K-content business is gaining fame at the moment; nevertheless, behind these successes, domestic production costs have actually tripled over the past five years. This is causing many difficulties locally. The global expansion has become inevitable. That is also one of the reasons why a Korean scripted series now has to secure international sales as a finished tape, or they work more on presales or even preinvestment nowadays. South Korea has the weakness of being a single-language country. This poses difficulties for global expansion. Something Special strongly believes that formats are the key to overcoming this.

”

TV FORMATS

RYUJI KOMIYA

Fuji Television Network’s Ryuji Komiya joined the TV Formats Festival’s Asian Innovation strand to highlight Japan’s gains in the global format business.

TV FORMATS

It’s essential for us to be able to create formats that are visually entertaining or non-verbal.

People say, do you have any crazy Japanese game shows? Japanese formats, in general, are visually entertaining to watch, even if you don’t understand the language. So, language is a challenge. But I think we were able to overcome that, turning that into an opportunity for us to create an original format that is visually entertaining.

”

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