World Screen MIPTV 2018

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THE MAGAZINE OF INTERNATIONAL MEDIA | APRIL 2018

WWW.WORLDSCREEN.COM

MIPTV Edition

The FEDERATIONS FREMANTLEMEDIA CECILE FROT-COUTAZ ENDEMOL SHINE SOPHIE TURNER LAING RED ARROW STUDIOS JAN FROUMAN BBC STUDIOS TIM DAVIE ALL3MEDIA JANE TURTON STUDIOCANAL DIDIER LUPFER BANIJAY MARCO BASSETTI KESHET MEDIA GROUP AVI NIR KEW MEDIA STEVEN SILVER MEDIAPRO TATXO BENET BLUE ANT MICHAEL MACMILLAN SKY VISION JANE MILLICHIP

DAVID ZASLAV

DISCOVERY CESAR CONDE NBCUNIVERSAL ROHANA ROZHAN ASTRO RANDY FALCO UNIVISION

Plus FOX NETWORKS GROUP

Seth

MacFarlane

+

FREDDIE HIGHMORE ANTONIO BANDERAS

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CONTENTS

APRIL 2018/MIPTV EDITION DEPARTMENTS WORLD VIEW

By Anna Carugati.

GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE

By Bruce Paisner.

UPFRONTS What’s new for MIPTV. INTER MEDYA SPECIAL REPORT The Turkish distribution company is expanding its activities worldwide.

Publisher Ricardo Seguin Guise

16

Group Editorial Director Anna Carugati

18

Editor Mansha Daswani Executive Editor Kristin Brzoznowski

20

Managing Editor Joanna Padovano Tong Associate Editor Sara Alessi

21

Editor, Spanish-Language Publications Elizabeth Bowen-Tombari

SPOTLIGHT NBCUniversal’s Cesar Conde.

60

MILESTONES A look at the FOX brand as it marks 25 years in the global pay-TV landscape.

64

ADVERTISERS’ INDEX 485

52 56 SETH MACFARLANE

FREDDIE HIGHMORE

488

Editorial Assistant, Spanish-Language Publications Jessica Ávila Contributing Editor Elizabeth Guider

SPECIAL REPORT

86 POWER OF MANY

Production & Design Director Victor L. Cuevas

This special report on federations—companies consisting of a raft of production

Online Director Simon Weaver

outfits worldwide, alongside a powerhouse distribution operation—includes interviews with BBC Studios’ Tim Davie, FremantleMedia’s Cecile Frot-Coutaz, Endemol Shine

WORLD’S END In the stars.

Associate Editor, Spanish-Language Publications Rafael Blanco

Group’s Sophie Turner Laing, Red Arrow Studios’ Jan Frouman, all3media’s Jane Turton, STUDIOCANAL’s Didier Lupfer, Banijay Group’s Marco Bassetti, Keshet Media Group’s Avi Nir, Kew Media Group’s Steven Silver, Mediapro’s Tatxo Benet, Blue Ant Media’s Michael MacMillan and Sky Vision’s Jane Millichip.

ONE-ON-ONE

161 DISCOVERY’S DAVID ZASLAV On the heels of the completion of the Scripps Networks Interactive acquisition, the president and CEO of the newly renamed Discovery, Inc. talks about the enduring appeal of nonfiction programming and the state of the cable industry.

Art Director Phyllis Q. Busell Senior Sales & Marketing Manager Dana Mattison Sales & Marketing Coordinator Nathalia Lopez Business Affairs Manager Andrea Moreno Contributing Writers Steve Clarke Andy Fry Joanna Stephens Jay Stuart David Wood Copy Editors Amy Canonico Maddy Kloss Kate Norris Tamara Schechter Heidi Ward Vivian Wick

ON THE RECORD

233 FREMANTLEMEDIA’S CECILE FROT-COUTAZ The CEO of FremantleMedia discusses the company’s scripted strategy, its partnerships with top-end talent and new opportunities being created by digital platforms.

IN CONVERSATION

289 ENDEMOL SHINE’S SOPHIE TURNER LAING WORLD SCREEN is published ten times per year: January, February, March, April, May, June/July, September, October, November and December.

Annual subscription price: Inside the U.S.: $90.00 Outside the U.S.: $160.00 Send checks, company information and address corrections to: WSN INC. 1123 Broadway, Suite 1207 New York, NY 10010, U.S.A. For a free subscription to our newsletters, please visit www.subscriptions.ws.

Endemol Shine Group’s CEO shares her approach to spotting great ideas and attracting talented writers and producers to the company.

EXECUTIVE BRIEFING

345 UNIVISION’S RANDY FALCO Serving the diverse needs of the U.S. Hispanic community while also diversifying its digital portfolio are key to the strategy at Univision, according to its president and CEO. 12 WORLD SCREEN 4/18

Ricardo Seguin Guise President Anna Carugati Executive VP Mansha Daswani Associate Publisher & VP of Strategic Development WORLD SCREEN is a registered trademark of WSN INC. 1123 Broadway, Suite 1207 New York, NY 10010, U.S.A. Phone: (212) 924-7620 Fax: (212) 924-6940 Website: www.worldscreen.com ©2018 WSN INC. Printed by Fry Communications No part of this publication can be used, reprinted, copied or stored in any medium without the publisher’s authorization.

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CONTENTS

APRIL 2018/MIPTV EDITION

THESE TARGETED MAGAZINES APPEAR BOTH INSIDE WORLD SCREEN AND AS SEPARATE PUBLICATIONS:

TOP BUYERS BANIJAY’S MARCO BASSETTI & TIM MUTIMER

150 156

CO-PRODUCTIONS GIRL-LED SHOWS STEAM-BASED SERIES HASBRO’S STEPHEN DAVIS SESAME WORKSHOP’S JEFFREY DUNN

196 204 212 220 224

PERIOD PIECES POLITICAL DRAMAS ANTONIO BANDERAS AY YAPIM’S KEREM ÇATAY UNREAL’S STACY RUKEYSER

266 274 280 284 286

SCRIPTED FORMATS DATING & RELATIONSHIP SHOWS KESHET’S AVI NIR STEPHEN LAMBERT

322 330 338 340

FACTUAL ON OTT TRUE CRIME DISCOVERY’S DAVID ZASLAV LIVE PD’S DAN CESAREO BBC NHU’S JULIAN HECTOR

364 368 372 374 376

PAY-TV CHANNELS ASIAN CONTENT TURNER’S RICKY OW ASTRO’S ROHANA ROZHAN

390 394 398 400

OTT VIMN’S RAFFAELE ANNECCHINO

410 416

SERIES & NOVELAS LIONSGATE’S SANDRA STERN

434 442

LISTINGS FOR MORE THAN 100 DISTRIBUTORS ATTENDING MIPTV 453

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WORLD VIEW

BY ANNA CARUGATI

Is Bigger Better?

For many years, there has been an ongoing debate about whether bigger is truly better, particularly as it pertains to various aspects of life—bigger closet, house, car, bank account, shoe collection, book collection, art collection, number of Instagram followers, and of course, bigger business.

It seems to me there are upsides and downsides to the whole concept of bigger. A growing family is a common motivation for a larger apartment, home or car, but while these can accommodate more children, they cost more, putting a dent in the family budget. A bigger garden affords more variety but also requires more work. More shoes, clothes or books feed a number of conscious and unconscious needs, but then you’re stuck with the problem of where to put them. The religious fervor of de-cluttering has not captured all of us. Sociologists and psychologists are grappling with the frenzy of accumulating more selfies or Facebook friends or Instagram followers; I will leave that task to them. Then we come to the need for bigness in business, otherwise known as scale, which can be achieved through organic growth or mergers and acquisitions. Before the advent of the FAANGs—Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google—there was some debate among non-digital businesses about the value of being bigger; achieving scale wasn’t for everyone, for many, but not all.

I remain intrigued by the concept of scale; when the bigger shoe fits and when it doesn’t. I don’t have an MBA. I only know what I read, and I have a lot of books, but my knowledge is limited. So I went to Google and typed in, “Is bigger better?” I am obviously naïve, but I was surprised, even shocked—most likely because I am part of the #MeToo movement—to see the results of that search: the first five entries were about penis size, the sixth about ego, the seventh and eighth again about penis size and only the ninth entry pertained to business. That last link led me to an article about scale economy being supplanted by the semantic economy because value chains have been incorporated into value networks. Now I remember why I chose journalism instead of pursuing an MBA—nothing at all against people with MBAs, I just need a considerably bigger brain to appreciate these concepts.

So I came back to what I know and started thinking about the benefits of scale for media companies, which is the subject of our main feature. I’ve spent the last few months talking with executives about the advantages of being bigger. I thought back to an interview I had done with Discovery’s founder, John Hendricks, years ago; he had used the concept of shelf space in retail to explain the advantage of having more channel brands. Fast-forward to today: I interviewed Discovery, Inc.’s president and CEO, David Zaslav, who gave a precise account of the current state of the cable

As creative businesses broaden their reach, they can’t lose sight

of human capital.

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industry and consumer demand for smaller, less expensive bundles. He also talked about the value of scale with Discovery’s acquisition of Scripps Networks Interactive, which gave Zaslav and his teams the ability to offer consumers more nonfiction content on a variety of platforms.

I also spoke with Endemol Shine Group’s Sophie Turner Laing, FremantleMedia’s Cecile Frot-Coutaz and Univision Communications’ Randy Falco. All talked about the various benefits of scale: more production companies; more relationships with talent; more creators generating IP; more resources to invest in more productions, which, given the failure rate in television, increases the chances of getting a show on the air and possibly a hit; more producers to share ideas and best practices; and more money to invest in news and providing viewers with information.

Every conversation inevitably led to the previously unimaginable dimension of scale we’ve had to wrap our heads around: Rupert Murdoch saying 21st Century Fox isn’t big enough, and the subsequent announcement that The Walt Disney Company is buying 21st Century Fox. Being bigger is now determined by the gargantuan reach and resources of the FAANGs, all of them active in the content space.

But increasing size in content-creation businesses can have a downside. As it gets bigger, a company must retain its ability to work with talent. Writers, for example, can be extremely sensitive, which feeds their X-ray vision into human behavior and motivation, which fuels character development. Creatives often adhere to a work schedule that is quite different from typical business hours. They require space and nurturing, and their needs must be taken into consideration in ways that can run up against the accepted procedures of big corporations.

While meeting their targets, media companies must offer creatives the best environments in which they can do their best work and provide them with the necessary resources to bring their visions to life on the small screen.

One such creative visionary is Seth MacFarlane, whom I interviewed for this issue. Actor, writer, producer, director, singer (his voice is reminiscent of a young Frank Sinatra!), he is bringing his numerous talents to bear in The Orville. I also interviewed Antonio Banderas about his portrayal of Picasso in the new season of Genius, and Freddie Highmore, who gave us nightmares as Norman Bates and is now playing an autistic surgeon with savant syndrome in The Good Doctor.

Bigger is better, but as creative businesses broaden their reach, they can’t lose sight of human capital, which is indispensable for the next hit show or franchise.

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GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE

BY BRUCE L. PAISNER

When Rights Seem Wrong My colleague Fred Cohen called me from Heathrow airport in October. “There’s a new Robert Harris book called Munich,” he said. “Do you want it?” Fred knows how much I enjoy Harris’s historical novels. “That’s thoughtful, Fred,” I said. “But no need to lug it across the Atlantic. I’ll just go get it at Barnes & Noble.” “You can’t,” he said. “It’s available in the U.K., but it doesn’t even go on sale in the U.S. until the middle of January.”

So Fred brought it to New York for me, and Harris’s fictionalized story of Neville Chamberlain and Adolf Hitler at the Munich Conference is a terrific book. But it got me thinking how odd it is that in an era of instantaneous communication, social media and a continuous worldwide conversation, you can buy a book in the U.K., but you can’t buy it in the U.S. until three months later.

On one level, it seems to me like rights mismanagement of the highest order. No Christmas sales in the U.S. for this book (unless you count Fred’s gift to me), and no social-media conversations that lead to book purchases. It’s alive in England and dead in the United States. I inquired of a book publisher as to why there was no coherent worldwide strategy. The answer is that one publisher usually does not communicate with another one, and there’s always the fear of anti-trust violations. Agents exploit each territory separately, and this publisher thinks that publicity from one country doesn’t bleed over into other countries.

So 1950s!

I don’t mean just to take book publishers to task, although this thinking is pretty much beyond me.

Indeed, television and feature film producers have their own issues. When you come right down to it, a film product is more than just a program or a movie; it’s a bundle of rights. And how the distribution company manages those rights is usually the difference between small or significant profits, and it is often the difference between which companies dominate an industry and which fall by the wayside. Netflix could not even have gotten started if movie producers had not been willing to license it the rights to their product. But they did, often because some sales manager needed the revenue to meet fourth-quarter targets. The end result is that Disney, once a major Netflix supplier, will spend billions of dollars to set up a subscriptionvideo business to compete with Netflix, and Fox is being sold to Disney because Rupert Murdoch

Disney, once a major Netflix supplier, will

spend billions of dollars

to compete with them.

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doesn’t think Fox can compete with companies like Netflix and Amazon.

Questionable decision-making is nothing new in our business. The movie companies could have started the broadcast-television networks, but first they chose not to, and, except for MCA/Universal, they refused to make programs for the new television medium at all. A bad decision on the first count and, considering how that went, an even worse decision on the second. The new broadcast-television networks dominated in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s, but when cable television came along, they largely refused to participate in the business, yet sold their movies and series to the fledgling cable networks. So networks like USA and TNT kept growing and redefining the television business, and when they needed more product, they turned to the broadcast networks—who were only too happy to oblige.

In the age of the internet, the program rightsmanagement issue has come full circle. And now, as noted in the Munich example, the issues are worldwide in scope. Most movies, for example, used to be released first in the United States, with a rather leisurely roll-out schedule around the rest of the world. This made some sense on a practical level, since product tends to be finished close to release deadlines, and English-language programming has to be dubbed for most territories. In a more leisurely world, that was an acceptable excuse, and the patterns got established. But in an age of digital piracy, it became increasingly counterproductive to do it that way. Most popular movies were simply pirated and dubbed, artlessly but quickly, in the big territories, leaving much slimmer audiences when the official movie finally arrived. The studios have at last caught up with this problem, and many are now working dubbing into their production schedules, so potentially high-grossing movies can get worldwide day-anddate releases.

The reality is that skillful management of rights reduces piracy and increases legitimate revenue. It is, oddly, a lesson that has to be learned over and over again.

Bruce L. Paisner is the president and CEO of the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.

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UPFRONTS

A+E Networks Live PD / Project Blue Book / Harry & Meghan: A Royal Romance Viewers get a front-row seat to observe law enforcement at work in Live PD, which has been successful in the U.S. Richard Tulk-Hart, the managing director of international content distribution and co-productions at A+E Networks, believes the format does well because “everyone has a police department, and audiences are fascinated by what happens in the criminal world.” From writer and director Robert Zemeckis comes Project Blue Book, a drama about the United States Air Force’s nearly 20-year investigation into the UFO phenomena. There is also the television movie Harry & Meghan: A Royal Romance, which brings to life the love story of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. Tulk-Hart says, “We are now looking to grow our international scripted co-production business through existing and new partnerships.”

“A+E is continually evolving to provide content to our partners that fits with the ever-changing environment we find ourselves in.”

Project Blue Book

ABS-CBN Corporation

—Richard Tulk-Hart

Bagani

Bagani / Asintado / The Blood Sisters Among the new shows being presented by ABS-CBN Corporation is Bagani. “Raising the bar in set design and creative production, Bagani is our biggest and grandest fantasy adventure series, which will surely captivate viewers with its thrilling plot, grand visual effects and a one-of-a-kind journey inside an alternate world with elements inspired from Filipino mythology and folklore,” says Cory Vidanes, ABS-CBN’s chief operating officer of broadcast. “Following the success of the revenge drama Wildflower, we are also excited to showcase our top-rating dramas that will keep the audience on the edge of their seats,” Vidanes adds, pointing to Asintado. The series is about a woman seeking revenge after she survives an attempted murder. Another highlight is The Blood Sisters, which has a “fast-paced and tension-filled storyline,” says Vidanes.

“We continue to present heartfelt Filipino stories with authentic, inspiring and empowering characters that will cross territories.”

—Cory Vidanes

Artist View Entertainment The Meanest Man in Texas / Chronology / Game Day Artist View Entertainment is presenting to the market The Meanest Man in Texas, a thriller based on the best-selling book and the true story of Clyde Thompson. In 1928, a young Clyde finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time and, after being spared the death penalty, faces a lifetime of imprisonment. Further highlights include Chronology and Game Day. “Chronology is a fascinating adventure that takes us through time,” says Scott Jones, the president of Artist View.

“Two men find that their souls have ended up in each other’s bodies and now they must figure out how to reverse what has happened to them.” Jones calls Game Day an “inspirational story” about two unlikely characters: a basketball-savvy teen and a brilliant but self-centered tech whiz whose startup goes bust and personal life is left in ruins.

“We have a wide variety of completed films in various genres and will be actively seeking new coproduction deals for additional product as we move forward.”

—Scott Jones 20 WORLD SCREEN 4/18

The Meanest Man in Texas

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A Look Inside T Soft launched at DISCOP Dubai, The Pit is Inter Medya’s new flagship drama for MIPTV. World Screen takes an in-depth look at the series.

Aras Bulut Iynemli and Dilan Çiçek Deniz lead the cast of Ay Yapim’s brand-new drama The Pit for Show TV. Directed by Sinan Öztürk, the series is set against the backdrop of a dangerous Istanbul neighborhood called Çukur, which is ruled by the Koçovali family.

Although they are closely related to crime, the family has its own rules. One of these is the prohibition of drugs, which cannot be produced, used or sold in Çukur. But one man is determined to get the ban lifted. First he tries to negotiate with the Koçovalis, but when his request is rejected he attacks the neighborhood and the family. Just when he thinks that he has brought the family to its knees, something unexpected happens.

Yamaç is a young man who has focused on living life the way he wants to. He doesn’t think about tomorrow. One night he meets a beautiful young woman as wounded and dangerous as he is. Her name is Sena. Soon they fall in love and get married. They thought they were going to live happily ever after until Yamaç’s family, which he abandoned a decade ago, comes between them.

Their lives will never be the same.

“The Pit has been extremely successful in Turkey, not only because of its unusual and fast-paced storyline, but also its acclaimed cast,” says Can Okan, the founder and CEO of Inter Medya. “We have received a lot of interest from a variety of territories, including the Middle East.”

Okan adds, “It’s always exciting and thrilling to cooperate with Ay Yapim. With every title, Ay Yapim manages to find new ways to glue the audience to the screen and immerse them into a variety of worlds.”

Who’s W Yamaç Koçovali (Aras Bulut Iynemli)

Sena Koçovali (Dilan Çiçek Deniz)

The younger son of the Koçovali family is a chemist during the day and a musician at night. He returns to Çukur to protect his family and the neighborhood.

Yamaç’s true love is reckless, stubborn, high on life and beautiful.

Saadet (Boncuk Yilmaz)

Selim Koçovali (Öner Erkan)

Taken in by the Koçovali family, she is aware of everything that happens but keeps it all to herself.

Idris’s third son is looked down upon because he doesn’t embrace his father’s values.

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e The Pit

p .

s Who Idris Koçovali (Ercan Kesal)

Sultan Koçovali (Perihan Savaş)

The head of the Koçovali family and ruler of The Pit is a powerful and generous man.

Idris’s wife is the backbone of the Koçovali family, a woman whose word is accepted as law.

Vartolu (Erkan Kolçak Köstendil)

Aliço (Riza Kocaoğlu)

A ruthless mafia leader who comes back to The Pit for revenge.

Idris’s eyes and ears on the street.

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WS: How do you see the position of Turkish dramas in the global market today?

OKAN: In the past ten years, Turkey has become the second-biggest exporter of TV series following the U.S., with the current volume estimated to exceed $300 million. The Turkish Exporters’ Assembly plans [for the industry] to reach $1 billion in content exports by 2023. So far, more than 150 Turkish series have been sold abroad and watched by more than 500 million viewers in 100-plus countries, reaching from the Middle East to Latin America, from Central and Eastern Europe to Southeast Asia.

The number of territories where Turkish content is finding its way is increasing every day. In fact, Turkish series are now being watched in Western Europe. We have recently sold Black Money Love and 20 Minutes to Canal+, one of France’s largest television channels. There is no doubt that other European countries will soon follow the Turkish drama trend.

WS: Can Turkish dramas continue to sustain their popularity in the international market?

OKAN: Turkish drama series have been so successful everywhere because of their exciting and captivating scenarios, outstanding production quality and their attractive and talented casts. Because of its strategic location and historical background, Turkey has been ruled by various cultures for centuries. Born from a combination of cultures, Turkish writers and directors are able to develop universal stories that appeal to everyone. While classic Turkish dramas with more conventional stories featuring love triangles and betrayals are still extremely popular, new genres are starting to attract more and more interest across the globe. Dramas with some comedy elements, such as Hayat, and dramas with some criminal features, like our newest title, The Pit, are generating a new trend in the Turkish television industry.

WS: Many Turkish actors and shows have been recognized at prestigious international award ceremonies. What are your thoughts on that?

By Mansha Daswani

ne of Turkey’s leading distributors, Inter Medya, in its 26-year history, has evolved from being a feature-film agent to a multigenre content hub. While the sale of Turkish dramas remains a big part of Inter Medya’s business, the company has expanded into format creation, production and distribution. Can Okan, the founder and CEO of Inter Medya, talks to World Screen about his strategy for the company.

O

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OKAN: A number of our titles and their cast members have been nominated to receive prestigious international awards. In fact, several even won. In 2013, 20 Minutes was nominated for the best drama series award at the Seoul International Drama Awards. A year later, the lead actress was nominated for the best performance by an actress award at the International Emmys. In 2015, although the lead actor in Black Money Love, who was nominated for the best performance by

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WS: How has Inter Medya contributed to the worldwide success and popularity of Turkish content?

OKAN: For 26 years, Inter Medya has managed to reach an important position as a distributor of Turkish series and feature films in the international market. By following an aggressive marketing strategy, which includes extensive media coverage—both online and in print—major branding opportunities and corporate sponsorships and events, we have tried to maximize our company’s visibility to consistently and reliably spread the Turkish TV and film industry outside of Turkey. We have managed to earn our clients’ trust and loyalty by providing them with an up-todate catalog and a satisfactory and sustained service record. Following a pricing policy respected by our partners, our most important achievement is that our trustworthy work relationships have spread in many countries.

the Fresh TV conference, this quiz show is a perfect combination of intelligence, speed and talent. With each correctly answered question, the contestant gets a chance to count as much cash as they can in 60 seconds and earn that amount if the announced sum is correct. Now we do not only distribute paper formats but formats that have been successfully broadcast on TV in Turkey. Produced by BKM and broadcast on Show TV, another one of our popular formats is 1 vs. 10. It is an unusual quiz show, where one contestant is asked ten questions but instead of answering these questions, he or she has to pick one rival out of ten who he or she believes will answer incorrectly. If the chosen rival answers correctly, the rival wins. If not, the contestant wins. At MIPTV we are launching a brand-new format called The Perfect Couple.

Taking place in a luxurious beach house in the Caribbean, it is a dating game show where contestants compete to win the limited number of room keys in order to avoid sleeping outside. The losing contestants, who stay outside, have to fight in an elimination duel to determine the one going home.

This year, we not only plan to expand the sales of TV series and entertainment formats, we also want to boost our feature-film sales. We believe that Turkish movies, just like Turkish drama series, will become extremely popular in the international market. Over time, we managed to build an extensive catalog of movies that are not only box-office hits in Turkey but that feature many known actors, some of whom play parts in our most successful series.

WS: Can you keep defending your position as one of the leading players in the international market by only selling Turkish dramas? How are you expanding the catalog?

OKAN: While distributing Turkish drama series continues to be our core business, a couple of years ago we began a format business in order to increase our product diversity and further extend our client network. We established an in-house creation and production team to not only create and develop new formats but also to undertake future productions. We started to grow our catalog with formats conceived by our own team as well as formats co-developed with creators from various

WS: Which titles are you highlighting at MIPTV? OKAN: Produced by Avşar Film, Mrs. Fazilet and Her Daughters is one of the newest titles in our catalog. It tells the story of a single mother from a modest background who dreams of becoming successful and wealthy by using her two daughters. Launched only a few months ago at MIP Cancun, Broken Wings is produced by Koliba. A true family drama, this title depicts the story of four siblings who are left alone in poverty after their father’s sudden death. Another highlight is Runaway Brides, a title produced by NTC Medya. We are launching one new title at this year’s MIPTV.

countries, including Turkey, Israel, France and Italy. In the summer of 2016, we produced a ten-episode season of our format Fifty Fifty for ATV, one of Turkey’s biggest broadcasters. A few months after, we were approached

by Secuoya Group, one of Spain’s leading companies in the format business, to represent many of their formats in a large number of territories. One of our newest formats, Money Monster, also turned out to be one of the most popular ones. Highlighted by Virginia Mouseler at

Pre-launched at DISCOP Dubai, it is produced by Ay Yapim and features the actors Aras Bulut Iynemli and Dilan Çiçek Deniz. The Pit is the story of a young man named Yamaç, who comes from an influential family ruling over Çukur, a neighborhood in Istanbul. Torn between his love, his family and his neighborhood, Yamaç has no idea that his life is never going to be the same when he has to go back to Çukur to become the head of the family.

an actor award, did not take the International Emmy home, he grabbed the best actor award at the Seoul International Drama Awards. That said, it was Endless Love that made the headlines. Not only did it receive the Jury’s Special Prize at the Seoul International Drama Awards, it also brought home an International Emmy in the telenovela category. This was an extraordinary success not only for our company and the producer Ay Yapim, but also an incredible achievement for the Turkish television industry. This Emmy also represented a benchmark for new trends that will shape the future world of television. As Turkish productions gain more popularity around the world, more nominations and wins will follow.

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FAMILY DRAMA Stories focused on the bonds between families have been strong sellers for Inter Medya. World Screen spotlights two of the company’s recent hits.

Broken Wings fter the sudden death of their father, Zeynep, Emre, Cemre and Aysun face difficult times. The one person they have to keep them going is Nefise, their young mother. Nefise does her best to take care of her children, but things aren’t easy. The Koliba Film production starring Melis Tüzüngüç, Deniz Bolişik, Ahmet Varli and Seda Türkmen also follows the romantic life of Zeynep.

Aloof to Ahmet, who has feelings for her, Zeynep meets and falls for Onur.

The drama was officially launched to the global market at MIP Cancun following its summer debut in Turkey, where it premiered with a 13-percent share.

A

Mrs. Fazilet and Her Daughters rom Avşar Film, Mrs. Fazilet and Her Daughters has quickly emerged as one of Inter Medya’s top sellers.

The Star TV drama rolled out on OSN at the end of last year, and has been licensed in Chile, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Moldova, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania and Romania.

The drama, which is one of the top five series in Turkey this season, focuses on Mrs. Fazilet and her attempts to use her daughters to climb up the social ladder. It stars Nazan Kesal, Deniz Baysal, Afra Saraçoğlu, Mahir Günşiray and Gülsen Tuncer.

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GAME TIME Formats is a significant growth area for Inter Medya. World Screen explores one of the newest additions to the company’s catalog.

The Perfect Couple his new reality dating show will take place in a luxurious villa in the Caribbean.

For 52 episodes, 22 contestants (11 men and 11 women) will have the best days of their lives in a beach house with six double rooms and an amazing suite. But there is a catch. In this fancy beach house, there isn’t enough space for everyone. The contestants will have to compete in the Key Challenges and win in order to score the limited number of room keys. The winning contestants will pick their partners to enjoy their time in the house, while the losing couple will be left outside, marginalized and homeless. But they will have one chance to convince the key holders to switch their partners, leading the household into conflict and jealousy. After the winners make their final decision, the losing contestants, who have to stay outside, must fight in an elimination duel to determine the one going home. After 17 weeks, only four couples will make it to the finale, where they will play elimination games as couples.

The winners will be “The Perfect Couple” and grab the big prize. This prime-time format will air two nights a week, 60 to 90 minutes per episode.

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Love and Hate

ATV Lifeline / Don’t Leave Me / Love and Hate A child bride and her son suffer domestic abuse in Lifeline, which is among the drama series ATV is presenting to buyers at MIPTV. Domestic abuse is also a theme of Orphan Flowers, about a young girl who suffers at the hands of her stepfather and winds up in an orphanage.

The drama Love and Hate, meanwhile, centers on Ali, who spent his youth in prison and never learned how to love. He and Mavi, who has also never been in love, get to know each other as pen pals. They get married shortly after meeting in person, but each is harboring secrets from the other. She Was Pretty, meanwhile, is about childhood sweethearts who reconnect after many years.

A complicated love story ensues. The catalog also features the drama Don’t Leave Me.

Boat Rocker Rights Bitz & Bob / The Polos / History in the Making The STEAM-based Bitz & Bob “is a new and pioneering preschool series that is the first to address the global shortage of female engineers,” says Jon Rutherford, the president of Boat Rocker Rights. “Bitz & Bob breaks down gender barriers and encourages girls from a young age to take an interest in STEAM-related industries.” Also on offer from the company is The Polos, another preschool series, this one based on the award-winning MarcoPolo Learning apps.

Then there is History in the Making, which marks Boat Rocker’s first fully self-financed program from its factual label Crooked Horse Productions. The show centers on dedicated craftsmen from around the world “who create unique pieces using methods of the past—from decades, centuries, even millennia ago,” says Rutherford.

The Polos

“We are committed to partner-friendly interaction, absolute transparency and building long-lasting alliances with clients all over the world.”

—Jon Rutherford

Calinos Entertainment Forbidden Fruit / Our Story / Woman The dramas Our Story and Woman have been two of the most-talked-about and best-rated TV series in Turkey this season, according to Asli Serim Guliyev, international sales director at Calinos Entertainment. “Based on one of Nippon TV’s most successful formats, Woman tells the story of Bahar, a young widow, who has to endure all the hardships life puts before her alone, with only her two children by her side,” she explains. “On the other hand, Our Story, starring Hazal Kaya, depicts a story that many people who have endured hardships in their life can relate to.” The brand-new launch for Calinos at MIPTV is Forbidden Fruit, which features two sisters with very different values and goals in life. All three of these titles feature strong female leads.

Forbidden Fruit

“All of these stories depict the lives of strong, independent and driven women who would stop at nothing to protect their families or their dreams.”

—Asli Serim Guliyev

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Canada Media Fund Funding / Research / Promotion of Canadian content Canadian producers will be participating in In Development, a MIPTV and CANNESERIES initiative regarding drama coproduction opportunities. Drama is “a genre in which Canada has a great deal of co-production experience,” says Valerie Creighton, the president and CEO of the Canada Media Fund.

Canadian producers will also introduce a number of shortformat shows at CANNESERIES, along with a showcase of three VR projects in the VR library. Additionally, Maya Kodes, a holographic experience and virtual singer, will interact with and entertain guests at the Canada Pavilion. “This 360-degree, fully integrated approach speaks to the growing Canadian presence at international events like MIPTV, where Canadian creators have been able to develop unique business opportunities, taking Canadian content around the world,” says Creighton.

Vikings, a Canada-Ireland co-production

“Canada is known for providing a very competitive environment for television and digital media production and co-production.”

—Valerie Creighton

CBS Studios International Instinct / SEAL Team / Strange Angel Alan Cumming and Bojana Novakovic star in Instinct, which launched mid-season on CBS in the U.S. The show is a “classic network procedural with broad appeal,” says Barry Chamberlain, CBS Studios International’s president of sales.

“Cumming and Novakovic’s characters engage in witty dialogue and are a pair who will never get together romantically,” as Cumming’s character is gay. Also a CBS series, SEAL Team, which launched this past fall, “is a real hit in the U.S., and international viewers are catching on as well,” Chamberlain says. “The broad appeal of SEAL Team lands squarely with David Boreanaz, a proven television star.”

Strange Angel is the next original series that is being produced for CBS All Access. It deals with the early days of modern rocketry.

Instinct

“We remain committed to providing the best television content— including premium series from Showtime, CBS All Access and broadly popular series from CBS—across all platforms.”

—Barry Chamberlain

Crown Media International Distribution The Beach House / The Christmas Train / Meet the Peetes On offer from Crown Media International Distribution, The Beach House and The Christmas Train are new releases from the Hallmark Hall of Fame franchise. “Each counts an all-star cast, including Minka Kelly, Chad Michael Murray and Andie MacDowell in The Beach House, and Dermot Mulroney, Danny Glover, Kimberly Williams-Paisley and Joan Cusack in The Christmas Train,” says Francisco J. González, the senior VP of international distribution. Meet the Peetes is a new Hallmark Channel original series. González says that the company has strengthened its “commitment to bring to the international marketplace our signature content and worldrenowned brands from our networks: the Hallmark Channel, Hallmark Movies & Mysteries, Hallmark Drama and our SVOD platform, Hallmark Movies Now.”

The Beach House

“We continue to increase our number of original shows and productions every year.”

—Francisco J. González

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dick clark productions, International The Best FIFA Football Awards / The Football Show / The Pet Show

The Best FIFA Football Awards

FIFA, dick clark productions and Infinity Creative Media teamed up for The Best FIFA Football Awards. “This year’s show following the World Cup will be a spectacular production, possibly the biggest social event of the year, and a ticket that billionaires, celebrities, football fans and all socialites would kill to get,” says Bob Kennedy, the company’s senior VP of sales and acquisitions. Another highlight is The Football Show, which “provides viewers an exclusive inside look into the lives of star players off of the pitch,” according to Kennedy.

“You get to know the athlete as more than just a player for your favorite club.” The Pet Show, meanwhile, is a tentatively titled production with animal clips from around the globe.

“dick clark productions is now part of an exciting, new, multi-faceted entertainment company, Valence Media.”

—Bob Kennedy

Dori Media Group

The New Black

5 Stars / The New Black / The Road to Calvary In 5 Stars (Las Estrellas), five sisters put their lives on hold to take care of a boutique hotel as part of a clause left behind by their father who passed away. “5 Stars is a romantic comedy that has the look, pace and content of a contemporary comedy, but is catchy and addictive like a classic daily drama,” says Revital Basel, VP of sales at Dori Media Group. “The format can travel and be successful worldwide.” The company’s catalog also includes the comedy The New Black, set at a Jewish Orthodox yeshiva, and the drama The Road to Calvary, based on the famous Tolstoy novel. “These three titles originate from three very different territories in the world: Argentina, Israel and Russia, proving that success stories are born worldwide and can travel worldwide,” says Basel.

Eccho Rights

“We always believe that good stories travel, no matter where they were created and born.”

—Revital Basel

Stiletto Vendetta

Conspiracy of Silence / Stiletto Vendetta / El Accidente Ahead of its launch across Scandinavia later this year, the Viaplay original Conspiracy of Silence is making its market debut. “It is part bombastic political thriller, but also a very human story about the personal and family lives that are affected by a corrupt industry,” says Fredrik af Malmborg, the managing director of Eccho Rights. “There will be an exclusive premiere screening taking place in Cannes, and we expect the project to make a big impact in the international market.” The Ay Yapim-produced Stiletto Vendetta is also a highlight for Eccho Rights, alongside El Accidente, a Spanish drama. “El Accidente is a proven, huge success,” says af Malmborg. “We already have several deals lined up to take the series to new markets, and we expect interest to continue to be fierce during MIPTV.”

“Eccho Rights continues to push boundaries, and with our MIPTV lineup, our ambitions can clearly be seen.”

—Fredrik af Malmborg

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Endemol Shine International Harem / Action Team / Britain’s Best Home Cook Produced by Endemol Shine Israel for Reshet, the Israeli drama Harem is a fictional tale of the phenomenon of cults and their destructive consequences. “Israeli dramas are character-driven with compelling storylines and portray the cultural diversity and mystic of this small region,” says Cathy Payne, chief executive of Endemol Shine International. The comedic action thriller Action Team follows the exploits of a special branch of MI6. “Fast-paced, high-concept and crammed with silly jokes, it is sure to appeal to international audiences,” says Payne. She also highlights the cookingthemed entertainment show Britain’s Best Home Cook, which will “inspire international audiences, but inspire them in an attainable way—and who doesn’t want to cook the ultimate Sunday roast?”

Action Team

“Endemol Shine International is a must-meet global distributor, now with a portfolio of over 50,000 hours of owned and third-party programming.”

—Cathy Payne

Entertainment One The Detail / Burden of Truth / Let’s Get Physical Entertainment One (eOne) is highlighting for buyers the crime procedural The Detail, which already has a U.S. deal in place.

“The Detail is exactly the kind of series that so many of our global broadcast partners have been seeking for their primetime audiences,” says Dan Gopal, eOne’s executive VP of sales for EMEA. “It is a police procedural featuring a cast centered around three strong and realistically portrayed women, with punchy crimes of the week balanced with gripping character series arcs.” The company also has the serialized investigative drama Burden of Truth, starring Kristin Kreuk. Meanwhile, Jane Seymour stars in Let’s Get Physical. “This modern-day comedy is full of neon flare, as it encapsulates the 1980s with the unique fashion and music of that era, in the cutthroat and very amusing world of professional aerobics,” Gopal says.

Let’s Get Physical

“Our focus for this market will be to spend quality time with our partners from around the world to understand what they are currently looking for in their schedules and on their platforms.”

—Dan Gopal

Escapade Media

600 Bottles of Wine

600 Bottles of Wine / Walking Points / Undocumented The world of modern dating is front and center in the comedic drama 600 Bottles of Wine. “The show was born through the identification of behaviors demonstrated by female interaction in digital and social media communities across the globe,” says Jessica Stonehouse, Escapade Media’s head of sales, partnerships and business development for the U.K. and U.S. “No matter where you are from, or what language you speak, women from all over the world can relate to this hilarious and very realistic series.” Stonehouse believes viewers across the globe will also be able to relate to Walking Points, which examines the bond between humans and dogs and seeks to discover whether canines can actually detect cancer. In the drama series Undocumented, Bonnie is an Australian living in New York who finds out that she is an illegal immigrant.

“Escapade Media is dedicated to developing distinct content in line with the technological developments of the industry while offering titles that all have a distinct point of difference.”

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Filmax International Welcome to the Family / Kilian Jornet: Path to Everest / The Miramar Murders From the team behind the international hits The Red Band Society and I Know Who You Are comes Welcome to the Family, on offer from Filmax International. “Currently broadcasting on TV3, the Catalan pubcaster, Welcome to the Family is becoming another massive success domestically,” says Iván Díaz, the head of Filmax’s international division. Also in the catalog is Kilian Jornet: Path to Everest, a documentary spotlighting the titular mountain runner. “It narrates his two consecutive ascensions to the Everest summit, with his own personal style—unorthodox and defying all the rules and conceptions of traditional hiking,” says Díaz. Then there is The Miramar Murders, a true-crime docuseries depicting the unclosed case of a Spanish man who has spent 16 years on death row in the U.S.

Kilian Jornet: Path to Everest

“The TV business is bigger and more relevant for us every year.”

—Iván Díaz

FremantleMedia International My Brilliant Friend / Pope: The Most Powerful Man in History / Butterfly Currently in production in Italy, My Brilliant Friend is an eightpart drama based on the best-selling book by Elena Ferrante.

The series is the first of Ferrante’s novels centered on Elena Greco and Raffaella Cerullo to come to TV. FremantleMedia International is presenting My Brilliant Friend to international buyers alongside Pope: The Most Powerful Man in History, a six-part CNN original narrated by Liam Neeson that takes a look inside the Vatican. “The docuseries explores how 12 Apostles became 1.2 billion Catholics today, linking recent news events surrounding the Vatican with their unexpected origins,” says Jens Richter, the company’s CEO. There is also Butterfly, about an 11-year-old boy who decides to live life as a girl. The miniseries, from BAFTA Award-winning screenwriter Tony Marchant, is made by RED Production Company.

“We’re aiming to work with the best creatives in the business to deliver irresistible entertainment that has international appeal.”

—Jens Richter

My Brilliant Friend

Gaumont Narcos / NOX / The Art of Crime Gaumont is offering to international buyers the hit drama Narcos, which has been streaming on Netflix. “We are thrilled that we can finally answer the worldwide demand for the show as the TV linear rights are becoming available for the first time,” says Vanessa Shapiro, the president of worldwide TV distribution and co-production at Gaumont. The market will also see the international debut of NOX, a Creation Originale series for Canal+.

“This unique crime drama is set in the tunnels beneath the city of Paris and follows the story of a retired cop forced out of retirement when her daughter, also a cop, disappears in the mysterious underworld,” explains Shapiro. In The Art of Crime, an unlikely duo comes together to solve a series of crimes.

NOX

“With two strong female leads, NOX delivers what audiences are looking for: a nail-biting thriller with an outstanding cast and suspenseful plot.”

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GRB Entertainment The Bay / Man at Arms / Whacked Out Sports The Emmy Award-winning drama series The Bay centers on the affluent yet dysfunctional residents of a posh seaside town that is cursed by a political figure who was allegedly murdered by his socialite granddaughter. “The Bay’s global appeal comes from the storylines of the downfall of a rich family and the great twists and turns of a murder in their town,” says Michael Lolato, senior VP of international distribution for GRB Entertainment. “In the long tradition of telenovelas and soap operas, The Bay combines daytime drama and prime-time glitz that appeals to audiences worldwide.” In Man at Arms, iconic weapons from movies, video games and comic books are created in real life. The company also has in its catalog the clip show Whacked Out Sports, loaded with sports bloopers.

The Bay

“GRB is focusing this market on promoting its male programming and its new scripted series.”

—Michael Lolato

Great Point Media

Measure of a Man

King Lear / A Happening of Monumental Proportions / Measure of a Man Founded by Robert Halmi Jr. and Jim Reeve, Great Point Media specializes in the development, investment, distribution and sales of IP across television, film and music. Among the highlights of the company’s catalog is the TV movie King Lear, which stars Anthony Hopkins, Emma Thompson and Emily Watson, among others. There’s also Measure of a Man, featuring Blake Cooper, Donald Sutherland, Judy Greer and Luke Wilson, and A Happening of Monumental Proportions, an ensemble comedy starring Allison Janney, Katie Holmes, Jennifer Garner, John Cho, Common and Rob Riggle. “The casts of these movies are household names around the world,” says Halmi Jr., Great Point’s chairman. He adds that the movies on the company’s slate have “great stories, great production values and major stars—all the things people like to watch.”

“We’re here with some of the best movies available in a first window for audiences everywhere.”

—Robert Halmi Jr.

Intellecta This Is Love / The Threshold / Stand By My Side Intellecta has been working as a syndication partner of Star India for Indian drama series and movies for the last six years. At MIPTV, the company is offering This Is Love, which “has had impressive ratings success on the TV channels where it has already premiered,” says Christina Vlahova, general manager of Intellecta. The Threshold features a love story that gets tested in the modern-day criminal justice system, and viewers “see the clash between family loyalty and real love,” she notes. Another catalog highlight is Stand By My Side, which has seen successful sales over the last six months, according to Vlahova. “For the markets that might not be ready for original Indian content yet, we offer a selection of the best Star India stories as scripted formats,” she adds.

The Threshold

“We are coming to MIPTV with the latest Indian drama series and Bollywood movies.”

—Christina Vlahova 38 WORLD SCREEN 4/18

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Inter Medya

Broken Wings

The Pit / The Perfect Couple / Broken Wings Starring Aras Bulut Iynemli and Dilan Çiçek Deniz, The Pit is a new drama about a young man who finds himself torn between his love, his family and his neighborhood.

“Yamaç has no idea that his life is never going to be the same when he has to go back to Çukur to become the head of the family,” says Can Okan, the founder and CEO of Inter Medya. The company is also showcasing Broken Wings, a recently launched family drama that “depicts the story of four siblings who are left alone in poverty after their father’s sudden death,” says Okan. The MIPTV slate additionally includes The Perfect Couple, a new dating game-show format set in a Caribbean beach house, where contestants compete for room keys to avoid sleeping outside.

“We are launching not only one but two new titles at this year’s MIPTV.” —Can Okan

Kew Media Group

The Bletchley Circle: San Francisco

The Bletchley Circle: San Francisco / Unmasking a Killer / Moving On Set during a period of social change in the mid-1950s, The Bletchley Circle: San Francisco, a brand-new installment of the drama franchise, is on offer from Kew Media Group. The eight-parter follows two of the original lead characters as they travel to America. The company’s slate also features the nonfiction series Unmasking a Killer, which profiles the reallife story of the Golden State Killer and the manhunt that ensued. “The true-crime phenomenon continues to thrive globally, and this series will be irresistible to those who enjoy the thrill of playing an armchair investigator over the course of several enticing episodes,” says Jonathan Ford, the executive VP of sales and distribution at Kew Media Group. Other highlights include season nine of the daytime drama Moving On and the detective drama Frankie Drake Mysteries.

“The women of The Bletchley Circle defy gender stereotypes for their era, and in today’s climate there has never been a higher demand to see more leading, mold-breaking, inspirational female characters.”

—Jonathan Ford

Lionsgate

Wrong Man

Vida / Sweetbitter / Wrong Man Lionsgate is showcasing Vida and Sweetbitter, two brand-new Starz original drama series, as well as Wrong Man, a six-part Starz documentary. Vida focuses on two Mexican-American sisters from the east side of Los Angeles who couldn’t be more different or distanced from each other. Sweetbitter, adapted from the best-selling novel of the same name, tells the story of a 22-year-old working in the restaurant industry in New York City. From Joe Berlinger, Wrong Man examines cases of inmates who have been incarcerated for decades and claim they’re innocent. “Lionsgate and Starz provide a great home for talent—a combined company that allows storytellers to create premium, noisy and relatable programming across many different platforms,” says Peter Iacono, the president of international television and digital distribution at Lionsgate.

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MarVista Entertainment Twisted Tenant / Paint by Murder / Mommy Be Mine There are some new thriller movies on the MarVista Entertainment slate, including Twisted Tenant. The story follows as a young woman on break from college learns that her mother has rented out a room in their house to a handsome man with a dangerous past. The suspense thriller Mommy Be Mine is about a woman who spirals out of control when she discovers that all is not what it seems after the disappearance of her daughter. Paint by Murder is a thriller set in the art world. “MarVista has been producing movies for the worldwide market for years and is always working with its clients and new prospects to provide content targeted to their needs,” says Jody Cipriano, the company’s head of global distribution and acquisitions. “That said, we recognize that thrillers are always in demand.”

Mommy Be Mine

“Audiences recognize MarVista productions for the enjoyable, engaging entertainment experience they always provide.”

—Jody Cipriano

Miramax New film & TV titles / Miramax library / Revolution Studios library Miramax arrives at MIPTV with a slate of new film and TV titles to offer international buyers, including the Intrigo anthology and Sea of Blood. The company also has a deep library of movies that houses such classics as Pulp Fiction, Good Will Hunting, Chicago and the Scream franchise. The Revolution Studios library, including the action movie xXx and romantic comedy Maid in Manhattan, is part of the Miramax catalog as well. “With new features and television series to complement our incredible library, we are focused on building and strengthening relationships with [linear] and digital platforms around the world to bring our content to audiences everywhere,” says Joe Patrick, executive VP of worldwide TV sales and home entertainment.

“In the rapidly changing global marketplace, Miramax is uniquely positioned as a premier independent supplier of content.”

Chicago

—Joe Patrick

Multicom Entertainment Group Streaker / America Adrift / The Broken Ones The Broken Ones A high school teacher desperate to get out of a financial crisis begins to recruit and train streakers for illegal sports betting in the comedic film Streaker. Multicom Entertainment Group is promoting that title at MIPTV, along with the 80minute drama America Adrift, about a woman who fights back when her son becomes involved in the world of drug trafficking. Darrin Holender, the president of Multicom Entertainment Group, also highlights The Broken Ones. The romantic drama tells the story of two strangers who meet one night and embark on an adventure from New Jersey to New York, confronting their darkest fears and overcoming tragedy along the way. Other MIPTV highlights include Divine Access, M.I.A.: A Greater Evil, Generational Sins, Above All Things, After the Sun Fell and The Side Show Christmas.

“Multicom Entertainment Group has acquired rights to a deep library of premium programming that is distributed through a global network of broadcasters and digital platforms.”

—Darrin Holender

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New Films International Stolen Life / New York / A Lesson of Love A surgeon begins to climb the ranks in Bulgaria’s most prestigious hospital in the drama series Stolen Life, which New Films International is promoting at MIPTV. The surgeon has no idea that his biological father is the general manager of the hospital. The company is also showcasing the action-drama series New York. “For the last couple of years, feature movies have been replaced with TV series, and we are focusing on including new and genre-oriented TV series in our slate in order to accommodate the market’s needs,” says Nesim Hason, the company’s founder and CEO. Hason believes the series will pique buyers’ interest “with their strong stories and emotional approach.” There is also the romantic film A Lesson of Love, about a widowed teacher who is recruited to an Appalachian college and falls in love with a religious local.

Stolen Life

“We are planning to be one of the biggest independent film companies that provides a wide range of content directly to major digital platforms.”

—Nesim Hason

Nippon TV anone / Hungry 9 / Hardcore Fans The drama anone comes from the creators of Mother and Woman—My Life for My Children. The series features “a strong story that questions, What makes life truly worthwhile?” says Cindy Chino, the senior director of international business development at Nippon TV. In the social-experiment arena, the company is offering Hungry 9, in which nine people locked behind a door have the same goal: become the ultimate winner. The show features plenty of mind games, tears, collusion and betrayal. Hardcore Fans is a multiplatform sports entertainment format, which “showcases the passion of every sports fan with their quality of life bound to the performance of their favorite team,” says Chino. Loyal fans are locked up in a cell while sports season is in full swing, and their fate is determined by real-time match results.

Hardcore Fans

“We are celebrating our 65th anniversary this year.”

—Cindy Chino

ORF-Enterprise Suburbia—Women on the Edge / Hell and Paradise—Russia’s Wild Sea / The Nero Files—Uncovering an Ancient Conspiracy A new season of Suburbia—Women on the Edge, about five ladies experiencing a roller-coaster ride of emotions and intrigues, is on offer from ORF-Enterprise. “Our international buyers can expect more secrets, scandals and drama in the brand-new season of the successful dramedy series,” says Marion Camus-Oberdorfer, the head of content sales international. “With the astonishing wildlife documentary Hell and Paradise—Russia’s Wild Sea and the fascinating portrait of one of the most notorious Roman emperors in The Nero Files—Uncovering an Ancient Conspiracy, another top-class selection awaits our clients,” she adds. The twopart Russia’s Wild Sea shows the sea of Okhotsk, “a wildlife paradise where animals grow bigger, stronger and more numerous than anywhere else,” Camus-Oberdorfer explains.

The Nero Files—Uncovering an Ancient Conspiracy

“In The Nero Files, flashbacks and reenactments encourage the viewer to explore theories that are suddenly undermined by unexpected twists.”

—Marion Camus-Oberdorfer

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Aerial Cities

Smithsonian Networks The Pacific War in Color / Aerial Cities / The Lost Tapes The landmark series The Pacific War in Color tells the complete story of the Pacific War across eight episodes. “It is entirely told with color footage from the time and uses narrated eyewitness voiceover to help drive the drama and add insightful details,” says David Royle, the executive VP of programming and production at Smithsonian Networks. Aerial Cities is also a fresh offering. “This is a new variation on our landmark Aerial America series, which has sold globally,” Royle says. “Each episode captures 24 hours in the life of an iconic city, like Las Vegas or Miami, and they are all shot in 4K/UHD and are visually stunning.” He adds, “If you’re looking for intense, nonfiction drama, it doesn’t get much grittier than our The Lost Tapes series,” which now features The Lost Tapes: Malcolm X and The Lost Tapes: Tet Offensive.

“All these titles combine astonishing visuals with great storytelling that does not play with the facts.”

—David Royle

Sonar Entertainment Das Boot / The Son / Taboo Inspired by the film and novel of the same name, Das Boot stars Lizzy Caplan, Vicky Krieps, Vincent Kartheiser, Tom Wlaschiha and Rick Okon. David Ellender, the president of global distribution and co-productions at Sonar Entertainment, calls the scripted co-production a “tentpole property for Bavaria Fiction, Sky and Sonar. It is also a textbook example of how three partners from different parts of the world can come together to create a dynamic, theatricalstyle production with top talent that will appeal to audiences across the globe.” Pierce Brosnan stars in The Son, which is in production on its second season and has been sold across Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and other territories.

Sonar’s slate also features Taboo, co-created and executive produced by Tom Hardy, who also stars in the series.

Das Boot

“Sonar places a premium on finding stories and creative talent that are not confined by borders.”

—David Ellender

SPI International/FILMBOX

Fight Globe’s SuperKombat on FightBox HD

Gametoon HD / FightBox HD / FunBox UHD Part of the SPI International/FILMBOX bouquet, Gametoon HD is a new eSports channel for millennials. “We have recently launched this network in several new territories, and we have been very active in developing relationships with key players in the eSports and online gaming industries in order to deliver the best coverage from the world’s top events,” says Berk Uziyel, executive director. “Our flagship sports channel FightBox HD is still the most popular network in our worldwide TV portfolio. We are looking forward to expanding its distribution footprint in Western Europe, LatAm and Asia.” The company’s international lineup also includes FunBox UHD, a general-entertainment channel offering a collection of native Ultra HD content covering nature, wildlife, travel, world cultures, performing arts, luxury lifestyles and adventure sports.

“Our channels are available worldwide with top-quality programming acquired from major international suppliers and content producers.”

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Splash Entertainment Jing-Ju Cats / Oh Yuck! / Kulipari The animated series Jing-Ju Cats combines the principles of kung fu and Beijing opera, in addition to featuring a dose of comedy for young viewers. The wild adventures of “filth hunter” Dr. Septico Yuck set up the action in the comedy Oh Yuck!, a live-action series from the Splash Entertainment catalog. The show is targeted to viewers ages 6 to 11. The company has two seasons of Kulipari to offer as well. A Netflix original series, Kulipari features a tale of bravery and heroism, centered on a group of peaceful amphibians. Mevelyn Noriega, the president of distribution at Splash Entertainment, says that these offerings have a “balance of action, comedy and fun, exceptional and distinctive entertainment values that appeal to children all over the world.”

Kulipari

“Our highlights for MIPTV this year are all genderneutral, high-quality entertainment series.”

—Mevelyn Noriega

Star Media Richard Sorge: Master Spy / Operation Mukhabbat / Oriental Sweets Star Media’s Richard Sorge: Master Spy follows a Soviet secret agent during WWII who is in Tokyo masquerading as a German journalist. The project has “compelling intrigue, action and exotic locations,” says Vlad Ryashin, the general producer of Star Media. “Mr. Sorge is not such a wellknown figure compared to others of his profession, which makes this series a real revelation and puts him right up there in the top [of the list] with some of the world’s most famous and notorious spies.” Also from Star Media, Operation Mukhabbat is a love story set in Afghanistan in 1985 during the Soviet occupation. There is also Oriental Sweets, which already has a second season commissioned. “This unusual series is based on a highly original idea,” says Ryashin.

Richard Sorge: Master Spy

“Everybody loves a good spy story.”

—Vlad Ryashin

STUDIOCANAL Come Home / Ride Upon the Storm / Baron Noir The family drama Come Home follows the story of a mother who mysteriously leaves her home one day. Presented from different perspectives, “Come Home is a powerful, absorbing, deeply emotional and compelling family drama told with levity, laughter and an emotional truthfulness,” says Beatriz Campos, STUDIOCANAL’s head of international sales. The company is also presenting the sophomore season of Ride Upon the Storm, which delves deep into the multifaceted relationships of a family. “Ride Upon the Storm seasons one and two reveal the anguish and turmoil as well as the unconditional love that exists between family members,” Campos says. Another highlight is the political thriller Baron Noir, which also has a second season.

Baron Noir

“Dramas with strong, engaging and relatable narratives will always appeal to viewers around the world.”

—Beatriz Campos

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TM International The Name of the Rose / Thanks for the Memories / Hubert & Staller The eight-part thriller The Name of the Rose is based on the novel by Umberto Eco that has sold millions of copies worldwide. It is a brand that has “spawned a runaway successful film, a game and video games and it is now, for the first time, being adapted for television,” says Herbert L. Kloiber, the managing director of TM International. Also in the company’s catalog, Thanks for the Memories is a twopart romantic comedy based on the novel by best-selling author Cecelia Ahern. There is the procedural Hubert & Staller as well. “Now going into its eighth season, it is the unassailable access-prime-time king in Germany and is available as a format as well,” Kloiber notes. The show has “proved it can keep the perfect balance of a light procedural,” he adds.

Thanks for the Memories

“Thanks for the Memories is a heartwarming, delightful comedy based on the ever-popular novel by Cecelia Ahern.”

—Herbert L. Kloiber

TV Azteca International Iron Lady / Wild by Nature / Nothing Personal

Silvana Durán is known as the “Iron Prosecutor.” After her father is murdered by the country’s most-wanted drug lord, the Iron Prosecutor will use every means at her disposal to see that justice is served. The melodrama Nothing Personal features a plot that is laced with action, political suspense and romantic tension. The TV Azteca International catalog also features Two Lakes, a dramahorror hybrid about three families who have lived in the same house at different periods in time, along with the spirit of a girl who died there in a strange way. In the nonscripted arena, the company is presenting the wildlife series Wild by Nature, which spotlights the fauna of Mexico and the many mammals, birds, reptiles, fish and insects found there.

Nothing Personal

Twentieth Century Fox Television Distribution Trust / 9-1-1 / The Resident Twentieth Century Fox Television Distribution has a handful of new dramas for MIPTV buyers this year and is particularly looking forward to presenting its Asia-Pacific clients the titles Trust, 9-1-1 and The Resident. Trust looks at one of America’s wealthiest families, the Gettys. “Equal parts family history, dynastic saga and an examination of the corrosive power of money, Trust explores the complexities at the heart of every family, rich or poor,” says Richard Samuels, the executive VP for the Asia Pacific and managing director of Twentieth Century Fox Television Distribution’s Sydney office. The procedural drama 9-1-1 explores the high-pressure experiences of police officers, paramedics and firefighters, while the medical drama The Resident focuses on a young doctor’s final years of training.

9-1-1

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“MIPTV is an opportunity to review the performance of our mid-season shows and provide updates on potential pilot pickups ahead of the L.A. Screenings.”

—Richard Samuels

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Vivicast Media Journey to Herculaneum / Journey to the Kung Fu World / Water Puppet—Behind the Curtain The hour-long documentary Journey to Herculaneum travels to an ancient city where a metropolis arose in the Middle Ages despite it having been buried in volcanic ash. The 4x1hour Journey to the Kung Fu World is billed as part travelogue and part spiritual journey. “The series takes viewers to incredible Chinese locales and features interviews with famed kung fu icons,” says Stuart Smitherman, the president of Vivicast Media. Meanwhile, the arts and travel doc Water Puppet—Behind the Curtain presents “an extraordinary look at a Vietnamese tradition dating back to the 11th century from the farmers of northern Vietnam to the artists of the Thang Long Water Puppet Theatre,” Smitherman says. Further highlights include the travel and adventure series Road Less Traveled and Landscape Hunter.

Journey to the Kung Fu World

“Each of these programs tells fascinating stories of people, places and cultures that transcend all borders.”

—Stuart Smitherman

ZDF Enterprises

The Bureau of Magical Things

The Crimson Rivers / The Story of Europe / The Bureau of Magical Things The ZDFE.drama catalog includes The Crimson Rivers, a scripted series that is “set in a world full of gruesome criminal cases, sadistic killers, creepy rituals and mysterious incidents,” according to Fred Burcksen, the president and CEO of ZDF Enterprises (ZDFE). The company is also promoting The Story of Europe, which explores different chapters of the continent’s history, and The Bureau of Magical Things, a live-action show for children from Jonathan M. Shiff Productions. “Our objective for MIPTV is to offer our clients successful programs, strengthen existing customer relationships, acquire new partners and, of course, successfully launch our new titles through first sales,” says Burcksen. “We have a lot of new programs in our catalog, and we are proud to present them in Cannes.”

“Our topics work internationally, whether breathtaking crime series, well-researched documentaries or high-class kids’ programs.”

—Fred Burcksen

Zee Entertainment Enterprises Life of Earth from Space / Against the Odds / Altar’d The feature documentary Life of Earth from Space shines a light on the history of our planet. It delivers a “cinematic, blue-chip view of the entire life history of our planet,” says Sunita Uchil, the chief business officer of international ad sales, global syndication and production. “We believe most of Earth’s citizens will be drawn to the historical tale about the life of their planet. Zee will be telling the story in a way it has never been told before, and employing brilliant, new technologies” to do so. Uchil adds, “Good family drama always travels well, and Zee offers the best with our new series Against the Odds (Jeet Gayi Toh Piyaa Morre), a timeless story about a struggle between two families.” The company is also highlighting Altar’d and Finding Fido, two returning series from Z Living.

“With over 250,000 hours of top programming, we are a onestop shop for buyers.”

—Sunita Uchil

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Altar ’d

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t’s hard to fathom that one person can be an animator, actor, screenwriter, director, producer and comedian, sing with a melodic voice reminiscent of Frank Sinatra and record Grammy-nominated albums. But Seth MacFarlane’s skill set includes all that and more.

Among his many accomplishments, he is co-creator of the animated series Family Guy and has won Emmys for his voice-over performances of Peter, Stewie and Brian Griffin, Glenn Quagmire and more. He co-created the animated series American Dad! and The Cleveland Show. He wrote, directed and produced the live-action films Ted and Ted 2, in which he voiced a potty-mouthed CGI teddy bear. His love of science led him to executive produce Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, with a second season in the works. And his lifelong passion for science fiction has resulted in The Orville, a one-hour sci-fi series that blends drama and comedy, and has been renewed for a second season. He talks to World Screen about his numerous interests and how they have fueled his work.

By Anna Carugati WS: How did The Orville come about? Was it something you had wanted to do for a while?

MACFARLANE: It was. I’ve always been a fan of a specific type of sci-fi storytelling and had grown up with a lot of it, shows like The Twilight Zone, Star Trek, of course, and Alfred Hitchcock Presents. I was a big fan of that short-form, sci-fi thriller storytelling and it’s been a little absent from television series of late in favor of heavily serialized storytelling. There is a certain type of narrative that you are just not getting anymore. I was anxious to see it back on television and itching for the opportunity to do some of it myself.

WS: The Orville is somewhat unique because it blends comedy and drama. What challenges does that entail?

MACFARLANE: There are shows—not a lot of them—that have done it successfully and have been terrific models for us. Certainly M*A*S*H is a show that walked that line beautifully. I think shows like Freaks and Geeks worked very well. In many ways, The Sopranos delivered some of the best comedy on TV at the time. I remember

laughing more at that show than any sitcom on the air at that time.

There are a lot of shows that achieve that balance in different ways, and it’s really up to each individual show to choose its tone. The biggest challenge is trying to figure out where those [comedic] moments are appropriate and where they detract from the story.

The advantage of being an episodic show—where each episode is its own little story—is it makes it a little easier because if there are tonal shifts from week to week, it’s because you are telling a story that is more of a comedy than an adventure story or vice versa. We let the nature of that week’s story dictate whether we lean more into the comedy or the drama that week.

WS: I understand that the scripts for all episodes of the first season were written before you started shooting. Why did you make that decision, and what were the advantages?

MACFARLANE: We had the time, so it seemed like the perfect opportunity to get the work done in advance. But it was also a necessity because I was acting on the show and doing some directing as well;

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there was just no time to write. If I’m going to spend 13 hours a day for the better part of the year working on something, I want to know that the script I’m working on is worth my time. I want to know that I’ve been through it with a fine-tooth comb. We’re doing it for the second season as well. We’re going to have all our scripts written before we start shooting. It’s the only way I can work and feel good about what I’m shooting.

WS: Tell me about the writers’ room. You wrote about half of the episodes for the first season. Did you want writers that all had previous experience writing sci-fi or did you want a mix in the room?

MACFARLANE: We wanted a mix; that’s what we got, and I think it worked really well. We wanted some experienced sci-fi writers, we wanted some comedy writers, and we wanted some straight drama writers. We had people from Family Guy. We had people from Star Trek. We had a writer from Friday Night Lights. It was a wonderful mix of all these different sensibilities. And it worked like a million bucks. One of the things that I found very beneficial on a show like this is to have drama writers who are just skilled at writing relationships, who maybe don’t know the first thing about sci-fi. Because a good writer is a good writer and they are going to be able to adapt to any genre. We had a writer, Liz Heldens. She came off of Friday Night Lights, had never written sci-fi and wrote one of the best scripts of the season and just took to the genre like a duck to water. What’s fun is having people who are coming at the sci-fi genre fresh and seeing what they come up with and how they offer new twists into what at times can seem to be familiar tropes.

WS: The Orville makes me think and it makes me laugh out loud.

You go from talking about a universal code of ethics to how a reputation has become the predominant currency instead of money to talking about the novella Flatland! And then, Uh-oh! A piece of Yaphit got stuck in Bortus’s colon! The range is fabulous!

MACFARLANE: I’m somebody who can watch an Albert Brooks or Monty Python or Woody Allen film and appreciate intellectual comedy and yet at the same time I can watch one of the Jackass movies and laugh as well. I remember when Ted came out, [the late film critic] Roger Ebert wrote a terrific review. I had been a fan of his for a while. I always felt he was a guy who gave movies a chance based on his own opinions and not what was chic. So I wrote him an email and said thanks for the review of Ted. It was really cool to get that kind of write up from Roger Ebert. He said, You know, if it makes you laugh it’s funny, the implication being it doesn’t matter whether it’s the top or the bottom of your brain, if it’s an honest laugh, it’s an honest laugh. The Orville is science fiction, so you want to dig into some subjects with some depth and present ideas rather than just twists, but at the same time not take yourself too seriously 24/7.

WS: I understand that on the show you work with both CGI and real models. Why did you want the real models?

MACFARLANE: When I was a kid I had that Industrial Light & Magic book that detailed all the [work] those artists created for the Star Wars movies and Close Encounters and the Indiana Jones movies and E.T. and all those films of that era.

I was so fascinated by the map paintings and the model building and the amazing craftsmanship that went into creating these worlds. There is something that is always a little anti-climatic about CGI—as amazing as CGI looks, you never get to touch the model; you never get to see 4/18 WORLD SCREEN 53

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Seth MacFarlane created and stars in The Orville, a sci-fi dramedy that FOX has renewed for a second season.

it exist in real life. There is something you can smell about an actual model that is lit with actual light and is sitting on actual surfaces. Cost-wise it’s ineffective to do it for an entire series, but we did find that we got a lot out of doing fly-bys—those shots that we use on a weekly basis where you see the Orville ship flying by and it’s an establishing shot between [scenes].

Those are all of an actual physical model and that model was built by Rob Legato, who is one of the legends of that business.

It was very exciting to see and I do think it’s something that on a visceral level you’re aware that what you’re seeing is real.

WS: From all the years that you worked in animation, were you able to apply anything to live action or are they just completely different animals?

MACFARLANE: No, it’s funny, for this kind of work where you’re dealing with special-effects-heavy cinematography, I have found there is no better training ground than animation.

I’m glad that that’s where I came from because the planning and the forethought that it takes is pretty extensive. You have to plan everything out so specifically from the get-go when you are dealing with action and visual effects. So if I had come out of sitcoms or live-action family half-hours, I would have had a tougher time acclimating to this world. Animation was the best schooling I could have gotten.

WS: Because with special effects there are a lot of decisions that you have to make beforehand in terms of shots?

MACFARLANE: Yes, with animation everything is storyboarded.

And much of what it takes to pull off impressive effects sequences is storyboarding and planning.

WS: Family Guy reached its 300th episode this year. Would you have imagined reaching this milestone back when it premiered in 1999?

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dead and kept pushing on into season after season, it became a reality again. So it was a little bit of a roller coaster, but it’s certainly amazing to see this show still alive and kicking.

WS: In a world where each family member is off watching a different screen, Family Guy is the one show we watch together, so as a parent, thank you!

MACFARLANE: Oh, that’s great!

WS: Another show we watched together was Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey. What do you want to offer with season two, Cosmos: Possible Worlds?

MACFARLANE: I can’t give away too much and honestly this is Ann Druyan’s territory. My job in this was to get it on the air.

But the brains behind all of this are Ann, and Brannon Braga, who is co-writing with her. Ann is probably the most brilliant person I know and she blew everyone’s minds with the work that she did on the first season. I have no doubt that she’ll do it all over again. She’s an extraordinarily gifted writer and extraordinarily brilliant mind, so I’m as excited as everyone else to see how it all turns out.

WS: The success of the first series was pretty amazing.

MACFARLANE: It really resonated with people all across the planet. It’s nice to see there’s still an appetite and respect for science in other countries!

WS: I understand Neil deGrasse Tyson had an asteroid named after you. It is 70713 Sethmacfarlane.

MACFARLANE: I forget what the number is, but yeah, that was a little tiny part of my bucket list!

WS: How can the same mind contain Stewie’s fart jokes, a talent for drawing animation, voice-overs, acting and directing, and also write sci-fi and sing beautifully?

MACFARLANE: You’re very kind to say that. I’m just doing the things that I love. My motives are selfish, but I’m glad that they are enjoyed by other people as well.

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Freddie Highmore began acting when he was a child, earning roles in films like Finding Neverland and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. His foray into episodic television came with Bates Motel, a prequel to the film Psycho. While shooting the last episodes of Bates Motel, Highmore was contacted about a new show from House creator David Shore. The two met and started crafting Dr. Shaun Murphy, an autistic surgeon with savant syndrome, the lead character in The Good Doctor. The drama is a breakout hit this season on ABC and has been renewed for a second season. Highmore talks about preparing for the role and portraying Shaun as authentically as possible.

By Anna Carugati WS: What research did you do to prepare for the role of Dr. Shaun Murphy?

HIGHMORE: Shaun needed more careful preparation than other characters in terms of wanting to make sure that the autism he has was portrayed as authentically as possible.

That was something David and I had many conversations about before and shared pieces of literature and documentaries back and forth and still do. On the show (and certainly for the pilot), we have a full-time autism consultant who is there for all aspects of preproduction, production and postproduction. We thought that those steps were necessary and that was what we focused on during those initial conversations about building the character.

WS: Shaun has autism, but as a viewer, I feel he can represent any of us who may feel discriminated against. Is that a message of the show as well?

HIGHMORE: Yes, absolutely, and in terms of creating the character it wasn’t purely focusing on him as someone with autism but an individual in his own right. We are all aware that Shaun is never going to be representative of everyone who does have autism. And many of the individual nuances and even the things that make Shaun excited or make him laugh or make him fall in love are idiosyncrasies that are unique to him, and may or may not be related to the fact that he has autism. Yes, he speaks not only to those who have autism or may be close to those who have autism, but also more widely to anyone who feels somewhat different or marginalized by society or discriminated against in the workplace. Or people who feel they haven’t been given their shot in life or been given the opportunity that they deserve to excel at the thing that they are really good at.

WS: There are a lot of subtleties in your portrayal of Shaun, in his glances, his gestures. Was that also how you approached playing Norman Bates? Not everything about those two characters’ behavior is in your face.

HIGHMORE: I think that probably speaks to characters that interest me in general and performances that I admire most in other actors—those that are subtle and based around the nuances and little things that [aren’t immediately apparent but] the audience figures out.

For characters that are internal like Shaun, the camera sees so much and is able to get inside his head a little bit, so there is no need to be performative or over the top because the camera can see those subtle things.

[Things that] if we are interacting on a real basis, outside of the camera, people may not necessarily see or pick up on.

WS: There was a tremendous tragic sadness underpinning Norman, while I feel Shaun is more optimistic.

HIGHMORE: Yes, I think that’s why people are getting on the journey of The Good Doctor. There is hopefulness to it and to Shaun and his autism and to the fact that he is trying to [fit in]. He’s a really nice person. I would always defend Norman and say [his behavior] wasn’t his fault; he was loving. Especially in our current time, when it’s very easy to come by so much negativity on a daily basis, having a character like Shaun is refreshing.

WS: Shaun is extremely direct with patients because that is how he communicates. Some people might feel uncomfortable having a doctor like that. Will Shaun’s relationship with patients evolve during the series?

HIGHMORE: From the very beginning, the show attempts to give an honest assessment of what Shaun can bring to the hospital and what he can contribute, and at the same time what his weaknesses are. Like every human being, Shaun is not a superhero. He’s going to make mistakes. Some things about his personality will not be helpful and others will be.

Having that honest assessment of his skill set is what the show tries to do at the beginning. Dr. Melendez’s [Nicholas Gonzalez] concerns about Shaun and how he may cope under pressure and his decision-making abilities are valid

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He had such success with Brits in the past that he felt, Well, I guess I’ll give another one a go! If Hugh had somehow been dreadful and let David down, I feel Brits would have been banned from working on a David Shore show!

WS: I interviewed Hugh Laurie when he was on House, and he told me he remained in character the whole time he was on set, even during breaks, because of the challenge with the accent. Do you do the same?

HIGHMORE: I try to stay in it as much as possible. It’s somewhat disingenuous to get on the phone with you and speak in an American accent or speak in Shaun’s voice, so I reverted to my British self for these few minutes, but usually, I try to stay in it as much as I can.

Produced by Sony Pictures Television and adapted from a Korean series, The Good Doctor is among the top dramas on U.S. network TV.

questions. That is what the show hopes to ask. Those are important questions, questions that Shaun often asks of other people in the show, questions that maybe we’re too afraid to ask, but Shaun doesn’t have those feelings around them.

WS: He doesn’t have much of a filter. I remember him asking, “You’re very arrogant. Does that help make you a better doctor?” I loved that question!

HIGHMORE: I love his curiosity, and there’s an innocence in those questions, but also a directness. There are many behaviors in life, as a society, which are taught to us—we should behave in this way because that’s how it is. Shaun hasn’t necessarily picked up on all those societal cues and ways of behaving that for one reason or another people are forced to follow. That’s also what makes him an interesting character. He asks questions that are interesting and speak to us. Often the questions that Shaun asks are the questions that all of us have in our heads and are too afraid to ask.

WS: On Bates Motel, you wrote some episodes and directed, and you are a producer on The Good Doctor. Do you see yourself possibly directing or working in the writers’ room?

HIGHMORE: I would love to be a part of that from next season. I’ve enjoyed the producing side of The Good Doctor and supporting David as much as possible, which for all of the producers, that’s effectively our role. He has such a great vision for this character and the story in general and it’s our job to try to service that as best we can. And help out in whatever way is useful.

WS: Had you watched House before taking on the role of Shaun?

HIGHMORE: I hadn’t seen all of House, but I had seen various episodes over the years. I’m glad that Hugh Laurie was not only successful but also British. I feel that was probably one of the reasons that David decided to go with me for the role.

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WS: I appreciate it! Thank you very much.

HIGHMORE: [Laughs] I just think it would be slightly odd if you get on the phone and suddenly you are speaking with someone who sounds suspiciously like Shaun!

WS: How have you handled the transition to network series? Bates Motel was ten episodes per season; The Good Doctor is more.

HIGHMORE: We are doing 18 episodes this season. It certainly feels manageable. I love the opportunity that working in longer-form storytelling such as television brings and building a character out over time never feels rushed.

Shaun’s development will have space to breathe because of that. Regarding the challenges, working on a show that has a procedural element to it brings a certain repetition week after week that people tune in for and want to see.

But at the same time, it’s marrying that sense of repetition with Shaun’s character development. He has to grow and he has to grow reasonably quickly when he’s thrown into this entirely new environment. That’s one of the challenges in plotting Shaun’s development while at the same time keeping a sense of continuity to what people like about the show and what people want to watch. You can’t do too much too quickly, but he is a very surprising character when he first shows up and how he surprises people will have to change for it to remain surprising.

WS: Have you received any reaction from the autism community?

HIGHMORE: Yes, we were lucky enough toward the end of last year to be honored at a gala by Autism Speaks. More than that, it was the opportunity to talk to people who have autism or are close to those who do and hear in which ways they have been affected by the show and in which ways they connect with Shaun. I always say, and probably repeat it too often, even though he isn’t representative of everyone on the spectrum, I think [people] are connecting to the way in which he is seen and treated and categorized by society.

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SPOTLIGHT

WS: What strategies have led to Telemundo’s ratings successes?

CONDE: We have an incredible team that decided to set a vision and say, we want to redefine Hispanic media, redefine what it means in the marketplace and what it means to our viewers and our community. From that premise, we decided to invest in four primary areas: our content, our infrastructure, our digital business and digital partnerships, and our people. We wanted to make sure that we were attracting the best people in front of and behind the camera.

To dig in a little bit on the content front: we felt that there was a unique opportunity for us to redefine media by speaking to what we thought was a void in the Hispanic market.

We wanted to create content that spoke in a unique, culturally relevant way to the Latino audience in the U.S. We felt we had a competitive advantage because we were the only company that could develop original high-quality content for U.S. Hispanics, by U.S. Hispanics, in the U.S. That’s what we have begun to do and so far, we’ve had some nice results.

WS: Telemundo has also redefined Spanish-language programming by moving beyond classic telenovelas.

CONDE: In any business and any industry, you want to continue to innovate. Because our audience is evolving, we wanted to make sure that we were evolving with them. And so, yes, we tried to evolve from the traditional genres that were seen on Spanish-language TV. We created the super series, which has been a tremendous success, but we also pioneered the bio-musical genre. We tried to utilize what we think is one of the biggest passion points in the Latin American community, which is music. It transcends language, culture, heritage, age, and brings some of these great stories of our icons. In January, we premiered José José. This coming year we have the Luis Miguel bio series, we have the Nicky Jam bio series, we’ll do a Selena bio series. We’re celebrating our icons. We announced the first series from our new Telemundo International Studios division, El Recluso, which is a high-quality, premium series of 13 episodes.

We’re going to continue to innovate, and we hope this brings more diversity of content and choice to our users and our consumers.

By Anna Carugati

Telemundo, a Spanish-language network serving Hispanic viewers in the U.S., hit an important milestone last year: it finished the 2016–17 season as the number one Spanishlanguage network in weekday prime-time viewing. The strong ratings have continued thanks to Telemundo’s programming strategy, which has focused on original productions, including super series, an evolution of the telenovela that presents contemporary topics and high production values. This scripted fare is flanked by entertainment shows, news and sports. This summer, Telemundo will be airing the FIFA World Cup, providing coverage on the network and across its digital platforms. Cesar Conde, the chairman of NBCUniversal International Group and NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises, talks to World Screen about building on the momentum that Telemundo has gained so far, leveraging ratings success with advertisers and serving the Hispanic community.

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WS: Is it true that young Latinos don’t want to watch Spanish-language programming?

CONDE: We all know we have an incredibly fast-growing and robust Hispanic community; it’s what’s driving all the demographic growth in the U.S. and clearly, we skew young. But even with all of the choices of networks, language and platforms, Spanish-language programming is still the mostconsumed and at the core of Hispanic media consumption, particularly in the younger demographics. I’ll give you an example: our super series El Señor de los Cielos, which is now going into season six. It was the number one network show at 10 p.m., regardless of language, in the 18-to-34 demographic. What that tells us is, if we provide highquality, culturally relevant content that they cannot find anywhere else, our viewers are going to watch it.

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WS: How is Telemundo working with advertisers?

CONDE: When we begin to have a dialogue with corporate America—and this is a collective effort across the industry— it starts with evangelizing and educating about the potential of the Hispanic community. One of the things that still strikes people [is that] if you were to take the Hispanic community as its own stand-alone country, the GDP of the Hispanic community would be the seventh-largest in the entire world. Seventh! That’s ahead of fast-growing emerging markets like India, Brazil and others. So, when you speak to corporate America, and you give them those facts and [explain] that they have this incredible growth opportunity right in their backyard, with all of the benefits of a fast-growing emerging market, but at the same time, with all the security and low-risk of the U.S., it’s an incredible value proposition for them. In the old days, people would say that the Hispanic market is large, but they don’t have consumer spending power. That’s changed. It has more than $1.7 trillion in consumer spending power. It is absolutely a huge opportunity, but it requires evangelizing and educating. Not because smart, very successful companies don’t want to understand it, it’s just that there are a lot of priorities for companies. But the good news is, it’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when. When companies understand this opportunity, they jump on board.

After you get them over the hump of understanding the potential of the Hispanic opportunity for their business, the second point is then speaking to them about the [appeal] of the actual profile of the Hispanic consumer on Telemundo.

We’re very fortunate that the characteristics of the Telemundo viewer are extraordinarily attractive to them. We skew much younger than all of our competitors in English and Spanish media. We have a consumer base that is digitally savvy and engaged, not only with our content but with all of our platforms. We have a consumer base that is looking for products, and they are much more loyal when they connect with a brand. So, those two combinations have begun to build the momentum that we to see in the marketplace.

The third element is creative thinking. Once we get them over the element of understanding the potential of the Hispanic market and why Telemundo is so attractive to them, [we must come up] with creative ideas that help them push their brands. A lot of companies are looking for solutions beyond the traditional 30-second commercial, and our content production team and our sales team are trying to create those unique opportunities. We’ve got MasterChef Latino, a great brand that is recognized not only in the U.S. and the Latino community but globally.

This franchise lends itself to creative integration with our advertisers.

The credit [for bidding on the rights] goes to Brian Roberts [chairman and CEO of Comcast Corporation] and Steve Burke [CEO of NBCUniversal], my boss. I think it started with their belief that sports is one of the genres that has tremendous potential to transcend all of the different changes in our industry. NBCUniversal had made a big bet on the Olympics, and we made this bet on the World Cup. To have the Spanish-language rights to the World Cup has also sent an incredibly important message, not only to our employees but also to the industry, that NBCUniversal believes in the potential and growth of the Hispanic community and media business.

We’re extraordinarily excited about that. Anyone would be excited, at any moment in time, to be able to broadcast the World Cup, but we’re very grateful to have that opportunity at a moment when we have so much momentum.

We will be trying to bring coverage of the World Cup in a way that’s never happened before. We are living in a world where consumption patterns are very different, and there is a seven-hour time difference between Russia and the U.S. So you’re going to see all of the games live on our Telemundo networks. You will be able to see all the games streamed live on our Telemundo Deportes app and all of our other digital platforms. You will be able to see content related to the World Cup across all of the new emerging digital platforms that we’re partnering with. We want to make sure that we

WS: Telemundo has a big event this year, the FIFA World Cup. What enabled you to bid on the rights?

CONDE: First, for Hispanics soccer is a religion, and the World Cup is our cathedral. This is the biggest sporting event on the planet! I can’t tell you how excited we are as a team for the World Cup opportunity.

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María Celeste Arrarás and José Díaz-Balart anchor Noticiero Telemundo, the Hispanic broadcaster’s nightly newscast.

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resources in the most objective way, so that our community can be well-informed and make good decisions for themselves and their families. There is a tremendous hunger among the Hispanic community for accurate information. Our network news team, led by Luis Fernández, has the tagline “Las cosas como son,” which means we’re going to tell it how it is, and that’s made a very strong connection with our audience; so much so that we’re the only network newscast—English or Spanish—that grew last year. It’s our responsibility to step up in Hispanic media more than ever, and we’re going to continue to do it.

Al Otro Lado del Muro is a new telenovela about two women who leave Mexico for the U.S.

surround our consumer—both the soccer fanatics as well as the individuals that just come to watch soccer for the World Cup—with a unique experience.

WS: You mentioned investments in infrastructure.

CONDE: About two years ago, we announced that we wanted to build a new headquarters for the Telemundo Enterprises business in South Florida. Fast-forward to today; at the end of January, we began the move into the Telemundo Center. It will be our most forward-leaning facility of the NBCUniversal portfolio—English or Spanish. It’s going to give us the opportunity to put all of our businesses under one roof, which [allows us] to innovate, to collaborate at a faster pace. Hopefully, that will accelerate some of the momentum and the growth that we’ve seen over the last few years. I think the Telemundo Center is going to send a great message—certainly to our employees because we believe in what they’re doing, but also to the industry, to our advertisers, to our distributors and to others—that says we’re putting our money where our mouth is. We’ve invested $250 million in building this facility, and we want people to know that this community not only merits but requires this type of investment.

WS: What is the role of Telemundo’s news in serving the Hispanic community?

CONDE: One of the most sacred responsibilities that we have in the media business and the broadcasttelevision business, in particular, is the journalism and information that we provide to our community.

The issues that are being debated right now in Washington, D.C., and throughout the different state capitals are the issues that matter most to Latinos, day in and day out: education, jobs, the economy, healthcare reform and of course, immigration reform. Those of us in the Hispanic media industry have a unique responsibility to make sure that we’re providing as much information, as much access to

WS: You are also chairman of NBCUniversal International Group. What businesses does that group include?

CONDE: We do three primary things: we sell and distribute our television and film IP, English and Spanish, across all languages, not only outside of the U.S. but this past year we consolidated that with our domestic distribution business, so we do that globally now. Second, we manage and program the NBCUniversal portfolio of networks outside of the U.S. Third, our NBCUniversal International Studios produces formats, scripted series and the like outside of the U.S. These teams are led by Kevin MacLellan [NBCUniversal’s chairman of global distribution and international]. He’s got an incredible team—Belinda Menendez [the president of NBCUniversal International Television Distribution & Universal Networks International] and so many others. And this is one of our fastest-growing assets at NBCUniversal and Comcast.

We have an incredible opportunity here because we’ve seen such demand for premium content, particularly premium content coming from top-notch studios that have a track record of creating great content. We’re seeing demand across the board, not only from different parts of the world but also from different platforms. We have great growth in two regions of the world, Latin America and Asia. I think it speaks to the globalization of our business, and hopefully, we’ll be able to continue to build on that in the years to come.

MasterChef Latino is the first U.S. Hispanic adaptation of the Endemol Shine franchise.

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MILESTONES The Simpsons on FOX.

As the FOX brand marks its 25th year in the global pay-TV landscape, Mansha Daswani looks at how the service has evolved. or Rupert Murdoch, 1993 was a particularly significant year with regard to his global ambitions. The media mogul shelled out more than $500 million to gain a foothold in Asia, buying a stake in the pan-regional broadcaster Star TV; and exported what had been purely a domestic brand with the launch of FOX in Latin America.

Murdoch eventually took full ownership of Star TV, while building the FOX brand remained a priority. Today, the Fox Networks Group (FNG) portfolio encompasses the entertainment channel as well as a raft of other services across multiple genres, languages and platforms. A

F

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crown jewel in the 21st Century Fox portfolio—said to be one of the critical areas of interest for Disney in its proposed acquisition of the conglomerate—the FNG business has gone through numerous changes over the years. Perhaps the most consequential was the management reorganization that bundled U.S. and global channels under one division—FNG—and decentralized to three regional hubs: Latin America, Asia and Europe.

“By regionalizing it so that the managers in key regions have more independence, more authority and more responsibility, we’ve been able to break down silos and have more touchpoints on a global basis,” Peter Rice, the chairman and CEO of FNG and president of 21st Century

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Marking its first big bet on global originals, FOX picked up all international rights to AMC’s The Walking Dead, airing it day and date with the U.S.

Fox, told World Screen last year. “The regions have become more entrepreneurial, which has allowed us to grow our FOX+ streaming service, which is slightly different in Latin America, Europe and Asia. At the same time, the regions are also working more closely with those of us in Los Angeles and New York. The combination of having more independence while also being closer to the parent company has been very effective.”

Indeed, this structure has allowed FNG to drive growth in all of its international operations, under leaders who are intimately familiar with the particulars of each market.

BACK TO THE BEGINNING The portfolio’s local approach was a major draw for Carlos Martinez when he left Discovery to join Fox’s still nascent channels business in Latin America some 18 years ago.

“The most important thing about our Latin American business is that we built it as entrepreneurs,” says Martinez, who today sits at the helm of FNG Latin America as president. “We were fueled by our company to expand our channels into every territory pretty quickly. I saw myself as an entrepreneur, investing Fox’s money to build the business.”

It wasn’t always easy, Martinez says, noting that when he joined the company, he had four channels—and a few months later that went down to two, after Fox Kids Worldwide was sold to Disney, and Fox Sports was merged into a venture with Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst and Liberty Media. “We had FOX and a new Nat Geo channel, and that was it! We started building our business from there.”

Martinez says he and his team kept an eye on emerging opportunities, expanding the bouquet in 2005 with FX and in 2006 with FOX Life. “The cable world was growing and capturing more of the people that used to only watch free television. That year, the penetration in Latin America was 25 percent, so we took every opportunity to grow.”

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The other factor that contributed to FNG’s growth in the region was moving into “different lines of business with our affiliates,” Martinez says. “Having four channels on basic—FOX, Nat Geo, FX and FOX Life—we then took control of the venture we had with LAPTV, a joint venture between Fox and another four studios that was a competitor to HBO in the premium segment. Our goal was to reach the high ARPU subscribers in Latin America as the cable world was expanding and move the content across basic and premium, creating different windows so we could leverage all the programming we had from our own studio and the other ones we partnered with. It was our venture into the premium business that gave us a big difference versus the rest of our competitors, a big advantage for improving our position in the market quickly.”

Perhaps the most critical strategy, Martinez notes, was being “more local. We are expanding our business with more offices than anyone else. In Latin America, we were the first to open local operations in Bogotá, Colombia, and Santiago, Chile. We are the only ones with offices in Lima, Peru, and Quito, Ecuador. We have offices in Guatemala and Montevideo, Uruguay, as well. That gives us a big advantage because in those countries, FOX is the reference in pay TV. We think locally, and the local talent breathes the spirit of the country into our brands. My former boss, before I joined Fox, told me once: ‘All the power is going to be in the region.’ That is exactly what we needed to do.”

Just as the Latin American business went through some growing pains, so did the Asian operation. In 2009, the panregional operator Star TV was effectively dismantled and combined with the Fox channels business in Asia. (Star India is run as a separate division of 21st Century Fox, and the China segment has since been offloaded.)

The move, the company said at the time, was intended “to create a streamlined structure, resulting in a more efficient cost base for the operation of regional channel distribution in the consolidated business. It also provides a platform to expand its high-definition portfolio in Asia from the current four brands to eight or more next year.”

Growth certainly did occur, at a rapid clip, with expansion into multiple genres and languages to create a portfolio that today includes global brands as well as local ones, like Star Chinese Channel and Star Chinese Movies.

IN THE GAME Growth has also come with the introduction of FOX Sports internationally. “We knew we needed to have sports to be relevant,” says Martinez, noting that Fox took back control of its Latin American sports operation in 2012. “An Argentine company controlled it and it was very local, so since then we have put all of our efforts into expanding our

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Sitiados, produced by FoxTelecolombia, is among a slew of highprofile original series for FNG Latin America.

sports portfolio at a local level in each territory. We launched FOX Sports in Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico, where we increased local content from 200 to 1,200 hours [a year].”

Similarly, in Asia, FNG bought ESPN’s share in the ESPN Star Sports venture to enable the launch of FOX Sports Asia in 2013. On how the business has been faring, Zubin Gandevia, the president of the Asia Pacific and the Middle East for FNG, says, “Excellent. We have formed a good complementary partnership with our platforms, who tend to have the premium EPL soccer, and then we have pretty much everything in every other sport. So we have the best of motor racing because we have Formula 1 and GP, the best of tennis because we have all the grand slams, the best of golf because we have all the grand slams, the best of fight sports because we have UFC. Together [with our affiliates], we can give the consumer a really good sports experience that otherwise would have been very fragmented over lots of destinations.”

ORIGINAL SPIN

FoxTelecolombia in Colombia, a very clever company, small but with a lot of potential, which allowed us to expand and export content out of Colombia; to produce not only for Colombia but also for the U.S., Mexico, Argentina, Chile and pay TV across the region.”

The FoxTelecolombia deal was useful as FNG began creating original scripted fare. “We started to develop scripted themes internally—writing and producing exclusively for ourselves. We did this because at that point, we didn’t find, at a Latin American level, a producer who could understand the amount of money we had to invest. Cable was expanding, but we had a lot of content from our studio [Twentieth Century Fox]. It’s difficult to justify investing in regional productions when you have a very big pipeline from your home studio. The strategy was to look at the slate we were receiving from the U.S., identifying the genres or the kinds of programming that we were lacking, and producing it as a complement to our international slate. We started from that point and we learned over time. We started mixing talent from Mexico, Argentina, Brazil and Colombia in one single show. That worked at the beginning, but then the audience became more interested in local content. Now, ten years later, we are producing shows specifically for some countries.”

For example, for Argentina, there’s a new talent show with Diego Torres and Lali Espósito, hosted by Alejandro Fantino. In Mexico, Gael García Bernal is exec producing and starring in Aquí en la Tierra (Here on Earth), a drama about politics and corruption.

“It’s not easy, as we need to be efficient and justify producing high-value content,” Martinez says. “It should be seamless; FOX, FOX Premium and FX viewers compare our productions with the international ones. They cannot watch The Simpsons or The Gifted and then a Latin American production at lower quality values. We bring high-quality

Local sports rights have been the primary drivers for FOX Sports internationally. Equally necessary was a move into original production, both on a global level and regionally. FNG did a co-production deal with AMC to land the international rights to The Walking Dead, which has been a significant hit for the channel. FNG subsequently did a deal with Robert Kirkman, the creator of the zombie drama, for its first international commission, Outcast. However, much more activity can be seen within the regions, led by Latin America.

The move into originals was kickstarted by the acquisition of Utilísima, an Argentina-based channel that has since been rebranded as FOX Life. The move, Martinez says, taught his team about how to “produce at Latin American rates. Then we acquired Deep State, a thriller, is the first original scripted commission for FNG Europe and Africa.

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For its FOX Premium service in Latin America, FNG acquired Lionsgate’s The Girlfriend Experience.

production but again, it is not easy, it takes time and experience. These are bets that we are making. It’s not about recouping the investment— it’s more motivated by creating great brand awareness and making our brands more and more local.

That’s our strategy.”

Asia and Europe are at different stages in their local scripted strategies.

This April, FOX will roll out Deep State, its first commission out of the Europe and Africa business. “The strategy was born out of a desire to ensure that our brands had stories that resonated with our regional audiences, complementing our global and local output, while also creating owned content we can distribute globally,” says Jan Koeppen, the president of FNG Europe and Africa. “FOX is synonymous with highCBSSI’s NCIS: Los Angeles is among the U.S. procedurals airing on FOX internationally. quality productions, and Europe and currently. We tend to get global rights so they come on the U.K. are really at the epicenter of creative excellence our own platforms all over the world and on third-party for our industry. Deep State, our first regional scripted compartner platforms where it makes sense.” mission, has allowed us to create a relevant and contemPan-regionally, FNG has also been investing in Englishporary espionage thriller in line with our Fox Hollywood language original series like Asia’s Next Top Model and heritage that has the potential to entertain audiences across Bolt of Talent. Replete with on-the-ground sponsorship the world.” and product-placement opportunities, those are the In Asia, meanwhile, Chinese-language dramas have kinds of shows that advertisers love. been a priority. “This year we will launch our first big premium TV series, Trading Floor,” Gandevia says. “It’s being made by [actor and singer] Andy Lau, it’s a very highSELLING TIME quality show. The idea is, how do you take the best of Reporting its Q2 2018 results, 21st Century Fox said it saw Hollywood practices and marry them with the great entredouble-digit increases in international ad revenues. Natpreneurship and creativity that is in China and the Chinese urally, some markets have been stronger than others. diaspora? That’s what we are doing. Trading Floor is a great “While linear advertising becomes more challenging as show, and we’re hoping it takes us to the next level. We have audiences migrate, we are continuing to grow in linear,” almost ten shows that we are making or participating in Koeppen says. “We are also having continued success with branded-content solutions, which particularly suit the authentic and integrated experience we offer across our entertainment, factual and sports businesses. For example, take National Geographic, which is one of the most trusted consumer brands and is its own extensive media portfolio; we recently collaborated with Subaru to launch one of their new models utilizing one of our highly sought after National Geographic photographers and an integrated campaign across TV, digital, social media and print with branded merchandise and magazines in Subaru dealerships. Partnerships like this really resonate with consumers who are looking for advertising with purpose, as National Geographic Partners reinvests over a quarter of its proceeds to the non-profit National Geographic Society to fund exploration, conservation, research and science.”

“It’s cyclical,” says Martinez on business in Latin America at present. “In the past two years, we’ve faced a significant slowdown in pan-regional advertising. Most of the panregional deals are in U.S. dollars. Pan-regional buys give you volume, and volume means a better investment, so you can get your spot in all of Latin America at once. But then advertisers saw more benefit in using local currencies, so rather than paying in U.S. dollars with the volume discounts, 70 WORLD SCREEN 4/18

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FNG acquired the new series S.W.A.T. from Sony Pictures Television.

they were heavily moving to the territories. If you reduce your investment pan-regionally, you start having an increase in the investments locally. But now, in the next two years, 2018 and 2019, as the currencies are more stable, I think some of the advertisers are going to move back to taking advantage of volume pan-regional deals, which they need to pay for in U.S. dollars.”

Gandevia says it’s been a “pretty good year” in Asia.

“Our pan-regional ad sales are up almost 25 percent yearon-year. That’s not because of the market. That’s because we can offer up a multiplatform product to advertisers.”

OVER THE TOP

notes that FOX skews heavily towards millennials in the region. “That’s a big challenge for us because millennials are the first ones to move to other methods of consumption.”

Four years ago, to get ahead of market changes, Martinez and his team launched FOX Play, an authenticated app.

FNG’s OTT strategy has evolved, with the renamed FOX app positioned as “an extension of our current linear business that keeps on growing and adapting to the way people want to get the content,” Martinez explains. “We just launched new packages in Mexico as part of the FOX app service that has all our channels, linear and nonlinear, direct to the consumer. It will be available soon in Brazil.

It has the 18 channels we have [in Mexico]—11 basic and 7 premium—linear with start-over functionality (soon we will have cloud DVR) plus all the content from those channels on SVOD. For all the premiere series we have, airing day and date with the U.S.—which is the most important part to avoid piracy—episodes are stacked for 30 days. For all the old seasons we have the box sets on SVOD. Plus, of course, all the movies we have on the premium services.

The main benefit here is that we have sports. That’s something that no one else has. If you want to enjoy sports, plus all the content we have with movies and series, the FOX app is the best option and it costs less than US$10.”

FOX+ and National Geographic+ have rolled out into 15 markets in the Europe and Africa footprint, “with more launches planned for the rest of the year,” Koeppen reports. “While we have always known that our content performs well in both the linear and nonlinear spaces, the results we are seeing from FOX+ and National Geographic+ are very much surpassing our expectations.”

Gandevia refers to FOX+ in Asia as the company’s “killer app to make the most of the opportunities in the streaming world. We have a truly unique product. It has advantages that nobody else has, primarily because we have a strong linear business. In this industry, the windowing mechanism is such that typically, things come on linear first, then on SVOD. Because we have all of the best products from all of the studios—not just from Fox—we have been able to negotiate deals where we can air the

As an example of that kind of offering, Gandevia cites a deal between FOX Sports and AccorHotels. “The TV commercial has won some awards. It has Serena Williams and our own presenters. It’s a completely integrated spot. It doesn’t feel like a commercial. It just feels like a great spot you’d want to watch. The ability to integrate, to be brand-led and creativityled, is giving us an edge that perhaps other players who are much more data-led might not have. Also, we created a digital tier for some of our products, and that has helped us extend the experience in a new world and drive more revenue. And then, of course, the whole National Geographic piece is very, very important. Whether that’s the licensing business, travel, consumer products or location-based entertainment, there’s a whole lot on the National Geographic side that we are now able to leverage. They are stand-alone businesses, but we’re also able to marry them to our media business experience and bring it all together in a very true 360-degree [proposition].”

The FNG channels are also making sure they have a multiplatform offering for viewers. Martinez FOX+ is allowing FNG to go direct to the consumer with its OTT service.

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shows from the U.S. on FOX+ on the same day as the U.S. Anyone else who wants that product will have to wait a full year to get it. That’s a significant advantage. We also have sports on FOX+. We have the back seasons of all the shows we air. And we have movies that will air for the first time outside of the theatrical window on FOX+.”

Offered to traditional pay-TV operators and as a standalone platform, FOX+ “allows us to take a step into the digital future of understanding our consumers more directly and more intimately, and therefore creating a better product,” Gandevia says.

The data angle is a crucial one, Rice told World Screen last year. “There’s a huge opportunity in marrying data to video delivery for advertising. The video product we have and the ability to deliver messages on behalf of advertisers is significantly more effective than Facebook or Google.

What we lack right now is data, but if we work together with distributors to take better advantage of data, we can make the OTT and nonlinear ad experience better for everybody: better for consumers because they won’t have to sit through 20 minutes of commercial interruptions every hour. Better for advertisers because we can be more efficient in delivering people who are actually interested in their product. And more efficient for us because we can use less inventory to make more money.”

FNG Asia’s regional originals have included Asia’s Next Top Model on FOX Life.

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Rice is bullish about the prospects for the FNG brands because they are distinctive and well defined in a cluttered environment. “In a world of more choice, having fewer, stronger brands is the right way to go,” he said. “As new distributors come into the marketplace, our brands are in every package. Whether they are telcos such as AT&T buying DIRECTV and then going over the top, or Optus in Australia launching a really good over-the-top service with National Geographic, or whether it’s Hulu or YouTube launching live-TV services, these new distributors need the best content, which increases competition for brands like ours that are truly meaningful to consumers. I believe we are very well positioned in a marketplace that is undergoing a lot of change.”

MUST-HAVE BRANDS Zandevia answers the question on the importance of brands like this: “We see content and brands as being two sides of the same coin. If content is king, brands are the castle within which that king lives. To give you a great example, if you were to see a National Geographic video on any destination, without the brand, you might pass it off as one more documentary—unless you start watching it, in which case you’d be awestruck by the amazing quality.

But in all likelihood, you wouldn’t even try it because it’s just another photo for another documentary. The moment you put the National Geographic logo on it, it’s the National Geographic stamp of approval and authenticity and credibility. It gives you so much consumer promise that you elevate it in your mind and give it a premium. And then you watch it. When you watch it, it lives up to its promise. So it completes a virtuous circle. That is why brands and content feed off each other. That is so critical.”

The FNG business, by virtue of its global scale, is also able to mitigate fluctuations in individual markets in its footprint. “If Argentina is in a bad situation, Mexico or Brazil could be improving,” Martinez notes. “Growth is key, and there are also opportunities during a crisis.

When the advertisers’ budgets are smaller, they tend to target their investments more. When they target their investments, they choose pay TV over free TV. So that’s a great opportunity for us.”

Martinez cautions that challenges exist. The days of double-digit growth in Latin America are over, he notes, and traditional pay-TV operators “need to adapt.

The distribution model needs to change. In Brazil, they are losing subscribers and the same thing happened in Mexico. Consumption is going in a different way.

That’s why we need to follow it. Our focus is completely on expanding our brand and our content to our FOX app for all the cord-nevers. We need to [lead] that market, while at the same time keeping and protecting our current business. That’s the challenge.”

Gandevia expresses a similar perspective on his priorities for the year ahead. “The overall theme is, continue business as usual and keep innovating because we have to continue to move forward and march ahead. The world is moving very quickly and we want to continue to be at the forefront of that progress.”

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As companies continue to widen their footprints by investing in talent worldwide, Jay Stuart explores how these federations have become distribution powerhouses. here was a time when the word “independent” in the media business referred to any company that wasn’t part of a Hollywood studio. Today, the idea of an indie is much murkier.

Yes, there are still companies that are privately owned and are opting to go it alone. Many, though, have wound up as part of international federations, operating largely independently in their home markets while having the backing of a larger entity and a sister distribution business that can help with financing and turn a local hit into a global one.

Challenging the major U.S. studios (and their unmistakable American accent), these new international federations draw on a diverse range of voices and relationships (including in Hollywood). They have the resources to invest in top talent and large-scale projects, and to set trends in programming innovation. They have been dubbed the “mini-majors,” but seen in the wider context of the global media landscape, some leading players in this breed don’t appear so “mini” at all.

Red Arrow Studios is part of Germany’s ProSiebenSat.1 Media, owner of multiple German TV and digital channels, with 2017 revenues of €4.1 billion ($5 billion). Also German-owned, FremantleMedia is part of the RTL Group, a division of media conglomerate Bertelsmann, which had 2016 revenues of €17 billion ($20 billion).

T

Endemol Shine Group is 50-percent owned by 21st Century Fox and will become part of the Disney empire when that megadeal closes.

(It’s unclear how long the other 50-percent partner, Apollo Global Management, will remain part of the picture.) In 2015, Canal+ parent Vivendi paid $311 million for a strategic minority stake of about 26.2 percent in Banijay Group, majority owned by LOV Group of France in partnership with Italy’s De Agostini Group.

Discovery Communications (now Discovery, Inc.) and Liberty Global banded together in 2014 to shell out $930 million for all3media.

CROSSING BORDERS A key strength of these federations, perhaps their defining characteristic, is their capacity to work creatively across borders.

“The all3media model is all about having a diverse set of creative voices,” says Louise Pedersen, the CEO of all3media group’s distribution arm, all3media international. “We do not direct them,” says Pedersen of her group’s production subsidiaries. “They run their own companies. We let them get on with it. That’s what the model is all about.”

The 25-plus production companies under the all3media umbrella benefit from having inhouse distribution available, Pedersen notes.

“And on top of helping with the finance, we help look for co-production partners.”

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structure is about “offering a central service across the production network. We have implemented various initiatives across the group to encourage and cultivate ideas and sharing of IP to help projects travel internationally. This means that not only are we able to advise on individual potential of finished tape content, but we can also help realize co-production and format-sharing opportunities across the group.”

Consolidation can be an unpredictable thing.

Once upon a time, some people feared that if big media conglomerates gobbled up production companies, it would lead to a stifling of

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creativity and greater homogenization of output—a natural fear, perhaps. But the reality of the past years has been quite different.

“It’s a different kind of consolidation,” says Greg Phillips, Kew Media Group’s president of distribution. “Instead of having a simple merger of like-minded, like-functioned companies aggregating guys to do the same thing, and making savings, this is about integrating an entertainment provider from the ground up. It’s preserving the branding and the relationships of the companies and adding the distribution function over the top to service them and to provide income from distribution of their programs and third-party shows, too. It’s a construction job of building a new programming group as opposed to putting companies together to become gigantic. The whole is supposed to be greater than the sum of the parts.”

FINANCING PATCHWORK The distribution arms of these federations are pioneering new models for how to piece together the financing for shows for producers within the group and external ones, too.

“We now get involved in potential projects much earlier, investing in development,” says Henrik Pabst, the president of Red Arrow Studios International. “It used to be that a distributor was the last one in and the first one out financially, but our organization has changed with the market and we are now far more involved and active in the entire life cycle of a show.”

Getting in early also better enables the federations to build their shows into global events.

“We not only finance at the greenlight stage, but we also help with bringing on board coproduction partners, and we are always very actively preselling,” says Jens Richter, the CEO

In addition to Sky commissions, Sky Vision represents third-party fare like Goalpost Pictures’ Fighting Season. of FremantleMedia International. “We want to position shows early in multiple markets and get the clients involved early, so they are engaged in the marketing and the launch. It’s a global market, and we like shows to launch close together around the world so they share momentum.”

“We have more focus on helping the producer finance shows,” reports Pedersen of all3media, which has 10 or 15 high-end drama projects at various stages at any one time. That includes not only shows from within in-house production companies but also those from third parties.

“We are now more involved in the financing of production,” Pedersen says. “We cash-flow production and we cash-flow tax credits. We didn’t do that two years ago. Every deal seems to be different nowadays. We do the deals we need to do to get the shows made.”

Pedersen continues, “You used to get a commission and the distributor would put up a 5 percent or 10 percent distribution advance and sell it. Those days are gone. You

Produced by Kudos for the BBC, Gunpowder was licensed to HBO by Endemol Shine International.

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need more partners. Now each show is an individual project. There is a greater risk.

There is also more potential upside and reward. So we are getting involved earlier.

Right from the creative start of projects, we are part of the finance and the risk profile.”

“We are getting more proactive earlier and getting more generous as we step into the fray,” adds Kew Media’s Phillips. “We might step in with development money or fund a pilot so that we can grab hold of a property early and engage in presales. And we can pay for it to get made. At this point we are talking about non-scripted shows [like Jigsaw’s Rolling Stone: Stories from the Edge for HBO], so the level of budgets and investment required is lower than for drama.

However, we want to [do more in] scripted, too.”

The group already distributes third-party drama like the CBC series Frankie Drake Mysteries.

DRAMATIC SCALE Known as a pioneering company in format distribution, FremantleMedia produces in about 30 countries around the world, often under its own brand, but also through well-established local producers that have a strong presence in their markets. Its German production brand is UFA, which celebrated its centenary in 2017.

FremantleMedia has only been a major player in the global drama space for the last few years, beginning with UFA’s Deutschland 83, a German-language series that aired worldwide, including in the U.S. on SundanceTV. It has made huge strides after acquiring control of companies like Miso Film in Scandinavia, Wildside in Italy and Kwaï in France and adding them to what Richter calls “the Fremantle family of producers.”

The strategy is to produce original drama around the world that can travel beyond the home markets. Part of achieving that is working with internationally known talent like director Paolo Sorrentino in Italy, who did his first TV program, The Young Pope, with Wildside. The Italian outfit is currently producing television

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White Dragon, from Jack and Harry Williams’s Two Brothers Pictures, is part of the all3media international slate. versions of Elena Ferrante’s worldwide bestselling Neapolitan novels, starting with My Brilliant Friend, for Rai, TIMVISION and HBO, with a presale to Canal+. Wildside is also making the new series The Miracle. UFA will produce the first TV effort by Austrian director Michael Haneke, the ten-part Kelvin’s Book.

Ahead of that, its Deutschland 86 is in the works to go out on Amazon Prime in Germany and SundanceTV in the U.S. “We want to produce drama that creates awareness,” Richter says. “There’s a lot of fragmentation in the market and there’s a lot of drama. We ask ourselves how we can produce shows that break through. It’s not just about producing individual programs. We try to curate an entire slate of drama for the international market.”

SHIFTING DYNAMICS With their high-profile drama slates, along with substantial catalogs of shows that can be replicated in multiple markets, international federations have tilted the balance of power in the content market away from the American studios.

Cathy Payne, CEO of Endemol Shine International, explains, “The U.S. studios have fundamentally been distributors of U.S. scripted product, a large amount of which is produced for American broadcast television. In recent years, that scripted product has not delivered the audiences it once did internationally, in particular for the larger free-to-air networks, in their prime-time slots. International networks will, like all networks, look to homegrown product, both scripted and non-scripted. Traveling formats have had a part to play in the growth of the mini-majors, combined with the distribution appeal of non-scripted finished programming.”

“Broadcasters around the world have moved away from output deals with the majors,” says Banijay’s Mutimer. “This gives them more scope to commission content that we can pick up for distribution and to acquire more content from other sources. As the popularity of nonEnglish-language scripted and factual and

entertainment has increased, distributors like us have benefited greatly. We’re now seeing studios like Disney keeping their own content for their proprietary OTT services. Netflix and Amazon have been bold for some years now in supporting a broad range of programming for different territories around the globe, and the diminished U.S. offering available to them will no doubt see this strategy flourish.”

“The market has opened up to new voices and new ways of doing deals,” agrees all3media’s Pedersen. “We have not encroached on the U.S. studios, which are of course vibrant businesses. But we have established ourselves as a supplier of high-end drama.

Space has opened to sell and co-produce. There are different ways of structuring deals in different markets. There is more flexibility. It’s not just about the U.S. creative side.”

Red Arrow’s Pabst notes that global production scale allows distributors to have a better sense of what broadcasters and platforms worldwide are looking for. “Given that we are reviewing the slates of up to 20 production companies, we have the opportunity to identify trends more quickly and connect the dots

between the demands of one broadcaster and a slate from a producer in a completely different territory. We can react to the market, thanks to our coordinated presence in so many territories.

We can offer immense market intelligence. We have offices around the world and people on the ground in all major territories, so we know what’s in demand and what’s working.”

Endemol Shine is investing in technology to enable its format business to work more globally.

In late 2017, the group unveiled an agreement with Microsoft to introduce a cloud-based production workflow system. A new app will make it possible to streamline production processes, with filming controlled remotely and content edited remotely. The new technology has already been successfully tested in the Spanish production hub of the Big Brother format and can be rolled out to multiple markets for production of global formats.

FORMAT FRENZY Keshet International (KI) emerged as a major player in the global content landscape largely on the back of its format business—launched by the Israeli drama Prisoners of War, the basis of Showtime’s Homeland.

KI is open-minded about originating drama in a variety of languages. It is partnering with the Spanish company Sr. Mono Producciones to develop a Spanish-language thriller series (working title Alone). Early this year, it announced a new drama co-production (working title Diamonds) with Belgian producer De Mensen in Flemish, English and French, and it has started talks with potential international co-producers and co-financiers.

“Sometimes shows work best in the original language,” says Alon Shtruzman, the CEO of KI. “As a distributor, we have sold shows in

FremantleMedia-owned Wildside in Italy is producing the new drama The Miracle for Sky Italia.

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Catherine the Great is being launched at MIPTV by Imagina International Sales, the distribution arm of Spanish media conglomerate Mediapro.

Croatian and Swedish as well as Hebrew.

Sometimes they work better in locally made versions. Shows like Prisoners of War and The A Word can be told in so many ways. Every country has its own possibilities. In Israel, the family in The A Word was in the desert. In Britain, they were in the Lake District.”

GOING GLOBAL KI’s booming scripted-format business has come as part of a broader expansion of the global drama sector, largely spurred by digital players.

“OTT has been a very significant factor in pushing change in the market,” says Kew Media’s Phillips. “Netflix and Amazon and Hulu—and others soon, I hope—are buying into projects as a first window for all rights or a second window, and that has been a shift.”

There has been a sea change in television over the past four or five years, according to KI’s Shtruzman. “OTT completely changed the way of doing business. Everything is much more global since the arrival of Netflix and Amazon. They’re putting $11 billion or $12 billion a year into the market. Nowadays with OTT, a distributor can make a global deal for a program. That wasn’t the case before. It’s probably the biggest change in television since the arrival of cable.”

So how are companies structuring their distribution operations to take advantage of all the new opportunities in the market?

“Our distribution business has always featured distribution hubs in major international locations feeding through to our London head office,” says Endemol Shine’s Payne. “We have always felt having key executives on the ground doing business locally is fundamental to successful distribution.”

Payne adds, “As part of an integrated production-and-distribution entity, we are very closely involved with our production businesses, feeding back distribution intelligence on the potential for a particular title, the genres that are traveling well, particular market needs and other factors.”

The Red Arrow distribution team includes executives with both development and production expertise. The distribution team is in daily contact with its production companies and there is a central creative development team, led by Michael Schmidt, assessing the slates of all the production companies within the group.

“We look at their slates all the time and help to shape those slates with an eye on international potential,” says Pabst. “We work with producers to build assets that we own and control.”

DISTRIBUTION MIGHT “The role of a distributor has completely changed,” Pabst continues. “We are no longer just selling product—we are helping to create it. As we develop projects from such an early stage, we need people within our organization who can be the counterparts for the creatives outside of it.”

“We’ve beefed up our acquisitions team to make sure we’re actively pursuing quality content that is being commissioned to fill primetime hours, which were once [dominated by] fare from the U.S. studios,” says Banijay’s Mutimer. “Co-production and presales are skills that are becoming more important in this arena, so we have ‘up-skilled’ our team to make sure that we have the expertise required to be effective. We have combined sales and acquisitions roles in Britain and the U.S., which means that our acquisitions execs understand the requirements of the international market and have a 92 WORLD SCREEN 4/18

real stake in making sure the productions that they champion work. We’ve also got OTT specialists within the team who act as an initial point of contact for the OTT services and coordinate with the sales team when they make pan-territory acquisitions.”

The FremantleMedia International team gives producers feedback, evaluates the international potential of projects and sees how much financing the umbrella company can bring.

“There are different routes to go with a show,” says Richter. “Sometimes it’s the local route and sometimes it’s the global route.

There’s more communication within the business than there was five years ago. You can see whether it’s better to go left or right, local or global. We also have our producers talk to each other. We get them together to exchange ideas. The goal is to get two or three of them working together.”

A good example is Munich, based on a novel

by Robert Harris, which is being produced by UFA and FremantleMedia’s British label Euston Films.

“The producers are plugged into their local markets,” Richter continues. “They know what their local commissioners want, so you put together something that can work for both markets at the start.”

“Everything comes down to original IP, and people are looking at existing IP with an underlying fan base or proven track record—so it’s incredibly competitive,” says Red Arrow’s Pabst.

“Contacts and relationships with the creative community are paramount. As a result of this, we as a distributor, and content groups like ours, are more embedded in the market than ever before.”

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Tim Davie BBC Studios

By Anna Carugati BBC is well known and respected for both in the U.K. and across the globe, from drama, entertainment and factual, including natural history.

WS: How will you be sharing responsibilities with Mark Linsey?

DAVIE: I have been asked to take on the role of CEO for BBC Studios, with Mark taking up the reins of the chief creative officer. Mark will provide creative leadership right across the new BBC Studios, and will be responsible for the strategy, financial performance and quality of all our production activity worldwide. He will work closely alongside me to drive the vision, strategy and operations of the merged company.

Together, along with our recently announced executive committee, we will focus on ensuring that the future vision and ambitions of BBC Studios are realized.

s the cost of high-end programming continues to escalate, many companies are seeing the value in combining their production and distribution businesses. One such example is BBC Worldwide and BBC Studios, which are merging operations under the name BBC Studios. Jointly led

by CEO Tim Davie and Chief Creative Officer Mark Linsey, BBC Studios will focus on premium British content. While maintaining the production companies BBC Worldwide had invested in, BBC Studios will look at opportunistic investments in top British talent.

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WS: What motivated the decision to merge BBC Studios and BBC Worldwide into one entity?

DAVIE: The decision to merge BBC Studios and BBC Worldwide is a natural step that brings us into line with the industry and was catalyzed by market changes. Combining in this way will underpin both businesses for the future, and bring benefits to our ultimate stakeholders, the BBC’s license-fee payers.

WS: How will this new structure allow BBC Studios to make investments in content that others cannot?

DAVIE: As a combined company, BBC Studios will have an unrivaled focus on British IP. The focus will continue to be on genres the

DAVIE: Our branded genre channels continue to do well in the markets where they operate.

For example, BBC First topped its competitor set in Benelux and extended its reach in the Netherlands last year, where it took advertising for the first time. BBC Earth debuted strongly as a joint venture in India in 2017 and benefited from the year’s blue-chip natural-history titles, such as Planet Earth II and, more recently, Blue Planet II. A notable success for BBC Brit was in South Africa, where it has cemented its position. Where we launch is decided on a case-bycase [basis] and on the individual needs of the markets we are exploring.

WS: Are there plans to launch more digital streaming services? What would they offer?

DAVIE: We take a market-by-market approach to launching digital services. For example, we have BBC Player, a channel companion TV Everywhere app, which we launched last year

BBC Studios consists of a production business that makes 2,000 hours a year; investments in third-party outfits; channels; and a largescale, cross-genre distribution operation.

WS: How does this new structure position BBC Studios when it’s seeking partners to produce high-end programming?

DAVIE: The new structure will see BBC Studios focus on a single business plan and a combined operating model, bringing efficiency and speed and [making sure we are] best able to service partners.

WS: BBC Studios has investments in third-party production companies. Do you plan to invest in more production entities or other companies?

DAVIE: BBC Worldwide has a long and strong history of working with independent production companies as a supportive shareholder and partner. We are committed to these partnerships and will continue to explore investment opportunities with best-inclass British talent wanting a connection to the BBC Group.

WS: How have BBC Earth, BBC Brit and BBC First been received by viewers? How do you choose in which countries to launch a given channel brand?

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in Singapore and Malaysia. In March 2017, in partnership with ITV plc, we launched BritBox, a subscription video-on-demand service built around British television in the U.S., with AMC Networks as a minority shareholder. The service features the largest collection of classic Doctor Who as well as continuing dramas such as EastEnders and Emmerdale within 24 hours of the U.K. transmission. The service also launched in Canada in February of this year.

WS: As you look ahead 12 to 24 months, what are your priorities for BBC Studios?

DAVIE: It’s an exciting time, and I am very much looking forward to opportunities that lie ahead.

As we are at the very start of this new adventure, it is too early to set out all of our priorities. However, our focus will continue to center around creating, securing and showcasing the highestquality British content to audiences in the U.K. and across the globe. That, in turn, will ensure we can continue to support our ongoing commitment to delivering the highest-quality programming and financial returns for BBC-license-fee payers, and to audiences around the world.

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Cecile Frot-Coutaz FremantleMedia

By Anna Carugati you? That comes in the form of distribution, extra funding for shows, marketing intelligence and resources. You want to make people know what’s available to them and integrate them and onboard them to make them successful. You want to be inclusive and make them part of the whole. But, ultimately, the most important thing is to get in business with people who are fundamentally collaborative. You can put all kinds of profits in place, but if you haven’t got people who are willing participants, it doesn’t matter what you do, it’s not going to work.

WS: Would you give some examples of how the production companies in FremantleMedia’s global network share ideas and best practices?

FROT-COUTAZ: We’re very good at getting people together on a regular basis, whether it’s around general themes or specific shows. For example, on the talent shows, we’ll get all the producers of Got Talent together and hold two-

ith operations in 31 countries and ownership or investments in a diverse array of production companies, FremantleMedia is able to maintain a constant stream of scripted and unscripted product. It then sells both finished programs and formats around the world. CEO Cecile Frot-Coutaz—who is stepping down this year—oversees investing in entities and talent and integrating them into the group.

While a volume of output and depth of resources help mitigate risk, Frot-Coutaz cautions that what is more important than size is being in business with the right talent.

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WS: When you invest in talent or a production entity, how do you integrate it into the rest of the network?

FROT-COUTAZ: There are two types of integration, the business integration and the creative integration. The business integration is not very interesting and it’s what everyone does, which is making sure they run on the same finance platform and all that boring stuff! The more interesting part is to make sure that creatively they are integrated. That starts with making investments in people you believe buy into your culture and purpose and what you are trying to do. You then must make sure you have regular meetings with them and talk about goals and pipelines. And you want to live up to the promise, which is, as a global company, what do we have to bring to

beginning. They are global and they are very well-funded. They dominate, and I think they will continue to dominate. Obviously, they will get regulated at some point, but they will nevertheless dominate the landscape. That’s a fact.

WS: What is your acquisitions strategy? What are you looking at? And does size matter in your business?

FROT-COUTAZ: Yes, I think size does matter. It matters in different ways. First of all, it’s important to have a global presence both from a production standpoint and also from a distribution standpoint. It matters with funding and access to capital. Our drama strategy requires significant resources. Then you have to be able to weather the ups and downs, because we’re in a business in which not everything works.

Some things work, some don’t—so you have to be able to weather the downsides. Not everything is going to go according to plan, so

FremantleMedia was a key driver for gains at its parent, RTL Group, in 2017, delivering revenues of $1.8 billion and EBITDA of $172 million. or three-day workshops. We go through innovations that may have taken place in different parts of the world, what we learned from those innovations and whether we roll them out or not. On Got Talent, the Golden Buzzer, which is now part of the show everywhere around the world, initially came out of Germany. It was the German production that came up with it, and we loved it, and then we rolled it out to the other markets.

On The X Factor, the Six Chair Challenge was an innovation that came out of the Dutch team.

They did it slightly differently; we then took it, rolled it out and improved it over time.

WS: There’s been much discussion since the announcement of the Disney/Fox merger about how big is big enough. How are the big tech companies affecting the content business?

FROT-COUTAZ: We don’t operate channels or networks—we’re suppliers, so I think we’re in a slightly better place than companies who have traditionally been on the channel-distribution side. With the big tech companies—Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple and Netflix—I think the tables have just been set, and it’s only the 110 WORLD SCREEN 4/18

that’s when size matters, because if you are too small a company, then you can’t have a portfolio approach, and if you can’t have a portfolio approach, then you are very exposed. Having said that, if you are going to be a creative company focused on being a home for creative people—which is Fremantle’s ultimate ambition—then you can’t be too big, either, because creatives need to be given time, focus, resources and attention. So if you’re too big, you have to be driven more by process, and in the end, that’s not conducive to creativity. For a company like ours, certain aspects of size do matter, but having a very aggressive M&A strategy is not necessarily the be-all and endall. It’s more about how we can be in business with the creatives we want to be in business with, as opposed to, let’s buy a whole bunch of companies. In the end, we’re very specific about what we do and what we don’t. We’re in the business of making a small number of shows that have a big impact. For us, it’s not just about pure size.

For more from Cecile Frot-Coutaz, see page 233.

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SophieTurnerLaing Endemol Shine Group

By Anna Carugati

he Endemol Shine Group encompasses 120 companies in more than 25 countries across the globe, producing a wide range of scripted and non-scripted shows. It’s been three years since the 2015 merger of Endemol and Shine, and CEO Sophie Turner Laing is proud of the slate of formats coming through the pipeline. She attributes the company’s success to cross-border collaboration and the sharing of ideas and production expertise.

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WS: It’s the third anniversary of the Endemol and Shine merger. What have been the benefits of scale, creatively and business-wise?

TURNER LAING: If you genuinely believe that a great idea can come from anywhere, then we are blessed. We have 100-plus companies in 25plus countries, and last year alone we traveled 29 formats across markets, with these originating from 13 territories around the world. It’s been fascinating and rewarding to see all the hard work by everybody across the group to shake us up and get us—as I uncharacteristically say, because I’m not a sports lover—match fit.

Last year was our most successful to date, and we started 2018 with a new breed of formats coming through and starting their international journey. There is terrific energy and momentum across the group.

Part of the heavy lifting in the first two years was done under the auspices of Peter Salmon, our

chief creative officer. He and our creative networks team under Lisa Perrin have worked with our creatives around the world to get our pipeline really humming, because without that we are nothing.

So, three years in, we are delighted to be able to say that the merger has been a creative and commercial success. And while one never wants to count one’s chickens before they hatch, all signs are looking good for 2018.

the first-ever MasterChef Latino for Telemundo and have multiple series lined up for that market across both non-scripted and drama.

That’s how we identify opportunities: we see where the gaps in the market are and whether something adds to our overall strength. We’re big enough to find ourselves competing head-on for programming slots the world over, so I believe in elevating our expertise to the very best it can be.

WS: Would you give some examples of what the production companies have gained from the merger?

TURNER LAING: What we’ve succeeded in doing is forging a collaborative atmosphere and way of working together. Previously, everyone had mostly worked in their company silo or their country silo, with the occasional group meeting that gathered people from across the world.

But now we’re starting to see what I would call full-blooded cross-border collaboration.

WS: What is Endemol Shine doing in the digital space?

TURNER LAING: One of my favorites at the moment is what we are doing in the branded content world in Brazil. Juliana [Algañaraz], who runs our company there, is now in the second season of an enormously successful Brazil’s Best Hair for Pantene, which is a brilliant format that we are looking at rolling out around the world. It’s an example of how we are developing our relationship with brands, and exploring

In 2017, Endemol Shine Group was behind more than 800 productions in almost 80 countries that aired on 275plus channels across the globe.

For example, Endemol Shine Netherlands came up with Big Bounce Battle. They then worked with Endemol Shine Germany, who managed to place it with RTL. Then they further developed the format and slightly honed it from its original idea. It then went back to being shot in Holland. It launched on RTL in January and is doing very well in the ratings, we’re delighted to say! I’m not sure you would have seen this level of creative collaboration before the merger, but now, across our group, the world is everybody’s oyster.

WS: Are you looking to make more investments?

TURNER LAING: We will continue to be opportunistic, but only when the fit is right and there’s a real value-add. Last year, for instance, we merged with Boomdog, in Mexico. Cris Abrego, who leads the Endemol Shine Americas team, overseeing Latin America, U.S. Hispanic and the U.S., identified the fact that, while we have an active presence in some of the big Latin American countries, we had nothing in Mexico, where there was an enormous opportunity for the U.S. Hispanic market. As a result, we’re now doing 112 WORLD SCREEN 4/18

what kind of storytelling they want beyond just integrations and product placements.

In the digital world, we have one absolute prime star, Mr. Bean, which crosses over both traditional and online. The TV series has sold to some 195 countries. It generates over 4 billion views annually on YouTube, and we recently had a truly incredible statistic—Mr. Bean content on YouTube represented 38,000 years of viewing in 2017 alone! On top of that, it’s the number one entertainment brand on Facebook, beating The Simpsons and Harry Potter. And there have been something like 20 million downloads of the apps and games. It is an extraordinary phenomenon, and we are delighted to have something so cherished within the company.

We also got behind an online brand called Simon’s Cat, animated shorts that are just fabulous.

To date, it has achieved over 600 million YouTube views in more than 100 countries and reached 1.8 billion people through Facebook in 2017, so we’re looking at how we build further on that.

For more from Sophie Turner Laing, see page 289.

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Jan Frouman Red Arrow Studios

By Anna Carugati Studio71’s business is a lot more than the aggregation of YouTube channels. All the fun parts come on top of that, including IP creation, branded sales and selling our own advertising inventory. I see a lot of overlap with what Red Arrow’s TV-production companies do, and how they want to develop in the branded-entertainment business. At the same time, they can support Studio71 in packaging their IP slate and talent. Red Arrow Studios has become a hub for networks and video platforms that includes everything from IP creation, talent packaging and production to branded sales and influencer marketing. We are addressing a huge growth market. Then you add in our distribution capability, and you see that, even though we are coming at the content business from slightly different angles—one more traditional, linear television production, and the other more digitally focused—the businesses are a natural fit.

reorganization of the German conglomerate ProSiebenSat.1 Media in December 2017 saw the merging of Red Arrow Entertainment Group and Studio71 into Red Arrow Studios, headed

by Chairman and CEO Jan Frouman, who is also a member of the executive board of ProSiebenSat.1 Media. Red Arrow Studios houses 20 production companies—of which ten are in the U.S.—a digital studio, a bouquet of MCNs (multichannel networks) and international distribution of films and TV programming. This combination of assets allows Red Arrow Studios to better access talent and resources when producing for all platforms, from traditional linear channels to digital destinations, while offering multiple options to advertisers.

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WS: What motivated the integration of Red Arrow Entertainment Group and Studio71?

FROUMAN: It was the realization that the assets are complementary to one another. Initially, ProSiebenSat.1’s investment in Studio71 came through our digital-entertainment business, with TF1 and Mediaset then brought in later as investors. But last year, when we decided to reorganize ProSiebenSat.1 into three clear segments—entertainment, content production and global sales, and commerce— we realized that Red Arrow and Studio71 belong together. They both deliver certain pieces of the puzzle that we would otherwise have to build on our own.

WS: You talked with us two years ago. Since then, what’s been the strategy in investing in production companies or talent? Are you still always on the lookout?

FROUMAN: Our formula for how we choose partners hasn’t changed. We ask ourselves, Is it a territory we want to be in? Are they great creators and producers? Do they have good breadth and depth within their market? And are they ready to engage, bring value to the group and be an active part of it? What has changed is that we have now achieved a certain scale and market position with our 20 production companies. We are seeing a degree of shift and upheaval in key markets such as the U.S., and we can’t ignore that development. However, our appetite for new acquisitions remains robust, and we will continue to make disciplined decisions about production company add-ons as long as there’s a good fit between us, and the pricing is right.

A division of the German broadcasting giant ProSiebenSat.1, Red Arrow Studios owns stakes in companies in the U.S., Israel, the U.K. and across Europe.

WS: Red Arrow recently acquired Gravitas Ventures. What does it bring to Red Arrow Studios?

FROUMAN: Gravitas Ventures is an important investment for us. Obviously, Gravitas broadens the scale of our distribution business, as they’re active in the feature-film space and have deep relationships with OTT and SVOD players. This allows us to take a much broader packaging approach in the financing of programming, much like a mature studio would.

We have the ability to do single-title deals, but also package deals, bringing film and television together into an overall deal with an outlet. If you believe, as I do, that the ability to finance programs dictates how many assets you’re going to end up owning, then you want to have breadth in your distribution business.

This also makes sense economically, as distribution is on the higher-margin end of our business. So, as soon as we became aware of Gravitas Ventures, and got to know the founders and their business, we saw how it would fit with our own and got immediately excited about it.

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WS: You mentioned scale. Why is it important?

FROUMAN: For Red Arrow Studios, there are a couple of reasons. We’re part of a big media group, so a certain amount of scale regarding output and financials is required to make our production business a meaningful pillar of the group. Then, we’re in a business characterized by a degree of volatility that comes out of hits and misses, with shows getting picked up, dropped or shifted. The more broadly positioned you are, the better you are at creating a balanced business. And, of course, scale matters in terms of improving your market position and remaining competitive.

WS: How do the production companies in Red Arrow Studios benefit from being part of the group?

FROUMAN: First and foremost, having a dedicated distribution partner is a clear benefit. In every project, our production companies automatically have aligned partners with whom they can strategize to retain rights and to see the show travel. Within Red Arrow, we also nurture an enormous amount of creative

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collaboration, whether it’s on a co-production basis or developments from one territory flowing into companies in other territories.

And, of course, there’s sharing of best practices, financial scale and infrastructure that you wouldn’t otherwise have. In the past year, we’ve had a lot of our production-company CEOs extend their contracts with Red Arrow.

That is a true vote of confidence, as often people part ways at the end of the deal because the collaboration didn’t evolve as expected. In our case, our partners value both their creative freedom and the support we are offering, and are choosing to re-up and stay with us.

WS: You mentioned the shifts in the U.S. market. What’s your strategy, and what opportunities do you still see in the U.S.?

FROUMAN: The U.S. buying universe is changing dynamically, so the right strategy is to be as broadly positioned as possible. The biggest mistake for a producer in that market is to sit still and take your clients for granted. A breadth of your client base is essential, as is the range of genres. One of the things that people like about Red Arrow is that there are no rules regarding the content our producers can work on. If one of our unscripted companies sees a great opportunity in scripted and it makes commercial sense, let’s go for it. Also, the cross-pollinating we are starting to see between our Studio71 and TVproduction businesses reflects where the market is now: different types of content for linear and digital, short- and long-form programming, and up-and-coming stars crossing over from the YouTube universe into more traditional TV. I am convinced that you need to be more nimble, open-minded and proactive than ever before to secure your success in this changing market environment. And we are doing just that.

and ready-mades, if you can get scripted shows that travel, it’s a very interesting business. We have a lot of scripted producers in the U.S., the U.K., Israel and Turkey. In 2017, we produced the fourth season of Bosch; Deep State and City of Secrets for Fox Networks Group; and Lifeline for YouTube Red with Studio71. It’s a broad mix, and we expect our scripted slate to grow. It takes the time it takes, and you need to be realistic about the timeline from concept to on air, how long it takes to get shows sold, and in retaining rights.

Some of our peers have picked up ownership stakes in small scripted companies around Europe. We have not aggressively pursued that because our experience with smaller territories has been mixed. We are still focused on the U.S., the U.K. and, actually, Turkey. One of our U.S. companies, Karga Seven, opened a branch in Istanbul last year, given that Turkey is a promising market for scripted. Not only is the production quality high, but the distribution profile of the shows is also interesting: an

episode in Turkey can be three hours long, but that becomes three episodes for global sales.

WS: As you look ahead a year, where do you see the biggest opportunities and challenges?

FROUMAN: The biggest opportunities for us are in the successful integration of Studio71 into Red Arrow Studios. We now have these amazing components of the group, so we want to create as many synergies as possible. Marrying production know-how and capacity with embedded talent, expanded slates and new monetization options—that’s essential for us.

2018 is an execution-focused year. The biggest challenge that I see at the moment is the changes in the U.S. cable landscape, and what that’s going to mean for buying, volume, pricing and rights-retention opportunities. The U.S. remains the most interesting market for producers in terms of scale and profitability, but you need to move with the market or even be ahead of it. And I think Red Arrow Studios, with its new setup, is in good shape for this.

Red Arrow’s Bosch.

WS: Absolutely. Facebook launched its Watch tab and Snapchat is showing video.

FROUMAN: Everyone agrees that content appetite continues to grow globally. So, as long as you run a smart, lean, disciplined studio group and execute well, it’s a good time to be in the content-creation-and-distribution business.

WS: Some companies are seizing the huge demand for scripted and doing less unscripted because everyone’s waiting for the next huge hit. What is your strategy? Are you still doing both?

FROUMAN: Definitely both. We certainly produce more unscripted for the simple reason that most of our companies were already in that business when we invested in them. Even though you hear about an ever-growing number of scripted series ordered in the U.S., there are a lot more unscripted commissions. That being said, despite the appeal of hit formats 4/18 WORLD SCREEN 115

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Jane Turton all3media

By Anna Carugati new people who will fit in and who will thrive in the all3media federal model.

Recently, our acquisition focus has been on scripted, and I’m delighted that in bringing Neal Street Productions, New Pictures, Raw and Two Brothers Pictures into the group, we have added such unbelievable drama talent and incredible shows like The Missing, Fleabag, Call the Midwife, Britannia, Harley and the Davidsons, American Animals, Liar, Rellik and Requiem. Acquisition is something that we know well, because this business has been created through “buy and build.” I find bringing new people in exciting and stimulating and love the opportunity it creates.

WS: Is the U.S. your fastest-growing market?

TURTON: The U.S. has grown very fast—both out of Optomen and Lion Television in New York and in Los Angeles, where we have the

wned by Discovery, Inc. and Liberty Global, all3media consists of 25plus companies located in Europe, the U.S. and the Asia-Pacific region.

Last year, these entities created some 3,000 hours of scripted and unscripted content, much of which all3media international sells as part of a catalog of more than 9,500 hours to linear and nonlinear outlets around the world. CEO Jane Turton has been expanding all3media through a series of acquisitions and investments in start-ups. Many of the most recent additions to the group have been made to secure talent that will help meet the growing demand for high-end drama programming.

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WS: What have been your priorities in acquiring companies?

TURTON: It’s always about talent. We bring talent into the group in a number of ways. It can be through recruitment; it can be by starting people up in new corporate entities or labels. It can also be through the acquisition of an existing business. When we acquire a business, we look for creatively strong, entrepreneurial program-makers and business leaders—people with ambition and creative vision who think globally and want to grow their program slate and business. In all3media, we have a portfolio of companies, and when we acquire, we identify opportunities where we can add to the group with

a new sci-fi drama called The Feed for Amazon and Liberty Global’s Virgin Media, and Lime Pictures has just produced a second series of Free Rein, a teen drama based in the U.K., for Netflix.

WS: And your business in Europe?

TURTON: Germany is a very strong market for us, and we have been building it both organically and through acquisitions and startups.

We are creating new labels and a broader slate to add to the very strong scripted-reality business in [our company] filmpool. We have a joint venture with the BBC called Tower Productions that acts as the producer for the BBC [Studios] and all3media unscripted-format catalogs in Germany.

That’s working well. Our drama business is strong, and we have added to our existing and very successful producer of series like Berlin—Tag & Nacht with a recent acquisition

Gordon Ramsay, Stephen Lambert and Harry and Jack Williams are among the top-tier creatives who have aligned with all3media. multi-label all3media America studio. In the U.S., we have a very strong factual and reality business, with shows like Worst Cooks in America, The Deadliest Decade, Undercover Boss, United Shades of America, The F Word, 24 Hours to Hell & Back and Chrisley Knows Best.

The U.S. slate is made up of both formats that have traveled from Europe and new original programs developed locally. For us as a group, there is a lot more to do in the U.S. with both the established players in cable and the broadcast networks and with the newer OTT and digital platforms. The multi-label all3media model, with its creative richness and diversity, allows us to pitch to all of these potential buyers in a targeted way. It also allows us to build out in scripted, using the reputation earned from U.S. shows such as Main Event Media’s The Arrangement and the incredibly strong talent base and IP from the European business.

We’ve seen expansion and growth in the platforms we’re creating programming for too, with a breadth of content for a range of different audiences. Studio Lambert is producing 118 WORLD SCREEN 4/18

in Germany, Bon Voyage Films. Our business in the Netherlands, IDTV, is growing fast in both scripted and non-scripted programs, and I’m excited at the plans from the new team there, led by Taco Rijssemus.

As we look ahead, we are considering new markets outside our key territories. We’re very tight geographically, unlike some of our competitors—with the U.K. at around 45 percent, Germany 20 percent and the U.S. at around 30 percent. Growth outside these markets will come through acquisition, partnership and through leveraging our IP. This is one of the reasons we are now concentrating on growing our format catalog in both entertainment and factual entertainment.

Outside of the U.S. and Europe, we have South Pacific Pictures, New Zealand’s largest TVproduction company. South Pacific is the producer behind the country’s biggest soap, Shortland Street, as well as international hits such as The Brokenwood Mysteries and 800 Words.

Little Dot Studios, our digital production company, has done incredibly well since it

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all3media international’s Collateral.

launched five years ago. Based in London, Germany and Los Angeles, it is a truly global operation.

WS: How important are scale and global expansion in the indie production world?

TURTON: Scale is important, and it’s not just size per se, as in numbers of dollars or programs or people. It’s also what scale gives you in terms of insight and know-how. With size, you can build expertise [by creating] different funding models, tax breaks, exploitation models—all essential to the new world of production. Scale also allows you to take a different view of risk.

With more programs, more development, more rights, more buyers and more territories, you can mitigate risk and increase opportunity. I think some buyers like to buy from people they see have “heft.” As one example of the benefit of scale on a global basis, our distribution business has grown its slate dramatically over the past few years. This has allowed Louise Pedersen, the CEO of all3media international, to take a more bullish view of her investments in advances and co-production funding across a bigger portfolio.

That’s very helpful.

If you’re successful, you tend to be getting bigger, and because you’re getting bigger, you’re seen to be successful, and so people will come to you and talk to you about projects

and deals that, in turn, makes you bigger. It’s a snowball effect. Ours is a business where reputation and profile are important, and I think size and the “quality” of your profile are key to success.

WS: Is the best way to manage an indie production company to let them do their thing?

TURTON: Of course, it’s very important that people have creative freedom. And that they work within a supportive environment so that they feel that they can take risks and innovate. You listen. You act as a sounding board.

You encourage and motivate. You incentivize.

You add the strategic vision. Our all3media model is that each production business is run by a strong leader, and it’s that individual who manages the team and, in turn, his or her development-and-production slate.

WS: You’re having a particularly good run with scripted.

TURTON: Yes. Scripted has grown significantly for us over the past couple of years, both as producers and as a distributor. Our mix is roughly fifty-fifty scripted/non-scripted, which is a healthy position to be in.

WS: Factual and factual entertainment are also important?

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TURTON: Very important. We are a very big fact-ent producer and are developing and building those genres with a particular focus on formats. Objective Media Group, Maverick TV, Optomen, North One Television, Lion, Lime, Raw, Betty and Studio Lambert are all heavily involved in factual entertainment and entertainment. We also develop and produce documentary programs that are incredibly high-quality. Shows like Employable Me, Chris Packham: Asperger’s and Me, Gogglebox and Escape are great examples of exceptional factual television.

WS: What do you enjoy most about your job?

TURTON: I like to succeed. I’m competitive. I love it when we win against the odds. I love it when an all3media producer comes and they say, We’ve got a new commission, and you think, Wow that’s cool! Then you see it on air and you feel a real sense of pride. It’s a creative manufacturing business. We are developing and producing content. We’ve created something from nothing, and that’s extraordinary. It’s exciting being in a sector that’s talked about and that plays such an important part in people’s lives. I love it because it’s clever, it’s stimulating, it’s all about talented people producing extraordinary content.

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Didier Lupfer STUDIOCANAL

By Anna Carugati to stay a step ahead of our competitors, share our premium content widely and increase revenues. We aim to optimize our relationships to maximize the efficiency, profitability and success of our drama in the global market.

WS: What does each of these companies contribute to STUDIOCANAL? LUPFER: Each company makes an original and powerful creative contribution to the group. We have the benefit of working with some of the most talented leadership teams in Europe. Their expertise and cultural DNA are great assets to us.

WS: How do these companies benefit from being part of STUDIOCANAL? LUPFER: Françoise Guyonnet, the executive managing director of STUDIOCANAL TV, works closely with our production companies, ensuring they benefit from the synergy and scale of the group, which in turn attracts

TUDIOCANAL grew out of Canal+ Productions, which was set up in 1986 as a subsidiary of the French pay-TV company Canal+. Through the years, STUDIOCANAL established itself as a leading producer, co-producer, acquirer and distributor of feature films and quickly expanded beyond its domestic borders. Today, led by Chairman and CEO Didier Lupfer, it has operations in the United Kingdom, Germany, Australia and New Zealand. It releases some 50 films a year and has a library of more than 6,500 titles. It has also invested in television-production companies: TANDEM Communications, RED Production Company, SAM Productions, SunnyMarch TV, Urban Myth Films and Bambú Producciones.

Rather than acquiring more companies, for now, Lupfer is keen on strengthening the group’s existing businesses, which include a newly announced television-production unit in France.

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WS: What has been the strategy behind STUDIOCANAL’s investments in TV-production companies?

LUPFER: STUDIOCANAL set its intention to become a major player in the global TV industry in 2012 and has since gone on to become one of the market-leading businesses in the industry, with an unmatched portfolio of quality content. We continue to throw our full weight behind our television business and do everything we can strategically

LUPFER: No, our focus, for now, is to grow existing businesses organically in the countries where we already have a presence.

WS: Do you see strong demand for nonEnglish-language TV product?

LUPFER: Yes, there is more and more appetite for non-English-language programming.

Spain’s Telefónica has just acquired the first two seasons of two of our brand-new and exceptional dramas from Scandinavia, Below the Surface and Ride Upon the Storm, for Telefónica’s premium series channels Movistar Series and Movistar Series Xtra.

Below the Surface has sold to more than 70 territories worldwide and was recently secured by BBC Four in the U.K. We were also very pleased to recently confirm a significant deal with Hulu, in which the U.S. streaming service has exclusive U.S. SVOD rights to 20 hours of our premium non-English

Known for its film output, STUDIOCANAL has ramped up its TV slate organically and via a series of investments in European production companies. bigger partners for them to work with. Our incredibly smart and hard-working distribution division, headed by Anna Marsh, exploits the potential of all our productions on a global scale.

Building strong partnerships with new and existing broadcasters and platforms is vital to expanding the reach of our content globally, as well as developing new co-production collaborations as opportunities for premium, internationally relevant drama open up. Our overarching strategy is to ensure that each and every production finds its best possible home in the global market—from the development stages, ensuring that productions hold true international appeal with engaging storylines and characters, through to working with broadcasters to make sure our content reaches its maximum potential in their specific territories.

WS: Do you plan to invest in more companies?

Are you looking to extend STUDIOCANAL’s businesses into countries beyond the five in which it is already present?

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drama, including Below the Surface and Midnight Sun, as well as the U.K. hit Trust Me. WS: What opportunities do you see in the U.S. market? Do you have plans to make investments there?

LUPFER: We aren’t currently planning to make any major changes in the U.S. Rola Bauer, the managing director of STUDIOCANAL TV, has offices in both Hollywood and Munich, and one of her main roles is to help producers get an anchor network in the U.S. Once this is achieved, she helps get the rest of the financing together so our projects can get greenlit. She then creates the plan to take the show out domestically in the U.S. and then globally outside of the U.S. We are already developing some incredible new projects with U.S. partners, several of which are already in production, such as Take Two, a witty detective series from the creators and executive producers of the hit ABC series Castle, Terri Edda Miller and Andrew W. Marlowe. Take Two is co-produced by TANDEM Productions—which is a STUDIOCANAL

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STUDIOCANAL’s Midnight Sun. company—and ABC Studios. The series will air on ABC in the U.S., RTL/VOX in Germany, and France Télévisions in France. Miller and Marlowe are executive producing Take Two under their MilMar Pictures banner.

WS: In which of STUDIOCANAL’s territories is the film-production business the strongest?

LUPFER: STUDIOCANAL films are performing exceptionally well in their local markets.

In France, STUDIOCANAL excelled on its 2017 projections, with more than 15 million admissions, to become the number one theatrical distributor of the year.

WS: In the U.S., attendance in movie theaters has been declining. How is movie attendance in France, the U.K. and Germany?

Which films are performing the best?

LUPFER: The French market is quite stable, which is demonstrated in our 2017 admissions.

In particular, comedies are very popular, and people are still making a trip to the cinema to watch them—3.5 million people in the case of one of our most recent successes, Alibi.com.

The British and German markets have also shown promising signs, with an increase in

box-office figures of 3.6 percent and 5.3 percent, respectively, from 2016 to 2017. These increases are not black and white, there is still work to do to maintain admissions, but these figures, when home entertainment is so incredibly competitive, indicate that the decline is not as steep or dramatic as some might suggest.

services in Europe has presented some real opportunities for us. These services have not only expanded our distribution channels, but also our production options, as these services are looking for original and defining programming to raise their platform above the rest of the competition.

WS: STUDIOCANAL has had a long history of co-productions and partnerships in film production and distribution. Do partnerships remain important today? Are they also important in the television business?

LUPFER: Yes, STUDIOCANAL has a long history of partnering with the best of European film and TV talent. We are known for working with “the Greats”: David Heyman, Andrew Rona, Eric Fellner, Tim Bevan, Benedict Cumberbatch, Idris Elba, Peter Lord and Harlan Coben. We intend to maintain this standard of collaborations, which are vital to the quality of content expected from the prestigious STUDIOCANAL brand.

WS: How does STUDIOCANAL continue to support Canal+?

LUPFER: STUDIOCANAL continues to work very closely with Canal+, principally in a two-way exchange: STUDIOCANAL makes Canal+’s original TV series available in every corner of the world and thereby extends the reach and awareness of Canal+ globally. It also develops content for the channel, collaborating within the group to produce shows like Safe, starring Michael C. Hall (of Dexter).

WS: What opportunities do streaming ser vices like Netflix, Amazon and Hulu present STUDIOCANAL? LUPFER: As one of Europe’s biggest content providers, the advent of popular streaming 124 WORLD SCREEN 4/18

WS: Canal+ has been experiencing some challenges. What is the health of the pay-TV business today?

LUPFER: The group’s pay-TV business is improving in the face of ever-tougher competition. The overall subscriber base is growing, and our profits, excluding restructuring, are expected to be up by more than 30 percent in 2017.

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Marco Bassetti Banijay Group

By Anna Carugati Our senior management team is led by producers, and we understand the very specific constraints of our business. Banijay has therefore proved to be the perfect home for talent who recognize the necessity of being part of a strong international group with access not only to one of the best format catalogs there is, but also to potential co-production partners—yet all the while maintaining their independence when it comes to managing their local businesses. Being part of Banijay gives local producers a unique backbone to confront an industry that is changing fast and becoming more and more challenging for content producers.

WS: What is the best way to manage a network of production companies?

BASSETTI: Banijay is a unique group, as we are [an] independent—the biggest one, actually. This independence distinguishes us from our main competitors and is the heart

n the summer of 2015, Banijay Group merged with Zodiak Media. The deal brought together such production entities as Bunim/Murray in the U.S., Brainpool in Germany, Screentime in Australia, Air Productions in France and RDF Television in the U.K. Today, Banijay, with CEO Marco Bassetti at the helm, is present in 16 countries and active in production and distribution of entertainment, drama, factual, reality, documentaries and children’s programs.

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WS: What are the pressures and opportunities facing independent producers today, and how can a group like Banijay help them?

BASSETTI: The fact that Banijay is a group of production companies run by experienced producers has been part of our DNA since inception, and this approach is still, ten years later, our main strength compared to our competitors. We are entrepreneurs in the field, focused on making high-quality content that meets our clients’ needs.

The accelerated consolidation of the market in recent years teaches us how difficult it is for independent producers to survive. Small production companies with niche know-how can remain independent, but for medium-sized general-entertainment producers, it is tougher and tougher to get access to the market. Those companies face barriers to entry when working with both top traditional linear broadcasters and digital platforms.

WS: Are you looking to make investments in more companies, and, if so, what would you be looking for?

BASSETTI: Since the beginning of our journey, ten years ago, we have taken a very pragmatic and opportunistic approach to acquisitions. We were always convinced we needed to grow and could not rely on organic growth alone, but we have also learned that this industry depends on people, and finding good partners is not only a matter of financial results. We would not only buy profit but companies that can add longterm value and strong assets to the group, such as formats and IP. That is the reason why our latest investments, such as the ones we have recently made in scripted production companies in the U.K., have been conceived more as partnerships with key talent. In the near future, we will use that same approach to grow either in some of our key markets where we still have room to

There are more than 60 individual brands under the Banijay Group umbrella, operating in 16 countries, including a distribution arm that offers some 20,000 hours. of our management. It gives us the flexibility and agility big groups usually do not have. It enables us to share value creation with the key managers from the group and allows us to treat each deal individually.

We have some very well-established and renowned production companies within the group, some of them have been at the top of their field for more than 20 years and are still run by extremely talented producers and entrepreneurs. We could never sell and produce better than them in their local markets. What we can do is offer them the tools, expertise, means and platforms for exchange and collaborations that only a big group such as Banijay can provide.

I think that it also explains why the merger with Zodiak has been so easygoing and successful. Of course, it has been a lot of work and effort, but we quickly convinced all the parties of its necessity, and the results have become clear. While building a leading independent international production group, we have managed to maintain our entrepreneurial spirit, delivering top-quality content to our clients and reaching the financial goals of our shareholders.

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grow or in new, fast-growing territories in which we don’t yet have a presence.

WS: Which countries are contributing the most to the group’s revenues, and where do you see the greatest opportunities for growth?

BASSETTI: It has been a real achievement to build a group with such a strong presence in 16 territories within just ten years. It is one of the few instances where aggressive growth through M&A has been truly successful.

In terms of turnover, the U.S. and France naturally have an important impact on our results because of our history there and the size of the markets. But we are also the number one producer in Scandinavia and among the top three in Italy, Finland, New Zealand and Australia.

We now have golden opportunities to grow further in our leading European markets, which are the U.K., Germany and Spain, where we have overcome some significant challenges in the past few years.

For more from Marco Bassetti, see page 156.

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Avi Nir

Keshet Media Group

By Kristin Brzoznowski to the marketing decisions we made, but also the predominance of our content. We are always innovating, whether that’s with new formats, our own formats or inter national formats.

Keshet is a content company more than a free-TV company. Our success in free television is related to our ability to innovate content and offer viewers something that will invigorate them, challenge them or can even feel comforting to them. We thought very hard about what would be the [flagship] brands for us leading into this mayhem. The good news for us was that Rising Star, which is our own show, had a very good year, as did our new dance competition Masters of Dance. We always felt that the right way for us as a content company was to [have] successful international brands, like MasterChef or Married at First Sight, but more predominantly our own brands. I’m happy to say that

hile maintaining its leading position in Israel, Keshet Media Group has made strategic moves to become a diversified international brand. Free TV is among the pillars of its broad portfolio of businesses. In November of last year, Keshet Broadcasting moved from being a longtime franchisee of Channel 2 in Israel to operating its own commercial channel, Keshet 12, on the air seven days a week. Under the leadership of CEO Avi Nir, Keshet has also become a top supplier of programming to channels all over the world. Its production-and-distribution arm, Keshet International (KI), has established local subsidiaries in several markets, including a recent expansion into Germany with the acquisition of Tresor TV Produktions.

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WS: Of all Keshet Media Group businesses, is free-TV broadcasting the main driver? Tell us about the developments surrounding Keshet 12.

NIR: That was a significant move for us. We’ve been tenants in Channel 2 for 24 years. The channel started as nothing and became vastly popular—the number one channel in Israel. We weren’t alone; we had some cohabitants with us that shared the success. We have had to create a totally different consumer habit—mainly, pressing 1-2 instead of 2-2 [on the remote]—and 24year-old habits die hard. We had a big marketing challenge and a big content challenge. The good news is that Keshet 12 is the dominant commercial channel by a nice margin. It was due

more opportunities in Europe and other countries that are pertinent. The shared vision for us and our shareholders is that, alongside our organic growth, we are at the stage where we feel confident enough and have enough pipeline and channels to look for opportunities with great, entrepreneurial companies—lean and mean, ambitious companies. We are actively pursuing this. I expect before the end of the year to have other companies joining the group.

The strategy, like we’ve done with Tresor, is to give these companies the support they need and the pipeline they need from us, but also to support their own creativity, ideas and abilities. The great thing about Tresor and other companies we are looking at is that these are independent companies that are entrepreneurial in their culture and drive. We are looking for companies that will have their own identity and vocation.

Following the success of Prisoners of War— which was remade as Homeland—Keshet has built a global business with outposts in the U.S., Europe, Asia and Latin America. it has proven to be very, very successful. I don’t think we’ve ever had a year with so many fresh, new shows. Having double [the amount of] real estate pushes us. It pushes us to come up with more new content, which for Keshet is the real engine.

WS: Keshet has been building out its local production businesses, mostly through organic growth, but lately through some strategic acquisitions, including Tresor TV Produktions. How have you and Keshet International’s CEO, Alon Shtruzman, developed this overall production-and-distribution strategy?

NIR: We recognize the great opportunity in the content market, and we are very determined to take more steps, both in the scripted and non-scripted arenas. Alon and his team have been looking for opportunities throughout the world to [bring in] great people and great companies. Tresor is an incredible company, which will expand shortly from non-scripted to also have a strong scripted division. We are looking at 128 WORLD SCREEN 4/18

WS: Why were Keshet UK, Keshet MX, Keshet Asia and the L.A.-based Keshet Studios important flags to put in the ground in KI’s first five years?

NIR: The main hubs of creativity in scripted are the U.K. and the U.S. We have a very active office in L.A. We have a deal with NBC, various pilots in the making and a project in the making with HBO. We have all the infrastructure and a great team led by Peter Traugott, who is a prominent U.S. producer. We have good relationships with writers and creators as well. L.A. is where a lot is happening! We also have a very strong team on the ground in London. These are the biggest markets in the world, and we want to be there.

We also had a great year with dramas in Latin America and Asia. There is a synergy between these leading markets and the rest of the world. Our executives from the U.S. have been flying around [to other markets]. Some ideas are coming from the U.S., but many from other territories.

For more from Avi Nir, see page 338.

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Steven Silver Kew Media Group

By Kristin Brzoznowski these companies stakeholders and are committed to being the best possible partner we can be. Given our experience as entrepreneurs in the content space, we can really appreciate the various challenges producers face and are able to work with them in unique and effective ways.

The Kew platform offers access to a wide universe of buyers, access to resources, expertise and, of course, capital. But, most importantly, we have a commitment to the entrepreneurial spirit that gave birth to those companies—we value it highly in all the companies we partner with. Kew fiercely advocates for keeping that founder spirit alive.

WS: Why is scale important? What can a larger company offer that a smaller one cannot?

SILVER: Scale matters; it always has. It provides reach, it provides greater access to

n March of last year, Kew Media Group made waves in the content industry with its acquisition of six companies. Among the acquired outfits was Content Media Corporation (CMC), which itself controlled five production companies and a largescale distribution operation. Since then, Kew has continued its buying spree, snapping up TCB Media Rights and Sienna Films. The acquired companies hold a combined library of more than 10,000 hours of programming.

According to Steven Silver, co-founder and CEO, more acquisitions are on the planner.

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WS: When you co-founded Kew along with Peter Sussman, what was your vision for the company?

SILVER: The vision for Kew was to create a large, global content company. The idea was to begin with our core expertise in production and distribution, but over time expand the platform to include other content businesses, like branded entertainment and talent management.

WS: What can Kew provide independent producers and production companies in today’s media environment?

SILVER: We seek high levels of alignment with the companies we work with, whether they are subsidiaries of Kew or third-party producers. We consider all of

WS: What did Kew see in TCB Media Rights that made it of interest?

SILVER: TCB is one of the world’s premier non-scripted sales companies. Kew owns a number of non-scripted production companies, so the acquisition of TCB rounded out our sales platform, giving it a greater capacity to really make the most of the content and IP being generated by those nonscripted production companies.

WS: Are you looking to acquire more companies, and, if so, in what areas?

SILVER: Kew will continue to make acquisitions in the content space, both scripted and non-scripted. We’ll continue to focus on North America, the U.K. and Europe, but also reach into Australia, New Zealand and Asia. We have an acquisition-led growth strategy, so you can anticipate Kew announcing ongoing acquisitions in the weeks and months ahead.

One of the newest super-indies in the global landscape, Kew Media Group has snapped up several companies in the last year, including Content Media Corporation. resources, whether that’s capital, an expanded universe of buyers and suppliers, or operational support. Scale and scope are critical components of Kew’s strategy. We have made no secret of the fact that we intend to get big, and get big quick.

WS: Why was the acquisition of Content Media Corporation an important one?

SILVER: Content Media Corporation, which has now been rebranded as Kew Media, was the largest of Kew’s initial acquisitions. In CMC we inherited one of the best independent distribution platforms—it has a top-shelf sales team led by extraordinary management, all supported by great operational infrastructure. Kew had the balance sheet to supercharge that platform, which is exactly what we’re doing. The CMC acquisition allowed Kew to achieve a significant presence in the marketplace right out of the gate. It was really important to Kew’s birth and remains an important piece of Kew’s ongoing growth.

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WS: A number of the Kew production companies specialize in factual and factualentertainment programming. Are you seeing a strong demand for content in that space?

SILVER: We see ongoing and robust demand for non-scripted programming and factual entertainment. In addition to the historical buyers, new buyers with big war chests, such as Netflix, Amazon and Apple, have announced significant spend on nonscripted programming. The great thing about Kew’s companies is that they deliver a wide range of product, whether it’s reality series, game shows, doc series, science, history, nature, etc. We are well-placed to service the evolving appetite of our various buyers.

WS: Do these companies also work together on projects?

SILVER: Yes. The companies have organically found ways to partner internally.

While we don’t impose that on the group, what we’re seeing is that people are finding their own way to leverage Kew’s platform.

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Kew Media Group’s Line of Duty.

WS: Given the shrinking attendance at movie theaters, can television and streaming services offer better exposure to featurelength documentaries nowadays?

SILVER: OTT platforms have already proved to be of enormous benefit to feature-length documentary filmmakers. That applies to high-end documentary series as well. I don’t think audiences care whether they watch an hour of content that is a documentary or a drama; if the programming is strong and compelling, they’ll watch it. Alex Gibney and his company, Jigsaw Productions, recently premiered Dirty Money on Netflix, which is an extraordinary series. And some of Gibney’s feature docs, such as Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine and Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief, have streamed on Netflix, as did Campfire’s The Nightmare and Silicon Cowboys. Additionally, Kew’s distribution arm has a number of features streaming across the Netflix global footprint, including Hostage to the Devil, Manolo: The Boy Who Made Shoes for Lizards and Whitney: Can I Be Me. That content did not need a theater to reach an audience.

WS: Looking outside of the factual arena, what gains are you seeing in the scripted space?

SILVER: A number of Kew’s companies already produce scripted content, notably Sienna Films, Campfire and Frantic Films.

Other companies inside Kew are developing scripted series as well. Kew’s distribution platform also sells a large and growing library of scripted content from other producers. So we’ll continue to buy scripted production companies and form strategic relationships with scripted producers, showrunners and talent, as well as partner with third-party producers to keep adding scripted titles to Kew’s library. It’s a space that we are very active in, and will be judicious about how we play in it.

WS: What opportunities do you see in the areas of short-form and branded content?

SILVER: The Kew group includes the Londonbased company Spirit. We are very focused on how to grow Spirit and how it can collaborate with the companies in the Kew group. We see real value in what Spirit 132 WORLD SCREEN 4/18

does. When they produce a digital-first show that gets traction, that becomes a piece of proven IP that has captured an audience. It becomes available for migration onto other platforms. Spirit is also able to build brand value by taking our content online, where it can find ancillary forms of revenue, particularly in social media.

I expect one day soon we will put a dozen 20-year-olds in the Spirit office; we’re just working first on determining what exactly we need to tell them to do!

WS: In which businesses do you see opportunities for growth in the next 12 to 24 months?

SILVER: We see enormous growth in all the companies that Kew bought. Several of them have the potential to grow to the size that Kew is today. We see opportunities in the ongoing acquisition of companies that are a good fit with Kew. And we see opportunities in expanding Kew’s platform into new areas, such as talent management, branded entertainment and the liveevents space.

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Tatxo Benet Mediapro

By Elizabeth Bowen-Tombari WS: Are you looking to acquire more companies?

BENET: We are and always will be eclectic. We don’t like to diversify much in regards to the business we do, but we’re always analyzing opportunities that arise in any territory and in any area in which we work. We are very opportunistic. If we see an opportunity in a market, we analyze it and, if it’s interesting, we move forward.

WS: In addition to having the rights to Spanish football’s La Liga, you acquired the rights to the Serie A in Italy. How did this deal come about?

BENET: It’s a big bet, but it’s a natural diversification because what we’re going to do in Italy is the same that we’re doing in Spain. In other words, we acquire rights to Serie A and distribute them to all available operators and platforms.

In Spain, we do it on a channel and in Italy we will try to do the same, but we have to see if there are any regulations we need to solve first. In any regard, our model is based on taking content, in

ediapro comprises several companies in Spain, Latin America and the U.S. Among them are Globomedia, a leading producer in Europe; the distribution arm Imagina International Sales; Imagina U.S., which produces for the Hispanic and Latin American markets; and Mediapro Argentina, an audiovisual-services company. In Spain, Mediapro, headed by its co-founder and managing partner Tatxo Benet, also has holdings in the broadcaster Atresmedia and pay-TV sports channels and has made significant investments in sports rights. The Chinese private-equity firm Orient Hontai Capital recently acquired a 53.5-percent stake in Mediapro.

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WS: Tell us about Mediapro’s organizational structure. How do you manage the various companies under the Mediapro umbrella?

BENET: We have always wanted people to make their own decisions, to be consistent and responsible and not always depend on what someone higher up says. The fact that there’s not much difference [in management positions] is something that has been part of the company’s DNA from the beginning. We want to [facilitate communication between] people. It’s a structure that allows everyone to know what the rest is doing.

We have many divisions. The most important ones are TV-rights distribution and event production, especially sports and live events. We also have a very solid content area, where there’s a lot of creativity for series and feature films.

Burman. The company produced Edha, the first Argentinean series for Netflix. We’re producing the local football league in Bolivia and Chile. We signed a deal with Turner for content production. South America is a very important market for us.

WS: Mediapro has investments in free and pay TV. Are you looking to launch more channels?

BENET: We’re shareholders in Atresmedia, but we don’t manage the company. In the free-TV market in Spain, there are two big players that practically encompass 90 percent of the market: Atresmedia and Telecinco. In free TV, we have GOL, our football channel.

In pay TV, we have beIN Sports, which airs international football and the UEFA Champions League. There’s also beIN LaLiga, which broadcasts the games from the Spanish league. We have these channels in association with beIN Sports.

Headquartered in Spain, Mediapro has 45 offices in 26 countries on four continents, working in content creation, production and distribution. the case of football games, to the greatest number of fans as possible. It’s also based on universal distribution rights, as has been done in many places with exclusive series. We look to lower subscription fees and expand the number of people that have access to content.

WS: How is Globomedia competing in the increasingly international drama market?

BENET: Our content has great local impact. Big foreign productions have a difficult time trying to generate the same local impact as our shows. Our productions are increasingly international, but [we are] keeping in mind that viewers mainly want to watch local stories.

WS: How important is Latin America for Mediapro? What deals are in the pipeline?

BENET: We’ve been in the region for quite some time. We acquired Televideo in Colombia, and we’re producing content. In Argentina, we acquired a majority stake in the production outfit Oficina Burman, creating the biggest content-creation hub in the area, spearheaded by Argentinean creator Daniel 134 WORLD SCREEN 4/18

WS: Imagina has an office in the U.S. What’s the growth potential in the Hispanic market?

BENET: The Imagina office has been present for 20 years in the U.S. We mainly produce content and distribute rights. This was one of the first subsidiaries we created to supply [content] to the Hispanic market, which is continually growing and is becoming more demanding in its appetite for quality product.

Since we know how to make high-quality content, we want to be more impactful in that market.

WS: What business opportunities do you see for Mediapro in the next few years?

BENET: If you had asked me a few months ago, I would have said that there are opportunities in content development. However, we’ve focused on acquiring rights for Italian football. But I see growth opportunities in content development as well as rights and production. Viewers are increasingly consuming and demanding more content. This will allow channels the opportunity to develop more productions.

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Michael MacMillan Blue Ant Media

By Anna Carugati talent can feel nurtured, supported and trusted and can take chances. It is a chancy business. All TV shows and movies begin with great intentions; we think they are all going to be great and, of course, they’re not all great. But that’s the inherent risk in this. So support for talented people was always and remains at the heart of what a successful content creator will be. One difference is that back in the Alliance Atlantis days, and prior to that, in the Atlantis days, because it was so much more costly to make TV shows and movies (because equipment was more cumbersome, film required more light, more gear and everything else), technology and money back in those days were two of the biggest barriers. They were the two enormous factors that qualified people to either make a program or not. Today, with new technology, where we are all producers on our cell phones, we can all broadcast by posting to YouTube or whatever, tech and money are not the real deciding factors. Talent is. Good ideas

ichael MacMillan started making feature films when he was a teenager. In 1978, he co-founded Atlantis Films Limited, then acquired Alliance Communications and formed Alliance Atlantis Communications, which encompassed film and television production and distribution. In 2007, he sold Alliance Atlantis and retired from the entertainment business. But the pull of making and selling films and TV programs was strong and, in 2011, he co-founded Blue Ant Media, which he runs as CEO. It has investments in production companies across the globe specializing in premium factual content and channel brands distributed on various platforms.

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WS: How different is it to run a company today than when you were building Alliance Atlantis?

MACMILLAN: When I think back to that Neolithic age it seemed so different! But when you think about it, it’s also pretty similar to today. How exciting and discombobulating it was running a company when they invented the videocassette and then the DVD! It seems so ancient today, but at the time it was revolutionary and changed how you could watch TV shows and movies.

When you’ve been around the block a few times, you realize these waves of change have some consistency to them. At its core, what we do is still very similar. Our job is to think of or spot good ideas, and, more importantly, to spot great creative talent and to provide a home where that

and other audiovisual entertainment on this small screen I can carry around. Small screens are going to be a game changer, and this could be a really good time to get back into this business and create a company if it had the benefit of experienced people without issues of being wedded to the status quo.

WS: What’s been the vision in building Blue Ant? MACMILLAN: The vision was to create a company that in the long run is able to develop and create and own interesting IP, programs and movies that are distinctive, that stand out, that appeal to an audience—so, content ownership with an international perspective firmly in mind. We are very proud to be based in Canada; it’s a super place to build a film-and-TV company. However, Canada only has 36 million people, 28 million English speakers; it’s a pretty small market. If you want to be doing interesting content creation, you’d better have the

Based in Canada, Blue Ant Media also owns production companies in the U.S., the U.K., New Zealand and Singapore, primarily focused on factual and kids’ programming. are. And in this new economy of abundance instead of scarcity, it’s really exciting that quality and talent have become the big differentiating factors. We like that, because at Blue Ant, although we are very proud of what we have accomplished, in the larger scheme of things, in the world of the Disney and Fox or Discovery and Scripps mergers, we’re still a relatively small fish.

We know the size of our wallet won’t be the thing that distinguishes us; the fact that we are an attractive home for talented people and talented creators might be.

WS: After you sold Alliance Atlantis, you took a break from the business. What brought you back?

MACMILLAN: Three things, really. I did retire from this industry, but I missed the competition of the business world. Equally and perhaps more importantly, I missed the fun and crazy people in the media world. Since I was a teenager, I had been making films and then TV shows. And third, I remember fiddling around with my new iPad, six or seven years ago, thinking, Wow this is interesting, yet another wave of change: I can see myself consuming a lot of movies, TV shows 136 WORLD SCREEN 4/18

world as your target audience. So our strategy in building Blue Ant is content ownership and content creation with the international market in mind, through a mixture of building equity and acquisitions. When you start from scratch, as we did with Blue Ant seven years ago, acquisitions need to be an important part of that growth strategy. If we had only been growing internally, we wouldn’t have been able to grow at a sufficient speed to get to the scope and size we want to get to now, because now we see enormous opportunities for us. Looking forward, I think we’ll continue to use both acquisition and internal growth to carry out that international content ownership.

WS: What type of content is Blue Ant Media mainly focused on?

MACMILLAN: Up to now, our main thrust has been factual, documentary and factual entertainment, which also includes lifestyle. We are also very proud of our progress in the natural-history area, which is also part of factual. The progress we’ve made with our Love Nature product was one of the reasons we wanted to invest in NHNZ, which

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Blue Ant’s Orangutan Jungle School.

is one of the best-regarded producers of wildlife and natural history. NHNZ also gave us a smart entry point into the kids’ business, which we had been looking at for a while and trying to figure out a sensible way to make our first foray into that. NHNZ already is a children’s producer, as are Beach House Pictures in Singapore and Northern Pictures in Sydney, Australia. Those are the three production companies we acquired in 2017. We’re now in the kids’ business, mostly through wildlife and natural history. So kids’ is the second content area after factual. As we look forward at Blue Ant, we are interested in growing our genres beyond what we have.

WS: What motivated the acquisition of the RTL CBS channels in Asia?

MACMILLAN: We think we can make them a profitable asset for us. We saw an opportunity to build out a team of programmers and marketers in Singapore for the RTL CBS channels (recently rebranded as Blue Ant Entertainment and Blue Ant Extreme) that would also be good at growing our ZooMoo and Love Nature channels in Asia. We’ve seen that Love Nature has a lot of potential in Asia, and having the same team marketing ZooMoo, Love Nature, Blue Ant Extreme and Blue Ant Entertainment all together would be better than if we didn’t have those two new channels.

WS: In your portfolio of channels, some are free to air, some are streaming only and some are traditional linear channels. How do you decide whether a channel brand should be free to air, pay TV or streaming?

MACMILLAN: We know that there are two main ways to pay for broadcast content: advertising and subscriber fees. So we shouldn’t get too

caught in firm rules—it all depends on what the product is and what the market can support. We intend to play in both, but I would say if I look out five to ten years from now, I want to make sure the most significant part of our channel business is in the subscriber-fee-funded business. The reason is that with the internet there is no shortage of new real estate. There is so much to watch, and much of it can attract advertising dollars. You can see if it were only an adsupported economy, it could be a race to the bottom because the CPMs would decline. We don’t have a crystal ball; it does depend on content and the geographical market, but I would want to hope that a good chunk of what we do is subscriber supported. It’s probably going to be the more premium kind of content, and in a world of overwhelming choice, I want Blue Ant to be a creator and owner of premium content and not just stuff that fills in the gaps.

WS: Two years ago, the Canadian regulator, the CRTC, mandated that cable operators provide smaller channel packages and allow subscribers to select the channels they want through pick and pay. How has that been received?

MACMILLAN: I think we all know we are moving to the on-demand world, where you can choose what you want to watch, when, and so on. We know that consumers want to have and exert more choice over what they are getting. In our case, in Canada, [we haven’t felt] a huge impact of [the new regulation]. There already were some cord-cutters, cord-shavers and cord-nevers. But Blue Ant’s channels in Canada weren’t in those smaller basic packages that were available in 95 percent of homes. Ours were quite modestly penetrated and often in the great big packages.

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Love Nature, be chosen by a greater percentage of customers that currently get our channels? Yes, quite possibly. I think consumers have also discovered it’s a pretty good deal to buy big bundles.

It’s always been a pretty effective pricing device to give customers the broadest range of channels at the lowest per-channel price. Today, when you pick your own package, if you add that all up and you get half the channels you had yesterday at the same price, that has actually created a backlash among consumers. And with basic cable, broadband, telephony and probably Netflix, their bill is quite possibly higher.

WS: Looking ahead 12 to 24 months, in which Blue Ant businesses do you see potential for growth?

MACMILLAN: I think there is room for growth in all the parts of Blue Ant, including our Canadian and New Zealand domestic broadcast operations and our Canadian consumer-show business. But creating and distributing content internationally has got to be the place where our growth potential is biggest. That’s why we set up the production units in Los Angeles (Blue Ant Digital Studios), London (Antenna Pictures) and Toronto (Look Mom! Productions) and purchased production companies in New Zealand (NHNZ), Australia (Northern Pictures) and Singapore (Beach House Pictures) and are building another one here in Canada—all so we can have an international focus.

I’m an optimist, and I think this is a great time to be a creator of interesting programming. Yes, it’s confusing; yes, old supply chains are being broken apart and replaced with other ways of content being created and distributed and received by the user. People all over the world like to watch moving pictures and listen to sound. It’s an exciting time to be a producer.

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Jane Millichip Sky Vision

By Anna Carugati to retain rights wherever we can, but we have a nuanced approach to rights retention across the production portfolio. And we certainly don’t have a one-size-fits-all approach.

Our most recent production-company investment is Avanti Media, a Cardiff- and Londonbased factual-and-entertainment business that has great credentials in regions and nations. That’s a really important part of the landscape in the U.K. right now. Channel 4, ITV and BBC are all looking to commission outside of London much more.

I try to avoid overlap in the businesses we invest in. We are still bespoke scale. We are nothing like the big consolidators and have no intention to be right now. Love Productions is one of the first investments we made, along with Jupiter Entertainment in the U.S. Love Productions is best known for the international hit format The Great British Bake Off, but also credited for some very important social-action docs. At Jupiter, they are experts in real-life crime and run a first-rate

ky Vision manages a catalog of some 6,000 hours of programming, consisting of shows commissioned by Sky as well as titles from third-party platforms. Sky Vision also owns stakes in production companies in the U.K. and the U.S. While these entities allow Sky Vision to draw on ideas and IP from creators of a range of genres, Jane Millichip, managing director, is keen on maintaining a curated slate for the company.

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WS: Sky Vision has equity investments in several production companies. How did you build the portfolio?

MILLICHIP: The turning point was about three or four years ago, when we transformed Sky Vision into a dual economy—a business that accommodates both production and distribution revenues.

I felt this move made us more future-proof.

International exploitation and distribution are fundamental to our business, but I felt IP retention was becoming more challenging, and, therefore, we moved to a healthier and sustainable mix of production revenues (work for hire) and classic IP exploitation. We are a much more rounded, and, I hope, robust business as a result.

So we set out to make investments in a number of production companies. We now have ten investments in production businesses in the U.K. and the U.S. This dual economy enabled us to open up to work with the SVODs, which, as you know, insist on retaining all rights. We still aim

significant portion of the budget that you have to carry. Most of our dramas assume a coproduction or presale somewhere in the mix, particularly the Sky dramas.

It used to be the case that a presale was topup funding; now it’s core to the funding, and you need two key broadcasters and a distributor. The distributor’s advance is now required as core funding rather than being pure profit for the stakeholders. That has changed our risk profile; a much greater portion of sales is now required to recover advances and deficits, which increases our risk. In some ways, we’ve never had it better in drama—the quality has never been higher and we will never run out of stories. But do we have too many dramas to be able to fund them according to conventional business models? Possibly, yes. And it’s certainly the case that good is not good enough anymore. You have to be brilliant to break through. That adds to the risk management.

Sky Vision, the production-and-distribution arm of pay-TV giant Sky, has equity investments in ten companies and represents about 6,000 hours of content. production business in Knoxville, Tennessee.

When we were investing in the U.S., it was really important that we didn’t just invest in great creatives, but in well-run businesses, particularly as an offshore investment. Love Productions, Jupiter and factual producer Blast! Films were the cornerstones of our production portfolio, and we’ve added to that. Last year, we made an investment in True North, which is a Leedsbased company, brilliant in volume factual. Then we have some small startup investments, including Znak & Co, which is making one of the biggest entertainment shows ever made for Sky 1, called Revolution, which we are pitching out in the U.S. right now. We also have an investment in the diverse business Sugar Films. These are companies that complement each other and fit well in the portfolio.

WS: How has the financing of drama changed?

MILLICHIP: On the big dramas, it’s evident that you need at least one big co-producing or financing partner. And that means that the management of risk is critical because if you don’t secure that co-production partner, that’s a 140 WORLD SCREEN 4/18

We have three strands within our drama slate: first, our own Sky shows, commissioned by Sky Atlantic, Sky 1 and Sky Arts. These are generally the biggest shows we handle, and we often make substantial investments to underwrite production deficits. Then we have third-party shows, which break down into English-language and non-English-language.

WS: How is Sky Vision increasing its presence in international markets?

MILLICHIP: We are a furiously outward-looking business. We’ve built up our credibility and our profile on the idea that we offer bespoke scale. So we can handle some of the biggest projects, like Britannia. We have the means to market those shows, but we don’t have a telephone-directorystyle catalog, and we do not intend to. You need a certain amount of volume to give you the critical mass to make you an important distributor for buyers to engage with, and we do a lot of packaged deals, particularly in the factual area. But bespoke scale is very much our mission statement. And in terms of our global reach, we have a great and well-established sales team.

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TVEUROPE

WWW.TVEUROPE.WS

APRIL 2018

MIPTV EDITION

Top Buyers / Banijay’s Marco Bassetti & Tim Mutimer

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4 TV EUROPE

CONTENTS FEATURE

Shows That Travel

10 IT’S A HIT! Leading channel buyers share their shopping lists and reveal the challenges of multiplatform rights acquisition.

I was recently sitting in a café in Manhattan that attracts coffee aficionados from various countries. I like doing work in cafés; I find the background hum of voices soothing and conducive to writing.

Ricardo Seguin Guise Publisher Anna Carugati Group Editorial Director Mansha Daswani Editor Kristin Brzoznowski Executive Editor Joanna Padovano Tong Managing Editor Sara Alessi Associate Editor Victor L. Cuevas Production & Design Director Phyllis Q. Busell Art Director Simon Weaver Online Director Dana Mattison Senior Sales & Marketing Manager Nathalia Lopez Sales & Marketing Coordinator Andrea Moreno Business Affairs Manager

Ricardo Seguin Guise President Anna Carugati Executive VP Mansha Daswani Associate Publisher & VP of Strategic Development TV Europe © 2018 WSN INC. 1123 Broadway, #1207 New York, NY 10010 Phone: (212) 924-7620 Fax: (212) 924-6940 Website: www.tveurope.ws

On this particular morning, a group of regulars, including women from the U.S., the U.K. and France, were talking about their current favorite TV shows. The words that emerged from the low buzz of voices were HBO, Showtime, Netflix, BritBox and Walter. Since I was working I wasn’t paying close attention, until one British woman popped up enthusiastically, singing the praises of a new Italian series set in Sicily in the ’70s about a police chief, quite a handsome guy, she pointed out, investigating a crime that was connected to the Mafia. She couldn’t remember the title of the show. “Mal-something,” she said; “maybe Marchese?” I almost jumped in because I knew the series she was talking about: Maltese, starring Kim Rossi Stuart, which aired on Rai in Italy and is distributed internationally by ZDF Enterprises.

The Walter she was referring to, I deduced, is Walter Presents, the online streaming service that offers exclusively non-English-language drama. The other women in the group became intrigued by the series and wanted to watch it—word of mouth in action! But what got me thinking was that this is a non-English-language show and in many of the interviews I have done lately with programming executives, a prominent topic has been the appeal of non-English-language European drama. British drama has been successfully exported for decades and so has non-English-language European drama, just not to Englishspeaking countries—until recently. It has been crossing borders within Europe for years. The European production community provides a rich and varied menu of scripted drama. Nonetheless, linear and nonlinear platforms need to supplement homegrown product with acquired programming. Our feature surveys some of the most important buyers in the region about their current needs.

Of course, the Europeans have made their mark in the format business; the first big reality hits came from the region. We hear from Marco Bassetti, the CEO of Banijay, which is active in both scripted and unscripted finished programming and formats. Today, it is quite evident that a great idea can come from anywhere and get people talking in cafés everywhere.

—Anna Carugati

INTERVIEWS

16 Banijay Group’s Marco Bassetti

18 Banijay Rights’ Tim Mutimer

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all3media international Mystery Road / Girlfriends / 24 Hours to Hell and Back

Girlfriends

Set in the Australian bush, the thriller Mystery Road is about two missing teenagers. “With hallmarks of frontier-land westerns and cinematic landscapes, this drama is appropriately dubbed ‘outback noir,’ and we feel it has all the potential of the prevalent Nordic noirs,” says Ben Packwood, sales manager at all3media international. The company is also presenting Girlfriends, a lighthearted drama following three women of a certain age who are dealing with all that modern life, husbands, children and grandchildren can throw at them.

From Gordon Ramsay’s Studio Ramsay, 24 Hours to Hell and Back sees the celebrity chef crossing the U.S. in a truck as he turns around struggling dining establishments. The show “builds on the superstar chef’s prowess at bringing dire restaurants back from the brink of disaster,” Packwood says.

“Our investment in quality content and sales reach is increasing year on year.”

—Ben Packwood

ATRESMEDIA Televisión Heroes Wanted / Down Below / The Incident The ATRESMEDIA Televisión catalog features the comedy Heroes Wanted (Cuerpo de Élite), in which a secret team will try to protect the country, and the fourth season of Down Below (Allí Abajo), a romantic comedy about the relationship between a man from the north of Spain and a woman from the south. Further highlights of the fiction slate include The Incident (El Incidente), a sci-fi story that takes place as a big storm threatens humanity, and Plastic Sea (Mar de Plástico), a thriller set in a village located in southern Spain.

“Apart from fiction, we have a catalog of documentaries,” says Diana Borbón Cuchí, the company’s sales manager.

“We are presenting the new season of Privileged Observer (Enviado Especial).” The factual series follows journalist Jalis de la Serna as he travels around the world.

“ATRESMEDIA is recognized as a leading distributor of fiction, with captivating stories that work worldwide.”

Down Below

—Diana Borbón Cuchí

Imagina International Sales Side Games / Locked Up / Undiscovered Spain Imagina International Sales is offering a new scripted series at MIPTV: Side Games. “Based on the novel by Javier Tebas and Pedro Torrens and directed by Daniel Calparsoro, it’s an exciting thriller mixing the bright world of soccer fans with the dark underworlds around it,” says Beatriz Setuain, the company’s managing director. “Shady deals, matchfixing and power struggles set up this series, which will take the audience’s breath away.” Also in the way of drama, there is a third season of Locked Up in the catalog. In the format Undiscovered Spain, chef José Andrés takes viewers “on a journey to [discover] the most delicious culinary secrets of Spain,” says Setuain. “He will show a different side of this rich and amazing country with his unconventional and unexpected touch.”

Locked Up

“We arrive at MIPTV with new and original products in our great catalog with the aim of fulfilling our clients’ needs.”

—Beatriz Setuain

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Kanal D International Mehmed the Conqueror / Price of Passion / Wildrose Sultan Mehmed faces many obstacles on his way to achieving his dream of taking over Constantinopolis following his father’s death in the historical drama Mehmed the Conqueror.

Kanal D International’s slate also features the drama Price of Passion, about an idealist young doctor named Asli and a hitman named Ferhat whose paths cross in an unexpected way.

“In a world of corrupt relationships and ambition for power, these two opposite people will get along over time and get closer to each other,” says Kerim Emrah Turna, the director of content sales and business development. The company is also highlighting Wildrose. In the drama series, 25-year-old Gülizar writes songs and dreams of becoming famous. She lives with her mother’s friend in a poor neighborhood, but she inherits a large sum of money when her wealthy father passes away.

Wildrose

“We are working very hard to reach audiences across all platforms.”

—Kerim Emrah Turna

RTVE

Fugitive

Fugitive / Betrayal / I’m Alive Spanish actress Paz Vega stars in the thriller Fugitive, a highlight from the RTVE catalog. The company also has in its portfolio Betrayal, which follows the complicated relationships of a family that owns a law firm. There’s another season of the scripted series I’m Alive on offer. The show was a leader in prime time in Spain in its first season, and there’s a second coming later this year. María Jesús Pérez, international sales director at RTVE, describes the series as “a perfect combination of the fantasy genre and an authentic detective drama.” The main character is Police Inspector Andrés Vargas, who dies while pursuing a serial killer. He gets the opportunity to come back to life, but not until five years later and in the body of Manuel Márquez, another policeman.

“What makes these series so appealing is their perfect combination of emotions, love and action, as well as the high-quality production.”

—María Jesús Pérez

ZDF Enterprises

The Story of Europe

The Story of Europe/Ku’damm 59/The Bureau of Magical Things Among the titles on offer from ZDF Enterprises (ZDFE) is The Story of Europe, a six-episode factual series that shows the titular region’s evolution, “from the first physical beginnings to the first human settlers,” says Fred Burcksen, the company’s president and CEO. Another highlight is Ku’damm 59, a scripted miniseries that follows the success of the three-part drama Ku’damm 56.

Set in Berlin in 1959, Ku’damm 59 tells the stories of a group of contemporary women during that time in history.

There is also The Bureau of Magical Things, a live-action series for young viewers that comes from Jonathan M. Shiff Productions, the makers of the global hits H2O: Just Add Water and Mako Mermaids. Offerings for the younger set also include the animated series Lassie.

“The Story of Europe is a groundbreaking series that tells the story of the continent by exploring different chapters of its eventful history.”

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Warner Bros.’s Young Sheldon.

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Leading channel buyers share their shopping lists and reveal the challenges of multiplatform rights acquisition.

By Steve Clarke ow do you seize viewers’ attention when the competition for audiences keeps on growing? That is one of the critical questions European buyers were asking themselves as they weighed their priorities in preparation for MIPTV. Local television businesses are being transformed as the streaming giants, principally Netflix, continue to make broadcasters and platform owners across Europe nervous.

This is especially true in a dynamic and hyper-competitive TV environment like the U.K. Even pay-TV giant Sky has been forced to introduce a new, more cost-effective à la carte viewing menu to keep customers sweet and minimize cord cutting.

For distributors, the good news is that the demand for content has never looked keener. This is particularly true of scripted shows that can be streamed in single episodes or watched as boxed sets. In other ways, too, the fear of Netflix is altering the market for rights.

“The streaming services are competing for the same shows as us,” explains Sasha Breslau, the head of acquired series at British broadcaster ITV. “As we all know, some of the shows at last year’s L.A. Screenings were presold to Netflix and Amazon.”

H

WINDS OF CHANGE With a new senior management team in place and Brexitinduced confusion causing uncertainty in the British advertising market, ITV is keeping a close eye on its costs. One casualty is the pay channel ITV Encore, which is being reinvented as an online-only, boxed-set service.

“In the past, I bought Nordic noir for Encore and other high-end, foreign-language shows for the channel,” explains Breslau. But overall, her MIPTV shopping list remains extensive. “In all genres, there is a bountiful supply of content across both scripted and non-scripted,” she says.

At the market, her priority is to keep ITV’s portfolio of digital channels competitive. Last summer, ITV2 was the subject of intense social-media buzz when it experienced a surprise breakout hit in the form of homegrown reality show Love Island. At MIPTV, Breslau would like to balance the schedule by finding more scripted fare for ITV2, notably comedy.

“I am trying to reinforce and consolidate ITV2’s reputation for great American comedy. We already have Family Guy, American Dad and Two and a Half Men, which in the last six months performed very strongly,” she points out.

FACTS OF LIFE For female-skewing ITVBe, Breslau is hunting for glossy, fun reality shows that can sit alongside the Real Housewives franchise. The channel’s sweet tooth is well known by certain distributors. “Cake Wars has done well for us. Anything involving cakes, desserts, chocolates, sweets. But they’ve got to feel contemporary. In the last 12 months, I’ve passed on some of them because they felt a bit old. And they’ve got to have long runs.”

Plastic surgery, motherhood, home improvement and glamorous makeover series are also on ITVBe’s radar.

ITV4, meanwhile, is in the market for high-volume factual entertainment likely to prove popular with men. The channel’s staples include Pawn Stars, Storage Wars and

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U.S. procedurals continue to be popular across Europe, with shows like CBSSI’s SEAL Team landing on Sky in the U.K. and TNT Serie in Germany, among others.

Counting Cars. Breslau knows only too well that free-to-air rivals backed by U.S. firms like Blaze, which was launched in the U.K. by A+E Networks in 2016, are direct competitors.

RISING TIDE The U.K.’s Channel 5, owned by Viacom, has recently increased its audience share, according to ratings compiled by the London-based BARB service. “Alone among regulated U.K. broadcasters, we are putting on share,” says Katie Keenan, Channel 5’s head of acquisitions.

“We have such a huge range of channels to buy for.

There’s so much content we screen at MIPTV and we’ll think, ‘Well, this could fit on 5STAR or our new channel, 5SELECT.’ I am looking for a diverse and eclectic range of shows for all our channels.”

On the main network, Channel 5, the return of sitcom Will & Grace has been a winner, but other broad-appeal, high-volume scripted shows are needed for the station.

Meanwhile, 5USA is seeking crime procedurals, 5STAR wants series that can sit alongside such fare as Dance

Moms, and the upstart 5SELECT needs drama and factual.

The majority of 5SELECT’s content includes upscale shows that have already played on Channel 5. “We’re showing things like World War II in Colour on 5SELECT,” notes Keenan.

In continental Europe, Jörg Graf, COO of program affairs at Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland, makes the point that securing first-run series is more important than ever. Consequently, output deals have gone out of fashion.

“People won’t watch dross anymore, they want original shows,” he insists. Not that he has any complaints regarding the quality of American shows, despite the trend of locally produced drama outperforming acquired content.

“We’re not buying less, but we are buying differently,” he says. “At MIPTV, we’ll be looking for non-scripted and formats. But on the other hand, you never know if there will be a good drama. If it’s a good offer, we will consider it.”

RTL Group–owned VOX, which recently celebrated its 25th anniversary, now ranks among the top tier of German channels. “The schedules on Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings used to have a lot of U.S. drama,” Graf says.

“We’ve dropped them and are running domestically produced shows, including a German version of The Red Band Society, which doubled our market share.”

Last year in Germany, RTL increased its lead over rival ProSiebenSat.1 Media. But Rüdiger Böss, executive VP of group programming acquisitions at ProSiebenSat.1, remains bullish. He highlights the success of Young Sheldon. “It’s our best-performing new comedy in the last 17 years. When the show launched, it achieved a share of almost 26 percent and [has stayed] at around 18 to 19 percent.”

While this prequel to The Big Bang Theory has been a hit, at MIPTV Böss is seeking “fresh blood in comedy and drama.” High on his agenda are “easy” shows, such as procedurals featuring self-contained stories resolved in a single hour-long episode, and a strong medical drama.

The Starz original Counterpart, distributed by Sony Pictures Television, has been a strong performer for MTG in the Nordics.

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Similarly, Anette Romer, the head of acquisitions and formats at Denmark’s TV 2, will be eyeing drama at MIPTV. British drama that can play successfully on TV 2 Charlie is on her radar. “We continue to see a shift away from U.S. series to European drama, particularly U.K. titles,” she says. Meanwhile, TV 2 Fri and TV 2 Zulu need factual entertainment, and entertainment and comedy, respectively.

The final season of the Danish drama Norskov performed strongly for the broadcaster, as did the stripped 24episode pre-Christmas family drama Tinka’s Christmas Adventure. In non-scripted, a parenting show based on Twofour’s Happy Families; The Farm, making its debut; and Farmer Wants a Wife all stood out.

“Together with Location, Location, Location, these factual-entertainment titles perfectly fit Danish viewers’ continued interest in everyday issues and the day-to-day agenda—housing, health, cost of living, education and parenting,” says Romer.

At the Stockholm-based MTG, Jakob Mejlhede, executive VP of programming and content development, has shows that engage the emotions at the top of his MIPTV wish list.

“I’m looking for feelings. Viewers can choose from so many films and series across so many platforms, we only remember the content that makes us feel something. As long as that criterion is fulfilled, I am bringing a very open mind to this year’s MIPTV,” he declares.

Recent breakout hits have included Counterpart (the first episode was directed by Norway’s Morten Tyldum), S.W.A.T. and Absentia. “These are very different shows and attract very different audiences, but they get all the essentials right,” Mejlhede says. “When you tell a story in a unique way through interesting characters and a sharp script, usually everything else falls into place.”

The growth of MTG’s streaming service Viaplay means Mejlhede is casting his net wider than ever. “We have every type of viewer you can imagine,” he says. “It’s a serious business, keeping everybody happy. As long as it’s good, people today are ready for pretty much anything.

On-demand creates so much freedom, both for us and for our customers.”

This point is not lost on Sarah Wright, the director of acquisitions at Sky. The platform’s U.K. streaming service, Now TV, has given the pay box another winner—and a way of responding to the challenge from Netflix and Amazon. It curates hundreds of boxed sets.

“I am very pleased with the rise of the streaming services because we’re part of it,” she says. “It’s different services for different customers at different times in their lives. Acquired content is a key part of Now’s offer.”

Wright adds, “Sky’s customers love acquisitions. I recently spent time with some focus groups. They told me we have the best of the U.S. and beyond at Sky. That’s why they subscribe.”

Game of Thrones remains a huge show for Sky Atlantic, while on Sky 1, The Simpsons continues to help drive the schedule. Of late, Sky Arts has made a splash, thanks to its Passions series. The strand has featured left-field takes on a range of English writers, including Jane Austen and the controversial, politically incorrect poet Philip Larkin.

Such is the demand to feed the Sky content pipeline that Wright and her team now buy throughout the year. “MIPTV provides an opportunity to reconnect with the market,” she explains. “We might see the small- to mediumsized distributors there. We discuss all sorts of projects. We’re in that golden age of scripted shows.”

That, of course, is true. But buyers struggle to secure all the rights to scripted content in an era when catch-up platforms are essential to everyone who runs TV networks.

PLAYING CATCH-UP

RTL bought John Wick: Chapter 2 from TMG, which represents the German rights to the film.

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“We rarely buy stand-alone nonlinear rights,” says TV 2’s Romer.

“Catch-up, in addition to clearing linear rights, is a must. We consider it to be an integral part of the deal.

Subscribers to TV 2 Play expect to be able to find titles for preview or time-shifted viewing. Stacking is

Formats are key for TV 2 Denmark, which has adapted such titles as BBC Studios’ Strictly Come Dancing.

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Club der roten Bänder, the German version of Filmax’s The Red Band Society, has been a strong performer on VOX.

crucial to drama titles, but each deal is distinct and we have to fight every single case.”

Romer’s comments strike a chord with Breslau at ITV, who notes, “All distributors are keen to retain stacking rights because they can extract secondary value from them.”

She was pleased to obtain series stacking rights for the comedy Ghosted at last year’s L.A. Screenings, but that deal was the exception rather than the rule. “Distributors can window these rights to SVOD services,” adds Breslau.

But as a free-to-air network, ITV can exist comfortably without stacking rights, unlike Sky, whose subscribers expect flexible viewing opportunities.

“Sometimes we may buy a show as a boxed set only,” Wright says. “Or we might buy a show for Sky Store across all the territories. We’ve always acquired a broad set of rights because we utilize them.”

MTG’s Mejlhede is adamant that stacking rights are crucial in today’s environment. “As a viewer, I am going to get much more from a new season if I’ve had the chance to dig into earlier runs.” Earlier this year, the latest season of the rebooted The X-Files and every previous season were made available to viewers via a mix of free-to-air channels and subscription platforms. “We want deals that allow us to do that,” he stresses.

In other words, buyers know that, once again, there will be a lot of drama waiting to be sold at MIPTV. But what, if anything, is missing from the market? “There is too much attention on scripted,” says Sky’s Wright.

In common with several other buyers, she still hasn’t given up hope of finding the next big entertainment hit—“a brand-new format that knocks everybody’s socks off.”

If a successor to The X Factor, Strictly Come Dancing and The Voice is turning out to be elusive, so too are shows aimed at the hard-to-reach audience of 16- to 24-year-olds. “They are the hardest shows to find,” says Channel 5’s Keenan. “That audience is very picky, and they are spending a lot of time away from TV sets watching on other devices, but as Love Island proved, find the right show, and that audience will come to it.

We have successfully served that audience many times across our channels, but in terms of content targeted at that demographic, there is a lack of programming.”

TV 2’s Romer has a different perspective. “No genres are missing from the market—it is more the thirst for original, groundbreaking ideas,” she says. “Or new takes on existing stories. It is refreshing when developments like ‘true crime’ blow fresh air into crime.”

But perhaps the last word should go to MTG’s Mejlhede, who pinpoints the contemporary audience’s lack of patience in an on-demand era. “First episodes are fast becoming a genre in themselves,” he says. “The competition is so tough you need to hook viewers straight away. Think of it as a pilot for a series that’s already been made. It’s a genre like all the others, and there are so many ways you can bend the rules. Just don’t forget the emotion. Don’t make me wait to feel something. Get me right from the start.”

WINDOW WATCHING In Germany, ProSiebenSat.1’s Böss highlights the value of securing a catch-up window. “We need 35-day catch-up rights,” he says. “We are addressing that with all of our licenses. They are very helpful and see that the market is changing. It’s an essential part of our strategy.”

But complicated rights deals stretch budgets. “I never have enough money,” says Böss. “Our budgets are not decreasing, but there are a couple of players out there with deep pockets. It’s a very competitive market. We have to spend our money cleverly.”

At Sky, there have been hints from CEO Jeremy Darroch that the company is earmarking more cash for acquired shows. Wright declines to elaborate. “We have a programming budget. We work out where it’s best spent depending on the projects. I would never rush to buy a show I didn’t think was right for us.”

ITV’s Breslau indicates that overall license fees are on the rise, but there are a lot of dramas that distributors can’t shift. “If you look at the L.A. Screenings for the last three years, you’ll see a lot of shows that haven’t found a home in the U.K.”

ProSiebenSat.1 acquired Flickering Hearts from ZDF Enterprises.

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Banijay Group is one of Europe’s leading media companies. Owned by LOV Group, De Agostini Group and Vivendi, Banijay has production entities in Europe, the U.S., India, Australia and New Zealand. Marco Bassetti, Banijay’s CEO, began his career as a producer and has firsthand knowledge of the challenges and opportunities facing content creators. He talks to TV Europe about attracting talent for high-end projects, managing the newly acquired Survivor franchise, boosting the group’s scripted output and expanding

By Anna Carugati its digital capabilities.

TV EUROPE: What is Banijay doing to attract talent?

BASSETTI: Attracting talent and retaining it has always been at the heart of Banijay’s culture. That is why so many of our production companies have been created or are run by big names such as Jonathan Murray [cofounder of Bunim/Murray Productions], Nagui [founder of Air Productions] and Stefan Raab [co-owner of Brainpool].

We also recently produced the docuseries The American West with Robert Redford attached, and we are currently working on The Men Who Built America: Frontiersmen with Leonardo DiCaprio for HISTORY in the U.S. The search for key talent to attach to productions is a logical result of today’s dramatic increase of content—partly thanks to new content buyers—but also combined with a trend towards less constructed shows. In this regard, top talent has become a hallmark of quality and the insurance required to gain exposure for the show.

TV EUROPE: What plans do you have for the recently acquired Survivor franchise?

BASSETTI: We are very proud of the acquisition of Castaway Television Productions, as Survivor is one of the few format franchises that is still delivering excellent results after 20 years on the air! It is a “must-have” for every big generalist broadcaster in terms of ratings and image, which is key for advertisers. That’s also the reason why so many derivative formats have emerged in the past few years, with none being able to replicate the success of Survivor. It is the perfect example of a TV show that reconciles authenticity with strong format pillars.

Having said that, we cannot just rely on the inherent strength of the format. We need to look after the brand to ensure its longevity. We have invested in two different ways: first, by offering full development and production services to the format licensees, whether they are production companies from the Banijay Group or third parties. That’s why we created Survivor Central Productions, a company gathering all the know-how and expertise within the group as well as production hub facilities. And secondly, by pooling the expertise in the group and actively working on new concepts in the adventure reality genre. In this respect, Adventure Line Productions, our

company in France, launched a brand-new celebrity format, Stars on the Rocks, co-developed with TF1 in France.

TV EUROPE: In November, Banijay announced it was increasing its scripted output. What is the strategy going forward?

BASSETTI: Scripted is a key space for Banijay to grow [for two reasons]; first, because there is a huge demand for premium drama from our clients, both linear and digital players; and second, because we are already very strong in non-scripted. We have invested a lot in structuring our scripted business with the creation of a worldwide entity called Banijay Studios International, in order to facilitate co-productions, financing of big, ambitious drama projects, as well as format adaptations. We have also invested a lot in promising new talent by setting up new ventures in key territories such as the U.K. In recent months, we launched BlackLight Television, Neon Ink, Fearless Minds and Yellow Bird UK Productions, just to name a few.

TV EUROPE: What plans do you have for expanding the group’s digital capabilities?

BASSETTI: In digital, as in all businesses we consider, we never invest if we do not have a clear vision of its profitability. That is why we have been quite cautious until now in this field and will remain so, cherry-picking smart opportunities.

Through the acquisition of Shauna Events, we want to exploit talent outside of TV, especially on social media. It is a way to consolidate our relationships by offering them new businessdevelopment opportunities, as well as a chance to create original content fully financed by product placement or brand sponsorship—with a high level of return on investment for brands.

In the coming months, we are going to launch multiple initiatives that combine innovative business models with the storytelling expertise of our subsidiaries throughout the world. On one hand, we are approaching platforms—for instance, Bunim/Murray is producing Ball in the Family for Facebook Watch. But we are also working more closely with brands in search of new ways to communicate.

TV EUROPE: As you look ahead 12 to 24 months, what challenges and opportunities do you see for Banijay Group?

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Banijay’s high-profile period drama Versailles is heading into its third season on Canal+.

BASSETTI: We will continue to be committed to investing in creativity and development, because delivering high-quality content is our core business and the number one factor supporting our growth. We will pursue more scripted development opportunities and expand on our 360-degree activity—looking for new ways of extending our projects through digital, branded content and talent management.

Geographically speaking, we will reinforce our position in some of our key markets, such as the U.K., Spain and Germany, and expand into new fast-growing markets.

We will also work across the group to develop new business models, which ensure we are producing for the way that OTT platforms work; for example, projects with worldwide appeal, as I am sure the question of rights ownership will be one of the main challenges international production and distribution groups like ours will face in the coming years.

By Anna Carugati Banijay Rights manages more than 20,000 hours of drama, entertainment, formats, factual and theatrical content, roughly half of which comes from third-party producers. CEO Tim Mutimer talks about catalog highlights and working with production entities in the Banijay Group.

TV EUROPE: How does Survivor fit into Banijay Rights’ portfolio of formats and factualentertainment shows?

MUTIMER: We’re the home of adventure reality. We’ve got shows like 71 Degrees North, Fort Boyard, SAS: Who Dares Wins, so it’s a really good fit with those adventure brands, and a lot of our producers within the group produce that kind of adventure reality. Formats are in our DNA; we’ve got a really strong format catalog, so to have a format of this magnitude joining our portfolio is fantastic!

TV EUROPE: How does Banijay Rights work with production entities in the Banijay Group?

MUTIMER: Regarding distribution generally, we’ve got good relationships with those production companies, and about half of our catalog comes from our internal companies. It’s just important that we work closely with them, we know what their pipeline of content is and we try and identify what we think has got a good opportunity [to sell internationally]. The whole group gets together regularly to go through the slate. As for Survivor specifically, we’re doing lots of work to make sure that everyone has all the information they need

to pitch the show. We’ve got Survivor Central Productions—spearheaded by Julia Dick, consultant executive producer—which offers the opportunity for third-party producers as well as our own inhouse production companies to use a site/hub with experts who can produce the show for them. It is of real benefit, as it takes any complications out of the format. You’ve got a team of people who know how to produce it and a fantastic location all ready to go.

TV EUROPE: What type of drama projects are you interested in?

MUTIMER: The demand for drama from our buyers is exponential and shows no sign of abating. We look for quality and creative storytelling.

We’re lucky we’ve got companies including Yellow Bird, Jarowskij and Screentime who can attract the best writers, the best directors and the best producers. There’s opportunity for every single genre within drama. People are looking for crime, thrillers or sci-fi, so quality is the important thing. If you can attract good creative and on-air talent, then there’s a home for most scripted at the moment.

In the unscripted world, there aren’t many series that can stand up next to the huge, high quality of drama. But I think Survivor—both in the storytelling and the look of it—absolutely stands up next to some of those fantastic dramas. So that’s probably another reason for its longevity.

TV EUROPE: What are some of the highlights of your catalog?

MUTIMER: When you talk about scripted, we’ve got a host of returning scripted series this year, which is fantastic—the third season of Versailles; Occupied, Black Lake, Public Enemy and Wolf Creek are back, and The Restaurant has a second and third season. We’ve also got three new series that we’re going to be launching later this year. We’ve got a great new factual show called Sun, Sea and Brides to Be. It’s produced

by Nimble Dragon, who we have a first-look arrangement with, and that’s a commission from Channel 4. It’s a 20-part series, which is incredible for a producer that we’ve only just recently started to work with.

We’re really trying to focus on those long-running factual brands that broadcasters can get behind and market and know that people will come back to week after week.

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ONE ON ONE

arly in the 1980s, John Hendricks, Discovery Communications’ founder, saw an opening in the nascent U.S. cable landscape: a service that would satisfy viewers’ curiosity about the world around them.

The Discovery Channel launched in 1985, offering a menu of all nonfiction programming and by 1989 the channel had started its international expansion, with launches in the U.K. and Scandinavia.

By the early 1990s, Discovery Communications began growing its bouquet of channels to include TLC, Animal Planet and Discovery Science. The appeal of real-world programming was seen in the ratings successes of The Crocodile Hunter, Raising the Mammoth, What Not to Wear, Shark Week, MythBusters, Deadliest Catch and the Puppy Bowl, the last four of which are still on the air today.

David Zaslav became president and CEO of the company in 2007 and has built on its mission, keeping pace with advances in technology and changing viewing habits. In the past decade, he has continued to grow the company’s global footprint, making the portfolio of linear and nonlinear brands destinations for exploration, science, adventure, the environment, technology, health and wellness and lifestyle programming.

He forged a deal with Oprah Winfrey, which saw the launch of OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network; acquired the SBS Nordic operations from ProSiebenSat.1 Media; took a controlling interest in

Europe’s leading sports channel, Eurosport; and acquired the European TV and multiplatform broadcast rights to the Olympic Games from 2018 to 2024 for Discovery and Eurosport.

In 2014, for the first time in Discovery’s history, international revenues made up more than 50 percent of the company’s total revenues.

Discovery’s brands, including the global flagship networks Discovery Channel, TLC, ID: Investigation Discovery, Animal Planet, Science and Velocity (known internationally as Turbo), reach more than 3 billion cumulative viewers in more than 220 countries and territories.

Last year, Discovery announced an agreement to acquire Scripps Networks Interactive, adding complementary non fiction brands to the portfolio, including HGTV, Food Network, Travel Channel, DIY and Cooking Channel. The merged company has rebranded as Discovery, Inc. Zaslav began his career as a lawyer prior to joining NBCUniversal, where he helped develop and launch CNBC and MSNBC before joining Discovery. Not only has he been a longtime advocate of the cable business, but he has also done extensive philanthropic work and spearheaded Discovery Impact, the company’s corporate social responsibility program.

He talks to World Screen about the Scripps acquisition, transitioning brands to mobile platforms, the challenges facing the U.S. cable industry and the enduring appeal of nonfiction programming.

DAVID ZASLAV DISCOVERY, INC.

By Anna Carugati

WS: What motivated the Scripps acquisition?

ZASLAV: When we looked at Scripps, we saw a lot of the same values and strategic ambition that we have.

Discovery is a super-fan enthusiast content company.

When I say that, I mean that we see the world [divided into] two types of content. There is scripted and movie content, with red carpets and stars and openings, and that is very expensive, very crowded and extremely competitive. And now with Netflix and Amazon competing aggressively in that space, there is more than $30 billion every year going into scripted TV and movies. It’s getting more and more crowded, competitive and disrupted. Three years ago there were 250 scripted TV series; this year there will be more than 500, and the costs are going up and up and up. And the quality will eventually be diluted because there are only so many producers and writers.

We’re not in the red-carpet business or the star business or the scripted business. We’re in the nonfiction content business and we own our content globally. The average cost of our content is about $400,000 an hour versus $5 million an hour for scripted. We see the media business as being two ends of a football field. Scripps is on our end and together we have some meaningful weight in the nonfiction area. We have a lot of quality brands in the U.S., between Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network, TLC, ID and Science, and then you add to that HGTV, Food Network, Cooking Channel and Travel Channel. We have a very strong position in nonfiction, and we think that the ability to move that content 4/18 WORLD SCREEN 161

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Discovery recently shelled out $70 million to up its interest in OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network, home to Ava DuVernay’s critically acclaimed Queen Sugar. around the world and onto all platforms gives us a real strategic advantage.

WS: What does Scripps bring to Discovery?

ZASLAV: When we saw Scripps, we saw that they own all their content and have these great enthusiast brands, and then we took a hard look at how they distribute that content. We recognized that we have been in the global TV business for the past 25 years and most of Scripps’s content has not been taken around the world. So we think there are three opportunities with Scripps. One is that we take their content all around the world. We have two to three female channels in every country in the world, so we can either put their content on our female channels or we could launch home or food or cooking channels—so there’s a big global opportunity. Second is the whole transition to mobile or the ability to work with the big platform companies or the big distributors around the world that have been consolidating. If Apple or Facebook or Google is looking for someone to offer global quality content that people recognize around the world, or, the same way AT&T bought Time Warner, if other big mobile telecom companies are looking for content, we have a whole menu of great content that we think will work very well on mobile and other platforms. And third is that we have a massive amount of synergy because we are a cable and free-to-air global TV factory. They are a primarily domestic cable company. We have 12 channels in the U.S. and they have six; there is a lot of overlap. Some of the basic elements of efficiency and effectiveness give us an ability to get a lot of synergies, so we can do a lot more for a lot less money.

WS: Discovery recently upped its ownership in OWN. That has been a success story, too, hasn’t it?

ZASLAV: OWN is doing terrifically. It’s the top network in America for African-American women on several nights of the week. That transaction with OWN was a twofer for us.

Oprah is committed to the network, and part of that deal for her was a contractual commitment for another seven years of hard work as the chief creative officer and leader of OWN. We also picked up an additional

stake in it. We love the channel and it fits our strategy. It has a super-fan group of AfricanAmerican women who love it. We own more than 70 percent of it now. It was perfect timing. We got more of OWN just as we were ready to close on our Scripps transaction. It fits that same strategy of owning content, taking it around the world, and having distinct content that is different from scripted and movies. If you want scripted and movies, you can go to Netflix, Amazon or premium cable. There are plenty of places to

Home Town airs on HGTV, one of the channels Discovery took control of with its Scripps Networks deal.

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In a deal worth €1.3 billion ($1.4 billion), Discovery landed the European rights to the Olympic Games from 2018 to 2024 for Eurosport. get it, but if you want quality nonfiction content, we are one of the companies with a very strong global position.

or satellite distributor in the normal course wouldn’t want. When you take a look at Hulu’s Live TV package, for instance, it’s overstuffed with all of its partners’ content and their cost of content is more than the $40 monthly subscription they charge. But they never got to talk to any of us about content because they had to carry the retransmission and the sports.

So that’s a little bit of a window into what’s gone on here in the U.S. It’s what has caused the secular decline.

In most markets around the world, cable is stable and young people are still buying cable because they can get it for $10 or $15 a month.

If you are in college or you get your first apartment in America, and you want broadband and cable, it costs $100 a month. So young people take the broadband and many are forgetting about cable. That’s not happening in many markets around the world. In the U.S. if there were a skinny bundle without sports that was in the $20- to $25-a-month range, we’re convinced that instead of subscribers declining by 3 or 4 percent, subscriber counts would be about flat, or they might even be up 1 percent. We’re leaving behind a whole generation that has given up the $100 bundle, and they’re not wrong because 70 percent of people who get cable are not watching sports, but they have to pay for all of it.

So we have this issue of the overstuffed bundle, which is alienating a whole generation. It’s also so expensive that a lot of people, of all ages, who want it can’t afford it. That’s why you see subscriptions declining.

WS: You’ve always had a passion for the cable industry. How do you see the state of the cable industry in the U.S. today? What challenges is it facing?

ZASLAV: The U.S. market was the guiding light for cable around the world.

It achieved broad penetration. The basic-cable bundle was developed here and then cable started to proliferate around the world. The U.S. is a unique market. As we do business around the world, we see that the U.S. is the only market that has one culture, 350 million people and one advertising market, so it’s the bonanza of cable and free-to-air markets because of those unique features.

The issue with the U.S. market is that it is overburdened by two elements that don’t exist almost anywhere in the world. The first is retransmission consent. Anywhere else in the world you can get broadcast signals for free. In the U.S., when consumers buy cable they are paying somewhere around $10 a month just to get the broadcast networks. So retransmission consent is stuffed into the entry bundle here in the U.S. and so are sports channels. And because the big broadcasters in many cases own the sports, they leverage, in every one of their channels, regional sports channels, even channels that a cable operator Homicide Hunter is one of the top-rated shows on ID: Investigation Discovery.

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WS: Do you see the cable industry overcoming those challenges?

ZASLAV: I’m optimistic because we launched our own skinny bundle, Philo [with A+E Networks, AMC Networks and Viacom]. We are an investor in it. We are helping to drive

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Discovery partnered with WWF for Project C.A.T., an initiative to support a worldwide effort to double the number of tigers in the wild by 2022.

Philo. More and more, existing distributors are recognizing that they have a lot of broadband subscribers who aren’t getting any cable, and their only choice right now is to buy Netflix. I’m hopeful this is the year that the distributors, satellite, cable, the entrepreneurs and we as programmers will get active. I’m hopeful that there will be non-sports bundles, over the top and on cable, over the next year or two, which I think will create a whole rebirth of younger subscribers and subscribers that couldn’t afford the $100-a-month cable bill.

WS: Are you looking to make more investments? If so, what would fit into the portfolio?

ZASLAV: We think there is an enormous amount of synergy [with Scripps]. We want to execute on that transaction, and pay down some of the debt—we did leverage up in order to make that acquisition. But this is a long journey. The industry used to be extremely stable.

If you created great content, you were a winner. It’s now very crowded and there is a transition going on. The existing ecosystem is still relatively healthy. We think there will be growth over the next five to ten years in the existing business, but it’s in secular decline. It’s a fight to make the transition to all devices.

People are consuming more content—they’re just spending a little less time with the TV set in the living room, and some of the younger

generation is spending more time on their phone screens. So the biggest growth for us is going to be our basic theory, which is that we own all of our content. People who love cars are going to want that content on their phones. People who love cooking and food are going to want that on their devices. People who love science are going to want that on their devices and they are going to pull it through; same with people who love Oprah.

In the end, when someone grabs a device outside of the TV set, they need to curate for themselves. The basic-cable bundle provided very effective curation. You put your TV on, you had 50, 100, 150 channels, and each person in the house had the eight or ten channels that they loved and that were curated for them.

There are a lot more choices today when you have the mobile screen in your hand. You can watch anything. We believe that quality brands with super-fans will be a big pull. The movie and scripted TV space is getting awfully crowded, busy and expensive. People have always loved nonfiction. They have always loved science and adventure and home and food and content about cars and crime, and that’s what we have. We think those super-fans are eventually going to choose us. We hope we can drive that by making our content better and by having a very loud voice about the quality of our content and the fact that we’re in that 164 WORLD SCREEN 4/18

business. We like our strategy. When we look to the right and see all those media companies lined up and we see Amazon and Netflix, we say we’re glad we’re not there. The openings, the red carpets and the big stars, are all very sexy, but we like our hand. We need to make sure we do a great job with [the acquired Scripps] brands and create great content that people love with characters they love. We think we can make the transition to devices and mobile. And we think we are going to be one of the companies that will be among the big winners in the future.

WS: You mentioned Netflix and Amazon.

What pressures are they putting on major media companies, and does that have something to do with the consolidation we’re seeing?

ZASLAV: Amazon and Netflix are creating a lot of pressure on the ecosystem. It’s $16 billion worth of pressure. They are also valued differently than 21st Century Fox or MGM or Lionsgate.

So that $16 billion could be $20 billion or $24 billion. It could be $30 billion. When you put in that kind of investment and you’re [seeking] producers, writers and talent, you’re buying movies and you’re competing for scripted series, you create a lot of pressure on that side of the pendulum. We’re glad we’re not there.

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TVKIDS

WWW.TVKIDS.WS

APRIL 2018

MIPTV & INTERNATIONAL EMMY KIDS AWARDS EDITION

Co-Productions / STEAM Series / Girl-Led Shows / Hasbro’s Stephen Davis Sesame Workshop’s Jeffrey Dunn / Superprod’s Clément Calvet / Turner’s Adina Pitt

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10 TV KIDS

CONTENTS

Mind the Gender Gap I recently came across a staggering statistic from the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media: on average in TV and movies, there is only one female character for every three males.

Ricardo Seguin Guise Publisher Anna Carugati Group Editorial Director Mansha Daswani Editor Kristin Brzoznowski Executive Editor Joanna Padovano Tong Managing Editor Sara Alessi Associate Editor Victor L. Cuevas Production & Design Director Phyllis Q. Busell Art Director Simon Weaver Online Director Dana Mattison Senior Sales & Marketing Manager Nathalia Lopez Sales & Marketing Coordinator Andrea Moreno Business Affairs Manager

Ricardo Seguin Guise President Anna Carugati Executive VP Mansha Daswani Associate Publisher & VP of Strategic Development TV Kids © 2018 WSN INC. 1123 Broadway, #1207 New York, NY 10010 Phone: (212) 924-7620 Fax: (212) 924-6940 Website: www.tvkids.ws

As I reflected upon this epically uneven proportion (which, now that I think about it, really shouldn’t have been too surprising), I came to the realization that the same three-to-one ratio actually applied to the interviewees in the article I was writing about girl characters in kids’ TV shows—out of ten executives that I spoke with for the piece, only three were women!

Another gender imbalance is referenced in this edition’s feature on STEM/STEAM-themed children’s content, which points out that only a very small percentage of women work in the field of engineering.

So even though it’s 2018 and forward-thinking countries around the world are being led by women, clearly society as a whole still has a ways to go in terms of closing the gender gap. But, thankfully, there is progress being made toward striking a better balance, including in the TV industry. And it’s about time! The more girls see themselves represented on-screen in strong, positive roles and in programming that encourages them to take an interest in science, technology, engineering and math, the more likely they will be to realize that they possess just as much potential as their male counterparts. Then hopefully by the time today’s young viewers grow up, women will finally be paid equally and treated respectfully by men in power.

This issue includes a special report on co-productions in the kids’ space, with several distributors discussing their best practices when it comes to these multicountry alliances. There are also interviews with Hasbro’s Stephen Davis, on how the company develops brand blueprints to extend its key properties to multiple platforms, and Sesame Workshop’s Jeffrey Dunn, on the strategy he implemented at the storied educational TV producer. Turner’s Adina Pitt shares her acquisitions remit for Cartoon Network and Boomerang. Superprod’s Clément Calvet reveals what’s new at the buzzy French production house.

And Fresh TV’s Jennifer Pertsch discusses the latest installment of the hit Total Drama franchise, Total Drama Daycare.

—Joanna Padovano Tong

FEATURES

32 TEAM SPIRIT Leading producers and distributors discuss the ins and outs of managing co-production partnerships.

32 40 GO GIRL! Kids’ producers and distributors are defying stereotypes with a new wave of powerful female characters.

48 FULL STEAM AHEAD Broadcasters and platforms are eager for shows that successfully incorporate science, technology, engineering, arts and math.

INTERVIEWS

56 Hasbro’s Stephen Davis

60 Sesame Workshop’s Jeffrey Dunn

62 Superprod’s Clément Calvet

64 Turner’s Adina Pitt

66 Total Drama’s Jennifer Pertsch

GET DAILY NEWS ON KIDS’ PROGRAMMING

SUBSCRIBE HERE: SUBSCRIPTIONS.WS

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12 TV KIDS

4K Media

Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS / Yu-Gi-Oh! The Dark Side of Dimensions / Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie At MIPTV, 4K Media is launching the newest Yu-Gi-Oh! series, Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS. The sixth installment of the franchise is set in a world of VR, AI and high-speed dueling. 4K Media is also showcasing the movies Yu-Gi-Oh! The Dark Side of Dimensions and Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie, both of which are now available for broadcast and digital distribution in most territories, excluding Asia. Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie looks on as the heroic Yugi squares off against archrival Kaiba in a dangerous adventure. 4K Media continues to make the entire Yu-Gi-Oh! library, which also includes Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V, YuGi-Oh! ZEXAL, Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s, Yu-Gi-Oh! GX and Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters, available for distribution outside of Asia. The Yu-Gi-Oh! trading-card game and the new Duel Links app continue to engage fans as well.

Yu-Gi-Oh! The Dark Side of Dimensions

9 Story Media Group

Luo Bao Bei

Let’s Go Luna! / The Diary of Bita and Cora / Luo Bao Bei Earlier this year, 9 Story Media Group acquired New Yorkbased Out of the Blue Enterprises. “Joining forces broadens our development capabilities, increases our consumer-products reach and extends our presence in the U.S.,” says Natalie Osborne, 9 Story’s chief strategy officer. The company’s MIPTV slate includes such new titles as Let’s Go Luna!, an animated show for PBS Kids that follows the adventures of three friends as they travel the globe with their parents’ performance troupe.

“The series encourages kids aged 4 to 7 to explore and appreciate cultures from all over the world,” says Osborne. Other highlights are the newly acquired stop-motion series The Diary of Bita and Cora, which comes from Spain’s TV ON Producciones, and Luo Bao Bei, an animated show aimed at viewers between the ages of 4 and 7.

“9 Story has an incredibly strong, multinational team, world-class content and is well-poised to expand in both existing and emerging territories.”

—Natalie Osborne

Ameba

BoBoiBoy / Skinnamarink TV / The Moblees Set up in 2007, Ameba is a streaming service that specializes in content for children between the ages of 3 and 10 as well as their families. Reaching millions of viewers on more than 300 streaming platforms, Ameba’s catalog of 5,000-plus titles features a combination of animated and live-action programming, including both new and classic shows. Among the titles available on the service are BoBoiBoy, a sci-fi action/adventure series from Animonsta Studios, centered on a boy with elemental-based superpowers that he uses to protect the planet. There is also Skinnamarink TV, a liveaction classic from 1997 that “is still a favorite with families,” according to Tony Havelka, the president of Ameba. Another highlight is The Moblees, which “promotes healthy, active living and delivers a positive message,” adds Havelka.

“We are always looking for great family content to stream to our growing audience base.”

BoBoiBoy

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—Tony Havelka

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14 TV KIDS Kiddets

CAKE Kally’s MashUp / Kiddets / Piggy Tales: 4th Street From Glee’s executive music producer Adam Anders comes Kally’s MashUp, a teen show that debuted on Nickelodeon in Latin America late last year. “Its original score with all songs shot in English combined with an outstanding level of quality gives this unique format huge global potential,” says Ed Galton, the chief commercial officer and managing director of CAKE. Kiddets, meanwhile, is a sister series to the international hit The WotWots. Piggy Tales: 4th Street, the latest addition to the Angry Birds franchise, is a nondialogue program that features characters from The Angry Birds Movie and is aimed at viewers of all ages. Piggy Tales: 4th Street follows the “lovable, simple-minded green pigs going about their daily lives on the streets of Pig City— where anything can happen,” says Galton.

“Kiddets is expanding The WotWots franchise, which has proven universal appeal, airing in over 100 territories worldwide.”

—Ed Galton

Cyber Group Studios

Gigantosaurus

The Pirates Next Door / Sadie Sparks / Gigantosaurus The animated comedy The Pirates Next Door, which Cyber Group Studios is offering to international buyers at this year’s market, is geared toward children between the ages of 6 and 10. The company is also promoting Sadie Sparks, another animated comedy, this one meant for the 6-to-11 demo, and Gigantosaurus, an animated action comedy for younger viewers aged 4 to 6. “We are coming [to MIPTV] with even more new series in development targeting all age groups worldwide with great characters,” says Pierre Sissmann, Cyber Group’s chairman and CEO. “We are looking forward to sharing these new programs with our broadcast partners.”

He adds: “We want the market to know that we are proud to distribute third-party programs and to structure the strongest partnerships with independent producers worldwide.”

“We will present high-quality programs for all our buyers…in many different genres, including comedy, adventure and action.”

—Pierre Sissmann

Distribution360

Treasure Champs

Treasure Champs / Genius Genie / Are You Ready?

Commissioned by CBeebies, Treasure Champs is an upperpreschool series promoting such values as generosity, empathy and honesty. “Treasure Champs has been uniquely produced in that it can be licensed as a straight acquisition in its original version or as a modular format, where the animated segments can be used alongside each featured ‘treasure’ and interlaced with local live-action shoots,” says Diane Rankin, Distribution360’s senior VP of international sales and acquisitions. Genius Genie, an animated preschool show, is also a highlight for the company. “Through the fun-filled episodes, children learn all about handling life’s little problems and the lessons that you take away from them as you grow up,” says Rankin. Then there is Are You Ready?, which Rankin describes as “a series all about life’s big little ‘firsts.’”

“What is common to each of these series is the message of positivity and empowerment that the programs transmit to their audience.”

—Diane Rankin 178 WORLD SCREEN 4/18

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16 TV KIDS

Entertainment One Family & Brands Cupcake & Dino: General Services / PJ Masks / Peppa Pig The new animated comedy Cupcake & Dino: General Services is meant for young viewers between the ages of 7 and 12. The show, created by Pedro Eboli, has been commissioned as a Netflix original. It follows the adventures of two brothers working in the competitive general services business. Entertainment One (eOne) Family & Brands is offering that title to international buyers alongside PJ Masks, “which has quickly become a hot TV property around the world,” says Monica Candiani, the executive VP of content sales for Family & Brands. Another highlight is the globally successful preschool series Peppa Pig. “Humor has definitely been a key ingredient for the success of Peppa Pig, which continues to expand into new markets—more recently, China, Japan and India,” she adds.

“Comedy travels really well and it’s central to many of eOne’s children’s and family shows.”

—Monica Candiani Cupcake & Dino: General Services

Federation Kids & Family Find Me in Paris / Squish / The Ollie & Moon Show The second season of the live-action hit Find Me in Paris is on offer from Federation Kids & Family. “Find Me in Paris has an amazing quality not usually found in tween drama, thanks to a huge budget, a great cast and production team, and on-location filming in Paris,” says Monica Levy, the company’s VP of international sales. “This is proving very appealing to buyers in all major markets.”

Other highlights are Squish, an original animated comedy about an ameba trying to survive in the cutthroat world of single-celled organisms, and The Ollie & Moon Show, a cartoon with a presence in 160-plus territories. “We are always open to new partnerships to help us create strong new IPs and are actively seeking new third-party properties for distribution,” adds Levy.

“We will continue to expand our kids’ and family production slate, concentrating on high-end, premium concepts that have long-term as well as cross-platform potential.”

—Monica Levy

Gaumont

Squish

Bionic Max

Bionic Max / Belle and Sebastian / Furiki Wheels In development with Gulli, Bionic Max is a 2D buddy comedy targeting young viewers between the ages of 6 and 11. The show follows two friends as they escape from a lab and have to learn how to blend in with the animals of Central Park. Gaumont is showcasing the title at MIPTV alongside Belle and Sebastian, an animated program based on the original live-action show from the 1960s. “The series is about a courageous young boy from the Alps who befriends an exceptionally large and generous dog that is unwanted by most because of her size,” says Vanessa Shapiro, the company’s president of worldwide TV distribution and co-production. There is also Furiki Wheels, a slapstick comedy geared toward the 6to-11 demo about a hyperactive young sloth.

“Our goal is to create a range of compelling and engaging children’s projects that will become part of the Gaumont heritage.”

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18 TV KIDS

Genius Brands International Rainbow Rangers / Llama Llama / Kid Genius Network Jennifer Garner leads the voice cast of Llama Llama, a bookbased animated series in Genius Brands International’s MIPTV slate. Deb Pierson, the company’s senior VP of global content distribution and marketing, and president of the Kid Genius Cartoon channel, describes the show as “a beautiful, gender-neutral series for preschoolers that has been resonating with parents and young children since it premiered on Netflix.” Debuting this fall on Nick Jr. in the U.S. is Rainbow Rangers, which Pierson says is “a unique and empowering adventure series targeting young girls.” Genius Brands is also actively seeking content for its Kid Genius Network digital platforms, including the Kids Genius Cartoon channel for viewers between the ages of 6 and 11, and the Baby Genius TV channel, geared toward toddlers to preschoolers.

“This promises to be a banner year for us, with Rainbow Rangers and Llama Llama being delivered into the content and retail marketplaces in the U.S.” Llama Llama

—Deb Pierson

GoldBee

ToonMarty

ToonMarty / School of Roars / Chop Chop Ninja A busybody who likes to stick his nose in everyone else’s business takes center stage in ToonMarty, from the GoldBee catalog. The show was recently snapped up by such broadcasters as CITV in the U.K. and France Télévisions for France 4. “The series turns every cartoon trope on its ear— having a grand time with things like idea lightbulbs, smoke trails or chase scenes,” says Christophe Goldberger, the company’s managing director. “Its references to classic cartoons and superheroes make it easy to get to genderneutral buddy comedy.” Also on offer is ZDF Enterprises’ School of Roars, an upbeat comedy made by Dot To Dot Productions, and Chop Chop Ninja, an upcoming adventure comedy from Sardine Productions and for which GoldBee is currently seeking presales.

“We are proud to present our universal slapstick comedy ToonMarty, which rolled out successfully last year on Nickelodeon internationally.”

—Christophe Goldberger

Hasbro Studios

My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic / My Little Pony: Equestria Girls / Hanazuki: Full of Treasures The My Little Pony franchise is still going strong for Hasbro Studios, which is promoting the animations My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic and My Little Pony: Equestria Girls to international buyers. The former, set in the village of Ponyville, follows the adventures of Twilight Sparkle and her friends as they discover the magic of friendship. The latter sees the characters learn what it means to be superheroes while also dealing with the challenges of attending high school. The company also continues to enjoy success with the Tranformers franchise and will be offering up the animated series Transformers: Cyberverse and Transformers: Rescue Bots Academy at the market. Other highlights featured in Hasbro Studios’ MIPTV slate are Hanazuki: Full of Treasures and Littlest Pet Shop: A World of Our Own.

My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic

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INK Group Moonzy / The Barkers / Masha and the Bear A little alien who finds a new home in a forest on Earth is the central character in Moonzy, a new animated highlight in the INK Group catalog. “Already a massive success in Russia, where it is the top-rated show on the Carousel channel, Moonzy is produced by multi-award-winning director Sergey Selyanov and promises to be the biggest Russian project since Masha and the Bear,” says Claus Tømming, the company’s managing partner. Speaking of which, INK Group is also promoting Masha and the Bear at MIPTV. “Masha and the Bear is a global heavyweight that is now broadcast in almost every country in the world—via both pay and free-to-air channels,” Tømming adds. Then there is The Barkers, a comedy about a canine family on vacation at a country house.

Moonzy

“All of our shows are projects that combine distinct originality with a really strong story, as this appeals not only to international media buyers but most importantly to kids.”

—Claus Tømming

Jetpack Distribution

The Wolf

The Wolf / Dennis & Gnasher Unleashed! / Kitty is Not a Cat The animated series The Wolf, on offer from Jetpack Distribution, is inspired by the popular book that has sold 5 million copies around the globe. “It’s full of adventure as the wolf is constantly trying new things,” says Dominic Gardiner, the company’s CEO. Also on Jetpack’s MIPTV slate is Dennis & Gnasher Unleashed!, based on the long-running U.K. comic The Beano. “The CGI version retains all of the original magic and offers something new,” says Gardiner. Kitty is Not a Cat, meanwhile, is about a young girl who is adopted by a household of felines. “Kitty is Not a Cat is another one of our top shows and reverses a traditional narrative,” adds Gardiner. “Kitty thinks she’s a cat, and it’s up to cats to help her become human!”

“We’re delighted to present The Wolf, which is a brand-new show based on the critically acclaimed book.”

—Dominic Gardiner

Mediatoon Distribution The Minimighty Kids / Lucas etc. / Little Furry

Little Furry

Characters learn how to overcome challenges in the educational comedy The Minimighty Kids, which has been enjoying success on TF1 in France and Clan in Spain. “The Minimighty Kids is a great example of a program that teaches us—in an entertaining and fun way—to overlook our defects and turn them into positives,” says Jérôme Alby, the managing director of Mediatoon Distribution. Lucas etc. is a live-action comedy following an imaginative teen as he moves in with his stepfather. “The program addresses the life of a blended family, which is such a pertinent theme in today’s society,” says Alby.

There is also Little Furry, a non-dialogue animated preschool series. “Toddlers will grow, explore and learn with this endearing character who speaks his own language, just as children do,” adds Alby.

“The core values of family, friendship, teamwork and tolerance are ever present in these series.”

—Jérôme Alby

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Mondo TV Group Heidi Bienvenida / Invention Story / Robot Trains Two seasons of Mondo TV Group’s first-ever live-action franchise are available at MIPTV. Season one, Heidi Bienvenida a Casa, and the second installment, Heidi Bienvenida al Show, are “teenage life represented on screen,” says Micheline Azoury, the company’s head of acquisitions and TV sales.

“Teen comedy-drama is a popular genre these days and one that many broadcasters are keen to include in their schedules.

This show has that winning formula, delivered by a highly experienced team.” Invention Story, meanwhile, is a co-pro from Mondo TV and Henan York Animation done in 3D CGI. Another highlight is Robot Trains. Mondo TV is co-producing season two of the series along with CJ E&M. “We are engaging with experienced, creative partners, as well as producing inhouse, and this approach is already bearing fruit,” Azoury adds.

Robot Trains

“We are strengthening and enriching the portfolio we offer to broadcasters from all over the world.”

—Micheline Azoury

Rainbow 44 Cats / Winx Club / Regal Academy The latest addition to Rainbow’s catalog, 44 Cats is a CGI preschool comedy series that follows the daily adventures of felines Lampo, Milady, Pilou and Polpetta, who are all part of a music band called The Buffycats. The four kittens transform a garage into their “Clubhouse.” There is also the long-running animated series Winx Club, about a group of fairies who battle evil forces. Season eight of Winx Club is slated to premiere in 2019, marking the 15-year anniversary of the series. Regal Academy follows Rose Cinderella and her classmates, who are all related to fairy-tale characters. “Regal Academy is a great comedy for 6- to 9-year-olds that appeals to a very balanced audience in terms of gender,” says Iginio Straffi, Rainbow’s founder and CEO. “It’s fresh, funny, original and incredibly entertaining, so kids across the world love it!”

44 Cats

“It’s our job to satisfy the demand—from both broadcasters and audiences— for high-quality storytelling, so that is why we care so much about the quality of our shows.”

—Iginio Straffi

Saban Brands Power Rangers Super Ninja Steel /Rainbow Butterfly Unicorn Kitty This year marks the 25th anniversary of the Power Rangers franchise. Saban Brands is celebrating the milestone with Power Rangers Super Ninja Steel, including a special anniversary episode. “With 25 continuous years on the air and nearly 900 episodes, it’s an incredible milestone,” says Frederic Soulie, the company’s executive VP of global distribution and consumer products. “Power Rangers and its 25th season is a great example of how the messages of teamwork, inclusivity and diversity appeal to fans of all ages.” The company is also presenting Rainbow Butterfly Unicorn Kitty from the creative talents behind The Fairly OddParents and SpongeBob SquarePants. Saban Brands is debuting the comedy in partnership with Funrise. Rainbow Butterfly Unicorn Kitty delves into the importance of friendship and self-expression.

“At MIPTV, we look forward to celebrating Saban Brands’ current milestones but also connecting on many of the new properties we have in development.”

Rainbow Butterfly Unicorn Kitty

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—Frederic Soulie

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Serious Lunch Operation Ouch! / Art Ninja / Ronja, the Robber ’s Daughter Two long-running series make up part of Serious Lunch’s MIPTV offering. The company is launching season seven of Operation Ouch! and season four of Art Ninja. “Internationally, they have been reaching new major markets,” says Genevieve Dexter, the company’s founder and CEO. “Operation Ouch! is nominated for an International Emmy Kids Award at MIPTV. The German version, Operation Autsch, begins transmitting on KiKA this year, and in Holland, the local format Top Doks starts production on its third season. Art Ninja has been spreading its reach on Discovery Kids through Asia, the Middle East and Australia, as well as performing very well on Canal Once in Mexico.” Then there is the animated series Ronja, the Robber’s Daughter. “We are also excited to be announcing the addition of a fifth brand in our stable this year,” Dexter says.

Ronja, the Robber’s Daughter

“Ronja, the Robber ’s Daughter has really caught the SVOD and EST/DVD box-set wave for serialized programming and is a timeless classic.”

—Genevieve Dexter

Sesame Workshop

Cookie Monster ’s Foodie Truck

Sésamo/Cookie Monster’s Foodie Truck/The Magical Wand Chase Elmo, Abby Cadabby, Cookie Monster and the rest of the Sesame Street gang have all-new adventures in Sésamo. They learn about math and science, where food comes from, and explore their emotions. “Sésamo, locally produced in Latin America and featuring a curriculum and content tailored for kids in the region, is available in Spanish and Portuguese,” says Ed Wells, Sesame Workshop’s senior VP and head of international media and education. In Cookie Monster’s Foodie Truck, the titular character and his friend Gonger collect ingredients for special recipes. Abby Cadabby takes center stage in The Magical Wand Chase, “a Sesame Street special that serves as a great supplement to the weekly content, and it can be aired in prime time,” says Wells. “It features everyone’s favorite fairy, her furry red monster friend and the rest of the Sesame gang.”

“Cookie Monster ’s Foodie Truck is incredibly timely, as we’re seeing huge growth in the food-truck industry.”

—Ed Wells

Sinking Ship Entertainment The Unlisted / Dino Dana / Endlings Geared toward young viewers between the ages of 8 and 12, The Unlisted is a brand-new live-action adventure series on offer from Sinking Ship Entertainment at the market. The show, which is being made by Aquarius Films (Lion), is in production this year for delivery in 2019. Another highlight from Sinking Ship is Dino Dana, the next installment of the dinosaur franchise that first began with the international hit Dino Dan. “We are also about to go into production on the feature film,” says Marilyn Kynaston, the company’s head of sales and distribution. In addition, there is Endlings, a new liveaction and CGI-blended series from J.J. Johnson (Annedroids, Dino Dan) that is meant for 8- to 12-yearold children. That show is also in production this year.

Dino Dana

“Sinking Ship specializes in live-action/CG kids’ series. We have won 12 Emmys.”

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Sony Creative Products Pingu in the City / Mofy / Gaspard and Lisa Pingu in the City, being presented by Sony Creative Products, offers a fresh take on the original story about a cheeky penguin. Another highlight is Mofy. “It is a ‘cotton’ stop-motion animation in full HD, where the sets and models are made from fluffy cotton puffs,” says Hitoshi Hasegawa, the company’s president. There is also the animated series Gaspard and Lisa, about 6-year-old best friends who experience the wonders and challenges of school, family and friendship.

“Outgoing, curious and devoted to each other, Gaspard and Lisa are the center of each other’s lives and the rest of the world usually finds itself caught up in their adventures,” Hasegawa says. “And while the two may sometimes disagree, in the end, they’re always there for each other, because that’s what best friends are for.”

Mofy

“We would love to have new partnerships with players around the world, but especially those in Europe, as these animations originated from the region.”

—Hitoshi Hasegawa

Studio 100 Media & m4e Arthur and the Minimoys / Tip the Mouse / Maya the Bee Arthur and the Minimoys, based on the movie trilogy from director and producer Luc Besson, will be ready for delivery this summer. “The CGI series carries Besson’s signature style and powerful storytelling to TV screens with a broad appeal to kids from 6 to 9,” says Martin Krieger, the head of global distribution at Studio 100 Media & m4e. The combined company’s MIPTV slate also features 26 brand-new episodes from the second season of the preschool series Tip the Mouse. Another highlight is Maya the Bee, which Krieger notes “already has a proven international track record. We intend to continue [Maya’s] story of success with 52 new episodes and a second feature film that we’ve recently released successfully in numerous territories.” The first season of Maya the Bee was sold in more than 170 countries.

Maya the Bee

“Our mission in the kids’ entertainment world is to bring brands to life that are contentdriven and entertain kids and families on every platform and wherever they are.”

—Martin Krieger

SUNRIGHTS Beyblade Burst / Beyblade Burst Evolution In Beyblade Burst, viewers are introduced to the story of Valt Aoi and his friends, a group of passionate Bladers. SUNRIGHTS is showcasing this installment, as well as season two, titled Beyblade Burst Evolution, at MIPTV. “The action and adventure continue in Beyblade Burst Evolution, as Valt Aoi, runnerup at the Japanese National Tournament, travels to Spain after being scouted,” explains Natasha Gross, the company’s director of TV sales and licensing. She adds that the underlying themes are “relatable to most kids, no matter where they live in the world. It’s about competition, hard work, friendship and sportsmanship—familiar parts of the daily life of any active kid.

Watching this series, they find themselves identifying with Valt and his quest for the championship, whether he faces setbacks or enjoys the sweet taste of success!”

“These series continue to reach and entertain a growing legion of fans around the world as their themes of spirited competition both engage and rally viewers.”

Beyblade Burst

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—Natasha Gross

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Superights Pat the Dog / Joker Joe / Clay Time Following the success of the first season of Pat the Dog, Superights is offering up a second installment of the animated show. “This new season will feature specials and fillers in addition to seven-minute episodes,” says Nathalie Pinguet, the deputy general manager of sales and acquisitions at Superights. Also on offer is the new 3D CGI comedy series Joker Joe, developed by Superprod.

Joker Joe is an adaptation of a comic book that “will focus on Joe, an irresistible little boy with an overactive imagination, who will bring a series of gags on top of hilarious adventures at home and at school,” Pinguet adds. Another highlight is Clay Time, an edutainment series for preschoolers that encourages viewers to develop their imaginations with modeling clay. Each three-minute episode is accompanied by tutorials.

“We are proud to offer a premium, diversified catalog—covering all demographics, genres, techniques and lengths—from first-class producers around the globe.”

—Nathalie Pinguet

Xilam Animation

A New Kind of Magic

Mr Magoo / A New Kind of Magic / Oggy and the Cockroaches In the slapstick comedy series Mr Magoo, everyone in the neighborhood loves the titular character, even though the cheerful man often inadvertently causes disasters. Xilam Animation is also presenting its long-running flagship slapstick comedy Oggy and the Cockroaches. The show follows the antics of Oggy and the three bugs, who have been clashing since the beginning of time. “Slapstick comedies can easily travel internationally,” says Morgann Favennec, the executive VP of development and global sales at Xilam Animation. She adds that “introducing new projects to key broadcasters” is a main focus for the company at MIPTV. In addition to Mr Magoo and Oggy and the Cockroaches, Xilam’s slate features the comedy A New Kind of Magic, about a fairy and an ogre who have to settle in the real world with their children.

“Xilam’s catalog has iconic characters, with brand names that have become a reference for millions of children and families.”

—Morgann Favennec

Zodiak Kids Lilybuds / Joe All Alone / Tee and Mo A group of magical gardeners is featured in Lilybuds. “We are very proud of this great new production about a community of tiny, magical gardeners and their daily (and nightly) adventures in this stunning and vibrant park,” says Delphine Dumont, Zodiak Kids’ senior VP of sales, acquisitions and coproduction. “We wanted to create a show that addressed the universal need for children to get back in touch with the outdoors.” In Joe All Alone, meanwhile, a 13-year-old boy is left at home to fend for himself while his mother goes on holiday.

“We strongly believe that this British drama, rooted in a real world, will appeal to an international audience thanks to its brilliant cast and great production values,” Dumont says.

Zodiak Kids’ slate also features the preschool show Tee and Mo, about a toddler monkey and his mom.

“Lilybuds is a nature-focused preschool comedy show about teamwork and friendship that definitely has all the ingredients to become an international success.”

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—Delphine Dumont

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Studio 100 & m4e’s Tip the Mouse.

David Wood hears from leading producers and distributors about managing co-production partnerships. he co-production partnership, a familiar feature of the kids’ TV production landscape for decades, is showing few signs of going out of fashion. That is not surprising. As broadcasters increasingly face squeezes on their program budgets, co-pros remain a crucial way to raise production finance.

“Broadcaster contributions are under pressure,” reports Jo Daris, the chief content officer at Studio 100 Media & m4e.

“They ask for more rights and pay less than a few years ago.

That puts a lot of pressure on other financing mechanisms, like soft money or tax incentives. The access to those incentives is often linked to having an official co-pro, in line with bilateral treaties, creating additional obligations to all partners involved and making outsourcing work to Asia much more difficult.”

One unintended consequence is that the logistics of coproduction seem to be getting more complicated, Daris adds.

“There seem to be more pieces to the puzzle now and [the financing] takes longer to finish. This results in co-productions often being repeats of previously tested models: ‘If it worked last

T

time, let’s not go through the hassle of finding partners somewhere else, let’s copy and paste what we did before.’ ”

PLUGGING THE GAP Jean-Philippe Randisi, the CEO of Zodiak Kids, points out that one major change that has served to make co-pros more complicated is the scarcity of master-toy-license advances.

Ten or fifteen years ago, you could have launched a new series on the back of a licensing-and-merchandising advance and a couple of main broadcasters in major territories. Nowadays, because the market is so dominated by Disney, Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network, the space for a new entrant is very limited. “Big players in the toy business—Disney, Hasbro, Mattel—are now producers themselves and retailers won’t give space to new IP unless they think it can compete with those companies,” says Randisi. “Any L&M money is now likely to come later—when you are in production or in season two or three—when you can see if a show is a big success.”

One trend that has helped compensate for decreased L&M activity in kids’ co-pros is the growing impact of Asian players.

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9 Story partnered with Netflix and Scholastic for The Magic School Bus.

As Christine Brendle, the CEO of Hong Kong-based FUN Union, declares, “We see a growing pool of talent and production studios in the Asia-Pacific region and we can expect to see more characters and stories coming from South Korea, China and Japan, which are giants and involved in many copros. Interestingly, much more is now going on in India, Malaysia, Singapore Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines and other Asian countries. This region is becoming a huge epicenter for co-pros.”

NEW PLAYERS

with EU partners. “It might work out to be a bit more expensive, but it’s easier to manage,” says Randisi.

The benefits of co-production are clear to most producers and broadcasters. OTT services, however, are not as active in such alliances yet.

Streaming global players wield large program budgets and are typically looking to bankroll the entire budget for a show in exchange for rights in all territories. That has meant that as OTT players concentrate on building their kids’ content libraries, many shows that might otherwise have been co-produced across different territories are instead born out of much simpler commissioner-producer relationships.

Take 9 Story Media Group’s deal with Netflix to reboot The Magic School Bus. “The Magic School Bus was one show that, if we hadn’t done a deal with Netflix, we would have had to coproduce to make it work,” says Vince Commisso, co-founding partner, president and CEO of 9 Story. “Territory splits don’t really work for Netflix as they are global players.”

It’s a trend that Jillianne Reinseth, the VP of creative affairs at Entertainment One (eOne) Family & Brands—which coproduces the preschool superhero series PJ Masks with Disney Junior and France 5—also picks up on.

“We’re seeing more original series coming from countries that were previously better known for animating purely on a service level. Original series from these regions were mainly broadcast locally but didn’t travel well.

Now there’s more of an East meets West and North meets South approach to kids’ co-productions, with characters and plots having more universal themes to appeal to a global market.”

At the same time, Zodiak’s Randisi detects another contrary trend towards more localized co-production, certainly in Europe. “There’s a definite upside and a downside to [European] coproduction with Asian studios. There are certainly cost savings, but the significant downsides are that communication is more complicated, it’s more difficult to keep track of what is happening on the ground and editorial ideas sometimes get lost in translation.”

Those hiccups, combined with the strengthening of support for kids’ production in key European territories and quotas for European-produced content, have led to a revival in co-producing Mr Magoo is a French commission for Xilam that presold to Cartoon Network Asia.

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Gaumont, PVP, Congedo and Fandango are partners on Trulli Tales.

Commisso adds that the OTT platforms’ minimal interest in kids’ co-production may not always be the case. “As their subscriber bases grow strongly, it makes sense to fully finance— and tempt subscribers with original kids’ content. But as growth ultimately tails off, we might see OTTs get into co-pro themselves,” he predicts. “They will put less money into content and producers will seek to diversify some of the risks.”

OTTs aside, if the overall trend is for more complicated coproductions, it’s increasingly essential for partners to be able to manage projects successfully.

The keys to making co-productions work haven’t really changed, explains Commisso. “They need financing from more than one territory because program budgets are usually too big for finance from one,” he notes. “You need partners who know each other well, who have developed some kind of understanding. Communication is critical with co-pros, so you need a group of people on both sides who are all in sync professionally and get along well personally.”

Reinseth at eOne also emphasizes the importance of dialogue between partners. “Frequent and open communication is the best way to stay on top of the production and ensure we’re all moving in the same direction. At eOne, broadcaster notes are shared with all production partners to take into consideration all of our stakeholders’ requirements. Weekly calls, especially by Skype so we can communicate face to face, are great for relationship-building during the development process.”

CAN WE TALK?

FUN Union’s Brendle adds, “Sometimes it’s a matter of finding the right medium for communication as well. When we first started working with China’s CCTV Animation [on Krash and Hehe], we were debating over details and direction and it appeared our views were diverging until we started working with visual examples and realized we had both been talking about the same thing all along.”

Another golden rule is a clear division of services, Commisso notes. “Say a 26-episode series has 12 important processes,” such as character design, storyboarding, production, post-production, marketing or distribution.

“One partner does six of the processes across the whole series and the other the rest. That way you develop expertise by specializing and exploiting economies of scale, as does your partner. Dividing up the episodes is a terrible idea. The risk is that you end up not making the same show because you will be using different directors and writers. And you lose the opportunity of both teams becoming really good at different disciplines.”

Nicolas Atlan, the president of animation at Gaumont, likens a co-production to marriage.

“If you’ve chosen the right partner and genuinely like the project and you have some chemistry with the people involved, then you can solve any problems that crop up.”

Cupcake & Dino: General Services is a partnership between eOne Family & Brands and Brazil’s Birdo Studio.

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Zodiak Kids Studios inked a co-pro deal with Discovery Kids Latin America for Lilybuds.

Gaumont’s latest co-pro is Jack Zero, a preschool series created by Alexander Bar and co-produced with his company, Milk Cow Media. It joins Trulli Tales, with PVP in Canada and Fandango and Congedo in Italy; and Belle and Sebastian, also with PVP Canada, on the French studio’s slate.

“Co-pros can become complicated—in an ideal world it would be just my team and me,” quips Atlan. “But let’s be realistic: co-productions are often the best way to get a show financed. But you have to think of more than just the money that a partner might be bringing to the table,” he insists.

“Ask yourself what strengths potential partners have in their own territories,” Atlan continues. “PVP is a great co-producer for us in Canada and DreamWorks is great on Noddy Toyland Detective. They are both strong and well connected. We look for a mix of finance, artistic potential and a strong relationship with their host broadcasters.”

Marc du Pontavice, the chairman and CEO of Xilam Animation, has historically avoided co-production to protect the studio’s IP, but with his facilities at full capacity, he is having to look at co-producing afresh. “I think it’s a luxury to say, ‘I don’t want to co-produce and deal with multiple partners.’ But I am skeptical when it comes to multiple co-production territories. That’s because it makes it more difficult to get everyone to share one vision—especially when multiple broadcast partners each have their own agenda. This can weaken the vision and everything can get more complicated and expensive.”

VISION PROTECTION Du Pontavice stresses there should be one creative lead.

“Although the views of other co-pro partners have to be taken into account, there has to be one vision. I am also a strong believer that there should be one company in charge of commercial activities—when it comes to distribution, a division of territories usually results in a weakening of the marketing strategy. Ideally, the distribution partner should have an equity position in the property so that it is incentivized and has a bigger interest beyond the commission.”

Daris at Studio 100 & m4e adds, “The first prerogative for successful collaboration is a clear understanding and alignment at the creative level. Even when investors are involved that are only putting in cash, there has to be a unified vision of where the production is going.”

Reinseth of eOne notes, “Financing is important of course, but it isn’t the primary driver of our collaborations. The creative collaboration is at the heart of each of our series and we believe that’s the key to its success. From the very beginning of development, we work to align ourselves with our co-production partners to ensure that the tone and creative vision are coming through. Finding a production partner who believes in your series as much as you do is critical to producing a successful show.”

OFF THE RAILS It’s probably safe to assume that in co-productions—as in any form of production—things can go wrong. “Misunderstandings or different interpretations based on vague deal terms and democratic principles—‘both parties need to agree’—happen in almost every production,” Daris says. “So discuss everything in detail in advance of signing an agreement, and make the agreement as detailed and complete as possible,” he recommends. “But there’s always something you forgot to discuss in advance because it seemed self-evident.”

Zodiak Kids’ Randisi agrees. “We try to remove problematic ambiguities before committing to projects, but there can still be differences of perception behind the same words from different partners,” he warns, adding that projects involving multiple broadcaster partners need special attention.

“One broadcaster will tend to take the lead on editorial and the others will follow that lead once everyone is comfortable with the basic characters, design and positioning,” Randisi continues. “But while everyone might agree at the beginning, parties may have different views of elements that come later in the process—during the writing typically—regarding what is age-appropriate, what is gender-appropriate or whether the script contains the right educational elements. Some may want it to be educational; others might think that’s boring and don’t want any of it. You need to make sure that there is enough overlap between what the different broadcasters want at the outset.”

Daris concludes that differences of opinion can be resolved if there’s a structure in place to deal with them. “There has to be one leader who has the power to overrule for the benefit of the production, the schedule and the budget. A successful co-pro is not managed like a democracy, but at its base it’s a deep, open and democratic discussion about every parameter and stage.”

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Cyber Group’s Sadie Sparks.

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TV KIDS

Kids’ producers and distributors are defying stereotypes with a new wave of children’s shows featuring powerful female characters.

By Joanna Padovano Tong ale characters outnumber females three-to-one on television, per the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media. It’s a ratio that has remained fairly unchanged for the past several decades. And it’s not just a lack of representation that is of concern. “Gender stereotyping is an inherent problem in today’s entertainment landscape, and children are the most vulnerable recipients of depictions that send the message that girls are less valuable and capable than boys,” the organization says on its website.

But the times they are a-changing, slowly. “In today’s world, there’s been such a shift in awareness and recalibrating values and trends, and I think the way that girls are looked at and want to be looked at is strong, empowered, aspirational and intelligent,” says Andy Heyward, the chairman and CEO of Genius Brands International.

According to Dominic Gardiner, the CEO of Jetpack Distribution, it’s important for creators to make sure that female characters are “smart, strong and in the lead, while avoiding any clichés—victims, princesses, falling down, twisting their ankles, etc. I know this sounds like something from the ’70s, but it does [still] happen.”

And there’s more than just the shallow princess stereotype being perpetuated in kids’ programming. “I’ve been working with broadcasters that go, Please, let’s not have the girl being the sensible voice of reason [or] the nagging older sister because it’s boring and we’ve seen that too many times already,” says Tom van Waveren, the CEO and creative director of CAKE. “Let’s have the same kind of diversity in female characters that we have in male characters.”

David Michel, the managing director of Federation Kids & Family and president of Cottonwood Media, mentions some other clichés: “There’s a kind of caricature of the valley girl, the bitchy girl, the nerdy girl with glasses.... That’s the negative that should be avoided, but it’s very much still there.”

Among the female-led series repped by Federation Kids & Family is The Ollie & Moon Show. “That’s about two buddies,

a girl and a boy, but the girl is really the lead in the show and the boy is kind of the follower,” says Michel. There is also Find Me in Paris, centered on a time-traveling ballerina, and Love, Divina, a soap opera for teen girls.

“Society doesn’t need more shows with girls pictured as either vanilla princesses or tomboys,” adds Claus Tømming, the managing partner at INK Group. “We need to introduce a new type of female character, and it doesn’t even take imagination to do that. It’s a great pain to come up with another young duchess or an overachiever because it’s been done so many times before. How about creating a girl as she is in real life: observant, passionate, strong, aspiring—why keep reinventing stereotypes? Just stop and look around!”

FEMALE EMPOWERMENT Move over, damsel in distress; there’s a new breed of girl characters in kids’ television. Take, for instance, Genius Brands’ Rainbow Rangers, which focuses on seven female heroes with the very important jobs of serving as Earth’s first responders. “It’s about empowerment of young girls,” says Heyward. “Of course there are all the tools of good storytelling that you would expect—crisis, conflict, humor, jeopardy—that make these episodes come alive.”

“This business is evolving along with the real world, and girls are [being] given different kinds of leading female characters so they can choose which one they feel closer to,” says Luana Perrero, the head of TV sales at Rainbow. In 2004, the company launched Winx Club, which Perrero says encourages female viewers to “embrace the positive values conveyed by the content.” Now a global hit, the fantasy series follows the adventures of six fairies living in a magical land.

Among other things, Winx Club teaches girls about empowerment, friendship and how to empathize with other girls “who share dreams and must work hard to achieve them—exactly as the heroines do on screen,” notes Perrero.

The show is one of several examples of children’s series that portray the power of female camaraderie—girls working

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negatively when we present a girl-driven show,” he says.

“Before, a number of networks would say, Uh-uh, if it’s girldriven, don’t even present that to us. That doesn’t happen anymore and that’s a good thing.”

Cyber Group houses such girl-empowering series as Mirette Investigates, Sadie Sparks and Mademoiselle Zazie.

“When we produced Mademoiselle Zazie, no one was looking for a female-led show,” says Sissmann. “It was not that successful until 2014-15, when people turned around and said, We need female-led character shows. And they started buying massively all over the world.”

BALANCING THE SCALE

Rainbow’s longrunning Winx Club features six fairies who fight the forces of evil.

together and building each other up instead of tearing one another down as a result of feeling competitive or jealous.

Due to concerns about low ratings, broadcasters did not always welcome kids’ series with strong female characters.

According to Pierre Sissmann, the chairman and CEO of Cyber Group Studios, while there has not necessarily been that much more of a demand for girl-led programming as of late, there is significantly less of an aversion to it when compared with attitudes just ten years ago. “The big difference between today and yesterday is that people are not reacting

“My generation—people who have children that are going to college right now—grew up in a world where the male perspective was always put front and center, and I think we have evolved into something that is much more balanced,” says CAKE’s van Waveren. “We have about 12 shows in different stages of development and I would say that we’re exactly at a fifty-fifty split when it comes to girl-led or boyled. And that’s across different demographics and genres.”

That balance is not specifically planned, he notes, since the company simply chooses whatever projects it connects with the most. “We’re being offered more shows that are putting female characters at the center of them not because [creators] feel there is a fashion for it or the market is requiring it, but just because that is the story they want to be telling—and that makes it all the more powerful.”

Among CAKE’s most successful series featuring strong female characters are My Knight and Me, the Total Drama franchise and So Awkward. The company is also developing a new show, Mama K’s Super 4, about four Zambian girls who work together to save the day.

Jetpack’s Gardiner has noticed a slight uptick in appetite for shows that place girls front and center, but says it’s not “a dramatic, overwhelming demand,” just more “recognition of having more balance than before.” He adds: “We’ve seen a lot of younger female characters coming through. In the

Jetpack’s character-driven comedy The Sisters explores the relationship between 7-year-old and 13-year-old siblings.

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it’s been very much a boy-led franchise, it’s now got strong aspirational [female] characters, so girls can love it too.”

Back in 2000, when he was at Marathon Media, Federation Kids & Family’s Michel co-created Totally Spies!, which is perhaps one of the first noteworthy girl-empowering kids’ series. “At the time, it was almost impossible to pitch a show with a girl lead,” he says. “The answer that we got every single time we would pitch the show was, Boys [have] the most control in the TV room and they will never watch a show with a female hero. And they were proven wrong not only with this show but with a lot of other shows. But I think it’s still something that’s hovering over channel programmers’ heads.”

LEADING THE WAY

A female cat takes the lead in Federation Kids & Family’s The Ollie & Moon Show.

older-kids area, I still think that most broadcasters are either pretty balanced, gender-neutral or they have a slight boy bias.” The company’s portfolio boasts the girl-led animated comedy The Sisters.

Other series on offer from Jetpack, such as Talking Tom and Friends and Dennis & Gnasher Unleashed!, also contain powerful girl characters. In Talking Tom, “Angela is a very strong, aspirational, sparky female character that kind of balances out Tom and his slightly egocentric point of view,” says Gardiner, while in Dennis & Gnasher Unleashed!, the show’s brand-new female characters have been so successful that they’ve actually been added to the comic strip. “There was a lot of love for them, so they’ve now become little breakout stars of their own. They’ve created a very balanced series. Whereas I think, historically,

Another series that has helped lead the way for femaledriven children’s content is INK’s Masha and the Bear.

“Masha launched the whole trend when the character was first introduced to the market a decade ago,” says Tømming.

“Celebrated series with female protagonists like Doc McStuffins or Sofia the First arrived years later.” The company also has a new show called Maouia Princess of Cordoba, which will feature a “highly nuanced female lead” who overcomes many challenges, including her own selfdoubt, to achieve personal growth. “We like to think the audience is hungry for role models made of flesh and blood rather than glitter and pixels,” he adds.

“Female characters have always been front and center in the My Little Pony franchise and in the long-running animated series My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic,” notes Nina Scales, the VP of international sales distribution at Hasbro Studios.

“They have become so popular that we grew the Pony franchise in 2013 with the launch of My Little Pony: Equestria Girls. Dealing with the ups and downs of life in high school, our female characters handle any crisis that is thrown at them.”

Hasbro Studios’ catalog also includes Hanazuki: Full of Treasures, the company’s newest girl-led animated series.

Mondo TV Group also houses a number of series with female leads, among them Sissi The Young Empress, the

The adventures of a Russian girl and her best friend, a retired circus bear, take center stage in INK Group’s Masha and the Bear.

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The lead character in Mondo TV’s Sissi The Young Empress resists traditional standards of etiquette.

Heidi Bienvenida franchise and Angel’s Friends. “Today, the girls’ empowerment topic is important and a message that we need to start teaching girls—and boys—from a very young age,” says Micheline Azoury, the company’s head of acquisitions and TV sales. “In some previous shows dedicated to girls, we used to see a big focus on beauty. The trend today is geared more towards a different direction, [including] inner beauty rather than outside…but also being smart and contributing equally to boys in any situation.”

Kiva Can Do!, in Lacey Entertainment’s portfolio, is another example of a children’s show telling young girls that they are capable of accomplishing whatever they set their minds to.

The titular character is “caring, nurturing and follows her heart, but she also can do anything that a boy can do,” says Brian Lacey, the company’s president. “Kiva Can Do! represents a significant departure from other girls’ content in that Kiva does not conform to a male stereotype to be empowered. Kiva tips these gender stereotypes on their heads and gently reminds children that anything they can dream, they can do.”

STORYTELLING FIRST While it is, of course, important for there to be genderbalanced kids’ programming—after all, there are just as many little girls in the world as boys—storytelling must still be the main priority for a show to cut through in the crowded children’s television marketplace.

“It doesn’t make any difference whether it’s a girls’ show or a boys’ show; it has to be a good series,” says Cyber Group’s Sissmann. “One of our biggest developments today is our first superhero show featuring two girls as the heroes; it’s a good story and that’s why we picked it up. I think that ten years ago, we would have said, Well, nobody’s going to buy this. That’s not even a thought today. So we’re looking at boys’ and girls’ series irrespective of the gender.”

“I look for things that are enriching to kids and that still have very strong characters and strong stories,” notes Genius Brands’ Heyward. “It’s not girls per se or boys per se—I’m just looking to find good characters and good stories and see wherever they take us.”

A good way to achieve rich storytelling that avoids repetition and stereotypes is having more of a gender balance in

the writers’ room, adds CAKE’s van Waveren. “It doesn’t mean that you need to be a woman to write about girls or a man to write about boys, but if you’re going to have a series with characters of mixed genders, it makes total sense to have a writers’ team that has mixed genders as well.”

WAKE-UP CALL In line with the demand for greater representation for women across the media industry, it’s likely that there will be more girl-led kids’ shows in the future. “It’s the right thing to do,” says INK’s Tømming. “It’s about time to not just ‘respond to demand’ but to redress the balance. Wake up, people!”

In a perfect world, there would be fifty-fifty balance, says Jetpack’s Gardiner. “The equilibrium is what we’re aiming for. Sometimes the way the market works is we have these swings from one extreme to another, and so if somebody identifies a gap, then you’ll suddenly see a rush of series.

Ultimately, the audiences are deciding what’s going to stick around, but I do think there are certainly plenty of people trying to create not just token female characters.”

“Previously girls tended to be portrayed as playing second fiddle to the male lead, whereas now we have [more] series featuring females that are fearless, smart and strong,” says Hasbro’s Scales. “This generation of kids will grow up with positive female role models and an understanding that girls can do anything and be anything.”

As long as there is enough of a gender balance, children don’t mind if a show’s star is male or female. “I don’t think kids care about the gender of the characters; I think they care about the type of storytelling,” Federation’s Michel says. “You can have 100-percent female storytelling that’s very emotion-based [or] you can have very male storytelling with more action, etc., but if you have a little bit of both, they don’t care that the hero is a boy or a girl.”

Overall, it seems that compelling storytelling is a surefire way to make a successful kids’ show that can be enjoyed by all, regardless of gender—except, perhaps, when young boys are going through their infamous “girls have cooties” phase, which, although there’s no cure for it, is almost always temporary.

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Portfolio’s The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That!

Broadcasters and platforms are eager for shows that successfully incorporate science, technology, engineering, arts and math.

By David Wood TEM/STEAM has become such a hot topic for parents and educators in the U.S., it has its own “holiday.” On National STEM/STEAM Day (November 8), teachers are encouraged to put a particular emphasis on the subjects of science, technology, engineering and math, as well as the arts. Not surprisingly, several TV series have emerged that are built around making STEAM curriculum fun for young viewers. These shows are popular with kids, parents, producers, distributors and broadcasters alike. Kids like viewing them, their parents are happy to let them watch the shows because they are educational, and the industry likes them because they rate well and have a long shelf life.

S

LITTLE LEARNERS The fact that parents of preschoolers like shows with STEM or STEAM themes is particularly critical, says Joy Rosen, CEO and co-founder of Portfolio Entertainment. That’s because preschool is the only age group in which the parents are in complete control of what their kids watch.

Rosen, whose company makes the science edutainment series The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That!, adds, “It’s

all about the global zeitgeist of a new generation of millennial parents who are trying to give their kids a leg up in the world.”

Rosen says that it’s not just parents who have warmed to the potential of STEM and STEAM-themed kids’ TV. New commissioners in the shape of OTT networks have emerged, she observes. “OTT networks have demonstrated a growing interest in more responsible, more considered kids’ content, rather than the kind of thing you might see on YouTube. They are trying to become more network-like, more sophisticated if you will. In short, they are trying to show parents that they are a viable alternative to the traditional networks, typically the state-controlled broadcasters such as CBC, the BBC and PBS.” These shows are also gaining in popularity because of their ability to counter gender imbalances in STEAM subjects.

“Within society as a whole, there is a need to get girls and women involved more in science and engineering—only 10 percent of the engineers in the world are women,” observes Bob Higgins, the executive VP of kids and family at Boat Rocker Media.

That’s why Bitz & Bob—part of the portfolio of shows now in the Boat Rocker slate following its acquisition of the

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Calm Island’s Badanamu Cadets is accompanied by a digital learning platform for preschoolers.

FremantleMedia Kids & Family business—features engineering adventurer Bitz, an 8-year-old girl who devises engineering solutions to problems and explores the scientific principles of engineering along the way.

“With the Bitz character, we are attempting to make engineering fun and relatable to girls through imaginative play,” Higgins says of the CBeebies commission. “In each episode, something happens that requires Bitz to engineer a solution. Each show has a moment where Bitz pulls down her goggles and we see what her solution is.”

INVISIBLE LEARNING Higgins adds that great care was taken to ensure that Bitz & Bob is as entertaining as it is educational.

“In making Bitz & Bob, we have learned to avoid stopping the story too much by getting into the scientific principles of engineering. We found that over-explaining didn’t work from an entertainment point of view. We figured out ways to tick the main points so a child could walk away understanding what had happened without losing interest.

We have complemented the show with a full web experience, where kids who want to learn more can go online and find out more about the principles in greater depth. The show is aspirational, funny and entertaining—at the end of the day, we are making a kids’ comedy and the educational stuff is the cherry on the cake.”

It’s a point echoed by Genevieve Dexter, founder and CEO of Serious Lunch, which distributes three STEAM shows—Operation Ouch!, Horrible Science and Art Ninja— aimed at older kids.

The most important thing is “invisible learning”—the idea that educational content should be masked and interwoven with lots of entertainment. Kids are so busy being amused that they don’t realize they are also learning something. The secret of Horrible Science, Dexter says, is that there’s a little bit of everything in there. “Shocking science, special effects, comedy, music. It’s a varied, entertaining format with quite a high budget for a kids’ factual show.”

Beyond Productions’ new magic science show Wow! That’s Amazing, co-produced with Super RTL in Germany, also relies on the invisible learning principle.

Munia Kanna-Konsek, the head of sales at Beyond Distribution, explains that Wow! That’s Amazing demonstrates tricks that kids can try at home or that will make them feel cool at school. “But the illusions and magic tricks rely on principles of physics, chemistry and math, so it’s also teaching them stuff, although they don’t realize that they are being taught.”

Portfolio’s Rosen notes that “there’s a whole generation of writers and specialist consultants now—certainly in North America—adept at marrying great STEM content with entertainment. We use science specialists to inform us of the facts and educational consultants to make that information age-appropriate. You have to distill it down to very simple terms for the very young.

What we have learned is that if it’s not told in a way that a 4-year-old gets—if it’s over their heads—they will turn off.” Ultimately, she says, kids shouldn’t “feel like they are at a science lecture.”

One surefire way of attracting older kids to educational content is to make it “as revolting as possible!” jokes Dexter.

“Horrible Science focuses on gory and unpleasant aspects of science; it can be pretty ghoulish, so much so that many adults find it difficult to watch.”

Boat Rocker’s Bitz & Bob, for CBeebies, focuses on engineering and problem-solving.

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“Science and technology are the big ones because they lend themselves to teachers showing how to do them in the classroom or kids trying them at home. Subjects such as history or art can be a little more difficult in the international marketplace because the focus of history or art varies from country to country.”

SUBJECT MATTERS

Art Ninja is one of three STEAM-based shows represented by Serious Lunch.

But Dexter adds a cautionary note: “The cultural tolerance of revolting content varies quite a lot, even in Europe.

If I were to make a huge generalization, I would say that Southern Europe and France seem to have a lower tolerance for general vileness, but there’s no doubt that the British, Scandinavians and Germans like nothing more than a good fart joke!”

When making STEAM television shows, some topics are easier to sell than others, says Kanna-Konsek of Beyond, which represents such shows as Numberjacks, Get Squiggling! and The Dengineers.

Boat Rocker’s Higgins agrees, noting, “Whereas history, literature or art change from culture to culture, math, science and engineering principles don’t. Wherever you are, the facts are the facts.”

Portfolio’s Rosen says it’s no accident that STEAM shows focusing on science and nature are the most numerous.

“Science is a much easier, much broader field to create content around.”

The production format also matters. Beyond’s Kanna-Konsek believes that live action works best because it helps kids to identify with characters on-screen and encourages them to emulate what they see. “But animation can also be a useful tool when seeking to teach morals and values,” she adds.

“Excuse the pun, but get the chemistry right and STEAM and STEM shows can enjoy a long shelf life because the content continues to be relevant,” KannaKonsek continues. “Our do-it-at-home series Backyard Science has been going since 2003 and is as relevant today as it was 15 years ago.”

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Roberts, founder and CEO of Calm Island. In Korea, for example, up to 22 percent of household income is spent on education. In China, the preschool education market is worth $55 billion.

GETTING DIGITAL

Science, technology and engineering feature prominently in Beyond Distribution’s The Dengineers.

Demand for STEM and STEAM content is being bolstered by the emergence of Asia as a very vibrant market, with China, in particular, set to become increasingly important.

Rosen points out that Portfolio recently made major sales to Chinese SVOD services, including The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That! and DOKI to iQiyi, one of the biggest digital platforms in China. There is strong demand for both science- and nature-based edutainment in Asia, Rosen adds.

EDUCATIONAL VALUES The huge appeal of STEM and STEAM in Asia is the cornerstone of the business plan for Calm Island, a South Korean and U.S.-based educational content developer.

“The reality is that the private education markets in Asia are far, far deeper than in Europe,” observes David

Calm Island’s 52×11-minute CGI-animated learning adventure series Badanamu Cadets is aimed at engaging 4- to 7-year-olds in STEAM topics. Its ultimate purpose is to provide a pathway towards educational apps, such as Calm Island’s Bada’s Learning Adventure. The subscription platform teaches reading, music, science, math, coding and art and features more than 50,000 activities and exercises organized into structured learning paths.

Roberts argues that while television is the best entertainment platform, he believes that STEM and STEAM educational objectives are best delivered through VOD experiences and multimedia apps.

“Some of the concepts in STEM are hard to explain purely visually,” Roberts says. “Education is more effective in applications where kids can interact and experiences can be better tailored to individuals. One of the things we are beginning to see is the creation of smart VOD platforms, and that’s very relevant to the provision of STEM learning materials.”

He predicts that the next big leap forward in kids’ education will be the development of artificially intelligent robots to teach children. “We’d like to have a Badanamu robot who would walk to your house, talk to your child and teach them. The potential for AI in areas such as STEAM is just phenomenal. It’s extraordinarily effective at teaching math and English, and as the AI and voicerecognition technology improve, I’m sure AI will become more dominant.”

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By Mansha Daswani

As it has evolved from just a toy manufacturer to a company dedicated to “creating the world’s best play experiences,” Hasbro has instituted a brand blueprint for each of its franchises.

Centered on storytelling and consumer insights, the brand blueprints have allowed the company to reinvigorate long-running franchises and create new ones that extend from toys and games to consumer products and entertainment experiences. Stephen Davis, executive VP and chief content officer, tells TV Kids how Hasbro is using those brand blueprints to create multiple touchpoints for kids and families around properties like Transformers, My Little Pony and more.

TV KIDS: What have been some of the significant strategy shifts at Hasbro Studios over the last year or so?

DAVIS: We announced a deal with Paramount Pictures to produce and distribute content based on our brands. We’ve been very focused on moving that new relationship forward. We’re going to collaborate with Paramount on live-action and animated films and television. It’s a phenomenal opportunity for us to control more of our strategy and, more specifically, to produce content around our brands that is consistent with our brand blueprint and brand priorities. It gives us the ability to calendarize the release dates of our movies in partnership with Paramount. And we have a very active voice at the table with Paramount on how our movies are marketed.

Being able to communicate with our retail partners, sometimes two or three years in advance, is super important to creating the kind of environment where we can activate our brand blueprint across all aspects of our business.

We also, in the spirit of our ongoing commitment to building our entertainment and storytelling capabilities, recently brought on Greg Mooradian, who ran Fox 2000, as president of Allspark Pictures. He’s responsible for activating and driving our strategy in live-action film and television.

And then Meghan McCarthy has expanded her role substantially—we elevated her to [oversee] Allspark Animation, which is our label for animated film and television and digital content. She has been with me at the studio for almost nine years—I hired Meghan originally as one of the writers on the first episode of the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic animated series. She has been such an amazing influence on the studio.

We had the release of Transformers: The Last Knight. We were very pleased with the performance, particularly at retail.

Transformers is growing substantially, driven by storytelling across multiple platforms. The great thing about Transformers is we have touchpoints in the broadest demographic. In preschool we have the Transformers: Rescue Bots television series. Transformers: Cyberverse is our tween/teen show.

There’s fan-based content on Machinima, and then, of course, our four-quadrant movies. That’s paying dividends for us. We are now getting ready for the next Transformers film at the end of this year with Bumblebee, which stars Hailee Steinfeld and John Cena. And we had our first My Little Pony animated feature film, My Little Pony: The Movie, which has also performed incredibly well for the brand.

That’s just a few things!

TV KIDS: How did Hanazuki: Full of Treasures come about and how have you positioned it in the marketplace?

DAVIS: Hanazuki is the company’s first story-driven lifestyle brand. It’s one of the first times where we’ve incubated a brand-new brand. It’s been a story-led strategy. We

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Hanazuki: Full of Treasures is a new brand from Hasbro that launched with a series on YouTube.

created over 200 minutes of content that we posted on YouTube, supported by a significant licensing, merchandising and marketing program. It is stunning, the animation is super cool and the characters are colorful and unique. It allows us an opportunity to reach kids in that digital ecosystem where they’re sampling and consuming so much content. There isn’t anything else like it on YouTube and from what we can see globally on digital channels. We’ve rolled it out successfully. We’re getting ready to start what we would consider our second season, although on digital you keep rolling episodes out on platforms. Later in 2018, we’re going to be posting some new content, and we’ll match that with a linear strategy as well. We’re going to be rolling it out on a number of linear channels internationally. We’ve been very pleased with how it has performed, both as a story-driven brand as well as how it’s activated our brand blueprint across our toy and game and consumer-product portfolios.

TV KIDS: What’s the process for constructing a brand blueprint on each property?

DAVIS: If you think about the brand blueprint as a wheel, at the center of the wheel we place storytelling and consumer insights. We adapt our storytelling and how we activate our brand blueprint based on consumer insights. We do a lot of social listening, a lot of social scraping. We talk to our consumer base daily in lots of forms and formats, in person through focus-group testing and social media. We study the ways kids are consuming our content in a theatrical environment, television environment and digital environment. Storytelling and consumer insights activate our brand blueprint across toys, games, consumer products, lifestyle licensing, digital gaming, immersive entertainment experiences, television and film. And although the basic tenets of what I just described in a brand blueprint don’t change, it’s about activating all those areas in an immersive way. Obviously, we evolve the strategy based on insights. It’s a dynamic process.

Although we’re a large company, we’re very nimble and have a process that allows us to move at a rapid pace and to be proactive as well as reactive to changes in consumer tastes based on insights and feedback. It’s kind of our secret sauce!

TV KIDS: Kids are taking greater control over their viewing habits and are creating more content on their own. How does that inform everything you’re doing at Hasbro?

DAVIS: If you look at Nerf, for instance, there is a tremendous amount of content created by our fan base—kids who love what has become a lifestyle brand. [For Nerf] 97 percent of the content on digital channels is user-generated. We only post about 3 percent of the content, which, as a storyled company, is not typical! Nerf is a great example of where kids have adopted a brand, been immersed in this “Nerf Nation” lifestyle, boys and girls, and it has stimulated them to create their own content. They are effectively the content creators and the programmers for Nerf. I think we’re seeing that across multiple brands.

TV KIDS: You have so many long-running brands. What’s been the key to keeping them relevant to kids over the years?

DAVIS: First and foremost, it starts with great storytelling and great characters. We have an amazing creative group— both in the studio as well as in our brand and design teams.

They work closely to ensure that we are telling innovative and fresh stories, building worlds around interesting characters that continue to inspire consumers, and traveling across the multiple touchpoints of engagement.

Transformers is a great example of that. It’s a brand that has been around for 30 years and has expanded throughout the years across multiple touchpoints—including publishing, animation, film, video games and consumer products— and a very broad demographic. That helps us to keep brands fresh and alive. We can innovate in lots of different areas.

My Little Pony is the same. We launched a show in 2010 reimagining that brand from its 30-plus-year heritage.

We’re going to be making our 200th episode this year. It’s been successful in introducing a new audience in a different way to the brand as well. You have to recognize that every few years we get a new audience, so we have to be sure that we are listening to that consumer, to that mom, to that dad, about things that are important to them. We are being proactive and disruptive in the way that we present our brands to the consumer in a more immersive way.

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By Mansha Daswani

Next year, Sesame Street will mark its milestone 50th anniversary. Sesame Workshop’s flagship production, which is focused on preschoolers, has helped multiple generations of kids with their ABCs and 123s and created lifelong fans of its iconic Muppet creations like Big Bird, Bert and Ernie, Grover, Elmo and many more. Sesame Workshop has also, since the ’70s, been adapting Sesame Street internationally, reaching kids worldwide with lessons in their own languages from Muppets born out of local cultures. While its mission hasn’t changed, Sesame Workshop has had to adjust its strategy over the years amid financial pressures on public broadcasting and shifting consumption habits. That included inking a deal with HBO for first-run rights to Sesame Street in the U.S. Jeffrey Dunn, the president and CEO of Sesame Workshop, tells TV Kids about the strategies he put in place to make sure the nonprofit organization can continue its purpose of helping kids be “smarter, stronger and kinder,” in the U.S. and across the globe.

TV KIDS: Tell us about the transformation plan you put in place at Sesame Workshop when you joined in 2014.

DUNN: The biggest change I’ve made is to make us relentlessly mission-focused. We were a TV show with a mission.

Now we’re a mission-driven organization with a TV show.

I had two major goals when I arrived: the first was to get the workshop on a firm financial footing. We needed to acknowledge the financial reality of our situation, given the changing media landscape. The second was to take a TVcentric organization and make it more diversified. When we evolved our mission to “helping kids grow smarter, stronger and kinder,” we asked ourselves how we could best achieve that mission. We decided the best way was to be great makers of content for all platforms, great researchers of kids’ and family educational media behavior, and instigators of others who share our mission and with whom we can partner for greater impact.

TV KIDS: As you approach the 50th season of Sesame Street in 2019, what have been the most significant evolutions for the show?

DUNN: The most significant recent change was in 2014, before our partnership with HBO, when we moved from an hour to a half-hour format, which is better suited to today’s preschool audience. We also recently pared down the show to focus more on core characters, and to include only one curricular topic per show. But the truth is, we are constantly evolving, constantly experimental, never complacent. That keeps us relevant.

We added HBO and Univision to our U.S. distribution mix. Sesame Street has aired uninterrupted on PBS since we first started almost 50 years ago. The audience fragmentation that everyone is grappling with creates a challenge for us in achieving our mission of reaching and helping all kids. So adding a behindthe-paywall partner like HBO and a demographically targeted partner like Univision have been key to both reaching our audience in today’s fragmented media world and also providing a revenue stream to replace lost DVD and character licensing revenues.

There is a great deal of research that goes into everything that we do. We start by canvassing educators about kids’ needs and topics we should address each season. We then hold curriculum seminars to bring in experts to work with our writers and producers. Our style is to have our characters model the behavior we are trying to teach. Sometimes, as we did with Julia (the first Sesame

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Street Muppet with autism), we think the only way we can credibly convey the learnings is to create a new character.

TV KIDS: Tell us about the gains in your global business and the various international versions of Sesame Street.

DUNN: The very first international production, Sesamstrasse, began in Germany in 1973. Today, we reach kids in some way in about 160 countries—often with local productions, produced in-country with local content and characters. We always work with local educators to develop the curriculum.

In Afghanistan, we developed a girl Muppet, Zari, to help promote girl empowerment and gender equity; in South Africa we created Kami, the first HIV-positive Muppet, to explain to children how this disease could and could not be transmitted and to help them cope with grief and loss. Now, with the generous support of the MacArthur Foundation, we are going to help refugee children and families in Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. These are some of the world’s most vulnerable children, and if organizations like ours don’t help them overcome the trauma of conflict and displacement, humanity could end up with a lost generation in a critical part of the world. We believe that reaching these kids can help build a more peaceful world for us all.

TV KIDS: Do you anticipate more collaborations such as the one with CBBC for The Furchester Hotel?

DUNN: Yes, we expect to continue to expand beyond Sesame Street to produce other shows, always with educationally nutritious content. Esme and Roy, a new coproduction with Corus and Nelvana, is now in production for HBO, and we have others in development that we expect to announce shortly.

TV KIDS: Tell us about the Writers’ Room initiative.

DUNN: I am so proud of Brown Johnson [executive VP and creative director] and Kay Wilson Stallings [senior VP of creative development] for creating this! The Sesame Street Writers’ Room is a fellowship competition to find and develop new and diverse screenwriters. We give promising new writers coaching and mentoring from industry experts who can really help give them the kinds of critical lessons that are so important early in one’s career. We were delighted with how this program was embraced by both aspiring talent and industry veterans who wanted to help. Our first year was a tremendous success—the two winners are already writing scripts for us—and the second competition is underway.

TV KIDS: There’s a second Sesame Place opening by the fall of 2022. Do you anticipate further expansion of your theme-park business?

DUNN: That would be our preference. Last year was Sesame Place’s best year ever. Theme parks give families a unique and powerful way to experience our characters. Building more parks will enable us to connect with even more families and provide funding that supports our nonprofit mission. Every dollar we earn goes into supporting our mission and helping educate children.

TV KIDS: What kinds of businesses are you looking to invest in with Sesame Ventures?

DUNN: Sesame Ventures invests in start-ups that are missionaligned with us. We partner with the best emerging

companies innovating in education, health and social welfare for kids. We recognize that by ourselves we can only help so many kids become smarter, stronger and kinder.

But if we partner with others who are also focused on helping children, our impact can expand dramatically.

And, we have expertise and resources that can increase the odds of success in a start-up. In the same way that the creation of Sesame Street gave birth to a whole generation of new TV shows and networks, we’d like to help create a series of new ventures using new technologies. This also helps keep us on the cutting edge of what young entrepreneurs are achieving with technology, so there is a knowledge transfer and we benefit as well. Sesame Ventures has now invested in over 40 companies. We are using the proceeds from the 2012 sale of our stake in Sprout to NBCUniversal to fund this work.

TV KIDS: What are your major goals and opportunities for Sesame Workshop in the next 12 to 18 months, and what do you see as your biggest challenges?

DUNN: Right now, three things keep me up at night: ramping up our project in the Syrian response region, the toxic environment that today’s politics has created for kids, and the ever-changing media landscape. We are a small, independent nonprofit organization and we have to compete in a rapidly consolidating and evolving industry landscape, where others have far more scale and resources. So, we fight as the underdog. We have to stay focused, but also be nimble and urgent. I firmly believe that we are at a moment in history. Technology, demographics and politics have changed the landscape so much. Years from now, I think historians will reflect on the first quarter of the 21st century as a pivotal time for mankind. As William Wordsworth memorably wrote, “The child is father of the man.” In other words, if you want to see what a society is going to look like 20 or 30 years from now, see how it is treating its children today. There is so much at stake. We intend to lead and be a positive force for change.

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A second Sesame Place, a theme park built around Sesame Street characters, is expected to open by fall 2022.

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TV KIDS: Take us back to the beginning of Superprod. What was your motivation for setting up your own company, and what gaps did you want to fill in the marketplace?

CALVET: I created the company with my associate Jérémie [Fajner, managing director] in October 2010. I had worked for almost 15 years in animation at various companies. I thought it was time for me to start [my own] adventure.

That’s the reason we did it. I also wanted to be able to tell stories, of course in animation but also in live action.

We’ve been doing several things, including live action and stage plays. It was a way for me to diversify. We also decided to produce everything from France. Our model before was only to develop and sell our products, and we would sub-contract the production. It’s been three years now since we have created our own studio, and we produce 100 percent in-house. That’s made a difference.

TV KIDS: There are lots of production companies in France, many of which use external distributors. Why was it essential for you to establish Superights as a venture that would sell your own products as well as third-party series?

CALVET: I’ve always been active in distribution. There was a distribution branch in the companies that I worked for in the past. One of my first jobs in the industry was as a lawyer in charge of all the contracts for international sales, at France Animation a long time ago. Having your own distribution company gives you the ability to have a clear vision of the market in general. We often get our inspiration from the sales team, who relay back to us the needs of the buyers, market after market. When we go and create our own shows, we often rely on that analysis.

By Mansha Daswani

In France’s thriving and competitive animation sector, Superprod has rapidly carved out a name for itself with hits like Helen’s Little School and Pat the Dog, which are represented by its distribution company, Superights. Founded by Alphanim alums Clément Calvet and Jérémie Fajner, Superprod is active in both animated series and feature films, while also building a live-action scripted business. Calvet tells TV Kids about Superprod’s positioning, its approach to storytelling and production innovation and its ambitions for the future.

TV KIDS: How do you approach crafting your development and production slates? Is there an ideal size for you?

CALVET: Development is the key area of the business. Even if the show is not produced, it’s always a tremendous plus to evolve and be able to make better shows. So we never limit ourselves in terms of development. Each time we feel we have a good idea or we think there’s a fantastic book on the market, we tend to start developing it. We have a lot going on all the time. And the market is constantly changing. It’s also the best way for us to always be ready to present a project that people need. We think there’s an infinite possibility of great projects. We’re very concentrated on the artistry and the high quality we can provide on every show we develop; we really feel that there’s an appetite [for that] from the market as well. At any one time, we might have six to ten projects in development. Regarding production, it’s a different story. As I mentioned, we now

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produce everything in-house, and we try not to go beyond [a staff of] 200 people in our studios between Paris and Angoulême. We have a constant flow—some are doing preproduction, others are doing post-production. And we’re also very active on the theatrical side.

TV KIDS: I know the animated film business model is very different from television. How are you managing that side of the business in terms of financing and production timelines?

CALVET: We created the company because we had an appetite to tell stories. Even if you develop great TV projects, there’s a limit to what you can do. Cinema is a different market—different buyers, a different way to produce, a different approach, different marketing strategies and so on. For us, it was a way to expand and express ourselves differently.

At Alphanim we did three. At Superprod we’ve done four.

We have others going on. It’s been very important for us. It is a longer process. You don’t have the same volume; you don’t develop as much, you don’t produce as much. But you always have at least one in production, and somehow feature-film production is [to animation what] Formula One is to cars.

We have great technology to produce our shows with because we have been able to test it on a bigger scale on the cinema side. The financing is much more difficult. In France, even though we have a great system of incentives, it’s very difficult to compete against live-action feature films, which get most of the interest and the money from the market. But still, we are a strong country of great animators, so we try to develop things that will appeal to the market. The most recent one, which will be released in France in March, is an adaptation of White Fang by Jack London. That’s a book we loved to read when we were kids. It’s in the public domain. It’s a story that people know well. Even without a big budget—it’s still a lot of money—we thought we could achieve something that would please the audience, aside from the fantastic titles from Pixar and Disney. The next one we’re doing is an adaptation of Charlie Chaplin’s The Kid. TV KIDS: What are some of your new projects on the TV side?

CALVET: We’ve just delivered Helen’s Little School and Pat the Dog. We are going to launch production of the second season of Pat the Dog. All the TV series we’re developing are CGI, by the way; that’s another important move we made recently. We’re going to launch a series called Joker Joe, which we developed with M6 in France. And then we have another show in development with France Télévisions called Osmond. And the new thing is that we are doing some service work for major studios.

TV KIDS: What are some of the biggest challenges for you as a French producer and distributor, and where do you see the greatest opportunities for growth?

CALVET: These are not the worst days. We’ve been experimenting with all the opportunities with the new platforms— Netflix, Amazon, etc. There’s good competition in the market. Everybody wants to get the best projects, and we have decided to position ourselves at the high-quality end of the market. Of course for a French producer, everything starts with a sale to a French network. The first element of our business is to get the projects commissioned. Then it’s to make sure we can deliver the best quality, and that’s why

we’re doing everything in-house, ensuring we have better control over what we do. On the theatrical side, it’s getting exciting. We’ve been producing some smallbudget films, mainly in 2D hand-drawn animation, for years. French producers are now able to produce more ambitious movies with bigger budgets. I think the next era of French animated cinema will see some ambitious CGI-animated movies with bigger budgets produced in France, with increased support from the CNC—specifically dedicated to animation—and the government.

TV KIDS: Have your storytelling techniques evolved as animation technology has changed?

CALVET: We have never adjusted the stories to technique— it’s the opposite. At Superprod we don’t have a dedicated pipe into which everything should fit. We focus on the storytelling and the concept we develop and then, when we know what we want to do and what we want to achieve, we start thinking about the pipe and the workflow. There are so many great tools that you can pick from today and make the show you want to make, according to the story you want to tell. Maybe at the early stage of CGI, you had to limit yourself or adjust your storytelling. These days, all the tools that are on the market provide so much freedom.

It’s really a question of artistic vision. If you have the vision, you can master the tools to deliver the result you want.

That’s why we have a lot of developers in-house who are always testing new tools and technologies.

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Superprod’s slate includes Joker Joe, which was developed with M6.

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TV KIDS: What have you learned from the different ways children interact with Cartoon Network content and does that inform the type of content you co-produce or acquire?

PITT: One of the things we’ve learned is that everything has to allow for multiple touchpoints. We have to ensure multiplatform storytelling and that has been tremendous learning. When we think about the content we are acquiring, we challenge our producers to try to put themselves in the shoes of the person who is receiving their content. If you have a child who is consuming content in multiple ways, then you have to create a narrative that is native to each one of their platforms. It might be at the inception, when you are thinking about your brand— you’re not just thinking from a linear perspective or a nonlinear perspective; it’s much more holistic than that, it’s both linear and nonlinear. It’s a different challenge and that’s where collaboration very early on is required between networks and producers. It’s about partnering early on and developing how we’re going to map out your brand over time.

TV KIDS: Are you noticing any trends in children’s programming?

PITT: I am very excited to see that people are focusing on kindness. They are focusing on friendship, diversity and inclusion. I’m seeing a lot of female empowerment characters—which is fantastic—but they’re not excluding the boys. I’m seeing people being thoughtful about how they put together their storytelling. I could also talk about reimagined classics being a trend and live action, but I think it’s more interesting to talk about how producers and creators are paying attention to what is happening in the marketplace and in the world. They’re saying, I want to tell a story that is going to impact kids, make them laugh, make them think and almost teach without being educational, and be very positive.

TV KIDS: If children are exposed to these themes in an entertaining way when they are young, they will remember them.

PITT: Absolutely. We are paying attention to how these characters feel and look and how they speak and interact. Whether it’s a human character or an animal or an alien, it doesn’t matter. There are some universal themes that people are touching upon, which gives me great hope in terms of what this community is doing right now for the kids’ space.

By Anna Carugati

Adina Pitt sees a lot of children’s programming from all around the world and has a unique perspective on emerging trends. In her position as VP of content acquisitions and co-productions for Cartoon Network and Boomerang at Turner, she sources shows that can complement in-house productions. As she tells TV Kids, children today have numerous entertainment options and content must be offered on all the screens and devices they use.

TV KIDS: Are there any new acquisitions or co-productions you would like to mention?

PITT: The one I could call out is the new generation of Total Drama. That is a brand that has been part of our channel for many years. To go back to Fresh TV and CAKE and take a new creative approach to some of the kids’ favorite characters and make them a little bit younger and have a different storytelling approach was really exciting. Total Drama is very, very funny and it was a full-circle moment where you get to see a brand that we didn’t make internally, but

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feels so much a part of who we are at Cartoon Network.

There is such a great brand association with us that it’s exciting to see what they are doing and I’m looking forward to that hitting our platforms soon.

TV KIDS: Compared to when you started in the business, what added or different challenges do channel brands face today?

PITT: This is probably one of the biggest questions. It’s always about great storytelling and giving our consumers what they want. We live in a multiplatform world and finding the right balance between our show brands and our channel brands is a constant. Now more than ever, what we try to do is either create or acquire content that stays true to our brand and hopefully extends our reach. You want to make sure that you are setting a trend and you are relevant to your consumer. It’s an evolving business, but if you think about it, the shows that rise to the top are the ones that connect with the consumer in the most meaningful way, and that is great storytelling.

TV KIDS: What’s missing from the market?

PITT: As somebody who sees so much content, it would be that thing that we didn’t know we needed until we see it.

When someone comes to us and says, I’m taking this approach, I’ve created these characters, I’ve created this experience, that’s that aha moment where you say OK, we’re going to try this. At Cartoon Network and Boomerang, we’ve never shied away from taking risks, so I would hope that what’s missing is that white space—as producers look at the landscape and I see a lot of common themes, maybe they pivot and go in a different direction and come to us with those ideas. I’m delighted to say that some of the stuff that was missing is now present, as I called out before, some of those themes that people are bringing to the table are very exciting.

TV KIDS: Is it much more complicated to establish a show brand in today’s media market than it was 10 or 15 years ago?

PITT: We work very closely with our marketing teams to have these discussions for each individual piece of IP. I would encourage producers to have a franchise approach to the IP that they are developing and to look more holistically at what they are doing.

If you reach your consumers everywhere they are and you are telling the stories they want to see, chances are you’re going to have a hit, and that is what the world is striving for. Of course, establishing a brand is difficult, kids have a lot of choices. You have to stand out in a very fragmented market. But that being said, the role of the shows we bring in from third parties is to complement and hopefully scaffold the originals that we are creating. It’s a constant ebb and flow of stopping and assessing, Are we doing this right? Are we hitting them at the right place? How can we perfect this? There is no one method we use for each property. Each property is its own entity and requires its own strategy.

TV KIDS: What’s new at Boomerang?

PITT: I am super excited that we launched an OTT service. It offers yet another place where we can reach our consumers and offer them great unique content through our partnership with Warner Bros. We have also added some third-party IP that fits in nicely with these iconic characters and shows like Scooby-Doo and Tom and Jerry. That offers us an opportunity to appeal to perhaps a younger demo and be perhaps a little more gender-neutral. Widening our Boomerang [lineup] allows us—not just from a demo perspective but certainly from a genre perspective—to experiment a little bit more and maybe go a little bit younger.

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DHX’s Mega Man, which is based on a video-game franchise, lands on Cartoon Network this year.

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make a parody that kids would have fun with. They took to the format immediately, and they started cheering for their favorite characters and investing in the elimination competition. They adopted it as their reality show, and we would get messages from fans who were devastated when their favorite character was kicked off.

TV KIDS: How much reality TV did you have to watch?

PERTSCH: A good bit! [Laughs] And a lot of them have archetypal characters—you can hear them in casting: we need a villain, a diva, a complainer! We followed a lot of those conventions because we knew the kids were so familiar with them and they would respond. We cast teen versions of those characters, and then we brought them to life with the animated version of a “confession cam,” where you have cartoon characters speaking directly to the camera. The viewers felt like they were getting right inside a character’s head.

What made it work were the characters and having lots of drama without the overt backstabbing of reality shows.

Cartoon Network and Corus both took such a huge risk greenlighting this show. Scheduling a serial animated show was a huge pain for a network back then. They were taking a chance, and it paid off. It being serialized helped—it made it appointment TV for kids. The first season was so successful, we brought that cast back and threw them into a new situation. And then we went back to the island with a new cast. We did an all-star season, that was fun. One of our favorite seasons after the first one was our last one, The Ridonculous Race.

By Mansha Daswani

As shows like Survivor began to dominate the television landscape, Tom McGillis and Jennifer Pertsch at Canada’s Fresh TV decided that kids needed a reality show they could call their own.

A spoof of the genre, the animated comedy Total Drama Island enamored kids across the globe and was followed by four additional seasons and a spin-off, Total Drama Presents: The Ridonculous Race. This year sees the launch of a prequel, Total Drama Daycare. Pertsch, co-creator and writer on the show, tells TV Kids about the continued success of the franchise, which is represented by CAKE. TV KIDS: What was the inspiration for Total Drama Island?

PERTSCH: This was back in the brand-new heyday of reality shows. Corus asked us to ride the reality wave. They saw it capturing the imagination of tweens throughout Canada.

It took us a year to develop. An animated reality show— how does that even work? We finally decided to go for it and present the animated version of a reality show without explaining that it wasn’t real. We just figured that kids are smart enough to be in on the joke. And they totally followed. Making it animated allowed us to take it to the next level when it came to crazy challenges. The goal was to

TV KIDS: How did Total Drama Daycare come about?

PERTSCH: Cartoon Network wanted to keep it going. They said, it’s ten years later, we’re looking at a different generation of viewers, we want to age it down a little bit. So they came to us and said, think outside the box. We thought, we’re always pushing logic out the back window, let’s push it all the way out and make a prequel! We can age our cast down and put them all in daycare. We couldn’t believe how many stories we had to work with. Who knew there was so much drama in a daycare? [Laughs] We took 11 favorites from our original cast and aged them down to 4.

And then we added Jude from 6teen [another Fresh TV production], just to be crazy! We were still able to draw on their central character traits and mine tons of ridiculous stories. We eliminated the contests and structured it more like a workplace comedy. We kept the confessional. Every episode stems from one of the kids’ wants or needs.

TV KIDS: How did you adjust the storytelling to go from a 22-minute format to an 11-minute format?

PERTSCH: Eliminating the contest took off many, many pages. In Total Drama, we would usually have two contests per episode. Working our way through that took a lot of time. It’s faster paced. There are fewer B stories. We’re trying to keep each episode focused on one character’s wants and a few other characters helping them, rather than trying to service all characters at once.

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ON THE RECORD

remantleMedia is the product of a long line of mergers and acquisitions. One of its “grandparents” was Pearson Television, which through the 1990s acquired several production entities, including Grundy Worldwide in Australia, Thames Television in the U.K. and All American Communications in the U.S. In 2000, Pearson Television merged with CLTUFA and Audiofina and formed the RTL Group. One year later, the RTL Group, owned by Bertelsmann, set up FremantleMedia, which housed the production companies that had been acquired thus far.

Cecile Frot-Coutaz had joined Pearson early in her career and, in fact, had been involved in the acquisition of All American.

In 2005 she was named CEO of FremantleMedia North America, where she oversaw production and was responsible for growing the company’s businesses. She also served as executive producer of three of the biggest entertainment franchises ever made: American Idol, America’s Got Talent and The X Factor USA. Frot-Coutaz was appointed CEO of FremantleMedia in 2012 and in that role continued in its forebears’ tradition of investing in production companies. Today, FremantleMedia’s global network includes operations in 31 countries. Each year, they produce some 12,500 hours of programming, create 60 formats and get more than 420 programs on the air.

Alongside the global network division sits global entertainment, responsible for rolling out formats around the world, with the help of a team of flying producers. So do global drama, digital and branded entertainment, and FremantleMedia International, which manages a library of more than 20,000 hours of all genres of programming and sells them to more than 200 territories.

In recent years, capitalizing on the global demand for drama, Frot-Coutaz has helped shape the company’s scripted content strategy. She has invested in more production entities and overseen the forging of relationships with talent. In a crowded drama market, FremantleMedia is focusing on high-concept, auteur-led series. Examples include The Young Pope, American Gods, Picnic at Hanging Rock and Hard Sun. While the majority of the scripted content finds homes on premium channels or SVOD services, FremantleMedia’s unscripted shows are tailor-made for ad-supported broadcast networks seeking to attract large audiences; classics such as The Price Is Right and Family Feud continue to sell around the world, as do more recent shows, including Take Me Out. In March, Frot-Coutaz announced she would be stepping down from her role at FremantleMedia later this year. She is set to take up a post at YouTube. She talks to World Screen about upcoming dramas, the demand for talent and the opportunities that new platforms offer FremantleMedia.

CECILE FROT-COUTAZ FREMANTLEMEDIA

By Anna Carugati

WS: It was recently announced that you are leaving FremantleMedia. What have you enjoyed most about your years at the company? What motivated your decision to take on a new challenge?

FROT-COUTAZ: I’m not leaving FremantleMedia until our shareholder, RTL, has appointed my successor, so it’s very much business as usual for a while yet. I’m still looking forward, not back. I’ve been really clear that two things would need to be the case for me to consider leaving. First, and most importantly, FremantleMedia would need to be firing on all cylinders—brimming with creative excellence and unstoppable momentum. Second, it would take a unique challenge that offers me something completely new and different.

Both of those conditions have been met. I leave with a heavy heart but unshakeable confidence in the future.

WS: There is a lot of drama in the market. Has the increased volume impacted your drama strategy in any way?

FROT-COUTAZ: You are right—there is a lot of drama and a lot of good drama out there. Does it impact us? Of course it does. We’re not a volume player, and we’re never going to be. So far we’ve focused on a small number of what we believe are great titles that are also original and different. I think that is the key—focusing on shows that we believe will cut through. And hopefully we will continue to do that. Obviously, it’s not easy to do that. I’m not saying this strategy applies to everybody, but for us, that’s the path that we’ve chosen: do a lot less but focus on shows we believe bring something new and different. I suppose that having a global footprint makes it a little easier to deliver, because most of the content so far has come out of the U.S. or the U.K. So if you can bring—even if it’s just one show a year—a 4/18 WORLD SCREEN 233

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show that comes from Italian creators, French creators, German creators or Israeli creators, then you will by definition bring a slightly different viewpoint. That’s how we’ve been tackling it.

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WS: Would you give some examples of the type of drama you are producing across your territories?

FROT-COUTAZ: American Gods was a big show for us. It was a very distinctive show. It’s based on a Neil Gaiman novel that had been deemed unadaptable until now. It was a show that was ambitious in its scale, but the way we approached the narrative is very different from a more traditional, linear type of narrative. It’s a show that had central characters, but it also had a lot of vignettes that try to tackle important themes. In some ways, that was its focus more than the narrative. So that is an example of a big, ambitious show that we brought to market. It’s been a huge hit for Starz in the U.S. and Amazon Prime Video internationally, and we’re excited about season two.

A show that we produced in 2017 and will be launching this year is Picnic at Hanging Rock.

We took a legacy title, a book and a ’70s movie, [and produced a six-part series] directed by Larysa Kondracki, who was instrumental in doing this and told the story from a different viewpoint, from the viewpoint of the girls.

Although it’s a story that takes place in 1900, it feels contemporary because it’s told through their eyes. It’s a real coming-of-age story, and it explores a lot of themes around femininity and being a woman and is quite modern even though the backdrop is period.

Another show I would mention, because it’s going to be brilliant but also very unusual, is The Miracle, which is coming out of Wildside, our Italian production company. It is written by Niccolò Ammaniti, a best-selling Italian novelist.

This is his first television screenplay. He wrote it for Wildside. It’s about a statue of the Virgin Mary that cries tears of real blood, hence the title, The Miracle. But it explores how today we are pushing science very, very far and at what point it bumps into faith. It’s going to be a brilliant piece and one that people will talk about because it’s so unusual. It’s also beautiful, very filmic, incredibly modern in terms of the imagery and very disruptive.

We’re doing My Brilliant Friend, the television adaptation of [the first in] Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels. What all these shows have in common is they are incredibly authentic stories. And Ferrante is a good example of how exciting it is to be in the space today, because this a story based on globally best-selling novels.

It’s based in Naples and we’re filming it in Naples. Wildside—who also produced Paolo Sorrentino’s The Young Pope in 2016 and are working on the follow-up—has recreated the neighborhood and cast a whole bunch of

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unknown actors. They are from Naples and, because a lot of the people are from the neighborhood, they speak the Neapolitan dialect as opposed to pure Italian, so the director insisted that he cast actors from those neighborhoods who could speak the dialect. It’s an incredibly authentic rendition of the story, but one that is co-produced with HBO. It’s done on a fantastic scale. It’s absolutely beautiful, well directed and incredibly emotional. That show is going to have a lot of impact when it comes out.

We’re also really proud of Hard Sun from Euston Films, our U.K. production company. It was written by Neil Cross, launched in January on BBC One and goes global this year. It’s a show that will resonate in today’s environment and will be part of the zeitgeist. Agyness Deyn, who has never done television before, delivers an absolutely brilliant performance, and it’s great when you also get to create stars. Thematically, it’s a story that hasn’t been told before. It’s a procedural and a thriller but with a fantastic backdrop.

Finally, our German production company, UFA, is also on a roll. It had a 2017 to remember, celebrating its 100th birthday and producing Charité, the number one drama in Germany.

Looking ahead, Nico Hofmann at UFA is working with Kate Harwood at Euston Films to bring Robert Harris’s best-selling thriller Munich to the screen. That’s a great example of the kind of panEuropean co-production that only Fremantle can deliver. UFA has also teamed up with the

legendary filmmaker Michael Haneke on Kelvin’s Book. A ten-part drama set in a dys topian world, this will be Haneke’s first-ever TV series. Forging creative partnerships with such acclaimed visionaries as Michael Haneke, Paolo Sorrentino, Neil Cross and Neil Gaiman is a real testament to Fremantle’s creative ambitions.

WS: How do your teams differentiate between drama they have in development that remains local and those pieces that have the potential to become global?

FROT-COUTAZ: It’s an art and not a science.

Some of that is judgment and it’s also about a number of things. For instance, is it based on a book? Ferrante’s is an Italian story, but because it’s a best seller it has international potential. If it hadn’t been an international best seller, we would never have been able to do it as a big international project. That’s one. It’s also a family drama, it’s the story about the relationship between two women, and that transcends cultures and language. The theme will resonate globally, but I don’t think the show would have had traction internationally if it weren’t for the books.

The same applies to Munich, Robert Harris’s big spy thriller about those four days [involving a meeting between Adolf Hitler, Neville Chamberlain, Benito Mussolini and Édouard Daladier], which had a huge impact on the history of the world. It’s a U.K.-German story, but it’s something that we believe will resonate internationally.

Then there’s a project such as Deutschland 83 [and the follow-up Deutschland 86], which isn’t based on a book but does have themes that are of international interest and relevance—in this case, the Cold War. So whether or not a project has global potential is a matter of the themes that are tackled, whether it’s based on a book and sometimes also who is involved. If you have something that is a local show but it has a big international film director attached, then it will be interesting internationally. We look at the subject matter, who is involved, the material and whether we believe the subject matter will resonate outside its country of origin.

WS: Has the increased volume of drama in the market impacted your unscripted strategy?

FROT-COUTAZ: We continue to nurture our big shows. Generally speaking, if you look around the world at the legacy unscripted franchises, not just ours, we’re doing better than anybody would have predicted eight or nine years ago. Remember, of all these dramas we’ve been talking about, some 70 percent of this output is either for pay-TV or SVOD platforms. Hard Sun is for the BBC, that’s public service, but the majority is not geared toward prime-time commercial linear broadcasters. And for those broadcasters, these big unscripted events are hugely important, now more than ever. So you’re looking at two different parts of the market. ITV is in the business of big

Two years since wrapping its 15-season run on FOX, American Idol relaunched in the U.S. this spring on ABC with a new judging lineup and returning host Ryan Seacrest.

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FremantleMedia International’s association with Jamie Oliver Productions has seen shows such as Jamie’s Quick & Easy Food rolled out worldwide. dramas, and so are the U.S. networks, but it’s a different kind of drama. They are procedurals. The networks tend to play less in this auteur-driven serialized drama that we’ve been talking about because they must appeal to broad audiences and are advertiser-funded. Typically these auteur pieces are a lot more niche and not suited to them.

So the unscripted world still needs to cater to the traditional linear broadcasters.

WS: Is constant innovation necessary in unscripted programming?

FROT-COUTAZ: Like everything, these big shows need to stand out, but they also need familiarity.

If you look at shows that have worked recently, The Great British Bake Off is a huge hit in the U.K., and I don’t think people saw it coming. It has a simple premise, but it worked because it was incredibly authentic and warm and relatable. If you look at television over the last 50 years, genres have pretty much all been the same. The talent shows have existed this entire time, and so have game shows and documentaries. When it comes to the big unscripted shows, a lot of it is about tweaks to something that is a formula people know. Until there is some new big technological advance that means we can do something that is completely different, then [unscripted] will continue to be about finding interesting characters and telling authentic stories about the characters, which isn’t so different from scripted. But until now there hasn’t been some big, new thing that is completely disrupting the genre.

WS: Tell us about American Idol on ABC. How did it come about?

FROT-COUTAZ: They expressed interest! We believed there was a good match between the American Idol audience and ABC. Idol is very much a family show, and ABC is very much a family network, so we thought it was a good fit.

WS: Why is the American Idol franchise so important to FremantleMedia?

FROT-COUTAZ: Yes, it’s important, but it’s not more important than America’s Got Talent or American Gods or Britain’s Got Talent. There was a day 10 or 11 years ago when it was hugely important because the show was a phenomenon. Now it’s a good show and a great brand, and obviously we hope it will do well, but it’s not more important than our other shows. We are a very different company now. We’re a much more diversified company. American Idol is in a portfolio of other important shows, but it is no longer the beacon that stands above everything else. It lives among its peers.

WS: What initiatives do you have in digital and branded content?

FROT-COUTAZ: We’ve learned a lot from the digital space, and there are a lot of things that go into the digital bucket these days. For us, digital is about what we do in social media; it’s about our Facebook and YouTube presence, and we have a very large presence on both those platforms. Last year, for example, our content had over 26 billion views on YouTube alone—that’s more than any other television producer, network or film studio. It’s about how we collaborate with those platforms, and that takes several forms: it’s how we market our shows to those 236 WORLD SCREEN 4/18

platforms, how we cross-promote and how we engage the fans while the shows are on the air, both scripted and unscripted. Going forward, it’s also going to be about producing for those platforms. Facebook has launched the Watch tab; we’ll hopefully be producing for the Watch tab in the future. We’re looking into doing some projects with YouTube in various places around the world. The one thing that the past few years have taught us is that producing original shortform video is a very difficult business and one that so far hasn’t found its economics. So for a company like ours, it’s going to be about the social media piece of it—how to engage our fans through the platforms and how over time the platforms will become commissioners of premium content. But the notion that you can create a business producing short-form video— maybe one day the money will be there, but right now it isn’t.

WS: What are the most significant challenges and opportunities in the next 12 to 24 months?

FROT-COUTAZ: The big challenge is access to talent because it’s incredibly competitive out there. You have to be sure you are in business with the right people at the right time. Everybody wants to work with the same writers and the same producers.

There is an ongoing challenge with the shift in the business model of linear broadcasters as they are losing reach with the younger demos. How they react to that and how they move to a B-to-C strategy impacts us indirectly. As for opportunities, the new platforms represent fantastic opportunities for content suppliers like us and will continue to do so.

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TVDRAMA

WWW.TVDRAMA.WS

APRIL 2018

MIPTV & SERIES MANIA EDITION

Period Pieces / Political Drama / Genius: Picasso’s Antonio Banderas Ay Yapim’s Kerem Çatay / UnREAL’s Stacy Rukeyser

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14 TV DRAMA

CONTENTS FEATURES

Conspiracy Theory

30 LOOKING BACK Period drama never seems to go out of style.

30

I have a terrifying backlog of shows to catch up on. Other than the smattering of series that I have to watch live—or, at the very least, close to live—I have fallen tragically behind. And I blame the White House.

38 MATTERS OF STATE Ricardo Seguin Guise Publisher Anna Carugati Group Editorial Director Mansha Daswani Editor Kristin Brzoznowski Executive Editor Joanna Padovano Tong Managing Editor Sara Alessi Associate Editor Victor L. Cuevas Production & Design Director Phyllis Q. Busell Art Director Simon Weaver Online Director Dana Mattison Senior Sales & Marketing Manager Nathalia Lopez Sales & Marketing Coordinator Andrea Moreno Business Affairs Manager

Ricardo Seguin Guise President Anna Carugati Executive VP Mansha Daswani Associate Publisher & VP of Strategic Development TV Drama © 2018 WSN INC. 1123 Broadway, #1207 New York, NY 10010 Phone: (212) 924-7620 Fax: (212) 924-6940 Website: www.tvdrama.ws

Really, how do you pull yourself away from the nightly coverage of subpoenas and sackings, trysts and tall tales?

Porn stars and Russian spies? And of course, the battle between newsrooms for the latest scoop. It is addictive.

I’m back and forth between MSNBC and CNN constantly, have subscriptions to The New York Times and The Washington Post, and Google News is my browser’s default address. So much drama! And drama is the key word here because I find myself, frequently, watching news coverage and wondering who is going to play X in the inevitable limited event series on HBO or Netflix or Amazon or [insert prestige drama platform] about the Trump presidency. I’d love to see what Ryan Murphy would make of all this palace intrigue. Or Shonda Rhimes. Maybe the Duffer Brothers, because it does all feel like Stranger Things’ The Upside Down sometimes, doesn’t it? [I’ll take SNL’s Kate McKinnon as Robert Mueller and Jeff Sessions any day.]

Political dramas are certainly of the moment, as we explore in this issue of TV Drama, with a wealth emerging out of Europe in particular. They are tricky to pull off, but when done well can be ratings winners at home and abroad, giving audiences an insider’s look at the halls of power. The political- and espionage-themed dramas available on the market right now are largely contemporary, but audiences are as eager to be transported to the past. Another report in this edition explores the enduring demand for period pieces and hears from leading distributors about the kinds of costume dramas that fare best globally. Biographical series are also making headlines, among them National Geographic’s Genius: Picasso, a follow-up to the channel’s series on Albert Einstein. Antonio Banderas tells TV Drama about how he embodied the iconic artist. We also feature Q&As with Stacy Rukeyser, showrunner of UnREAL, the Lifetime drama that tackles gender politics through the prism of a reality dating show; and Kerem Çatay, the CEO of Ay Yapim, one of Turkey’s most prolific production houses.

—Mansha Daswani

The demand for political dramas and espionage thrillers is on the rise.

38

INTERVIEWS

44 Genius: Picasso’s Antonio Banderas

48 Ay Yapim’s Kerem Çatay

50 UnREAL’s Stacy Rukeyser

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16 TV DRAMA

CJ E&M

Avengers’ Social Club / Because This Is My First Life / Cross Women team up to seek revenge on targets as well as uncover social injustice in Avengers’ Social Club, one of the drama highlights being presented by CJ E&M to international buyers in Cannes. The company is also highlighting Because This Is My First Life, about two strangers who move into an apartment together, and Cross, centered on a young man who becomes a doctor and volunteers to work in a prison hospital to avenge his father’s killer. “The three titles above have recorded great ratings for the channel tvN,” says Jangho Seo, the general manager of CJ E&M’s global content division.

“Viewers were immersed in the storylines and [imagined] themselves in the shoes of the characters. These titles are about stories that can happen anywhere to anyone in any culture, which is why they could be appealing internationally.”

Avengers’ Social Club

“After successful remakes of K-dramas around the world, we hope that more buyers are introduced to compelling stories by CJ E&M.”

—Jangho Seo

Fox Networks Group Content Distribution Genius: Picasso / Here on Earth / Mr Inbetween

Following the success of Genius: Einstein, which marked National Geographic’s first fully scripted drama, the anthology series returns with a second installment that details the life and loves of the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso. Antonio Banderas stars in Genius: Picasso, which Fox Networks Group Content Distribution is bringing to MIPTV. Two additional slate highlights are Here on Earth and Mr Inbetween. “Here on Earth is a new crime drama and thriller from Latin America, revolving around the complex criminal activity and major secrets of one of Mexico’s most influential families,” says Prentiss Fraser, the company’s executive VP and managing director. Gael García Bernal appears in the series, as well as executive produces. Mr Inbetween, meanwhile, is a drama series, with comedic moments, about a hitman.

Here on Earth

“We are proud to represent such compelling and top-quality drama, and these three titles alone show how international our new slate is for MIPTV.”

—Prentiss Fraser

FremantleMedia

Hang Ups

My Brilliant Friend / Hang Ups / The Miracle

Based on the hit book penned by Elena Ferrante, My Brilliant Friend is an eight-part drama directed by Saverio Costanzo (Private) that is currently in production in Italy. According to Sarah Doole, the director of global drama at FremantleMedia, the series “will be the first of the Elena Ferrante novels centering on the lives of Elena Greco and Raffaella Cerullo to be brought to screen.” The company is also showcasing Hang Ups, a six-part unconventional comedy adapted from the Emmy-nominated show Web Therapy. “Stephen Mangan (Episodes) stars as Dr. Richard Pitt, a therapist with a checkered professional career, who finds himself at a crossroads in life,” says Doole. Then there is The Miracle, which marks the first TV project from best-selling Italian author Niccolò Ammaniti.

“Our slate includes some enormously ambitious, channel-defining scripted titles from some of the best on- and off-screen talent in the industry.”

—Sarah Doole 252 WORLD SCREEN 4/18

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18 TV DRAMA

Global Agency Sultan of My Heart / My Dangerous Wife / Bitter Sweet The historical drama series Sultan of My Heart leads off Global Agency’s drama slate. It is being co-produced by Russia’s Gazprom-Media and Turkey’s Maya Productions and is set to air in both countries. “In addition to Russia and Turkey, the series is supported by the American industry,” says Senay Filiztekin, the company’s head of drama acquisitions. “The authentic world of Sultan of My Heart was formed with the unique touch of Bobby Roth, the director of numerous national phenomena, including Lost and Prison Break, as the advisory director of the series.” Global Agency also has on offer My Dangerous Wife, a brand-new drama from the producer of the best-selling series Mother. The cast of the drama features one of the leading actresses from Mother as well. “It is a thrilling drama that keeps the audience alive and alert all the time with its storyline, fiction and acting,” says Filiztekin. “I am sure many buyers will be impressed when they see even the very first trailer.” She also highlights Bitter Sweet, which tells the story of a successful businessman, Ferit, and his private professional chef, Nazli. “There are so many distinctive factors,” Filiztekin says of the series. “It has many dramatic scenes, conflicts, love and tragedy and, at the same time, [there is a lot of] fun.”

Bitter Sweet

“Bitter Sweet is not an ordinary romantic comedy series.”

—Senay Filiztekin

Global Screen

The Joshua Profile

The Joshua Profile / Let It Glow: How Pauline Saved Christmas The thriller event movie The Joshua Profile is based on the best-selling book by writer Sebastian Fitzek. “This nail-biting thriller deals with an explosive subject that’s already frighteningly real: predictive policing—data-based crime prevention,” says Alexandra Heidrich, the head of TV sales and acquisitions at Global Screen. “In a race against time, a lawabiding citizen and loving father is chased through the vibrant metropolis of Berlin for a crime he hasn’t committed—yet. Breathless tension is guaranteed.” The company also has on its MIPTV roster Let It Glow: How Pauline Saved Christmas, an event series. When an impostor is chosen as the new Santa Claus, Santa’s gift bag and closest confidante, Beutolomäus, sets out to find the real one. “Live action combined with CGI animation, in 24 short episodes of 15 minutes each, is the perfect mix for families eagerly awaiting the Christmas holidays,” says Heidrich. She adds, “The frosty elements are not the only reason friends and families draw closer around Christmas time. Although many focus more on materialistic gifts, the holiday season reminds us to make time for the important things in life such as spending time with our loved ones. This modern fairy tale for young and old—with well-known and new Christmas figures and full of magic, secrets, fantasy and a good dose of humor—is a great opportunity to bring together the whole family.”

“Global Screen always seeks to deliver high-quality entertainment for adults and kids alike.”

—Alexandra Heidrich 254 WORLD SCREEN 4/18

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Stay with Me 20 TV DRAMA

GMA Worldwide Heart and Soul / The Stepdaughters / Stay with Me GMA Worldwide is presenting to the global market new drama series that have already proven to be successful in the Philippines. Among them, Heart and Soul is about fraternal twins Criselda and Crisanta. Criselda dies, but Crisanta can see her sister’s spirit. Their bond is put to the test when they fight for one man’s love. The Stepdaughters follows two women who become stepsisters and battle over fame, fortune, family and love. Stay with Me tells the story of a young wife’s struggle to keep her family together after being infected with HIV. “We believe that these dramas tell stories that focus on real-life experiences, show strong family connections, and portray love and romance,” says Manuel Paolo Laurena, the company’s senior sales manager.

“GMA Network is a prolific producer of quality dramas.”

—Manuel Paolo Laurena

Incendo

The Queen of Sin

Second Opinion / The Queen of Sin / Twisted In the Incendo TV movie Second Opinion, a corrupt doctor is ready to take advantage of an attractive upstart-business owner whose body begins to fail her. The company’s catalog also features The Queen of Sin, about a woman who seizes the opportunity to experience one last fling before settling down with her fiancé, and Twisted, which tells the story of a couple who are planning to get married when an ex-girlfriend steps back into the picture and a twisted catand-mouse game ensues. “We produce for the global market, our themes have universal appeal, and we have the highest production values,” says Gavin Reardon, Incendo’s head of international sales and co-productions. “Our consistency and reliability in creating at this level are at the heart of our success.”

“Incendo is renowned as the best producer of television movies.”

—Gavin Reardon

Inter Medya The Pit / Broken Wings / Mrs. Fazilet and Her Daughters The brand-new Ay Yapim-produced drama The Pit is being showcased by Inter Medya at the market. “The Pit is the story of a young man named Yamaç who comes from an influential family ruling over Çukur, a neighborhood in Istanbul,” says Can Okan, the company’s founder and CEO. “Torn between his love, his family and his neighborhood, Yamaç has no idea that his life is never going to be the same when he has to go back to Çukur to become the head of the family.” Another highlight is Broken Wings, a family drama focused on four siblings who are left alone in poverty after their father’s sudden death, and Mrs. Fazilet and Her Daughters, about a single mother who uses her two daughters to achieve success and wealth.

Mrs. Fazilet and Her Daughters

“For this year’s MIPTV, we have been working on the launch of several new titles.”

—Can Okan 256 WORLD SCREEN 4/18

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22 TV DRAMA

Kanal D International Mehmed the Conqueror / Wounded Love / Price of Passion The historical drama series Mehmed the Conqueror tells the story of a young Sultan Mehmed, who travels to Edirne with the dream of taking over Constantinopolis after he learns that his father, the sultan, has died. “Mehmed the Conqueror is the priority focus for Kanal D,” says Kerim Emrah Turna, the company’s director of content sales and business development. “This will be the biggest hit of the year.” Another period piece in the catalog is Wounded Love, which tests whether true love can survive the most trying conditions. He calls Wounded Love “one of the most beautiful, epic romances ever told.” Price of Passion, meanwhile, tells the story of a hitman and an idealist doctor, two very different people who marry and grow closer to each other over time.

Mehmed the Conqueror

“These three dramas are examples of original, high-quality content.”

—Kerim Emrah Turna

Keshet International Sleeping Bears / When Heroes Fly / 7 Faces From Keren Margalit (The A Word) comes the drama series Sleeping Bears. Other highlights from Keshet International include When Heroes Fly and 7 Faces. “Sleeping Bears encourages the viewer to consider what they would do if faced with the characters’ situation, When Heroes Fly raises questions of friendship and loyalty in the face of a big trauma, and 7 Faces addresses contemporary issues that young people in modern Turkey are dealing with,” says Atar Dekel, the head of global original drama. Dekel believes the series “have global appeal because they are very relatable and incorporate universal, compelling themes. There is also a defined creative editorial language that is specific to each of the writers and provides a unique and original look into these stories.”

Sleeping Bears

“This year’s slate enables us to showcase our diverse editorial line and prolific drama portfolio.”

—Atar Dekel

MISTCO

The Last Emperor

Mehmetcik: Kûtulamâre / The Last Emperor / The Prisoner of Love MISTCO is launching to the global market the latest epic drama from Turkey’s TRT, Mehmetcik: Kûtulamâre. The series is based on the story of a young man who sacrifices his own life to save the country and people who are in need of help. It is created by the same producer as Resurrection: Ertugrul. “What makes this series successful is the know-how of TRT, as well as the high-production quality and fascinating storyline,” says Aysegul Tuzun, the VP of sales and marketing at MISTCO. Another highlight is The Last Emperor. “With our deal in Albania, we continue to expand its sales in new territories,” Tuzun says of the series. Meanwhile, The Prisoner of Love is a modern drama with a romantic story. The title recently sold into Africa, “and we are very glad to have entered into a new market for Turkish dramas with such a successful [series].”

“Our experience and storytelling method make our content globally attractive.”

—Aysegul Tuzun

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24 TV DRAMA

Russia Television and Radio/Sovtelexport The Maze / The Captain’s Wife / Climate: Catastrophe Is Inevitable?

The modern melodrama The Maze centers on Marina, a beautiful and successful woman who appears to have it all, except for a child of her own. She will go through many trials on her long-awaited journey to motherhood. Meanwhile, The Captain’s Wife is an “adventurous melodrama, telling an exciting story of a young girl who loses everything she loves after a terrible car accident: her carefree childhood, the love of her parents and her cozy home,” says Julia Matiash, the director of Sovtelexport, the distribution arm of Russia Television and Radio. “Now, she has to travel far away and face a life full of challenges and fate’s twists in order to fulfill her dream of a happy life.”

The company is also presenting Climate: Catastrophe Is Inevitable?, a documentary.

“As a trend for the upcoming season, we have chosen the most dramatic contemporary stories about strong women who struggle for their happiness and succeed.”

The Captain’s Wife

—Julia Matiash

Series Mania April 27-May 5 / Lille, France Series Mania is gearing up for its new edition, which will take place in Lille, located an hour from Paris. Series Mania “aims to become the major event in Europe where creators meet with the decision-makers of the TV industry,” says Laurence Herszberg, founder and general director of Series Mania. The event will feature the European Project and Talent Forum, taking place from May 2 to 4. The Forum will gather 1,200 decision-makers, screenwriters and creative talents. Among the highlights are Co-Pro Pitching Sessions for projects in development and new initiatives for writers like SeriesLAB and Series Mania Writers Campus—high-quality workshops for emerging screenwriters and writers’ room sessions. There are also keynotes with A-list showrunners on the planner, alongside sneak previews of upcoming shows.

Series Mania

“Series Mania is the place in Europe to spot the best projects in development and meet the creators of the next big hit.”

—Laurence Herszberg

Star India The Wait for Love / Strange Love / This Is Love Sanjeeda Sheikh stars in the romantic series The Wait for Love (Love Ka Hai Intezaar), which follows the story of an actress who falls in love with a prince. Strange Love (Iss Pyaar Ko Kya Naam Doon) features Arnav, who is rich and arrogant, and Khushi, who is bubbly and well-mannered.

Their hatred for each other soon turns into a blissful romance. That series has been Star India’s biggest international hit, according to Gurjeev Kapoor, the president of international business. Strange Love “created history as the first-ever Indian drama series to air in Turkey,” he says. “It broke many viewership records by quadrupling the channel ratings in that slot for our partner Kanal 7. This paved the way for many more Indian series on Turkish television.”

This Is Love (Yeh Hai Mohabbatein) is also a highlight.

Strange Love

“Good storytelling can traverse borders.”

—Gurjeev Kapoor 260 WORLD SCREEN 4/18

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26 TV DRAMA

Viacom18/IndiaCast Media Distribution To Die for Love (Ishq Mein Marjawan) The content library of Viacom18/IndiaCast Media Distribution boasts more than 35,000 hours of programming from its channels that spread across genres such as general entertainment, music, youth and lifestyle, news and infotainment in multiple languages. “After establishing our presence successfully in the Eastern European markets, CIS and Asian countries, we have recently clinched our presence in Africa with one of the biggest distribution platforms,” says Anuj Gandhi, the group CEO of IndiaCast Media Distribution. “We are now excited to establish strategic alliances and business opportunities in the growing market of Latin America.” Among its catalog is To Die for Love, a mysterious story about Aarohi, who has been married into a fake family with con artists playing the roles of her in-laws.

To Die for Love

“While our content is symbolic of the core culture and diversity of India, our approach has always been global.”

—Anuj Gandhi

ZDF Enterprises The Crimson Rivers / Ku’damm 59 / Other People’s Problems With a cast led by Olivier Marchal, Erika Sainte, Ken Duken and Nora Waldstätten, The Crimson Rivers is a crime thriller on offer from ZDF Enterprises (ZDFE). “Each of the episodes remains true to the original screenplay by cult writer JeanChristophe Grangé,” says Fred Burcksen, the company’s president and CEO. “The remake of his best seller remains true to the 2000 box-office hit starring Jean Reno.” ZDFE is also presenting a three-part follow-up to the hit ’50s-set miniseries Ku’damm 56. “Ku’damm 59 follows the women of this generation on their search for a new feminine identity,” says Burcksen. Then there is Other People’s Problems, a short-form Aussie dramedy. “The web series was originally created for ABC iview and showcases a powerhouse of Australian female creative talent,” adds Burcksen.

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“Our topics work internationally, whether breathtaking crime series, shortform drama series or TV movies.”

The Crimson Rivers

—Fred Burcksen

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Lionsgate’s The White Princess.

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Steve Clarke explores the enduring demand for period drama. elevision period drama is reaching for the stars. Costume capers, swashbuckling series and romantic romps set in past decades are staples of scheduled TV. As the drama boom continues, and the small screen heads towards what may be a post-linear age, program-makers are mining the past for stories that can engage audiences in a crowded market.

For once, money appears to be no object. HBO’s global blockbuster Game of Thrones and Netflix’s exquisite The Crown, the über-expensive reimagining of the reign of Queen Elizabeth II, are two of the shows that have upped the ante in TV period drama. They are among the costliest TV shows ever made, setting new benchmarks by virtue of their cinematic quality and the scope and intricacy of their storytelling. Others are in the pipeline as Amazon Studios prepares what is reputedly a $1 billion remake of Lord of the Rings.

At this year’s MIPTV, distributors’ catalogs will not be short of period pieces, all of them hoping to be the next Game of Thrones. Expect to see shows set in the 20th century— World War II is a favorite period for commissioners—Tudor times through to the Victorian age and beyond.

THROUGH THE AGES The joint Amazon-Sky show Britannia is set in 43 AD when the Romans invaded Britain. Endemol Shine’s Troy: Fall of a City takes audiences right back to ancient Greece. There are new adaptations of classic novels such as Little Women and Howards End, modern books set in the past like The Miniaturist (located in 17th-century Amsterdam) and racy originals like Canal+’s Versailles, centered on France’s “Sun King,” Louis XIV. The third season of Versailles will open this year’s debut CANNESERIES screenings.

There is subtitled fare, such as SVT’s breakout hit The Restaurant, and period stories honed from crime mysteries featuring the world’s great fictional detectives. Did anyone mention Sherlock Holmes or Hercule Poirot and other stories created by Agatha Christie?

Period biopics, based on the lives of famous people and politicians, and period stories of love and class drawn from the pens of Jane Austen or Charles Dickens, have been the subjects of innumerable TV adaptations.

But what attracts today’s international buyers to period drama and what are the latest trends in the genre?

FEELING NEW “The essence of a successful period drama is to portray timeless stories of conflict, love or adventure in a compelling fashion, capturing the romance and intrigue of a bygone age, with narratives that remain current and relatable today,” suggests Peter Iacono, president of international television and digital distribution at Lionsgate, which has also fared well with Mad Men and the Starz costume drama The White Princess, a follow-up to The White Queen.

The studio’s MIPTV shows include Little Women starring Angela Lansbury and Emily Watson, and Howards End with Tracey Ullman, Hayley Atwell and Matthew Macfadyen.

Iacono says it’s significant that these two shows tackle themes that are relevant today.

“Both Little Women and Howards End are essentially stories of women’s empowerment,” he notes. “This is very relevant in relation to the current ‘Time’s Up’ movement.”

“Despite being based in 43 AD, Britannia feels very contemporary,” says Leona Connell, director of sales at Sky Vision. “The directing, music and graphics lend the series a fresh and modern look, which makes it stand out. The themes of invasion, of people uniting to push back the common enemy, are relevant to today’s audience.”

Iacono describes Little Women as “a truly universal coming-of-age story, as relevant and engaging today” as it was when the novel was first published in 1868.

“Howards End is a story of two charismatic, smart and strong-minded young women who are fighting for their rights to be independent,” he adds.

Buyers want limited-run series that can “be scheduled at key times to help platforms looking to create an ‘event’

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MISTCO is showcasing Mehmetcik: Kûtulamâre at MIPTV.

around their programming,” Iacono continues. “They are seeking programming that is channel-defining. With the increase in the standards of CGI and creative programmaking, there is just no limit to anyone’s imagination. We are seeing some extremely ambitious and authentic period dramas being created right now.”

Most distributors agree that for a period piece to sell, it must have a contemporary edge. The Miniaturist, a threeparter sold by all3media international, looks like a beautiful Dutch masterpiece by Johannes Vermeer. Great care was taken with the show’s design, but Maartje Horchner, the distributor’s executive VP of content, suggests it’s the story’s relevance to today that helps set it apart.

“With the remarkable set dressing, bright coloring and edgy storyline featuring a gay central character, it feels completely not period,” she says.

curiosity over what it might look like on screen. It can go one of two ways.

You’re either disappointed because the TV version looks nothing like how you imagined it. Or you are overwhelmed by how beautiful it was because you never thought it would be like that.”

Jenna Santoianni, the executive VP of television series at Sonar Entertainment, says that most of the period shows she’s involved with are “strong author-led intellectual property,” arguing that “it’s an important driver of period drama.”

Both The Son and the eight-part sequel to Das Boot are based on literature.

“It was reading The Son [by Philipp Meyer] that drew Pierce Brosnan back to the small screen after so many years,” Santoianni says.

But not all period drama is based on books, celebrated or otherwise.

Writer Peter Morgan created The Crown from scratch, relying on his own knowledge (he also wrote the film The Queen and The Audience, a stage play examining Elizabeth II’s relationship with her Prime Ministers) and a team of researchers to help him create and fashion dramatic storylines.

Meanwhile, a lot of other, high-end period shows are effectively works of fiction. “Big historical stories based on a key character from the past or a big event will attract wide interest,” Sky Vision’s Connell says. “Our series The Plague [which unfolds against the Black Death stalking 16th-century Seville] and Britannia are not historical series as such; they are fictional series based in times past. Ultimately it’s down to the strength of the writing and directing as to whether a show will travel well.”

BACK TO THE BOOK Like so much costume content, The Miniaturist is based on a novel, in this case, Jessie Burton’s international best seller published in 2014.

“One of the trends in period drama is firmly towards book adaptations,” adds Horchner. “It gives broadcasters and platforms a lot of comfort that there is a ready-made market for their shows. They don’t have to worry about how to pitch a successful, well-known book because audiences have already heard of it. It helps the commissioner if it ticks that box.”

She continues, “If you’ve read a book, there’s a certain amount of

Sonar’s eight-part World War II drama Das Boot is a follow-up to the 1981 movie of the same name.

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The days of long-running, serial costume drama like the 14-part award-winning Jewel in the Crown, once considered a benchmark for the genre, have largely gone for good.

The Netflix commission The Crown comes in a ten-part series but each episode is self-contained, and, of course, viewers aren’t expected to wait another week to watch the next episode.

“Perhaps audience attention spans are shorter than they used to be,” says all3media’s Horchner. “For me, The Miniaturist couldn’t have gone on long enough, it could have been a six-part series.

“You can usually tell a story well in three or four parts.

That way, you’re likely to keep an audience, especially if the pace in episode one is sustained throughout the series and there is no lengthening of the storyline.”

THEN AND NOW

Peter Morgan’s The Crown on Netflix is said to be the most expensive drama ever made.

Sonar’s Santoianni, who brought Taboo, starring Tom Hardy, to the market, pinpoints the biggest change that TV period drama has undergone during the last decade or so.

“Ten to 12 years ago, the TV budgets and the craftsmanship didn’t match what they are today,” she says. “The budgets have ballooned. You also have feature-level talent that wants to do these dramas for TV. The production values and the budgets can accommodate that.

“I think there is a hunger to see the kind of programming that used to be provided only by large budget films. We’re now able to see that on TV. Also, we’re able to tell the narratives in much longer content.”

The period dramas that travel best are the ones that have authentic stories and authentic production values.

“I don’t think there is one period in history that is more popular than others,” opines Santoianni. “Great men, and women, in history, big historical figures, can make great TV. Think of how many shows we’ve seen based on Winston Churchill. But the key is having a universal theme that people can relate to.”

Generally, period drama is more expensive than contemporary TV fiction. For the BBC’s Wolf Hall, based on Hilary Mantel’s best sellers depicting the rise of Tudor courtier Thomas Cromwell, a cool £20,000 ($28,000) was blown on paying for candles alone.

BETTER TOGETHER So unless you’re Netflix or Amazon, co-production is essential in Western markets. “Period was something a lot of production companies didn’t want to do before because the budgets could not support doing it well or doing it right,” says Santoianni.

“TV budgets are creeping up—$4 million to $5 million an episode and above for certain shows. These budgets allow for much higher production values that are comparable to feature-film quality. With these budgets, coproductions become even more important. To support these shows and to get the right budgets it takes a few partners. We’ve found a lot of success in our partnerships with other companies in constructing co-productions.

One company on its own would not have been able to make Das Boot.”

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Global Agency represents the English-language RTVE historical drama Queens.

Sonar’s collaborators on the series, which was filmed in German, French and English, are Bavaria Fiction and Sky Deutschland.

“We worked together from a very early stage and developed a lot of trust and respect for each other,” Santoianni says. “You do run the danger of having too many cooks in the kitchen.

Alignment, trust and early partnership are really important for a successful co-production.”

SPIRIT OF COLLABORATION “It is easier to find co-producers for period than it is for contemporary shows,” observes Caroline Torrance, the head of scripted at Banijay Rights. “When you’re pitching a contemporary idea as a co-production, people say they want to see it set in such-and-such country. Once you go into period, those rules don’t exist anymore. People are more open-minded, you’ve got more freedom, so it’s easier to pitch the ideas and get partners on board.”

As mentioned, Britannia is a co-production between Sky and Amazon in the U.S. “Certainly Amazon’s contribution to Britannia was an important element to the financing of the series,” says Sky Vision’s Connell.

In Turkey and other Middle Eastern and Central European territories, the business model is different, according to Global Agency’s founder and CEO, Izzet Pinto.

“Our period shows are fully funded by the production companies. They try and cover their costs from the fees from local broadcasters and international sales. International sales are the key to profit,” he says.

The series he sells have budgets that are a fraction of the size of Western period drama and are in demand by broadcasters and platforms in the Middle East, Central and Eastern Europe, Russia and Latin America. “It’s difficult to sell these shows to

the U.S. or the U.K., although we’re having some success with digital platforms,” Pinto says. “Free-to-air is much more difficult.”

Nevertheless, period pieces such as Magnificent Century have been big global sellers. Telling the story of Ottoman Sultan Suleiman over four seasons, the drama sold to 50-plus territories and led to the spin-off Magnificent Century Kosem.

Boosted by the success of those series, Global Agency took on the distribution rights to the Englishlanguage RTVE drama Queens, about Queen Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots.

Another Turkish company that has amassed a slate of period dramas is MISTCO, which is showcasing TRT’s Mehmetcik: Kûtulamâre at MIPTV. “Created by the same producer as Resurrection: Ertugrul, the series is based on the heroic story of a young man who would sacrifice his own life to save the country and people who are in need of help,” says Aysegul Tuzun, the VP of sales and marketing at MISTCO. “TRT is the biggest investor in epic dramas in Turkey, and they have the most extensive know-how in this genre.”

STAR POWER Distributors stress the need for a successful period drama to be character-driven. “Audiences need to identify with the characters and not feel they’re watching some stale history lesson,” suggests Banijay’s Torrance. “The audience really needs to care about the characters and what happens to them.”

Does star casting help? “It always helps when you’re pitching a show,” she adds. “Having said that, there wasn’t anybody in Versailles that was a breakout Hollywood name. People reacted well to the storyline. I think it helped that it was an unknown actor playing the king. Audiences weren’t distracted by thinking ‘This is a famous actor playing Louis XIV.’” Whether it’s the costumes or characters, in such a crowded television market even the most lavish period drama needs that certain X factor to persuade audiences to watch more than one episode, never mind eight or ten.

“These days audiences are obviously spoiled for choice,” says all3media’s Horchner. “They’ve seen it all before. Dramas need to grab their attention and surprise them.

“Even if they know the story already, it has to be something they haven’t seen before. It has to be told in a way that smacks them in the face.”

Ultimately, the success or failure of a period drama is no different from a contemporary drama. The story’s intrinsic strength or weakness and how it’s told are what determines if people will watch. All the money spent on actors, recreating the past and high-end CGI can’t disguise a clunking narrative.

“Regardless of whether it’s period or modern, it is all about the story,” emphasizes Pinto. “The storyline is key.”

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Eccho Rights’ Conspiracy of Silence.

Andy Fry looks at the rising demand for political dramas and espionage thrillers. olitics and espionage are not new topics in TV drama, but there’s no question there has been a resurgence of interest in both subjects.

House of Cards, Borgen, Prisoners of War, The Americans and The Night Manager are just a few recent titles that prove that the right subject can generate audience interest both at home and on the international market.

One obvious question about the current wave of political dramas is whether they are a response to the times in which we live. With the 21st century characterized by complex geopolitical issues, widespread distrust of the political establishment and a 24/7 social-media current-affairs commentary, have audiences become super-politicized?

Fredrik af Malmborg, managing director of Eccho Rights, believes this is the case, especially among younger audiences “who are politically engaged. They care about issues like climate change, sustainability and social justice, and I think this political awareness is reflected in a lot of drama.”

Robert Franke, VP of drama at ZDF Enterprises, sees the new wave of political dramas partly as a reflection of current concerns in Western society. “There is a growing awareness that things are not right in our Western societies, that the divide between the rich and the poor grows and

P

that there is a detachment of the political class from the needs of society as a whole. Fiction is a great way to poke holes in the image of political parties and the motives of politicians and ask the question, Are they working in our best interest?”

GLOBAL CONFLICT Does it help to have a trope that everyone is already familiar with, such as terrorism or U.S.-Russian spy games?

“The more international impact the story has, the more widely relevant it seems,” says Alex Fraser, the senior VP of acquisitions at Red Arrow Studios International. “Nevertheless there have been great local dramas, such as Borgen, dealing with very territory-specific politics that have worked well internationally. I think politics on any level is often synonymous with intrigue, conspiracies, scandals and threats, which is all fertile ground for drama. This can work on a local and international level if the story and characters are exciting and the subjects are universal.”

This view is backed up by Atar Dekel, the head of global original drama at Keshet International. “The key to any politically themed drama is that you need great characters.

Prisoners of War is a very human drama that also looks into the central characters’ family lives.”

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Set in Australia in the near-future and drawing on Aboriginal folklore, Cleverman blends indigenous mythology with a contemporary superhero arc and cutting political commentary, dealing with themes related to socio-political issues such as immigration.”

There is also Stella Blómkvist, a new Icelandic drama from Sagafilm where the show’s protagonist, Stella, a smart and ruthless lawyer, often finds herself plunged into political conspiracies. “The show’s themes tackle political corruption at all levels in Iceland, sometimes mirroring major real-life political events,” says Fraser. “We are rolling Stella Blómkvist out internationally and it is gaining lots of interest from broadcasters, with the political themes appealing to buyers as universal topics. The show premiered on Síminn TV Iceland and is now airing on SVOD platform Viaplay in Scandinavia.”

IN-FIGHTING

The lead character in Red Arrow’s Stella Blómkvist is a lawyer who often becomes embroiled in political conspiracies.

Moreover, the one-line explanation of the show—MIA soldier returns home after many years absence and is greeted as a hero, but may now be an undercover spy—is so compelling. “It’s such a relatable and transferable idea—it’s not particularly rooted in the specific Israeli experience,” Dekel notes.

“We’ve also enjoyed a lot of success with False Flag, in which five ordinary citizens wake up one day to discover that they have been implicated in a high-profile political kidnapping,” Dekel continues. “That show was picked up by Canal+ in France and also by Fox [Networks Group], which acquired it for broadcast in 127 territories.”

REAL APPEAL Again, says Dekel, part of the appeal of False Flag is that it operates at the intersection between politics and personal lives. “We were also very aware that this idea had international appeal—what would you do if you woke up and discovered your name, face and identity across all the world media?”

Red Arrow’s Fraser agrees with Dekel that good political dramas need layers. “Political dramas, especially when based on true events, can limit the way stories develop, and there is a danger that they can come across as history lessons rather than exciting dramas. So it’s important to introduce emotional depth and intriguing characters to find a way of guiding viewers through the narrative without losing the pace and excitement.”

Among Red Arrow titles with a political flavor, Fraser picks out “the politically charged series Cleverman, which continues to sell well internationally, including to the BBC.

STUDIOCANAL’s Baron Noir has been referred to by international media as a “French House of Cards.” And while its focus is domestic—centered on a French politician and his mission to take down his enemies—the Canal+ commission has so far traveled to 85 territories around the world, including the U.S. (Walter Presents), the U.K. (Amazon Prime) and Australia (SBS).

Beatriz Campos, the head of international sales at STUDIOCANAL, says a big appeal of the series is its “style, tone and clever dialogue. Viewers enjoy being party to an intelligent series where they can see another angle of what happens behind closed doors—beyond what they see on the news. They are also then able to make comparisons between real life and fiction.”

Campos, too, believes political dramas do best if they focus on relatable characters. “Many of us are intrigued by and concerned with the personal issues and aspirations of those in power, wherever we are in the world, and the series delivers such insight into how things work inside the most powerful political parties. In Baron Noir there is a vast scope of characters—from political leaders to unionists to students to the press—all demonstrating the terrifying domino effect that politics can have throughout the chain of command. There is also a romance between two of the main characters, which adds an additional layer and complexity to the storyline.”

She also believes that the show benefits from its authenticity. “Baron Noir has the great advantage of being able to draw on the real-life experience of one of the writers. Eric Benzekri has an incredible political background and knows so much about behind-the-scenes dramas on many levels.

He has 20 years of experience working in politics, having followed and participated in numerous election campaigns throughout his career. As a result, he has created a wonderful cast of characters to deliver the intriguing storylines that make Baron Noir so vivid.”

ZDFE.drama’s Franke says that the strength of political drama at the moment can also be attributed to its being used as part of hybrid scripted series. “There is a trend to blend political drama with other genres, in particular crime and thriller,” he says. “A good example from our catalog of a highconcept genre blend is Dengler [a Bavaria Fiction production], which is about a special type of German detective who unveils a cover-up plot driven by the pharma industry and elite political circles, which try to protect their own dirty little

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ZDF Enterprises’ The Fourth Man, commissioned by SVT, looks at the links between a politician and a decades-old terrorist attack.

secrets. It follows the proven formula of starting with a seemingly ordinary crime case and developing from there into a more political sphere.”

Another example, says Franke, “is Watchdog, which we are developing together with Fisher King from Finland. This one is a political thriller about whistleblowing and excessive statedriven surveillance. This is arguably the most topical issue we have in our modern technology-driven society, where questions about the right of individual privacy collide with state interest in the name of security and protection.”

It is also a genre, Franke says, that tends to travel well. “Even though political dramas might be rooted in one country, the underlying principles of what makes a good political drama are pretty much the same everywhere. The problems are always related to power abuse and corruption, which pretty much all boils down to greed. If you look at the tropes being used in political dramas all over the world, you’ll find these issues in most cases are the core motivation of the characters involved, which is why the genre is so relatable.”

For this reason, he sees the potential for cross-border business models in the genre. “There is a growing trend in coproduction here because people have started realizing that patterns of power abuse are similar across all countries. The SVOD platforms are also a perfect environment to stimulate interest in this subject matter because they make content available which might not have been available to users before.”

PASSING THE CENSORS To some extent, one factor that needs to be taken into account with political drama is that countries with a tradition of censorship are less likely to sanction the commissioning or production of contemporary political dramas, especially if they involve some commentary on the ruling class. Turkey, a prodigious exporter of drama, only tends to produce political series with a pro-government perspective (for example, Star TV’s The Reaction). Russia, another growing force on the international drama scene, deals primarily with political subject matter

connected to the 1917 Russian Revolution, with occasional forays into the Khrushchev era (such as The Optimists, described as Russia’s answer to The Americans). By contrast, there is little commentary on the Putin era.

KEEPING AN OPEN MIND That said, it’s important not to view all political drama from a rose-tinted Western perspective. Eccho Rights’ af Malmborg points out that dramas regarded as pro-government spin in one territory might very well be viewed as objective truth in another. The company distributes Trotsky, a Sreda Production for Channel One Russia. As the name suggests, Trotsky is the story of Russian Revolution hero Leon Trotsky. The series explores various periods of his life from the late 1890s to his assassination in 1940. According to af Malmborg, it is “a quite edgy series that introduces viewers to a side of the Russian Revolution they may never have seen before. It also tells the story of Trotsky’s inner life and love affairs.”

Red Arrow’s Fraser, meanwhile, believes there is also a degree of pushback among audiences. “I think interest in these subjects depends on the territory. Some U.S. networks seem to be turning away from political dramas while other territories are commissioning more, particularly as the political issues and themes seem increasingly global. The breadth and volume of drama being commissioned mean political drama is well and truly in the mix. But there will always be a big demand for escapist content that just entertains, offering an alternative to what we see on the news.”

ZDFE.drama’s Franke says producers are also attuned to the possibility of viewer boredom with such issues. “So I also see a trend to be more subtle in the way political dramas are told because there is a kind of fatigue when it comes to news—in particular, bad news. That is why genre blends that mix political drama with other genres like crime or thriller generate interest.” This may also explain the longevity of a show like HBO’s Veep, which gives audiences the chance to laugh at political machinations.

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Antonio Banderas started his career working with director and compatriot Pedro Almodóvar on movies such as Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. It wasn’t long before Hollywood took notice, and Banderas was starring in The Mambo Kings, Philadelphia, Evita and The Mask of Zorro, among many others, as well as providing his voice talent to animated hits like the Shrek franchise. While the vast majority of his work had been in film, when the opportunity came along to play Pablo Picasso in National Geographic’s Genius series, Banderas couldn’t say no.

By Anna Carugati TV DRAMA: How did you hear about Genius: Picasso?

BANDERAS: Ron Howard and Ken Biller were in contact with me. I had just finished watching the first season of Genius, about Einstein, with Geoffrey Rush, and I loved it. It was surprising to me. I didn’t know the full dimension of Einstein’s character until I saw the TV series. I thought it offered very good [lessons] about history and physics, of course, but at the same time about the human dimension of the character, which makes you reflect about yourself, and I think that is the primary purpose of any art piece. Ron and Ken called me to a meeting in London, where I live. I went to the appointment and they talked to me about the Picasso project. They offered it to me and I thought, Oh my God, of course, I want to do it now because I saw the Einstein project and the quality television that they were doing. I felt like I was in good hands. Why do I say that? I was offered to play Picasso a couple of times when I was younger and then there were a lot of projects with Carlos Saura, which I rejected, in part because it was a responsibility for me to play a character that was born in my hometown. But for whatever reason, that meeting with Ron Howard and Ken Biller was very convincing!

TV DRAMA: What research did you do to prepare for the role?

BANDERAS: I read a lot. I read practically every book that has been written: the biography by John Richardson and then probably the book that is more detailed about certain aspects of Picasso’s personality, Life with Picasso, by Françoise Gilot [an artist who lived with Picasso and had two children with him]. She is alive and living in New York; she is now 96 years old. Charlie Rose interviewed her in 2012 and she was in perfect shape. I don’t know how she is now, but at that time she was still in perfect shape. And then I painted. I wanted to get familiar with brushes and oils and acrylics and all the stuff that surrounds the little things—the manual gestures and mannerisms. I watched some footage; there is not too much footage of him, but there are a lot of pictures. And then I read the scripts, of course!

TV DRAMA: How old is Picasso at the start of the series?

BANDERAS: The first scene that I have, Picasso is 56. He’s still with Marie-Thérèse Walter and already in a relationship

with Dora Maar. That is the time of the Spanish Civil War, 1936 to 1939, and there’s the International Exposition [of Art and Technology in Modern Life] in Paris and he’s painting Guernica. That’s the first time that we see the character, and from there, the series goes back and forth in time with flashbacks for the whole series. It’s almost like a Cubist painting during the entire show.

TV DRAMA: As an actor, do you approach a character that existed in real life, such as Picasso or Pancho Villa or Che Guevara, differently from a fictional character that the writer invented?

BANDERAS: Yes, it’s a different approach because there are certain rules you have to respect. And the research is greater because you want to know about the personality of somebody who has existed, especially if you are working with National Geographic because they love to be very factual. Many years ago I did And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself, directed by Bruce Beresford for HBO. It was interesting because I studied practically every book, every biography. I talked to historians in Mexico. But the key to my character came from one picture. Pancho Villa was going to be executed one morning—the execution was actually a stunt by President Madero of Mexico at that time—but he was in front of a peloton with weapons pointed at him. The picture shows the attitude that he had in front of the peloton and in front of death; the expression on his face as he was defying these people, I thought, Oh my God! I saw in those eyes and that face all the material that I needed to play that character.

TV DRAMA: With Picasso, who is so iconic, did you feel an extra responsibility in portraying him?

BANDERAS: Absolutely yes, but I feel it before and after a scene. Once they say, “Action!” to me, Picasso is in me. I am Picasso, period, and it lasts until they say, “Cut!” If I am in the middle of a scene, thinking, “The responsibility! I am painting the Guernica!” I couldn’t perform, I would be blocked. You cannot do that. You have to liberate yourself at some point and say, Picasso is me.

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his own skills, to not be normal, to break the rules of his own paintings.

In its second season, National Geographic’s Genius—sold by Fox Networks Group Content Distribution— explores the life of Pablo Picasso.

TV DRAMA: As you learned new things about Einstein from seeing the first Genius, what did you learn about Picasso?

BANDERAS: He was a very complicated person. Like all human beings, he had his greatness and his miseries, maybe more pronounced than anybody else. He was a very capable human being, very skillful, and that gave him a tremendous amount of security, sometimes even arrogance. On the good side, he was a very creative, curious, free, passionate, impulsive, intelligent and persuasive person. And on the dark side, probably arrogant, egotistical, selfish, vain and conceited. Above all, he was very sincere, and that is a source of a lot of problems sometimes. When you confront life by being absolutely honest and saying what you think at the moment you think it, that can create problems.

TV DRAMA: Is it correct to say that his art was autobiographical? He often painted what he was experiencing, didn’t he?

BANDERAS: Absolutely, you can follow his life through his paintings, even his changes in styles [were triggered by life events]. He got into the Blue Period because of the death of Carlos Casagemas, his best friend who committed suicide in a bar in Paris; [as a result, Picasso] got into a depressive mood for years. Then he went through the Rose Period, which was a happier time. [In protest of] the Spanish Civil War, he painted Guernica and The Weeping Woman. You can see everybody who shared their lives with him, how they influenced him. You see the story of his life as you go through his works of art.

TV DRAMA: He was constantly breaking molds in his art and his personal life. He was not a conventional human being.

BANDERAS: Definitely not, and he was highly criticized for that, too, not only in his time but in our times, too.

People look back and have judgments about Picasso that are very strong about his behavior with women and a number of things that he did. He was controversial because he did not play by the rules. He broke them constantly. He was a perfectionist and in a way very unhappy continuously. At times he said things like, I create naturally balanced and beautiful paintings and I have to find something that destroys them. So he was fighting against

TV DRAMA: What creative challenges and opportunities does a ten-part series offer you that you don’t have in a two-hour movie?

BANDERAS: Time is the thing that comes to my attention the most. I had done television only once, the Pancho Villa project I referred to before, but I had never done a series of ten episodes. For me, the difference is the time that I have to get deeper into the character, to provide him with more colors. It’s more three-dimensional.

If you are telling one specific event, then a movie [provides the] perfect timing, you can explain a lot of things. But if you are telling the life of somebody from beginning to end, the format of ten episodes is perfect because you have time to reflect on the different periods of the person’s life and all the progress and everything that happens.

TV DRAMA: What types of roles interest you? What connection do you need to feel to a character?

BANDERAS: A dramatic connection. I don’t always want to play good guys. Good guys, in fact, are way more boring than villains!

Bad guys have more colors, more depth and complexities and are more interesting to play. I’ve played many characters in my life that I didn’t like at all; I wouldn’t even want to be close to them. I would be fearful to be close to somebody like that! But I have to recognize that when I played them they were interesting. For example, in Almodóvar’s The Skin I Live In, that was a character [plastic surgeon Robert Ledgard] that I wouldn’t like to be close to at all. But from my point of view, he was incredibly interesting to play.

TV DRAMA: What was it like working with Ken Biller?

BANDERAS: Ken is a producer on Genius: Picasso, but he directed the first two episodes so he established the bible of the show, the style, how we were going to photograph Picasso young—with cameras in movement—and then the established Picasso, me, with the cameras on tripod, it’s all more academic. Ken was open to listening. Sometimes directors become too overdone with the work. When I see a director who opens an iPad and says, “You have to go to the right and the actress on the left,” ooh, bad! I prefer somebody that comes and talks to the different chiefs of the departments and the actors and then allows different energies on the set. Of course, he is the director and will make the final decision and will establish where the boat has to go. But the boat can go with sails, or we can row, we can go forward in different ways. Ken was the type of director who was open to listening to everybody [about how we would do] a scene.

TV DRAMA: Have you enjoyed Genius: Picasso?

BANDERAS: It’s more than enjoying. I know that I am doing one of those projects—you know when it’s happening—that I will remember forever. I felt that with some Almodóvar projects, playing Zorro, in Evita, [maybe] seven times in my whole life, and I feel that now.

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TV DRAMA 49

ast November, Ay Yapim became the first Turkish company to score an International Emmy Award when Kara Sevda (Endless Love) nabbed a win in the telenovela category. The company, led by CEO Kerem Çatay, has emerged as one of the busiest and most successful producers in Turkey’s highly competitive drama scene. Working with Inter Medya, Eccho Rights and others, Ay Yapim productions such as Heart of the City, Insider and Phi have traveled across the globe. New showcases from the company include Stiletto Vendetta, on offer from Eccho Rights, and The Pit, which is being highlighted by Inter Medya. Çatay tells TV Drama about the latest trends in Turkish drama.

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TV DRAMA: Tell me about the background of Ay Yapim and your journey to becoming one of Turkey’s leading drama producers. ÇATAY: We launched in 2005. Like almost all Turkish production companies, it’s family run. It’s my father and me.

For the last two years we have had another partner, Pelin Diştaş, who used to be the general manager of Kanal D. We mostly do TV drama series. We’ve done some sitcoms as well, but the flagships are always dramas. Making so many TV shows gives us the luxury to make feature films as well. We are excited that we’re going to shoot a new movie based on a famous old Turkish novel called Madonna in a Fur Coat [by Sabahattin Ali].

TV DRAMA: And the feature films give you the freedom to tell different kinds of stories? ÇATAY: For sure. Actually, we have that luxury for TV as well.

We are partners in an OTT platform in Turkey called Puhu. We produced our first original digital production, Phi, for Puhu.

This March, our second digital production, Persona, launched.

It’s 60-minute episodes and edgier content. So we do the conventional TV for the mainstream broadcasters, but we are planning to have at least one original OTT series each year where we can have different ways of storytelling.

TV DRAMA: For the mainstream channels, how are you able to produce these two-hour episodes every week, especially given the volume of series you make? ÇATAY: It’s like going to the gym! When you go every day you get used to it. [Laughs] It’s maybe because we’re Turkish, it’s fast-living here. [The two-hour episodes] happened because of competition, the audience and the ad revenues.

The ad prices are not so high, so you have to have longer episodes to get the budget you need. And the Turkish audience tends to watch TV up till 12 o’clock. If your episode finishes at 11, the audience is not turning the TV off, they’re moving to another show that is still airing. This makes producers increase the duration of episodes.

TV DRAMA: Tell us about your process for coming up with ideas. Are you looking for IP to adapt, such as formats, books and movies? ÇATAY: It’s not just one way of working. In our case, most likely we’ll come up with our own ideas. Every two or three years we do a format. A few years ago we did The O.C. from Warner Bros. under the name Med Cezir. Sometimes it’s an old Turkish movie or novel. We’ve done quite a number of Turkish novels as dramas. There are no boundaries. Ideas can come from anywhere. We’ll spend around eight months developing an idea and how we tell the story and from

which characters’ point of view. Sometimes we’re so lucky that it’s quick. Sometimes it takes a while. You change it, try it from another character’s point of view, etc. When you have eight, nine months, you lower the risk because you try each and every version of it. Along the way, time makes it better.

TV DRAMA: Turkish shows have sold widely but have become particularly popular in Latin America. Why do you think that is? ÇATAY: In most of the Latin American countries I’ve been to, the rhythm of the people looks like the rhythm of the Turkish people. Maybe they don’t have the same traditions, but the way of living is similar. Patricio Hernández from Mega in Chile was the first one to try Turkish content. He told me that when he first watched one, he noticed that the buildings were similar, the clothing was similar, people’s reactions were similar. So he said, I need to try one.

The interesting thing with the Turkish storytelling is, it works in the Middle East, it works in Latin America, it sometimes works in Northern Europe and Asia as well. We have a way of storytelling—and it wasn’t on purpose, to be honest—such that someone in Vietnam likes it and someone from Dubai likes it. The way we tell the stories, everybody can find something they can connect with. We are focusing more on emotions and family than U.S. or British content does.

TV DRAMA: Are you looking at co-production opportunities outside of Turkey? ÇATAY: We’re always looking, but it has to be about the story. You need to have a story that makes sense for a coproduction. If you write a story just to make a co-production, it’s not going to work. We tried some ideas, like having a love story with a girl from MENA and a boy from Turkey. The story needs to be logical and natural. We haven’t done one yet, but we are always working on it.

TV DRAMA: Some of your shows have been remade in other countries. Do you offer any input to those producers who are adapting your scripts? ÇATAY: We are always ready to offer input. You tell them about the story and they tell you about their audience. You need to come to an understanding. In the end, it’s their project. We do give our advice, but if they want to take the chance of changing it, we let them do that. We have a show called The End. It is successful in Spain, it was successful in Holland. A pilot was shot in the U.S. In the U.S. case, they changed the storyline, they focused on the gun trade. They felt it needed to be more in the action genre, which was the preference of that broadcaster’s audience. We said OK. I’m not sure how well it worked. You always learn something from the format adaptations.

TV DRAMA: What are you working on now? ÇATAY: We have four shows going on. We’re going to end up with five new ones for this season. Phi ended this March.

We’ll have a new OTT one. And we are going to shoot three movies this year. Madonna in a Fur Coat is going to be shot in Germany. It will be in two languages. It is something different from what we’re used to doing. And we do have a plan to remake one of our old shows in the U.S. with a partner. It will take some time, but we’re working on it.

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from Serena, or what the producers are trying to get them to get from Serena. You start from that deeper, more emotional psychological place and then little by little, now you’ve got an Everlasting story, now you’ve got these crazy characters, now you’ve got these intense situations, then the fun and the zingers and the one-liners come too. It’s a fun writers’ room because you get to deal with all of that. It’s sort of like this poisoned cupcake, you’re talking about the frosting and the sprinkles, but you’ve also got these deeper, darker things that are happening on the inside.

By Mansha Daswani

UnREAL, the Lifetime drama that chronicles the machinations behind a Bachelor-style dating show, returned to screens earlier this year after a long break. Its protagonists, Rachel and Quinn, have been on a mission to turn around ratings at the fictional Everlasting reality show, which this time features its first bachelorette, Serena, a successful tech entrepreneur. Stacy Rukeyser, who took on the showrunner mantle for UnREAL in season three, tells TV Drama about her writers’ room and offers a glimpse at the already ordered fourth season.

TV DRAMA: What was your vision for season three?

RUKEYSER: In season two there had been a lot of big plot points, but we hadn’t had the chance to explore the consequences of those things in a meaningful way. I didn’t want to ignore the things that had happened; I wanted to sit in the hearts and minds of Rachel and Quinn and take the time to deal with the aftereffects, emotionally and psychologically. That is a lot of what we do this season. At the end of last season, Rachel had a mental breakdown. Quinn has brought this shrink in to be a safety net for Rachel. He takes her on this journey...to look at where the darkness within her came from. That is something that thematically we’ve been looking at since season one.

TV DRAMA: How do you run your writers’ room so that you can grapple with those themes and the incredibly complex relationship between Rachel and Quinn?

RUKEYSER: We start with the Rachel and Quinn story. We look at the season-long arc for Rachel, for Quinn, and for Serena and the theme of gender politics that we are interested in exploring with her character. But then you have to break the Everlasting story too. The guys and the power plays and the machinations in terms of what they want

TV DRAMA: Why did you decide to have a female suitor this season who is an accomplished woman in her own right?

RUKEYSER: The story was personal to both Sarah Shapiro [co-creator of the show] and to me. I was 37 when I met my husband. My career was going well, but I had thought, maybe it’s not going to happen for me. I’m probably not going to get married, I’m probably not going to have kids, and that’s OK because my career is thriving. That’s the position Quinn finds herself in. I know how frustrating and painful that felt to me. So that was an interesting thing to explore with Serena. And to take it a step further.

How are we supposed to be as women? We are encouraged [in the workplace]—“You go, girl! Demand equal pay! Reclaim your time! You can get a seat at the table!

Lean in!” But then when you go on a date, you’re expected to magically transform into this other creature who is much more demure. That’s maddening and also very confusing. That’s what Serena is dealing with, too. She has come on this show to find a husband. She’s tried everything else and it hasn’t worked. She honestly believes that maybe this is the way.

TV DRAMA: Tell me about your approach to mentorship.

RUKEYSER: I try to set a good example. I have a lot of phone calls and coffees and lunches with aspiring writers. And we have a very extensive list of female directors that goes beyond the standard list that existed with the studios and the networks. And that list is expanding even more now. It’s also important how you speak about female directors. When men are “strong-willed,” or they have a “strong vision,” or they are “demanding,” those are seen as positive things. Women who are doing the same thing can be described as “emotional,” “irrational,” “difficult,” “bitchy,” “hard to get along with.” It’s really important that we just change the way we talk about people and make sure we don’t have our own gender bias when we’re doing that.

TV DRAMA: What can you tell us about season four?

RUKEYSER: It’s Everlasting All-Stars, so certain people are coming back. I don’t watch The Bachelor, but there were a couple of things that happened that came into the cultural conversation. One of them was what happened on Bachelor in Paradise, when a producer made a complaint to the studio. That show has been on for a long time, and no one has ever made a complaint.

So the fact that they did, that they even got the phone number for the studio (oftentimes when you’re working on a crew, you don’t know who to call), this whole issue about the contestants being drunk and the sex that happened and if she was too drunk to consent and should they have stepped in and done something—that was all fascinating to me and was a bit of an inspiration for season four.

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IN CONVERSATION

he merger of Endemol and Shine Group brought together production entities responsible for some of the most successful scripted and non-scripted shows of recent years: Endemol’s Big Brother and Wipeout, Shine TV’s MasterChef, Kudos’s Broadchurch, Filmlance’s Bron/Broen and Tiger Aspect’s Peaky Blinders, to name a few.

Today, with all the talk of the importance of scale in the media business, the Endemol Shine Group, with 120 companies in 25-plus countries, provides a strong argument for the merit of strength in numbers. In 2017, the group created more than 800 productions airing on more than 275 channels around the world.

Sophie Turner Laing was tapped as CEO of the merged group, whose ownership is shared equally by 21st Century Fox and Apollo Global Management. After sorting out administrative and personnel issues during the first months of the merger, Turner Laing was intent on keeping the group’s focus on coming up with great television, specifically finding shows in local territories that have the potential to entertain audiences in other countries as well.

Turner Laing also makes sure the various production companies share best practices and know-how, not only to perfect and streamline production but also to develop the best versions of the shows being created.

As the media landscape evolves and on-demand and over-the-top platforms have modified the way viewers enjoy content, Endemol Shine has found more clients for its programming, particularly its premium drama. And the group’s distribution arm, Endemol Shine International, has become adept at finding international coproduction partners for bigbudget, high-end series such as Troy: Fall of a City for the BBC and Netflix.

Endemol Shine is equally committed to linear broadcasters, offering them non-scripted entertainment shows. All Together Now, Big Bounce Battle and Hunted are among the newer titles. In addition to traditional long-form programming, the group has been producing short-form, such as the delightful animated series Simon’s Cat, as well as branded content.

Throughout her career, Turner Laing has seen the tele vision business from a variety of perspectives: she has been a distributor, buyer and commissioner, including as acting director of television at the BBC and managing director of content at Sky. The common thread running through all these positions has been her ability to spot a great idea, a skill she feels is still essential to her role as CEO of Endemol Shine. As she tells World Screen, equally important is attracting and providing a home for the creative talent that can craft hit shows.

SOPHIE TURNER LAING ENDEMOL SHINE GROUP

By Anna Carugati

WS: How much reinvention do returning nonscripted shows require? How do your teams remain true to the essence of a show—and what viewers love about it—and how do they decide when it’s time to add new elements?

TURNER LAING: We’re very fortunate to have some of the largest super-brands in the non-scripted world, MasterChef and Big Brother—and also Your Face Sounds Familiar, another big one, which is well known beyond the Anglo-Saxon world and is equally brilliant.

Obviously, an enormous amount of care and attention goes into making those shows feel as relevant as when they first started, and they have been running for many, many years now.

In the U.S., for instance, there had never been a Celebrity Big Brother on CBS, and when the first one ever launched in January, it made a lot of noise and became the highest-rated show to be scheduled against the Winter Olympics.

But the important thing is to treat the format as a franchise, as a brand. We have brand guardians who help preserve the essence of a show while continuing to evolve it each year to keep it fresh.

One of the key gatherings that happens every year is a meeting of all the main Big Brother and MasterChef producers to exchange ideas and discuss what has worked, and what hasn’t—all drawing on an enormous shared pool of intelligence and resources.

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opportunities for advertisers and brands, particularly through off-screen extensions such as cookware, publishing and even restaurants and cruises.

Last year, Peter Salmon [Endemol Shine Group’s chief creative officer] and Lisa Perrin [CEO of creative networks] launched a global initiative called Masters of Food, building on our strength in the genre, and this was on the back of Master Chef being formally recognized by Guinness World Records as the world’s “most successful cookery television format.” We have more than 100 cooking formats in our archive, and MasterChef is the cherry on top of the cake.

WS: What are some other long-running non-scripted shows?

TURNER LAING: One that pops out is Hunted.

It has just had its third season in the U.K., on the back of a hugely successful celebrity version in aid of the U.K. charity Stand Up to Cancer. What has also been brilliant is the ability of smaller countries like Denmark and the Netherlands to adapt a com plicated format such as this and make it work for their markets.

Another example of a long runner is Pointless, which is a uniquely British show in that you have to get the answers wrong to win! It’s a hit on the BBC, having become the U.K.’s highest-rated game show in four years, and now it’s also working in France and Italy.

We do also work with third parties, of course, and we are delighted to have shows like The Wall, which is from NBCUniversal, Glassman Media and LeBron James’s production company. We’ve now sold it to over 20 different markets, making it the fastesttraveling game-show format of 2017. But as a rule, we create our own IP, and that sets us apart from some of our competitors.

The period drama Peaky Blinders is made by Tiger Aspect, one of Endemol Shine’s U.K. production companies. recently partnered with Microsoft to enhance and streamline our productions globally, combining developments in AI [artificial intelligence] with the ability to edit in the cloud, while allowing far more audience interaction. For years and years at Sky, watching the on-screen innovation in sports and in news, I was always struck by the fact that television entertainment shows didn’t take full advantage of these opportunities. At Endemol Shine we’re focused on this because while a show has to work as an idea first, we’re also interested in

how we can make it faster, make it better and get more money on screen for our customers.

WS: What has contributed to the continued success of MasterChef?

TURNER LAING: MasterChef is the ideal traveling format. It is so easily adapted to the cultures and cuisines of each country, and it continues to roll out with different versions, having sold to 59 countries to date. It is really a world-connector.

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WS: What are some new formats?

TURNER LAING: We had several new ones that came out of the pipeline last year.

There was Family Food Fight from Nine Network in Australia, which has already had a second season announced.

Then there’s Big Bounce Battle for RTL in Germany, which builds on our reputation in the physical game-show space following the global success of Wipeout.

And in the U.K. we’ve launched All Together Now on the BBC, which brings a joyful twist to the singing competition genre by having 100 judges on set who each stand up and sing when they want the contestant to win. It’s an enormous production, but great fun, and we have high hopes for it, with some new territories that we’ll be announcing

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soon. [Seven Network in Australia commissioned the format in March.]

While we are on the topic of non-scripted, it’s worth remembering that the OTT appetite is growing. So, we’re very focused on what’s new and what is in our extensive catalog that could work for those customers.

WS: What are some new and returning scripted shows?

Black Mirror is something, isn’t it?

TURNER LAING: Black Mirror is amazing! Those stories that come from Charlie Brooker’s mind are quite something; they’re rather unnerving because you feel that they are set in a nottoo-far-away future, which makes some of them slightly chilling and unsettling, but they are beautifully done.

The show won two Emmys last year, and while you never see viewing numbers from Netflix, there is no doubt Charlie Brooker’s critically acclaimed, Emmy-winning Black Mirror was recently renewed for a fifth season by Netflix. that Black Mirror has been a Humans, which we do for Channel 4, eyes! [Laughs] It’s been sold to more than global sensation.

AMC and Amazon, is back in production for 180 countries, and the latest season was Another show that has become globally a third season, as is Delicious, which we do BBC Two’s highest-rated drama of 2017. renowned, particularly in the U.S. where it for Sky. Broadchurch sadly ended its run Then we’ve launched Troy on BBC— airs on Netflix, is Peaky Blinders. Somehow last year but did so as ITV’s highest-rated another enormous project, again partnering those Birmingham accents and flat caps drama of the year. with Netflix—which I’m delighted to say is seem to have taken over the world! I think it Then, looking ahead, we just announced doing really well. has a lot to do with Cillian Murphy’s blue Curfew, a new apocalyptic series starring Sean Bean for Sky 1.

Another factor that adds to our strength in the drama space is our international network of storytellers around the world, especially at a time like this when audience tastes are becoming more multilingual than ever, thanks to the global streaming platforms.

In that vein, another big success for us on Netflix is Dark. It’s their first German drama commission and was created by Baran bo Odar out of Munich. It’s like Stranger Things for adults, absolutely brilliantly done.

Then there’s Bron/Broen, the original Bridge from Filmlance in Sweden, which had its final season in January; it became Sweden’s biggest drama title in five years.

To date, there have been five local adaptations around the world, including a new German version coming soon.

Similarly, in the U.S., Lee Daniels has Troy: Fall of a City was commissioned by the BBC, with Netflix coming on board as a global co-pro partner. optioned one of our Israeli comedies called 4/18 WORLD SCREEN 291

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Nevsu: A Young Multicultural Couple and is adapting it as a pilot for FOX. Nevsu has been on the air in Israel for some time and is delightful, so we have high hopes for that too.

WS: Because there is such a demand for drama, there is an equal demand for topnotch talent. Is it deep pockets or reputation that helps Endemol Shine get great names attached to projects?

TURNER LAING: It’s interesting, because the U.K. and the U.S. have different ways of producing drama. In Europe, as a rule, it’s all about the relationship between the production company and the writer. That is what comes first, followed by the development stage, then the on-screen and directing talent gets added later.

What’s interesting in the U.S., however, is how big announcements are made before anything is developed; Apple’s announcement [about creating a scripted series] with Reese Witherspoon, and Ryan Murphy going to Netflix are some of the latest examples. They are extremely high profile, but there are no scripts yet.

By comparison, the Europeans spend a lot more time in development, which can be equally frustrating because the Americans are brilliant at turning shows around very

quickly, whereas in Europe it’s about 18 months before you see anything.

But for Endemol Shine, the key focus is on how to attract emerging writing talent, because the best-known British writers tend to be tied up. Yes, [access to talent] is very competitive, but our track record speaks for itself.

WS: Endemol Shine International (ESI) is getting involved earlier and earlier in scripted projects.

TURNER LAING: Yes, Cathy Payne, who runs ESI, is very experienced in this world. We have a scripted board that reviews the big projects that need funding, and Cathy and her team are brilliant at knowing which are the best homes for each project because not every idea is going to work for every broadcaster. And whether it’s putting up distribution advances or getting the deals done, there can be great benefits to ESI getting involved earlier, because these are complex funding models that have to be woven together, and ESI knows this space better than anyone.

WS: Do changing viewing habits inform how you think about or create content?

TURNER LAING: I think nothing can get in the way of the fact that you need to start with a

great idea, regardless of what screen it ends up on. The majority of the OTTs are commissioning structured one-hour shows, no different from how TV works. They are looking for standout ideas with big talent attached.

But we are now also working with the emerging players such as Facebook. We’re looking at how you develop an idea that includes everything from Facebook Live to live polling and how you connect that audience to their Watch platform—that’s where the narrative structure changes.

WS: As you look ahead, where do you see opportunities for growth?

TURNER LAING: You can cut that by genre or by region. There is still a big world out there. We are very fortunate that technology delivers new platforms on a regular basis, and how we partner with them is key. But equally, the traditional linear customers are very solid supporters of ours, and we will continue working long into the night for them. For me, the question is whether we are attracting the best creatives and providing them with the best platform to do their best work. If I can put my hand over my heart and say yes, then that’s job done.

Produced by Universal Television Alternative Studio, the hit NBC game show The Wall is being licensed as a format by Endemol Shine Group.

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TVFORMATS

WWW.TVFORMATS.WS

APRIL 2018

MIPFORMATS & MIPTV EDITION

Scripted Formats / Dating & Relationship Shows Keshet’s Avi Nir / Stephen Lambert

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14 TV FORMATS

CONTENTS FEATURES

Learning to Play Nice

30 DRAMATIC DESIGNS Explores how distributors are finding success in the tricky business of scripted format adaptations.

30

After a two-year hiatus, American Idol has made its triumphant return. Ryan Seacrest is back, with a new judging panel. The format is intact, but there is one thing missing from the entertainment megahit: the bad auditions.

Ricardo Seguin Guise Publisher Anna Carugati Group Editorial Director Mansha Daswani Editor Kristin Brzoznowski Executive Editor Joanna Padovano Tong Managing Editor Sara Alessi Associate Editor Victor L. Cuevas Production & Design Director Phyllis Q. Busell Art Director Simon Weaver Online Director Dana Mattison Senior Sales & Marketing Manager Nathalia Lopez Sales & Marketing Coordinator Andrea Moreno Business Affairs Manager

Ricardo Seguin Guise President Anna Carugati Executive VP Mansha Daswani Associate Publisher & VP of Strategic Development TV Formats © 2018 WSN INC. 1123 Broadway, #1207 New York, NY 10010 Phone: (212) 924-7620 Fax: (212) 924-6940 Website: www.tvformats.ws

The show originally ran for 15 seasons on FOX. The early days of the original U.S. series featured a handful of out-of-tune singers and talentless performers in its audition rounds (who could forget the infamously awful rendition of “She Bangs” delivered by William Hung?), and viewers laughed along as the judges rolled their eyes and delivered cutting remarks. On the new ABC version, the producers have now done away with dedicating any airtime to contestants who are wholly unqualified for the show, removing mocking (or meanness) and upping the heartfelt emotion.

This trend can be seen throughout the format business as well. In surveying buyers and distributors about what’s in demand in the current entertainment landscape, words like “feel good,” “lighthearted” and “fun” popped up quite frequently. In these uncertain times, viewers are often looking to television as a means of escapism, and producers have taken note.

In this issue, TV Formats examines the current crop of dating and marriage shows on the market, as audiences flock to aspirational stories of fairy-tale romance and the hopefulness of finding love.

This edition also explores the present demand for scripted formats, which are seeing a nice boost in popularity as the appetite for drama seems to be insatiable.

The proliferation of on-demand platforms—from global players to those more niche—is certainly one of the biggest factors contributing to the uptick in the amount of scripted programming on the market. But will SVODs and OTTs have the same impact on the unscripted entertainment space? This is a question that many format creators and distributors will be mulling over at MIPTV this year. Avi Nir, the CEO of Keshet Media Group, weighs in on this very topic in our Q&A with him later in this issue, while Stephen Lambert, founder of Studio Lambert, shares with us his thoughts on the overall commissioning climate for producers in the U.K. and the U.S. today.

—Kristin Brzoznowski

38 LOVE BLOSSOMS A look at what’s new in dating and marriage formats.

38 INTERVIEWS

46 Keshet’s Avi Nir

48

Studio Lambert’s Stephen Lambert

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Exathlon

Acun Medya Global Exathlon The newest format from Acun Medya Global is Exathlon, a reality-sports hybrid. In the series, two teams compete at specially designed locations. Everyday people face off against Olympic athletes, world champion boxers, famous football players and the like. “Sports are a huge interest in the world, and Exathlon is a show where sports meet reality, which appeals to any age and gender with great fun and adrenaline,” says Ebru Atasav Tahranci, the company’s CEO. The show was on air this year in Mexico and Romania, and it will start soon in Colombia and other countries. “We call Exathlon the new generation [of] sports, with backstage [coverage] of the competition and real personalities and emotions,” she says. “We aim to spread this new generation of television all around the world.”

“MIPTV is the first international platform where Acun Medya is presenting Exathlon.”

—Ebru Atasav Tahranci

all3media international Wedding Day Winners / Whirlwind Wedding / Buy It Now The prime-time entertainment show Wedding Day Winners sees two engaged couples bring their weddings to the studio, as their friends and families play slapstick games in order to win prizes for them. “It’s feel-good family entertainment with a lot of laughs but also tears, as we witness the couples get married at the end of the show,” says Nick Smith, the senior VP of international format production at all3media international. He notes that Whirlwind Wedding is a “completely different type of wedding show.” Each episode sees a couple surprised with the news that they can have their entire wedding paid for, but with a catch: it all has to happen within the next 12 hours. Meanwhile, Buy It Now gives people with a product to sell the chance to pitch it to potential customers and a panel of retailers.

Whirlwind Wedding

“We are bringing 12 new format titles to MIPTV and believe our catalog has something for everyone.”

—Nick Smith

Armoza Formats

Rage Room

The Four / Rage Room / Sunday League Since launching last MIPTV, The Four has been making headlines with its successful airings in the U.S. on FOX and in Russia on CTC, as well as multiple deals worldwide.

“Broadcasters are always looking for new prime-time shows that will appeal to a wide audience, and The Four definitely fits this need as we see that music competitions continue to be relevant,” says Sharon Levi, the head of sales at Armoza Formats. “The fresh and unique spin that the format has [put] on the genre has helped lead to its global success.” The company is also presenting Rage Room, which is available as a long-form and short-form format and finished series. Sunday League is a comedy in which the main character is tapped to coach the worst men’s soccer team.

“From market to market, we come in with new formats for all of our clients’ needs as well as success stories from our existing shows.”

—Sharon Levi 310 WORLD SCREEN 4/18

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Banijay Rights Child Support / Date Night / Stars on the Rocks Banijay Rights is launching three big new entertainment formats at MIPTV: Child Support, Date Night and Stars on the Rocks. Child Support is a modern take on the big-money studio game show. “It combines the tension and jeopardy of a high-stakes quiz structure with the unpredictability and humor that results when one of the biggest names in comedy, Ricky Gervais, comes face-to-face with a bunch of elementary school children,” says Andrew Sime, the company’s VP of formats. Date Night is about the modern dating world, “and the fun that comes from watching people try—and often fail— to find romance,” says Sime. “We think it’s the perfect reality format for 2018.” Stars on the Rocks is an adventure reality show that offers a “new take on celebrity relationships and shows viewers a different side to some of their favorite stars.”

Child Support

“As the Banijay Group continues to grow, so too does the Banijay Rights format catalog.”

—Andrew Sime

BBC Studios

King of Cakes

The Generation Game / King of Cakes / Flipping Profit The family game show The Generation Game sees different generations battle it out over a series of wacky challenges. “What we love about The Generation Game is that it’s feel-good, warm and lots of fun, but at the heart of the format it’s about bringing families together for a shared experience, whether you’re taking part in the show or watching from home,” says Sumi Connock, creative director of formats at BBC Studios. Also in the catalog, King of Cakes is a brand-new competitive cooking format that sees a top pastry chef on a mission to find the perfect cake. Flipping Profit features three very different profit hunters—an antiques dealer, a bargain hunter and an upcycler—going head to head to discover who can find and sell the most profitable item.

“All three of these formats are joyful, aspirational and provide entertainment with a purpose, which is absolutely in our DNA.” —Sumi Connock

CJ E&M

Love at First Song

Love at First Song / Thrifters On Tour / Boy or Man Contestants find their soul mates through music in Love at First Song. It marks the first Korean format “to be produced and commissioned outside of Korea first with great success,” according to Jangho Seo, the general manager of CJ E&M’s global content division. “We look forward to making local versions as well as coming up with new ideas with other partners.” In Thrifters On Tour, money-conscious celebrities compete to plan the best itinerary on a limited budget in a foreign country, while Boy or Man poses the question of whether or not a ten-year age gap in a relationship really matters. “These formats possess a common denominator: empathy,” adds Seo. “Differentiating familiar ideas by injecting empathic emotions is not only providing a new approach for Korean viewers but also for international viewers.”

“Original formats from CJ E&M are gaining success globally.”

—Jangho Seo 4/18 WORLD SCREEN 311

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Snapshots

Distribution360 Just Like Mom & Dad / Leave It to the Designer / Snapshots Currently on the air in North America, Just Like Mom & Dad is a prime-time family game show that Distribution360 (D360) is offering. “Each episode puts three parent/child teams to the test to see how well they really know each other across three rounds,” says Diane Rankin, the company’s senior VP of international sales and acquisitions.

“Two question rounds are designed to reveal what they know or don’t know about one another, and the final round sees the kids baking up some truly disgusting ‘treats’ for their parents to taste.” Other highlights are Leave It to the Designer, the format version of the hit home-reno show Leave It to Bryan, and Snapshots, a photo competition series for children that is nominated for an International Emmy Kids Award this year.

“D360 is carving out a niche in kids’ and family formats, an area that feels fresh and ripe with opportunity for producers and broadcasters.”

—Diane Rankin

Fox Networks Group Content Distribution Lynch / Grilled / Ultimate Survival Alaska The scripted format Lynch was recently licensed for a pilot on The CW and Fox Networks Group Content Distribution is now starting to roll it out internationally. A dark comedy, Lynch tells the story of the owner of a funeral home who sets up a business of helping people who need, or want, to disappear by faking their own deaths. The company also has in its format catalog Grilled, a competitive cookery show. The series takes ten food lovers—from owners of small businesses to home cooks—and sets them out on a range of challenges in real-life restaurants. The winner gets a chance to own their dream restaurant. There’s also Ultimate Survival Alaska. “This is one of the toughest competition formats in the world,” says Andrew Stephen, the company’s senior sales manager for formats.

Lynch

“Fox Networks Group Content Distribution has a rapidly growing formats business, with a raft of incredible ideas across the scripted and unscripted spaces.”

—Andrew Stephen

FremantleMedia Secret Admirer / Time to Dance / All Your Wishes A new reality relationship format from Naked Entertainment, Secret Admirer has been enjoying success on Channel 5 in the U.K. and Bravo in the U.S. “Admirers of all ages, preferences and walks of life each secretly invite the object of their affections to join them, agreeing to be filmed as they openly admit their true feelings,” says Rob Clark, the director of global entertainment at FremantleMedia. Another highlight from the company is Time to Dance, a new talent competition that requires contestants to impress judges with a 30-second performance during their audition. The show has been commissioned by RTL 4 in the Netherlands and is launching this April. There is also All Your Wishes, a new prime-time entertainment format from FremantleMedia France featuring a talented magician.

XXXXXXXX

Secret Admirer

“The rumors of the death of the format market have been greatly exaggerated. The market is robust and healthy.”

—Rob Clark

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Global Agency The Remix / Heritage / Fashion Auction A live music reality show, The Remix sees DJs and singers pair up and compete for a big-money prize with the chance to cut their own album with a famous music label. The show began airing exclusively on Amazon Prime Video India in March. “From the very first day that we presented The Remix to the entertainment content market, we knew that it was a potential worldwide hit,” says Umay Ayaz, Global Agency’s head of acquisitions. “It’s a huge success in Asia, especially in Vietnam, and this additional big launch on Amazon Prime shows us that we will watch its local versions all around the world.” Global Agency’s catalog for MIPTV also includes Heritage, a format that sees a rich old widow, who realizes she has no heir to her fortunes, trying to find the perfect person to receive her inheritance. “During the adventure, the contestants will live with the lady and participate with her in surprising activities and events,” explains Ayaz. “They will also have to deal with her changing moods and strict values. At the end of each episode, she will eliminate contestants one after the other, based on obscure reasons of her own. Only two contestants will face her final decision in the last episode.” Meanwhile, Fashion Auction brings to television the trend of people selling second-hand clothes and accessories. “It is a very entertaining and unique format that will attract many buyers,” says Ayaz.

The Remix

“The Remix is an extraordinary format, offering a visual feast to the audience.”

—Umay Ayaz

Inter Medya

The Perfect Couple

The Perfect Couple / 1 vs. 10 / Money Monster Taking place at a luxurious beach house located in the Caribbean, The Perfect Couple is a dating game show in which individuals compete against each other to secure a limited number of room keys for the chance to win a grand prize. “The losing contestants, who stay outside, have to fight in an elimination duel to determine the one going home,” says Can Okan, the founder and CEO of Inter Medya. After 17 weeks, only four couples will make it to the finale, where they will play elimination games as couples. The winner will be crowned “the perfect couple.” The show is positioned to air twice a week in prime time with either 60- or 90-minute episodes. Also being presented to international buyers at the market in Cannes is 1 vs. 10, a prime-time quiz show that sees participants choose one person out of ten who they think will not know the answer to a question. “If that person answers correctly, he or she wins,” says Okan. “If not, the contestant wins.” Then there is Money Monster, another prime-time game show, with this one looking on as participants try to win as much cash as they can in one minute. “Money Monster is full of adrenaline and entertainment,” adds Okan. The format Join Instant will be on offer as well. The interactive game show uses secondscreen technology to allow viewers at home to participate.

“We have been constantly working on creating fresh formats to broaden our catalog.”

—Can Okan

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KABO International The Break-Up / Solved! Forensic Police Files / Our Crazy Family KABO International is presenting to buyers The Break-Up. Based on an existing couples-therapy method, the format seeks to help real-life couples who are having issues in their relationships. KABO International also has in its catalog the true-crime series Solved! Forensic Police Files, alongside the scripted comedy format Our Crazy Family, which has been airing successfully on French broadcaster M6. “When KABO International first launched a few years ago, our focus was initially just on formats and KABO Family’s productions,” says Arabelle Pouliot-Di Crescenzo, the company’s managing director. “However, as we have now grown, our catalog has expanded and diversified to include third-party acquisitions, so we are now positioned as a key global distributor of formats as well as ready-made programming.”

The Break-Up

“In light of the growing trend and recent explosion in demand for social-experiment and relationship formats, we are pleased to be presenting The Break-Up to our buyers.”

—Arabelle Pouliot-Di Crescenzo

Keshet International The Search / Bad Habits, Holy Orders / Superstar Dogs A word-search game show with a physical element, The Search is one of Keshet International’s highlights. “The Search is a classic pen-and-paper game with a strong nostalgic element, and it’s something every age group is familiar with,” says Kelly Wright, the VP of distribution and new business. The company is also showcasing Bad Habits, Holy Orders, which brings a group of girls into a convent, where they interact with nuns who possess a radically different view of the world and contrasting moral values. Wright believes the program will “resonate widely because it reflects the social-media-obsessed age that young people now grow up in. It can be a very confusing environment and raises the question of how they value themselves and their self-worth.” Superstar Dogs, meanwhile, is a studio competition that sees dogs complete an obstacle course.

Bad Habits, Holy Orders

“We are looking forward to bringing a varied slate to MIPTV.” —Kelly Wright

Rabbit Films Globetrotters / What’s the Word? / Queen of the Day In Globetrotters, three unsuspecting celebrities get dropped in a different exotic location around the globe and must race to make their way back home before the others by solving eight clues in eight countries. Rabbit Films is also presenting the word-guessing celebrity game show What’s the Word? and Queen of the Day, which brings together former beauty-pageant winners from different decades for an eight-day journey. “Each day focuses on a different inspirational ‘queen,’ who will share their real untold life story during a personally chosen activity and over an elegant roundtable dinner,” explains Irini Kylkilahti, international sales executive. The format “brings wonderful variety to our catalog by being truly topical and a moving viewing experience.”

Globetrotters

“The target audience for all of these shows is broad, and they offer families a great co-viewing experience.”

—Irini Kylkilahti 316 WORLD SCREEN 4/18

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Red Arrow Studios International Code to Love / State of Hate / Buying Blind

State of Hate

The power of science, big data and algorithms are called upon to solve the mystery of love in the social experiment Code to Love. Red Arrow Studios International’s slate also features the reality format State of Hate. From the creators of the hit Married at First Sight, the program seeks to end bitter rivalries between groups divided by hate through intense challenges. In Buying Blind, meanwhile, families trust their life savings to experts who purchase a home for them, even though they’ve never seen the house. President Henrik Pabst says, “Red Arrow’s focus for MIPTV is to continue to be bold and original. The new formats we are presenting are daring, innovative and ask universal questions that challenge the status quo. We are also focused on representing the creative power of Red Arrow Studios as a group.”

“Red Arrow has built a strong reputation for delivering innovative international formats that travel.”

—Henrik Pabst

Talpa Global The Voice Senior / A Year to Remember / Superstar Chef Talpa Global is introducing the latest addition to the Voice franchise: The Voice Senior. “The Voice franchise—comprising The Voice, The Voice Kids and The Voice Senior—is the most successful format brand in the non-scripted global marketplace to date,” says Annelies Noest, the company’s director of formats and global network. “With this latest addition to the brand, Talpa now caters to three different generations with one format.” Building on the international success of I Love My Country, Talpa Global is rolling out the successor A Year to Remember. “The format has already been picked up in Germany and Belgium, and some more strong leads are in the pipeline for this nostalgic, feel-good show,” says Noest.

The company also has a new cooking show, Superstar Chef, in which the best chefs in the country are paired with celebrities.

TV Asahi

A Year to Remember

“These titles offer big, cut-through content.”

—Annelies Noest

vs KIDS

Test of Friends / vs KIDS / Experts Versus Experts TV Asahi worked with youngest Media to co-develop the new physical game format Test of Friends, which is a reimagination of Challengers on Fire, a Japanese weekly program from the 1990s. The entertainment series vs KIDS has been picked up globally by FremantleMedia. For Experts Versus Experts, TV Asahi partnered with Small World IFT. “The format has been a hit prime-time program, and more than 80 episodes have been produced in Japan,” says Yuka Kakui, the head of format development and sales. “Besides non-scripted formats, we are strengthening the scripted side of our business,” Kakui adds. A Family Goes Job Hunting, for example, has been sold to China’s Radiant Pictures. The show tells the story of family members who find themselves having to look for a job while facing various personal, familial and social issues.

“We have partnered with industry leaders to recreate and distribute top TV Asahi formats for the global market.”

—Yuka Kakui

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Twentieth Century Fox Television Distribution How I Met Your Mother/ Prison Break / The Mick The half-hour comedy How I Met Your Mother ran for nine successful seasons in the U.S., and Twentieth Century Fox Television Distribution is making the format available to international buyers looking to localize the show. The company also offers format rights for the hit drama Prison Break. The comedy The Mick already has two seasons under its belt in the U.S., and the format is available for licensing. Dorothy Crompton, the VP of format licensing at Twentieth Century Fox Television Distribution, says that the company’s scripted formats “cross borders to engage and resonate in each territory with the best in local storytelling.

Scripted programs dominate channel rankings, and the popularity of localized scripted formats allows you to engage the more sophisticated viewers.”

How I Met Your Mother

“Big international television franchises are known in the industry, but the best success comes from local adaptations.”

—Dorothy Crompton

Twofour Rights

Weekender

What Would Your Kid Do? / Change Your Tune / Weekender Making its international debut, What Would Your Kid Do? is an entertainment format that follows young children through a variety of fun-filled psychological tests and asks their parents to guess how they will respond. In the musical game show Change Your Tune, terrible singers perform in front of a live studio audience, but as the curtain falls, the “time-travel” transformation begins. “Change Your Tune is a fresh and warm take on the traditional singing format,” says Melanie Leach, chief executive of Twofour Group. “It’s a down-to-earth and relatable way of exploring singing ambitions.” Twofour Rights also has on offer the fixed-rig format Weekender. “Weekender takes the traditional fly-on-the-wall documentary style and blends it with the real-time constructed storytelling of that first holiday abroad for the younger generation,” Leach explains.

“We have a catalog of formats that can deliver big audiences for a competitive price.”

—Melanie Leach

Warner Bros. International Television Production Game of Games / Genius Junior / Under New Management Warner Bros. International Television Production (WBITVP) has among its highlights Game of Games. “Featuring one-ofa-kind supersized physical games, it’s a studio game show like no other—promising big fun, big laughs and a big cash prize,” says Andrew Zein, the company’s senior VP of creative, format development and sales. Also a game show, Genius Junior celebrates the talents of brilliant kids aged 12 and younger. The competition is “the ultimate test of their intelligence,” says Zein. “Under New Management is a great new Canadian format, which explores the fascinating world of small businesses,” Zein adds. “Each episode follows the roller-coaster journey of budding entrepreneurs as they assess three businesses, choosing which will suit their goals and lifestyle and that they’ll choose to put ‘under new management.’”

Game of Games

“WBITVP is pleased to once again present a wide slate of proven hit formats suitable for global audiences.”

—Andrew Zein

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Pobeg, the Russian version of Fox’s Prison Break.

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Joanna Stephens explores how distributors are finding success in the tricky business of scripted format adaptations. ne theory behind the ongoing boom in scripted formats is that there aren’t enough good stories to go around.

Great new stories are few and far between, and great new writers are even scarcer. So it’s much quicker, easier, safer and cheaper to take somebody else’s great story and make it your own.

Nicola Söderlund, the managing partner of Stockholmbased Eccho Rights, puts it neatly: “The demand for scripted is huge at the moment, but there’s a real shortage of good stories. The result is a growing appetite for scripted formats, particularly in the U.K. and the U.S. The Americans are completely open to new ideas—and they don’t care where they come from.”

O

RETELLING TALES For Eccho Rights, the hunt for good tales to tell—or, more accurately, good tales to retell—has taken it as far afield as Korea, Turkey and India. “Finding new and fresh ideas in unlikely places has become our forte,” Söderlund adds. He cites CJ E&M’s Tears of Heaven, which was originally a daytime drama for Korea’s MBN. Eccho Rights then licensed the format to Turkish producer Süreç Film, which transformed it into Cennet for ATV. My Father Is Strange followed a similar trajectory; it first aired on Korea’s KBS, was licensed by Turkey’s Most Production and remade as Life of Secrets for Star TV. “There’s a very strong trade between Korea and Turkey at the moment,” Söderlund says, observing that the two cultures’ drama traditions share specific characteristics, notably a penchant for romance and high emotion.

In the run-up to MIPTV, Eccho Rights closed a deal with Korea’s JTBC to represent the format rights to Secret Affair.

This is the first time that the Korean cable network has worked with an international distributor to promote a scripted format, and Söderlund has high hopes for the awardwinning drama. He also predicts more deals for The End, the Ay Yapim series that spawned Globomedia’s El Accidente for Spain’s Telecinco. The script was piloted in the U.S. as Runner on ABC, reversioned into Flight HS13 for NPO3 in the Netherlands, is gearing up for a launch in Russia on Channel One and has been optioned in Germany.

Söderlund makes the point that, while the various localizations of The End are very different from the Turkish original,

all iterations respect the overriding story arc. “You have to be pragmatic,” he says. “We say a scripted format is like a Christmas tree. You can decorate a tree as you wish, but you must keep the trunk and branches intact, or the whole thing collapses. A format is the same. You can adapt it to reflect different cultures, but don’t touch the mechanics of the storyline. You’ve bought a great story that has worked in one territory and, with a few adjustments, it will work in yours.”

LET IT GO This view resonates with Keren Shahar, Keshet International’s COO and president of distribution, who says the most significant challenge when adapting any drama is “staying true to the original writer’s vision, while allowing local writers to find their own voice.” Shahar’s advice to any writer seeing “their baby” reimagined for another territory is to let go mentally.

“We are transparent from the start and let our writers know they may well see their original idea change shape. This is inevitable because often the story has to be adapted to suit the cultural expectations of a particular audience. We search each territory for the best writer and the most sympathetic creative team for the job.”

An example is The A Word, which originated in Israel as Yellow Peppers, created by Keren Margalit. The drama, which tackles the subject of autism and its effect on family life, was commissioned by the U.K.’s BBC One, where it was co-produced by Keshet UK, Tiger Aspect and Fifty Fathoms Productions. Acclaimed British screenwriter Peter Bowker was entrusted with the adaptation—a particularly sensitive task since the drama draws on Margalit’s own family story. The end result was a resounding success for the pubcaster, averaging 5.5 million viewers. And the critics liked it as much as the British public, praising “Peter Bowker’s new drama” for its bravery, humor and emotional nuance.

Looking ahead, Shahar sees a return to lighter, more optimistic drama. “I’d even say some territories want outand-out escapism,” she says. Keshet’s response is The Baker and the Beauty, which has started to travel as a format following buoyant ready-made sales. The rom-com has already been adapted in the Netherlands and Greece and is in development in Russia.

Over at another Israeli drama powerhouse, Dori Media Group, Revital Basel, VP of sales, agrees that love is selling particularly well. “Romantic comedy is traveling amazingly

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A Russian deal is in place on BBC Studios’ Doctor Foster, a psychological thriller.

for us,” she says, pointing to Las Estrellas (5 Stars), which launched internationally at MIPCOM. Basel ascribes the allure of Las Estrellas to its “clear hook, great storytelling and modern take on the universal themes of love, friendship and family.” But, at a weighty 120 episodes, it also asks audiences to commit for the long haul. “And winning that level of loyalty requires excellent scripting, a lot of cliffhangers and brilliant acting,” she adds.

Dori’s big scripted success is Israeli psychiatry drama Be’Tipul, which spawned HBO’s In Treatment back in 2008 and has subsequently been adapted for an additional 17 territories. Basel cites the Japanese and Russian versions as examples of the cultural challenges of reversioning. “In Japan, we had to switch all the patients to high school kids, because it’s a huge loss of face for Japanese adults to admit to mentalhealth problems. And in Russia, we had to make the therapist a woman, on the basis that no Russian man would ever share his intimate problems with another man. That changed the whole dynamic because a lot of the storylines and motivations had to be changed, but we made it work.”

CALLING THE DOCTOR At BBC Studios (formerly BBC Worldwide), one of its most sought-after scripted formats is Doctor Foster. The format has been licensed to Russia with more deals in the pipeline, says Sumi Connock, creative director of formats.

Part of Doctor Foster’s appeal, Connock believes, is that it taps into the trend for powerful female leads after years of men’s stories dominating prime-time drama.

“We’re seeing a demand for strong women from everywhere, from the U.S. and Europe to India, Korea and China,” Connock says.

Also gathering in popularity are youth-skewing dramas, notably sci-fi fantasy and fast-paced thrillers that can deliver on both digital and linear. Successes in this sphere include crime drama Luther, licensed to Russia and South Korea; Orphan Black, recently remade in Japan; dark comedy-drama End of the F***ing World; and immersive online murder mystery The Last Hours of Laura K, now being reversioned

by Brazil’s Rede Globo.

For Connock, the advantages of buying a BBC Studios scripted format go well beyond the comfort of acquiring a concept that has been proven elsewhere. “Drama is incredibly expensive, so it helps to know a series has been successful in its original territory. But our dramas have also been through the filter of the BBC. When you buy from us, you not only cut down on development costs and go into production more quickly, but you also get the full backing of the BBC, with its experience and pedigree, and the advantage of working with some of the best writers in the world.”

LAUGH TRACK It is assumed that comedy is the most challenging genre to export, on the principle that the world may cry at the same things, but it doesn’t necessarily find the same things funny.

Connock isn’t convinced. While acknowledging that oldschool comedy can be a tough sell, she says scripted humor is gaining in popularly, particularly with broadcasters targeting younger viewers who, thanks to SVOD and YouTube, are much more humor-agnostic than previous generations.

More proof that comedy can travel comes in the form of David Brent, the cringe-inducing anti-hero of Ricky Gervais’s The Office. The mockumentary now has nine local adaptations under its belt, including NBC’s incarnation, which is rumored to be coming back for a tenth season. In February, it was announced that India has now also acquired the format. “I think The Office is so transferrable because every office in every city in every country has a David Brent. We all know one,” Connock observes.

Arabelle Pouliot-Di Crescenzo takes a similar line. The managing director of KABO International, the distribution arm of French production group KABO Family Group, points out that two of the most successful scripted formats, Love Bugs and Camera Café, are pure comedy. But for global audiences to get the joke, she says, the humor must be grounded in universal experiences. She references KABO Family’s Our Crazy Family, heading into its seventh season on M6 in France and still pulling in more than 3 million viewers. The format has been sold to Canada’s Canal Vie and Greece’s StarTV, with a deal now in the works in Spain.

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to creating a local production “that doesn’t just feel like a carbon copy of the U.S. series with a foreign cast, language and setting.” The aim is to make the adaptation as appealing to its new local audience as possible, while retaining the tone and energy of the original. “For example, we might change the setting and time period, or add more cultural references,” Crompton says.

“But we always insist that local formats maintain the integrity of the original IP.”

ON TAPE Stranger, a crime drama from CJ E&M, has been optioned for a remake in the U.S.

“When buyers watch Our Crazy Family for the first time, they invariably say, ‘That’s us! That’s my family!’ I think you need that sort of instant, visceral connection for comedy to cross borders,” Pouliot-Di Crescenzo says. She also notes that Our Crazy Family mines customs and emotions for laughs, not politics or beliefs. “It focuses on quirky traditions and intergenerational relationships, but in a lighthearted, affectionate way. It’s observational, not judgmental.”

Both Our Crazy Family and Cops on the Block—another successful M6 comedy format, which has been licensed into Ukraine—are constructed on KABO’s “Pick’n Mix” sitcom model, under which individual comedy skits can be assembled to create a show of any length. This structure also facilitates adaptation, in that local producers can cherry-pick the scenes that will work for their audiences and ignore the ones that won’t. “For the most part, our partners stick to our scripts, because that’s their investment,” Pouliot-Di Crescenzo says.

“But sometimes a skit will get thrown out for cultural reasons— for example, if it’s about putting grandparents in a nursing home in a country where that’s not common practice.”

Another appealing aspect of KABO’s model is that it offers massive volume. Our Crazy Family alone now stands at 230 half-hours. This level of production is made possible by KABO’s 80 in-house comedy writers, who churn out around 70 hours of content a year.

In terms of KABO’s involvement in the localization process, Pouliot-Di Crescenzo says a great deal of attention is paid to ensuring that producers “really get the psychology and motivation” of the characters. KABO also helps with the casting, but steps back when it feels that “a solid foundation” has been achieved. “At that point, we’re happy to give our partners more freedom. But first, we need to know that they not only understand the show but love it as much as we do.”

It’s not uncommon for broadcasters to license the original drama along with the format rights. However, the jury is out as to whether two versions of the same story can coexist in harmony, with some maintaining that one is likely to cannibalize the sales of the other. The more optimistic view is that tape helps build interest in a local version. Indeed, some territories prefer to test the water with the original drama before investing in a local production. “We’ve had it happen where the success of one of our U.S. series has generated great interest in creating a localized format,” Crompton says.

This has also been the experience for Diane Min, international sales manager for formats at Korea’s CJ E&M. “Asian broadcasters prefer to go with both versions because it makes them feel safe,” she says. “Then, if the original tape goes down well, it’s a safer bet that the format will also be a success.”

Min says that CJ E&M’s clients are getting “edgier and more sophisticated” regarding their scripted requirements, looking

HOLLYWOOD HITS At Twentieth Century Fox Television Distribution, Modern Family, Prison Break, How I Met Your Mother, Glee, Malcolm in the Middle and 24 are just some of the studio’s franchises to have generated local versions. One of the most successful, terrorism drama 24, was a breakout hit in India, fronted by Bollywood legend Anil Kapoor. Also performing well as a format is David Schulner’s 2007 paranormal pilot The Oaks, which has now spawned local remakes in the U.K., France and Mexico.

“We follow industry standards in terms of adaptation, production support and localizing scripts,” Dorothy Crompton, VP of format licensing, says of the level of assistance that the studio offers to its scripted partners. The storylines are only the start; constant communication and consultation are key

Nippon TV’s new scripted-format slate for MIPTV includes anone.

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Dori Media is offering up the format rights to its Argentine romantic comedy Las Estrellas (5 Stars).

beyond the family and rom-com fare that has traditionally been K-drama’s heartland. An example of this trend is Signal, the ingenious plot of which revolves around a detective who solves cold cases via a two-way radio connecting the present to the past. Signal is set to be remade in Japan this year and has also been optioned in India. Another CJ E&M crime drama that is performing well is Stranger, originally produced by Dragon Studio for tvN, which has been licensed in Russia and optioned in the U.S. In recent years, CJ E&M has adapted a slew of foreign dramas for its home market, including Criminal Minds and Entourage from the U.S. and Mother from Japan. That experience has taught the Korean media giant that “localization is crucial,” Min says. Echoing her international counterparts, she adds that respect for the original IP and close communication are pivotal to a successful outcome for all parties. “We provide a consultancy service with the original producers. For the Thai version of Oh My Ghost, our production team flew to Bangkok three times to give initial guidance.”

CREATIVE DNA

Anne, has gone on to sell to more than 25 territories.

Mother is a very female-driven story: the protagonist is an elementaryschool teacher who takes in one of her pupils to protect her from her abusive parents. Mother’s focus on women is part of a wider strategy that has seen Nippon TV allocate a Wednesday-night slot to dramas targeting female viewers. Mori elaborates: “We hear from our buyers that they want stories with an edge and uniqueness. There are a lot of medical, police and family dramas, but not many focusing on motherhood and the relationship between mother and child.” This is the niche that Nippon TV has made its own. Alongside serious dramas tackling women’s issues and concerns, Nippon TV’s Wednesday-night strand also features lighter fare, in which “heroines overcome problems in a bright, delightfully pleasurable way,” Mori says.

Another scripted format to have emerged from Nippon TV’s pursuit of compelling, female-skewing drama is Woman: My Life for My Children, produced by the creative team behind Mother. The drama was also reversioned by MF Yapim for Turkey, where it rolled out on FOX last October to “stellar ratings,” and is another story of unconditional motherly love.

Mori says the success of both titles in Turkey’s brutally competitive drama market has generated strong international interest in Nippon TV’s scripted slate, with several more sales due to be announced before MIPTV. That is clearly a welcome commercial result but, for Mori, it also has a deeper significance in a world that struggles with issues of diversity. Drama has proven itself to be effective in challenging attitudes, changing conversations and winning hearts and minds. Or, as Mori puts it, “We hope the messages that our dramas send out will be a small help to society around the world.”

So how much leeway is too much leeway when adapting formats to suit local needs? Min says that CJ E&M always asks a drama’s original writers to review the first few scripts of an adaptation, “to make sure that the new version doesn’t lose the core of the original.”

Over in Japan, Arisa Mori, sales and licensing executive for international business development at Nippon TV, says it all comes down to flexibility, openness and “building trusted relationships.” She uses the Turkish adaptation of Mother, Nippon TV’s most successful scripted format to date, to illustrate her point. In the 2016 Turkish remake

by MF Yapim and MEDYAPIM, the ending was changed, “but we could accept it because we felt the Turkish production team appreciated and respected the original script,” she says. “They truly understood the message that the original story wanted to deliver.” It was clearly a good call; the Turkish version, called KABO International’s flagship scripted-comedy format is Our Crazy Family.

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Warner Bros.’ The Bachelor in Japan.

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Kristin Brzoznowski explores what’s new in dating and marriage formats. hether tuning in for the cringeworthy awkwardness of a first date gone awry, the hopefulness of a budding fairy-tale romance or the lighthearted fun of young singles on the prowl to find potential paramours, audiences love a good relationship-based reality show. And so do broadcasters, as these programs have the ability to not only draw loyal viewers but also to become full-fledged franchises that make noise in the schedule and return season after season.

One need look no further than The Bachelor for evidence of the strength and staying power of dating shows in today’s television landscape. The series, which debuted on ABC in the U.S. in 2002 and is fresh off its 22nd season, has spawned several spin-offs and a slew of international iterations. The American original has continued to see ratings gains, even after more than a decade and a half on air, and the format has managed to hit its stride globally.

“In the international market, buyers originally looked at it and said, ‘It’s great but it’s very American—there are beautiful people, it’s slightly over the top and it’s almost saccharin sweet; that won’t work for our market,’ ” explains Andrew Zein, the senior VP of creative, format development and sales at Warner Bros. International Television Production (WBITVP). “What we are able to say to buyers is, there’s an authenticity to it, but it doesn’t take itself too seriously. And that’s what has been reflected in the international versions; they are all incredibly close to the U.S. version in terms of the aspiration, escapism, look and feel. The humor and warmth work very well for audiences around the world.”

Another long-runner in the relationship space is Wife Swap, which came onto the scene in 2003 with its premiere on Channel 4 in the U.K. “Wife Swap is about two key things: what makes one family different from another, and what makes them the same as each other,” says Andrew Sime, VP of formats at Banijay Rights. “At a time of enormous polarization in society, the format is as relevant as ever, perhaps even more so.”

W

In Wife Swap’s home market of the U.K., producer RDF Television brought the format back last year and updated it for a Brexit special. “It was a really novel approach to tackling a very contentious, topical issue, and we are keen to repeat the experiment with other controversial issues around the world,” says Sime.

TEMPTING TV The Banijay Rights catalog is also home to Temptation Island and Undressed, which is in the buzzy social-experiment space. “Undressed is one of our strongest recent formats and continues to launch in new territories,” says Sime. “A Danish version premiered this spring and introduced a new twist: for the first time, the show would be set in a real bedroom rather than a studio. It’s a small but significant change and has brought new levels of intimacy to the format, making it even easier for viewers to identify with the contestants. At its heart, and in common with all good social experiments, the show asks viewers how they would respond if they were placed into such an emotionally heightened experience.”

Viewing relationships through the lens of a social experiment has reinvigorated the genre as a whole, and many producers and distributors point to the global success of Married at First Sight, sold by Red Arrow Studios International, as a catalyst that spurred the trend. There are more than 25 international versions of Married, and on the back of its achievements, the company launched Kiss Bang Love and has Code to Love coming up for MIPTV. “Social experiments like Married at First Sight, Kiss Bang Love and Code to Love bring something new to the genre,” says Harry Gamsu, the VP of non-scripted at Red Arrow Studios International. “The world of dating and relationships is often quite complicated. What these shows do very well is offer a new way into this space. They make it very accessible and engaging for the viewer from the get-go, and then you want to see what the outcome is.”

While an intriguing or salacious title might draw in audiences (and buyers) initially, the show has to have substance

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Twofour Rights’ A Night With My Ex began in the U.K. on Channel 5 and was adapted in the U.S. for Bravo.

in its story to get them to come back. Married delivers on this, says Gamsu, and goes a step further. “There is the noisy topline of the ‘getting married at first sight’ hook, but then after that, the show can feel local and relevant. That’s why we keep seeing recommissions, because it feels like such a local show that people really buy into it.”

Regarding the success of the social-experiment format Seven Year Switch, Hayley Babcock, A+E Networks’ head of formats, international programming and production, says, “The title, that sizzle of the promise of swapping [spouses], is there to bring in people, but the way we keep viewers is with the authentic story. The reason people come back to watch it, and the reason it’s working in other territories, is that you are watching something real and you can feel it—even if it’s packaged in a structure that wouldn’t normally exist in people’s lives.”

AUDIENCE ATTRACTION Similarly, Dating in the Dark, which has sold into such markets as the U.S. and the U.K., delivers exactly what its title promises, “and that has a lot to do with why the show became so successful,” says Annelies Noest, the director of formats and global network at Talpa Global. “It goes one layer deeper than the regular dating show, where you see two people meet, get to know each other and either like each other or not. Dating in the Dark is more like a social experiment, asking, How much do looks really matter? We all have the notion that it’s what’s inside that counts. How true is that? We put that to the test. That angle got people hooked to the show to see what happens when we eventually turn the light on. It’s a clever gimmick.”

And, in order to stand out amid the deluge of dating shows on the market at present, it’s imperative that a format has some sort of a special hook like this. In Naked Entertainment’s Secret

Admirer, which FremantleMedia is launching at MIPTV, for example, there’s a lot on the line for the show’s participants, and audiences get a front-row seat. “It’s a dating show with real jeopardy,” says Simon Andreae, the chief executive at Naked Entertainment. “In nearly all current dating shows, you are being asked to pick someone you have never met. In Secret Admirer, you’re confessing your love to someone you know well: your boss, your best friend, your colleague. It’s incredibly high stakes. If it works out well, you gain a lover. If it goes badly, you often lose a friend.”

INTIMATE APPROACH The stakes are also high for the former couples in A Night With My Ex, a Twofour Rights format. The show uses fixedrig cameras to help deliver a deeper level of authenticity, which is part of the draw. “This format is all about creating a truly authentic experience,” says Holly Hodges, the company’s head of sales operations. “The fixed rig gives the couples real privacy and provides a gap between them and the film crew. Reality-savvy audiences are wise to the heavy hand of the producer and can spot when stories are being manipulated for entertainment. A Night With My Ex does the exact opposite, letting the natural drama play out in a completely unfiltered way.

“The same could be said about Weekender, which is also shot on a rig and delves into the relationships formed on holiday,” she adds.

“In such a saturated space, what will float above the crowd is the social-experiment way of exploring relationships,” says Amos Neumann, COO of Armoza Formats. “It is the most intriguing because it breaks the rules. We’ve done that with Sex Tape and Marry Me Now,” which both venture far beyond the boy-meets-girl convention of traditional

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The presence of an elimination also raises the drama, as is the case with Inter Medya’s new format The Perfect Couple. Billed as a “dating game show,” the series has contestants competing to win a limited number of room keys at a luxurious beach house in order to avoid sleeping outside. The gameplay also brings up plenty of conflicts and jealousy, two ingredients shown to have an allure all their own with audiences.

DIGITAL LOVE

In Global Agency’s Marriage Life Experiment, a woman chooses a potential husband after spending time with two suitors and their families.

relationship shows. Sex Tape brings up an in-depth conversation about a relationship or marriage from the prism of a couple’s sex life. Marry Me Now is about female empowerment, Neumann says. “It is about women taking their fate into their own hands, saying, ‘If you’re not going to propose, I will.’ ”

PASSIONATE OBSERVERS Global Agency, meanwhile, arrives at MIPTV with the brandnew dating format Power of Love, which sees singletons living together under the same roof but includes a twist in that they leave each night, allowing outside influences to shape their strategy for avoiding the week’s elimination. Members of the public are also invited to vote through SMS or by going online. “This creates great interactivity between the viewers and contestants,” says Izzet Pinto, the founder and CEO of Global Agency. “Each viewer feels like they’re in someone else’s shoes, thinking, This contestant is so much like me, I need to protect them from elimination. This interactivity is the perfect way to create fans.”

As technology has had a profound impact on how people meet their partners in real life—thanks to apps, your soulmate could be just a swipe away!—dating shows have followed suit. While this has pushed the genre forward, it must be integrated with care. “When technology is part of the format for the sake of the content, it works well, rather than just having tech for the sake of tech,” cautions Luci Sanan, head of formats at The Story Lab Global. With Game of Clones, for example, romantic hopefuls use the latest technology to create an avatar of their ideal partner. The tech is “integral to the format points, and it adds value to the story,” she notes. It also taps into what’s on-trend with younger viewers, a demographic that is coveted by broadcasters and advertisers alike.

Viacom International Media Networks (VIMN) has several dating shows that have struck a chord with the younger set, among them Ex on the Beach, Are You the One? and Make or Break? Encouraged by the success it has found in this space, the company is now betting on Swipe Date, which is based on the premise of “bringing your dating apps to life,” says Laura Burrell, VIMN’s head of formats.

“As the ways that people meet change, we’ve got to try to develop shows that change with them and reflect modern dating,” she adds. Driving viewers to channels’ online platforms is part of the package as well. “That’s a key piece of what we try to do. If you go online, there are whole communities based around a show. Sometimes it will be just to watch the episodes, but we have all sorts of additional content that we try to put up and make available for our viewers. It could be some unseen footage, an interview with cast members, competitions—it’s going to depend on the format, but there’s so much you can do in that space now.”

There’s a slew of additional online material surrounding the Bachelor franchise, explains WBITVP’s Zein. “In Australia, we’ve done digital content going behind the scenes, looking at how the shows are put together, how the

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Celebrity couples are featured in Talpa’s The Story of My Life.

styling decisions are made, how the dates are arranged. In Sweden, the show sometimes premieres on the TV4 Play on-demand service and then on the free-to-air channel.

There is all sorts of lower-cost, shorter-duration spin-off content that gives more insight into what’s been happening on the show. This helps with budgets, and it helps drive the audiences—and we know that Bachelor fans are committed and invested.”

DAYTIME AFFAIR While The Bachelor has been positioned as prime-time event programming in all its territories, there is quite a bit of scheduling flexibility in the dating and relationship genre at large. Global Agency’s Power of Love, for one, is formatted as a stripped show, playing five days a week in access prime time, with an additional prime-time episode that caps off the action. “It becomes like an unscripted telenovela,” says Pinto. “It’s a great opportunity in terms of advertising revenue because you have loyal viewers ready to follow the story. Imagine that you are having great ratings for five days—why not make it six?”

The Australian version of Married at First Sight was the first to strip the series and the scheduling strategy is working well, says Red Arrow’s Gamsu. “There are a number of episodes stripped across the week, so it’s almost like a soap opera.

They’ve introduced into the show a brand-new post-marriage stage where all the couples move in together in an apartment complex, which ramps up the reality aspect. That’s an interesting tweak, and it’s a huge change to the format.”

Gamsu also notes how social experiments, the likes of Married, are able to cast a wider net in terms of audience reach than some of the more traditional romance-laden factual fare. “By purposing big questions—Can technology

help us find someone?

Should we trust our senses rather than first impressions?—both men and women want to follow the show through to the end to find the answer. It doesn’t feel so female-centric then and makes for great co-viewing.”

Regarding the audience, simple adjustments to the casting on dating and marriage shows can make all the difference—it’s an easy but effective tweak. With Dating in the Dark, “some countries want it a bit more young and sexy, whereas in Israel, for example, they did a version with slightly older people,” says Talpa’s Noest. “Anything goes! We even have a celebrity version in development. We’re looking to find the best possible casting for that at the moment.”

In addition to the flexibility in scheduling and casting, many of the series in this space are easily scalable in terms of budgets as well. Producers and distributors have gotten quite savvy at coming up with innovative ways to deliver cost-effective relationship shows. “For A Night With My Ex, we adopted a dual shooting approach, running two rigged apartments through one shared gallery, which allows you to capture two episodes in one 24-hour period,” says Twofour’s Hodges.

In the case of Seven Year Switch, “some territories have chosen to send their switched couples to far-away, exotic locations for their two weeks of experimental living together, while others might send them within their own country to a seaside town or somewhere that’s not quite as far or expensive,” explains A+E Networks’ Babcock. “You’re still getting them out of their regular lives, putting them somewhere really lovely and relaxing, but it could be two hours away as opposed to two plane rides away.”

THE NEXT STEP Babcock believes that in the current environment, buyers and audiences are seeking out feel-good programming that provides some escapism. Love at First Flight, a dating/travel hybrid that A+E Networks is launching at MIPTV, delivers on this, she says. The show is “playful and upbeat. However, that doesn’t mean that it’s fake or fluffy; it still has real stakes and is very genuine, but it is lighter and happier” in its tone.

One of the key new launches for Banijay Rights at MIPTV is Date Night, which gives viewers an up-close look at what it’s like to find love on a dating app. “What’s exciting about Date Night is that it’s a really warm dating format, which has been made possible by the technological innovations in the world of dating,” says Sime. “As this process continues, I think many more opportunities will open up for format creators and producers around the world.”

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In the ultra-competitive arena of music talent shows, Keshet International has managed to break through with its interactive format Rising Star. In addition to its stellar performance in Israel, where five seasons have been broadcast, the series has seen hundreds of episodes airing worldwide, and the format has evolved over time to incorporate fresh creative concepts that originated from different territories. This dedication to constant innovation is one of the hallmarks of Keshet Media Group’s overall business strategy. The company currently has 18 formats on air globally, including another strong performer in the talent space, Masters of Dance, and a number of hit scripted shows that have been remade around the world. Avi Nir, CEO of Keshet Media Group, gives his view on the current state of the format market.

TV FORMATS: What sort of cross-pollination and shared practices are there between Keshet’s various assets inside and outside of Israel?

NIR: This is one of the toughest managerial challenges. On the one hand, it’s about keeping the various parts of the group totally independent and hungry and eager to create their own IP. On the other hand, it’s about gaining from the connection to the other companies. We are constantly trying to work on communicating, listening to each other, [exchanging] ideas and IP. We have been pushing the limits. Every manager in every country has their own brainchild and IP, but we’ve also had some great takes on remakes. All in all, Keshet has been an expert in the art of remakes, which is a complicated task! It’s about reincarnating a show, with some DNA resemblance. This is what we strive for. The results this year have been very positive.

TV FORMATS: What are the key ingredients a scripted show must have to travel widely as a format?

NIR: There has to be something in the basic story, the one-liner, that has the ability to connect and engage people very quickly, creators and viewers alike. Sometimes it’s a very idiosyncratic or indigenous story, but they get it. There’s something there that relates to their emotions or conflicts.

The creators in Israel and elsewhere tend to go for big stories with strong resonance, and that’s what creates this effect.

TV FORMATS: Looking outside of the scripted-format arena, what must a large-scale, big-budget entertainment show have in order to break through in today’s marketplace?

NIR: It’s been a big year for two of our shows, Masters of Dance and Rising Star. The challenge now, to break through the clutter, is to have the ability to connect. The way we look at it in Israel is that we have to make it a national phenomenon. For prime time, this is what it takes. There has to be something in the basic idea that can create this kind of national impact. Then it’s all about execution, which is always a critical part of achieving what you aim for. From the point of view of free TV, entertainment and reality are incredibly

important parts of what we offer. These shows, if they are conceived in the right way and executed in the right way, have the ability to connect with a lot of people and create the sensation of a live, ongoing phenomenon. It doesn’t have to be a live show in the technical sense. It has to feel like something that is happening now.

We currently have another two big formats in development, along with some smaller formats. It’s a very crucial and important part of our diets to have these ubiquitous reality shows.

TV FORMATS: How does digital play into that?

NIR: About 40 percent of Keshet employees are people who deal with digital and social applications. That’s the way we’ve been leaning for the last eight years. We have a very strong digital presence in Israel, so it’s become part of our DNA and the way we tell stories. Sometimes it has to do with the stories we tell on television; sometimes it’s totally independent.

A very interesting move we made this year was into the social-network arena. We created four new brands, which are very entertaining. They are not Keshet-branded; they have their own brands. They are very successful. It is usually based on native content, but done in a very entertaining way and not a “commercial” way. This is part of who we are. As a content company, this is how we define ourselves. It’s not limited to Israel, it’s not limited to linear; it’s the whole package.

TV FORMATS: Do you think that digital and streaming platforms are going to shake up the format arena like they did the drama market?

NIR: With scripted, good drama and comedy are totally indifferent to a streaming service or linear TV. The jury is still out on short-form content. We have a very active digital studio in L.A. that has some bright, fresh concepts that we are currently developing. In the non-scripted arena, it’s still challenging. The bigger success stories are mostly scripted or documentaries.

Entertainment and reality formats are still not a major part of the streaming services; their future has yet to be decided.

TV FORMATS: What’s your sense of how the overall format market is faring these days, and where do you see the greatest opportunities ahead in this space?

NIR: We have come a long way and are satisfied with where we are now, but realize there is much more to do. I know how many ideas we are getting [from people] knocking on our doors, and the challenge is to take all of these stories and place them throughout the world. We need, on the one hand, to be very attentive to these stories and, on the other hand, we need to keep growing so that we can totally exploit their potential. Some of the recent steps we made will show you how we plan to do this. We are aiming to step up our infrastructure in order to fully leverage the ideas and stories we have in our company.

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By Kristin Brzoznowski

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Gogglebox has been on a global tear since its Channel 4 premiere in the U.K. in 2013. One of the few breakout format hits of the last few years, the show—which chronicles people watching and talking about television—has been adapted in the U.S., Australia, Germany, France, Italy, Ireland, the Middle East and Mongolia, among other territories. The format hails from Studio Lambert, the prolific trans-Atlantic production outfit founded by Stephen Lambert with all3media. Lambert, whose long list of credits also includes Faking It, Wife Swap and Undercover Boss, tells TV Formats about the keys to Gogglebox’s success and his approach to casting, and reveals details about some of Studio Lambert’s new creations that will be launching at MIPTV with all3media international.

TV FORMATS: Tell us about how the concept for Gogglebox originated. Why do you think it translates so well around the world?

LAMBERT: Our team came up with it, in particular producer Tania Alexander and Tim Harcourt, our creative director. It’s a great way to show the best of television that week. There’s so much TV out there and people miss things, so if you watch Gogglebox, you’ll get to see what everybody’s talking about.

Everyone can join in on the national conversation, and what people talk about is what’s on television. It’s not just a clip show; it’s also a way of getting to know a cast of very likable people that reflect social diversity in terms of class, age, geography. In that sense, once people start watching Gogglebox, they identify with and feel good about their nation.

The real challenge of that show is its comedic element, and that you’ve got to make it very quickly. You only have a week to produce the show to keep it timely. The teams that make it all over the world do a brilliant job. You are filming all over the country. It’s very important that people are filmed in their own homes. One of the things we quite appreciate is how intimate it is to film people in their sitting rooms with the people they feel closest to and most relaxed with, talking and watching television. It feels like you’re at the heart of a very intimate moment in people’s families. They speak with authenticity and honesty.

Obviously, as they get more well known, there’s a danger they start playing to the camera, but we cut all that out.

TV FORMATS: How do you approach casting Gogglebox?

LAMBERT: Casting is very important for all kinds of shows. In Gogglebox, we deliberately didn’t want to find people who wanted to be on television. Certainly in Britain, we’ve never advertised for people to be on the show; we’ve worked out the kinds of people we’d like to have on the show. For example, it would be good to get a North London Jewish family, so we have teams that go to the Waitrose [an upscale supermarket] in Golders Green [an area of North London that is home to a Jewish community] and start talking to people and asking people for recommendations. We wanted some retirees from the north, so we went around the bridge clubs

in Liverpool until we found Leon and June [an elderly couple who were favorites on the Channel 4 version of the show. Leon passed away in late December]. It’s more of a documentary sensibility. On the whole, if you’re making documentaries, you don’t advertise for people to be in them; you find a subject matter that you’re interested in and then you find people who you think will be good in it and you persuade them to be in it. That’s the kind of approach we’ve taken with Gogglebox and quite a few of our other shows.

TV FORMATS: How long does it take for the people on Gogglebox to forget about the cameras?

LAMBERT: Part of the casting process is to find people who you think will be good at doing this. People find it pretty easy to do because it’s such a natural thing just to sit there and start talking with your family. Nobody from production is in the room.

We have a couple of cameras that are controlled from another room, one essentially getting a wide shot and the other a tight shot. If we weren’t there, it wouldn’t feel very different for them.

So in that sense, it’s quite easy for them to get relaxed.

I was amazed by how good the Lebanese version of Gogglebox was that was shown around the Middle East. It was beautifully done. I thought it was going to be very difficult to make it in the Middle East, for all kinds of reasons. I’ve also been delighted by how well Endemol Shine Australia has been making Gogglebox. That’s probably the one that’s closest to the British one, but it’s different in its Australianness.

TV FORMATS: What about on Undercover Boss?

LAMBERT: That’s harder. Obviously you have to persuade the people that this person who is actually the boss of their company has a legitimate reason for working on the front line alongside them. As the series goes on, you have to come up with more elaborate ruses to do that. One of the things we’ll often do and then cut out is we’ll have two people working alongside [the participant], one after the other, and we’ll have a host as well.

We’ll say, this is a competition show and you have to judge between these two people. We’ll cut all that out, but we use it as a way of ensuring people don’t think it’s Undercover Boss.

Occasionally people do realize it’s Undercover Boss, but we’ll often feature that in the program. The absolute truth is that it’s a real surprise to them when they discover what’s happening.

We are launching a show featuring celebrities going undercover into their industry. It’s great because the people that our celebrities are working alongside are the undiscovered talents in their world. They’re up-and-coming singers or athletes or chefs.

They often talk about [the actual celebrities] while we’re filming: “And my real hero is X,” and X is the person they’re working alongside! We have to have very elaborate disguises because they are so well known, of course. When [the aspiring participants] discover what they’ve been doing, they are blown away.

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Lebanon is among the territories that have adapted Gogglebox.

TV FORMATS: Undercover Boss premiered on CBS just as the U.S. was recovering from the 2008 recession. How are you and your team brainstorming ideas that reflect what’s happening in society today?

LAMBERT: There’s no magical science to it. You do spend a lot of time thinking about what it is that we’re all talking about.

We have quite a few shows that are [variations] on that Gogglebox way of getting groups of people to comment on something, as opposed to experts. It’s harder to launch a new show with an expert as the host than it used to be. I think people are a little bit tired of that. So we’re developing a new show where it’s a crowd advising people on what clothes to wear for a fashion show. We’re doing a show where it’s a group of people around the country watching videos of parenting problems. It reflects a lot about the way in which we live our lives. We rely on social media and lots of different viewpoints, synthesizing what we want to draw from those views. We’ve got quite a few shows where we’re riffing on that. We also do a lot of things that feel like they’re picking up on the power of the internet. We’ve got two, maybe three big drama series that all have the internet at their heart. And we’ve got a big new reality show we’re working on that, again, has the internet [as its focus]. The fact that we’re living with it as such a big part of our lives, in all its different ways, is a constant source of inspiration for us.

always been to make the British version and then sell the format rights around the world. We always make the American version ourselves, because we’re a BritishAmerican company. In one respect, it’s lovely if a streamer wants to take your show because often they will resource it quite well. But they don’t give you the possibility of a massive upside if it becomes a global hit. We made quite a big decision recently to concentrate on fewer but bigger shows. There are two very big unscripted shows we’re putting together for [this] year. In some ways with the very big shows, there’s slightly less competition—it’s hard to persuade networks to commit. But if you get some headway and they start to fall in love with something, then eventually they will order it. It’s very exciting when that happens. It’s also true that fewer production companies aim for the massive shows. That was a strategic decision that we made that may or may not be paying off! [Laughs] We also made a big move into scripted. [The Feed was ordered to series

by Amazon and Liberty Global.]

Plus, we have several new shows launching through all3media international at MIPTV. These include Celebrity Undercover, plus Buy It Now, our new studio game show [where] the product pitch turns into an entertainment performance. We have a few animal documentaries in the catalog, so we’ve transferred that approach to the formattable with Nightmare Pets SOS. And a show that taps into the global approach to small is beautiful in the food and drink world is Best in Shop.

TV FORMATS: Your new show Catch Me Out, piloted by the BBC, is being formatted in Thailand before its U.K. launch. What support can your teams provide?

LAMBERT: We’ve made the pilot, and BBC said it’s fine if Workpoint goes into production first. They will learn things as a result of making it that I’m sure will be helpful to us, and we’ll pass on a lot of what we learned from making the pilot. Pretty much everywhere in the world, people are expressing interest in the idea to all3media international. Everybody is looking for a new take on how to do the variety show.

TV FORMATS: How is the commissioning climate for producers in the U.K. and the U.S. today?

LAMBERT: Everybody needs shows, so in that sense it feels good as a producer of content and a company that comes up with ideas. There are a lot of buyers who want good ideas. It’s tricky with some of the global streamers who want to take worldwide rights because our model has

Celebrity Undercover is a new Studio Lambert format.

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EXECUTIVE BRIEFING

or nearly 60 years, the Spanish-language network Univision has been serving the U.S. Hispanic market. As the Hispanic population has grown rapidly, from 6.3 million in 1960 to 58.6 million in 2017, so has Univision. What started as a single broadcast network in the early 1960s is now a multimedia conglomerate, Univision Communications Inc. (UCI). Its holdings include 17 broadcast, cable and digital networks, 120 local TV and radio stations, and a bouquet of digital services, from websites to apps.

The Hispanic population has not only grown, but also diversified. Today, most U.S. Latinos are young, bilingual, bicultural and media savvy, well aware of the many entertainment options available to them, not only in Spanish but in English as well. Under the leadership of its president and CEO, Randy Falco, UCI has broadened its offering, especially in the digital space, to reach all Hispanics regardless of their preferred screen or device.

Among UCI’s assets are the broadcast networks Univision and UniMás and the cable channels Galavisión, Univision Deportes Network and El Rey Network. In addition to its own digital properties, such as Univision.com, UCI owns the Fusion Media Group, which includes the network Fusion and digital destinations such as The Onion, Gizmodo, Jezebel and The A.V. Club. This portfolio of properties has something for everyone, from faithful followers of traditional

telenovelas to sports lovers, news junkies and pop-culture enthusiasts.

Falco has also been leading his teams to connect Spanishand English-language advertisers to UCI’s linear and nonlinear brands, given the Hispanic community’s tremendous purchasing power of some $1.7 trillion.

Still, the most effective vehicle for advertisers seeking a broad audience is the flagship network Univision. It offers telenovelas, reality shows, news and music awards shows, such as the Latin Grammys. Mexico’s Grupo Televisa is one of Univision’s main program suppliers. It’s also one of UCI’s shareholders, currently holding a 10-percent stake with an option to increase it to 49 percent. In 2017, Isaac Lee was appointed the chief content officer for UCI and Grupo Televisa, a sign of the increased collaboration between the two companies.

News is a staple of Univision’s schedule. The morning show Despierta América, the evening newscast Noticiero Univision and the Sunday morning talk show Al Punto, hosted by Jorge Ramos and airing on Univision and Galavisión, have become points of reference for Hispanic viewers as immigration has become one of the most contested and important issues in the U.S. Falco, who is retiring at the end of this year, talks to World Screen about UCI’s continued commitment to serving the Hispanic community, whether through entertainment, news, sports or education and health outreach programs.

RANDY FALCO

UNIVISION COMMUNICATIONS

By Anna Carugati

WS: What have been your priorities in making sure Univision Communications is serving the Hispanic community across demographics and platforms?

FALCO: Having spent more than 40 years in this business, I’ve been witnessing the industry transform for a long time, largely accelerated now by the digital revolution. At the same time, a demographic boom has propelled the Hispanic community to over 57 million and into the minority-majority in our nation. Precisely because of these changes, we continue to evolve and grow our Univision portfolio. We serve an audience that is largely bilingual and closely connected to its Hispanic culture and roots, an audience that has a propensity for mobile usage and is a sophisticated consumer of content across platforms. We know that our communities look to Univision to feel proud of their heritage, traditions and cultures; to be supported in their modern and active daily lives; and to be optimistic about their families’ future in this country.

Building on this, we are continuously enhancing our multiplatform offerings with unmatched quality of news, sports and entertainment content. We are also creating multiple touchpoints by expanding on our linear and nonlinear platforms, as well as direct-toconsumer efforts, to deliver a branded experience that our communities expect and trust.

We have also taken a stand for cultural diversity and inclusion by launching a groundbreaking campaign, “Se Habla USA,” to celebrate Latino culture and Español in America. The cross-platform, purpose-driven media campaign promotes the importance of Hispanic culture and pride in speaking Spanish and encourages 4/18 WORLD SCREEN 345

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and through the experiences. Televisa unequivocally continues to be one of our most important partners and programming suppliers, and with Isaac as head of content for both Univision and Televisa, UCI benefits from a unified strategy and a single, integrated focus on entertainment options that meet the needs of today’s diverse audiences. Isaac and his team are focused on a variety of shorter-run stories that reflect Hispanic America and have strong character-driven narratives. In 2017, we saw early wins with La Doble Vida de Estela Carillo and Vino el Amor, both Televisa productions developed with U.S. Hispanic insights, which positioned Univision as the number one Spanish-language network. In 2018 we are holding the number one position with contemporary dramatic series such as Caer en Tentación and Papá a Toda Madre.

Complementing its lineup from Televisa, Univision acquired the Brazilian series Rey David from Record TV. audiences to share why they’re proud of Español and Hispanic culture by using the hashtag #SeHablaUSA. WS: Tell us about the appointment of Isaac Lee as the chief content officer. What is his remit?

FALCO: Unifying Univision and Televisa’s content strategy under Isaac is a game changer for us. For the first time, Televisa, a globally recognized leading producer of Spanish-language programming, is now developing content for the U.S. Hispanic audience as a primary market. It is a significant strategy shift that best aligns the development pipeline for both companies and is critical for us to be more competitive, not just from a Spanish-language standpoint but also as we compete with Englishlanguage content.

WS: What is Univision’s prime-time programming strategy?

FALCO: Today all consumers, including the diverse audiences we serve, have access to a vast array of content options and platforms.

That is why we are nimble in how we execute our diversified content strategy and approach it through several lenses. Content needs to span platforms, needs to address distinct attributes of our audience—such as co-viewing, which is key for our community—and needs to reflect their experiences. Our prime-time lineup stems from a multi-source pipeline of content that diversifies our offerings reflecting those lenses, whether they are epic, modern or gritty crime dramas or unscripted content that inspires and resonates with high-quality, character-driven, compelling stories. Increasingly, we are focused on presenting high-quality, cutting-edge

series, such as El Chapo, a co-production with Netflix. We are also looking to build franchises like La Piloto, a W Studios production, which returns in 2018.

WS: What further developments and collaborations do you see between Univision and Televisa?

FALCO: As content creators, we must be able to adapt to changing consumer consumption habits and help audiences feel represented through the storylines, through the characters

WS: How is UCI serving bilingual Hispanics through linear and nonlinear offerings?

FALCO: UCI is in a privileged position. We can strategically leverage a robust portfolio that includes 17 broadcast, cable and digital networks; 120 local television and radio stations; numerous digital platforms, mobile apps and partner platforms; and high-quality, culturally relevant “must-see” content available virtually anywhere, anytime. Our teams are producing a variety of programs and formats, including social-first content. We recently premiered original shows for YouTube that incorporate content extensions on our linear programs and feature today’s generation’s beloved celebrities and social-media

Por Amar Sin Ley on Univision is being billed as a “super-drama,” with a more limited run than classic novelas.

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stars from our two-year-old multichannel network, the Univision Creator Network.

In addition to entertainment, our offerings span news and sports, where we consistently deliver more Hispanic consumers than any other platform. With Univision Deportes, we have a comprehensive portfolio of the mostwatched soccer in the country. Our news programs regularly attract a higher concentration of millennial viewers, in particular, our Sunday morning public-affairs program with Jorge Ramos, Al Punto. We are also integrating with Facebook Live and other social extensions to serve our loyal viewers.

WS: UCI formed Fusion Media Group (FMG) last year. What motivated the creation of the group and what are your plans for it?

FALCO: The creation of FMG was rooted in strategy and great timing; it just made sense.

The authentic voice and convention-breaking perspective of FMG is in line with UCI’s goal to inform, entertain and empower a diverse American mainstream, and the highly loyal, engaged FMG fan base is not unlike the passionate community that Univision serves. FMG’s collection of digital-first brands serves young, diverse influencers with content that reflects their shared values and passion points—[whether they seek] technology, news, cars, culture, gaming, sports or humor. FMG sites operate within their own verticals, but with so many touchpoints, we have the opportunity to strategically leverage a fully integrated portfolio, and we’ll continue to deepen, broaden and sensibly scale these digital communities.

WS: Have U.S. mainstream English-language advertisers understood the importance of reaching the Hispanic community?

FALCO: Many advertisers have come to understand the importance of reaching the Hispanic community, in part because they cannot afford not to. One in four babies born in the U.S. is Hispanic, U.S. Hispanics have 15 more years of effective buying power than non-Hispanic whites, and if they were a country, U.S. Hispanics would have the third fastest-growing GDP in the world. In 2017, UCI [introduced] more than 500 new advertisers to Univision’s platforms by illustrating our brand equity with Hispanics and the value that our content and capabilities bring our partners—including wellknown and trusted brands such as Apple, Amazon and Google.

The success of our annual Hispanic marketing forum, Leading the Change, is also proof that advertisers are paying attention. The twoday industry event demonstrates the value and importance of the U.S. Hispanic consumer, with thought leadership panels and discussions on brand success stories from representatives

Papá a Toda Madre, from Televisa’s Las Estrellas channel, airs in a prime-time weekday slot on Univision. of companies like Coca-Cola, Acura and Walgreens. We will continue to lead the change to make Hispanic marketing an imperative for businesses and ensure that our communities have equal access to brand messages.

WS: Would you give some examples of the innovative ways Univision Communications is working with advertisers?

FALCO: Our brand is highly trusted among U.S. Hispanic consumers, and we offer multiple advertising touchpoints through our TV, cable, digital and radio platforms that deliver highly rated dramas, scripted and unscripted series, music, soccer and award-winning news.

We just completed the first season of a new reality series in collaboration with Carnival Corporation, the world’s largest leisure travel company. La Gran Sorpresa, or “the great surprise,” uses the power of travel to reunite families aboard a cruise ship after long separations.

At the 2017 Latin Grammy Awards, we partnered with Walmart to bring awareness to the need for inclusion, kindness and diversity through a special musical collaboration. It was sparked by the retailer’s ad spot, which featured a reimagined classic rock song performed by leading Latino artists, and culminated in an exclusive performance during the telecast on Univision.

We also extended a successful partnership with Nissan at the Latin Grammy Awards for a 4/18 WORLD SCREEN 347

third year, featuring a series of performances

by Latin Grammy and Grammy Award-winning artist Juanes under the title Nissan Presents: Road to Innovation Tour. The eight-city tour included a 360-degree promotional campaign and featured social-media-influencer elements with Nissan vehicles.

For several series and specials, including Premios Juventud and Mira Quien Baila, we teamed up with M&M’s to launch My Musica VIP, a music platform engaging audiences across Univision Network programming via inshow featurettes and on-set branding, and through a branded gaming app with hundreds of prizes. There were many other touchpoints, including integration with the awards, featuring colorful branded content and a partnership with Univision Creator Network influencers, as well as a VIP sweepstakes with a grand prize of a trip to attend our shows live.

WS: How has Univision’s news division forged a connection with Hispanic communities?

FALCO: Our news division is a trusted source of news and information for the Hispanic community, and as the political narrative continues to evolve, our news product has become increasingly indispensable for our community. In fact, we have been referred to as “a lifeline” for our investigative journalism and our efforts to provide better information to our community. One of our most shared digital features was an

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League, the Canadian Men’s National Team, Primeira Liga, Eredivisie, the AFL and Liga MX, the most-watched soccer league in the United States, regardless of language.

In 2018, Univision Deportes will also add the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League to its roster of marquee club soccer tournaments. We are in Russia for the 2018 World Cup, and we’ll be the home of the game around the game as audiences look to us as the multiplatform destination of choice for soccer fans in the U.S.

Noticias Univision network news anchor Ilia Calderón reporting from Houston during Hurricane Harvey. explainer on the papers that documented and undocumented immigrants should always have on them, in case of immigration raids or stops.

Our news team has spent decades earning the leading credibility and trust among viewers—delivering more news content across more dayparts and platforms than any other network, regardless of language—with Noticiero Univision ranking as the number one evening news program on broadcast TV among Hispanics for 25 consecutive seasons. Our anchors are a big part of that special connection to our audience: Jorge Ramos is a household name, and our new co-anchor, Ilia Calderón, is already making history as the first Afro-Latina to anchor evening news for a major broadcast network in the United States.

We continue to adapt to serve our communities, and as the news-watching demographic has changed, we have changed with it. In fact, UCI launched Edición Digital, a noon news franchise—one that is unlike anything else on TV—which simultaneously airs live from the newsroom on Facebook and across other UCI digital platforms to engage with the new generation of consumers.

WS: Do Univision and its news division feel an added responsibility toward the community, given the current political climate?

FALCO: Certainly there is an added urgency and a stronger sense of purpose in that now, more than ever, Hispanic America has an increased

desire for trusted information on issues that directly impact their lives. That said, we have been persistently and unwaveringly serving Hispanic America for nearly 60 years, and our mission has always been centered on informing and empowering our communities.

We take our responsibility to give a voice to the underrepresented very seriously. UCI, and I personally, will continue to advocate for our community and that will unequivocally include standing up for all immigrants who work and contribute in countless ways to our great nation.

Last November we launched our first-ever company-wide advocacy campaign in support of DACA [Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals].

The campaign enables supporters to have their voices heard and put pressure on Congress to bring forth meaningful immigration reform that takes Dreamers into account.

WS: What is your strategy for sports coverage?

FALCO: At just six years old, Univision Deportes is a viable competitor against established destinations like ESPN, FOX Sports and NBC Sports, and it is the number one Spanishlanguage sports network in the U.S., delivering three times more soccer viewing opportunities than any other broadcaster.

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WS: How has Univision Communications been serving the Hispanic community through its education and health outreach programs?

FALCO: Over the last seven years, we have made investments to strategically focus and deepen our social responsibility efforts.

Univision Contigo, our award-winning corporate social responsibility and community empowerment platform, focuses on empowering and enabling communities to build strong minds, promote healthy habits and celebrate diversity.

We continue to partner with businesses, organizations and schools that share our goal of increasing diversity and opportunity for our community, whether it is through the launch of our Univision Media Centers in middle schools across the country, which provide access to tools and technology for Latino students to pursue careers in the media industry, or through higher-education partnerships to provide hands-on experience to the future leaders of our industry.

We also launched the Univision Foundation, a nonprofit public charity, to help further expand our focus on corporate social responsibility, philanthropy and social impact activities.

WS: What are Univision Communications’ major opportunities and challenges in the next 12 to 24 months?

FALCO: We will continue to disrupt the marketplace and challenge the traditional boundaries of a media company. We’ll keep innovating and investing in our vast portfolio, which reaches more than 100 million average monthly unduplicated consumers.

We’ll keep striking groundbreaking partnerships and developing unique products, like our direct-to-consumer service, Univision NOW. There is a lot of opportunity to continue to expand our digital footprint, and also to help advertisers better engage the U.S. Hispanic consumer as a source of growth. In any event, our authentic and unwavering commitment to the U.S. Hispanic community will remain at the center of everything we do.

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TVREAL

WWW.TVREAL.WS

APRIL 2018

MIPDOC & MIPTV EDITION

Factual on OTT / True-Crime Docs / Discovery’s David Zaslav BBC NHU’s Julian Hector / Live PD’s Dan Cesareo

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TV REAL

CONTENTS

Making an Impact

FEATURES 16 OTT GETS REAL New players in digital—from global streamers to VR platforms—are impacting the documentary space.

16

Aimlessly channel surfing on a quiet Friday night, I landed on A&E’s Live PD. I was instantly captivated—and immensely curious.

Ricardo Seguin Guise Publisher Anna Carugati Group Editorial Director Mansha Daswani Editor Kristin Brzoznowski Executive Editor Joanna Padovano Tong Managing Editor Sara Alessi Associate Editor Victor L. Cuevas Production & Design Director Phyllis Q. Busell Art Director Simon Weaver Online Director Dana Mattison Senior Sales & Marketing Manager Nathalia Lopez Sales & Marketing Coordinator Andrea Moreno Business Affairs Manager

Ricardo Seguin Guise President Anna Carugati Executive VP Mansha Daswani Associate Publisher & VP of Strategic Development TV Real © 2018 WSN INC. 1123 Broadway, #1207 New York, NY 10010 Phone: (212) 924-7620 Fax: (212) 924-6940 Website: www.tvreal.ws

I had so many questions! How did they manage the logistics of covering law enforcement officers, live, in so many locations? Against a backdrop of seemingly daily headlines of police overreach, I wondered about what impact the camera has on how law enforcement engages with civilians. And, perhaps the biggest realization: how did I not know how bad the drug epidemic is in middle America? Seemingly every incident I saw on Live PD had something to do with drugs: overdoses, out-of-control behavior, trafficking. And that is documentary filmmaking at its best, isn’t it, when it gives you new insight into something?

Fortunately for me, I got to ask Dan Cesareo, whose company, Big Fish Entertainment, produces Live PD, a lot of questions about the hit show. You’ll find that interview in this issue of TV Real. We also explore the broad appeal of true-crime programming, which remains a must-have genre for broadcasters across the globe.

Live PD wasn’t the only illuminating show I watched recently. Blue Planet II had me in awe of the wonders of the ocean and the new technology that is allowing us to see the underwater world in a way we haven’t seen it before. It also starkly showed the devastation that we’re wreaking on that habitat. We hear from Julian Hector, the head of the BBC’s Natural History Unit, which made Blue Planet II, about the importance of putting the natural world front and center in people’s homes—and in their thoughts.

Of course, it’s not just the seas that are being impacted by mankind. High up on the endangered species list are tigers, with less than 4,000 left in the wild. David Zaslav has committed the resources of Discovery, Inc. to Project C.A.T., which is dedicated to doubling the population of tigers by 2022. He discusses that initiative and other aspects of Discovery’s business in this edition. The Ivory Game, meanwhile, from Terra Mater Factual Studios, aims to shine a light on the poaching of elephants. For Walter Köhler, Terra Mater’s CEO, the doc’s pickup by Netflix gave it the prominence and global reach that is needed for the film to have an impact on public sentiment and government policy. An article in this issue explores the ways in which OTT platforms are shaking up the factual business.

—Mansha Daswani

20 MAKING A KILLING A perennially popular genre, crime docs are in a state of evolution.

20

INTERVIEWS

24 Discovery’s David Zaslav

26 Live PD’s Dan Cesareo

28 BBC NHU’s Julian Hector

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TV REAL Dr Keri: Prairie Vet

Beyond Distribution Buyers Bootcamp / Grudge Race / Dr Keri: Prairie Vet Scott McGillivray takes real estate rookies under his wing and teaches them everything they need to know about how to renovate and turn a profit in Buyers Bootcamp. Beyond Distribution is also launching Grudge Race, in which street racers with rivalries have the chance to settle their feud in front of a live audience. Cash and other prizes are in store for the victor, but the loser must watch as parts of his or her beloved racing car are removed. Meanwhile, the joys and heartbreaks of being a traveling veterinarian are on display in Dr Keri: Prairie Vet. “These shows have all enjoyed fantastic ratings, and the themes of making a change in your life and others’ lives— whether it’s by investing in real estate, racing against a sworn enemy or providing valuable care to all kinds of animals—are universal,” says Munia Kanna-Konsek, Beyond’s head of sales.

“All of our key titles launching at MIPTV this year have something special to offer buyers.”

—Munia Kanna-Konsek

FremantleMedia International Pope: The Most Powerful Man in History / 1968: The Year That Changed America / The Coronation The Coronation

From Glass Entertainment Group and Rearrange TV comes Pope: The Most Powerful Man in History, a CNN original that takes a behind-the-scenes look at the Vatican. “The premiere episode examines the origins of the papacy and how Catholicism, against all odds, spread throughout Europe,” says Katrina Neylon, the executive VP of global content at FremantleMedia International. The company is also highlighting 1968: The Year That Changed America, a docuseries from executive producers Tom Hanks, Gary Goetzman and Mark Herzog. Then there is The Coronation, focused on the Crown Jewels and the ancient ceremony for which they are used.

“To mark the 65th anniversary of Her Majesty The Queen’s Coronation, she shares memories of the ceremony, as well as that of her father, King George VI, in 1937,” says Neylon.

“Our MIPTV nonscripted slate is packed full of bold, impactful and ambitious event-viewing factual shows from our top-class in-house and numerous thirdparty producers.”

—Katrina Neylon

Gusto Worldwide Media Flour Power / Bonacini ’s Italy / One World Kitchen The baking series Flour Power is set in a retro-style kitchen, where the host shows viewers how to make baked treats. The 4K series is accompanied by recipes, webisodes and food photography for buyers. In Bonacini’s Italy, celebrity chef Michael Bonacini prepares Italian fare, while One World Kitchen showcases international cuisines. Both of these offerings are also done in 4K and have additional web content available. “Flour Power celebrates baking in a retro fashion; Bonacini’s Italy is a modern, sophisticated take on classic Italian dishes loved around the world; and One World Kitchen celebrates nine different cuisines from nine points of the globe,” says Chris Knight, the president and CEO of Gusto Worldwide Media. He adds that the company is excited about taking the Gusto channel into new markets, “and we are actively seeking partners.”

Bonacini ’s Italy

“We have 200 hours of quality 4K content that we’d like to sell to you.”

—Chris Knight

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Kew Media Group Haunted Hospitals / Christiane Amanpour: Sex & Love Around the World / The Radical Story of Patty Hearst Paranormal activity within the walls of hospitals, nursing homes and morgues is the focus of Haunted Hospitals. Former patients return from the grave seeking revenge, medical professionals try to tend to their wards even after their deaths and spirits roam the hallways in the 13-episode series. “The fearsoaked stories are told firsthand by doctors, nurses and patients,” says Jonathan Ford, Kew Media Group’s executive VP of sales and distribution. The company’s slate also features the CNN original series The Radical Story of Patty Hearst and Christiane Amanpour: Sex & Love Around the World. “We are highly focused on working with our buyers to identify key trends and viewing patterns in their domestic territories; our diverse lineup of documentaries and nonfiction series is in direct response to our clients’ needs,” Ford says.

Christiane Amanpour: Sex & Love Around the World

“Authenticity, depth and integrity are important components in this competitive landscape.”

—Jonathan Ford

Red Arrow Studios International Man’s First Friend / For the Love of Spock / Beat N Path

Man’s First Friend

The relationship between humans and dogs is explored in the new prime-time documentary event Man’s First Friend, featuring state-of-the-art visual effects, dramatic reconstructions and natural-history footage. The doc For the Love of Spock, another highlight from Red Arrow Studios International, tells the life story of Star Trek’s Mr. Spock and that of the late Leonard Nimoy, the actor who portrayed him for nearly 50 years. Hip-hop star Lupe Fiasco explores the art of kung fu in the three-part series Beat N Path. There is also the travel series Adventure or Luxury. “Factual is a priority for Red Arrow Studios International, and we continue to work with a range of talented in-house and third-party producers to deliver a growing slate of factual and factual-entertainment shows across all genres,” says the company’s president, Henrik Pabst.

“Red Arrow Studios International is committed to delivering standout programs to international broadcasters and platforms.”

—Henrik Pabst

Rive Gauche Television Something’s Killing Me / Homicide’s Elite / Uncovering…

It’s a race against time to discover what or who is taking the life of a patient in Something’s Killing Me. The series delves into the investigations of life or death crimes and medical mysteries in which doctors, scientists and federal investigators act as medical sleuths. Rive Gauche Television (RGTV) is also presenting Homicide’s Elite. Detectives David Quinn and Vince Velazquez have worked hundreds of homicides together, and the series chronicles some of the most shocking cases. The doc strand Uncovering… includes Uncovering Melanie’s Murderer, Uncovering the Date Rape Killer and Uncovering Intimate Partner Abuse. Each installment focuses on turning points in criminal cases where justice hangs in the balance. “These titles are of the highest production quality with compelling and suspenseful stories,” says Jon Kramer, the company’s CEO.

Homicide’s Elite

“RGTV has created numerous brands over the years, and we’re hoping that the marketplace will continue to trust our taste in creating new brands.”

—Jon Kramer

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TCB Media Rights Vikings: The Lost Realm / A Killer ’s Mistake / Modern Royals Viewers gain insight into secret graves, death ships, missing castles and more in Vikings: The Lost Realm, presented by TCB Media Rights. The company is also highlighting A Killer’s Mistake, which “looks at recent murders and is very international in focus, with U.K., U.S. and Australian cases included,” says Mem Bakar, senior sales manager at TCB Media Rights. “It has unparalleled access to the killers themselves, along with some extremely skilled interviewers—pinpointing the errors that the killers have made, which in turn led to their arrest.”

There is also Modern Royals. “We have commissioned this show at an exciting time for the British royal family; this show specifically looks at how William, Kate, Harry, Meghan and others have modernized and revolutionized the views, attitudes and perceptions of the British royal family,” Bakar adds.

Modern Royals

“Royals, Vikings and true crime as subjects are on the wish list of at least one broadcaster in most territories around the world.”

—Mem Bakar

Terra Mater Factual Studios

Sex, Lies and Butterflies

Sex, Lies and Butterflies / SuperPigs / Wild Korea The 4K documentary Sex, Lies and Butterflies follows moths, butterflies and caterpillars across the globe in different stages of development to see how they manage to survive in a world where nearly everything tries to eat them. Terra Mater Factual Studios is showcasing that title as well as SuperPigs and Wild Korea. SuperPigs exposes viewers to some of the nearly 2 billion pigs that inhabit the planet, from the Bahamas to Siberia. Wild Korea, meanwhile, is a two-part, 4K docuseries that takes viewers along to experience wildlife, natural beauty and everyday life in Korea. Sabine Holzer, the head of specialist factual at the company, says, “With these films, we travel all around the globe. Pigs in the Indonesian jungles? Diving deep into Korean waters? The most ingenious tricks of butterflies to avoid becoming prey? We’ve got it all.”

“We believe nature is something to marvel at, and this is portrayed in detail and with a lot of devotion in all our documentaries.”

—Sabine Holzer

ZDF Enterprises

Africa River Wild

The Story of Europe / History of Weapons / Africa River Wild The history of a continent, starting from its first human settlers, is explored in The Story of Europe. ZDF Enterprises (ZDFE) is highlighting the six-part series in Cannes alongside History of Weapons, which focuses on the evolution of weapon technology throughout the years. “Some of the most renowned international experts in the world will explore the secrets of these weapons in a hands-on approach,” says Fred Burcksen, the president and CEO of ZDFE. “These experiments will illustrate how weapons have changed the tides of history and how they have shaped human destiny.” There is also Africa River Wild, which goes on a journey to the rivers of Africa. “Our goal is to provide a selection of unique highlights for the audiences of our clients,” adds Burcksen.

“We work with renowned producers and crews—some of the greatest talents of their generation.”

—Fred Burcksen

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Terra Mater’s The Ivory Game.

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Mansha Daswani hears from production and distribution executives about how new players in digital—from global streamers to VR platforms—are impacting the documentary space. or the last five years, at least one of the Academy Award nominees for best documentary feature has been a Netflix original. This year, the global streamer finally took home the top prize with Icarus, a film about the Russian sports doping scandal. The Sundance Film Festival winner was scooped up by Netflix last year for a reported $5 million—the kind of figure that you don’t usually see for acquisitions in the factual space.

Those high-profile festival purchases sit alongside buzzy series such as Making a Murderer and the upcoming blue-chip doc Our Planet on Netflix. Ditto at Amazon, which licensed the SVOD rights to I Am Not Your Negro and took a big swing with The Grand Tour. And those are just the general-entertainment platforms. Add to the mix services like CuriosityStream, which was founded by Discovery pioneer John Hendricks, and it’s clear that digital services are slowly beginning to transform the fortunes of companies operating in the documentary and factual space.

“The earliest big successes for most of the OTT subscription services seem to have come through drama,” says Jamie Lynn, executive VP of EMEA distribution at FremantleMedia International. “They’ve been the godsend of serialized drama. We’ve all been very curious to see how they could expand beyond that. Many of them are still trying to figure out what is the best way to proceed in this area. I don’t think they’ve found the silver bullet yet. However, there’s been a big upswing in contemporary documentaries and series” on OTT services.

F

FESTIVAL FORTUNES For Walter Köhler, the CEO of Terra Mater Factual Studios, “the big platforms have ignited a renaissance in feature docs. In recent years the results at the box office were minor, even if you made an Oscar-winning feature doc. For major feature docs like our The Ivory Game—where one of the reasons to produce the film was to have a strong political impact—online platforms are unrivaled. When The Ivory Game was released

by Netflix, an audience of nearly 120 million subscribers worldwide [could access it] at the same moment.”

Köhler notes that OTT platforms are beginning to commission their own factual productions, but argues that producers need to be aware that it’s a “completely new kind of business.

Producers’ habit [of saying,] ‘Give me the money and I’ll do something nice for you,’ won’t work with Netflix, Amazon and company. You have to risk a lot of money, but if your film is compelling, then your reward can be super big.”

Ralf Rückauer, VP of unscripted at ZDF Enterprises, stresses that digital platforms “only create a handful of originals in the factual area, whereas each single ‘traditional’ broadcaster and the many pay networks have an annual program output that is a hundred times bigger. There are only a few rare opportunities for production companies” with OTT platforms, he says, which results in “a mixture of excitement and enthusiasm and a bit of frustration within the factual community.”

PLAYING THE SLOTS Rückauer adds, however, that program-makers, freed from the restrictions of traditional doc channel slots, can explore different forms of narrative on digital platforms. Moreover, he notes, “there is greater demand for serialized content that resonates with the audience’s binge-watching needs. For example, we recently co-produced Hitler’s Circle of Evil for Netflix with our independent British production company, World Media Rights. This is a perfect match to meet the needs of VOD partners and their audience.”

FremantleMedia’s Lynn argues that topical shows can sometimes be more of a challenge on online platforms. “[David] Letterman’s new Netflix experiment was designed to be less topical, to have a shelf life,” says Lynn of My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman, a monthly talk show. “But is there a chance we may start to tune in close to live? Are [OTT platforms] going to be able to create must-see television in a nonlinear environment? It’s a different value offering. We’re all trying to figure out how that will work.”

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ZDF Enterprises’ Hitler’s Circle of Evil was co-produced with Netflix.

Terra Mater’s Köhler also references the issue of shelf life.

“In linear TV you have a slot every week and you have to fill that slot with new things. After a week, the next thing goes live.

But when it comes to nonlinear media, your content lives there all the time. So the platforms are far choosier. They need the differences and, especially in the big documentary genre, variation. If I have one tiger film, why do I need another?”

LEANING IN ZDFE.unscripted’s Rückauer is of the opinion that online platforms in the U.S. are more interested in “serialized and entertainment-driven formats,” while those in Europe prefer “specialist factual,” notably wildlife, science and history.

“Generally speaking, I do not see much difference between pay networks and VOD platforms anymore—with maybe one exception. It looks like the VOD audience is much more ‘lean forward.’ People are starting to watch political, critically acclaimed documentaries or cultural, high-brow content. People care much more and want to educate themselves and are more curious and they’re watching more intellectual programs.

At the same time, with platforms not having to meet a specific time length, this provides a big opportunity for feature-length, cinematographic, auteur-driven programs on mostly pay networks, which pubcasters hesitate a bit more to greenlight.”

FremantleMedia International has done a broad range of deals with streaming platforms, covering everything from early seasons of Project Runway to Jamie Oliver programming, Grand Designs and the doc series The Traffickers. “A lot of what we’ve done has been more in the catalog space after the shows had some linear exposure around the world,” Lynn says.

He adds that there is indeed an appetite for first-run—and global—from the streaming services, but notes, “When we’ve weighed up an option of a global deal on one hand or individual distribution opportunities on the other, for the most part, we have opted for the individual approach. We’ve done individual SVOD deals around the world with the likes of iflix, Showmax and others.”

Outside of commissions and catalog sales, digital platforms are also creating opportunities for short-form content.

ZDFE.unscripted’s Rückauer explains that this a tricky business, one the company got into years ago and has since abandoned. “We anticipated that the digitalization process in the

A/V industry would become an initial spark for shorter content and that people would watch clips on their mobile devices on a daily basis. This scenario came true.

What we did not anticipate is that everybody can produce programs on his or her own these days. ZDF Enterprises’ concept with short content, contunico, couldn’t compete with quickly produced, usergenerated content shot on a smartphone at home. Platforms have a demand for shorter content, while educational institutions and print magazines have or are looking for adequate add-on products for their equivalent online pages. The other side of the coin is that distribution processes are the same, whether you sell a 72-episode series or a 100-clip package, but the price point per episode is of course very different. Same with material delivery processes and accounting and everything you do when you sell a program. These processes generate work and costs, no matter how long and expensive the license fee per episode is. So we decided in 2013 not to continue our contunico business any longer. It just was not efficient enough.”

What producers are doing, however, is creating short-form clips from longer-form storytelling to use as marketing tools.

“We make short-form videos from our factual programming and news-related materials and share them with online platforms such as Facebook,” says Sayumi Horie, the head of the global content development division at NHK. The Japanese public broadcaster also has a dedicated online destination, NHK 1.5ch, for its short-form videos.

GOING VIRAL “When we started the campaign for the world premiere of our feature film Brothers of the Wind—which starts in America in June—we put out a viral clip of an eagle chasing a mountain goat,” says Terra Mater’s Köhler. “It generated over 20 million hits. But we are not producing exclusively for short form.”

VR and AR are other avenues for doc producers. The verdict is still out on how transformative they will be for the entire factual landscape. NHK has been successfully deploying VR projects, Horie notes, referencing one about Egyptian pyramids and another that took viewers inside the Fukushima nuclear reactor. “We are also trying to include VR in the actual TV programs for the viewers,” Horie adds.

“I haven’t seen any feature storytelling in VR or AR,” Köhler observes. “They are superb little marketing tools for big narrative titles and they will become more important, but the real business in VR is gaming.”

Rückauer says that ZDF Enterprises has done a fair amount of research in this area. “We developed outstanding programs which received many prizes and a lot of awareness. And we are proud to have sold them to many platforms and clients. But what we learned from our internal study is that VR and AR are very attractive for producers and the gaming industry, but less so for distributors like us. This content is so branding- and marketing-driven and not specialist/factual.”

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Beyond Distribution’s Fatal Vows.

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A perennially popular genre, crime docs are in a state of evolution. By Sara Alessi hen Netflix released its groundbreaking documentary series Making a Murderer in December 2015, it impacted not only the life of its subject, Steven Avery, and the way people viewed the U.S. justice system, but also the truecrime television genre. More and more people wanted to learn about real criminal cases, and they found they could do so on their couches, TV remote control in hand, leading to increased demand from channels and other platforms for factual crime content. Apparently, the age-old adage “crime doesn’t pay” doesn’t hold any water in the television industry.

“Making a Murderer really spurred the growth of crime,” says Michael Lolato, GRB Entertainment’s senior VP of international distribution. “It has been a consistently popular category, but over the last several years it has experienced a new growth spurt. Everybody wants crime, and on multiple channels, not just those dedicated to the genre. It does very well around the world.”

He adds, “The enrapturing aspect of Making a Murderer is that not only is it a fascinating, strange case, but there is a sheer injustice element to it that resonates with everybody.

That’s why it did so well; not only did people get very involved in the case, but they felt it was a case of injustice.”

And it ignited a desire in core crime viewers and TV audiences in general to see more.

DOING TIME “It put crime programming front and center,” says Nicky Davies Williams, the CEO of DCD Rights, of the Netflix success. People were surprised, she says, at “how intrigued the world was and also how faithful to a long series the audiences were.”

And that sparked a change in how crime stories could be told. While returnable series with closed-ended episodes are still very much in demand since they represent the type of non-serialized programming that allows viewers to jump in and out, audiences now want and expect a more detailed investigation of individual cases. This yearning for more information has boosted the growth of multiple-episode storytelling within the crime genre.

“The direct impact [of Making a Murderer] is that there’s now room for six- to eight-part, big-budget arced series, as

opposed to restricting crime to returnable series with selfcontained episodes,” says Emmanuelle Namiech, the CEO of Passion Distribution. “To be fair, the interest in a long-term investigation leading to a premium exposé was first generated

by HBO’s The Jinx,” she adds, noting that “true-crime is one of those universal topics that fascinate viewers. In the same way that scripted has seen a resurgence of crime shows, factual crime programming has been on the rise.”

TURN UP THE VOLUME “Volume has become more important than it has ever been before,” says Paul Heaney, the CEO of TCB Media Rights.

Having a significant number of episodes available is important for both serialized crime programs and those of the closed-ended nature as broadcasters can fill their schedules with these types of shows across the weekend and draw high ratings at the same time.

Crime shows are particularly valuable for channels as they attract an “identifiable audience of regular, repeat viewers in the 25-to-54-year-old female demographic,” according to Jon Kramer, the CEO of Rive Gauche Television.

“Channels want programs that have a lot of episodes.”

Rive Gauche Television has several such long-running series in its catalog, including the 30-episode Evil Twins, the 33-part Happily Never After, the 36-episode Ice Cold Killers and the 45-episode Sins & Secrets. Rive Gauche is betting on a new crime show titled Homicide’s Elite, which Kramer believes will garner a strong following as well.

After Making a Murderer became available, GRB received strong interest in its documentary Nelson Serrano: I’m Innocent. Like the Netflix hit, Nelson Serrano takes a deeper look at a case of possible small-town injustice. “When the details of Nelson Serrano’s situation were first covered, it was featured as a story segment, but we have in our catalog a longer documentary that offers much more information,” says Lolato.

“People want details now; they want to see how crime stories unfold, and that is probably the biggest change in the genre.”

Audiences find true-crime so gripping because the traditional whodunits and longer explorations tap into “universal themes of betrayal, lust, greed, revenge and overcoming adversity,” says Laura Fleury, A+E Networks’ senior VP, head of programming for international. “There is something uplifting—especially for women, who are more often at the wrong end of a crime story—to hear stories about

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GRB’s The Stalker Files looks at cases involving celebrities like Gwyneth Paltrow and Madonna.

how people overcame those situations, how justice was finally [served]. There’s certainly a thrill to crime content too. There’s a thrill of feeling suspense and of wanting to try to figure out human behavior.”

CRIME WATCH For the armchair detectives, Fleury believes watching crime programs is “cathartic, but not necessarily through watching someone else suffer. A lot of the crime stories we’re watching now have transcended the core crime viewer. They are stories that everyone’s interested in, and they have all of the great attributes of a traditional crime story—the race against time, incredibly high stakes, good guys and bad guys, and some sort of a resolution, or at least a pursuit of justice or call to action.”

Munia Kanna-Konsek, the head of sales at Beyond Distribution, finds that “the important thing is that the audience needs a resolution. If the stories are left openended, they will not do so well. As viewers, we need closure, safe in the knowledge that the person who committed the crime has been brought to justice.”

True-crime series are a “real-life whodunit,” echoes DCD’s Davies Williams. “The line that one has to tread is one that delivers a degree of distance, rather than having people being frightened of a knock on the door.

The tone and nature of it must strike the right balance.”

Along with viewers’ desire to see a resolution from their couch cushions comes an expectation for takeaways. This is the case particularly for female viewers, according to Davies Williams. “These viewers will ask themselves, ‘What have I learned from this? How can I avoid this?’ ” And if the program-maker can produce a series that has immediate ramifications when dealing with a case that has been broadly covered in the news, like Making a Murderer or Investigation Discovery’s Killing Richard Glossip from filmmaker Joe Berlinger, that can be a strong hook. Yet, she cautions, “It can be a difficult one to deliver.”

“Production-wise, a program like Making a Murderer is very difficult to duplicate,” Rive Gauche’s Kramer concurs.

“We shouldn’t fool ourselves that there are going to be 20 of these in the near future.”

And because crime content has a shelf life, TCB’s Heaney warns against stockpiling this type of programming. “There are always new filming techniques being developed, or

new ways to do reconstruction,” he explains. Though there are, of course, many returning series, “you’ve got to be careful of expecting that your crime shows will keep selling. There is a lot of demand, but there is also a large supply, so recent history is telling us not to get too smug about having a lot of truecrime series in our catalogs.”

The key, according to Rive Gauche’s Kramer, is that there must be “a crime and a solution. That’s the first thing. But then you have to take chances because you can’t keep doing the same thing all the time.” The company is enthusiastic about Something’s Killing Me, an investigative show that sets itself apart in that the crimes featured are medically based.

Indeed, as GRB’s Lolato adds, “You can’t change crime stories, but you can change the way you present them.” As it turns out, it’s all about the storytelling technique.

THE PLOT THICKENS “Top-quality dramatic reenactments, exceptional production values as well as gripping storylines based on real-life crimes make for a deadly combination,” says Beyond’s Kanna-Konsek.

“Add to that serious narration emphasizing and bringing to the fore the important points that help illustrate the victims’ tragic ends and what led the perpetrators to this point in their lives, then you are mesmerized.” She points to several shows in Beyond’s catalog that use this storytelling technique, including Deadly Women, Fatal Vows, A Stranger in My Home and The Will: Family Secrets Revealed. She has also found an increased interest in crime shows that can play in daytime slots, including blue-light series such as Highway Patrol, Motorway Patrol, Beach Cops and Highway Cops.

“There’s always another angle, another way in,” TCB’s Heaney says of how producers can expose the underbelly of society. He points to a new addition to TCB’s catalog, A Killer’s Mistake, which is currently in production. It examines the “key moment when a killer managed to give him or herself away. So, that’s another way in to tell the story of a crime.” Confessions of a Serial Killer also takes a unique approach. “It uses the real audio of a murderer but inserts an actor to play the role” in the re-creation, Heaney says.

Heaney also distinguishes between series made in the U.S. and those made in the U.K. “There’s a U.S. style that is slightly glossier that works all around the world, as seen in series such as Murder Made Me Famous and Copycat Killers, and there’s a grittier U.K. style that also works well.”

“The overall bar of quality in storytelling and quality of execution is going up,” says Fleury of A+E Networks. “Production values have increased.”

“The crime genre is a very broad one with many subgenres,” she adds. “The more traditional whodunit crime documentary continues to evolve. New shows are constantly being produced, with exciting, fresh ways of telling these stories, whether they are one-hour documentaries or eight-hour series.”

Fleury continues, “Everyone was trying to crack, ‘What’s the live show that will drive viewership?’ ” Live PD, which offers a real-time look at law enforcement at work, was the answer.

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“Capturing law enforcement work as it’s happening, in the moment, is what makes Live PD so brilliant,” Fleury explains.

“There are few other things that have the stakes that live law enforcement has and the show has resonated so directly with audiences. Viewers participate in discussions on social media. For the audience, Live PD is an experience that is more about what might happen next rather than a traditional show that looks at how a crime is going to be solved.”

TIMELY CRIME Another way to keep the genre fresh, DCD’s Davies Williams says, is by evolving with the crimes of the time and featuring topical felonies. DCD Rights is among several distributors offering shows on the perils of online dating.

Swipe Right for Murder is a recent addition that has a younger skew due to the nature of the crimes covered.

GRB has also expanded its offering to include topical wrongdoings with #Murder from TV One, featuring cases in which the crimes explored stem from online interactions.

“It’s a very scary, real slice of life that’s going on right now, which adds to the show’s appeal,” Lolato notes.

Winding up on the wrong end of the law can lead to public notoriety. TCB Media Rights’ Murder Made Me Famous examines incidences in which a crime brought infamy to the accused. “Murder Made Me Famous rates very well on REELZ in the U.S. and is an example of a series that will have a long shelf life,” Heaney says.

Similarly, programs about crimes directly involving celebrities who already had a claim to fame before they were tainted by misdeeds offer another storytelling angle.

GRB’s catalog includes Exposed, featuring stories involving Bill Cosby, Bernie Madoff and Anna Nicole Smith; The Stalker Files, covering stalking cases with Madonna, Steven Spielberg, Gwyneth Paltrow and other big names; and the brand-new It Happened Here. The new addition to GRB’s catalog puts an added twist on the celebrity crime story by examining where the unfortunate incidents took place.

A dose of drama also provides a good hook to engage viewers. DCD Rights bridges the gap between crime drama and true-crime series with Real Detective. “It’s fascinating because the audience sees real detectives take them through a case that has haunted them,” Davies Williams says. “It is beautifully cast and the detectives are engaging. The show opens with the detective telling the story of the crime and then cuts to full dramatization. The show itself is 90-percent dramatized with voiceover and interjections from the detective. It fills an interesting gap and crosses drama with factual.”

“Because these stories are so dramatic by definition, they translate well,” explains A+E’s Fleury. “They can be dubbed and subtitled, and the visualization, while not needing to be super graphic, is universal.

These are universal and incredibly relatable stories, so they travel well.”

“A crime is a crime is a crime,” says GRB’s Lolato. “I’m seeing more and more now that crime stories don’t necessarily have to take place in your own backyard to be interesting.” The long-running series On the Case, for example, is shown around the world.

“We sell the finished tape with host Paula Zahn, and some countries also buy the un-hosted version,” Lolato explains. “Some buyers like to put their own host in, but never affecting the actual story substance, which proves that a crime story is a crime story, and it translates.”

TRAVELING SLEUTHS Most often, finished tapes cross borders with ease. “U.S. and U.K. shows tend to travel the most in their original form,” says Passion’s Namiech. “There is no need to adapt them, save for the usual dubbing or subtitling.”

The countries with the largest appetite for true-crime content are the U.S., U.K., Australia, Canada, Italy, France and Germany. DCD’s Davies Williams finds that Eastern Europe is another strong buyer of this type of programming.

Indeed, A+E’s Crime & Investigation network continues to pop up in territories across the globe, and the company has even launched a new OTT brand in the U.K., Kriminal, focused on crime programming.

Digital platforms “are certainly an additional revenue stream, but the linear channels are still the major home for this genre,” says Beyond’s Kanna-Konsek.

Yet, most distributors are finding that the space for truecrime on digital platforms is “steadily rising,” as TCB’s Heaney says. GRB has a deal for true-crime programming with Netflix, and DCD’s Davies Williams agrees that with cable and digital platforms alike on the hunt for true crime, “It offers quite a lot of choice of where to sell at the moment.”

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A Killer ’s Mistake is a new offering from TCB that looks at ten infamous murder cases from the last three years.

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Last year, Discovery Communications announced its intent to acquire Scripps Networks Interactive. The deal brings together some of the most popular factual brands in the payTV universe, from Discovery Channel, Animal Planet and ID: Investigation Discovery to HGTV, Food Network and DIY. David Zaslav, the president and CEO of the newly combined entity, Discovery, Inc., is well aware that viewers want total flexibility in the way they watch programming and he is leading his teams’ efforts to make content available on all linear and nonlinear platforms. Recognizing the social responsibility of a corporate group, he has also spearheaded Project C.A.T., an initiative that is dear to his heart and aims to double the global wild tiger population by 2022.

By Anna Carugati TV REAL: What direct-to-consumer products are you offering?

ZASLAV: We have a few now. In Europe, we have our sports streaming product, the Eurosport Player. Through Eurosport, the Olympics were presented on broadcast, on cable, on all platforms in a way that had never been seen in Europe before. A piece of that was Eurosport Player, where people were able to view every sport, every event, and that had never happened before in Europe. We have another direct-to-consumer product called Motor Trend OnDemand, which we are really excited about. We put our auto-TV channel Velocity in a new venture called Motor Trend [with TEN: The Enthusiast Network]. We put it together with 30 titles including Motor Trend and a big team in Los Angeles that’s doing short-form auto content. You can buy Motor Trend OnDemand for $5 [a month]. We’re the leader in car content around the world. We have more car auctions than anyone else. We see that vertical; if you love cars, eventually, not only are you going to be watching our car channels around the world, you’ll have Motor Trend OnDemand on your phone or your device.

TV REAL: You have numerous businesses in Europe. Which ones are showing the most potential for growth?

ZASLAV: The biggest potential for growth for us right now, in general, is that there would be some economic growth around the world. We’ve been able to grow our international business with effectively zero GDP growth in Europe for the past ten years—zero. And GDP and advertising tend to follow one another. In Latin America, there has been a lot of political disruption. We’ve become very efficient and effective in running our businesses and growing them during political and economic challenges. For the first time, it has started to look like there might be the beginnings of an economic recovery across Europe and Latin America. Not all of it but across some of it. That would be a big benefit to us because we are in more than 220 markets, in more than 50 languages and the advertising market has a direct correlation to GDP. If you see GDP starting to rise, it means there will be more money; the economies are stronger; people

will be spending more money on advertising because companies will be investing in growth.

TV REAL: In the U.S., consumers are looking for smaller cable packages. Since your brands cater to super-fans, viewers will want them in their skinny bundles.

ZASLAV: If you look at what people say they love about cable, between Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, OWN, TLC, ID, HGTV, Food Network and Cooking Channel, we have some of the most-loved brands in America. We also have the ability to go direct to consumer ourselves over time if, in fact, the existing distributors don’t launch a direct-to-consumer product, but I think they will. We are having a lot of conversations, and the distributors are quite smart. They are looking at what’s going on around the world, and they are looking at the decline here in the U.S. They are talking to their subscribers and are going on college campuses and seeing why people buy Netflix—it’s because it’s the only service they can buy for $8 a month.

TV REAL: In 2016, Discovery announced Project C.A.T.: Conserving Acres for Tigers. How did it come about? This is particularly important to you, isn’t it?

ZASLAV: Tom Brokaw [former NBC Nightly News anchor] and I became good friends from my time working at NBC. He told me about the concept of a rendezvous with destiny, which is something he writes about in his book The Greatest Generation, about the Great Depression generation that went on to win World War II. I believe solving wildlife extinction is our own rendezvous with destiny. If we don’t act, more than 50 percent of the species that exist on Earth won’t exist for my grandchildren. Project C.A.T. is one of the ways we’re taking action. There are fewer than 4,000 tigers left in the wild around the world, making them one of the most highly endangered species.

We partnered with the World Wildlife Fund to help double the world’s wild tiger population by 2022, by preserving land space in India and Bhutan for them to live and reproduce.

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The true-crime genre has been a major part of A&E’s brand identity for years, but faced with increasing competition, the cable network knew it needed to innovate in this space. Courtesy of Big Fish Entertainment, it has done so with Live PD. In its second season, the show, which delivers live coverage of law enforcement officers across the U.S. for three hours each on Friday and Saturday nights, is the number one program on cable (excluding sports and movies) in its time slot among adults 18 to 49 and 25 to 54. Dan Cesareo, the founder and president of Big Fish, tells TV Real about the logistics of being live, the challenges for the control room as they jump from one location to the next and the importance of tracking socialmedia responses to the series.

TV REAL: How did the idea for Live PD come about?

CESAREO: [We are known for] taking a genre that has historically worked on television and finding a way to flip it on its head. That’s how we develop. With Live PD, we had been working closely with A&E and we knew that they were looking to make some bets in the live space. Until Live PD, we had never produced a live hour of television, but we were known as a company that was able to solve difficult production scenarios.

We sold Live PD to A&E basically on a phone call. We didn’t know from a technological standpoint if we could pull it off at the scale we wanted to do it. It became a math problem. How many officers do you need to be with? How many cities do you need to film in for it to be compelling and for there to be enough activity that it’s an exciting and dynamic proposition live? We spent time looking at ride-alongs. We spent a lot of time talking about what ride-alongs look like and what the average length of a call is. With some fuzzy numbers and back-of-theenvelope math, we landed on this idea that we were going to have to be in a minimum of four to six cities, or with 8 to 12 officers, to carry two hours of programming.

We sold the show to A&E as a two-hour block out of the gate. (You have to do two hours because the cost per hour is not going to make any sense on a one-hour show.) We knew that satellite presents all kinds of cost-prohibitive issues to be in more than a couple of cities. And then we were going to run into line-of-sight issues, and it felt like a very old-school, dinosaur approach to producing the show. We were aware of some pieces of technology that we thought would allow us to lower the cost and do it at the scale that we’re doing it at. We spent a year in development. The biggest problems we had to solve were access and the technological challenge of broadcast. How were we going to transmit all of this material?

It was an 8x120-minute order to start with. The first few weeks were pretty bumpy. We had done some runthroughs, but there’s nothing like being live until you go live. There wasn’t a rhythm to it until about halfway into what was an expensive first run for A&E. We were showing little bits of growth and A&E believed in it. I don’t know if any other network would have had the stomach to stay in.

They ordered another nine weeks. And then they said, Can we try three hours? We noticed that as we were going off the air at 11 p.m., there was always crazy stuff happening! The later you get, criminal activity and the busyness of law 374 WORLD SCREEN 4/18

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enforcement ramps up. A&E came back to us and asked to try a Saturday, so we did and that did well too. So A&E said, Can we have Friday and Saturday? We needed to add some personnel and more [police] departments if we were going to be broadcasting for three hours on Friday night and three hours on Saturday night. We were about 40 episodes in when they picked up the [additional] 100 episodes.

TV REAL: In the studio, Dan Abrams and your experts are jumping back and forth between locations. How do you manage the logistics of that?

CESAREO: The team that works on Live PD has over 10,000 hours of live news experience. Our director, John Gonzalez, has directed nine Super Bowls and six Olympic Games opening and closing ceremonies. Our teams in the field and the control room have a background in law-enforcement programming. It’s a marriage of those worlds that make it a success. The show can’t feel like the evening news, so we need people who are experienced in law enforcement and ride-along-driven programming, but none of those people have live television experience. It was also important that we bring a high level of journalism ethics to the table.

In the control room, it’s controlled chaos. It’s like a car wreck every single night! It probably lacks some of the decorum and protocol that exists on other live shows because we genuinely never know what’s going to happen next. We program 126 minutes of content on Friday and Saturday nights and there’s no rundown. Even in live sports, someone is trying to put a ball in an end zone or a goal, so you have an expectation in terms of what is going to happen. That was a huge part of the learning curve. It’s such a challenging, frustrating and rewarding show to make. We’re still learning things. No two shows are the same and no two situations are the same. Dan Abrams has the hardest job in television. He has an amazing ability to manage the traffic in his ear—he can speak and listen at the same time.

He can be talking about something and have the producer in his ear telling him where we’re going next. It’s hard. His ability to manage the flow of the show is incredible.

TV REAL: You’ve obviously seen a lot while filming the show.

Is there any one thing that stands out to you?

CESAREO: There is a slight delay because we do have a responsibility to the advertisers, the network and the viewers at home. That said, recently we had someone overdose lying in a parking lot. Officers had to give him multiple doses of Narcan before he responded. The crazy thing about it is, the very next night our officer gets flagged down as he’s driving on patrol—we’re live—and it is the guy who OD’d the night before, and he’s thanking the officer for saving his life!

There have also been some hair-raising chases, some violent scuffles; you never know what’s going to happen. Any time there’s a full moon on a Friday or Saturday night, the most insane things happen.

TV REAL: What are some of the other things you’re working on in the live space?

CESAREO: We are now well positioned as one of the largest producers of live content in the country. We have new live projects in development with A&E and other networks. I look at live reality as a new genre. It took a while for the viewer to learn to watch it differently. The viewer was preconditioned for 25 to 30 years in terms of how a lawenforcement show worked. There had to be a payoff after however many minutes. The show drove towards that ending. Live PD is not always neat, we don’t always have perfect visual endings, our camera work can be bumpy in places because people are jumping over fences. It’s real.

With how we’re approaching live moving forward, we’re trying to put the real back in reality.

TV REAL: What kind of feedback do you get from social media?

CESAREO: As a company, we have some of the stickier, more social shows on cable. So we’ve always used it as a tool. What are people reacting to? What are they rejecting? The unique thing with Live PD is, we can monitor it as we’re making the show. We have real-time feedback on a second-by-second basis. I would never have predicted the show’s massive social following. It is typically, excluding sports, the number one social show on Friday and Saturday nights on cable. The viewers have deemed themselves Live PD Nation. [Viewer feedback aided in the capture of] eight people who were wanted. Several missing children were found. [Viewers] have alerted the departments that we follow that they witnessed people throwing out drugs or committing some additional crime while we’re broadcasting. Things are happening so fast in the control room, so it’s not stuff we noticed. It’s amazing.

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A&E has committed to more than 100 episodes of Big Fish’s Live PD.

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JULIAN HECTOR

BBC NHU From its Bristol headquarters, BBC Studios’ Natural History Unit (NHU) has been delivering high-end wildlife content for more than 60 years. Using state-of-the-art technology and compelling storytelling techniques, NHU has driven ratings for the BBC at home, and for broadcasters across the globe, with blue-chip event productions like Planet Earth II and, more recently, Blue Planet II. Earlier this year, NHU landed BBC Studios its first-ever external commission, with Discovery Channel ordering the two-hour doc The Red List.

Julian Hector, the head of NHU, talks to TV Real about immersive factual filmmaking and the importance of bringing families together around a screen to celebrate the wonders of the natural world.

By Mansha Daswani TV REAL: When you’re embarking on a big blue-chip project, how do you plan it all out and determine where and what you’re going to film?

HECTOR: Although we often talk about the amazing craft of the cameramen and camerawomen who go and get all the images for us, we mustn’t forget production management, this tranche of the filmmaking business who map everything out. So before anything starts, a great team of researchers come on board, and they research stories all over the world. Those stories and how those stories could be filmed are then mapped out, and that’s when editorial come in and start piecing the programs together. And then it’s the huge logistic exercise of saying, Where in the world do we go? For Blue Planet II, one of the biggest decisions was spending money and committing time to submersibles.

We spent more time underwater in submarines than in any other series in our history.

TV REAL: Why did NHU want to revisit Blue Planet?

HECTOR: Sixteen years after the first Blue Planet. So much has changed since then. There have been another 16 years of scientific discovery, 16 years of technical innovation, and 16 more years of humanity’s footprint on the oceans, for better or for worse. And we’ve barely touched the oceans, even now.

TV REAL: What were some of the most surprising discoveries for you?

HECTOR: It’s about getting into the minds of animals. I think a lot of people think fish are glassy-eyed still objects mainly on a fishmonger’s slab or in a supermarket. Some of the things we’ve been working with the marine biologists on is discovering the minds of fish. There’s a wonderful fish in the first episode [of Blue Planet II] called a tuskfish that actually uses a tool to open clams, which it feeds on. It goes, picks up the clam from the coral debris, swims to an anvil— it knows where it is, it happens to be a piece of rock in a coral head—and then it bashes the clam in its mouth against

this piece of rock and smashes it open. We associate animals as sentient as apes using tools, and some birds, but a fish using a tool? That’s cool.

TV REAL: How do you prepare your cameramen for the potentially treacherous challenges they will encounter?

HECTOR: They are amazing people. These big blue-chip pieces, as we call them, are made by specialists and those specialists are wonderful field workers. It’s not so much that we brief our teams about what it might be like to be very deep in isolation, we hand all that to the specialists and our people then have advisors around them—the scientists and the people who know how to do these things. But you’re right, the bottom line is, making these big pieces takes courage.

TV REAL: How has storytelling in natural-history filmmaking evolved?

HECTOR: Storytelling is everything now, and as storytelling evolves, all of us in the film industry move with it. The big thing about storytelling at the moment is, as far as possible, [you have to make it] character-driven and immersive, and the two go together. So you feel part of the environment and you feel part of the animals we’re filming. That means that the whole approach has to be one of either identifying individuals or being able to relate to the motivations of the animals in the scene. A great deal of time is being spent following the behavior with real detail and having scientists very close to us so we can share with the audience the things that matter to the animals. So rather than a God-like view of, that’s what happens, a voice from the sky, you feel as if you’re part of what the animal has to deal with to get on with its day.

TV REAL: But when you have Sir David Attenborough narrating, you do still have that God-like voice!

HECTOR: We’ve got immersive storytelling and God!

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Commissioned by BBC One, with BBC America and France Télévisions as co-producers, Dynasty is set to air later this year, narrated by Sir David Attenborough.

TV REAL: What has it been like working with him over the years?

HECTOR: I love David. He’s loved by us at the Natural History Unit because he has been with us since our get-go, 60 years ago. He’s utterly authentic. He’s a broadcaster par excellence. That’s who he is—a broadcaster. And if you cut him in half, he’s got natural history right to the core. He’s a passionate advocate of the natural world. And it’s authenticity that makes him so cool today at 91.

TV REAL: You enlisted Hans Zimmer to compose the orchestral score on Blue Planet II. How important is music to your productions?

HECTOR: Score is very, very important. Get the score right and it guides the audience in how to feel about something.

And it helps with the whole layered magic that we want to create. There’s actually quite a lot of music in Blue Planet II because we do need the music to help us. It’s remarkably difficult doing character-driven storytelling underwater, because most animals underwater look similar, so you need a few more words and you need a bit more music. Hans Zimmer was stunned by the content. I know he enjoyed helping to put it all together.

TV REAL: What are some of the new projects you’re working on?

HECTOR: We have Dynasty coming. It’s five shows where we have watched five individual groups of animals more intensely than we’ve ever done in the whole of our history.

Five films—lions, tigers, emperor penguins, wild dogs in Zimbabwe and chimpanzees. It’s a story of power in all those individual species. What gets the leaders to the top?

What does it take to stay at the top? How are they toppled?

That’s why it’s called Dynasty. The premise is that these animals are living in a group for a reason and if they were living on their own they wouldn’t survive. On that, they agree. On everything else, they disagree.

TV REAL: The fantastic clip of the snakes and the baby iguana from Planet Earth II was a huge viral hit. Are you looking at short-form content pieces that can be used to promote the blue chips?

HECTOR: Definitely. Social media is where different and new audiences are. It’s not that we’re just interested in using the digital media to super-serve the television. We know that in the digital world of social media, there are people who might not want to watch it on the telly and actually want it in short form and want to pass it around and say, Hey, this is cool. And we know that audiences can see something for three and a half minutes and feel completely satisfied that they’ve seen the equivalent of a one-hour show. So [those audiences are] different, they’re using our material in different ways. And of course we all love clips to be shared worldwide, don’t we?

We all talk about virality the whole time, but the point is there’s a huge audience taking our work in a very different way and we want to find them and serve them there.

The social media digital space is really important for us.

TV REAL: We know how fragmented the media world is.

How important are these big blue-chip docs in encouraging families to sit around the television together?

HECTOR: They are fundamentally important. Even above the premise of your question, what these really big pieces do is put the natural world smack bang in the center of society. People want to make a date to watch them. And with all their layered messaging and wonder, the context might be the state of the planet, but the point is that they intrigue and they thrill. We know that people like to watch them as families—isn’t that wonderful? And we know they like to watch them again on replay services and what have you. Fundamentally we believe they keep the natural world in the minds of large numbers of people, which is what we want.

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TVASIA

WWW.TVASIA.WS

APRIL 2018

MIPTV & APOS EDITION

Asian Content / Pay-TV Channels Turner’s Ricky Ow / Astro’s Rohana Rozhan

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4 TV ASIA

CONTENTS FEATURES

The Legacy Equation

10 EMBRACING THE FUTURE A look at the key trends at play in Asia’s fast-moving pay-TV space.

The issue of legacy—coping with it, or not having it at all—was a recurring theme at APOS in Bali last year. It’s still a subject that looms large for anyone operating in this rapidly shifting media business.

Ricardo Seguin Guise Publisher Anna Carugati Group Editorial Director Mansha Daswani Editor Kristin Brzoznowski Executive Editor Joanna Padovano Tong Managing Editor Sara Alessi Associate Editor Victor L. Cuevas Production & Design Director Phyllis Q. Busell Art Director Simon Weaver Online Director Dana Mattison Senior Sales & Marketing Manager Nathalia Lopez Sales & Marketing Coordinator Andrea Moreno Business Affairs Manager

Ricardo Seguin Guise President Anna Carugati Executive VP Mansha Daswani Associate Publisher & VP of Strategic Development TV Asia © 2018 WSN INC. 1123 Broadway, #1207 New York, NY 10010 Phone: (212) 924-7620 Fax: (212) 924-6940 Website: www.tvasia.ws

Take Astro, which has dominated Malaysia’s pay-TV segment for more than two decades. When the service launched, it needed to give consumers something they hadn’t had before: an abundance of choice in their entertainment options. Today, with OTT services proliferating, the problem is too much choice. So how does a legacy business navigate that? “We now have to use technology wisely to simplify, to be intuitive, to be personalized and to aptly address whatever aspirational lifestyle the customer has,” Rohana Rozhan, Astro’s CEO, told me in an interview that you can find later in this edition.

For FOX Networks Group Asia, its legacy business is delivering a portfolio of channels to pay-TV providers.

It’s still doing that, but it can’t just be business as usual anymore. Zubin Gandevia, the president of FOX Networks Group Asia, spoke to me about the rollout of the FOX+ OTT service and how the company is finding ways to “innovate in every area” of its business. It’s the same story at Turner Asia Pacific, which, as Ricky Ow says in this edition, is looking to cater to its fans on every platform possible, on-screen and off.

“The beauty of our brand is we don’t have any legacy issues,” Avi Himatsinghani, the CEO of Rewind Networks, said when I spoke to him for the piece in this issue on the state of the region’s pay-TV business. “We have not exclusively associated ourselves with a particular studio brand name. In a non-OTT world [a studio brand name] meant an established seal of quality. But in this world, you never say, Today I’m going to watch a studio X movie or a studio Y movie.”

As channels and platforms come to grips with an industry in flux, the basic tenet of delivering the best programming possible remains a constant. And Asian content has become more valuable than ever—in Asia, and elsewhere, as you’ll see in a report on how shows from the region are finding their way to new markets across the globe. You’ll see it at MIPTV too, with a host of sessions putting Asian content creators front and center.

—Mansha Daswani

10 14 MAKING AN ENTRANCE Distributors from across Asia are opening new markets with drama series, formats and more.

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INTERVIEWS

18 Turner’s Ricky Ow

20 Astro’s Rohana Rozhan

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6 TV ASIA Wedding Day Winners

all3media international White Dragon/ Celebrity Undercover/24 Hours to Hell and Back Shot in Hong Kong, White Dragon is an international thriller written by Jack and Harry Williams. The show is among the highlights that all3media international believes will appeal to buyers across Asia, along with Celebrity Undercover, which follows on from the success of Undercover Boss. From Gordon Ramsay’s Studio Ramsay comes 24 Hours to Hell and Back. “Our clients in AsiaPac love Gordon Ramsay, and we have eight new prime-time episodes for FOX in the U.S. of this factual-entertainment program,” says Sabrina Duguet, the executive VP for the Asia Pacific at all3media international.

The company is also eyeing format adaptations in the region for titles such as Catch Me Out, Wedding Day Winners and Hit It. Catch Me Out is being launched in Thailand this year, “and the feedback has been fantastic,” says Duguet.

“2017 was our first full year for the new Singapore team and office, and it has been a fantastic start.”

—Sabrina Duguet

AsiaSat

AsiaSat satellite

Satellite connectivity / Media solutions AsiaSat is celebrating 30 years in the business of offering satellite connectivity and media solutions to clients in the broadcast and telecom sectors. “We have continued to invest in expanding our satellite fleet and ground solutions to meet customers’ evolving needs,” says Barrie Woolston, chief commercial officer. “The latest offering is our most powerful satellite, AsiaSat 9, which carries advanced satellite technologies and features to provide customers with the highest ever performance in terms of power and efficiency.

The latest addition to AsiaSat’s extensive range of valueadded services from our Tai Po Earth Station in Hong Kong is our new IP-based hybrid delivery solutions and OTT CDN in the Sky service.” AsiaSat now serves more than 250 television and radio broadcasters.

“Amid the dynamic Asian market, we will put evolving client demands at the center of our product and service development.”

—Barrie Woolston

Astro

DOSA

Nusantara / Horror / eSports Astro has carved out differentiated content verticals, including Nusantara, Horror and eSports. “We aspire to champion premium IP with regional appeal, and we are currently working with like-minded partners on several co-production collaborations to target ASEAN audiences and millennials,” says Agnes Rozario, VP of content management at Astro. The Nusantara vertical includes the miniseries DOSA, an action drama that features both Malaysian and Indonesian cast and crew members, while the Horror vertical is home to the 3 A.M. Bangkok Ghost Stories franchise. In the way of eSports, Astro offers eGG Network, a channel that takes a 360-degree approach to maximizing fan engagement. In December, Astro and Huomao, China’s leading eSports live-streaming platform, launched Tamago, a new live-streaming platform targeted at millennials.

“Astro is embracing change brought about by digital, online and mobile while staying true to our core as a consumer-focused company.”

—Agnes Rozario 386 WORLD SCREEN 4/18

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Emma Fielding Mysteries

Bomanbridge Media Inazuma Eleven Ares / Emma Fielding Mysteries / Gamerz This year, Bomanbridge Media has stepped into the market with Japanese animation for the first time, “which has been incredibly exciting,” says CEO Sonia Fleck. “It is an extremely competitive environment. We are enjoying the dynamic energy the kids’ buyers bring to the landscape and are pleased with the deals we are closing so far.”

Inazuma Eleven Ares, the third in the soccer trilogy by LEVEL-5 abby, follows the story of a group of passionate sports lovers who together are preventing their soccer team from being disbanded. Inazuma Eleven Ares will be released right before the World Cup. The company is also offering the detective series Emma Fielding Mysteries, as well as the Gamerz format. Gamerz taps into the eSports phenomenon.

“We always focus on bringing the best, most relevant content to our buyers in Asia.”

—Sonia Fleck

Busan Contents Market

Busan, South Korea

May 9-11 / Busan, South Korea The upcoming 12th edition of Busan Contents Market (BCM2018) will be opening its doors from May 9 to 11. Taking place at the Busan Exhibition & Convention Center, the event is sponsored by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Busan Metropolitan City. BCM2018 continues to invite local broadcasting companies, production enterprises and international content specialists to Korea. It will provide attendees with special lectures, such as the BCM Academy, as well as a diverse array of seminars and forums. Through the BCM Global Pitching session, the event is offering an opportunity to pitch content to international and domestic broadcasters, investors, buyers and sellers. The Asia Next Generation Contents Forum Seminar will focus on the current state of and future developments in the area of OTT programming.

FremantleMedia International American Idol / My Brilliant Friend / Hang Ups The popular singing competition American Idol has returned to the small screen, this time on ABC in the U.S. “American Idol’s profound effect on the music industry is far-reaching and continually growing,” says Ganesh Rajaram, the executive VP of sales for Asia at FremantleMedia International. “We’ve had amazing success with the franchise, and this reboot is even more spectacular with the amazing new judges—Katy Perry, Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan—and some pretty incredible talent. It’s going to be a tremendous success in the region.” Also for AsiaPac buyers, the company is offering up My Brilliant Friend, an eight-part drama based on Elena Ferrante’s best-selling book of the same name, and Hang Ups, a six-part comedy adapted from the Emmynominated series Web Therapy.

American Idol

“We are super excited to be bringing American Idol back to the world—it’s the show that started the whole reality-entertainment genre.”

—Ganesh Rajaram 4/18 WORLD SCREEN 387

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The Good, the Bad and the Ugly on the HITS Movies Presents block on HITS

Rewind Networks HITS Rewind Networks’ HITS channel is now available in 10 million homes across eight markets: Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Brunei and Myanmar.

The service is dedicated to all-time great drama and comedy series from past decades. HITS has recently added to its lineup a teaser block called HITS Movies Presents, which “serves as a lead-up to the full-fledged HITS Movies channel,” explains Avi Himatsinghani, CEO of Rewind Networks. “We are very different from other networks that drop movies into the schedule to drive up ratings but overall offer an unclear core proposition. With HITS Movies, we are going to showcase movies that you can’t easily find elsewhere. It’s a beautiful curation of handpicked movies from the 1960s to the 1990s.”

“From our perspective, there are new markets to launch in, including Vietnam, as well as Laos and Cambodia.”

—Avi Himatsinghani

Turner Asia Pacific MondoTV / TABI Channel At the end of January 2018, Turner Japan launched three new channels on dTV Channel, the streaming service from NTT DOCOMO. It marks the first time that the Boomerang brand is available in Japan and introduces two new services: MONDO Mah-jong TV and Tabi Tele. They joined Turner’s portfolio of channels already available in Japan, including Cartoon Network, MondoTV, TABI Channel and CNN International. “Turner is the largest foreign producer of TV programming in Japan, and we produce almost 400 hours of original programming every year for our local brands MondoTV and TABI Channel,” says Tom Perry, general manager of Turner Japan. MondoTV is a leading maleskewed lifestyle channel, while TABI Channel is dedicated to showcasing unique travel experiences.

Shikoku Walking Pilgrimage on TABI Channel

“Content syndication is going to be a really big priority for us in the months ahead.”

—Tom Perry

TV5MONDE Asia-Pacific TV5MONDE Asie /TV5MONDE Pacifique /TV5MONDE Style HD Within the TV5MONDE Asia-Pacific bouquet, TV5MONDE Asie is available across the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, while TV5MONDE Pacifique reaches Japan, Korea and Australasia. There is also TV5MONDE Style HD, a French lifestyle channel. “2017 was another good year for TV5MONDE in the Asia Pacific,” says Alexandre Muller, the managing director of TV5MONDE Asia-Pacific. “We have renewed our current contracts and extended the reach of all three channels to an additional 130 pay-TV operators in the region, reaching over 93 million pay-TV homes in AsiaPac.” The Style HD channel launched in seven markets over the last year, including Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore, while TV5MONDE Asie strengthened its position in India, Thailand, Taiwan, the Philippines and Indonesia.

Rugby Top 14 on TV5MONDE

“As always, we have a lot of exciting and unique content coming up.”

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Mansha Daswani explores the key trends at play in Asia’s fast-moving pay-TV space. or the global media companies that own payTV channels in Asia, 2017 was a surprisingly good year. Regional channel revenues for the likes of 21st Century Fox, Sony Pictures Television and Viacom hit about $5 billion, according to a study by Media Partners Asia (MPA).

Those gains, however, came from highly local businesses in India, which contributed 65 percent of revenues for regional pay-TV channels in 2017. Southeast Asia contributed just 15 percent, Japan 7 percent and Australia 5 percent. In fact, excluding local channel businesses in India, revenues for pan-Asian broadcasters fell by 1 percent to $2.2 billion.

“Success in a large-scale market such as India shows that regional broadcasters that invest in IP and local businesses can create a lot of long-term value,” says Vivek Couto, executive director and co-founder of MPA. “These bets are starting to percolate across Southeast Asia, Korea and Japan. At the same time, businesses are starting to tap more growth from streaming platforms, including partnerships with online video and telco services.”

Channels are expanding their slates of partnerships because they have to. The industry, leading executives agree, is in a state of flux amid a shift to online and mobile video consumption.

“Household consumption is moving to individual users, there’s no doubt about that,” Couto says. “That is challenging for content providers. It’s exciting if you’re an AVOD model, but it’s not so exciting if you’re expecting subscription fees to be the majority of your revenue stream. What people spend on mobile is a fraction of what they spend as a household on broadband and the competition for that watch time is significant. When you’re competing with mobile you’re competing with a digital ecosystem.”

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BACK TO BASICS Add to that global consolidation moves happening, or pending, in the background, and the result is a state of uncertainty. But with that, channels are focusing on the basics: great programming delivered in every mode the consumer desires, local relevance, smart marketing campaigns and full-service offerings to advertisers.

“We put everything under two buckets—there’s business as usual and there’s innovation,” says Zubin Gandevia, the president of FOX Networks Group Asia (FNGA). “It’s difficult

sometimes to tell what is business as usual and what is innovation because you tend to be innovating all the time. We are a subscription business, which, you could argue, would be business as usual. We’ve enhanced it by innovating and introducing [the OTT service] FOX+, which will help to [extend] the life of this traditional business, not just for us but for our platform partners. Now they have access to amazing content on demand. It also allows us to take a step into the digital future of understanding our consumers more directly and more intimately, and therefore creating a better product.”

Virginia Lim, senior VP and head of content, production and marketing at Sony Pictures Television Networks, Asia (SPTNA), says that embracing digital has helped her portfolio of channels remain relevant in an increasingly ondemand environment. “Nonlinear strategies have become an integral part of our overall programming strategy to increase the availability of our products to various audience segments,” Lim says. “So when we’re negotiating acquisitions, digital rights are now very much a [necessary] factor. We offer stacking catch-up VOD and prior full season catch-up wherever possible. We offer full-episode free views to affiliate partners to increase their reach and sampling in a very fragmented audience market. We work to ensure new shows premiering on our channels are available for catch-up as early as the next day on affiliate platforms. And increasingly, our original content is formatted to be snackable, digital extensions that are available on demand and via our branded social-media platforms.”

LINEAR APPEAL But as it turns out, there is still an opportunity to launch 24/7 linear channel brands. “The world around us is changing rapidly and it was changing even when we launched,” says Avi Himatsinghani, founder and CEO of Rewind Networks, which rolled out the HITS network in 2013. “There were already signs in the West in 2012/13 that OTT and other forms of content distribution were the new way. Fundamentally it comes down to the kind of service offered. Platforms know what works well with them.

Unless there is a clear proposition offered, platforms aren’t willing to carry those services. The size of a [portfolio] no longer determines what channels get carried. This is a very good sign as it creates a more level playing field and helps platforms put out more compelling services.”

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Thalassa is among the shows airing on French-language broadcaster TV5MONDE Asie.

Indeed, Himatsinghani is so encouraged by opportunities in the market, with both traditional pay-TV operators and OTT platforms looking at bundled services of linear channels, he is planning a new network, HITS Movies. The service will launch first as a weekend block on HITS, delivering films from the ’60s through the ’90s. “People often ask, Why are you launching another linear channel with HITS Movies? Because [these movies] don’t get consumed through on-demand that easily. Deep library competes for a share of time with first-run and exclusive blockbusters like Game of Thrones or Narcos. When a consumer is in an on-demand environment, they tend not to choose to consume deep library, even if the movies are timeless hits.”

UNTAPPED POTENTIAL Alexandre Muller, managing director for Asia-Pacific at Frenchlanguage broadcaster TV5MONDE, has also seen growth in his channels business over the last year. “TV5MONDE Asie and TV5MONDE Pacifique, our general-entertainment channels, have seen strong growth in markets such as India, Sri Lanka and Korea. And TV5MONDE Style HD, our thematic channel focusing on French [lifestyle], was launched with many partners in the Asia Pacific, including Thailand, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong.”

Rewind’s Himatsinghani points out that there are still territories to expand to. “Many of these emerging markets are highly populated, dense areas and are not necessarily evolved in terms of broadband or mobile. Pay TV is still the bread and butter, bundling strong local fare alongside select international content that people can afford on a mass-scale basis. From our perspective, there are new markets to launch in, including Vietnam, as well as Laos and Cambodia. Even in evolved markets there are new opportunities, including broadband providers looking at bundling their service with content. The ecosystem will evolve into a marketplace with several master aggregators, be it telcos, device players, traditional pay-TV operators going into the OTT space or SVOD services offering linear propositions. So the runway for us is to tap into all of these opportunities and continue to grow.”

TV5MONDE’s Muller observes, “We are lucky to be evolving in a market that still has a lot of growth [to come] for the next couple of years. There are still plenty of opportunities in the region for us and our priority for the coming 18 months will be to strengthen the distribution in mature markets through TV5MONDE Style HD

while growing the availability of TV5MONDE Asie/Pacifique.”

For many channels, a primary growth area has been original content creation. “It’s about creating unique content that is only available on our services,” says SPTNA’s Lim. “We have grown in the original IP space with our own formats and our own characters that are available for merchandising and to be produced into animated series and vignettes.”

AXN has long been in the originalcontent space with shows like The Amazing Race Asia and Asia’s Got Talent. More recently, AXN launched The Elements: Cosentino, and sister network Sony Channel has also expanded into original IP with The Apartment, an interior design reality competition.

ONE, meanwhile, features popular Korean shows like The King in Love. AXN also launched a show specifically for the key market of the Philippines, Adventure Your Way. “This is an interesting concept as it bridges the gap between the linear and social spheres,” Lim explains. “Essentially, the series is fully crowd-sourced—AXN viewers in the Philippines get to advise the show host on where he should travel to next and the adventures he should experience, via Facebook and Twitter.”

Lim adds that this social-media strategy is crucial. “We don’t see social as an after-thought and a marketing campaign; we treat it as part of the series experience, extending the show beyond TV to digital so that fans can consume more and engage more deeply with the untold stories.”

LET’S GET SOCIAL Social media engagement has been helpful to Rewind.

“We’re in the business of listening to our customers,” Himatsinghani says. “Consumers—because they know what the HITS proposition is—provide us with reams of recommendations. They trust our curation, but they also want to be involved in the process by being our programmers. Sandie Lee, Rewind’s VP and channel head, and our team feel like DJs listening to requests. Shows like MacGyver, Three’s Company, Airwolf, Baywatch and Knight Rider were all suggested to us on our Facebook page. That’s unique to us and something we have not seen happen anywhere else. We need to see ourselves as playlists. In the world of Spotify and Apple Music, there is a certain proposition you need to live up to. If your playlist is not strong enough, you’re not going to have followers.”

Advertisers also want to see channels embracing digital so they can get a 360-degree offering that reaches audiences wherever they are. “We’re seeing keen interest in digital extensions and brands wanting to leverage our social platforms to reach and influence new audiences,” says SPTNA’s Lim. The general view among pay-TV channel operators is that as the business is changing, being agile and flexible is key.

“The overall theme is, continue business as usual and keep innovating because we have to move forward and march ahead,” FNGA’s Gandevia says. “The world is moving very quickly and we want to continue to be at the forefront of that progress.”

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Nippon TV’s I’m Mita, Your Housekeeper.

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Distributors from across Asia are opening new markets with drama series, formats and more.

By Mansha Daswani t is strangely appropriate that of all the television markets in the world, Turkey has become a microcosm of the present state of, and prospects for, Asian content exports. A bridge between two continents, Turkey has an incredibly prolific domestic programming infrastructure in its own right, so it’s not the most accessible market. But for Asian distributors, developments in Turkey are not only boding well for content exports beyond the Asia-Pacific region—they are also giving regional sellers a preview of what their businesses could look like in the years to come.

Turkish producers, eager to generate the next big hit, have been looking further afield for ideas, resulting in a number of Asian series being adapted in the market.

Some of those local adaptations have gone on to sell well globally, as was the case with Mother, based on a Japanese drama. On the flip side, Turkish broadcasters looking to differentiate themselves have been acquiring foreign product to counterprogram against local series. Kanal 7, for example, saw its ratings soar off the back of the Indian romantic drama Iss Pyaar Ko Kya Naam Doon.

“It broke many viewership records by quadrupling the channel ratings in that slot,” says Gurjeev Kapoor, the president of international business at Star India. “This paved the way for many more Indian series on local Turkish television and Turkey continues to be a growth market for us.”

“Turkey has become our gateway to the regions we never reached before,” says Cindy Chino, the senior director of international business development at Nippon TV, rights holder of the previously mentioned Japanese drama Mother.

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EUROPEAN AMBITIONS Europe has mostly been a tricky market for Asian content distributors, but formats are seen as one of the best ways in.

“Our focus for Europe is non-scripted formats,” reports Motoko Nakai, director of the international business department at Japan’s TV Asahi, which has also established a significant business in Europe with its anime titles like Doraemon and Shin Chan.

“We find that our format concepts are highly regarded as they are unique, fresh and often just simply fun. Our formats

have also all been proven in Japan and we know they work.

However, in many cases, the structure or set-up of our program seems to be too unfamiliar or strange to European audiences. As such, we have lately been focusing on identifying and working with partners that value our format concepts and ideas and also have the ability to translate them to European tastes, which often is about re-conceptualizing the feel of the program.”

FOLLOWING THE FORMAT As examples, Nakai references TV Asahi’s pact with FremantleMedia on vs KIDS and a relationship with Small World IFT on Experts Versus Experts. “We are also currently co-developing a new format with a London producer and look forward to launching the title this year,” Nakai notes.

As Nippon TV’s Chino referenced, scripted formats have become a major growth area for a number of Asian distributors, even as tape sales continue to dominate their businesses. “Our two pillars are animation tape sales and formats, both scripted and non-scripted,” Chino says, adding, “The demand for scripted is accelerating this past year and opening up new opportunities for us.”

Sunita Uchil, the chief business officer for global syndication and production and international ad sales at Zee Entertainment Enterprises, mentions Lala’s Ladiez, which is based on the classic Indian serial Hum Paanch.

“Kulvinder Ghir of Goodness Gracious Me [a BBC comedy that aired in the ’90s] is Mr. Lala and he has five daughters, each one of them unique in their own way. His wife is English. So it’s an Indo-British sitcom. We’re very happy about that because it’s an original produced in the U.K. by Endemol Shine. We are hoping to get some traction with it.”

TV Asahi is exploring the scripted format sector as well, says Nakai. “Japanese drama series are typically short with approximately ten episodes per season and only a few are produced for several seasons. However, the themes portrayed, the quality of the storytelling and character depictions are exceptional and distinctive and we are finding that most scripts can be further developed into longer series.”

Nakai adds, “Stories with strong characters tackling universal socio-political issues attract much interest. Our storytelling techniques not only elucidate the prevailing social issues but

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also incorporate comedic, cynical or provocative methods to shed light on the human condition. Several Asian countries that are interested in boosting their own drama productions are eyeing our scripts, but we are also in discussions with North American and Turkish producers.”

Star India’s Kapoor identifies format sales as being “key to driving the next level of growth for the business. They allow good stories to root themselves in the local and cultural context and successfully drive relevance and viewership. There is a lot of interest in many of our shows for local adaptations.”

LATIN EXPANSION

Asian dramas on offer at MIPTV include, from top, GMA’s The Other Mrs. Real, TV Asahi’s Ossan’s Love, Zee’s Jeet Gayi Toh Piya Morey and Star India’s Love Ka Hai Intezar.

Like their Turkish counterparts, Asian scripted powerhouses are finding keen demand for their titles from Latin America.

Roxanne Barcelona, VP of GMA Worldwide, a division of the Filipino broadcast group, notes, “GMA dramas are slowly breaking ground in Latin America. To date, seven drama formats were sold to Mexico and four canned dramas did very well in Peru and Ecuador.”

Latin America is also becoming a promising area for Indian dramas. Kapoor says that Star India is gaining traction in the region following the sale of Saras & Kumud to seven markets.

“Saras & Kumud has driven viewership for our broadcast partners in leading markets like Chile and Peru,” he says.

“Yours Truly, Paakhi is another show that has been received favorably in Peru. We are now looking at investing in dubbing a few of our key shows to derive maximum value.”

Zee’s Uchil has also found a host of opportunities in the region. “In most markets, we might tailor [the content] according to that particular audience and its customs,” says Uchil on the challenges of selling Indian drama worldwide. “There are many times we have to do a particular kind of editing on a season. We see Latin America as so close to what we have to offer, we can almost take our programs and just have them fit in there. You just have to choose the right ones—not the religious types of shows, but all the other ones. Today, a lot of Latin America is talking about women’s empowerment, hope, growth, giving them more power, more promise, and that’s exactly what the Zee India proposition is. It’s all about hope.

That’s where we are when we’re producing new stories in India. Latin America should be another big market for us.”

As they expand further globally, distributors from across Asia are also maintaining their strong content-sales businesses within the region. “China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Korea have a high demand for Japanese dramas,” says TV Asahi’s Nakai. “Doctors and police forces exist in all countries, which is a factor that makes our dramas travel well internationally.”

For GMA Worldwide, on the heels of a prosperous 2017 that saw it crack new territories like Papua New Guinea, Myanmar, Indonesia and Ghana, further global expansion is critical. “We constantly try to add more territories to our portfolio of clients,” says Barcelona. “Our goal is to make GMA the premier source of Filipino content and scripted dramas. Of course, some territories are harder to penetrate than others, but our goal is to get Filipino content to as many territories as possible. This is a never-ending process that makes the international distribution of Filipino content very challenging.”

Ultimately, says Star India’s Kapoor, “good storytelling can traverse borders,” which bodes well for Asian distributors eager to make an impact on the global content stage.

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By Mansha Daswani

Whether it’s coding workshops for kids or fan events around Korean heartthrobs and comic-book heroes, Turner Asia Pacific has been intently focused on making sure that it is engaging with its fans wherever they are. Under the leadership of its president, Ricky Ow, Turner Asia Pacific has been steadily expanding its regional business, launching new brands, investing in original IP, aligning with OTT operators and extending its key franchises into consumer products, social media and on-the-ground events. Ow talks to TV Asia about fan engagement, remaining relevant and growth opportunities for Cartoon Network, Oh!K, Warner TV and more.

TV ASIA: What have been the major developments in your Asia-Pacific business over the last year?

OW: Our global CEO, John Martin, says Turner has become a fan-first company. The fan-first strategy and investment in local IP are the key areas that we’ve been driving. We believe that they will continue to serve us, regardless of the future developments in television. They are still the basic elements that will get us to where we want to be.

I can give you some examples. We have turned Warner TV into a first-run channel for the DC [Comics] audience.

We’ve entered into a partnership with Astro Malaysia and widened Warner TV’s distribution across Asia. In Japan, a stable and mature market, we are launching Boomerang, MONDO Mah-jong TV and Tabi Tele on NTT DOCOMO’s dTV Channel streaming service. So while people are cutting down on channels, we are still launching services that are local and relevant to the market.

TV ASIA: Speaking of local entertainment, your Korean channel Oh!K has been a big success. In that competitive market, how are you maintaining a steady supply of top programming?

OW: Oh!K is doing extremely well. It’s the number one Korean GE channel in prime time on weekdays in Singapore.

It increased viewership by 20 percent in 2017. In Malaysia, it increased by 37 percent. It’s going from strength to strength. We have a long-term partnership with MBC. They produce some of the best shows, such as the recent tentpoles Hospital Ship and I’m Not a Robot. Our key goal for Oh!K is really trying to expand the reach of Korean drama.

Korean drama has been popular for many, many years. By localizing the shows with high-quality dubbing and subtitles, we have widened the target audience. And by crosspromoting with channels like Warner TV we are trying to attract a younger, more sophisticated audience to Korean shows. MBC also helps us to do a year-end live awards show, and for the first time we broadcast it with English commentary. So you can see the efforts we’re putting into widening the appeal of the Korean wave in Southeast Asia.

TV ASIA: You recently restructured your Southeast Asian business. What led to that?

OW: The Southeast Asia office was part of the Hong Kong office. Hong Kong and Singapore are only three and a half hours apart. But Southeast Asia is still a market with 640 million people, Indonesia being a big part of that.

It is very attractive to us as a whole because of its size.

It’s going through a change, and it’s not homogenous.

Having a Southeast Asian office will put us in a better position to understand the [region]. We have a Warner TV Pop Expo [in the Philippines], similar to Comic-Con. We do work with the IMDA in Singapore to engage the local community to foster the animation industry and create new IP. We did a coding workshop in the Philippines for kids and tied it up with The Powerpuff Girls. We had more pop-up restaurants and pop-up cafes in Southeast Asia last year. Our YouTube channels are localized in various Southeast Asian markets. And we have more linear channel partners and more OTT partners. So the amount of activity has grown significantly enough for us to put more focus there.

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TV ASIA: You’ve expanded your presence in Japan as well.

Are you seeing new opportunities there that weren’t available in the past?

OW: When you see a big player like NTT launching a streaming service in Japan, it’s good news for all of us. It gives us a chance to tap into a whole new audience. We made sure the channels we put there are differentiated—they are not the same ones as on cable. There is no cannibalization for us.

They are uniquely different in a lot of ways. We can leverage the brand and do sub-brands that don’t cannibalize, so we can attract a totally different audience and grow the marketplace. Japan has been good to us. It’s a high ARPU market with a very stable environment, so having a new launch is very exciting for all of us. And having three channels [on NTT], as an international broadcaster, is very exciting.

TV ASIA: What kinds of opportunities are your finding with OTT platforms across the region?

OW: We have put our Cartoon Network shows on iflix, we are with Tribe, we are on Netflix, HOOQ and Stan, to name a few. We have our content with a good number of the big operators. By having our content with them, we continue to put our fans first. We need to be where our fans are. And we need to take care of our core business. We need to make sure that the first-runs remain very much with our pay-TV partners, but the [Cartoon Network] franchises expand beyond linear TV. We are learning from our partners—they are sharing with us what works and what doesn’t work. A lot of partners have found that when they have kids’ content like Cartoon Network, it reduces churn. The kids continue to watch, even after the adult has watched what they want to watch. I’m not saying we know everything at this point, but the learning is good for us as Asia is experimenting with many models.

CNN and Cartoon Network are available through the AIS PLAY app and AIS PLAYBOX in Thailand. They join other Turner channels already on AIS Play: Warner TV, HLN and Boomerang. Also in February, the linear channels Cartoon Network and Warner TV secured carriage on the new Indonesian OTT platform ForjiFlix.

TV ASIA: What have been some of your major localprogramming initiatives?

OW: Investment in local IP has been a big development for us, in every region. In Southeast Asia we have a partnership with mm2 Entertainment to produce five movies over a three-year period. These movies will play on our channel and we’ll be able to syndicate them. Monster Beach (the series) was announced at MIPJunior last year as a production from Asia Pacific for the international market. India has continued to invest in local IP. Turner produces 400 hours of original programming in Japan every year. In China we have produced a lot of shorts featuring Tuzki, our emoji rabbit IP. We are doubling down on our efforts. There are movies with Tencent for Tuzki and we will be doing more. You can see the breadth and the width of the things we’ve been doing, from local IP to short-form to animation. Not many of the international players have such a wide local production plan.

TV ASIA: What are some of the things you have to do today to drive awareness of your brands and your content in such a crowded environment?

OW: On the kids’ side, we look at the franchise—The Powerpuff Girls, Ben 10—and we plan the whole 360-degree attack.

Linear TV, games, apps, YouTube, OTT, Facebook. We ensure that whether it’s social, digital or linear TV, our franchises are well represented and our fans can consume a version of them. Last year we claimed 1.7 billion touch points for Cartoon Network. This year we have grown it to 2.3 billion. This is excluding China. Cartoon Network Wave, our branded cruise ship, is another touch point, as well as the award-winning Cartoon Network Amazone waterpark in Thailand.

On the entertainment side, Warner TV has the advantage of the DC fan base, which we can connect with through social or a mechanism like the fan expo. They are the influencers who will push your IP out there. We focus a lot on social. But we also make sure we have onthe-ground events that tie back to social, tie back to the linear channel. It’s similar for Oh!K—social, plus visits by Korean talent. You can’t just shout louder. You have to be consistent in surrounding and engaging your fans throughout the year. You can’t shout and then be quiet for six months and then shout again. In six months, if their eyes aren’t on you, they’ve forgotten about you.

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Hospital Ship is one of the flagship dramas on Turner’s Oh!K Korean content channel.

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Across the globe, traditional pay-TV platforms are finding new ways to re-energize their businesses, and Astro in Malaysia is no exception. Delivering content packages to subscribers, made up of both local and international channel brands, is still a core proposition. But as CEO Rohana Rozhan tells TV Asia, reinvention is key. Astro is investing in technology to improve the customer experience, ramping up original content creation and looking at ways to expand across Southeast Asia.

TV ASIA: In an evolving ecosystem, what are you focusing on at Astro?

ROZHAN: Our success over the last 23 years has been premised on primarily three things. The first has always been that we do not compromise on the fact that we are a premium service. We have all the tools within the premium service to serve the premium homes and premium customers and not be second to anyone else. That has always been our ambition, and that’s why we’ve always been the one who innovates in our market, introducing HD, VOD and so on.

The second has been, once we invested in the premium platform and the capabilities thereof, we had the tools to deal with the mass market. That’s where we’ve introduced NJOI [a free satellite platform]. If you have the infrastructure and technology, you can deploy it across the whole market and get scale.

And third is original content, primarily in vernacular. That has become our strong differentiator.

So going forward, it’s about looking at the market landscape and understanding what those three tenets mean and how we are going to deploy them within the new landscape.

Our strategy from this year on will be to reinforce [our position]. We still feel like there are a lot of opportunities for growth. And the question is how you reinvest in order to deliver on that promise. All these three things are intertwined.

We don’t talk about content as if it’s stand-alone. We feel like in the new world order we have to build an ecosystem with the consumers in mind that is enabling and seamless. Within that has to be the position for premium, the position for mass, which is scale, and the position for content, which for us means vernacular. So that’s where we’re going.

We also feel like we need to supplement and complement the skills that we have, so we’ve set up a fund that invests in organic growth opportunities. It is meant to make strategic investments. Our key focus is to build on a portfolio of investments that prioritizes ecosystem build-ups.

We want to be present and have a seat at the table in new technologies that can gain traction with our customers and maybe overnight gain global scale. That’s required. There are so many little disruptors, so many new start-ups, and they give us real ideas in terms of how to complement and supplement our capabilities.

So these are our core strategies going forward. Our job is not only to defend where we are, but it’s also to use the digital capabilities to engage our customers better, to be more seamless in that, to get to know our customers better than anyone else. We have a real plan. You heard from us last year about how we tied up Amazon Web Services in a three-year transformation. So we’re starting to find our feet in the new world order. It takes time. Astro was built on the premise that we’re a tech company and we give best-inclass experiences to our customers. We lost some ground there. This year is going to be us going back to the market to reclaim that position. We will reclaim that position in the home based on a new tech platform for the set-top boxes.

We will reclaim that ground by having all the content in its various forms: day and date, live, first window, box sets, portability, on-demand, all of that.

This is what happens when you’re an incumbent—when we started this business it was premised on a different landscape, a different problem that we had to solve for the customers. There was no multichannel TV. There were regulations for free to air that called for about 80 percent of the content to be in the Malay language. There were only three or four free-to-air channels then. The problem we had to solve for the customers back then was to bring choice—in international content, in vernacular content. We solved that. We brought a multichannel TV proposition, the best of international, the best of vernacular in Hokkien, Mandarin, Tamil and other dialects. That was the low hanging fruit then. Those are no longer problems. What are the problems of the customers today? Complexity. It’s such a crowded marketplace, there’s so much noise, and they have so many choices. We now have to use technology wisely to simplify, to be intuitive, to be personalized and to aptly address whatever aspirational lifestyle the customer has.

That is what we’re doing in Malaysia.

TV ASIA: Tell us about your original IP strategy.

ROZHAN: Core to our business, first and foremost, is Malay content for the Malaysian market. Malays form about 70 percent of the population. So we have every intention of being a very significant content player among the Malay vernacular. And we already are. We’re going to reinforce that even further across the ecosystem. It’s not just dramas. It has to be allencompassing. We are embracing a world where people want short form and clips and so on. So we’re strengthening and building on what we already have. The second track has to be Nusantara [Indonesia and wider Southeast Asia]. That is part of our growth engine for tomorrow. We used to think that if we build for Malaysia, we can take it for granted that it will be relevant for a bigger audience. But the reality is, 4/18 WORLD SCREEN 401

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Astro collaborated with partners in Southeast Asia to stage a regional version of The Voice.

it doesn’t work that way. We have to build for Nusantara, from the ideation of any stories. It has to be done in collaboration with others. For instance, last year, our production capabilities did things like the SEA Games. In today’s world, it’s about halving your costs but also addressing a bigger market. So in the SEA Games, our team went around to other broadcasters in the region—Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia— and said, let’s produce it once and share the costs, and each localize it for our own markets. There will be a lot more collaborations like that from our production capabilities.

Nobody wants to go out there and just build for your own market. You need to deal with the cost structures as well.

We also did The Voice, Asia’s Got Talent, that kind of thing, for this region. We have the ambition to build on our production capabilities and skills so we can address a bigger market. That gives us revenue opportunities. Equally important to us is that we start building our skillsets.

Back to the IP, we have a lot in the pipeline with Indonesia, with Thailand, as well as with China and India. For Indonesia, for instance, we have DOSA, which is a miniseries, Heist and Polis Evo2. We have 3 A.M. Bangkok Ghost Stories and Door with Thailand. And we have a remake of [the Chinese film] The Journey as well. You’ll see us out there a lot more.

TV ASIA: How is the OTT platform Tribe performing?

ROZHAN: We’re at 3.1 million users in the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand. We’re not going out the way that other [OTTs] have gone out. We are targeting a different demographic, the younger segment. We look at content slightly differently for Tribe. And we’re not going to play this game where people are just land-grabbing and it is a cash burn. We’re trying to build communities of fans. It’s about building content IPs and building differentiators within them.

A lot of our ambition with Tribe underpins our content IP story. A lot of it will be building an IP presence and a pipeline together with Astro Malaysia and the Nusantara ambition.

TV ASIA: How do you determine what those must-have brands are for your customers?

ROZHAN: This is a debate even among ourselves. Clarity is a good thing, right? What we’ve landed on is that absolute clarity is going back to the drawing board and saying, by accident and by design, we are where we are. There is an

Astro that is privileged to be in a very strong position in Malaysia. We play the premium, the mass and the vernacular games. We are in 75 percent of total households; it’s not an issue for us to be at 80 or 85 percent in a very short time.

We’ve got 17 million [weekly] radio listeners. All Malaysians are touched by Astro because we have assets across digital, radio and TV. We touch people’s lives 10 to 12 hours a day!

That’s well and good, but now we have the technologies to understand our consumers better by data sciences and by having the ability to pull together and personalize. So that’s what we’ve embarked on with Amazon Web Services. We will get to know our customers better. We will break down the 30 million people into more than 20 customer personas. And then we’ll individualize a playlist for each one of them. Once we know who the customer personas are, we size up the opportunity for each of them. What is the size of their collective wallet? What is the size of the ad expenditure opportunity for each segment? And then we try to match them against the media assets that we have. Maybe we’re doing too much to address someone who already has too much to watch. Where are the bubbles of opportunity or gaps that we can opportunistically address using our content IPs, our channel collaborations and other experiences? There is a science and an art to this. The whole idea is to rationalize our media investments, assets, channel collaborations and so on, to optimize the spend to the opportunity. That is something we are doing now, understanding that where we want to spend the most money, what we want to spend the most time on, is what differentiates us.

What clearly differentiates us is the vernacular content, the Malay content, the Nusantara content. Let us solve the problems that we’re good at and that differentiate us and [provide the content] that a customer values and will pay for and that advertisers need to reach the customers.

So we cannot just have more and more channels when you know that people are shifting to on-demand. We have to be clear about what role the channels play and that’s where data is extremely important in various ways.

Matching the data supply and the data demand is extremely important. And understanding the customers enough, and our advertisers enough, to know the customer personas and how much they can be valued at, where the real gaps are and where our real strengths are.

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WWW.TVMEA .WS

APRIL 2018

MIPTV EDITION

OTT / VIMN’s Raffaele Annecchino

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CONTENTS

Change Can Be Good

FEATURE 6 BY POPULAR DEMAND OTT platforms are picking up steam in the Middle East and Africa.

There is nothing like competition to shake up a business. The television industry has seen this scenario play out countless times as new services have entered a market and disrupted the status quo, bringing new storytelling techniques and production models.

Ricardo Seguin Guise Publisher Anna Carugati Group Editorial Director Mansha Daswani Editor Kristin Brzoznowski Executive Editor Joanna Padovano Tong Managing Editor Sara Alessi Associate Editor Victor L. Cuevas Production & Design Director Phyllis Q. Busell Art Director Simon Weaver Online Director Dana Mattison Senior Sales & Marketing Manager Nathalia Lopez Sales & Marketing Coordinator Andrea Moreno Business Affairs Manager

Ricardo Seguin Guise President Anna Carugati Executive VP Mansha Daswani Associate Publisher & VP of Strategic Development TV MEA © 2018 WSN INC. 1123 Broadway, #1207 New York, NY 10010 Phone: (212) 924-7620 Fax: (212) 924-6940 Website: www.tvmea.ws

Increased competition is impacting the media scene in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), and it will be interesting to see how established broadcasters and viewers react. The OTT business in MENA is heating up, as we examine in our feature. Given the range of programming and lower price points of OTT offers, they are bound to be well received. Besides bringing in imported fare, these platforms will invariably need original shows. This will likely boost the local production scene, which I’m told is in need of a shake-up because the commissioning process among several of the leading broadcasters has become a bit ossified. In addition, writers, the beating heart of any drama—a genre that is hugely popular in the region—are poorly paid and undervalued, so the hope is OTT’s demand for originals will revitalize the production industries in the region and welcome new voices and styles of storytelling.

A whopping 70 percent of all shows produced in the region are made for the 30-day period of Ramadan.

They take three months to produce and are 30 episodes long—this is the model to which producers are accustomed. They need to learn and adopt new and efficient ways of developing series in order to satisfy growing demand.

The lower price point of streaming services may get consumers into the habit of subscribing to content.

Pay-TV penetration is extremely low across the region, except in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

Exposure to pay-as-you-go OTT offers may introduce and entice consumers to larger bundles. Several Viacom International Media Networks (VIMN) brands, including Paramount Channel, Nicktoons and Nickelodeon, are available in those larger bundles. We speak with Raffaele Annecchino, the president and managing director of VIMN Southern and Western Europe, the Middle East and Africa, who talks about offering subscribers linear and nonlinear options. Once again, that often-seen scenario is on display: competition is ushering in change and change can be good.

—Anna Carugati

INTERVIEW

12 VIMN’s Raffaele Annecchino Viacom International Media Networks has gone heavily local in the Middle East and Africa with original content, events and retail initiatives.

Raffaele Annecchino, who oversees the regional business, discusses the fruits of that approach.

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Riverdale on OSN’s WAVO.

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OTT platforms are picking up steam in the Middle East and Africa.

By Jay Stuart TT is disrupting the TV business around the world, and it’s happening fast—even in markets where the traditional pay-TV ecosystem has been slow to develop. Of note, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates all rank in the top 20 of consultancy A.T. Kearney’s recent Global TV Disruption Index, which assessed where various markets stand in terms of the shift in video consumption from linear broadcast to OTT platforms from 2017 to 2021.

A.T. Kearney also measured the progress of disruption as a ratio of on-demand versus linear viewing, ranking countries in three different groups: A (where consumption shifts are clear), B (where enabling factors are in place and things are starting to happen), and C (some necessary enablers are lacking). Saudi Arabia is among the handful of countries in the A group, while Qatar, the UAE and South Africa are all in group B, and Kenya in sub-Saharan Africa is not far from joining that category.

Pay-TV penetration in the Middle East and North Africa is still very low, and because of that, the market is more open for OTT. In the Middle East, digital disruption has come in two waves. The first was the local ventures like Icflix (which launched in 2013), Telly and Cinemoz. The main pay-TV providers, OSN and beIN Media Group, then diversified into OTT. The second wave was the arrival of North American giants Starz and Netflix. Now Amazon Prime Video has also arrived. Another new international entrant is iflix from Malaysia, with deep-pocketed backers including Liberty Global, Hearst, Sky and Evolution Media (TPG Growth and Creative Artists Agency). The platform has aimed for the lower end of the market and cleverly teamed up with Kuwaiti telco Zain, which covers eight markets in the region.

O

HEAVY HITTERS The biggest OTT regional operator is probably the free-to-air satellite broadcaster MBC, which has a portfolio of linear TV channels and expanded into nonlinear with a free OTT offer, Shahid, and more recently, an SVOD service, Shahid Plus.

“We spotted the opportunity, and we knew the potential for a local Arabic online-video platform for premium content in the region,” says Fadel Zahreddine, MBC’s group director of brand management and digital businesses.

“Some audiences are seeking on-demand besides linear

TV, and advertisers like to connect them to premium content. We see Shahid as a stand-alone offering. At the beginning, the aim was to gain more audiences for MBC. Now, Shahid has its own programming and content strategy, including the paid Shahid Plus service.”

Content on Shahid has never been limited to MBC programs, “but we have been noticing that MBC content performs better than others on OTT,” Zahreddine says. “We have the largest online library of series, shows and movies, and soon we will be commissioning our own exclusive content for Shahid.”

Shahid Plus is ad-free and includes unique content that doesn’t sit on MBC’s broadcast channels or on Shahid, such as the latest local movies, Western films and TV shows.

“We see an interest and a willingness to pay for content and for the seamless experience with no commercial interruptions,” Zahreddine says.

Now, the MBC group is launching an SVOD service for kids called Goboz.

MAKING WAVES Perhaps the biggest change in the OTT landscape has been the launch of WAVO by OSN in 2017. The pay-TV giant’s stand-alone streaming and on-demand service offers movies, TV series and sports.

Martin Stewart, who has been CEO of OSN since 2016, says the move into the OTT space was a logical one, given the direction the industry is heading. “When I arrived, I saw what was overwhelmingly a DTH single-screen linear payTV business,” he notes. “As in the rest of the world, the region was going to shift to a multiscreen, multiplatform environment as the adoption of new devices was accelerating. We needed to get into making available a TV anytimeanywhere service.”

WAVO is branded separately from OSN because the primary target is a different audience. OSN offers high-quality entertainment on a subscription basis, while WAVO is aimed at a younger demographic that is not necessarily interested in making a long-term commitment to a service.

In many cases, these younger viewers have never subscribed to a pay-TV platform before. “There is a brand association with OSN in our marketing materials and that provides quality assurance,” Stewart says. “But the benefits of WAVO are different. Above all, the price is lower. There is bound to be some cannibalization, but the aim was to open 4/18 WORLD SCREEN 411

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Black Sails is among the popular U.S. shows on Starz Play Arabia, which is available in almost 20 markets in the region and is eyeing expansion to Pakistan. up a new market of customers who couldn’t afford pay TV, or maybe could not access it when they wanted to, or simply didn’t want to commit to a long-term contract.”

Like other OTT platforms, OSN does not release numbers, but Stewart volunteers that WAVO-type subscriptions will account for a significant portion of the company’s revenues in next three to five years.

OSN launched ASLI, its latest digital brand, in early February, when it kicked off with 40 hours. The new service offers free short-form content on WAVO. The idea is for it to become a stand-alone service. The word “asli” means “the real deal” in Arabic and many of the other languages around the region, including Swahili and Farsi.

“We will be developing a lot more original content,” Stewart says. “We need to be showcasing more of what’s produced in the region, not only in our market but around the world. We want to be more of a content owner and producer. There is no [Middle Eastern equivalent of] FremantleMedia or Endemol Shine or HBO. That’s a shame, and taking that role is something we ought to be thinking about.”

MULTIPLE CHOICE Customers in the Middle East often subscribe to multiple OTT providers. OSN recently did an in-house survey and found that even most of its employees (who get WAVO free) take other services, too.

OTT pioneer Carlos Tibi, founder and CEO of Icflix, welcomes the competition. “We are happy that other players are now available in the region, as this has helped further build confidence in consumers for online methods of

payment and given the public more choice and a chance to compare between providers. With the rise of streaming services in the region, audiences have become more inclined to subscribe to multiple streaming services, as this gives them more content to choose from, making entertainment options for the entire family limitless. This also helps to curb piracy in the MENA region, since fighting internet piracy has always been a challenge.”

Icflix is growing by around 25 percent month on month, and Tibi expects his company to move to profitability within 18 to 24 months.

One of Tibi’s principles is that Icflix’s programming is mainly nonexclusive. “Unless it’s an original production, we don’t believe in acquiring anything exclusively,” he says. “In the past, some entertainment providers in the region would buy output deals from the major studios so no one else could get rights to the content. However, the situation is changing slowly, and hopefully the studios will realize that they are locking their content from [being seen by] more viewers.”

Arabic content is the key differentiator for Icflix, Tibi says, with 70 percent of the program budget invested in original content production and the remaining 30 percent on acquisitions. “Our focus on original drama not only differentiates Icflix as a brand, but also helps to enhance Arab content production.”

The first big international OTT player in the Middle East, Starz Play Arabia, launched in 17 territories in the region in April 2015. It was Starz’s first foray outside the U.S. “It was almost an R&D venture,” says Scott Macdonald, CFO of Starz, who worked on putting the venture together

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and is on the board of Starz Play Arabia. “We were looking at how to grow our business internationally. We first looked at Spain, and then we saw that the Middle East and North Africa was the big untapped market. Netflix wasn’t there yet.”

Macdonald observes that “there’s a willingness to pay in the Middle East and North Africa. The beauty of the region is that with so many different markets and socioeconomic characteristics, we can adjust how much [to charge] to fit the situation. We’ve experimented with pricing.” For example, what costs $8 in the UAE costs $3 in Tunisia.

STARZ IN THEIR EYES Starz Play is now in 19 markets across the region. Unsurprisingly, it is faring best in the most affluent markets of the UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, as well as in Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia. It launched as a pure SVOD app for mobile devices, and now it is also offering a near-linear service— which is closer to the original American product—through IPTV platforms. The regional service includes a mix of firstrun and second-run television series, plus second pay, third pay and library movies. All of the first- and second-run content is exclusive for six to 12 months. For other content, some is exclusive and some isn’t. Starz series like Power, Black Sails and Spartacus have been successes, as have Vikings and library fare such as Friends and older seasons of Grey’s Anatomy.

“We are an American international service like Netflix,” Macdonald says. “What differentiates us from them is that we are local in the region. We have Arabic content. We have a lot of French content for North Africa and a lot of content from Bollywood and Lolly wood [Pakistan] for the large South Asian populations in the Gulf.”

Indeed, now Starz Play is looking east, with Pakistan as the next market on its horizon.

While Netflix is growing, it has not yet made massive waves in the Middle East and North Africa. It unveiled its first Arabic original drama this spring, a teen supernatural thriller called Jinn, which will film in Jordan and feature regional talent.

Its first project in the region was the stand-up special Adel Karam: Live from Beirut.

Netflix is increasingly pursuing distribution partnerships. It recently closed a deal with OSN. Netflix will be offered on the new OSN Box, launching in the second quarter.

Most OTT entrants in the Middle East and Africa seek partnerships with telcos, as the structural challenges of OTT can be eased by this sort of collaboration. The telco can improve distribution and cure the

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payment headache in a region where most people do not use credit cards.

Starz Play Arabia, headed by co-founder and CEO Maaz Sheikh, had to build its own platform from scratch and integrate it with local telco partners, which enabled it to bill through its partners’ platforms, even when it was not bundled with their services (what’s called carrier billing).

Starz Play Arabia recently signed a five-year strategic partnership with Etisalat, the UAE’s leading telco, and it also reached agreements with Orange for Egypt and Morocco.

There is also a partnership with Saudi Telecom.

TELCO TIE-UPS “Integrating with a telco requires a lot more than a snap of the fingers,” Macdonald says. “It’s a complex process, but our guys can do it quickly. It’s like having a container ship with lots of containers. Each telco needs a different container.”

Similarly, OSN has deals with several telcos in the region, including a very strong partnership with du in the UAE. There are numerous other deals in the works.

“There are 36 telcos in the region, so we still have a ways to go,” Stewart says. “Each of them requires us to be integrated into its system. It takes some doing. We bundle WAVO with their broadband, or at the very least with their payment systems.”

In January, MBC added to its many partnerships via a new deal with Oman’s Omantel. The subscription cost for the Shahid Plus service can now be charged to Omantel

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Al Hayba, an original series from MBC, is available on Shahid, the panArab broadcaster’s OTT platform.

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Arabic content is a major differentiator for Icflix, which co-produced Fares Naanaa’s Tunisian feature film Borders of Heaven. customers’ monthly post-paid bills, or debited from their prepaid accounts.

Farther south in sub-Saharan Africa, where OTT is starting to take root, SVOD service Showmax relies on a voucher option as a useful way to give access to those without credit cards.

Part of South Africa’s Naspers group, which also owns pay-TV platform MultiChoice, Showmax reaches 36 countries in subSaharan Africa.

“I’d say SVOD is taking root in sub-Saharan Africa, albeit slowly,” says Chris Savides, the head of Showmax Africa. “In South Africa, the major change from a year ago is that SVOD is better understood and more mainstream. We’re spending less time on basic explanations and are able to put more effort into highlighting new content. It would be a mistake to lump the rest of sub-Saharan Africa under a single description. The level of adoption varies by country, but in general, I’d say it’s still very much in the early stages.”

Malaysia-based iflix, which raised over $220 million to fund its emerging market growth plans last year, has entered a number of markets in Africa. To drive its regional expansion, it has aligned with Econet Media’s Kwesé, which acquired a significant stake in iflix Africa.

DATA CAPS The cost and availability of affordable uncapped data is the single biggest factor holding back the adoption of SVOD services in Africa, Showmax’s Savides says. “Once you get beyond the relatively small proportion of internet users who have fiber or other uncapped ADSL connections, then mobile is the key connectivity solution. We’ve been working with a number of telcos to deliver discounted data packages designed for video use.”

Showmax last year teamed up with South African mobile operator Vodacom to offer a low-cost OTT TV service to the operator’s customers.

The growth of OTT might well bring about a change in the content market, according to Akash Bhatia, CFO and interim head of content at Showmax. He describes the new approach as “going hyper-local.”

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In South Africa, the first fruit of this approach is Tali’s Wedding Diary, a mockumentary series about a selfobsessed young woman who hires a documentary crew to film the buildup to her splashy wedding. The show stars Julia Anastasopoulos, who has become a local star via YouTube with her comic alter ego SuzelleDIY.

A NEW BEAT An OTT player in sub-Saharan Africa with a very different niche is TracePlay, a division of TRACE, the urban entertainment company founded in 2003. Until January of this year, TRACE was majority owned by Scandinavian media player MTG. The sale of its stake to TPG Growth, Evolution Media and Satya Capital valued the business at €40 million ($49 million).

“We are focusing on exclusive original content in sync with our urban and music DNA,” says TRACE co-founder, chairman and CEO Olivier Laouchez. “We are a niche. We don’t aim to be generalist but to be a very edgy, precise complementary offer of the best of Afro-urban culture. We are trying to buy all rights so we can offer our viewers a customizable experience.”

TracePlay’s original series and co-productions include Wives on Strike, Crazy, Lovely, Cool and Brothers with No Game, with more in the works in France and the U.S. “It will be important to see how OTT content strategies will pan out,” says Christophe Firth, a Dubai-based principal at A.T. Kearney. “I take a broader view that content is only part of the picture. The user experience is critical.

And so is the brand. And the triad of core elements of content, experience and brand needs to be supported by the right commercial models and advertising and distribution. But longer term, there is also the question of what capabilities you’re developing for your platform. How are you doing data management and analytics and improving technology and doing all the things you need to be strong in the future? So there is the need for ongoing investment and investing the right way.”

Firth is a big believer in the aggregation model for OTT. “The market is being shaped by the drive for unbundling. I think what’s overlooked is the fundamental economic logic

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Crazy, Lovely, Cool is a coming-of-age series set in Nigeria—from TRACE Studios and Nollywood Factory—on TracePlay. of bundling. It’s good for customers, it’s good for content owners and it’s good for the distribution platforms. The fundamental logic of bundling will survive.”

SUCCESS STRATEGIES With more and more OTT choices, consumers will need to navigate a very crowded space. “You will need a suite of apps that will get you to what you want,” Firth continues.

“It’s going to be a bit like pay TV, where the operator has offered various channels. But the flavor will be different, more personalized. This is the way things are going to develop in the Middle East and North Africa.”

OSN’s Stewart observes, “The fragmentation of the content market makes it impossible for a single provider to satisfy most individual consumers, and certainly any household.

Multiple subs are where the region is heading, and that’s where the market is likely to be for quite some time, until there is some consolidation or an aggregating platform that becomes a one-stop shop. I believe that the media landscape in the Middle East is in need of rational consolidation. The threat of the multinationals, be it Netflix or Apple or Google or whoever, to organically grown businesses in the region will only increase. Players in the region should be cooperating more so that we can be relevant for the next ten years.”

Tali ’s Wedding Diary, which stars South African YouTube personality Julia Anastasopoulos, is the first Showmax original series.

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By Mansha Daswani

Of all the global pay-TV channel operators active in the Middle East and Africa, Viacom International Media Networks (VIMN) is arguably the most committed to localization. Primarily targeting youth audiences with brands such as MTV, Nickelodeon and Comedy Central, VIMN has been investing in a raft of local productions as well as engaging with audiences through live events, consumer products and more. Raffaele Annecchino, the president and managing director for Southern and Western Europe, the Middle East and Africa at VIMN, shares the company’s strategy with TV MEA.

TV MEA: What’s driving Viacom’s overall business in the Middle East and Africa?

ANNECCHINO: We have been on a great journey that started ten years ago in Africa. At the moment, we are the leading international media company on the continent with ten channels, including brands like MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, BET and more. In the Middle East, we’ve launched eight channels and nine brands in the last two years, including Nickelodeon Arabia, Nick Jr., TeenNick, Nicktoons, MTV Live HD, Comedy Central Arabia with a Spike block, VH1 and Paramount Channel.

We are first and foremost a content producer. Consumers go wherever they can find strong content and have a great experience. Technology allows viewers to create their own media itinerary based on their needs, so we focus on producing the best content and making it available on the platforms they prefer. In both these regions, our approach is “glocal,” which means a content strategy that combines international hits and local content to satisfy all the consumer needs.

In Africa, we have a fantastic partnership with MultiChoice, and we’re entering into the OTT digital world with partnerships with Showmax and iflix.

In the Middle East, we have a strong partnership with OSN, and we’re growing quickly in the recreation business. We’ve opened a Nickelodeon flagship store in The Dubai Mall, and we have lots of on-the-ground activities, including mall tours and popular live shows.

In addition, in Africa we have a strong ad-sales organization where we can provide not only conventional advertisements but also many opportunities in sponsorships, branded content and digital.

TV MEA: Are there significant differences between your businesses in the Middle East and those in Africa?

ANNECCHINO: The main difference is the way we distribute content. In the Middle East, the majority of the distribution goes to pay TV— linear and nonlinear—with OSN. We have a small kids’ block on MBC, and we have a strong presence in recreation. In Africa, we have a wider variety of distribution platforms, from pay TV to free-to-air blocks across the continent to OTT. There is a more advanced advertising market in Africa, and we have a big internal organization providing both conventional and nonconventional solutions to our clients.

Despite these differences, both Africa and the Middle East are similar in the sense that they have a larger youth audience compared to Europe, and those audiences are very technologically advanced.

This is especially interesting for us, given that our main brands—MTV, MTV Base, BET, Nickelodeon and Comedy Central—are all targeting youth audiences.

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TV MEA: Tell us about the opportunities you’re tapping into with OTT services.

ANNECCHINO: As in many other markets, we have seen a shift created by the addition of nonlinear and multiscreen viewing. We see this as complementary [to linear viewing]. Our research indicates that 64 percent of viewers consume more content overall after switching to multiplatform. For a major content provider like Viacom, this is a golden age. Traditional forms of consumption are not being abandoned. If we compare linear to online viewing, linear remains dominant; it is ahead in all 34 markets we surveyed, and in 22 of them, it still represents 2.5 times the online viewing. Even if multiscreen viewing is becoming more widespread, up to 71 percent of the audience is starting their viewing journey on linear.

In addition, in these markets in particular, mobile penetration is amazing. The UAE and Saudi Arabia have among the highest smartphone penetration rates in the world. Pay TV is also on the rise, especially in Africa and the Middle East. In sub-Saharan Africa, the number of pay-TV subscribers will increase by 74 percent by 2023, up to 41 million. And I see the same trend in the Middle East, where pay-TV subscribers will increase by 7 million by 2021.

We see a situation where more content is consumed than ever, which is good for content providers like us since we can extract more value from our library.

Regardless of the platform, content remains king, and we define brands as the queens, acting as guides for consumers. Audiences are also demanding more and more simplification. They want great content from trusted brands with as few subscriptions as possible. We are offering a curated proposition.

TV MEA: Tell us about your original production initiatives in the region.

ANNECCHINO: Our global strategy is about being “glocal.”

We apply this to all of our brands. We have hits that can travel all over the world. At the same time, there is a big focus on getting closer to local cultures and local audiences. We have been active in Africa. MTV Shuga, which we created in 2009, examines youth life and covers safe sex and HIV awareness. It has won many international awards (the most recent include the World Media Festival Gold Award for Edutainment and the intermediaglobe Grand Award in 2016).

Nickelodeon Genius is a show in South Africa, supported by the Department of Basic Education and the Department of Science and Technology, where students from around the country take part in a [science and math] competition.

Comedy Central Roast Battle consists of seven shows [filmed in] South Africa, featuring top comedians competing in a series of quick-fire roast rounds, while shows like BET Buzz and Top Actor in South Africa are really important for making BET a much more local channel.

In the Middle East, Nickelodeon and Nick Jr. are fully localized into Arabic. We have also discovered an amazing comedy scene in the Middle East—in Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait. We were the first to start a standup show, Comedy Central Presents: Al Wagef, which recently featured more than 50 comedians.

We are mixing our international formats with the local culture and adapting those formats to be much more relevant and closer to the audience.

TV MEA: What have you been doing in the live-events space in the region?

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Comedy Central Presents: Al Wagef is among several stand-up comedy events VIMN has created in the region.

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Launched almost a decade ago, MTV Shuga promotes safe sex and HIV awareness.

ANNECCHINO: Events is a really important pillar of our strategy. We have the MTV Africa Music Awards, BET Experience, [Nickelodeon’s] NickFest and SlimeFest, and we did an international comedy festival in South Africa. We also participate regularly in the Cape Town International Animation Festival. We are trying to bring our brands closer to our fans. And this also becomes a great opportunity for our advertisers to communicate with their respective targets. We have a similar strategy in the Middle East. At the moment, it’s more of a focus on kids. We have a PAW Patrol Live! tour, and there’s the Nickelodeon store at The Dubai Mall. We have organized stand-up comedy events. Our objective is to grow our music events business in the Middle East.

TV MEA: How has the advertising market been?

ANNECCHINO: In Africa, we have a strong presence in South Africa and in Nigeria, where we have offices. We are focusing on those two, but as a next step, we are looking at new growing markets, such as Kenya, Ghana, Angola and Morocco. We are offering our ad-sales partners conventional ads as well as sponsorship events, branded content and digital solutions. We have a 360-degree offering for our advertisers as well as a 360-degree offering to our consumers.

In the Middle East, our content is distributed by OSN, with whom we have a sales contract, and we are also exploring nontraditional opportunities.

TV MEA: What are your other growth priorities over the next one to two years?

ANNECCHINO: We are investing a lot in the digital arena.

For example, in the Middle East, we have a partnership with OSN for Nick Play, which is an app with Nickelodeon content, as well as content distribution with mobile

operator Etisalat. In research leading up to the launch of Nick Play, our data showed that more than 44 percent of consumption by kids in MENA is on a computer, tablet or phone, presenting a great opportunity to launch a tailored mobile app with OSN to distribute our Nickelodeon content to this target. We would like to expand this digital experience to Africa, and we will also take advantage of the tremendous mobile penetration. This is possibly one of the most significant areas of opportunity. The other one for us is consumer products and recreation.

We are focused heavily on growing our consumer products offering. At the same time, we have a lot of potential in the recreational world—including with Nickelodeon stores, theme parks and hotels.

Another important aspect of our business is corporate social responsibility (CSR). We have been proactive in a number of initiatives and pro-social campaigns in MEA. We supported the Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital with [revenues from] the first African NickFest and slimed celebrities for the charity Surgeons for Little Lives at the second event last year. Comedy Central’s Famous Last Words gala is a stand-up event where we raise funds for the Smile Foundation, a children’s charity in South Africa. And MTV has always been part of the conversation around important topics for youth, with shows like MTV Base Meets interviewing Michelle Obama, Winnie Mandela and Bill Gates. MTV Shuga is the best example of a program that bridges entertainment and tackles relevant, sensitive subjects for youth audiences. Season six has premiered in South Africa, and the format is now being adapted in Egypt and India to address pertinent social factors for youth in those regions. CSR is in the DNA of Viacom, and we are accomplishing great missions, including in the Middle East and Africa.

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TVLATINA

WWW.TVLATINA.TV

ABRIL 2018

EDICIÓN MIPTV

Principales distribuidores de novelas y series en Europa / Sandra Stern de Lionsgate María Jesús Pérez de RTVE / Fernando Szew de MarVista Entertainment Ana Langenberg de NBCUniversal International Studios / Firat Gulgen de Calinos

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EDICIÓN MIPTV

Ricardo Seguin Guise Director general Elizabeth Bowen-Tombari Editora

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Rafael Blanco Editor asociado Jessica Ávila Asistente editorial Simon Weaver Director online Victor L. Cuevas Director de producción y diseño Dana Mattison Gerente sénior de ventas y mercadeo Nathalia Lopez Coordinadora de ventas y mercadeo Andrea Moreno Gerente de asuntos de negocios

Ricardo Seguin Guise Presidente

REPORTAJE 14 AL UMBRAL DEL TRIUNFO Los principales distribuidores de novelas y series de América latina siguen conquistando Europa a través de sus ofertas de primera calidad que compiten con las producciones del viejo continente.

ENTREVISTAS

Anna Carugati VP ejecutiva y directora editorial del grupo Mansha Daswani Publisher asociada y VP de desarrollo estratégico TV Latina Marca registrada de WSN INC. 1123 Broadway, Suite 1207 New York, NY 10010 Estados Unidos Oficina: (212) 924-7620 Fax: (212) 924-6940 E-mail: noticias@tvlatina.tv www.tvlatina.tv Para una suscripción gratis, visite suscribase.tv

22 Sandra Stern de Lionsgate

24 María Jesús Pérez de RTVE

26 Fernando Szew de MarVista Entertainment

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28 Ana Langenberg de NBCUniversal International Studios

30 Firat Gulgen de Calinos

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PANORAMA /POR ELIZABETH BOWEN-TOMBARI

A mayor inversión, mejor retribución De las 24 horas de las cuales está compuesto un día, dicen los entendidos que lo ideal es dormir ocho o nueve, trabajar otras ocho, y el tiempo restante dividirlo entre comer, viajar y distraerse.

Durante la última década y desarrollándose en medio de nuevas generaciones, el concepto ‘multitasking’ o ‘multitasker’ se ha enraizado en todo orden de cosas.

Comemos al mismo tiempo que trabajamos y hacemos catch-up con nuestras series favoritas mientras regresamos a nuestros hogares.

Según una nueva encuesta de TiVo, el televidente global sintoniza en promedio 4,4 horas de video cada día y alrededor de 28 minutos buscando algo que ver, representando 20 por ciento de la vida diaria.

El estudio encuestó a 8.500 suscriptores de televisión paga y OTT en Estados Unidos, Europa y América latina.

Encontró que alrededor del 90 por ciento de los hogares actualmente paga por un servicio de televisión tradicional. Sin embargo, más del 60 por ciento también está suscrito a servicios de streaming como Netflix, Amazon Prime y Hulu.

Por país, Estados Unidos promedia 5,1 horas, Reino Unido 4,2 horas, Francia 3,7 horas y Alemania 3,3 horas. En América latina, Brasil lidera con 4,7 horas de sintonía diaria en promedio, y Colombia y México promedian 4,1 horas cada uno.

En Latinoamérica, 50 por ciento de toda la sintonía se realiza a través de un dispositivo digital en lugar del televisor, según el estudio. En contraste, los televidentes en Estados Unidos comentan que más del 75 por ciento de su consumo de video sigue siendo en televisión.

Tomando ventaja de este momento y apelando a la fidelidad de sus audiencias, a través de un nuevo reporte, The Diffusion Group (TDG) reveló que los tres gigantes servicios de streaming, Netflix, Hulu y Amazon Prime Video, estarán triplicando sus inversiones en contenido original para el 2022 para llegar a los US$ 10 mil millones anuales.

La firma señaló que estos servicios estarán destinando un mayor porcentaje a producción original en lugar de contenido licenciado. Brad Schlachter, asesor sénior de TDG y autor del reporte, comenta: “Los tres gigantes de SVOD son dueños del 60 por ciento del tiempo de streaming. Buscan mantener y expandir esta participación al crear contenido original atrayente para generar nuevos suscriptores y mantener los que ya tienen aun con el aumento en las tarifas de sus servicios”.

Entre los abonados de Netflix, 21 por ciento indicó que los contenidos originales son “absolutamente críticos” en

"The Diffusion Group reveló que los tres gigantes servicios

de streaming, Netflix, Hulu y

Amazon Prime Video, estarán triplicando sus inversiones en contenido original para el

2022 para llegar a los US$ 10 mil millones anuales".

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su decisión de continuar utilizando Netflix, mientras que 41 por ciento los cataloga como “muy importante”.

TDG señaló que estas tres compañías no son las únicas que buscan una mayor participación en el mercado de streaming on-demand con contenido original. Empresas tan diversas como Facebook y Apple están invirtiendo en programación original de calidad para distribuir directamente a los consumidores. La firma indica que la iniciativa de Disney de lanzar su propia plataforma directa a los usuarios, también lo convertiría en un jugador potente en este segmento.

En nuestra edición de MIPTV, presentamos el reportaje titulado Al umbral del triunfo, que indaga sobre la distribución de novelas y series de América latina en Europa.

La presencia de las producciones dramáticas de Latinoamérica en el viejo continente se remonta a varios años en el tiempo, cuando las telenovelas reinaban en los horarios estelares y de sobremesa de las televisoras locales en nuestra región. Actualmente, las series latinoamericanas también han aterrizado en Europa, entregando una oportunidad para contar sus diversas tramas y mostrar sus altos niveles de producción a través de pantallas tan diversas como la televisión abierta y los canales pagos.

Sin embargo, al igual que América latina, Europa realiza una gran cantidad de producciones originales que se caracterizan por sus valores de producción y creatividad en sus historias. En ese sentido, los distribuidores latinoamericanos se han enfocado en expandir la presencia de sus títulos en las OTTs, posicionándolas en medio de una fuerte competencia.

Además, presentamos entrevistas exclusivas con algunos de los ejecutivos más importantes de la industria, entre ellos, Sandra Stern, presidenta de Lionsgate Television Group. Entre sus numerosas responsabilidades, la ejecutiva tiene a su cargo encontrar nuevas estrategias de producción y financiación. Tal como le comenta a TV Latina, durante mucho tiempo ha propuesto encontrar socios internacionales para proyectos y forjar relaciones perdurables con el talento. También habla sobre los nuevos shows en oferta, la relación laboral con Starz y los beneficios de realizar una amplia búsqueda por el talento.

También hemos incluido una entrevista con María Jesús Pérez, directora comercial internacional de RTVE, quien a través de esta entrevista habla sobre sus nuevas responsabilidades, el trabajo que están realizando con los canales lanzados recientemente para las audiencias globales, además de los elementos que caracterizan a las producciones de la compañía.

Otras entrevistas que forman parte de esta edición son Fernando Szew, CEO de MarVista Entertainment; Ana Langenberg, VP sénior de ventas de formatos y producción de NBCUniversal International Studios; y Firat Gulgen, chairman de Calinos Holding.

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BBC Worldwide Latin America/US Hispanic Big Cats / Blink / Serengeti “MIPTV es un evento importante para nuestra empresa ya que permite consolidar la reputación de BBC Worldwide como distribuidor de contenidos de calidad”, dice David Hanono, gerente general de ventas y digital de BBC Worldwide Latin America/US Hispanic. “Como parte de nuestra estrategia, intentaremos seguir estableciendo alianzas y brindando a nuestros socios comerciales en Latinoamérica y el mercado hispano de Estados Unidos, populares programas británicos que puedan adaptarse y alcanzar el éxito local”. En la oferta se encuentra Big Cats, documental sobre la naturaleza de felinos depredadores, mientras que Blink, pone a prueba a reconocidas celebridades sobre conocimientos de música y cultura popular. Finalmente, Serengeti, muestra uno de los rincones más bellos de África. La compañía también presenta The Split.

Big Cats

“Estaremos ofreciendo una amplia oferta de contenidos en todos los géneros”.

—David Hanono

HBO Destino Rusia 2018 / Westworld / Paterno En Paterno, uno de los destacados de programación de HBO Latin America, Al Pacino interpreta a Joe Paterno, historia real del entrenador de fútbol americano de la universidad de Penn State, tras el escándalo de abuso sexual de su asistente Jerry Sandusky. Después de convertirse en el entrenador con el mayor número de partidos ganados en la historia del fútbol americano universitario, el legado de Paterno se ve amenazado mientras él debe enfrentarse a preguntas del fracaso institucional en relación a las víctimas. El canal también presenta Westworld, una odisea oscura sobre el nacimiento de la conciencia artificial y la evolución del pecado, explorando un mundo donde cada deseo humano puede ser perdonado.

Otro destacado del canal es Destino Rusia 2018, primera coproducción entre HBO Latin America y HBO Europe.

Paterno

Record TV Apocalipsis / Belaventura / El rico y Lázaro Apocalipsis, una de la novelas que Record TV ofrece a los compradores internacionales en MIPTV, es una historia de amor, espiritualidad y redención narrada a partir de uno de los temas más controversiales de la Biblia: El fin de los tiempos.

“Este año continuaremos haciendo lo que mejor sabemos: Telenovelas y series bíblicas”, resalta Delmar Andrade, director de ventas internacionales de Record TV. “Tenemos distintas producciones bíblicas que han tenido éxito mundial, tal como Moisés y los diez mandamientos, Los milagros de Jesús y José del Egipto”. Otro destacado de la compañía es Belaventura.

Ambientada en el siglo XV, en el reino ficticio de Belaventura, se presenta una historia llena de emociones y transformaciones. Record TV complementa su oferta con las producciones El rico y Lázaro y La Tierra prometida, entre otras.

Belaventura

“MIPTV es uno de los eventos más prestigiosos e importantes del mercado de televisión”.

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TV Azteca Internacional Indomable x naturaleza / Dos lagos / El César

El docu-reality de vida silvestre Indomable x naturaleza es una de las producciones destacadas de TV Azteca Internacional en MIPTV. El programa está integrado por 30 capítulos de media hora cada uno y da una mirada a la vida salvaje de México bajo la conducción del actor y naturalista, Arturo Islas. Entre tanto, la serie de drama y terror, Dos lagos, gira en torno a tres familias que habitan en la misma casa en diferentes épocas, 1944, 1975 y 2015. Las familias enfrentan un mismo problema: El fantasma de una niña que murió de una manera extraña en 1944 y no descansará en paz hasta que los habitantes de la casa resuelvan el misterio de su muerte. Otro destacado de la compañía en Cannes es El César, una serie biográfica dramatizada que sigue los pasos de la leyenda de México y del boxeo mundial, Julio César Chávez.

El César

Universal Cinergía Dubbing La compañía anunció recientemente la inauguración de su nuevo estudio en São Paulo, en la región de Vila Madalena, iniciando operaciones con el doblaje de la exitosa serie El señor de los cielos al portugués. Universal Cinergía Dubbing reveló que atraviesa por un momento importante, puesto que ha firmado un acuerdo con Netflix para estar en el Dubbing Vendor Whitelist del portugués. Los proveedores en esa lista son recomendados a los clientes de la plataforma cuando buscan servicios específicos. “Eso es un tremendo éxito para nuestra empresa, ya que trabajamos con mucho empeño y profesionalismo”, dice Liliam Hernández, presidenta y CEO de Universal Cinergía Dubbing. “Y aunque eso no garantiza proyectos, nos coloca en una posición con mucha más visibilidad y potencial de obtener nuevos clientes de diferentes territorios que necesiten doblaje al portugués”.

“Trabajamos con mucho empeño y profesionalismo”.

—Liliam Hernández

Viacom International Media Networks Knight Squad / Corporate / Top Wing En MIPTV, “vamos a [participar] con mucho contenido nuevo basado en una oferta que incluye programas producidos o coproducidos por Telefe, así como telenovelas infantiles y juveniles de Nickelodeon Latinoamérica”, explica Guillermo Borensztein, VP de venta de contenidos y coproducciones de Viacom International Media Networks – Américas. La compañía cuenta con Knight Squad, donde en una escuela mágica de entrenamiento para caballeros, dos estudiantes opuestos forman una alianza para proteger sus secretos y seguir sus sueños.

Por su parte, Corporate es una comedia sobre una corporación multinacional aburrida y ordinaria, que sigue las vidas de dos empleados que navegan una serie de desastres. Por último Top Wing, es una animación que sigue a un equipo de pájaros que trabajan juntos para ayudar a su comunidad isleña.

Corporate

“Europa es una región clave para nuestros planes de crecimiento”.

—Guillermo Borensztein

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La mamรก del 10, distribuida por Caracol Internacional.

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TV LATINA 15

Los distribuidores de novelas y series más importantes de América latina siguen conquistando Europa. Por Elizabeth Bowen-Tombari a presencia de las producciones dramáticas de América latina en Europa se remonta a varios años en el tiempo, cuando las telenovelas reinaban los horarios estelares y de sobremesa de las televisoras locales en nuestra región. Nombres como Verónica Castro y Thalía por ejemplo, con producciones como Los ricos también lloran y Marimar respectivamente, llevaron a ambas actrices a consolidarse en el viejo continente como súper estrellas y a ser recibidas por miles de seguidores en cada una de sus visitas.

Actualmente, las series latinoamericanas también han aterrizado en la región, entregando una oportunidad para contar sus diversas tramas y mostrar sus altos niveles de producción a través de pantallas tan diferentes como la televisión abierta, los canales pagos y las OTT.

L

CON EL PASO DEL TIEMPO “Globo tiene un recorrido histórico en Europa”, dice Raphael Corrêa Netto, director ejecutivo de negocios internacionales de la compañía. “Desde fines de los ’70 y principios de los ’80, el contenido de Globo ha estado presente en la región, sobre todo con novelas. Creo que fuimos los primeros [en llegar] a Europa con novelas latinas, donde destacaron La esclava Isaura, El clon, India - Una historia de amor y Terra Nostra”.

En relación a Europa del Este, el ejecutivo destaca que han establecido vínculos en países clave como Rusia y Rumania. En el caso de Portugal, la compañía posee dos canales, uno en televisión paga básico y otro en premium, por lo cual, comenta Corrêa Netto, los contenidos de Globo están bien posicionados.

“Nuestro gran reto y ambición era establecer relaciones y oportunidades para nuestro contenido en Europa Occidental”, agrega el ejecutivo. “[Para ello], Estúdios Globo está invirtiendo fuertemente en diversificación, innovación y calidad, además de hacer más y mejores novelas. Sobre todo, queremos expandir la capacidad de creación de producción a otros contenidos como las series, permitiéndonos crear vínculos con el mercado de Europa Occidental”.

Por su parte, Ramón Salomón, director de operaciones de contenidos de TV Azteca Internacional, señala que de forma histórica, la compañía ha encontrado muy buenos clientes en Europa para las historias producidas por la empresa. “La crea tividad y producción de nuestros contenidos han tenido una gran aceptación y son vistos con muy buenos ojos para ser parte de las grillas de programación [local]”, comenta.

Salomón destaca que TV Azteca ha tenido importantes clientes en Europa del Este como Rumania, Hungría, Moldavia, Eslovaquia, República Checa, Serbia, Estonia, Bosnia y Herzegovina y Polonia, donde han vendido telenovelas clásicas como Vuélveme a querer, Cielo rojo, Pasión morena, Las Bravo,

Vivir a destiempo y Siempre tuya Acapulco, algunas de las cuales también se han distribuido en Italia.

“Actualmente, hemos encontrado mucho interés por los formatos de nuestras súper series como La fiscal de hierro, Nada personal y Desaparecida por parte de clientes en Francia y España, [acuerdos] que serán anunciados próximamente”, explica el ejecutivo.

VARIEDAD QUE CONQUISTA Para Viacom International Media Networks (VIMN) – Américas, Europa es considerada una región clave para sus planes de crecimiento y por la cual estarán apostando fuerte para desarrollarse en los próximos dos años.

“Vemos una oportunidad concreta en Europa, no solamente con volumen de [historias], sino también con recursos y más equipo”, afirma Guillermo Borensztein, VP de venta de contenidos y coproducciones de VIMN – Américas. “Desde el contenido, hoy probablemente somos los únicos latinoamericanos que podemos ofrecer una cartera combinada que abarca desde telenovelas infantiles y juveniles, pasando por comedias familiares, dramas innovadores y telenovelas, hasta series cortas con calidad cinematográfica”.

En relación a los títulos que han tenido acogida en la región, el ejecutivo subraya que países que tradicionalmente eran compradores de latas como Eslovaquia, han apostado por la adaptación de formatos de ficción, entre ellos, Sres. Papis por TV Markíza en Eslovaquia y Graduados por Prva en Serbia.

“Esto sigue en línea con la estrategia de producción local de países tradicionalmente compradores de latas que empiezan a apostar por formatos de ficción probados con éxito en otras regiones”, resalta Borensztein. “De la misma forma, previamente habíamos conseguido una exitosa adaptación de Educando a Nina en Grecia con Antenna TV. La idea es acompañar esta ola de adaptaciones locales en Europa del Este y complementarla con la venta de latas”. En ese sentido, el ejecutivo cita el ejemplo de Muñeca brava, que luego de casi 20 años de haber sido emitida por Telefe en Argentina, todavía sigue en demanda. De hecho, VIMN – Américas acaba de cerrar un acuerdo para este contenido en Rusia.

Pese a tener varias operaciones en el mundo, para Record TV Europa constituye un mercado de mucha importancia, donde poseen una fuerte presencia en Europa del Este, principalmente en Polonia, con acuerdos cerrados con dos importantes grupos en el país. “Adicionalmente, estamos en negociaciones con algunos grupos en España y Portugal”, expresa Delmar Andrade, director de ventas internacionales de la compañía. “Europa es un mercado con gran potencial y es parte de nuestra estrategia de expansión mundial”.

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La telenovela Querer sin límites, es una de las nuevas ofertas de Globo para 2018.

Según el ejecutivo, todas las producciones del catálogo han sido exitosas de diferentes formas y en distintos mercados, por ello es difícil destacar una producción específica. Sin embargo, menciona La esclava Isaura, ¡Victoria! y Esas mujeres.

“Adicionalmente, tenemos una oferta consolidada de series bíblicas y telenovelas”, dice Andrade. “Después de los éxitos de Moisés y los diez mandamientos y La Tierra prometida, tenemos El rico y Lázaro como una telenovela con buenos resultados, así como series como Los milagros de Jesús, José del Egipto y Rey David, que lograron grandes resultados de audiencia en todos los países en los cuales han sido exhibidas”.

resalta la ejecutiva. “De igual manera, La ley del corazón está tomando mucha fuerza en el territorio, donde tenemos grandes expectativas de venta por ser una historia que se relaciona con la audiencia femenina y familiar conservando las características del género, pero que también fue producida con un look internacional. La novela ya fue vendida en toda Latinoamérica, España y Andorra. Por otro lado, no dejamos la fuerza de nuestro catálogo con producciones como Yo soy Betty, la fea, que este año llegará a países europeos tanto en lata como en adaptación local”.

Paloma García, ejecutiva de ventas para Europa y África de Caracol Televisión, coincide en que Europa es y ha sido un continente clave para las ventas internacionales de la compañía desde los inicios de la división. Esto se complementa con la oficina de ventas para Europa en Madrid, desde donde también atienden a sus clientes de MENA y África.

“La gran cantidad de países en el continente y [a través de tantos] canales y plataformas que son actuales y potenciales clientes, además de nuestra presencia, ha generado fuertes relaciones comerciales en Europa”, explica la ejecutiva. “El territorio y sus necesidades son muy diferentes, por ejemplo, entre los países de Europa Occidental y Europa del Este. Sin embargo, Caracol tiene un portafolio de productos tan diferentes que pueden ser adecuados a los distintos países y regiones de la zona”.

OFERTA PARA TODOS En la actualidad, Comarex está distribuyendo los títulos religiosos de Mediaset, además de novelas, series y formatos de Canal 13 de Chile, la oferta de Studio 100 y m4e, que incluye animación y los títulos de Canal Once de México, entre otros.

“Cerrar un acuerdo en Europa Occidental tiene una fuerza muy grande debido al volumen y valor de la venta”, comenta Marcel Vinay, CEO de Comarex. “Muchos de los canales y plataformas que están presentes en España y Portugal, [exhiben] producciones realizadas en América latina y viceversa. También en Latinoamérica hay mucha presencia de series españolas, ya que compartimos un idioma que acerca a las tradiciones y costumbres”.

El ejecutivo destaca que Europa del Este ha sido más receptivo a las telenovelas y que específicamente en Francia e Italia, la producción juvenil Yo soy Franky ha sido muy exitosa.

María Lucía Hernández, directora de ventas internacionales de RCN Televisión, señala que Europa es un territorio en el cual la compañía ha realizado grandes esfuerzos para mantener una presencia de forma continua, donde el objetivo es posicionar los productos de RCN Televisión pese a los cambios en la industria.

“Indudablemente, Chica vampiro ha sido uno de los títulos con mayor acogida en países como Francia, Portugal, Italia y actualmente en España”,

La producción Dos lagos, forma parte del catálogo de TV Azteca Internacional.

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Record TV continúa su apuesta con producciones bíblicas como El rico y Lázaro.

En relación a los títulos del catálogo de la compañía que han sido exitosos en la región, García menciona La esclava blanca, la cual ha sido vendida en la mayor parte de los territorios de Europa Occidental y Oriental.

Al igual que América latina, Europa realiza una gran cantidad de producciones originales que se caracterizan por sus valores de producción y creatividad en sus historias. En ese sentido, los distribuidores latinoamericanos se han enfocado en llevar sus títulos a las televisoras locales, canales de televisión paga y OTTs, posicionándolos en medio de una fuerte competencia.

Según Corrêa Netto de Globo, es difícil que un contenido extranjero logre el impacto de un producto local, ya que representa claramente la realidad del mercado y la sociedad. “Siempre hemos entendido que nuestras industrias co-existen y no necesariamente compiten”, comenta el ejecutivo. “Las realidades del modelo de producción local e importado son completamente distintas y con propuestas de creación diferentes”.

Dentro del mercado europeo, Corrêa Netto argumenta que tal vez las producciones extranjeras no van a ser emitidas en el horario estelar de los principales canales, pero sí es posible que se posicionen en otras ventanas tales como canales de televisión paga u OTTs, al mismo tiempo buscando un espacio donde cada título pueda ser parte de una oferta más amplia.

“Tenemos dos vías a través de las cuales podemos avanzar y que son complementarias”, explica el ejecutivo. “La primera es la venta de latas para [los mercados europeos], conscientes de que no van a ser ventanas en horarios estelares. Y la segunda vía, es que tenemos conocimiento creativo y deseos de hacer coproducciones a partir de las ideas que generamos en asociación con socios locales”.

ATRACTIVO DE UNA HISTORIA Vinay de Comarex coincide en que la producción local siempre se destaca en todas partes del mundo. “Es una fuerza específica por el conocimiento de los sectores, la historia, pero esto también tiene un costo”, resalta el ejecutivo. “Cuando buscas alguna lata o una coproducción y dependiendo del mercado, puede llegar a tener exigencias económicas muy importantes que te permiten balancear muy bien las pantallas o plataformas”.

A juicio de Salomón de TV Azteca Internacional, los buenos contenidos y las producciones de calidad tienen cabida en cualquier parte del mundo y pantalla. “La reinvención

de la compañía se ha volcado, precisamente, a la producción de contenidos de alta calidad. Nuestras historias, además, están pensadas para atender a diversos públicos. Nuestros clientes en la región, definitivamente podrán ofrecer a sus audiencias calidad y diversidad de contenidos con las producciones y formatos de TV Azteca”, dice el ejecutivo.

Borensztein de VIMN – Américas señala que Argentina en general y Telefe en particular, se caracterizan y valoran en el mundo por su creatividad y apuesta para desafiar modelos de negocio y estructuras de contenido, haciendo hincapié en el reconocimiento de los autores argentinos y la demanda internacional de los formatos provenientes del país.

“A veces con éxito, otras no, desarrollamos y producimos contenidos que trascienden los géneros tradicionales desde una concepción global”, afirma el ejecutivo. “En su momento fuimos los primeros en producir en escala contenidos infantiles y juveniles. Luego, más allá del melodrama tradicional, apostamos por ficciones más fuertes con más elementos de acción. Lo mismo con la comedia familiar y romántica. Con el tiempo, entendimos que teníamos que tener más flexibilidad con la duración de las historias y que los consumidores de nuestros contenidos necesitaban otros ganchos desde el relato”.

Para Hernández de RCN Televisión, como en toda industria, la competencia hace que el mercado sea más dinámico, exigente y selectivo. “Sin embargo, cada territorio tiene unas características de consumo definidas y hay mercado para todo tipo de oferta”, subraya la ejecutiva. “Nuestro reto es competir con productos de calidad, originalidad y el sello RCN”.

RESPONDIENDO AL MERCADO Andrade de Record TV opina que la razón por la cual la telenovela latinoamericana tiene un impacto favorable y positivo en cada lugar donde es emitida, es porque además de entregar todos los elementos necesarios en una producción dramática, tales como amor y pasión, existe una verdadera preocupación para ofrecer al público una historia que sea de su interés.

“Tenemos diferentes producciones bíblicas con éxito mundial”, destaca el ejecutivo. “Telenovelas como Moisés y los diez mandamientos, fueron un éxito sorpresivo, y series como Los milagros de Jesús y José del Egipto, entre otras, han conquistado todo el mundo con sus historias llenas de emoción y fe”.

De acuerdo a García de Caracol Televisión, la compañía ha desarrollado una fórmula para aunar diferentes elementos como talento creativo y atractivos componentes de producción para desarrollar historias provenientes de América latina para el mundo. “Las historias de ficción desarrollan contenido local compuesto por figuras pioneras, rebeldes con causa frente a la sociedad e historias humanas que pueden servir de reflexión y como ejemplos a seguir”, argumenta la ejecutiva. “Precisamente por esto reúnen elementos narrativos que tienen un significado universal. Además, tenemos una gran variedad de géneros como telenovelas, series, películas, documentales, formatos de entretenimiento y series para Internet”.

Hace pocos años, Globo comenzó a expandir la variedad, en términos de géneros, de su oferta a las audiencias globales

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La comedia Borges importadora de VIMN - Américas, es desarrollada y producida por Porta dos Fundos.

y con ello potenciar su brazo de ventas internacionales y su presencia en las televisoras mundiales.

“A partir de NATPE, presentamos lo que hemos estado haciendo en Brasil y que es conectar aún más a Globo con la audiencia, dar fuerza a las ideas, al talento, a la innovación y a la calidad”, dice Corrêa Netto.

Al hablar de seguir llevando sus producciones a los espectadores de Europa, la compañía ha cerrado negocios con televisoras abiertas, canales pagos y OTTs, entre ellos el servicio VOD Walter Presents en el Reino Unido y la plataforma digital de la cadena MC de Francia. “Hoy estamos mejor posicionados para estar en varias ventanas, que son estrategias de entrada mercado a mercado y podemos ser relevantes en cada una de estas ventanas de exhibición”, destaca el ejecutivo.

MÁS ALLÁ DE LO LINEAL Vinay de Comarex relata que también han tenido oportunidad de trabajar con plataformas digitales que tienen alcance global y que incluyen Europa. “Dependiendo del producto y las condiciones, muchas veces se crean derechos [de distribución]”, expresa el ejecutivo. “Con ello existen limitantes para utilizar [determinados títulos] en medios específicos, se define quién tiene la primera ventana y el periodo de exclusividad”.

Con relación a OTTs, Salomón de TV Azteca Internacional destaca que han significado una gran oportunidad para las audiencias globales en materia de decidir cuándo y cómo consumen contenidos. “TV Azteca ha logrado ubicar sus más recientes producciones en los principales distribuidores digitales: Entre correr y vivir en blim, la opción OTT de Televisa; La fiscal de hierro en Netflix y Las malcriadas y Dos lagos en Amazon Prime”, señala el ejecutivo. “En Europa, aún está desarrollándose la penetración de estas opciones y TV Azteca Internacional está buscando extender las negociaciones para que los clientes de las diversas plataformas en la región vean nuestros contenidos como opciones para sus audiencias locales”.

Por su parte, García de Caracol Televisión destaca el acuerdo global que la compañía posee con Netflix, que abarca los

países europeos más importantes y con ello, los títulos más exitosos de los últimos tres años.

“Respecto a las plataformas regionales, tenemos acuerdos con importantes operadores, entre ellos, Movistar Plus de España, además de Francia y Polonia, a través de las plataformas digitales de canales de televisión lineales muy importantes en ambos países como es el caso de M6 y TVN, [respectivamente]”, subraya la ejecutiva. “Estas plataformas son de enorme interés para una empresa como la nuestra porque permite estratificar, ampliar la oferta y dar variedad a este tipo de servicios. Además, el contenido latino que puede tener más dificultad en las [televisoras] abiertas en algunos territorios, puede y debe tener su oportunidad en este otro tipo de ventanas”.

En relación a los próximos acuerdos y proyectos para expandir la presencia de Caracol Televisión en la región, García señala que, “siempre estamos evaluando proyectos de coproducción y en particular con el caso de España, por motivos obvios de compartir el idioma y los valores culturales. Nuestra última incursión en este terreno ha sido La esclava blanca, cuya creación y desarrollo de la historia es de un productor español y que ha tenido una gran repercusión en ventas”.

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AT VICTORY’S DOORSTEP The presence of Latin American telenovelas in Europe dates back many years to when these daily shows reigned supreme in daytime and prime-time slots on local TV screens in LatAm. Currently, Latin American drama series have also made their way into Europe, offering viewers a plethora of diverse narratives and high production values on different platforms like pay-TV and free-TV channels.

However, as is the case in Latin America, Europe also makes a great deal of originals, which are highlighted by their rich production values, creative stories and well-known local talents. In light of this, Latin American distributors have been focusing on expanding their business by developing partnerships with OTT platforms.

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TV LATINA: ¿Cómo ha cambiado el desarrollo y producción de Lionsgate Television desde la adquisición de Starz?

STERN: Ha sido un cambio sutil. Hemos sido cuidadosos en conservar la autonomía de nuestros respectivos procesos creativos, aunque trabajamos bajo una misma estructura de propiedad. También continuamos siendo un proveedor de plataformas agnóstico que produce y le vende shows a todos. Siempre tratamos de unir el show correcto con el canal apropiado.

Pero hay ciertos beneficios que podemos lograr por el hecho de que Lionsgate y Starz son parte de una compañía integrada. Tenemos conversaciones y reuniones regularmente con Starz y esta colaboración nos concientiza más sobre lo que funciona para ellos y lo que buscan. Así podemos ser específicos a la hora de desarrollar más estratégicamente. The Rook y The Continental, nuestros primeros shows con Starz desde la adquisición, son parte de una amplia oferta de proyectos que hemos comenzado a trabajar con ellos.

Pero también siguen desarrollando su propio contenido premium. Nosotros manejamos nuestro negocio y ellos el suyo, pero tenemos una buena sinergia y la estamos disfrutando.

Por Anna Carugati

Lionsgate, el estudio independiente detrás de éxitos innovadores como Mad Men y Orange Is the New Black, sigue comprometido con su misión de atraer voces nuevas y diversas, y llegar a las audiencias desatendidas en todas las plataformas. Sandra Stern es la presidenta de Lionsgate Television Group. Entre sus numerosas responsabilidades, tiene a su cargo encontrar nuevas estrategias de producción y financiación. Tal como le comenta a TV Latina, durante mucho tiempo ha propuesto encontrar socios internacionales para proyectos y forjar relaciones perdurables con el talento. También habla sobre los nuevos shows en la oferta de la compañía, la relación laboral con Starz y los beneficios de realizar una amplia búsqueda por el talento.

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TV LATINA: Lionsgate tiene relaciones perdurables que son clave, ¿cierto?

STERN: Sí, esas relaciones son nuestro sustento.

Después de la adquisición de Starz, me encontré con John Landgraf, [CEO de FX Networks y FX Productions] y me dijo, ‘creo que nos vamos a quedar con los shows que Starz no quiera’. Yo le respondí, ‘no, vas a tener los shows que son los correctos para FX, con la esperanza de que nos sigan comprando’. No es un beneficio para nadie poner el programa incorrecto en un canal. Las audiencias dicen lo que quieren y las escuchamos. Tanto Lionsgate como Starz se enfocan en entregar contenido premium para las audiencias desatendidas, lo cual es una estrategia que funciona para ambos. El nuevo show de Starz, Vida, se orienta a audiencias latinas y LGBTQ. También están programando para el público afroamericano y femenino.

Hacen un buen trabajo definiendo su marca y conociendo el contenido con el que se identifican sus principales demografías. Cuando estamos desarrollando para ellos pensamos, ‘eso es para Starz’. The Continental, la serie inspirada en John Wick, podría estar en Starz, mientras que The Kingkiller Chronicle

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encajaba mejor en Showtime. Así es que ser agnóstico a las plataformas y encontrar la cadena correcta para nuestros shows es una forma inteligente de expandir nuestro negocio.

TV LATINA: ¿Cómo están planeando la financiación en el panorama actual?

STERN: Los nuevos modelos de financiación han hecho que el mercado doméstico y el secundario sean un poco más desafiantes. Las cadenas que encargan necesitan más derechos para poder llegar a sus audiencias. Eso pone más presión en el área doméstica y hace que las ventas a SVOD sean un poco más complejas. La sindicación prácticamente no existe al menos de que tengas un show particular.

El mercado de venta electrónica ha sido parcialmente absorbido por el SVOD. El espacio doméstico ya no es la fuente a donde se acude para tener éxito.

Entonces estamos analizando ingresos más fáciles y alianzas. Nos asociamos con Liberty Global para The Rook, nuestro show para Starz, lo cual fue algo grandioso desde el punto de vista de sinergias porque somos la misma gran familia. También están buscando expandir su presencia en contenido original y este es un proyecto importante para ellos. Cuando se cerró el acuerdo con Liberty Global, pude decir, ‘OK, puedo contar con el elenco que de otra manera no hubiera podido tener. Nos podemos demorar un poco más con los guiones. Podemos hacer un mejor trabajo con los elementos de ciencia ficción’. El acuerdo nos permitió aumentar nuestro presupuesto y monetizar el show de una forma diferente. Fue un buen convenio para todos y espero cerrar más negocios con Liberty Global. Estamos grabando The Rook en Londres. Los escritores y el productor ejecutivo son ingleses, y tendremos un elenco casi exclusivamente europeo. Al filmar en Londres, es contenido [europeo] y generaremos ingresos de Europa. Ya hemos recibido una respuesta muy positiva por parte de los compradores internacionales.

res. Es necesario tener una buena idea y gran talento que puedan ejecutar el desarrollo, producción y distribución.

TV LATINA: ¿Qué tan amplia es su búsqueda por narradores de historias, actores o directores?, ¿qué tan importante es la diversidad?

STERN: Es fundamental. Tiene menos que ver con buscar talento diverso y más con estar abiertos a él. Este es un tema clave para mí. Diría que no hay que buscar diligentemente talento diverso. Lo único que hay que hacer es estar abiertos y a veces arriesgarse con las personas que no hayan tenido una oportunidad. Las mujeres, latinos y afroamericanos están disponibles.

Sólo hay que darles una oportunidad. Y creo que eso es lo que hemos hecho en Lionsgate. En Weeds, la mitad de nuestro equipo de escritores eran mujeres. Muchos de nuestros directores son mujeres y eso continuó con Orange Is the New Black. Buscamos a los mejores directores para el material y suelen ser mujeres, además de otras minorías desatendidas. Quizás no necesariamente han tenido las mismas oportunidades o experiencia que los hombres blancos. Pero eso no significa que no tienen talento. Así es que miramos más allá de la hoja de vida y analizamos el talento. Así encontramos a muchas mujeres y otras minorías. Dear White People es el emblema de lo que Lionsgate ha podido hacer con esta estrategia. Hicimos la película con Justin Simien, que era un talento desconocido en ese momento. Fue su primera película y él fue brillante. Cuando la adaptamos como serie, fue la voz de Justin, un afroamericano homosexual. Lo reunimos con una showrunner afroamericana reconocida y experimentada, Yvette Lee Bowser, y ha sido una alianza brillante. Me siento orgullosa de lo orgánico que fue el proceso. Escogimos el talento correcto para el proyecto adecuado.

TV LATINA: ¿Continuarán forjando alianzas con el talento?

STERN: Nos enorgullece ser un estudio amigable con el talento y socios.

Buscamos a la gente más creativa y les ofrecemos un entorno laboral colaborativo y de apoyo, autonomía creativa y oportunidades a través de nuestras plataformas de cine, televisión, Starz y digitales. No hay divisiones que separan a nuestros negocios. También tenemos varios acuerdos de producción y continuamos asociándonos con otros estudios y cadenas. Trabajar con otras productoras nos permite expandir el alcance de nuestro contenido y fomentamos estas relaciones con modelos de negocios que beneficien a todos. Hoy en día no es suficiente tener una buena idea. El talento y las alianzas de negocios son los impulso4/18 WORLD SCREEN 443

Dear White People, producida por Lionsgate, se emite por Netflix a nivel global.

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TV LATINA: Durante los últimos meses, asumió nuevas responsabilidades. ¿Qué áreas abarcan?

PÉREZ: El año pasado hubo una reorganización interna. Ahora estoy encargada de las ventas internacionales tanto de programas como de canales. Hemos tenido tiempo para formar un equipo y empezar a trabajar de acuerdo a la nueva organización. Nuestra estrategia de presencia en mercados y de visitas comerciales están enfocadas en mejorar exposición y resultados en las dos líneas principales del negocio: Ventas afiliadas de canales lineales y ventas de formatos y contenidos.

TV LATINA: ¿De alguna forma ya estaba vinculada al área de contenidos, verdad?, porque son los que se emiten a través de los canales internacionales.

PÉREZ:Ya veníamos trabajando mucho en la promoción de contenidos porque son los que nutren nuestros canales. Durante muchos años tuvimos TVE Internacional y 24 horas, y recientemente completamos nuestra oferta con el canal de ficción, Star HD y con Clan HD, que fue el último que se incorporó al catálogo y con el cual nuestra oferta queda muy completa.

Tenemos TVE Internacional, que es generalista y muy similar a la señal principal de TVE en España, La 1. También tenemos 24 horas, que es de noticias, así como Star HD de ficción y Clan HD, temático infantil. Estos canales reflejan muy bien lo que es la compañía y la amplia variedad de géneros y formatos que crea y produce. Nuestro interés es que todas nuestras producciones estén bien representadas en América.

Por Elizabeth Bowen-Tombari

En medio de un panorama de medios que presenta una amplia variedad de canales de televisión y producciones de calidad, Radio Televisión Española (RTVE) se ha distinguido por ofrecer eso y más. En España, la compañía cuenta con siete canales de televisión, además de emisoras de radio y un área digital, y son una fuente permanente de producciones originales locales con historias atractivas y altos valores de producción.

Dichos títulos encuentran una ventana a través de los canales internacionales de RTVE, entre ellos, TVE Internacional, 24 horas, Clan HD y Star HD. Además, son llevados a las pantallas de las audiencias mundiales por medio del trabajo de distribución que realiza el departamento comercial internacional encabezado por María Jesús Pérez como su directora.

En esta entrevista con TV Latina, la ejecutiva habla sobre sus nuevas responsabilidades, el trabajo que están realizando con los canales lanzados recientemente para las audiencias globales, Clan HD y Star HD, además de los elementos que caracterizan a las producciones de RTVE, entre otros temas.

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TV LATINA: Hablando de los canales, TVE Internacional está sumamente consolidado internacionalmente. ¿Se van a enfocar en expandir la presencia de Clan y Star, por ejemplo?

PÉREZ: Clan es muy reciente, debutó el pasado 30 de junio.

Estamos trabajando mucho para incrementar la penetración que este canal tiene, aunque ya está presente en varios países del Sur y Centroamérica, incluyendo México, Perú, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Panamá, México, Chile, Argentina y Ecuador. Próximamente, podremos anunciar que será incluido en la oferta de nuevos operadores en otros países. Tanto Star como Clan son canales en alta definición y no todas las redes están preparadas para distribuir productos en HD. Toma tiempo buscar el espacio adecuado para estos canales. Sin embargo, estamos muy contentos, ya que la referencia que tenemos de los espectadores sobre ambos canales, es muy buena. Clan HD va dirigido a niños de entre 2 y 11 años, con especial dedicación a la franja preescolar. Los padres pueden estar tranquilos porque es un canal que está muy bien cuidado. Los contenidos son muy apropiados para las distintas franjas que son seleccionadas por edad. Son contenidos que promueven los buenos valores y la educación, a la vez que entretienen. Estamos muy satisfechos.

TV LATINA: Lo positivo de un nuevo canal de televisión infantil es que es una ventana para las producciones dirigidas a los peque-

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ños. Y menciono esto porque hay muchos productores y distribuidores que no están encontrando espacios para sus títulos.

PÉREZ: Sí, esto que mencionas es también parte de la base del canal, crear una ventana para la producción infantil española, pero también proveniente de otros países. Están las grandes compañías que producen y distribuyen contenido infantil, pero también hay muy buenas producciones independientes que merecen la pena ser vistas y apreciadas. En ese sentido, tanto los productores españoles como los independientes pueden contar con Clan para ofrecerles esa ventana y llegar también a América para que sus producciones se puedan ver en el territorio.

TV LATINA: A la hora de distribuir internacionalmente, ¿qué elementos distinguen a los títulos de la compañía?

PÉREZ: La calidad y variedad de la producción de RTVE va en aumento y estamos siendo recompensados con grandes éxitos de audiencia, [tanto dentro como fuera de España], y de ventas internacionales. Tal es el caso de El Ministerio del tiempo, Isabel, Cuéntame cómo pasó, Acacias 38, Estoy vivo y muchas otras. El hecho de que nuestros programas sean conocidos y apreciados por el éxito que cosechan es un valor en sí mismo.

A esto añadiría la variedad de géneros y formatos. Series semanales de horario estelar, series diarias de sobremesa, programas de entretenimiento, divulgativos e infantiles que acumulan premios, formatos originales, etc.

También veo como valor la originalidad de las historias y el alto nivel de los creadores españoles, tanto desde el punto de vista de guión, actores, directores y diseño de producción.

La demanda de las plataformas y canales de televisión es grande. Hay espacio para las buenas historias aunque provengan de productores independientes.

TV LATINA: En términos de contenidos, ¿cuáles son los títulos que están ofreciendo a los compradores internacionales?

PÉREZ: TVE es un gran productor y constantemente está realizando series, programas de entretenimiento, documentales y desarrollando formatos, es decir, que tienen un gran equipo creativo y de producción, además de la ventana de emisión que les damos a través de nuestros propios medios.

En materia de novedades, destacamos Estoy vivo y Traición, que se acaban de emitir en España y con gran éxito. Tienen guiones magníficos, intérpretes y tramas muy bien desarrolladas para llegar a un público amplio y familiar. Engancharon muy bien a la audiencia en España y creo que pueden tener muy buena distribución en el resto de los territorios. Próximamente tendremos Fugitiva, una serie de acción y suspenso que se desarrolla entre España y México, con un gran reparto.

Otro destacado es Si fueras tú, nuestra primera serie interactiva y transmedia que ha sido desarrollada para nuestro canal en Internet que se lanzó a fines del año pasado, Playz. Al finalizar cada episodio, se crearon dos opciones por dónde la trama podía seguir. Luego, se le pidió a la audiencia que votara por una o por otra. Durante la semana de emisión entre un capítulo y otro, se producía la historia por la cual la audiencia había votado y así, en el siguiente episodio, se volvía a plantear lo mismo.

Así se desarrolló la serie que estamos vendiendo y que es el producto de lo que la gente quería ver. Funcionó muy bien para el público joven en Internet y redes sociales. Ahora estamos investigando y desarrollando formatos de series para Internet que sean más cortos, con formatos diferentes y pensadas para el público juvenil. Completamos el catálogo con una selección de programas y formatos de entretenimiento, actualidad, documentales y los más novedosos en 4K. Tenemos una oferta bastante amplia y variada.

Estoy vivo es una de las series que fue emitida en España y que es ofrecida a los compradores internacionales por RTVE. 4/18 WORLD SCREEN 445

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Por Anna Carugati El estudio independiente MarVista Entertainment produce, adquiere y distribuye programación para cine y televisión.

Fundada en 2003, MarVista ha forjado una librería de más de 2.500 horas. Se ha convertido en un socio de coproducción establecido para plataformas como Disney Channel, Disney XD, Nickelodeon, Lifetime y Hallmark, además de comenzar a producir fuera de Norteamérica. Junto a los thrillers, cintas de horror y películas orientadas a la familia, MarVista está activa en series con guión para televisión y está incursionando en video de formato corto para las plataformas digitales.

Fernando Szew, CEO, continúa viendo demanda por el contenido de calidad, aun en medio de la consolidación y disrupción que está ocurriendo en el panorama de medios.

TV LATINA: ¿Nos podría comentar en términos generales sobre la gama de productos que MarVista está produciendo, adquiriendo o distribuyendo?

SZEW: Recientemente, MarVista se ha estado expandiendo en varias áreas de contenido. Nuestra oferta de películas sigue creciendo y estamos incursionando en series infantiles y para adultos con guión. Continuamos siendo uno de los principales proveedores de cintas para el mercado global, desde cines y negocios digitales, hasta suscripción transaccional y televisión lineal.

Nuestro producto abarca todos los géneros, desde contenido infantil y familiar hasta títulos de co-sintonía, comedias románticas, thrillers y programas de acción, aventura y desastres. Las películas navideñas siguen siendo muy exitosas para nosotros y cada vez tienen más demanda. También apostamos a más contenido en el género de horror. A medida que continuamos entregando historias provenientes de una variedad de voces, expandimos nuestro negocio aún más con la plétora de plataformas de distribución. Así es que es un tiempo emocionante para que MarVista pueda desarrollar, producir y distribuir contenido.

TV LATINA: Háblenos sobre las películas que están produciendo fuera de Estados Unidos.

SZEW: Nuestras asociaciones son variadas para las producciones fuera de Estados Unidos. Las decisiones [de producir fuera del país] podrían estar basadas en una locación cuando queremos que la historia demande cierto tipo de requerimiento. Estamos grabando una cinta romántica en Irlanda y recientemente produjimos un thriller en Europa del Este. Decidimos grabar en esos lugares ya que nos ofrecían cierto look que queríamos lograr y los entornos impulsan la calidad de la película. A veces trabajamos fuera de Estados Unidos por las alianzas con productoras, estudios o televisoras. Hemos tenido mucho éxito produciendo cintas en Colombia con nuestros amigos en Caracol.

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TV LATINA: ¿Siguen siendo las películas un elemento importante para las televisoras y canales alrededor del mundo?

SZEW: Sí, y me gusta diferenciarlas llamándolas películas televisivas [en lugar de sólo películas]. Es la cinta como forma unitaria lo que le que permite a las televisoras una flexibilidad para crear un horario o bloque y probar con géneros, días festivos, elencos y temáticas. Tener una estrategia de películas, no sólo para televisoras sino también para plataformas, se convierte en uno de los principales ingredientes de éxito. Son intercambiables y permiten mucha flexibilidad para los programadores.

TV LATINA: Con toda la consolidación en la industria, ¿cuáles son las ventajas de ser más pequeños y ágiles?

SZEW: Tratamos la consolidación como una oportunidad. Es el reflejo de un mercado saludable mientras las entidades más grandes se preparan para lo que depare el futuro y quebranten los modelos tradicionales. Somos más pequeños, ágiles e innovadores. ¡Creemos firmemente que somos una compañía en constante evolución! Aunque hemos estado en el negocio durante 15 años, nos hemos transformado varias veces y diría que estamos en la cuarta fase de MarVista.

Siempre estamos buscando cómo expandir nuestro negocio.

TV LATINA: ¿Qué nuevos proyectos ofrece MarVista?

SZEW: Estaremos ofreciendo una nueva gama de cintas, principalmente thrillers, que funcionan muy bien para nosotros en prácticamente todos los territorios.

Encabezando la oferta se encuentra Twisted Tenant, protagonizada por el actor y músico James Maslow. Es una historia sobre una chica que regresa a casa de la universidad para descubrir que su madre le ha alquilado una habitación a un hombre que resulta ser un asesino. También tenemos un thriller único ambientado en el mundo del arte titulado Paint by Murder, que presenta a la protagonista Kate Miller, interpretada por Alexxis Lemire, quien se encuentra involucrada en el mundo de subastas de valiosas obras de arte. La cinta tiene mucha acción e intriga mientras ella descubre una conspiración mortal.

Un tercer título destacado del portafolio de aproximadamente 10 películas es A Deadly Cocktail, una historia sobre una joven que se infiltra en la vida nocturna de Los Ángeles con el fin de encontrar al asesino de su hermana.

TV LATINA: MarVista también está involucrada en series televisivas, ¿verdad?

SZEW: El compromiso que hemos tenido con el desarrollo de series con guión ha tenido el mayor impacto en nuestro negocio en los últimos 18 meses aproximadamente y hemos tenido éxito. Trabajamos con BET produciendo con John Singleton una serie de 10 capítulos llamada Rebel.

Estamos muy entusiasmados de trabajar con Netflix en una serie de comedia infantil original titulada Best.Worst.Weekend.Ever., con Jeremy Garelick como showrunner y productor ejecutivo. También nos hemos asociado con Global Road Entertainment para desarrollar, producir y comercializar la primera serie de acción en vivo de King Kong, para la cual hemos visto mucho interés y promete ser una serie muy exitosa para nosotros. Más allá de esto, estamos en conversaciones activas para otros shows que hemos desarrollado a través de nuestras relaciones e inversiones en el área. Este año, definitivamente será insignia [debido a] que MarVista tomará pasos importantes en el negocio de series con guión.

A Deadly Cocktail sigue los pasos de una joven que entra a la vida nocturna de Los Ángeles para buscar al asesino de su hermana.

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28 TV LATINA

TV LATINA: Háblenos sobre su incorporación a NBCU y su rol en la compañía.

LANGENBERG: Me incorporé a NBCU en septiembre pasado. Han sido [unos] meses fascinantes. Es una compañía grande, con muchas líneas de negocios. Trabajo para NBCUniversal International Studios, que es la división que se encarga de la producción fuera de Estados Unidos y distribución de formatos. Estoy basada en Londres y encabezo el departamento de producción y distribución de formatos. Tenemos algunas compañías de producción que son parte de nuestra división, tales como Matchbox Pictures en Australia y Monkey en el Reino Unido. También somos propietarios de Carnival Films, que produjo Downton Abbey.

TV LATINA: ¿Cuál es la importancia que tiene América latina en su enfoque general de formatos?

LANGENBERG: Latinoamérica siempre ha sido un mercado con gran potencial que adapta formatos de televisión y estamos bien equipados para continuar creciendo.

Hemos cerrado varios acuerdos para formatos [en la región]. Por ejemplo, cerramos nuestro primer acuerdo con Discovery en Español (para el mercado hispano de Estados Unidos y América latina) para el formato The Question Jury de Monkey. Consideramos que aún hay mucho trabajo que podemos hacer con los territo-

Por Elizabeth Bowen-Tombari

Con casi 20 años en la industria, Ana Langenberg se unió a NBCUniversal (NBCU) International Studios proveniente de Endemol Shine Group en septiembre pasado como VP sénior de ventas de formatos y producción. En este rol, la ejecutiva supervisa las ventas globales y producción de todos los formatos de NBCU creados dentro de las divisiones de producción y televisación de NBCUniversal, así como formatos selectos de terceros.

El paraguas de NBCU International Studios incluye las compañías de producción Matchbox Pictures en Australia, además de Monkey y Carnival Films en el Reino Unido, que según Langenberg “son muy importantes para nosotros como creadores de contenido y como productores para las adaptaciones de nuestros formatos internacionales”.

Destacados del catálogo de formatos de la compañía incluyen World of Dance, Hollywood Game Night, The Real Housewives of… y Spartan: Ultimate Team Challenge. En América latina, Top Chef cuenta actualmente con versiones locales en México, Panamá y El Salvador, y los formatos makeover Cámbiame el look y Quiero lucir famosa, tienen exitosas nuevas versiones en México y América latina por E! En esta entrevista con TV Latina, Langenberg destaca la importancia de los mercados de Latinoamérica e hispano de Estados Unidos, resalta las adaptaciones exitosas y habla sobre cómo la compañía está trabajando con las plataformas digitales.

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rios individuales, pero también con el cable panregional y ahora con las plataformas SVOD. TV LATINA: ¿Qué oportunidades visualiza en el mercado hispano de Estados Unidos?

LANGENBERG: Vemos un gran potencial en el mercado hispano de Estados Unidos para nuestros formatos con y sin guión. Tiene que ver con encontrar el título correcto que pueda coexistir con el contenido en inglés que producimos y emitimos en Estados Unidos. Este contenido puede provenir de Canadá, Australia u otro lugar. Es un mercado apasionante para nosotros.

TV LATINA: ¿Es una prioridad trabajar con Telemundo?

LANGENBERG: Telemundo es parte del grupo, es una compañía hermana. Trabajamos de cerca y vemos una gran oportunidad entre las dos empresas.

TV LATINA: ¿Cuáles han sido algunas adaptaciones exitosas de los formatos de NBCU en América latina o el mercado hispano de Estados Unidos?

LANGENBERG: Resonant TV opcionó Hotel Babylon para Latinoamérica y el mercado hispano de Estados Unidos, el cual es un formato con guión del Reino Unido de Carnival

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Films. Por su parte, Pomodoro Stories ha opcionado Parenthood, una serie de NBC que fue adaptada exitosamente en Italia para Rai. Ambas propiedades son dramas excelentes y muy adecuadas para las audiencias latinas. La versión italiana de Parenthood (Tutto può succedere) es muy exitosa.

TV LATINA: Coméntenos sobre algunos de los formatos con guión del catálogo.

LANGENBERG: A través de los años hemos realizado shows como House, que emite [una versión local] en Rusia.

Hemos licenciado Parenthood en Italia y Monk en Turquía. Law & Order fue adaptado en el Reino Unido hace algunos años. Suits está en preproducción para la versión coreana y estamos en conversaciones para otros territorios. Tenemos un sólido catálogo [de producciones] con guión y son marcas que son muy reconocidas.

TV LATINA: ¿Cuáles son algunos de los destacados que forman parte de la oferta de entretenimiento sin guión?

LANGENBERG: Para América latina, hay algunos shows que son particularmente sólidos. Uno se titula Spartan: Ultimate Team Challenge, un show de competencia física de NBC en Estados Unidos. Hollywood Game Night es otro formato sólido que creemos que le iría bien en varios territorios de Latinoamérica porque incluye juegos divertidos con celebridades en el estudio y ha viajado a 17 territorios internacionalmente.

Hemos tenido éxito global con la venta de The Real Housewives of..., que cuenta con varias temporadas en Estados Unidos, Reino Unido, Australia y Hungría. Tenemos nuevas [versiones] que serán lanzadas [próximamente]. Estamos realizando una versión en Tailandia llamada The Real Housewives of Bangkok. Además, estamos trabajando en una versión en Sudáfrica. Es un formato que viaja muy bien.

Top Chef es un gran éxito en más de 20 territorios, uno de los cuales es el Medio Oriente, donde es uno de los shows insignia de MBC 1.

En Francia, por ejemplo, Top Chef va por su novena temporada y le sigue yendo muy bien.

Live es una de nuestras marcas más grandes y [es producida en] varios territorios, incluyendo en China para Youku, la cual es una plataforma digital y en Polonia para Showmax, que también es un servicio SVOD. Estos son acuerdos muy positivos para nosotros.

En cuanto a formatos y entretenimiento con guión, tuvimos varias reuniones con plataformas SVOD y estamos comenzando a explorar las posibilidades. Estamos trabajando para entender qué es lo que buscan en términos de contenido producido localmente. El contenido con guión es obvio, sabemos que lo adquieren. Pero cuando tiene que ver con contenido sin guión, tiene que ver con encontrar el apropiado que satisfaga sus necesidades. Estamos en las conversaciones iniciales, pero ya hemos identificado algunos de los tipos de shows que están buscando.

TV LATINA: ¿Dónde visualiza oportunidades de negocio de cara al futuro?

LANGENBERG: Las plataformas SVOD son las áreas más grandes para explorar. Además, para poder competir con estos servicios, las televisoras lineales se están enfocando más en producir localmente y adquirir menos contenido americano. Las televisoras están buscando cada vez más contenido producido localmente y adaptando formatos, así es que eso es una oportunidad para nosotros.

TV LATINA: ¿Cómo trabajan con las diferentes productoras que están bajo el paraguas de NBCU? LANGENBERG: Tenemos una relación cercana con ellos. Nos mantenemos actualizados sobre los acontecimientos en el mundo de los formatos, sobre las tendencias y lo que se está vendiendo. Tenemos reuniones y conversaciones con ellos regularmente para ver qué proyectos tienen en carpeta que luego podamos lanzar internacionalmente. Son muy importantes para nosotros como creadores de contenido, así como productores para adaptaciones de nuestros formatos internacionales.

TV LATINA: ¿Trabajan también con plataformas digitales?

LANGENBERG: Tenemos diferentes formas de abordarlas. Por ejemplo, Saturday Night 4/18 WORLD SCREEN 449

Spartan: Ultimate Team Challenge es uno de los destacados en el catálogo de formatos de NBCU International Studios.

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30 TV LATINA

nacionales. Por ejemplo, usualmente un buen elenco es un factor para las preventas, pero localmente, algunas producciones son suspendidas pese a sus elencos exitosos, lo cual tiene como resultado una disminución en el contenido que [puede ser] distribuido internacionalmente.

TV LATINA: ¿En qué mercados están encontrando nuevas oportunidades?

GULGEN: Actualmente, el mercado latinoamericano es el que está creciendo más rápido en términos de demanda. Por otro lado, creo que en el futuro cercano, veremos un creciente interés por contenido turco en el lejano Oriente, África y comenzando con España, se expandirá a Europa Occidental.

TV LATINA: ¿Está viendo también interés en adaptaciones locales de dramas turcos?

GULGEN: Muchos países han comenzado a realizar nuevas versiones de dramas turcos. Las mejores series turcas fueron producidas entre 2004 y 2010. Las series realizadas durante ese periodo no fueron grabadas en HD, por lo que una buena forma de vender estas historias es [ofrecerlas] como formatos para adaptaciones locales. Estamos en proceso de negociar con distintos países varios de nuestros títulos.

TV LATINA: ¿Se está convirtiendo la coproducción en un área de interés?

GULGEN: Calinos Entertainment no es una compañía de producción, pero un inversionista y distribuidor. Hay canales y compañías en el extranjero con las que estamos en conversaciones para películas y series televisivas. Sin embargo, la producción será desarrollada por los productores con los cuales trabajamos y nosotros estaremos a cargo del desarrollo de proyectos, financiación y distribución. Actualmente, estamos desarrollando proyectos en América latina, India y China.

Por Kristin Brzoznowski

Con la venta de Wild Heart (Deli Yürek) en Kazajistán en 2001, Calinos Entertainment fue un jugador que llegó temprano al ahora creciente sector de drama turco de exportación. Mientras que el catálogo de la compañía incluye películas, las series turcas han permanecido como la columna vertebral de su negocio de ventas internacionales, el cual está ganando terreno en América latina, Asia y el Medio Oriente. Firat Gulgen, chairman de Calinos Holding, habla con TV Latina sobre el valor de tener oficinas tanto en Estados Unidos como en Estambul, entre otros temas.

TV LATINA: ¿Son los dramas turcos, con historias tradicionales, los que todavía se venden mejor para Calinos Entertainment?

GULGEN: Los dramas clásicos siguen siendo las historias más buscadas, con valores patriarcales, triángulos amorosos, drama familiar y dilemas sin solución. El conflicto entre el bien y el mal, las generaciones jóvenes y mayores y una base inquebrantable de respeto mutuo, con el amor que usualmente ocupa un lugar central al momento de derribar todos los obstáculos y las diferencias en los aspectos sociales y morales, son los principales elementos que constituyen una exitosa serie turca. Las que perduran son las historias simples en las que los espectadores empatizan con los personajes.

Sin embargo, recientemente hemos visto algunos cambios en los hábitos de sintonía de las audiencias, los cuales han hecho difícil predecir los ratings y saber si un determinado título será exitoso o no, ya que muchos se acortan debido a los bajos ratings. Esto también ha afectado las ventas inter450 WORLD SCREEN 4/18

TV LATINA: ¿Por qué ha sido importante para Calinos mantener una oficina en Estados Unidos?

GULGEN: Calinos Entertainment fue establecida en 1997, en Santa Mónica, California. En ese tiempo, la mayoría de nuestro trabajo era con la Comunidad de Estados Independientes y Turquía. Dada la diferencia de horario, era mejor trabajar desde esta región, por lo que movimos nuestra oficina a Estambul. Pero ahora, el campo de operación de Calinos ha llegado a alrededor de 100 países, desde el lejano Oriente a América latina, incluyendo Medio Oriente y los Balcanes.

Mientras planeamos invertir en coproducciones, decidimos reabrir nuestra oficina en Estados Unidos y aprovechar las ventajas que vienen con ello. Si los proyectos resultan de acuerdo a nuestros planes, esperamos ver la oficina en Estados Unidos formar parte de muchos proyectos y nuevas inversiones.

TV LATINA: ¿En qué se estará enfocando durante este año?

GULGEN: Además de la distribución, nuestro foco durante los próximos dos años será crear nuevo contenido con socios internacionales. Cuando comencé en este negocio, sólo podíamos vender a las televisoras. Ahora, 20 años más tarde, tenemos jugadores como Netflix y Amazon, y su crecimiento es significativo. Si los canales de distribución cambian, hay algo que nunca cambiará, y es el hecho de que el contenido es el rey, y vamos a trabajar en desarrollar una oferta de primera calidad con nuestros socios.

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TVLISTINGS

WWW.WORLDSCREENINGS.COM

APRIL 2018

MIPTV EDITION

THE LEADING SOURCE FOR PROGRAM INFORMATION

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TV LISTINGS

IN THIS ISSUE

4

20

4K Media

Kanal D International

9 Story Media Group

Keshet International

6

Kew Media Group

41 Entertainment

Lightning International

A+E Networks

Lionsgate Entertainment

ABS-CBN Corporation

21

Acun Medya Global Alfred Haber Distribution

8 all3media international Armoza Formats

4K MEDIA

O (1-212) 590-2100 Stand: R7.B12 Contact: Jennifer Buzzelli, sales cnslt.; Jennifer Coleman, VP, lic. & mktg.; Kristen Gray, SVP, operations & business & legal affairs.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS (Animation, 49x30 min.) With advances in cutting-edge technology, duelists worldwide plug into LINK VRAINS to compete in fast-paced competition. But this cyberspace is under attack by a team of nefarious hackers determined to destroy the virtual realm.

Yu-Gi-Oh! The Dark Side of Dimensions (Animation, 1x110 min.) A decade after the finale that bid farewell to the franchise’s original storyline, this movie marks the return of the original creator, the iconic hero, the classic characters and the monsters, duels, mysteries, friendships, rivalries and magic that started it all.

Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie (Animation, 1x90 min.)

Heroic Yugi squares off against archrival Kaiba in an adventure even more dangerous when the imaginary monsters in their playing cards become ferociously real and an old evil enters the fray.

MarVista Entertainment Mediatoon Distribution Metro Goldwyn Mayer Miramax MISTCO

Artist View Entertainment Atlantyca Entertainment

22

ATRESMEDIA Televisión

Mondo TV Group

10

Multicom Entertainment Group

ATV

New Films International

Banijay Rights

Nippon TV

BBC Studios (Formerly BBC Worldwide)

ORF-Enterprise

Beyond Distribution

23

12

Portfolio Entertainment

Boat Rocker Rights

Rainbow

Bomanbridge Media

Record TV

CAKE

Red Arrow Studios International

Calinos Entertainment Caracol Television

13 CBS Studios International CJ E&M Crown Media International Distribution Cyber Group Studios

Rive Gauche Television RTVE

Saban Brands

14 Dick Clark Productions

Sinking Ship Entertainment

Discovery, Inc.

Sky Vision

Distribution360

Smithsonian Channel

Dori Media Group

Sonar Entertainment

Eccho Rights

Sony Creative Products

15

26

Endemol Shine International

Star India

Entertainment One

Studio 100 Media & m4e

Federation Kids & Family Filmax International Fox Networks Group Content Distribution FremantleMedia International Gaumont

17 Genius Brands International

Anna Carugati Group Editorial Director

Serious Lunch

Sesame Workshop

16

Ricardo Seguin Guise Publisher

Russia Television and Radio/Sovtelexport

25

Escapade Media

Mansha Daswani Editor

Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V (Animation, S1-3: 148x30 min.) Yuya Sakaki’s dream is to become the greatest “duel-tainer” in history–and he just might pull it off when he discovers a technique that lets him summon many monsters at once.

Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL (Animation, 146x30 min.)

Yuma needs Astral to teach him how to duel, and Astral needs Yuma to help him regain his memories.

Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s (Animation, 123x30 min.) Yugi Muto, the sprawling metropolis of New Domino City, has been transformed into a futuristic society where dueling has kicked into overdrive.

Yu-Gi-Oh! GX (Animation, 155x30 min.) Follows a new generation of duelists at the Duel Academy—a highly competitive boarding school where pencils and books have been replaced

by Duel Disks and monster cards.

Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Animation, 236x30 min.) Meet Yugi and his best buds Joey, Tristan and Téa, who share a love for Duel Monsters.

STUDIOCANAL SUNRIGHTS Superights

27 Talpa TCB Media Rights Telefilms Terra Mater Factual Studios TM International

Global Agency

28

Global Screen

TV Asahi Corporation

GMA Worldwide

TV Azteca International

GoldBee

O (1-416) 530-9900 m distribution@9story.com

Twentieth Century Fox Television Distribution

w www.9story.com

18

Twofour Rights

GRB Entertainment

29

Great Point Media Gusto Worldwide Media Hasbro Studios Imagina International Sales

Incendo

Viacom International Media Networks Américas Viacom18/IndiaCast Media Distribution

WWE

INK Group

30

Intellecta

Xilam Animation

Inter Medya

ZDF Enterprises

Jetpack Distribution

Zee Entertainment Enterprises

KABO International

Zodiak Kids

Kristin Brzoznowski Executive Editor Joanna Padovano Tong Managing Editor Sara Alessi Associate Editor Victor L. Cuevas Production & Design Director Phyllis Q. Busell Art Director Simon Weaver Online Director Dana Mattison Senior Sales & Marketing Manager Nathalia Lopez Sales & Marketing Coordinator Andrea Moreno Business Affairs Manager

9 STORY MEDIA GROUP

Viacom International Media Networks

Vivicast Media

19

Luo Bao Bei Garfield and Friends (Animated comedy, 121x22 min. & specials) This beloved classic series revolves around sarcastic Garfield, a lazy feline whose only desires in life are lasagna, catnaps and avoiding Mondays.

The Samuel Project (Live-action drama, 1x90 min.) In search of a unique and engaging idea for his high-school animation contest, teen illustrator Eli Bergman unravels an incredible hidden story of perseverance and survival from his aging grandfather Samuel.

Monica Chef (Live-action drama/comedy, 40x22 min.) Monica has all the ingredients to make her dream come true—she just needs to

24

DHX Media

Entertainment One Family & Brands

Grace Beside Me (Live-action drama/comedy, 13x26 min.) Fuzzy Mac’s life is turned upside down when she discovers she can communicate with spirits.

Stand: R7.K28 Contact: Claudia Scott-Hansen, VP, business dvpmt.; Alix Wiseman, VP, business dvpmt. & acq.; Stephen Kelley, snr. dir., dist.; Federico Vargas, snr. dir., dist.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Let’s Go Luna! (Kids 4-7 animation, 78x11 min. & 1x44 min.) Three friends traverse the globe with their parents’ traveling performance troupe.

At each stop, Luna the moon leads the trio to experience the local language, music and daily life of the world around them.

Luo Bao Bei (Kids 4-7 animation, 52x11 min.)

Luo Bao Bei is a bright and spirited 7-year-old girl with a vivid imagination, on a quest to understand the world around her.

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Ricardo Seguin Guise President Anna Carugati Executive VP Mansha Daswani Associate Publisher & VP of Strategic Development TV Listings © 2018 WSN INC. 1123 Broadway, #1207 New York, NY 10010 Phone: (212) 924-7620 Fax: (212) 924-6940 Website: www.worldscreenings.com

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TV LISTINGS

control her musical daydreams and focus on becoming the chef she knows she can be.

Vivi (Kids 4-6 animation, 52x11 min.) Travel around the world with Vivi as she sets out to find the whimsical world of Whirligig, a fantastical place where imagination reigns supreme.

Guess How Much I Love You—The Adventures of Little Nutbrown Hare: Holiday Specials (Preschool animation, 2x26 min.) Little Nutbrown Hare returns in two enchanting holiday specials representing the beauty and magic of Easter and Christmas.

3 Amigonauts (Animated comedy, 52x11 min.) Three bumbling buds attend the solar system’s most prestigious space academy, supersizing the smallest tasks into madcap intergalactic adventures.

Daniel Tiger’s Neighbourhood (Preschool animation, 170x11 min., S4: 40x11 min. in prod.)

Daniel, a shy but brave 4-year-old tiger, lives in the Neighbourhood of Make Believe.

41 ENTERTAINMENT

O (1-203) 717-1120 m nancy.koff@41ent.com w www.41e.tv

Stand: R7.E59 Contact: Nancy Koff, VP, sales & mktg.; Francisco Urena, prod. & brand assurance dir.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Skylanders Academy (Kids action comedy, 1x44 min. & 37x22 min.) At Skylanders Academy, the greatest young warriors from realms all across Skylands are trained to protect the universe from evildoers.

Shooting Star (Kids adventure comedy, 13x22 min.) When 13-year-old Piper Realto is struck by a sentient star, her life is changed forever as she is unwittingly transformed into the superhero Shooting Star.

Super Monsters (Preschool comedy, 52x11 min.) Dual identity monster preschool children descended from famous historical characters learn how to be the best people and monsters possible.

The Mini Musketeers (Preschool adventure comedy, 52x11 min.) Remi, Leo, Pierre and Aimee, four fearless, adventurous preschoolers, are the nieces and nephews of their famous uncles, D’Artagnan and the Three Musketeers.

Kong—King of the Apes (Kids action adventure, 26x22 min./1x83 min. & 22x22 min.) With super-powered robotic dinosaurs unleashed on the unsuspecting world, Kong is the only force formidable enough to stop them and save humankind.

Skylanders Academy Tarzan and Jane (Kids action adventure, 13x22 min./2x83 min. & 5x22 min.) Sixteen-year-old Tarzan returns from the jungle to a London boarding school where he meets Jane, who aids him in solving crimes and mysteries.

PAC-MAN and the Ghostly Adventures (Kids action comedy, 52x22 min. & 2x44 min.) Pac

and his friends face the issues of being teenagers while also protecting PacWorld from a ghostly army led by the evil Betrayus.

A+E NETWORKS

O (1-212) 210-1400 m intl.sales@aenetworks.com w sales.aenetworks.com Stand: P3.C1 Contact: Patrick Vien, exec. mng. dir., intl.; Edward Sabin, exec. mng. dir., intl.; Richard TulkHart, mng. dir., intl. content dist. & coprod.; Paul Buccieri, pres., A+E Studios; Barry Jossen, EVP, A+E Studios; Laura Fleury, SVP/head, pgmng., intl.; Melissa Madden, head, intl. mktg.; Vicky Kahn, SVP, corp. & intl. comms.; Paul Hardy, creative dir., intl. dvpmt. & formats; Hayley Babcock, head, formats, intl. prod. & pgmng.; Denis Cantin, VP/head, content sales, EMEA; Ellen Lovejoy, VP/head, content sales, Americas & formats; Glen Hansen, VP/head, content sales, AsiaPac; Bryan Gabourie, snr. dir., intl. content dist.; Helen Jurado, snr. dir., intl. content sales, LatAm; Michael Oesterlin, VP, intl. content sales; Robyn Hurd, VP, content sales, EMEA; Grace Mangum, dir., intl. digital media; Freya Brown, dir., events; Marica Giessen, snr. sales mgr.; Suzanne Flowerday, associate sales mgr.; Edwina Ngao, head, China, intl. content sales; Pooja Nirmal Kant, dir., intl. content sales.

The Men Who Built America: Frontiersmen (Factual, 4x120 min.) From Academy Awardwinning co-executive producer and co-narrator Leonardo DiCaprio, this docuseries is about the brave pioneers who risked their lives to stake a claim in America’s untapped land.

Harry & Meghan: A Royal Romance (Movie, 1x120 min.) Captures the highly publicized courtship between Britain’s beloved Prince Harry and stunningly talented divorcee Meghan Markle.

ABS-CBN CORPORATION

O (632) 411-1670 m internationalsales@abs-cbn.com w internationalsales.abs-cbn.com Stand: P-1.F74 Contact: Cecilia F. Imperial, integrated pgm. acq. & intl. dist. head; Pia Bacungan Laurel, head, sales.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Bagani (Fantasy drama, 40x45 min.) Five individuals from different tribes go on a journey to fight an evil god who bids to conquer their lands and the people living in them.

Blood Sisters (Drama, 40x45 min.) Unaware of each other’s existence due to separation at birth, three identical sisters are reunited by a crime that ends up raising more questions than answers.

Asintado (Action drama, 40x45 min.) Ana decides to rebuild her life and seeks revenge after surviving an attempted murder orchestrated by the families of her lover and long-lost sister.

The Men Who Built America: Frontiersmen

Bagani

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Knightfall (Scripted, 10x60 min.) Drama chronicles the actual events surrounding the Knights Templar, one of the most powerful entities in history.

American Princess (Scripted, 10x60 min.) An Upper East Side socialite suddenly becomes a runaway bride in the midst of a meltdown in a cosplay universe at a Renaissance Faire.

Project Blue Book (Scripted, 10x60 min.) From writer and director Robert Zemeckis comes a drama series about the Air Forces’ 1952-1970 investigation into the UFO phenomenon.

Love at First Flight (Format, 60 min. eps.)

Four ideal couples are quietly matched offcamera after extensive expert and matchmaker criterion are met, then set up for a romantic journey across North America.

Glam Masters (Format, 60 min. eps.) Each stand-alone episode features four beauty influencers who compete to prove they have the talent and vision to be the next big thing in the beauty world.

Vintage Queens (Format, 30 min. eps.) The most savvy bargain hunters raid the clothes rack and prove great style can come at a fraction of a price with vintage clothing.

Glam Masters (Factual, 8x60 min.) 12 YouTube beauty influencers will compete for a position on executive producer Kim Kardashian West’s glam squad and the job of running Kardashian Beauty.

My Perfect You (Romance/comedy movie) Burn and Abby go on a journey to the perfect love. Will they find it or will they end up having their hearts broken?

Sin Island (Thriller movie) A husband retaliates against his unfaithful wife by starting his own extramarital affair that results in grave consequences.

Ezgi Ural, deputy GM; Asli Çini Yaşaroğlu, GM, TV8; Seda Başbuğ, head, global comm.; Emir Özkan, head, corp. comm.; Şeyda Kartal, head, content acq.; Mirka Saviç Pinhas, dir., formats; Gulser Gizem Aksu, formats mgr.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHT Exathlon (Sports/reality format) Two teams of physically fit and sportive contestants, including Olympic athletes, football players and/or celebrities with athletic skills, compete at specially built challenge locations to be the champion of Exathlon.

ALFRED HABER DISTRIBUTION

O (1-201) 224-8000 m info@haberinc.com w www.alfredhaber.com

Stand: P-1.L50 Contact: Alfred Haber, pres.; Andrew Haber, VP, intl. sales; Steven Weiser, VP, domestic & intl. sales; Patricia Villagran, intl. sales exec.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Help! My House is Haunted! (Reality, 12x60 min.) From ghost expert Zak Bagans, a new series that focuses on everyday people who have encountered supernatural phenomena in their homes.

2019 61st Annual Grammy Awards (Awards/music show, 1x210 min.) It is all about the performances on the world’s most popular and prestigious televised music awards show.

Top 20 Funniest (Reality, 49x60 min.)

Includes comedic commentary over viral videos, home movies, news bloopers and more while we count down the week’s most hilarious videos.

Elton John: I’m Still Standing—A Grammy Salute (Music/variety, 1x120 min.) Ed Sheeran, Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus and more lead the performance-packed gala concert celebrating the extraordinary career of five-time Grammy Award winner Sir Elton John.

Dead Again (Reality, 9x60 min.) Nonfiction series about an elite team of detectives that re-investigates controversial and mysterious murder cases to confirm, or reject, the original verdict.

ACUN MEDYA GLOBAL

O (90-212) 304-8888 m global@acunmedya.com

w www.acunmedyaglobal.com Stand: C15.A10 Contact: Acun Ilicali, chmn.; Ebru Atasav Tahranci, CEO; Esat Yontunç, board member;

Exathlon

Help! My House is Haunted!

World’s Most Amazing Videos (Reality, 65x60 min.) Features shocking “caught-oncamera” footage of gripping, dramatic events as ordinary people become immersed in extraordinary situations.

Most Shocking (Reality, 89x60 min.) “Caughton-camera” reality series about the heartpounding world of law enforcement features shocking, never-before-seen, action-packed crime footage.

Grammys’ Greatest Stories: A 60th Anniversary Special (Music/variety, 1x120 min.) Special appearances by Grammy Award winners highlight a look back at some of the most memorable moments from the last five decades of “Music’s Biggest Night.”

33rd Annual Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (Music/variety, 1x150 min.) This year’s ceremony

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will honor inductees Bon Jovi, Dire Straits, The Cars, The Moody Blues and more.

Let It Snow (Holiday film, 1x120 min.) Candace Cameron-Bure stars in the hit yuletide season film that has delivered holiday cheer to audiences around the world and record ratings to broadcasters.

Refuge (Drama, S1-2: 48x60 min.) Years after leaving her hometown and family, Brigitte returns for her daughter’s wedding.

The weekend of celebrations turns into a murder case.

Slipaway (Drama) When a homeless young musician moves into a sailboat with a feisty elderly widow, the two must overcome their differences and haunting pasts to unlock each other’s dreams.

ARMOZA FORMATS

ARTIST VIEW ENTERTAINMENT

ATLANTYCA ENTERTAINMENT

O (972-3) 540-8333 m info@armozaformats.com

ALL3MEDIA INTERNATIONAL

O (44-20) 7845-4350 m olivia.haynes@all3media.com

w www.armozaformats.com

w www.all3mediainternational.com Stand: P3.C10 Contact: Stephen Driscoll, EVP, EMEA & European coprod.; Caroline Stephenson, SVP, EMEA North; Graham Spencer, SVP, EMEA South; Sabrina Duguet, EVP, AsiaPac. PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Kiri (Drama, 4x60 min.) Examines the abduction and death of a young black girl, named Kiri, who is soon to be adopted by her white foster family, and the trail of lies, blame, guilt and notoriety that follows.

Mystery Road (Drama, 6x60 min.) Detective Jay Swan is sent to a remote town in Australia when two young farm workers go missing from an outback cattle station.

Girlfriends (Drama, 6x60 min.) A contemporary story of Linda, Sue and Gail as they struggle with the responsibilities that come with being a modern woman of a certain age.

Hidden (Drama, 8x60 min.) A serial made up of inter-weaving narratives, all of them linked by a single crime—the abduction by a local man of three young women, held in captivity, high in the hills of Snowdonia.

Monty Don’s Paradise Gardens (Factual ent., 2x60 min.) Monty will look at what marks out a garden in the Islamic world and the influence this has had on gardens much closer to home.

Celebrity Undercover (Factual ent., 10x60 min.) Each week, a famous celebrity goes in search of tomorrow’s stars to give them a big break. But do the people they meet deserve their help?

Ikea Unpacked (Doc., 3x60 min.) No stone—or Allen key—will be left unturned as Raw TV explores the curious world of the iconic Scandi furniture giant IKEA. Wedding Day Winners (Format, 60 min. eps.)

Each week two couples and their nearest and dearest will go head to head in order to make the best day of their lives even better as they play to win the honeymoon of a lifetime, and a host of fabulous prizes along the way.

Best in Shop (Format, 60 min. eps.) Over the course of seven heats and a finale, this uplifting, knock-out business challenge pits small-scale artisan food producers against each other.

Mystery Road

Buy It Now (Format, 30 min. eps.) Entrepreneurs have just 90 seconds to convince 100 audience members to buy their product. Will these retailers place truly life-changing orders and buy it now?

Stand: R8.B3 Contact: Avi Armoza, fndr. & CEO; Mihal Brezis, SVP; Amos Neumann, COO; Sharon Levi, head, sales (North America, U.K. & Ireland); Karina Dolgiej, sales dir. (LatAm & U.S. Hispanic); Anat Lewinsky, sales dir. (CEE); Louise Melzack, sales dir. (AsiaPac, Nordics, Africa); Salome Peillon, sales dir. (Western & Southern Europe, French-speaking Canada); Noa Benattar, sales dir. (CIS & Baltics); Michal Itzhaki, head, acq.; Moshiko Cohen, snr. creative dir.; Avital Epstein, dvpmt. exec.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS The Four (Singing competition, 15x90-120 min.) Four finalists are announced in the first episode—but they shouldn’t get too comfortable because in every episode talented hopefuls will try to steal their seat.

O (1-818) 752-2480 m info@artistviewent.com w www.artistviewent.com Stand: P-1.F5 Contact: Scott Jones, pres.; Jay Joyce, VP, worldwide sales.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS The Meanest Man in Texas (Drama) Based on the best seller of the same name, the true story of Clyde Thompson, following his lifechanging highs and lows and journey to redemption.

Chronology (Thriller) New Year’s Eve, the turn of the Millennium. Two men’s lives are derailed in mere moments, as each blinks only to open their eyes in the body of the other.

Mistrust (Drama) How does someone who would rather feel nothing handle herself when love sneaks into her heart?

Chasing Gold (Thriller/drama) Alone after losing his family in a car accident, a retiring police commander attempts to help a daughter he never knew existed escape drug addiction and a past that endangers her, while investigating his best friend’s murder where a large stash of gold is missing.

Crow (Drama/thriller) A wealthy developer tries to remove settlers from his newly acquired land, which leads to dire consequences.

Chokehold (Action/MMA) A young woman’s story of reconciliation, revenge and redemption told against the gritty world of underground noholds-barred MMA fighting.

O (39-02) 4300-101 m distribution@atlantyca.it w www.atlantyca.com

Stand: R7.A20 Contact: Caterina Vacchi, head, animation dept., exec. producer & dist. dir.; Niccolo Sacchi, exec. producer & dir.; Alessandra Dematteis, dist. mgr.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Bat Pat (2D, 52x11 min., S2 in prod.) Bat Pat and the Silver siblings help the Fogville town dwellers unravel the mysteries of the scary creatures that lurk about.

Geronimo Stilton (2D, 78x23 min.) Inspired by the book series of the same name, focuses on the life and adventures of the super famous mouse journalist and his family as they scour New Mouse City for scoops.

Nutri Ventures (2D, 52x23 min.) In a world where foods bestow super powers, an evil man has replaced them with a single industrial compound. A group of kids embarks on an adventure to discover the remaining lost foods and their Nutri-Powers.

Rage Room Rage Room (Studio ent., 8x15-30 min.) Two contestants fight for the chance to let out their rage on a room specifically designed to represent what makes them mad.

Sunday League (Comedy, 8x30 min.) Inexperienced football coach Selma Nord gets in over her head by taking a job coaching the worst team in Division 7 football.

Back to Life (Docureality, 60 min. eps.) An emotional and intimate look at the struggle for survival of those waiting for a lifesaving transplant and the story of their donor.

Marry Me Now (Factual ent., 60 min. eps.) The emotional format where women take charge of their fate, preparing their own wedding in just three days and all without the groom-to-be’s knowledge.

Curvy Supermodel (Reality competition, 10x60-120 min.) The nationwide casting show searching for catwalk potential among thousands of hopeful “plus-size” models.

Sex Tape (Social-experiment format, 60 min. eps.) Three couples take part in a dramatic and spicy therapy, watching their own sex tapes to fix their relationships.

Still Standing (Game show, 60 min. eps.)

Contestants fight to be the last one still standing and win $1 million by out-guessing ten opponents in fast-paced and dramatic trivia battles.

Eclipse (Drama, S1-2: 36x60 min.) Tortured by grief after the death of their young son, AnneSophie and Bernard try to recover in their own ways as the tension between them grows.

Geronimo Stilton Jurassic Cubs (CGI, 91x13 min.) Follows the adventures of dinosaur cubs who magically travel through time on board magical meteorites.

Dive Olly Dive (CGI, 104x11 min.) The fun-filled underwater escapades of two research submarinesin-training who, under the guidance of Diver Doug, discover the marvels of Safe Harbour.

ZDFE.junior Catalog Atlantyca also distributes programs of ZDF Enterprises’ Junior catalog, including series such as H20, Lexi and Lotti, Inui, Scream Street, School of Roars and many others.

ATRESMEDIA TELEVISIÓN The Meanest Man in Texas Snowbound (Thriller) A group of sex party attendees wake up naked in the snow. In the nearby cabin they find a dead girl and a message: in order to survive, they must decide who is responsible for the girl’s death and murder that person.

Untold Story (Drama/comedy) Catarina shows Edward that pretending to be something isn’t the same as actually being it, and this chance meeting finally gives his life meaning.

Game Day (Drama/comedy) A basketballsavvy teen reluctantly agrees to coach a brilliant but self-centered tech whiz who has lost everything when her startup goes bust and personal life is left in ruins.

O (34-91) 623-0500 m sales@atresmediatv.com

w international-sales-atresmedia.com Stand: R7.J11 Contact: Jose Antonio Salso, head, acq. & sales; Diana Borbón, sales mgr.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Heroes Wanted: The Series (Cuerpo de Élite) (Comedy, 13x70 min.) A secret special operations group is formed with members of different police bodies to protect the country.

The Incident (El Incidente) (Thriller, 5x70 min./8x50 min.) In a small village in the mountains, an unexpected and severe storm causes strange behavior in some of the inhabitants.

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Apaches (Drama, 12x70 min.) Miguel reunites with Sastre, his childhood best friend, to rob the jewelry stores and watchmakers responsible for swindling his father.

Plastic Sea (Mar de Plástico) (Drama/thriller, S1: 13x70 min., S2: 13x70 min.) The murder of the mayor’s daughter in a village where greenhouses are the primary business stirs up friction among its inhabitants.

Lifeline (Pulsaciones) (Drama, 10x70 min.)

After receiving an organ transplant, a renowned surgeon starts having terrible nightmares related to the murder of the person who donated his heart to save his life.

Orphan Flowers

Heroes Wanted: The Series The Secret of Old Bridge (El Secreto de Puente Viejo) (Telenovela, S1-22: 65x50 min. each & S23) A midwife crosses paths with the rich stepmother of her ex-lover, the father of her son, who was ripped from her at birth.

Down Below (Allí Abajo) (Comedy, S1: 13x70 min., S2: 15x70 min., S3: 16x70 min. & S4) A hilarious love story of a traditional guy from the north and a jovial and gracious nurse.

Privileged Observer (Enviado Especial) (Doc., S1: 7x60 min. & S2) The journalist Jalis de la Serna travels across the globe, helping us become aware of a world in the process of change and challenge.

Inside of… (Dentro de…) (Doc., S1: 6x60 min. & S2) Hosted by Cristina Pedroche, offers an insider’s look at big companies like the Westin Palace Hotel, the airline Iberia, the hospital La Paz and the restaurant El Celler de Can Roca.

Locked Up (Vis a Vis) (Drama, S1: 16x50 min., S2: 19x50 min.) A fragile young woman, betrayed by her lover and arrested for fraud, must learn to survive and fight to prove her innocence in a detention facility as she awaits her trial.

ATV

O (90-212) 381-2848 m info@atvdistribution.com w www.atvdistribution.com Stand: P-1.J2 Contact: Ziyad Varol, lic. & digital mgr., acq. & sales; Emir Duzel, content sales deputy mgr.; Muge Akar, content sales deputy mgr.; Emre Gorentas, content sales deputy mgr.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Lifeline (Drama, 60x45 min. ongoing) Sold to a businessman as a child bride, Nefes suffers at the hands of her husband’s abuse.

Don’t Leave Me (Drama, 60 min. eps. ongoing) Arzu, her husband Cengiz and her two sons, Tarik and Emre, live together in Ankara.

Love and Hate (Drama, 111x45 min. ongoing) Ali, who spent his youth in prison and didn’t learn to love, and Mavi who never loved anyone, get to know each other only by the letters they exchange. Now it’s time to meet face to face.

Orphan Flowers (Drama, 297x45 min. ongoing) Eylül is left in an orphanage. While bad days are ahead of her, she manages to form good friendships.

Wedlock (Drama, 137x45 min.) A lie told by a desperate mother for her child turns lives upside down.

She Was Pretty (Romantic drama, 28x120 min.) Childhood sweethearts find each other again as adults.

Stolen Life (Drama, 100x45 min.) A young woman loses her life and Asiye takes on that identity. But her past will never stop chasing her.

Torn Apart (Drama, 66x45 min.) Yusuf is a humble fisherman living with his family. Pinar is the daughter of Istanbul’s richest family. A terrible incident crosses their paths, leading them to take revenge on the people who destroyed their lives.

Price of Love (Drama, 60x45 min.) The story of three people in a destructive love—Ali, Begum and Vedat.

Nazli (Drama, 35x45 min.) Nazli, an innocent village girl, will become an elegant woman and shock the man who abandoned her on the night of their wedding.

BANIJAY RIGHTS

O (44-20) 7013-4000 m sales@banijayrights.com w www.banijayrights.com Stand: C20.A Contact: Tim Mutimer, CEO; Caroline Torrance, head, scripted; Emily Elisha, head, factual; Andrew Sime, VP, formats; Steve Quirke, head, mktg.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Versailles(Drama, S3: 10x60 min.) New challenges await King Louis XIV. Nothing seems to be able to counter his grand ambitions to extend his kingdom, but revolution is near and Versailles isn’t safe.

The Restaurant (Drama, 10x60 min.) Join the Löwander family and the restaurant staff through several decades of success and defeat, love affairs and conflicts, all accompanied by contemporary music and fashion.

Child Support (Game show, 6x60 min. & format) Features adult contestants and priceless interactions between funny man Ricky Gervais and a group of five kids (aged 6 to 9) who say the most unpredictable things.

Stars on the Rocks (Celebrity adventure reality format, 120 min. eps.) Stranded on the shores of a mysterious remote island, two celebrities embark on the adventure of a lifetime, pushing themselves to the limit and all for a good cause.

Public Games (Reality format, 24-hour live stream & 20 min. webisodes) The first fully interactive social media reality show with 24 contestants, a 24/7 online live stream over 46 days and a big cash prize at stake.

SAS (Human interest, S3: 5x60 min. & format) Twenty-five civilian recruits will be pushed to their limits in tasks derived from actual Special Forces Selection while based in the unforgiving terrain of the Atlas Mountains in southern Morocco.

Grenfell (Factual, 1x90 min.) Powerful human stories filmed over the course of a year immediately after the Grenfell Tower fire tragedy.

Millionaires’ Ex-Wives Club (Factual, 1x60 min.)

A glimpse into the world of high-profile divorce cases for the super-rich, where millions of pounds are at stake and London is the battleground.

Back to the Land (Factual/lifestyle, 15x60 min.) Follows passionate people pioneering a rural revolution and along the way unveils some of Britain’s hidden gems synonymous with heritage and beauty.

The Best Singers (Ent. format, 60 min. eps.)

Award-winning musical extravaganza challenges eight of the country’s music stars to perform each other’s best-selling songs.

BEYOND DISTRIBUTION

O (44-207) 323-3444 m sales@beyonddistribution.com w www.beyonddistribution.com

BBC STUDIOS

(FORMERLY BBC WORLDWIDE)

w www.bbcworldwide.com Stand: P3.B38 Contact: Adam Bishop, VP, sales, France & Germany; Andre Renaud, VP, sales, Italy & Iberia; Nick Percy, EVP, Northern Europe; Zina Neophytou, VP, out of home; Nick Coulter, head, digital, Western Europe; Pierre-Marie Gadonneix, COO, France prod.; Tracy Forsyth, genre dir., factual ent. & ent.; Sumi Connock, commercial dir., formats; Jessica Bishop, dir., formats & coprod.; Nicki McDermott, head, acq., formats & intl. prod.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Serengeti (Natural history, 6x50 min.) Follows the animals of Africa’s Serengeti who share their unpredictable narratives, intertwining relationships and emotional moments—all from their own perspective.

Stand: R7.B16 Contact: Mikael Borglund, mng. dir. & CEO; Michael Murphy, GM; Munia Kanna-Konsek, head, sales; Sean Harris, head, intl. mktg.; Justina Hemperek, head, acq.; Sarah McCormack, SVP, acq., U.K., Europe & kids; Joanne Azzopardi, SVP, sales & acq., Australia, NZ, Asia; Marzenna Czubowicz, SVP, sales, Western Europe; Sam Partner, VP, sales, German-speaking Europe, Scandinavia & Benelux; Zoe Allen, sales exec., CEE, Baltics, Israel & South Africa; Sara Koziello, sales asst.

Trauma

Dynasty

Versailles

Shakespeare & Hathaway (Drama, 10x45 min.) Crime drama about a highly unlikely and hugely entertaining detecting duo, set in the leafy English town of Stratford-upon-Avon—home to William Shakespeare.

Good Omens (Drama, 6x60 min.) An angel and a demon join forces to avert the apocalypse in this adaptation of Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s novel, starring Michael Sheen and David Tennant.

Doctor Who (Drama, S11: 9x50 min. & 1x65 min.) Marks the arrival of Jodie Whittaker, the 13th Doctor, a super-smart force of nature, alongside a team of new characters.

Go Jetters (Children’s, 52x11 min.) Geographical adventure show for preschoolers featuring four young heroes and a disco-loving unicorn.

This animated series mixes comedy, teamwork, gadgets and amazing global landmarks.

The Generation Game (Format, 60 min. eps.) The legendary game show is back with families facing new challenges and star judges who decide who will make it to the final conveyor belt round.

Blink (Format, 27 min. eps.) In this comedy game show, celebrities have their pop culture and music knowledge tested in a rapid-fire battle.

Dynasty (Natural history, 5x50 min.) From the makers of Planet Earth II, follow iconic animals through dynastic power struggles and family treachery more dramatic than any work of fiction.

The Split (Drama, 6x60 min.) Explores family, love, loyalty and the messy business of divorce.

Written by Emmy and BAFTA winner Abi Morgan and starring Nicola Walker.

Press (Drama, 6x60 min.) Series from Mike Bartlett (Doctor Foster) revealing the lives, loves and lies of characters at rival newspapers. Starring Charlotte Riley, Ben Chaplin and David Suchet.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Grudge Race (Factual ent., 30x30 min.) Reallife street racers with long-standing grudges compete in a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to settle their feud in front of a live audience.

Dr Keri: Prairie Vet (Factual, 10x30 min.)

Follows country vet Dr. Keri Hudson Reykdal as she travels in her mobile clinic to visit patients ranging from pedigree show dogs to angry bulls.

Trauma (Factual, 4x60 min.) Gives viewers an unprecedented look into the high pressure and high-stakes world of trauma and medical emergency wards in Ireland.

Police—Stop! (Factual, 10x30 min.) Crime documentary series follows the men and women

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tasked with controlling illegal street racing, dangerous and drink driving, reckless speeding and other road-related crime across the city of Auckland, New Zealand.

Deadly Intelligence (Crime, 8x60 min.) Investigates the suspicious deaths of many of the world’s most renowned scientists, using expert analysis from former FBI investigators, explosives experts and undercover operatives.

BOAT ROCKER RIGHTS

O (1-416) 591-0065 m kelsey@boatrocker.com w www.boatrocker.com

Stand: R7.K8 Contact: Jon Rutherford, pres.; Gia DeLaney, VP, global sales, kids & family; Natalie Vinet, VP, global sales, factual; Jessica Watson, dir., global sales & acq.; Kelsey Griffin, mgr., global sales & mktg.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS History in the Making (History & civilization doc., 13x30 min.) Each episode presents the process— using the original techniques—in the recreation of three items of historical importance.

dancers at the Next Step Dance Studio as they attempt to win regional, national and international dance championships.

BOMANBRIDGE MEDIA

O (65) 6224-4211 m info@bomanbridge.tv w www.bomanbridge.tv

Contact: Sonia Fleck, CEO; Aegena Tay, dir., sales & pgm. dvpmt.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Claude (Kids animation, 50x11 min. & 11x2 min.) Based on the successful series of books by Alex T. Smith, an animated preschool series with a hero loved by everybody.

Delicacy Hunter: On the Silk Road (Food/travel, 6x30 min.) Chef Jamie, a fun, young British chef who speaks fluent Chinese, ventures on a gastronomic journey along the ancient Silk Road.

Delicacy Hunter: On the Silk Road Last Stop Garage Last Stop Garage (Factual ent., 24x30 min.)

Character-driven docuseries set in North West River, Labrador, following the backwoods mechanical wizardry at CRB Automotive.

Late Nite Eats (Food, 13x30 min.) Join Chef Jordan Andino as he visits a brand-new city and three exceptional restaurants that reign supreme in the late-night food scene.

Body Hack (Travel/adventure, 12x60 min.) Todd Sampson embarks on an exploration investigating some of the world’s most extraordinary people, using science as his guide to decode how these people live, what they do differently from the rest of us and how this impacts the human body.

Tougher Than It Looks (Factual ent., 22x30 min.) Andrew Younghusband delves into the world of terrifying heights, extreme sports, tough trades, small spaces and strange hobbies.

Inseparable: Ten Years Joined at the Head (Doc., 1x60 min.) Captures a year in the lives of conjoined twins Tatiana and Krista Hogan, unique in the world because of how their brains are connected.

Bitz & Bob (Preschool animation, 42x11 min., 1x22 min. & 44x4 min.) Bitz is an inventor and engineer who makes amazing creations with anything she can find and brings epic adventures to life through the power of her extraordinary imagination.

The Polos (Preschool animation, 52x5 min./26x11 min.) The Polos, a quirky group of friends, born and raised in a digital world, take off on epic road trips to experience the wonders of the natural world.

Danger Mouse (Kids 6-11 animation, 44x11 min. & 44x4 min.) Combining high energy, topclass storytelling with brilliant visuals, this series targets tech-savvy and humor-hungry 6- to 11-year-olds.

The Next Step (Tween/teen live action, S1-6: 180x30 min.) Follows the lives of a group of

Farcat, sales mgr.; Francesca de Nicolo, sales exec.; Camille Beylot, sales asst.; Odilia Sickinghe, mktg. asst.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Angelo Rules (Kids 6-12 animation, 78x7 min.; 46x11 min. & 3x22 min.; 46x11 min. & 3x22 min.; 46x11 min. & 3x22 min.) Emmy-nominated series starring 11-year-old Angelo, a genius with a knack for getting out of trouble!

Bottersnikes & Gumbles (Kids 6-9 animation, 52x11 min.) Award-winning comic adventures of three young Gumble heroes as they try to avoid getting tin-canned by their lazy, grumpy neighbors, the Bottersnikes.

Kally’s MashUp (Kids 7-14 live action, 75x60 min.) Hit musical series inspired by Glee exec music producer Adam Anders’ life that follows a 13-year-old concert pianist who dreams of becoming a pop star.

Kiddets (Preschool animation, 52x11 min.) Sister series to international hit The WotWots, the Kiddets are learning to become space explorers who will one day go on a mission to investigate other planets.

My Knight and Me (Kids 6-11 animation, 52x11 min.) Jimmy the Squire, best friend Cat and chivalrous Henri of Orange make the Dark Ages a little lighter and a lot more fun in this medieval comedy.

Pablo (Preschool animation, 52x11 min.) Pablo, a 5-and-a-half-year-old boy who is on the autism spectrum, turns his life challenges into imaginative drawings to help him face the real world with confidence.

Olobob Top (Kids 2-5 animation, 52x5 min.)

Tib, Lalloo and Bobble work together combining shapes, colors and patterns to create a new character who joins in their fun in this unique interactive series.

Woman Relationship Status: It’s Complicated (Romance, on-air, 35+x45 min.) An aspiring scriptwriter experiencing betrayal and hard times meets a handsome actor. Although he is in love with another beautiful girl, no one knows what the future holds.

CARACOL TELEVISION

O (1-305) 960-2018/

World Cup Postcards (Sports, 105x2 min.)

Takes viewers on a tour of the host country for the 2018 FIFA World Cup to learn more about its past, present and future.

Buddy Thunderstruck (Kids animation, 24x11 min.) Stop-motion action series follows the adventures of a semi-truck racing dog named Buddy and his albino ferret mechanic, Darnell.

Gamerz (Format) Twelve talents will move into the Gamerz House where they are tested and challenged daily in live broadcasts of matches and interactive challenges.

The Fashion Hero (8x60 min. & format) This entertainment format will not only find the international fashion models of tomorrow. It will revolutionize the fashion industry in the process.

Hanakappa (Kids animation, 450x5 min.) Follows the story of a fun-loving little kappa boy and his flower-sprouting family in a village full of friends, and some naughty foes.

Signed, Sealed, Delivered: Home Again (Drama/mystery, 1x120 min.) A woman on the run with her child realizes she must face the truth before she can find her way home.

Wolf vs Bear (Nature/wildlife, 1x60 min.)

Offers a unique glimpse into the relative strengths and weaknesses based on individual hunting strategies.

Morocco from Above (Factual, 1x90 min./2x45 min.) A premium documentary from Yann ArthusBertrand on Morocco, shot exclusively from the sky.

Piggy Tales: 4th Street (Kids 4+ animation, 30x1.25 min.) The lovable simple-minded green pigs are back as you’ve never seen them before, going about their daily lives on the streets of Pig City, where anything can happen.

Ready Jet Go! (Kids 3-8 animation, 128x11 min.) Created by Craig Bartlett, Sean and Sydney befriend the new kid on their street, whose family members happen to be aliens.

Space Racers (Preschool animation, 90x11 min.)

Forty brand-new adventures starring our favorite space cadets as they use teamwork and scientific discovery to explore the wonders of the universe.

CAKE

CALINOS ENTERTAINMENT

w www.cakeentertainment.com

w www.calinosentertainment.com

Stand: R7.D18 Contact: Ed Galton, chief commercial officer & mng. dir.; Bianca Rodriguez, head, sales; Julien

Stand: P-1.M59 Contact: Firat Gulgen, chmn.; Ismail Dursunov, deputy GM; Asli Serim, intl. sales dir.; Anghelo

O (44-207) 307-3230 m info@cakeentertainment.com

Taylor, intl. sales mgr.; Goryana Vasileva, business dvpmt. mgr.; Ebru Mercan, intl. sales rep.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Our Story (Drama, on air) Adapted from the award-winning series Shameless, this Turkish drama is full of energy, real stories and passion.

Woman (Drama, on air) A story of love, passion and human nature and the drama surrounding a group of women who sometimes support each other and at other times sabotage each other.

(571) 6430-430

w www.caracolinternacional.com

Kiddets

Stand: P0.B1 Contact: Jesus Iriepar, sales exec., Europe & Middle East; Paloma Garcia, sales exec., Europe & Africa; Maria Estrella, sales exec., Asia.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Undercover Law (Series, 60x60 min.) The members of an all-female special police team go undercover with dangerous criminals.

Mom of Number 10 (Series) Tina Manotas, a beautiful and humble woman, will sacrifice everything to make her son Victor’s dream of becoming the best football player of his country come true.

One Way Out (Series, 80x60 min.) Parallel stories take place in a dangerous sector of town with a mixture of failure, disappointment and despair of thousands of drug addicts, drug dealers, merchants of dreams, and interspersed with love, faith and strong fraternity links.

The Challenge—Nomads (Format) The Caracol format arrives in Greece under the name Nomads. Eighteen contestants must survive challenges in an exotic and hostile destination.

O (90-216) 999-4999 m info@calinosentertainment.com

Undercover Law

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TV LISTINGS 13

CBS STUDIOS INTERNATIONAL

O (1-323) 575-5460 w www.cbssi.com

Stand: R7.E2 Contact: Armando Nuñez, pres. & CEO; Barry Chamberlain, pres., sales; Javier Avitia, EVP, legal & business affairs; Guy Petty, EVP, digital media; Stephen Tague, EVP, client relations; Cece Braun, SVP, sales strategy & finance & mng. dir., EMEA; Teri Fleming, SVP, mktg.; Paul Gilbert, SVP, intl. formats; Meghan Lyvers, SVP, coprod. & dvpmt., EMEA; Nick Macrae, SVP, legal & business affairs, EMEA; Giovanni Pedde, SVP, client relations; Oliver Kreuter, VP, client relations; Catherine Molinier, VP, client relations; Stephanie Pacheco, VP, client relations; Michelle Payne, VP, client relations; Roxanne Pompa, VP, intl. formats; Nicole Sinclair, VP, client relations; Doug Smith, VP, client relations; Jennifer Weingroff, VP, comms.; Stephen White, VP, client relations; Tim Wright, VP, client relations; Eric Mueller, exec. dir., client relations; Julie Aletti de Gely, dir., client relations; Caroline Hurmson, dir., client relations; Hiromichi Sato, dir., client relations; Ying Zhang, dir., client relations.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Instinct (Drama, 13x60 min.) Stars Alan Cumming as a former CIA operative who is lured back to his old life when the NYPD needs his help to stop a serial killer.

SEAL Team (Drama, 22x60 min.) David Boreanaz stars in a new military drama that follows the professional and personal lives of the most elite unit of Navy SEALs as they train, plan and execute the most dangerous, high-stakes missions.

9JKL (Comedy, 16x30 min.) A new divorcé and actor between projects moves home to regroup, living with his doting, meddlesome parents on one side and his brother, sister-in-law and their new baby on the other.

The Twilight Zone (Sci-fi) A reboot of the original series executive produced by Jordan Peele, Simon Kinberg, Marco Ramirez, Win Rosenfeld and Audrey Chon.

Tell Me a Story (Drama) Takes the world’s most beloved fairy tales and reimagines them as a dark and twisted psychological thriller.

CJ E&M

O (82-2) 371-8616 m sy.kim33@cj.net w www.cjenm.com

The Beach House

Stand: P-1.G1 Contact: Jangho Seo, GM, global content business division; Jin Woo Hwang, head, format & content dvpmt.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Cross (Drama, 16x60 min.) A scarred boy who becomes a renowned doctor volunteers to work at the prison hospital to take revenge on his father’s killer.

Because This is My First Life (Drama, 16x60 min.) Two strangers move into an apartment and live together for each other’s needs of supply and demand.

Avengers’ Social Club (Drama, 12x60 min.)

Women gather together to take revenge on their targets and uncover social injustice.

Bad Guys: Vile City (Drama, 16x60 min.) A hot-tempered prosecutor gathers some “bad guys”—including a con man, an ex-gangster and an extreme detective—to form a team in order to take on corruption and greed.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS The Beach House (TV movie) Cara thought she’d left her troubled family far behind. But an unusual request from her mother has Cara heading back to the scenic island of her childhood.

The Christmas Train (TV movie) A journalist embarks on a cross-country train ride at Christmas having no idea it will take him into the rugged terrain of his own heart.

One Winter Weekend (TV movie) Cara, a women’s magazine writer who gets burned by her boyfriend, decides to go on a dating detox.

Royal New Year’s Eve (TV movie) Fashion designer Caitlyn’s world is turned upside down when Prince Jeffrey and his presumed future fiancé Isabelle come to town. Isabelle hires Caitlyn to design a dress for a royal ball where Jeffrey is expected to propose.

Switched for Christmas (TV movie) When identical twin sisters are stuck planning their respective Christmas parties, they’re convinced the grass is greener on the other side and decide to swap lives for the holiday.

CYBER GROUP STUDIOS

O (33-1) 5556-3232/

(1-424) 341-4911 m sales@cybergroupstudios.com w www.cybergroupstudios.com

Cross

Instinct Escape at Dannemora (Drama, 8x60 min.)

Limited series based on the prison break in upstate New York in the summer of 2015 that spawned a manhunt for two convicted murderers who were aided in their escape by a married female prison employee with whom they both became sexually entangled.

Strange Angel (Drama, 10x60 min.) Follows the life of Jack Parsons, a mysterious and brilliant man in 1940s Los Angeles, who by day helps birth the unknown discipline of American rocketry, and by night is a performer of sex magick rituals and a disciple to occultist Aleister Crowley. $1 (Mystery/thriller) Set in a small rust belt town in post-recession America, where a one-dollar bill changing hands connects a group of characters involved in a shocking multiple murder.

Oh My Ghost (Drama, 16x60 min.) A timid young woman becomes possessed by the ghost of a lustful virgin.

Fake (Drama, 10x10 min.) A thriller about a master of disguise who takes the place of his dead brother to seek vengeance.

Love at First Song (Music/reality, 12x60 min.) Can two people fall in love at first song?

This hybrid music dating show matches people looking for their soul mates through musical taste.

Shadow Singer (Music ent., 16x70 min.)

Shadow singers battle it out to outshine the others with only their voice and the support of a celebrity clone singer.

Crazy Market (Food, 13x60 min.) A fast-paced game show that tests the contestants’ knowledge of food and their senses.

Stand: R7.D22 Contact: Pierre Sissmann, chmn. & CEO; Richard Goldsmith, pres. & CEO, Cyber Group Studios USA; Dominique Bourse, COO; Olivier Lelardoux, SVP, studio & associate producer; Raphaelle Mathieu, SVP, sales, acq. & new media; Noemie Bourrie, intl. sales exec.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS The Pirates Next Door (Kids 6-10 CGI comedy, 52x11 min.) At Dull-on-Sea, quiet life is suddenly turned upside down by the appearance of a family of pirates.

Mini Ninjas 2 (Kids 6-12 CGI action/comedy, 104x11 min.) Discover a new generation of 12year-old ninjas, trained by the wise (and rather eccentric) Ninja Master to defend the Land below the Clouds from the warlord Ashida.

Zak Jinks (Kids 6-10 2D adventure comedy, 52x13 min.) Follows the adventures of its eponymous hero, Zak. For Zak, school, street and home are all perfect settings for mischief-making.

DHX MEDIA

O (1-416) 363-8034 m sales@dhxmedia.com w www.dhxmedia.com Stand: R7.K16 Contact: Steven DeNure, pres. & COO; Josh Scherba, EVP, dist. & content; Stephanie Betts, SVP, dvpmt. & current series; Jerry Diaz, VP, dist.; Wiebke Hoefer, snr. dir., European sales; Sophie “Kido” Prigent, territory mgr.; Lara Ilie, territory mgr.; Jeff Cooke, mktg. mgr., dist.

Mega Man

CROWN MEDIA INTERNATIONAL DISTRIBUTION

O (1-818) 755-1244 m franciscogonzalez@crownmedia.com w crownmediainternational.com

Stand: P3.B13 Contact: Francisco J. Gonzalez, SVP, intl. dist.

Ernest and Rebecca (Kids 6-10 2D comedy, 52x13 min.) Rebecca’s best friend is Ernest, a microbe that has tons of crazy ideas, making every day a huge adventure.

Zou (Kids 3-6 CGI, 156x11 min.) Now in season three, follow the daily life of a lovable 5year-old Zebra Zou and his extended zebra family. Full of curiosity and love, Zou is now old enough to start becoming his own person.

Mirette Investigates (Kids 6-10 2D adventure/comedy, 52x11 min.) A traveling detective comedy with Mirette, a 10-year-old with a passion for investigation, and her “catssistant” JeanPat, a lazy but efficient ginger tomcat.

Gigantosaurus (Kids 4-6 CGI action comedy, 52x11 min.) Stars four young dinosaur friends who are about to leave the family and explore a world full of mysteries and danger.

Sadie Sparks (Kids 6-11 CGI comedy, 52x11 min.) A teenage girl who just wants to be popular discovers she has extraordinary powers—which can only be harnessed in partnership with an ancient and extremely grumpy magical rabbit who just wants to retire.

Taffy (Kids 6-12 2D comedy, 78x7 min.) Follows the non-stop, slapstick extravaganza faced by loyal hound dog Bentley when his billionaire old lady owner Mrs Muchmore takes in an imposter posing as a wide-eyed, fluffy angora cat.

Nefertine (Kids 4-7 2D comedy, 52x11 min.)

Nefertine is a little girl endowed with lively intelligence, inexhaustible curiosity and great courage.

She aspires to be the first female scribe in the history of Egypt so she can describe the wonderful world that surrounds her.

Nefertine

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS The Zoo (Kids, 30x11 min.) Follows the everyday action of animals as they make friends, forge allegiances and attempt to manipulate each other.

Massive Monster Mayhem (Kids, 20x22 min.) Sci-fi action adventure series starring reallife kids competing in incredible challenges against gigantic Monster Superstars to win prizes and save the planet from destruction.

Mega Man (Kids, 52x11 min.) Ten-year-old Aki Light is transformed by nano-core technology into Mega Man, a hero on a super-powered quest to protect Silicon City.

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*LIST_418_ALT_LIS_1006_LISTINGS 3/21/18 4:53 PM Page 14

14

TV LISTINGS

Polly Pocket (Kids, 26x22 min.) When 11-yearold Polly Pocket shrinks to four inches tall, she discovers a world of unlimited adventures where the smallest person can make the biggest difference.

The Deep (Kids, 52x22 min.) Join the Nektons, a family of underwater explorers, as they dive headlong into new and amazing adventures.

Waffle the Wonder Dog (Preschool, 30x11 min.) When the Brooklyn-Bells start living together as a newly blended family, they don’t expect to take on a pet too—until they find an adorable lost puppy hiding in their house.

Peanuts (Kids) Over 40 specials restored to 4K, including A Charlie Brown Christmas, It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, It’s the Easter Beagle Charlie Brown and more.

Little People (Preschool, 104x11 min.) Musical/comedy series that celebrates the power of collaborative play, developed specifically for the ever-imaginative audience of 2- to 5year-olds.

Bob the Builder (Preschool, 130x11 min.) Bob the Builder has had a makeover. He’s still the warm, best builder buddy any preschool kid would want on their team, but now he’s stronger, funnier, more dynamic, more agile and way more aspirational.

Fireman Sam (Preschool, 138x10 min.)

Whether it’s stopping a runaway train or saving a boat full of passengers stranded at sea, Sam, Penny, Elvis and Station Officer Steele are ready and able to deal with each and every emergency.

DICK CLARK PRODUCTIONS

O (1-310) 255-4600 m snduna@dickclark.com

w www.dickclark.com/international Stand: P0.A27 Contact: Mark Rafalowski, EVP, intl. dist.; Bob Kennedy, SVP, sales & acq.; Sandra Nduna, coord., intl. dist.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS The 46th Annual 2018 American Music Awards (Awards show, 1x180 min.) Pays tribute to today’s most influential and iconic artists with over 16 musical performances by top acts.

Fail Army (Non-scripted comedy, 120x30 min.)

The worldwide leader in HD blooper videos returns. Each episode contains an average of 60 clips. No host, voice-over based.

The Football Show (Factual ent., 6x60 min.)

Filmed in Barcelona, Rome, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Mumbai, Manchester and more, takes viewers into the world of footballers when they are not playing the game.

The Best FIFA Football Awards 2018 (Awards show, 1x180 min.) Presented live from the Royal Festival Hall in London, features the best players, managers, green carpet interviews, highlights of the 2017-2018 season, ambassadors of football and top celebrities.

Unknown Champions (13x30 min.) Highlights the shocking talents of incredible people who have become champions at the most outrageous competitions and activities.

The Pet Show (w.t.) (20x30 min.) Delivers LOL clips of beloved pets from across the globe, edited into themed packages with a comedic voice over as the guide from segment to segment.

DISCOVERY, INC.

O (1-240) 662-2102/ (1-240) 662-4378

m elliot_wagner@discovery.com w discoveryprogramsales.com Stand: R7.E75 Contact: Elliot Wagner, VP, pgm. sales; Saver Lemke, VP, intl. pgm. sales, EMEA & AsiaPac; Anna Scheitzach, snr. pgm. sales mgr., Russia, NEE & SEE; Anna Tomaszewska, pgm. sales dir., CEEMEA & France; Keshia Smart, supervisor, pgm. sales & operations; Mercedes Dawson, dir., LatAm & Caribbean; Ched Ramundo, mgr., U.S. & global acq.; Maziah Mazlan, sales coord., AsiaPac. PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Telescope (Science & engineering, 1x60 min.)

Takes viewers on a tour of the history of the telescope from Galileo to Hubble and NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope.

World’s Biggest Shipbuilders (Science & engineering, 6x60 min.) Follows a core crew of larger-than-life engineers, shipbuilders, captains and designers working across the globe for Maersk, the world’s largest shipping company.

Say Yes to the Dress (Format, 12x30 min.)

Part fashion show, part bridal story, part family therapy, uncovers the hurdles every staff member faces to make each bride completely satisfied.

Naked and Afraid (Format, 7x60 min.) A pair of total strangers—one man and one woman— find themselves stranded in one of the world’s most extreme environments.

Wheeler Dealers (Format, 12x30 min.) Our host and a mechanic use their expertise to buy a classic car and restore it back to its former glory, hoping it makes a tidy profit.

Billboard Music Awards The 47th Annual New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest (Music special, 1x240 min.) Bicoastal show features musical acts performing the top hits of the year and a look at New Year’s celebrations from around the world.

The 76th Annual Golden Globe Awards (Awards show, 1x180 min.) The Golden Globes honor both motion picture and television achievements.

The 2018 Billboard Music Awards (Awards show, 1x180 min.) Delivers the hottest performances live from the biggest stars in pop music.

Now That’s Funny (Non-scripted comedy, (26x60 min.) Now a second season featuring some of the most entertaining viral videos in the world presented in a lighthearted way. No host, narrated.

Race to Escape

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Race to Escape (Format, 6x60 min.) Two teams are trapped in identical rooms and they must solve five challenges in 60 minutes to escape and win.

Culture Shock: Norway (Format, 6x60 min.)

Twelve Norwegian-Americans have to face new challenges and prove themselves as Norwegians in order to win $50,000.

DISTRIBUTION360

O (1-416) 646-2711 m sales@distribution360.com w www.distribution360.com Stand: P-1.A51 Contact: Diane Rankin, SVP, intl. sales & acq.; Jodi Mackie, dir., sales & acq.; Smiljka Baljozovic, sales mgr.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Just Like Mom and Dad (Format, 20x30 min.)

Each episode puts three parent/kid teams to the test to see how well they really know each other across three rounds.

Leave It to the Designer (Format) Based on the hit series Leave It to Bryan. In each episode, a homeowner enlists the designer to consider three projects they’d like done in their home but with the budget for only one—leaving the designer to decide which one they will take on based on what will improve their home life the most.

DORI MEDIA GROUP

O (41-43) 817-7050 m sales@dorimedia.com w www.dorimedia.com,

www.dorimediadistribution.com Stand: P-1.F50 Contact: Nadav Palti, pres. & CEO; Revital Basel, VP, sales; Pauline Ick, VP, sales, Dori Media Dist.; Maria Perez Campi, sales mgr., Dori Media Dist. Argentina; Camila Premet, jnr. sales, Dori Media Dist. Argentina; Einat Borovich-Naim, mktg. dir.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Las Estrellas (5 Stars) (Romantic comedy, 120x60 min.) The death of Mario Star leaves his five daughters faced with successfully managing a boutique hotel, a mission they will have to fulfill in order to claim an inheritance.

The New Black (Comedy, 12x30 min.) They live the dream—enjoying the benefits of the prestigious yeshiva student status in the orthodox society and the pleasures of modern life.

The Road to Calvary (Drama, 13x45 min.) The story of two sisters in the period from 1914 to 1919, when friends and relatives are on the opposite sides of the barricades, and the yearning for a brighter tomorrow will pave the road to Calvary.

Dumb (Crime drama, 50x35 min.) A frustrated and stoned 30-year-old actress goes undercover as a high-school student to help her exboyfriend, who was arrested for drug dealing.

Power Couple (Reality format) Puts love to the test like you’ve never seen before as eight couples face extreme challenges that will test how well they really know each other.

The Best of All (Shiny-floor game show) Is the average answer from a large group of people always closer to the right result than one person’s answer?

This new game will test that theory.

El Marginal (Drama, 13x45 min.) An ex-cop goes undercover in a prison in order to infiltrate a group that has just kidnapped the teen daughter of an important national judge.

Just Like Mom and Dad Are You Ready? (Preschool live action, 52x2.5 min.) Explores a series of firsts for a preschooler; from teeth brushing to shoe tying.

Give (Factual ent., 26x30 min./format) One celebrity meets two deserving charities and undercover-style they award a grant of $25,000 between the charities in every episode.

Genius Genie (Preschool animation, 18x22 min./78x5 min.) Genius Genie and three gregarious preschoolers learn all about life’s little problems, and the lessons you learn from them.

American Ride (Factual, 117x30 min.) Ride on the back of a Harley-Davidson with Stan Ellsworth to discover more about the history and future of the USA, meet people from across the land and find out more about American culture.

The New Creatives (Factual, 10x30 min.) Meet the entrepreneurs and idea-makers who are reinventing what it means to be creative and who are inspiring others to achieve what they thought wasn’t possible.

Random Acts (Factual ent., 20x30 min.) Proficient pranksters go undercover to make deserving people’s dreams come true in unexpected ways while the heartwarming hi-jinks are captured on hidden cameras.

Terror in the Woods(Factual ent., 8x60 min.) Investigates the most shocking unexplained paranormal encounters that happened deep in the dark woods.

WW2 Treasure Hunters (Factual, 8x60 min.)

Unearths forgotten artifacts of World War II across the U.K., bringing these forgotten stories back to life.

The New Black

ECCHO RIGHTS

O (46-8) 5560-9380 m info@ecchorights.com w www.ecchorights.com Stand: P3.B1 Contact: Fredrik af Malmborg, mng. dir.; Nicola Söderlund, mng. partner; Handan Özkubat, head, Istanbul office; Laura Minarro, dir., coprod. & scripted; Nixon Yau Lim, head, AsiaPac; Petra Larsson, sales & acq. mgr., CEE; Liisa Helmi, head, business affairs & sales mgr., Africa; David Seton, head, mktg.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Conspiracy of Silence (Drama, 8x45 min.) A former corrupt arms dealer, on an impassioned

*LIST_418_ALT_LIS_1006_LISTINGS 3/21/18 4:53 PM Page 15

TV LISTINGS 15 revenge mission, is stopped in his tracks by a shock discovery—his nemesis’ daughter is in fact his own.

Stiletto Vendetta (Drama, 101x45 min.) The return of a woman to the group of friends that once betrayed her ends in a grisly murder. But who is truly the guilty party?

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS The Detail (Drama, 10x60 min.) Female-driven police procedural chronicling the professional and personal lives of three various ranking female homicide detectives.

Let’s Get Physical (Comedy, 8x30 min.) Set in the high-octane world of competitive aerobics, this comedy follows slacker Joe Force making his reluctant comeback to the fitness industry.

Burden of Truth (Drama, 10x60 min.) Stars Kristin Kreuk (Smallville) as a ruthless big-city lawyer who returns to her hometown for a mysterious case that will change her life forever.

his hapless cat, Sir Dudley Ding Dong, and his pintsized galaxy guardian, Hampton.

The Magic Hockey Skates (Family animation, 1x30 min.) A 9-year-old boy who dreams of being a hockey champion can only afford a pair of secondhand skates, but it turns out they’re magical, granting him three wishes.

Big Bounce Battle Stiletto Vendetta Prisoner of Love (Drama, 225x45 min.) Forced together by circumstance, two quite different couples find themselves in the same predicament—an irresistible love that affects all of their lives.

Cennet (Drama, 114x45 min.) All she ever wanted was a mother, but when Cennet finally finds the woman who abandoned her as a baby, her motives are fiercely questioned.

El Accidente (Drama, 13x70 min./17x45 min.)

Lucia’s life starts to fall apart when her husband’s plane crashes. But when she discovers he never even boarded, the reasons why uncover more devastation than she could have imagined…

Trotsky (Drama, 8x52 min.) Trotsky, living out his final days in exile, tells his version of the Russian Revolution and how he led the communists to victory before he was betrayed by those closest to him.

Phi (Drama, 33x45 min.) A celebrity television psychiatrist uses all his wits to bend a beautiful dancer to his will, while an investigative journalist plots to bring his disturbing background to the surface.

Elif (Drama, 960x45 min.) A goodhearted little girl finds herself the peacemaker in the middle of a series of family feuds in this long-running international hit.

Broken Hearts (Drama, 180x23 min.) Brought together by shared grief, a young woman’s relationship with an older man is tested when she finds true romance with his young benefactor.

Insider (Drama, 126x45 min.) An actionpacked thriller following two moles on opposite sides of the law, each trying to catch the other before their personal lives catch up with them.

ENDEMOL SHINE INTERNATIONAL

O (44-870) 333-1700 m sales@endemolshine.com w www.endemolshinedistribution.com Stand: R8.E1 Contact: Endemol Shine Group: Peter Salmon, chief creative officer; Lisa Perrin, CEO, creative networks; Nicola Bamford, CEO, intl. operations; Marina Williams, COO, intl. operations; Patrick Keegan, co-dir., mktg. & comms.; Endemol Shine Intl.: Cathy Payne, chief exec.; Matt Creasey, EVP, sales & acq., Americas, Asia, Australia & NZ; Mark Lawrence, exec. dir., Europe; Rashmi Bajpai, exec. dir., Asia; James Braham, snr. sales dir., U.K. & Eire; Claire Jago, snr. sales dir., Nordic; Daryl Kho, snr. sales dir., Asia; Marion Vergnaud, sales dir., France; Fabrizio De Leo, sales dir., Italy & Iberia; Emma Knight, sales dir., CEE minor; Alexander Rubanov, sales dir., Russia, CIS, Baltics & Turkey; Katie Stephenson, sales dir., Benelux; Matthew Hodges, sales dir., Germany, Poland & Hungary; Jasmine Goh, sales dir., Asia; Robin Pollok, sales dir., Africa, Israel, Middle East; Simon Cox, head, acq.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS The Good Karma Hospital (Drama, S2: 6x60 min.; total 12x60 min.) Life-affirming drama series set in tropical South India. Starring Amanda Redman, Amrita Acharia and Neil Morrissey.

Troy: Fall of a City (Drama, 8x60 min.) David Farr’s visceral retelling of the Trojan War. An epic story of love and war, intrigue and betrayal.

Harem (Drama, 8x60 min.) Inspired by cults in Israel, including one led by a mystic healer who lives in Tel Aviv with 32 wives who birthed him 89 children.

Action Team (Comedy, 6x30 min.) This comedy action thriller follows the exploits of a special branch of MI6. Think The Naked Gun meets The Bourne Identity in this series from the creative talent behind Murder in Successville.

Britain’s Best Home Cook (Ent., 8x60 min.) Follows ten contestants who will need to demonstrate skill under pressure and individual flair as they are asked to serve the perfect version of dishes that define modern British home cooking.

Trading Spaces (Ent., 8x60 min.) Reboot of the original series which sees two sets of neighbors redecorate a room in each others’ home. They have no control over their own home redecoration until the reveal.

All Together Now (Ent., 6x60 min.) Talented performers take to the stage to perform in front of The 100, an audience of great singers with big voices and even bigger opinions. If any of The 100 like what they hear, they stand up and join in. The greater the number that stand up and sing along, the higher the contestant’s score.

Big Bounce Battle (Ent., 6x90 min.) Contestants race the clock and gravity as they try to conquer spectacular trampoline obstacle courses as fast as they can. It’s the ultimate physical game show as the trampoline tracks become more difficult as the series progresses, testing speed, strength, balance and timing.

Family Food Fight (Ent.) Diverse, multi-generational families go head-to-head in high-pressure cooking challenges to win the experience of a lifetime and the coveted title of the ‘Greatest Food Family.’

ENTERTAINMENT ONE

O (44-20) 3691-8600 m tvinfo@entonegroup.com w international.eonetv.com

Stand: C15.A5 Contact: Stuart Baxter, pres., intl. dist.; Dan Gopal, EVP, sales, EMEA, intl. dist.; Noel Hedges, EVP, acq., intl. dist.; Caroline Stott, EVP, mktg., intl. dist.; Patrick Roberts, VP, sales, U.K. & Scandinavia, intl. dist.; Toby Melling, VP, sales, France & MEA, intl. dist.; Christian Fritzsche, VP, sales & head, eOne Germany, intl. dist.; Olivier Dumont, mng. dir., eOne Family; Monica Candiani, head, intl. sales, eOne Family; Jilliane Reiseth, VP, creative affairs, eOne Family.

Cupcake and Dinosaur

Caught Caught (Drama, 7x30 min.) Based on the bestselling novel, featuring an escaped convict on the hunt for his drug kingpin ex-partner with the help of a corrupt cop.

Designated Survivor (Drama, S1: 21x60 min., S2: 22x60 min.) A lower level United States Cabinet member, Tom Kirkman (Kiefer Sutherland), is suddenly appointed President after a catastrophic attack during the State of the Union kills everyone above him in the line of succession.

Cardinal (Drama, S1: 6x60 min., S2: 6x60 min., S3: 6x60 min. soon) The critically acclaimed crime drama series returns for a third seasons as Detectives Cardinal and Delorme investigate a gruesome double murder that brings them precariously close to a doomsday cult.

Private Eyes (Drama, S1: 10x60 min., S2: 18x60 min., S3: 12x60 min. soon) Ex-professional sports player Matt Shade (Jason Priestley) teams up with fierce P.I. Angie Everette (Cindy Sampson) to form an unlikely investigative powerhouse.

ENTERTAINMENT ONE FAMILY & BRANDS

O (44-203) 691-8600

w www.entertainmentone.com Stand: C15.A5 Contact: Olivier Dumont, pres.; Monica Candiani, EVP, content sales; Jillianne Reinseth, SVP, creative affairs; Luciana Bianchi Vicos, snr. dir., content sales; Ralf Kies, sales mgr., snr. dir., content sales; Andrea Panayiotou, exec. asst.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Ninja Express (CGI comedy, 52x11 min.) Imagine a delivery service that delivers anything, anywhere, anytime. A delivery service that is not constrained by the limits of time and space. And to top things off, imagine it being run by three little ninjas.

Cupcake and Dinosaur (Kids 7-12 CGI comedy, 52x11 min.) Follows the larger-than-life exploits of a tiny cupcake with big brains and a napoleon complex and his giant, spunky dinosaur younger brother as they strive to make a name for themselves in the super competitive general-services business.

PJ Masks (Preschool CGI, 104x11 min.) When something goes awry in the city, three special 6-year-olds put their pajamas on and are magically transformed into superheroes.

Winston Steinburger & Sir Dudley Ding Dong (Kids 7-11 2D, 52x11 min.) Winston Steinburger sets out to explore every solar system with the help of

Peppa Pig (Preschool 2D, 260x5 min. & 4 specials) A series about a cheeky and slightly bossy little pig called Peppa.

Ben and Holly’s Little Kingdom (Preschool 2D, 104x11 min.) The Little Kingdom is home to Princess Holly, a young fairy, and her best friend, Ben the elf.

Lost and Found (Preschool animation, 1x30 min.) A magical tale of loneliness lost—and friendship found.

Pat and Stan (Kids 6-9, 39x7 min., 1x26 min. & 250 shorts) Join this hilarious comedy duo as they manage to take mundane daily life to the silliest of extremes.

Humf (Preschool 2D animation, 78x7 min.)

Humf is short, round and cuddly and always curious to learn about the world around him.

ESCAPADE MEDIA

O (61) 411-035317 m natalie@escapademedia.com.au w www.escapademedia.com.au Contact: Natalie Lawley, mng. dir.; Anthony Mrsnik, dir.; Jessica Stonehouse, head, sales, partnerships & business dvpmt., U.S. & U.K. PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS 600 Bottles of Wine (Comedy, 8x9 min.)

Flung back into the dating scene after breaking up with her long-term boyfriend Nick, Claire is apprehensive about the rules, expectations and implications that she has to navigate on her journey as a newly single woman.

Walking Points (Factual, 1x90 min./1x52 min.

4K) In the U.S., cancer detection dogs are being used to test for this killer disease and the results are remarkable.

Australia: Kingdom of the Quokka Australia: Kingdom of the Quokka (Natural history, 2x60 min. 4K & VR) On the far west of the Australian continent there is a set of islands whose inhabitants defy all laws of nature.

Household Empires (Factual, 13x30 min. 4K) Explores how a world steeped in tradition has been impacted by technology, providing small businesses with marketable e-commerce platforms, allowing them to flourish from their living room to the world.

Video interviews with leading players in the media business, industry analysis and a recap of the week’s events—delivered to your inbox every Thursday.

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TV LISTINGS

Animal Clinic (Factual/reality, 18x30 min.) An observational documentary series following the extraordinary work at Ireland’s largest animal charity, the high-tech DSPCA clinic that provides emergency care for every kind of domestic and wild animal imaginable.

The Art of Killing (Drama, 6x60 min.) Marcus Koopman, a Liverpudlian ex-cop with a violent past, is enjoying a peaceful early retirement with his hedonistic artist wife Zoe in tropical Byron Bay, Australia, when his estranged son Stevie enters his life.

Charged & Disbarred (Factual/crime, 13x30 min. 4K) Explores real-life crimes perpetrated by those trusted with the law. Narrated by lawyer and prosecutor James Pacitti.

Food.Sail.Love. (Lifestyle, 8x30 min. 4K) This unique culinary voyage invites the viewer to experience the local life and the preservation of precious traditions.

JC Tha Barber (Reality/ent., 13x30 min. 4K) Follows celebrity barber JC Hammons into the homes and dressing rooms of today’s hottest stars from the worlds of film, hip hop and professional sports.

Tomorrow When the War Began (Drama, 6x45 min.) A group of young friends overcome seemingly insurmountable odds to save the things they hold most precious. (Asian rights only)

FEDERATION KIDS & FAMILY

O (33-6) 5137-9895 m monica@cottonwood.tv

w fedent.com/kids-and-family/ Stand: R9.A5 Contact: David Michel, mng. dir.; Monica Levy, VP, intl. sales; Alexandre Henin, head, acq.; Sarah Zarka, sales exec.; Valerie Tailland, dir., comms.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Find Me in Paris (Daily tween drama, 52x30 min.) Lena Grisky is a time-traveling ballerina from 1905 Russia trying to navigate her way through the perils of adolescence—in 2015 Paris.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Welcome to the Family (Black comedy, 13x52 min.) Takes a comical look at the institution of family, showing courageous mothers, adopted children and dim-witted widows embarking on the journey of life together.

Kilian Jornet: Path to Everest (Doc., 1x80 min.) At the end, begin again.

The Miramar Murders (True-crime doc., 6x52 min.) One of European cinema’s best, most personal directors brings this remarkable story of a traumatic murder case in which he questions the complexity of the judicial system in the USA.

I Know Who You Are I Know Who You Are (Drama/thriller, 16x70 min.) Narrates the story of a reputed lawyer who tries to demonstrate his innocence after being accused of murdering his niece.

The Red Band Society (Drama, S1: 13x45 min., S2: 15x45 min.) A story of friendship, overcoming obstacles and the will to live.

Muse (Psychological thriller, 1x108 min.) A mature approach to the supernatural, a sophisticated universe of horrors, where a literature professor has to battle against his greatest love: poetry.

The Motive (Black comedy, 1x112 min.) Alvaro dreams of becoming a great writer, but he is incapable of producing anything other than tedious, pretentious drivel. By manipulating his friends and neighbors, Alvaro gets his plot, but will his true story have a happy ending?

Operation Goldenshell (Comedy, 1x103 min.)

Fast-paced con movie set in the glamorous context of the San Sebastian Film Festival.

The Solar System (Dramedy, 1x90 min.) It’s Christmas Eve in Lima and the del Solar family is getting together for the first time in over two years.

O (44-203) 426-7000 m contentsales@fox.com The Ollie & Moon Show (Upper preschool animation, 104x11 min.) A slapstick comedy starring two animated cats who travel across the live-action world showing kids the joys of friendship, food and fun across the globe.

Squish (Kids 6-11 animated comedy, 52x11 min.) Follows an Amoeba looking to survive life in the cutthroat world of single cell organisms–not to mention school.

Love, Divina (Daily teen drama, 60x45 min.)

Divina (who secretly dreams of becoming a pop star) and a group of her street-urchin friends are taken in by Divina’s long-lost wealthy grandmother.

FILMAX INTERNATIONAL

O (34) 933-368-555 m filmaxint@filmax.com

w www.filmaxinternational.com Stand: R7.J11 Contact: Iván Díaz, head, intl. division; Guillermo Antuña, sales & festivals coord.

Love in the Countryside (Ent., 6x60 min.)

Eight rural dwellers from across the U.K. are on a mission to find the partner of their dreams.

Pope: The Most Powerful Man in History (Factual, 6x60 min.) Goes inside the Vatican to reveal the true power held by popes throughout the ages.

Genius: Picasso

FOX NETWORKS GROUP CONTENT DISTRIBUTION

Find Me in Paris

David Haller (Dan Stevens) ready to tackle the malevolent “Shadow King.”

Here On Earth (Aquí en la Terra) (Drama, 8x60 min.) A series about a Mexican family’s complex crimes and major secrets, starring Gael Garcia Bernal, who also executive produces and directs.

w www.fngcontentdistribution.com Stand: C16.C Contact: Prentiss Fraser, EVP & mng. dir., content dist.; Connie Hodson, VP, content & corp. comms.; Peter Grant, VP, content dist., Western & Southern Europe & global SVOD; Joanna Rowley, exec. dir., Northern Europe & Africa; Julius Toh, VP, content dist., AsiaPac; Jeeyoung Lee, exec. dir., sales, Japan, Korea & regional formats; Maria Grazia Ursino, exec. dir., Italy, Spain & Portugal; Annette Kollek, dir., content sales, Australia & NZ; Natalia Shibanova, content sales mgr., Russia & CIS; Andrew Stephen, snr. sales mgr., U.K., Benelux, Nordics, France, Germany, Africa & U.S. formats; Filipa Pereira, jnr. sales exec.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Genius: Picasso (Drama, 10x60 min.) The second in this anthology series stars Antonio Banderas as the talented Spanish artist. Also featuring Clémence Poséy.

Deep State (Drama, 8x60 min.) Espionage thriller starring Mark Strong as a former spy and Joe Dempsie as his son.

Legion (Drama, S2: 11x60 min.) Based on the Marvel Comics, the series returns with mutant

Mr Inbetween (Drama, 6x30 min.) Presented at Sundance, a drama series with comedic moments about a hitman juggling his violent work life with fatherhood, a new girlfriend and an ex-wife.

In Another Life (Adi: Zehra) (Drama, 38x60 min.) Zehra poses as a missing person to escape her past. What is her new “mother” hiding and what really happened to the woman she’s impersonating?

JANE (Doc., 1x120 min.) Multiple award-winning feature doc providing a remarkable and intimate look at the extraordinary life and work of primatologist Jane Goodall, directed by Brett Morgen.

One Strange Rock (Science doc., 10x60 min.)

A landmark event series providing a truly original look at Earth, hosted by Will Smith, from Darren Aronofsky and Jane Root’s Nutopia.

The Story of Us with Morgan Freeman (Doc., 6x60 min.) Morgan Freeman sets out to uncover the fundamental forces that keep our societies together and understand how human culture has taken so many remarkable forms.

Chain of Command (Doc., 8x60 min.) Narrated by Chris Evans, this series shows how decisions made at the Pentagon have a direct impact on service members on the ground.

FREMANTLEMEDIA INTERNATIONAL

O (44-20) 7691-6000 m general.enquiries@fremantlemedia.com w www.fmscreenings.com Stand: C11 Contact: Jens Richter, CEO; Bob McCourt, COO; Americas: Lisa Honig, SEVP, intl. dist.; Caroline Kusser, SVP, sales & dist., U.S.; Michela Di Mondo, VP, sales & dist., Canada; Felicia Litovitz, dir., sales & dist., Canada; LatAm & Hispanic U.S.: Sheila Aguirre, EVP, intl. dist.; Natalie Rodriguez, sales mgr., LatAm, Caribbean & Hispanic U.S.; EMEA: Jamie Lynn, EVP, intl. dist.; Anahita Kheder, SVP, MEA & Southeastern Europe; Amac Us, sales dir., MEA & Southeastern Europe; Karen Finnegan, SVP, sales, U.K., Eire & Scandinavia; Maximilian Bolenius, SVP, German-speaking Europe & Israel; Nick Pawsey, VP, sales & dist., CEE, Russia & CIS; Al De Azpiazu, VP, sales & dist., Western Europe; Pete Kalhan, SVP, home ent., archive sales; Gordon Craig, head, archive sales; Melanie McClure, sales exec., nontheatric/closed circuit (maternity cover); Australia, NZ, Japan: Paul Ridley, SEVP, intl. dist.; Daryl O’Connor, SVP, home ent.; Katsu Waza, SVP, sales & multiplatform dist.; Asia: Ganesh Rajaram, EVP, intl. dist.; Haryaty Rahman, SVP, sales & dist.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS American Idol (Ent., 19x120 min.) The iconic music series is back, with Ryan Seacrest as host and Katy Perry, Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan as judges.

Deutschland 86 The Coronation (Factual, 1x60 min.) This program, with a unique contribution from Queen Elizabeth II, tells the story of her Coronation for the first time on camera.

The 2000’s (Factual, 8x60 min.) Catalogs the events that defined the start of a new millennium.

The Miracle (Drama, 8x60 min.) From the producers of The Young Pope comes a new event drama series. A remarkable discovery brings consequences for all who witness it.

My Brilliant Friend (Drama, 8x60 min.) The highly anticipated adaptation of the internationally best-selling novel by Elena Ferrante. The beginning of an epic story of a lifelong friendship set in Naples, 1950.

Hang Ups (Comedy, 6x30 min.) The story of Richard Pitt (Stephen Mangan), a therapist with a unique approach—weekly quick-fire sessions with his patients that take place online through a webcam.

Picnic at Hanging Rock (Drama, 6x60 min.)

Natalie Dormer stars in the critically acclaimed and trailblazing reimagining of the iconic and timeless Australian novel by Joan Lindsay.

Deutschland 86 (Drama, 10x60 min.) The second season of the critically acclaimed Deutschland picks up the story three years later in 1986 as Martin’s world-view expands in many directions.

GAUMONT

O (1-424) 281-5200 m sales@gaumont.com w www.gaumont.us Stand: R8.C1 Contact: Christophe Riandee, vice CEO; Vanessa Shapiro, pres., worldwide TV dist. & coprod.; Nicolas Atlan, pres., animation; Gene Stein, pres., TV, U.S.; Isabelle DeGeorges, pres., TV, France; Terry Kalagian, SVP, creative dvpmt., animation & family; Gaelle Guiny, VP, animated series dvpmt., France; Jeqan-Baptise Lère, head, prod., animation; Cecilia Rossignol, VP, intl. TV sales, scripted; Laura Laas, VP, intl. TV sales, animation; Mathilde Rottier, VP, U.S. & Canada TV dist.; Ezequiel Olzanski, VP, LatAm TV dist. & coprod.; Torquil Macneal, sales exec., Asia & Australia.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Narcos (Drama, 40x60 min.) From filmmaker José Padilha, an inside look at the men who would stop at nothing to take down Pablo Escobar, delivering an unfiltered look into the war that would change the drug trade forever.

NOX (Drama, 6x60 min.) A retired cop, forced back into action when her daughter disappears

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TV LISTINGS into the Paris sewers, chases every clue in a hellish descent into the Paris underground, racing against time to navigate the terrifying maze of basements of the city’s underworld.

Hetty Feather (Family/kids drama, 40x22 min.) Abandoned as a baby, Hetty Feather lives in a children’s home where she faces daily challenges, makes friends and discovers untold truths as she searches for her mother.

who disguise themselves as musicians while they secretly plot to vanquish an evil Empress who is seeking to enslave the galaxy.

Aria of the Doomed (Period drama, ongoing) Focuses on the lives of prisoners in a Stalinist era labor camp for women. The period drama covers seven years between 1938 and 1945.

Deep (Drama, ongoing) Sahir is a police officer in charge of the suicide hotline and negotiation department of the Istanbul Police Department. An anonymous call he receives one day leads him to find Bilge, a mysterious woman whose life is full of secrets.

Golden Horde (Period drama, 16x60 min.) It’s the end of the 13th century and Grand Prince Yaroslav dreams of uniting the Russian principalities and getting rid of the Tataro-Mongols, but his own brother and his eldest son stand in the way.

Llama Llama

Narcos The Art of Crime (Drama, 6x60 min.) When a hotheaded detective teams up with an art historian from the Louvre, their relationship grows like fire and ice as they delve into mysteries that capture French culture and history.

The Frozen Dead (Event series, 6x60 min.) The headless body of a horse is discovered hanging suspended from the edge of a frozen cliff. Commandant Martin Servaz starts investigating and soon discovers a dark story of madness and revenge.

Relationship Status (Drama, 36x10 min./13x22 min.) An interweaving cast of 20and 30-somethings navigate the complexities of dating and relationships in the modern age of social media.

Trulli Tales (Preschool animated comedy adventure, 52x11 min. & 13x1 min.) Four young and talented wizard chefs learn to face everyday challenges thanks to the words of wisdom from a magical grandma living in an ancestral cookbook.

Belle and Sebastian (Kids 5-9 animated comedy adventure, 52x11 min.) Follow the outdoor adventures of a courageous young boy and his huge white dog who will rush to anybody’s rescue.

Bionic Max (Kids 6-11 comedy adventure, 52x11 min.) In development with Gulli, a buddy comedy about a malfunctioning bionic guinea pig, his goldfish best friend and their adventures as express delivery boys as they have to learn how to cohabitate in their own world within Central Park.

Furiki Wheels (Kids 6-11 animated comedy, 52x11 min.) André Furiki is a hyperactive young sloth with plans to travel the world. But first he must learn to drive.

GENIUS BRANDS INTERNATIONAL

O (1-310) 273-4222 m info@gnusbrands.com w www.gnusbrands.com Contact: Andy Heyward, chmn. & CEO; Greg Payne, EVP, operations & business affairs; Deb Pierson, SVP, global content dist. & mktg. & pres., Kid Genius Cartoon Channel.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Rainbow Rangers (Preschool animation, 52x11 min.) An empowering adventure following the lives of Earth’s first responders, whose mission is to help protect the planet’s environment and its animal inhabitants.

Llama Llama (Preschool animation, 15x30 min.) This Netflix series with Jennifer Garner is about childhood moments and adventures, as well as the special connections between Llama, his parents, grandparents and best friends.

SpacePOP (Tween adventure animation, 108x3 min.) Follows five teenage princesses

Thomas Edison’s Secret Lab (Kids comedy adventure animation, 26x30 min.) Featuring comedy, adventure and hijinks, encourages kids to explore the limits of their own imaginations with the help of Thomas Edison to inspire and encourage them.

GLOBAL AGENCY

O (90-212) 240-5769 m info@theglobalagency.tv w www.theglobalagency.tv Stand: R8.E17 Contact: Izzet Pinto, fndr. & CEO; Umay Ayaz, head, acq.; Senay Filiztekin, head, drama acq.; Fahriye Senturk, head, mktg. comms.; Miroslav Radojevic, sales dir., MENA & Africa; Gozde Sergili, sales dir., Europe & Scandinavia; Senay Tas, sales dir., CEE; Ivan Sanchez, sales dir., LatAm; Isil Turksen, sales dir., Asia; Deniz Tuzun, sales dir., CIS & Russia; Ekin Gabay, sales dir., North America, Canada, U.K., Australia, NZ & Baltics.

GLOBAL SCREEN

O (49-89) 244-1295-500 m info@globalscreen.de w www.globalscreen.de Stand: P-1.K2 Contact: André Druskeit, mng. dir.; Alexandra Heidrich, head, TV sales & acq.; Kerstin Gruenwald, snr. sales mgr., TV; Stefanie Hofferbert, snr. sales mgr., TV; Helge Koehnen, snr. sales mgr., TV; Alexandra Kudelina, sales mgr.; Barbara Vallant, formats mgr.; Ulrike Schröder, acq. mgr.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS The Joshua Profile (Thriller, 1x105 min.)

Good guy Max is chased through the vibrant metropolis of Berlin for a crime he hasn’t committed—yet. Based on the best seller by Sebastian Fitzek.

The Joshua Profile

Aria of the Doomed PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Heritage (Reality, 60 min. eps.) An elderly rich widow with no heir lives with six contestants; at the end, she will choose one to inherit part of her legacy.

The Remix (Music talent show) DJs and singers pair up and compete over 13 weeks for a big money prize and the chance to cut their own album with a famous music label.

My Life Is a Scenario (Comedy talent show/reality, 90 min. eps) Improv talent show puts contestants into different real-life acting challenges in order to find out who is the best and the funniest.

Looking for My Mother (Reality, 120 min. eps.)

A reality show based on real-life stories, created with meticulous investigative journalism, about people in search of their biological mothers.

My Dangerous Wife (Drama, ongoing) Alper hatches a scheme with his mistress to kill his wealthy wife Derin, but his plan falls apart when Derin mysteriously disappears and he begins getting calls about a ransom payment.

Sultan of My Heart (Period drama, ongoing) Mahmoud II, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, and Anna, an open-minded, hardworking Russian girl, fall in love at first sight.

Charité (Historical drama, 6x48 min.) The world’s most famous hospital inspires a young woman to shine in this epic story, set in Berlin in 1888.

Weissensee (Drama, 24x48 min.) The awardwinning, sweeping family saga of conflicting loyalties, love, hope, faith and betrayal set behind the Berlin Wall in the former East Germany.

Buried Truth (Crime, 6x60 min.) Unearthing the valley’s dark secret, local cop Rosa Wilder discovers it has more to do with her history than she wants to know. eLegal (Crime, 10x52 min.) In a frantic race against real-time, Valentine and her crack team of legal eagles solve the tough cases in cyber crime.

Streets of Berlin (Crime, 6x90 min.) Berlin is sexy, deadly and dangerous. Inspectors Nina Rubin and Robert Karow are big-city homicide cops and an uneven duo.

Welcome to Hindafing (Dramedy, 6x45 min.)

Rise and fall of ballsy provincial mayor Alfons, deep in the Bavarian backwoods. A Fargo-style look at the dark underbelly of our Western society.

The Stepdaughters PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS The Stepdaughters (Drama, 40x45 min.) Two women destined to be rivals suddenly become family when their single parents fall for one another and get married, making them stepsisters.

Sherlock Jr. (Drama/action adventure, 45x45 min.)

A reporter investigates the murder of his girlfriend, only to find himself falling in love with the only witness—who unfortunately cannot remember anything.

The One That Got Away (Drama/romantic comedy, 45x45 min.) What happens when three beautiful, independent women who have the same ex-boyfriend meet and they all happen to still be in love with him?

Sirkus (Fantasy/adventure, 20x30 min.) Twins Miko and Mia discover their true identities and hidden powers when they join a traveling circus to escape the evil witch La’Ora. Heart and Soul (Drama/fantasy, 45x45 min.)

Criselda dies but remains a spirit that only appears to Crisanta. Their bond as twins falls apart when they both fall in love with Diego.

Stay with Me (Drama, 40x45 min.) Thea’s traumatic past haunts her when she tests positive for HIV. How can she conquer her inner demons and reclaim her life and her family?

My Korean Jagiya (Drama/romantic comedy, 67x45 min.) A Korean drama fan falls in love with a Korean actor and hopes he will love her too. Is her dream too good to come true?

Impostora (Drama, 80x45 min.) A woman with a disfigured face goes under the knife to become beautiful, only to find out she will assume another woman’s life and identity.

A Woman Scorned (Drama, 170x45 min.) A simple wife and a seductive office manager seek to win the heart of a widowed pilot yearning for true love.

Angela (Drama/fantasy, 80x45 min.) Angela and Lucille are half-sisters who both possess superpowers: one can heal with her touch while the other causes pain.

GOLDBEE

O (34-93) 159-2212 m info@goldbee.es w www.goldbee.es Contact: Christophe Goldberger, mng. dir.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS ToonMarty (Animation, 40x11 min.) With every bend, bounce, flip and spin, Marty makes sure everyone feels included in his Marty party—and he makes sure there is one every day.

GMA WORLDWIDE

O (632) 333-7572 m gwi@gmanetwork.com w www.gmaworldwide.tv Stand: P-1.E67 Contact: Roxanne J. Barcelona, VP; Cirilo A. Estrada, sales mgr.

17

ToonMarty

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TV LISTINGS

Chop Chop Ninja Challenge (Animation, 40x1.5 min.) Four ninjas—Iro, Jo, Tetsuo and Neeko—are given challenges they must complete in three tries in this nonverbal slapstick comedy.

Chop Chop Ninja (Animation, 40x11 min.) Iro, a young ninja, along with his three classmates at the Academy, Jo, Neeko and Tetsuo, protects his island home from a steady onslaught of villains, and protects the mysterious Medallion from the clutches of Magic Master in the hopes of proving that he deserves the legendary title of Chop Chop Ninja.

GRB ENTERTAINMENT

O (1-818) 728-4140 m sales@grbtv.com w www.grbtv.com

Stand: R7.K17 Contact: Gary R. Benz, pres. & CEO; Marielle Zuccarelli, COO; Michael Lolato, SVP, intl. dist.; Melanie Torres, dir., intl. sales; Torquil Macneal, sales agent.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS The Bay (Drama, 42x30 min.) Follows the affluent yet dysfunctional residents living in a posh seaside town.

The Stalker Files (Crime, 10x60 min.) Hear the chilling stories behind celebrity stalking cases involving Gwyneth Paltrow, Steven Spielberg, Madonna and more.

Man at Arms (Science docuseries, 18x60 min.)

Expert craftsmen recreate iconic weapons from video games, movies and comics. Then, each creation is tested for its strength and real-world functionality. Hosted by Danny Trejo.

Tech Toys 360 (Science, 65x30 min.) Travels the globe in search of the coolest gadgets.

Experience cutting-edge technology behind modern wonders and meet the innovators who brought them to life.

King of Seas Whacked Out Sports (Sports clip show, 66x30 min.) Features hysterical professional and amateur sports mishaps, crashes and bloopers from all around the world.

It Happened Here (Crime, 10x60 min.) Visit locations connected to graphic events in popculture history—murders, drug overdoses, and accidental deaths of icons like Marilyn Monroe, Tupac and Marvin Gaye.

For My Man (Crime, 46x60 min.) Shocking stories of women who have committed crimes in the name of love. These women have no limits as to how far they’ll go for their men.

The Expedition: Mars 2030 (Science doc., 1x30 min.) NASA has set the first planned mission to Mars for 2030. Meet the scientists, engineers and thinkers grappling with the challenges of how to get there.

King of Seas (Science doc., 1x30 min.) Great White sharks are depicted as dangerous man-hunting monsters. This doc will reveal the true role of great white sharks in today’s oceans.

Hollywood Divas (Docuseries, 28x60 min.)

Follow six actresses as they fight to maintain their hard-earned status in Hollywood.

Despite their diva attitudes, they must work together to stay on top.

pet-only world made by pets, for pets, where Trip, Quincy, Jade, Roxie, Edie and Bev hang out at the cozy corner of the Littlest Pet. My Little Pony Equestria Girls (2x44 min.)

Join Sunset Shimmer, Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity as they learn what it means to be superheroes while they take on their biggest challenge yet: high school.

GREAT POINT MEDIA

O (44-20) 3873-0020 m sales@greatpointmedia.com w www.greatpointmedia.com Stand: R8.A2 Contact: Robert Halmi Jr., chmn.; Jim Reeve, dir.; Fergus Haycock, commercial dir.; Nada Cirjanic, VP, global sales; Paul Howell, sales mgr.; Lucas Meurin, sales team asst.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS King Lear (TV movie/drama, 1x90 min.) Anthony Hopkins, Emma Thompson, Emily Watson, Florence Pugh, Jim Broadbent, Jim Carter and Andrew Scott star in Shakespeare’s tale of family envy and betrayal.

Measure of a Man (TV movie/drama, 1x100 min.)

Blake Cooper plays a bullied overweight teen who, one summer, learns to stand up for himself. Also starring Donald Sutherland, Judy Greer and Luke Wilson.

Measure of a Man A Happening of Monumental Proportion (TV movie/comedy, 1x82 min.) Ensemble comedy set over a single day in an L.A. school, starring Oscar winner Allison Janney, Katie Holmes, Jennifer Garner, John Cho, Common and Rob Riggle.

Submission (TV movie/drama, 1x107 min.)

Stanley Tucci stars as a cynical college professor who takes an interest in a talented young student.

Also stars Kyra Sedgwick and Janeane Garofalo.

Euphoria (TV movie/drama, 1x98 min.) Alicia Vikander and Eva Green star as estranged sisters, traveling through Europe to a mysterious destination. Charlotte Rampling, Charles Dance and Adrian Lester also star.

Krystal (TV movie/comedy-drama, 1x94 min.)

A naïve young man (Nick Robinson) falls for a stunning older woman (Rosario Dawson). Also starring William Fichtner, Kathy Bates, William H Macy and Felicity Huffman.

Aardvark (TV movie/drama, 1x90 min.) Starring Zachary Quinto as a troubled man living in the shadow of his absent famous brother (Jon Hamm).

Jenny Slate plays the therapist trying to help him.

Trouble (TV movie/comedy, 1x100 min.)

Anjelica Huston and Bill Pullman star as siblings feuding over possession of their father’s estate, while Julia Stiles and David Morse attempt to mediate.

Rememory (TV movie/drama, 1x120 min.) A professor dies in mysterious circumstances, just before the release of a world-changing invention.

Thriller starring Peter Dinklage, Julia Ormond and Anton Yelchin.

My Days of Mercy (TV movie/drama, 1x108 min.) An anti-death penalty campaigner (Ellen Page) whose father is on death row falls into a passionate relationship with a woman from the opposing side (Kate Mara).

GUSTO WORLDWIDE MEDIA

O (1-613) 730-1728 m sales@gustoworldwidemedia.com w www.gustoworldwidemedia.com Stand: P3.B22 Contact: Chris Knight, pres. & CEO.

Flour Power PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Flour Power (Baking, 26x30 min. 4K) Set in a retro-style kitchen, the host inspires viewers with simple to extravagant baked treats.

Accompanied by 60-plus recipes, webisodes and photography.

Bonacini’s Italy (Food, 15x30 min. 4K) Features celebrity chef Michael Bonacini as he cooks sumptuous Italian fare. Marketing package includes 60 recipes, stylish webisodes and food photography.

One World Kitchen (Food, S1: 30x30 min., S2: 24x30 min., S3: 28x30 min. 4K) Features international cuisines (Italian, Indian, Thai, Argentine, Japanese, Cantonese, Lebanese and Greek). Accompanied by 320-plus webisodes, recipes and photography.

Fish the Dish (Food, S1: 15x30 min., S2: 15x30 min. 4K) Celebrates sustainability while demystifying cooking seafood. Accompanied by 120-plus recipes with videos and photography.

The Latin Kitchen (Food, 15x30 min. 4K) Explores three Latin cuisines (Mexican, Venezuelan and Spanish) with three hosts. Turnkey marketing package includes 60 recipes, webisodes, and photography.

The Urban Vegetarian (Food, 15x30 min. 4K) Set in an upscale kitchen, celebrates delicious vegetarian cuisine. Accompanied by 45-plus recipes, webisodes and photography.

Spencer’s Big 30 (Food, 13x30 min. 4K) Shot in real time, features healthy, family-style meals made in around 30 minutes for about 30 dollars. Accompanied by 59 original recipes, webisodes and photography.

A Is for Apple (Food, S1: 30x30 min., S2: 24x30 min. 4K) Recorded on a one-of-a-kind set accompanied by 160-plus recipes with webisodes and photography.

Crate to Plate (Food doc., 4x30 min. 4K) Showcases the people whose lives are shaped by the food we eat.

Fresh Market Dinners (Food, 10x30 min.

4K) Features a young host as she transforms ingredients from local farmer’s markets into chic dinners. Includes 30-plus recipes, webisodes and photography.

HASBRO STUDIOS

O (44-208) 569-1234 m internationalsales@hasbro.com w hasbrostudios.com Stand: R7.D32 Contact: Finn Arnesen, SVP, intl. dist. & dvpmt.; Nina Scales, VP, intl. sales dist.; Nuno I, sales dir., AsiaPac; Sheetal Merchant, sales dir., EMEA; Lucy Mackrill, mgr., intl. dist.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic (195x22 min.) In the village of Ponyville, Twilight Sparkle and her five pony friends learn all about the most powerful magic of all: the magic of friendship.

Littlest Pet Shop A World of Our Own (52x11 min.) Welcome to the land of Paw-Tucket, a

Transformers Rescue Bots Academy Transformers Cyberverse (18x11 min.)

Bumblebee is on a critical mission—only, he can’t remember what it is. It’s a good thing Windblade has found him to help repair his memory to complete their mission before the Decepticons find them.

Transformers Rescue Bots Academy (52x11 min.) A group of young Bots fresh from Cybertron have the honor of being the first-ever class to enroll in Earth’s Rescue Bot Training Academy and learn how to become Earth heroes through hands-on experience.

IMAGINA INTERNATIONAL SALES

O (34-91) 728-5738 m info@imaginasales.tv w www.imaginasales.tv

Stand: R7.F31 Contact: Beatriz Setuain, mng. dir.; Esther Agraso, head, sales; Miguel García, sales mgr., LatAm; Marta Piedade, sales exec.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Side Games (Thriller, 8x50 min.) An ambitious executive for a regional soccer club will be immersed in a thrilling game of corruption, violence and power.

Undiscovered Spain (Travel/gastronomy) Chef José Andrés is about to take us on a journey to the most delicious culinary secrets of Spain; he will show a different side of his rich and amazing country with his unconventional and unexpected touch.

The Look (Talent show) Eight famous celebrities team up with eight expert stylists. Will they be able to make someone else look like a star?

Locked Up (Thriller, S3: 16x50 min. & 19x50 min., 8x50 min.) After misappropriating funds for love, Macarena will find in prison a new and tougher version of herself. In season three she is transferred to a new prison with its own leaders.

Catherine the Great (Biographical drama, 12x50 min.) The story of the Great Russian Empress in her early years.

Catherine the Great

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*LIST_418_ALT_LIS_1006_LISTINGS 3/21/18 5:30 PM Page 19

TV LISTINGS 19

INCENDO

O (1-514) 937-3333/ (1-310) 614-2416

m greardon@incendo.ca w www.incendo.ca Stand: P0.A7 Contact: Jean Bureau, pres.; Jean-Philippe Normandeau, COO; Gavin Reardon, intl. sales & coprod.; Ian Whitehead, head, prod. & dvpmt.; Michael McLaughlin, SVP & mng. dir., Fox/Incendo; Jean Vézina, VP, pgm. sales, French Canada, Fox/Incendo; Brook Peters, VP, pgm. sales, English Canada, Fox/Incendo.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Los Juniors (Drama, 10x60 min.) Inspired by true events. Four teens are trained by a ruthless drug lord to fight as a crew against a rival cartel.

Echo (Drama, 10x60 min.) A past-life memory, as told through the voice of a 4-year-old boy, triggers an international cold-case investigation when a dead body is found where the child said it would be.

The Edge (Drama, 10x60 min.) One hundred years from now, colonists on a remote world must overcome prejudice towards the synthetic humans they created and unite to survive against an alien species.

Love on Safari (MOW, 1x90 min.) American advertising executive Kira Slater inherits her grandparent’s wildlife reserve in Ukuthula, South Africa, but struggles to keep her grandfather’s legacy alive while also turning a profit.

Love Blossoms (MOW, 1x90 min.) Perfumer Violet, desperate to formulate her late father’s unfinished signature scent, hires an inexperienced botanist with an uncanny ability to identify scents.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Masha and the Bear (Kids 3+ comedy, S1: 26x7 min., S2: 26x7 min., S3: 26x7 min. in prod.) There are now three seasons of the tales of little Masha and her reluctant friend, the Bear, and the hilarious adventures they enjoy together.

Masha’s Tales (Kids 3+ comedy, 6 min. eps.)

Masha entertains families with a funny twist on traditional stories, all told in her own inimitable style.

The Barkers Masha’s Spooky Stories (Kids 3+ comedy, 6 min. eps.) Masha shows young viewers that typical childhood fears, such as being afraid of the dark and wary of water, are really nothing to worry about.

Moonzy (Kids 2-4 comedy, 52x6 min.) Moonzy, a small creature from the moon, winds up on Earth and learns about friendships, love and wonder with the help of his forest friends.

The Barkers (Upper-preschool comedy, S1: 26x6 min., S2: 26x6 min.) Canine family The Barkers are on a fun country house holiday. Thanks to their ingenuity, courage and friendship, this will be a vacation to remember.

The Mojicons (Kids 5+ comedy, S1: 26x12 min., movies: 1x85 min. & 1x95 min.) The Mojicons must stop a digital villain who has stolen the @ symbol.

Zafari (Kids 6+ comedy, 52x15 min./26x30 min.)

Zoomba, a baby elephant born with zebra stripes, and his sidekick Quincy, laugh, learn and grow.

This Is Love (Drama, 1,162x30 min., ongoing) The story of Raman and Ishita, who are connected by their common love for the little Ruhi.

The Threshold (Drama, 104x30 min.)

Swadheenta confesses her love for Adarsh during his engagement to another girl. They have to convince Adarsh’s mother that they should be together. On the wedding day, tragedy strikes.

Yours Truly, Paakhi (Drama, 269x30 min.)

Paakhi and Anshuman were married to each other as children. 18 years after their marriage, Paakhi, now a young woman, is still waiting for Anshuman’s “Yes” or “No.” There Was a Beautiful Woman (Drama, 216x30 min.) Durga changes her identity and comes back to rewrite her own destiny and see the justice that was denied to her.

Unexpected Love (Drama, 312x30 min., ongoing) The story of two overweight people, vastly different in their outlook and aspirations in life.

INTER MEDYA

O (90-212) 231-0102 m info@intermedya.tv w www.intermedya.tv

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Kitty is Not a Cat (Kids 6-10 2D, 52x12 min.)

A young girl is taken in by a household of cats with hilarious and charming results.

Kazoops (Kids 3-7 3D, 78x7 min.) Monty, a spirited boy of six, embarks on imaginary musical adventures with his friend to discover fresh perspectives on life.

Justin Time Go! (Kids 3-5 3D, S3: 28x11 min. & 2x22 min.) Justin and his friends set off on imaginary adventures in time.

The Sisters (Kids 6-11 2D, 52x12 min.) A show about two sisters, Marie and Wendy, who have very strong and different personalities.

Dennis & Gnasher Unleashed (Kids 6-11 3D, 52x11 min.) Brand-new comedy featuring the star of the world’s longest-running comic, The Beano.

Talking Tom & Friends (Kids 6+ 3D, S1: 52x11 min., S2: 28x11 min., S3: 28x11 min. in dvpmt.)

Follows the adventures of the global app sensation Talking Tom and Friends.

Boj (Kids 3-5 2D, 50x11 min. & 1x22 min.) A show about Boj, a bilby from the Aussie Outback, his musical parents and his Boj-a-boom ideas.

Yoko (Kids 4-6 2D, S1: 52x11 min., S2: 14x12 min. in prod.) Follows the adventures of three children whose playful energy and enthusiasm awakens the magical creature Yoko.

Stand: C16.D Contact: Can Okan, fndr. & CEO; Ahmet Ziyalar, COO; Melissa Okan, sales & mktg. mgr.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS The Pit (Drama) Çukur, one of the most dangerous neighborhoods of Istanbul, is ruled by the Koçova family. Although they are closely related to crime, the family has its own rules.

The Perfect Couple (Reality format) A reality dating show that will take place in a luxurious villa in the Caribbean over 52 episodes.

INTELLECTA

O (359) 888-308180 m marketing@intellectasrl.com

The Wolf The Wolf (Kids 4-6 2D, 78x7 min.) The show is about Wolf, who is friendly, endearing and always up for an adventure.

Paper Toyz (Kids 6-11 live action & 3D, 26x22 min.) Inside a house, a gang of paper characters led by a fearless heroine explore a dangerous world.

w www.intellectasrl.com Twisted Separated at Birth (MOW, 1x90 min.) Lucy Pierce discovers she was abducted as a child and tracks down her biological mother, a criminal prosecutor running for governor of Pennsylvania.

Sleeper (MOW, 1x90 min.) After suffering a miscarriage, Jennifer Jones begins to question her marriage and catches her husband in a few unassuming lies. When a sudden accident throws him into a coma, Jennifer is left to pick up the pieces.

Second Opinion (MOW, 1x90 min.) Ivy Fisher is at the top of her game, until her body fails her during a crucial meeting. Enter Dr. Mark Ryan, who has the recipe to break her.

The Queen of Sin (MOW, 1x90 min.) After a chance encounter with Jack, Posy Pinkerton seizes the opportunity to experience one last fling before settling down with her fiancé Tom. Twisted (MOW, 1x90 min.) Kara and Tyler are planning to getting married when Tyler’s ex-girlfriend returns from rehab, pulling her into a twisted game of cat and mouse.

Stand: P-1.D51 Contact: Christina Vlahova, GM; Handan Demiroz, VP, business dvpmt., Turkey; Anna Kraeva, VP, business dvpmt., Russia & CEE; Giuseppe Zappala, VP, business dvpmt., Western Europe.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Farewell to the Bride (Drama, 739x30 min.)

The story of two sisters, Sadhna (beautiful) and Ragini (unattractive), and how their looks determine their happiness and their stance in life.

Strange Love (Drama, 398x30 min.) An intense love-hate relationship between two individuals in a new perspective, highlighting the dilemma of how they cannot do without one another, and at the same time cannot be with each other.

Love Gamblers (Drama, 268x30 min., ongoing) The Oberoi family owns the biggest industries and hosts the most lavish parties. The ghosts of the past keep coming in front of them.

Saras and Kamud (Drama, 444x30 min.) Love story of two soul mates who are denied the joy of becoming one by destiny and tradition.

INK GROUP

KABO INTERNATIONAL The Pit Broken Wings (Drama) Nefise does her best to take care of her children after her husband’s sudden death.

Mrs. Fazilet and Her Daughters (Drama) Mrs. Fazilet and her daughters live a modest life but she is determined to become rich.

Money Monster (Game-show format) A studiobased quiz show in which contestants win the money they manage to count correctly after each right answer.

1 vs. 10 (Game-show format) One contestant will be asked ten questions. But instead of answering the questions, they need to choose one person out of ten who they think would not know the answer.

O (33-1) 8578-7331 m arabelle@kabointernational.com w www.kabointernational.com Stand: P-1.J56 Contact: Arabelle Pouliot-Di Crescenzo, mng. dir.; Elsa Pielot, intl. sales.

JETPACK DISTRIBUTION

O (45) 3355-6100 m bz@inkgrp.com

O (44) 7825-006-924 m dominic.gardiner@jetpackdistribution.tv

w www.inkgrp.com

w www.jetpackdistribution.tv

Stand: R8.B7 Contact: Claus Tømming, mng. partner; Bruno Zarka, media dir.

Stand: P-1.A92 Contact: Dominic Gardiner, CEO; Gillian Calvert Ridge, global head, sales.

There Was a Beautiful Woman

Cops on the Block PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS The Break-Up (Social-experiment format, 60 min. eps.) Based on an existing couples therapy method, helps real-life couples solve the problems in their relationships before they risk losing everything.

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*LIST_418_ALT_LIS_1006_LISTINGS 3/21/18 4:53 PM Page 20

20

TV LISTINGS

Solved! Forensic Police Files (True-crime docuseries, 30x45 min.) Calling on expert testimony and dramatic reenactments, this series takes us to the heart of police investigations, where science plays a dominant role.

Our Crazy Family (Scripted comedy format, 230x30 min. & 3x52 min.) Focuses on a multigenerational family as they face the complexities of three generations all trying to get along.

Tilt (VR game format, 10x30 min.) The first TV format featuring VR and using mixed reality production technique in broadcast TV where millennial celebrities challenge each other in VR games.

Who’s Who? (Ent. game-show format, 30/60 min. eps.) Three contestants must guess the occupation, talent or unique hobby of six strangers through questions, challenges and performances, while using their intuition and deductive reasoning.

Cops on the Block (Scripted comedy format, 50x30 min.) Follows the crazy antics of a police captain and his motley crew of cops as they try to enforce law and order in their town.

On Duty 24/7 (Docuseries, 24x23 min. & 8x46 min.) Goes behind the scenes of a busy hospital to witness the challenges doctors and their teams face while trying to save lives.

KANAL D INTERNATIONAL

O (90-212) 413-5666 m sales@kanald.com.tr w kanald.international

Stand: R9.A32 Contact: Ozge Bulut Marasli, CEO, Kanal D & prod. companies; Kerim Emrah Turna, dir., intl. content sales & business dvpmt.; Mikaela Perez, sales exec.; Deniz Cantutan, sales mgr.; Selim Türkmen, sales exec.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Mehmed the Conqueror (Historical drama, 45 min. eps.) In 1451, young Sultan Mehmed, on hearing the news that his father had passed, headed to Edirne with a dream to conquer Constantinopolis, the heart of the world.

Wounded Love (Historical drama, 45 min. eps.) Set along the beauty of the Aegean coastline, this epic romance asks if love can stay unwounded in the face of betrayal.

Price of Passion (Drama, 45 min. eps.) Ferhat is a hitman working for his criminal uncle. Asli is a young and idealistic doctor. One day, their paths cross in the most unexpected way.

Tales of Innocence (Drama, 30x135 min.) An accident on a rainy night changes three people’s lives forever. Love blossoms when they least expect it.

Wildrose (Drama, 45 min. eps.) 25-yearold Gülizar lives in one of Izmir’s poorest neighborhoods with her mother’s friend.

Making her own songs and being famous is Gülizar’s only passion. Her real father, who is very rich, passes away, leaving her a great amount of money.

KESHET INTERNATIONAL

O (972-3) 767-6031 m info@keshetinternational.com w www.keshetinternational.com

Stand: R8.C9 Contact: Alon Shtruzman, CEO; Keren Shahar, COO & pres., dist.; Kelly Wright, VP, dist. & new business; Sammy Nourmand, mng. dir., U.K. & Western Europe; Sebastian Burkhardt, head, business dvpmt. & acq. & SVP, digital; Nicola Andrews, sales & commercial dir., kids; Anke Stoll, dir., acq. & coprod.; Atar Dekel, head, global original drama; Limor Gott-Ronen, VP, mktg. & comm.; Paula Cohen McHarg, snr. sales mgr.; Rose Hughes, snr. sales mgr.; Mihir Karlekar, snr. sales mgr.; Axel Kühn, mng. dir., Tresor; Peter Schweizer, head, dvpmt., Tresor.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS In the Vault (Drama, 8x22 min., 24x7 min.) One month into freshman year at college, a student is killed at a party. The victim’s hall mates come to suspect one another of being the killer.

The Stylist (Drama, 12x40 min.) In this romantic comedy drama, a small-town girl with big ambitions and an equally big attitude gets her first break in fashion, only to discover that her dreams come with a price to pay.

When Heroes Fly (Action thriller, 1x80 min., 9x40 min., 11x40 min.) Set deep in the Colombian jungle, four friends reunite years after a major fallout for one final mission.

The Search The Search (Game show, 30/60 min. eps.)

Fast-paced and dynamic game show involves a word-search puzzle but with a fun-packed physical edge.

Sleeping Bears (Drama, 10x60 min.) From the creator of The A Word, a psychological drama about one woman’s search for the truth when dark secrets threaten to destroy her closest relationships.

Lovers or Liars (Celebrity panel game show, 8x60 min.) Challenges a celebrity panel to play true love detectives as three couples try to prove their relationship is real.

Sir Mouse (Kids animation, 26x11 min.) For girls and boys aged 6 to 9, follows the unusual friendship between a short fused Mouse Knight and her forgiving, gentle friend Dragon. The two heroic friends challenge our preconceptions of existing fairytale clichés.

KEW MEDIA GROUP

O (44-207) 851-6500

Wildrose

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Bletchley Circle: San Francisco (Drama, 8x60 min. & S1-2: 7x60 min.) The new installment from the franchise, set during the social change of the mid-1950s, captures the lives of four remarkable women with extraordinary intelligence, breathtaking capacity for pattern recognition and a genius for decryption.

Can’t Cope, Won’t Cope (Millennial comedy drama, S2: 6x30 min. & S1: 6x30 min.) Continues to follow Aisling and Danielle as they navigate the perilous waters of adulthood.

Frankie Drake Mysteries (Detective drama, 11x60 min.) Follows Toronto’s only female private detectives as they take on the cases the police don’t want to touch. They are new detectives for a new world, but is the world ready for them?

Crawford (Comedy, 12x30 min.) Follows a notso-typical family as they navigate the murky waters of fractured relationships, financial troubles, old resentments and new enemies.

Moving On (Drama, S9: 5x60 min., S10 soon, S1-8: 45x60 min. & Secrets and Words: 5x60 min.) Created by Jimmy McGovern for the BBC, a critically acclaimed series of stand-alone contemporary dramas now celebrating a landmark 50th episode.

Date My Dad (Drama, 10x60 min.) Since the loss of his beloved wife three years ago, Ricky Cooper’s only agenda has been to be the best dad he can be. But little does Ricky realize that his girls have an agenda of their own: get dad a girlfriend.

Gloves Off (Comedy, 1x96 min.) A group of friends risk life and limb to save their beloved boxing gym.

Luxury Hunters Our New Zealand Escape (Travel, 10x30 min.)

Each week a different couple explores a Kiwi region to discover secret locations, indulge in the local produce and enjoy the very best hospitality that New Zealand has to offer.

Discover China (Doc., 60x30 min.) Unlocks the mysteries of the Middle Kingdom, past and present, and explores its incredible cultural legacy and diversity.

Who Killed Jim Thompson, The Thai Silk King? (Doc., 1x60 min.) In 1967, Jim Thompson walked out of a small cottage in the highlands of Malaysia, then vanished. His disappearance became an enduring mystery.

Luxury Hunters (Lifestyle, 6x30 min.) Our hosts will visit the most prestigious properties to show you luxurious living, with some high-end fashion, food and unusual transport.

Playboy Asian Model (Ent., 24x60 min.) Introduces a range of models for male interest channels and platforms.

Can’t Cope, Won’t Cope Unmasking A Killer (Nonfiction, 5x60 min.) Profiles the terrifying real-life story and manhunt of the Golden State Killer, a man responsible for a staggering 51 attacks and 12 murders in California.

The Radical Story of Patty Hearst (Nonfiction, 6x60 min.) This CNN Original series follows the transformation of Patty Hearst from heiress to terrorist in a saga of privilege, celebrity, politics, media, revolution and violence.

Into the Night: Portraits of Life and Death (Doc., 1x114 min.) How do we live with death in our eye? This doc features men and women of uncommon eloquence and intelligence who are grappling with this question.

LIGHTNING INTERNATIONAL

O (852) 2815-7481 m james@lightninginternational.net

w www.kewmedia.com

w www.lightninginternational.net

Stand: C15.A6 Contact: Steven Silver, fndr. & CEO; Peter Sussman, fndr. & chmn.; Greg Phillips, pres., dist.; Jonathan Ford, EVP, sales, dist.; Carrie Stein, EVP, global scripted series; Vicky Ryan, EVP, commercial affairs, dist.; Jennifer Brinkworth, EVP, mktg. & comms.; Mark Benmore, SVP, sales, dist.; Stephen Joy, VP, sales, dist.; Tom Bairstow, VP, sales, dist.; Jennifer Askin, VP, sales, dist.; Hana Palmer, dir., sales, dist.

Stand: P3.B16 Contact: James Ross, CEO; Amanda Yang, dir., business dvpmt.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Trafficked (Movie, 1x120 min.) Based on a true story of three girls from America, Nigeria and India who are trafficked through an elaborate global network and enslaved in a Texas brothel.

Puppy Academy (Lifestyle/pets, 8x30 min.)

Follow six new furry students and their humans

GET DAILY NEWS ON KIDS’ PROGRAMMING

from their first day of puppy school training all the way to graduation.

Royal India with Samira (Food & travel, 12x30 min.) Samira returns to India in search of secrets from royal families. She travels to fabulous palaces, meets kings, princes and princesses and cooks with royal chefs to bring you their favorite dishes.

The Winemakers (Lifestyle, 13x30 min.) Tells the story of wine through the eyes of those that craft it with their love, passion and dedication.

Time Travel Girl (Animation, 12x30 min.) This anime has two heroines and features historical figures who help solve the mystery of creation.

LIONSGATE ENTERTAINMENT

O (1-310) 449-9200 m general-inquiries@lionsgate.com w www.lionsgate.com

Stand: C15.A8 Contact: Gabriella Ballabio, intl. TV sales; Sam Ellis, contract & sales mgr.; Katarina Ericksson, sales dir.; Suzy Feldman, SVP, mktg.; Dawn Flagg, mgr., events; Gene George, EVP, worldwide dist.; Peter Iacono, pres., intl. TV & digital dist.; Mark James, dir., sales; Agapy Kapouranis, EVP, worldwide SVOD; Meggan Kimberley, intl. TV sales; David Luner, EVP, mktg.; Gisela Asimus Minnbergh, VP, alternative pgmng. sales; Jim Packer, pres., worldwide TV & digital dist.; Jamie Phillips, mgr., intl. TV sales; Nazneen Sethi, intl. TV sales; Elissa Shenkman, VP, events; Charlotte Thorp, SVP, EMEA sales; Giulia Villafranca, coord., mktg.; Paula Warwick, cnslt., format sales.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Sweetbitter (Drama, 6x30 min.) The story of a young woman’s coming-of-age, set against the rich and grimy backdrop of exclusive restaurants.

Vida (Drama, 6x30 min.) Circumstances force two Mexican-American sisters from the Eastside of Los Angeles to return to their old neighborhood, where they are confronted by the past and the shocking truth about their mother’s identity.

Wrong Man (Doc., 6x60 min.) Follows a team of esteemed experts and investigators as they

*LIST_418_ALT_LIS_1006_LISTINGS 3/22/18 9:24 AM Page 21

TV LISTINGS 21 hunt for new evidence, track down witnesses and talk to law enforcement, looking beyond guilt and innocence to expose the flaws in our criminal justice system.

Little Women (Event series, 3x60 min.) A universal coming-of-age story set against the backdrop of the Civil War, tracing the lives of four sisters, Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy March, on their journey from childhood to adulthood.

Sweetbitter Howards End (Event series, 4x60 min.) Based on the internationally acclaimed novel, explores the story of two independent and unconventional sisters and the men in their lives.

The Girlfriend Experience (Drama, 27x30 min.) Christine Reade (Riley Keough), a law school student, finds herself drawn into the world of GFEs—women who provide emotional and sexual relationships at a very high price.

Grace and Frankie (Comedy, 52x30 min.)

Grace Hanson and Frankie Bergstein are trying to navigate their lives after their husbands, Robert and Sol, announce that they are love with each other, and have been romantically involved for the last 20 years.

Nashville (Drama, 112x60 min.) Takes us into the cutthroat world of music and politics, showing what it really means to become a star, and the sacrifices it takes to make dreams come true.

Power (Drama, 48x60 min.) James “Ghost” St. Patrick is using his nightclub as a front for a lucrative drug network. As he is seduced by the prospect of a legitimate life, everything precious to him becomes unknowingly threatened.

The Royals (Drama, 40x60 min.) Set in modern-day England, follows the lives of a fictional British Royal family that inhabits a world of opulence and regal tradition catering to any and every desire.

MARVISTA ENTERTAINMENT

O (1-424) 274-3000 m gjo@marvista.net

Degrees of Fear (Thriller, 1x90 min.) One year after surviving a kidnapping, a young woman is stalked again with reminders of the haunting past.

Mommy Be Mine (Thriller, 1x90 min.) A psycho killer teenage girl will stop at nothing to replace her dead mother’s love.

Murder with a Twist (Thriller, 1x90 min.) After her sister’s death, Zoe decides to pose as a bottle girl to infiltrate the high-end nightclub world to track down her sister’s killer.

Nanny Surveillance (Thriller, 1x90 min.) A devious nanny uses a family’s home-security system against them in a demented plan to retrieve her estranged daughter from the adoption parents.

Paint By Murder (Thriller, 1x90 min.) Things take a deadly turn when an art masterpiece’s integrity is questioned and a desperate stalker does everything to prevent the truth from coming out.

Twinsanity (Thriller, 1x90 min.) After their mother’s death, a twin sister pulls away to enable her self-identity while the other unravels and plots to end her sister’s new beginning.

Twisted Tenant (Thriller, 1x90 min.) A girl returns home from college to find her mother has rented out a room in their house to a killer.

Nightmare Moms (Thriller, 1x90 min.) When a mom allows things to go too far with her daughter’s house party, murder and mayhem are the deadly consequences.

MEDIATOON DISTRIBUTION

O (33-1) 5326-3108 m aude.rimbault-joffard@mediatoon.com w www.mediatoon-distribution.com Stand: P-1.E61 Contact: Jérôme Alby, mng. dir.; Laurent Duvault, producer; Isabelle Denis, commercial dir.; Mélanie Errea, jnr. business affairs & sales footage & on-board VOD; Livia Guffanti, intl. sales mgr.; Jérôme Leclercq, rights & lic. dir.; Jérémy Mas, intl. sales & business affairs mgr.; Julien Papelier, mng. dir., Dupuis; Léon Pérahia, producer; Aude Rimbault-Joffard, mktg. & comm. dir.; Claude de Saint Vincent, CEO; Benoît de Tauriac, dir., dvpmt., Citel.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS The Fox Badger Family (Preschool, 52x12 min.) Bristle and Woodsy, young badger twins, live with their father and their baby sister, Berry, in a burrow in the woods.

The Minimighty Kids (Kids comedy, 156x8 min. & 1x24 min.) Mini problems meet mighty powers.

Helping friends overcome life’s hurdles is a big task— but it’s an even bigger opportunity to have fun.

w www.marvista.net Stand: R9.A9 Contact: Jody Cipriano, head, global dist. & acq.; Rod Rodrigo, VP, intl. dist.; Andrew Whiteman, dir., dist.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Deadly Shores (Thriller, 1x90 min.) A new bride moves to a remote island where she uncovers secrets about her husband’s dead former wife and fears she may be next.

Deadly Shores

MaXi Martin Morning (Young kids comedy, 104x13 min.) Although Martin thinks that he is very average, every morning he wakes up to find himself transformed into something new.

Lucas Etc (Family/co-viewing comedy, 25x7 min. & 10x3 min.) Lucas learns that he and his mum are going to live with his new stepfather and his three stepsiblings.

Little Furry (Preschool comedy, 78x7 min.)

Little Furry is an endearing character who throws himself into extraordinary universes where anything is possible.

GET DAILY NEWS ON FACTUAL PROGRAMMING

Bobby & Bill (Young kids comedy, 104x13 min.) Bobby, his dog, Bill, and his skateboarding tortoise, Caroline, are inseparable, and together they go on fun and crazy adventures.

MaXi (Kids comedy, 26x11 min.) Follow the incredible adventures of Mara and Xilo (MaXi), “part-time” conjoined teens, as they explore the luxurious world of Vakarma, where music, nature and laughter intertwine.

Trotro (Preschool edutainment, 78x3.5 min.)

The little donkey with a head full of ideas, Trotro never misses the opportunity to have fun.

Yakari (Kids adventure/edutainment, 156x13 min.)

Yakari, a Sioux boy, goes on a great adventure every day in the wilderness with his best friends, Rainbow and Buffalo Seed, his horse Little Thunder and his protective totem, Great Eagle, who gave him the power to talk to animals.

The Garfield Show (Kids comedy, 214x11 min.) Garfield is an orange tabby cat whose main hobbies are chilling out, sleeping, watching TV and having fun.

METRO GOLDWYN MAYER

O (1-310) 449-3000 m bgurstein@mgm.com w www.mgm.com

Stand: R9.A30 Contact: Chris Ottinger, pres., worldwide TV dist. & acq.; Paul Bischoff, EVP, intl. dist., EMEA. PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS The Contender (Reality/competition, 12x60 min.) A new version of the seminal boxing franchise, produced by Mark Burnett, that launched multiple boxers into contention for world titles.

The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair (Drama, 10x60 min.) Literary icon Harry Quebert suddenly finds himself indicted for murder after the body of a young girl who has been missing for many years is found buried on his property.

Creed 2 (Film/action) The next chapter in the Adonis Creed story follows his life inside and outside of the ring as he deals with newfound fame, issues with his family and his continuing quest to become a champion.

Overboard (Film/comedy) The 1980s screwball romantic comedy re-imagined. A spoiled playboy from one of Mexico’s wealthiest families falls overboard off his yacht and is convinced by a single, working-class mom that he is her husband.

MIRAMAX

O (1-310) 409-4321 m worldwidesales@miramax.com w www.miramax.com Stand: R8.D2 Contact: Joe Patrick, EVP, worldwide TV sales & home ent.; James Durie, VP, EMEA; Alexandra Aldred, VP, EMEA; Ronda Elbanna, AsiaPac; Tom Misselbrook, dir., AsiaPac; Fabio EtienneTinchant, dir., EMEA; Bernardo Ribeiro, dir., LatAm; Ana Vieira, coord., EMEA. PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Intrigo Anthology (Death of an Author, Samaria, Dear Agnes) (Thriller) Based on novellas by acclaimed Swedish author Hakan Nesser, directed by Daniel Alfredson and starring Ben Kingsley. The three stories deal with dark hidden secrets destined to surface and with the concepts of guilt, revenge and atonement.

Sea of Blood (Action/drama, 8x60 min.) From creators Jack and Harry Williams. Twenty-five years after her mother was wrongly convicted of drug trafficking and sentenced to prison in Indonesia, Kali has returned to her birthplace to exact revenge.

Miramax Library Title: Chicago

Condor Get Shorty (Dark comedy, 20x60 min.) Miles Daly, the muscle for a crime ring, tries to become a movie producer and leave his criminal past behind and win back his family.

Condor (Drama/action, 10x60 min.) Follows a young CIA analyst who stumbles onto a terrible but brilliant plan that threatens the lives of millions.

The Handmaid’s Tale (Drama, 23x60 min.)

Explores life in Gilead, a dystopia where women are treated as property and forced into sexual servitude to repopulate a devastated world.

Every Day (Film/romance) Tells the story of Rhiannon, a 16-year-old girl, who falls in love with a spirit named A, a traveling soul who wakes each morning in a different body, living a different life every day.

Tomb Raider (Film/drama) Armed with only her sharp mind, blind faith and stubborn spirit, young Lara Croft pushes past her limits on her very first perilous adventure into the unknown.

Death Wish (Film/suspense/action) Dr. Paul Kersey (Bruce Willis) is an experienced trauma surgeon, a man who has spent his life saving lives. After an attack on his family, Paul must embark on his own mission of justice.

Miramax Library Titles Including Pulp Fiction, Good Will Hunting, Chicago, Spy Kids, Scream, Scary Movie, Bridget Jones’s Baby, Southside With You, Mr. Holmes.

Revolution Studios Library Including Morgan Creek International library. XXX, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, Black Hawk Down, Anger Management, Daddy Day Care, Maid in Manhattan, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, The Whole Nine Yards, The Good Shepherd.

Samuel Goldwyn & Woodfall Films Libraries Classic titles including Guys & Dolls, The Westerner, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Wuthering Heights, The Bishop’s Wife; Tom Jones, A Taste of Honey, The Entertainer, Look Back in Anger.

MISTCO

O (90-216) 695-1300 m info@mistco.tv w www.mistco.tv Stand: P-1.N51 Contact: Aysegul Tuzun, VP, sales & mktg.; Beyza Nur Torun, sales & mktg. mgr.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Mehmetcik: Kûtulamâre (Drama, 26x140 min.) Based on the epic story of Mehmet and his friends, who would give everything they have to save their country.

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TV LISTINGS

Mehmetcik: Kûtulamâre The Prisoner of Love (Romance drama, 180x45 min.) A wealthy man who doesn’t trust women since his mother abandoned him and a poor girl in need of money for her sick father’s surgery end up in a contractual marriage.

The Last Emperor (Drama, S1-2: 150x45 min.) Sheds light on the real life story of the last, strongest Ottoman Emperor, Abdulhamid Han, who faced many schemes to dethrone him.

Resurrection: Ertugrul (Drama, S1-4: 300x45 min.) In this great story from the 13th century, Ertugrul is struggling to find a home for his tribe and the woman he is in love with.

Lion Family (Family drama, 35x140 min.) A father, mother and four sons have been given a farm. One day, a girl arrives and claims to be the real owner.

Let’s Go (Family drama, 30x150 min.) A wealthy businessman, his socialite wife and two children are forced to move back to his native village, which he abandoned years ago, after he goes bankrupt.

Ege and Gaga (Animation, 88x7 min.) A little boy named Ege and his best friend Gaga, a talking crow, have great fun exploring nature and taking notes in their notebook.

Jade (Animation, 39x13 min.) Jade loves going on adventures with her friends the Mat-Mats, cute creatures who get themselves into trouble.

She always solves problems and saves the day.

Little Lamb (Animation, non-dialogue: 71x5 min., dialogue: 52x13 min.) Little Lamb and his friends live on a farm. Every day they play games, sing songs and overcome challenges together.

Erdem: Little Treasures Bookstore (Animation, 24+x13 min.) Erdem discovers he can be the hero of every book he reads. He shares the discovery with his closest friends Duck and Zepi and together they sail into adventures.

MONDO TV GROUP

O (39-06) 8632-3293/0364 m mondotv@mondotvgroup.com

Robot Trains (CGI, S1: 32x11 min., S2: 52x11 min.)

Deals with the exciting adventures involving the five train heroes, Kay, Alf, Duck, Selly and Victor.

Invention Story (CGI, 104x11 min.) The tale of a creative young fox, whose inventions delight the inhabitants of Carrot Town and infuriate the angry, jealous mayor.

Sissi the Young Empress (2D, 52x26 min.)

The adventures of the free-spirited empress who resists etiquette and the duties of the court to follow her dreams and heart.

Cuby Zoo (CGI, 52x11 min.) They look like toys but come to life when humans are away, and play a vital but anonymous role in keeping the world in balance.

NEW FILMS INTERNATIONAL

O (1-424) 371-5101 m nesimassist@newfilmsint.com

NIPPON TV

O (81-3) 6215-3036 m nippontv-ibd@ntv.co.jp w www.ntv.co.jp/english Stand: P1.F55 Contact: Atsushi Sogo, EVP, intl. business dvpmt.; Kako Kuwahara, mng. dir., intl. business dvpmt.; Cindy Chino, snr. dir., intl. business dvpmt.; Yuki Akehi, PR snr. mgr., intl. business dvpmt.; Fusako Nagashima, format sales, intl. business dvpmt.; Takanori Nakano, format sales, intl. business dvpmt.; Arisa Mori, sales & lic., intl. business dvpmt.; Eri Watanabe, sales & lic., intl. business dvpmt.; Keisuke Miyata, sales, intl. business dvpmt.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS anone (Scripted drama format, 60 min. eps.)

After losing her family and becoming separated from society, a young girl meets an old woman who, like her, no longer believes in people due to deception and betrayal.

w www.newfilmsint.com Robot Trains Adventures in Duckport (2D, 52x11 min.) The popular Suzy’s Zoo characters try to be helpful and save the day, although things don’t always go according to plan.

Partidei (2D/3D, 52x11 min.) Epic story of the clash between a group of youngsters and a tyrannical robot that has enslaved their world.

MULTICOM ENTERTAINMENT GROUP

Stand: P-1.F5 Contact: Nesim Hason, fndr. & CEO; Alyssa Garcia, mgr. business & mktg. dvpmt.; Radu Nicolau, VP, EE sales.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Stolen Life (Drama, 46 min. eps.) A young surgeon begins to climb the ranks of Bulgaria’s most prestigious hospital. He doesn’t know that at the same hospital 33 years ago he was switched at birth with another baby by the general manager of the hospital—his biological father.

O (1-310) 693-8818 m info@multicom.tv w www.multicom.tv

Stand: R7.F26 Contact: Irv Holender, chmn.; Niloo Badie, VP, sales; Jesse Baritz, dir., content acq. & pgmng.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Streaker (Film, 1x113 min.) In order to get out of a financial crisis, a high school teacher starts recruiting and training streakers for illegal sports betting.

America Adrift (Drama, 1x80 min.) When Cecilia Fernandez's youngest son starts using heroin and finds himself too deeply entangled in the world of drug trafficking, Cecilia fights back.

The Broken Ones (Romance/drama, 1x82 min.)

Two strangers meet one night and go on an adventure from New Jersey to New York, confronting their darkest fears and overcoming tragedy.

w www.mondotvgroup.com Stand: P-1.M2/N1 Contact: Orlando Corradi, pres.; Matteo Corradi, CEO; Paolo Zecca, chief prod. officer; Micheline Azoury, head, acq. & TV sales; Alessandro Venturi, intl. sales mgr.; Theo Kouroglou, intl. sales mgr.; Maria B. Fois, GM, Mondo TV Iberoamerica; Dimitri Papanikas, sales exec., Mondo TV Iberoamerica; Valentina La Macchia, dir., consumer products.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Heidi Bienvenida a Casa & Heidi Bienvenida al Show (Live action, 60x45 min., 60x45 min.)

This story of a country girl in the city brings together comedy, humor and music in a moving and charming update of the classic novel.

YooHoo to the Rescue (CGI, 52x11 min.) Five friends, based on the wildly popular Aurora World plush toys, help endangered animals in a show that aims to inspire respect for the environment.

Above All Things (Drama/mystery, 1x94 min.)

Grieving Bobby Larson seeks refuge in a lakeside cottage after the tragic passing of his wife but there is a haunting presence that just won't let him be.

After the Sun Fell (Comedy/drama, 1x111 min.)

When Adam arrives at Brandon's childhood home for the weekend, he uncovers a hole in the roof and a dark family secret.

The Stream (Adventure fantasy, 1x87 min.) In the summer of 1981, a tragedy of epic proportions sends five friends on an epic adventure. All they have to do is follow the stream to their destination and back. What could possibly go wrong?

The Side Show Christmas (Film, 1x48 min.)

As Christmas approaches, Jason Shanks' father has Santa Claus hypnotized in order to revitalize his ailing side show, which soon rouses greater problems.

America Adrift Divine Access (Film, 1x113 min.) Jack Harriman becomes a spiritual celebrity after debunking Reverend Guy Roy on a public-access TV show.

While on the road speaking his brand of truth, forces natural and supernatural lead him to question whether he has a deeper calling.

M.I.A.: A Greater Evil (Film, 1x87 min.) A group of American college students lose their way in a Vietnamese jungle.

Generational Sins (Drama/suspense, 1x90 min.)

Two brothers return home to reconcile with their alcoholic and abusive father.

GET DAILY NEWS ON THE FORMATS BUSINESS

New York New York (Drama/action, 45 min. eps.) The son of the head of a notorious crime family arrives in New York, escaping his past and seeking a new future.

A Lesson of Love (Drama/romance, 1x102 min.) A widowed teacher from Los Angeles is recruited to a small Appalachian college and falls in love with a deeply religious local woman. The unlikely love is torn apart by one’s commitment to faith and the other’s devotion to reason.

Fortune Defies Death (Crime/drama/mystery, 1x115 min.) The Woods family gathers at a cabin resort to hear the last will and testament of their wealthy patriarch ten years after his death. Before the players can stake their claim to his fortune, each must survive the investigation into the mysterious disappearance of his adopted daughter.

Horrorshow (Horror/thriller) A murdered woman and a man with clairvoyant abilities conceive a plot to expose her foster father, the county sheriff, as the child abuser and killer he really is.

In Vino (Comedy/thriller, 1x93 min.) After almost being killed by one of his own, a billionaire convenes his family to discuss their inheritance, only to die in the meeting. In the aftermath, the family squabbles over who should take the fall, and who should inherit the dead man’s fortune.

Kiss that Kills Hungry 9 (Social-experiment format, 60 min. eps.)

One goal, nine desperate aspirants, countless mind games to eliminate the rest and be the only winner. In a locked room, they have 24 hours to determine “the one,” or else all nine leave empty-handed.

Hardcore Fans (Sports ent. format, 30 min. eps.)

Locked-up in a cell while the season is in full swing, loyal fans experience the highs and lows of their beloved team like no other, their fate being determined by real-time match results.

Real Girl (Anime, 30 min. eps.) Geeky high school senior Hikari Tsutsui is happy to be in the company of the girls in the 2D world of his games and anime, but out of nowhere a 3D bombshell confesses her love for him.

Caution, Hazardous Wife (Drama, 60 min. eps.) A housewife decides to reinvent herself after realizing she is a disaster when it comes to homemaking but a champion of justice who becomes incredibly dangerous when angry.

Kiss that Kills (Suspense drama, 60 min. eps.) A conman is intercepted by a mysterious woman who gives him a kiss that kills—but he keeps coming back to life and reliving his death as he unravels the mystery of this love story gone astray.

The Kitazawas—We Mind Our Own Business (Drama, 60 min. eps.) Step into the world of three siblings, a doctor, a lawyer and a cop, as they weave a ridiculous but somehow beautiful story of family love, going all out to solve problems that could destroy their unique family’s peace.

ORF-ENTERPRISE

O (43-1) 87878-13030 m contentsales@orf.at w contentsales.orf.at Stand: P-1.L1 Contact: Beatrice Cox-Riesenfelder, mng. dir.; Marion Camus-Oberdorfer, head, content sales

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TV LISTINGS 23 intl.; Armin Luttenberger, sales dir., TV; Monika Kossits, sales mgr., TV; Alexandra Hopf, sales mgr., TV; Johannes Stanek, sales mgr., TV; Franka Giesemann, sales mgr., new media/home ent.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Wild Caribbean—Rhythms of Life—Part III: Corals and Quetzals (Nature & wildlife, 3x52 min. 4K) The “flower animals” recolonize the reefs. Inland, Caribbean cloud forests with their legendary Quetzals are just as magical, but the suffocating sediment run-off from logging is the corals’ biggest challenge.

episode and find answers to their questions through inventions, songs and games.

Addison (Kids 4-6 animation, 20x11 min.)

Chronicles the comical yet brain-teasing adventures of 7-year-old Addison, a girl inventor who loves to solve mysteries.

Cyberchase (Kids 6-9 educational animation, 114x30 min.) In a classic good-versus-evil battle, kids go on a wild ride through cyberspace where they are challenged to use the power of math.

44 Cats

Kestrels at Close Quarters

Bubu and the Little Owls

Wild Boar—The Comeback (Nature & wildlife, 1x52 min.) Just 20 years ago an encounter with a wild boar in Central Europe was a rarity. Now in some countries the stocks of wild boar have become a plague.

Kestrels at Close Quarters (Nature & wildlife, 1x52 min. 4K) The story of two kestrel couples bringing up their chicks in the same neighborhood in Vienna. While destiny rewards one breeding pair with success, the other kestrels face a more brutal fate.

The Nero Files—Uncovering an Ancient Conspiracy (History & biographies, 1x52 min.)

The most notorious of all Roman emperors burned Rome, engaged in incest and killed his mother and thousands of Christians. What if the “crimes” he committed never happened, or were normal behavior for a Roman emperor?

Suburbia—Women on the Edge (Dramedy, 30x48 min.) A series about a bunch of beautiful beasts setting out to turn the tables between them and their husbands.

Scene of the Crime—The Fist (Crime, 1x90 min.)

The two detectives face a new enigma as a tattooed body is found in a spectacular display. And to top things off, the body can’t seem to be identified.

Backwoods Crimes—Styrian Child (Crime, 1x90 min.) Two inspectors are ordered to investigate the mysterious disappearance of the coach of the Austrian ski team in the region of Styria.

Ely Kahn: New York Cities Mastermind (History & biographies, 1x30 min.) Ely Jacques Kahn has been building bridges between Europe and the U.S. for more than 50 years.

Egon Schiele—Between Love and Hate (History & biographies, 1x52 min.) Focuses on the tense correlation between his uncompromising, unconditional artistic talent and its radical opponent: society’s moral code of conduct.

World Domination (Current affairs & social issues, 1x52 min.) Who brought about catastrophes such as 9/11 or Charlie Hebdo? Watch as social media forces us to find whole new ways to fight conspiracies.

The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That!

(Preschool animation, 80x30 min./160x15 min. & 4x60 min. movies) Dr. Seuss’ Cat in the Hat and his friends are back for a STEM-focused season three as they embark on brand-new adventures fueled by curiosity and imagination.

Do You Know? (Live-action preschool, 50x15 min.) YouTube sensation Maddie Moate makes the leap to TV to answer some of the world’s most pressing questions from preschoolers.

The Gig Guys (Ob-doc., 6x30 min.) Follows the wild and unpredictable exploits of a road crew managing Asia’s largest electronic music festival on a cruise liner as they experience tropical storms, crazy guest antics, artist tantrums and personal clashes.

Fast Indian Cooking with Sapna (Cooking, 6x30 min.) Sapna Anand helps home cooks whip up modern Indian dishes with ease and reminisces about her wonderful childhood in India.

Small Town Big Mayor (Reality/comedy, 10x30 min.) In D’Lo, Mississippi, white-suitwearing, golf-cart-driving, firebrand mayor, John Henry Berry, is armed with an ambitious 95point plan to revitalize his town.

Sailing Chef (Cooking, 30x30 min. 4K) Vicky Ratnani, a celebrity chef and former chef de cuisine who has sailed and cooked across 37 countries, sautés, poaches, blanches and bakes worldwide delicacies while giving them an Indian twist.

Café Maria (Cooking, 30x30 min. 4K) Maria Goretti, TV celebrity turned chef, delights with eclectic dishes from brunch menus around the world.

PORTFOLIO ENTERTAINMENT

O (1-416) 483-9773 m sales@portfolio-ent.com

w www.portfolioentertainment.com Stand: P-1.A0 Contact: Corey Caplan, dir., intl. sales.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Bubu and the Little Owls (Preschool animation, 26x11 min.) Bubu and her family of cute owls face a new nature adventure in each

RAINBOW

O (39-071) 7506-7500 m info@rbw.it w www.rbw.it Stand: R7.H2 Contact: Iginio Straffi, fndr. & CEO; Joanne Lee, COO; Cristiana Buzzelli, SVP, lic. & acq.; Andrea Graciotti, head, sales, TV series, movies & coprod.; Luana Perrero, head, sales, TV; Lorena Vaccari, mktg. dir.; Silvia Quintili, digital rights mgr.; Simone Borgarelli, sales exec., TV & HV. PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS 44 Cats (CGI comedy, 52x13 min.) Follows the adventures of a group of cat musicians. The stories explore the themes of friendship, altruism and helping others.

Regal Academy (Comedy 2D toonshade, S1-2: 52x30 min.) Fairytales come to life at Regal Academy, where Rose Cinderella and her classmates must combine study with dealing with their families.

GET DAILY NEWS ON TELEVISION DRAMA

Maggie & Bianca Fashion Friends Seasons 1 and 2 (Live-action comedy/drama, 52x30 min.)

Maggie and Bianca meet at the Milan Fashion Academy, where they follow their dreams and discover secrets that change their lives forever.

Maggie & Bianca Fashion Friends Season 3 (Live-action comedy/drama, 26x30 min.) Maggie and Bianca must consider leaving Milan for the U.S. This is just one of the challenges they face in this brand-new season.

Maggie & Bianca Fashion Friends TV Movies (Live-action comedy/drama, 2x50 min.) The girls must fight to keep their home, help their father with a trip to Paris and investigate a school disaster.

World of Winx (Action/mystery 2D, S1-2: 26x30 min.) The Winx travel the world searching for talent for WOW! and preventing the talent thief from kidnapping them.

Winx Club 7 (Adventure/action 2D, S1-7: 182x30 min.) The Winx take on an incredible new challenge: saving the Fairy Animals of the Magic Universe, as well as endangered species on Earth who need their help.

Winx Club The Mystery of the Abyss (3D animated feature, 1x80 min.) Human beings are polluting the seas, putting at risk the balance of the Infinite Ocean. Will the Winx defeat the Trix, restoring balance and bringing peace back?

PopPixie (Comedy 2D, 52x13 min.) Follow the extraordinary everyday life of the Pixies in Pixieville, a world full of magic creatures that’s waiting to be explored and discovered.

Huntik (Adventure comedy 2D, S1-2: 52x30 min.) Adventurous journeys await across Europe, South America and Africa, where our heroes search for powerful amulets that will help them to stop the evil organization.

RECORD TV

O (55-11) 3300-4022 m emendes@recordtv.com.br w www.recordtvnetwork.com Stand: P-1.G22 Contact: Delmar Andrade, intl. sales dir.; Edson Mendes, intl. sales mgr.

Apocalypse

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Apocalypse (Soap opera, 180x45 min.) A story of love, spirituality and redemption in portraying one of the most controversial topics in the Holy Bible: the end of times.

Belaventura (Soap opera, 150x45 min.) Set in the 15th century in the fictional kingdom of Belaventura, a story full of emotion and transformations.

The Rich and Lazarus (Soap opera, 170x45 min.) A love triangle develops between childhood friends Asher, Joanne and Zach, who will also have to deal with the invasion of Jerusalem by the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar.

The Promised Land (Soap opera, 179x50 min.)

After Moses’ death, Joshua, the new leader of the Hebrews, must fulfill a difficult mission ordered by God: to command the 12 tribes of Israel in their conquest of Canaan, the Promised Land.

The Slave Mother (Soap opera, 151x60 min.

4K) The tale of the light-skinned slave girl who was obsessively pursued by Mr. Leôncio won over the world; none of this story would have happened without the characters of this series.

Moses and the Ten Commandments (Soap opera, 242x60 min.) The story of Moses, from his birth to the arrival of his people in the Promised Land, through the Red Sea crossing and the encounter with God on Mount Sinai.

The Miracles of Jesus (Series, 35x50 min.)

Based on Bible stories. Each chapter seeks to transmit teachings of love, hope, courage and perseverance of people who had faith.

Victory! (Soap opera, 208x45 min.) Arthur, a paraplegic, unexpectedly falls in love with Diana, a young jockey.

Joseph from Egypt (Series, 38x45 min.) Only Joseph can save the brothers who made him suffer so much in the past.

Flames of Life (Soap opera, 253x45 min.) The work of the fire department is the centerpiece of the plot, which features a heroic firefighter.

RED ARROW STUDIOS INTERNATIONAL

O (49-89) 9507-7303 m info@redarrowinternational.tv w redarrow.tv/international/ Stand: P4.C10 Contact: Henrik Pabst, pres.; Bo Stehmeier, SVP, global sales; Alex Fraser, SVP, acq.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Squinters (Comedy, 6x30 min.) Freewheeling commuter comedy for ABC Australia featuring an impressive cast, including Academy Award nominee Jacki Weaver and multi award-winning performer/composer Tim Minchin.

Code to Love (Reality format) The new Danish social experiment that uses the power of big data, science and algorithms to crack the code to love.

Man’s First Friend (Natural history, 1x120 min./2x60 min. 4K) Combines natural history, science and anthropology to explore the enduring relationship between humankind and dogs, and how the two species have evolved together.

State of Hate (Reality format) Timely new experiment from the creators of Married at First Sight looks to end the bitter rivalries between groups of people divided by hate through a series of intense challenges.

Bosch (Crime, S4: 10x60 min., total 40x60 min., S5 soon) The acclaimed, Emmy-nominated series is back for its fourth season, starring Titus Welliver as L.A. homicide detective Harry Bosch.

For the Love of Spock (Doc., 1x120 min.) Tells the fascinating life story of Star Trek’s Mr. Spock and the actor who played him for nearly 50 years, Leonard Nimoy.

Falco (Mexico) (Crime, 15x60 min.) From Dynamo and Spiral International, and based on the award-

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TV LISTINGS

winning scripted format The Last Cop, stars Michel Brown and is show-run and directed by acclaimed Mexican filmmaker Ernesto Contreras.

Buying Blind (Reality format) A family who can’t decide what house to buy puts their life savings in the hands of experts to purchase them a home—without ever having seen it.

Overexposed (TV movie) Erin, the teen daughter of the county sheriff, didn’t mean to hurt Taylor, school baseball star and class president, just stop him. She tries to cover up the murder, but instead it sets other murders in motion.

Project Dad (Reality, 8x60 min.) Follows Donnell Rawlings (comedian, Chappelle’s Show), Daniel Cosgrove (actor, Days of Our Lives) and DJ Skribble (disc jockey, MTV’s TRL) as they step out of the spotlight and into the role of Mr. Mom. Egg Factor (Docureality, 8x60 min.) Follows the journeys of intended parents who need the help of egg donors in order to have a baby.

Written in Blood (Crime, 10x60 min.) Bestselling thriller writer Simon Toyne, author of The Boy Who Saw and other titles, meets other top crime writers to discuss how their works of fiction have been inspired by real-life crimes.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS The Maze (Drama, 16x46-52 min.) Marina will have to go through many trials until the maze of fate will deliver her to a long-awaited motherhood.

RTVE

The Captain’s Wife (Drama/adventure, 16x46-52 min.) An exciting story of a young girl who loses everything she loved. Now she has to travel far away and face a life full of challenges and fate’s twists.

Godunov (Historical drama, 8x52 min.) Sixteenth century. The mysterious death of the heir to the throne ends the rule of an ancient dynasty.

For the first time, the Russian people elect a Tsar. It is Boris Godunov.

Demon of the Revolution (Political thriller, 8x52 min.) Tells a unique story of two major figures who made the Great October possible: Vladimir Lenin and Alexander Parvus.

Anna Karenina (Drama, 8x42-47 min.) New vision of Leo Tolstoy’s classic novel. Late 19th century, Russian high society, St. Petersburg aristocrat Anna Karenina enters into a reckless love affair with the dashing count Alexey Vronsky.

The Family (Drama, 60x44 min.) Focuses on the loves, lives and scandals of the Goreevs, a rich ballerina’s family living in a bustling city. The mysterious disappearance of a precious diamond necklace puts everyone under suspicion.

Climate: Catastrophe is Inevitable? (Doc., 1x53 min.) The climate on the planet is changing.

Who benefits from the hysteria surrounding the climate and whether people can save the planet for human life?

Sputnik: A Russian Miracle (Space doc., 1x44 min.) In the autumn of 1957, stunning news circled the globe: for the first time an artificial satellite was launched into space from Earth. The whole world learned the word Sputnik by heart and called it a Russian miracle.

Soros: Dr. Evil (Current-affairs doc., 1x67 min.)

Traces of this man can be found everywhere on the planet, among the conflagrations of civil wars, where blood is spilled, lives are broken, and states are destroyed: George Soros, billionaire, financial genius, stock gambler and philanthropist.

The Battle for Elbrus (History doc., 1x54 min.)

One of the most mysterious military engagements of the Second World War was fought on Mount Elbrus in the Caucasus region.

the power of teamwork, and a little help from new, unexpected friends, to protect the Prism, defeat Madame Odius and save the world.

Luna Petunia: Return to Amazia (Preschool, 66x11 min.) Netflix original inspired by the curiosity, surprise and wonder of Cirque du Soleil follows a little girl named Luna Petunia, who lives in the real world but can transport to the magical land of Amazia, where toys come to life and amazing adventures can be found around every corner.

The Maze

Falco (Mexico) Sense of Tumour (Comedy drama, 8x60 min.)

A bold, feel-good comedy drama about how a near-death experience can teach you how to live.

Beat N Path (Travel/adventure, 3x30 min.)

International hip-hop star Lupe Fiasco wanders the way of the warrior in this new docuseries.

RIVE GAUCHE TELEVISION

O (1-818) 784-9912 m marine@rgitv.com w www.rgitv.com

O (34-91) 581-7827 m mjesus.perez@rtve.es antonio.perez@rtve.es rosalia.alcubilla@rtve.es w www.rtve.es/commercial Stand: R7.L15 Contact: María-Jesús Pérez, intl. sales dir.; Rosalía Alcubilla Alonso, intl. sales mgr.; Tony Pérez Bonilla, intl. sales mgr.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Fugitive (Thriller, 10x70 min.) An attractive married woman who apparently has a perfect life in Mexico sees her world blown to bits and she has to flee, sometimes venturing into the lion’s den.

Stand: P-1.H75 Contact: Jon Kramer, CEO; Marine Ksadzhikyan, SVP, dist. & dvpmt.; Tomas Silva, VP, intl. sales.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Something’s Killing Me (Crime/medical, 12x60 min.) Examines puzzling behaviors and diseases that result in near-death struggles.

Each episode chronicles a race against time to discover what, or who, is killing the patient.

I’m Alive

Homicide’s Elite Uncovering… (Crime, 3x60 min.) Focuses on those pivotal moments in crime cases where justice hangs in the balance. All the detectives need is one clue or testimony that will bring the criminal down.

Homicide’s Elite (Crime, 12x60 min.) Features the most baffling, shocking and heartbreaking cases Detectives David Quinn and Vince Velazquez have worked in their combined 50 years on the street.

Donal MacIntyre’s Murder Files (Crime, 10x60 min.) Renowned undercover reporter and crime journalist Donal MacIntyre examines the most horrific and fascinating crimes.

Trace of Evil (Crime, 26x60 min.) Explores and reconstructs some of the most intriguing criminal cases of the past two decades, where technology has changed the course of the investigations and brought the guilty to justice.

Genius Factory (Doc., 1x90 min.) In the 1980s an eccentric billionaire named Robert Graham wanted to create the world’s smartest kids, so he funded the largest legal genetic experiment in human history.

I’m Alive (Fantasy/detective drama, 13x70 min.) Hit series now in season two focuses on Inspector Vargas, who returns to life after his death in the body of another inspector.

Betrayal (Drama, 9x70 min.) Follows the complicated relationships in a family that owns a law firm after the father announces that he is about to die.

To Serve and Protect (Daily drama, 65x50 min.) Series centered on two policewomen looks at social problems from a human perspective: immigration issues, gender violence, evictions and small drug offenses.

RUSSIA TELEVISION AND RADIO/SOVTELEXPORT

O (7-495) 955-8920 m ref.ste@vgtrk.com w sales.vgtrk.com

Stand: R7.E1 Contact: Julia Matiash, dir., Sovtelexport; Maria Dorokhina, head, intl. sales, worldwide, except CIS & Baltics; Fedor Ushakov, exec. advisor to CEO, U.S., Canada & France; Elizaveta Shcherbakova, mgr., intl. sales, worldwide except CIS & Baltics; Anastasia Krasnova, mgr., intl. sales, U.S., Canada & France; Karina Soldatova, mgr., intl. sales, CIS & Baltics.

GET DAILY NEWS ON EUROPEAN TELEVISION

Treehouse Detectives Rainbow Butterfly Unicorn Kitty (Kids 6-11, 52x11 min.) From Saban Brands and Funrise, a comedy featuring a spirited kitty named Felicity who transforms into different forms and harnesses magical powers.

Treehouse Detectives (Preschool, 40x11 min.)

Netflix original series follows Toby and Teri, a brother and sister teddy bear detective team, as they “use the clues” and “follow the facts” to solve the mysteries of nature.

SERIOUS LUNCH

O (44-20) 8771-7310 m gdexter@seriouslunch.co.uk w www.seriouslunch.co.uk Contact: Genevieve Dexter, fndr. & CEO. PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Horrible Science (Kids, 10x26 min.) Based on the famous Scholastic books, for CiTV, ABC and Discovery Kids, this scripted “show within a show” comedy stars Ben Miller.

Operation Ouch! (Kids, 69x26 min.) This ongoing, double BAFTA-winning factualentertainment show helps kids combat their fears of hospital by showing them how amazing the human body is at fixing itself.

Ronja, the Robber’s Daughter (Kids, 26x26 min.) Studio Ghibli and the Astrid Lindgren Company present this animated story—based on the book of the same name—that won the International Emmy Kids Award for best animation in 2016.

Art Ninja (Kids, 40x26 min.) A new-look art show for a new generation of kids interested in experimenting with modern-art techniques.

SABAN BRANDS

O (1-310) 203-5230 m fsoulie@sabanbrands.com w www.sabanbrands.com Stand: Verrière Californie Contact: Frederic Soulie, EVP, global dist. & consumer products; Rich Magallanes, SVP, dvpmt. & prod.; Leila Ouledcheikh, SVP, EMEA dist. & consumer products; Aaron Simpson, VP, dvpmt.; Kathryn Hubbard, dist. mgr., EMEA. PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Power Rangers Super Ninja Steel (Kids liveaction, 22x22 min.) Our heroic teens must use

Operation Ouch!

*LIST_418_ALT_LIS_1006_LISTINGS 3/22/18 9:29 AM Page 25

TV LISTINGS 25

SESAME WORKSHOP

O (1-212) 595-3456 m celia.musikant@sesame.org w www.sesameworkshop.org PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Elmo’s World (Kids 2-5, 44x5 min.) This fun and fresh version has Elmo and his friend Smartie using their imaginations to dive into the topic of the day.

Cookie Monster’s Foodie Truck (Kids 2-5, 13x5 min.) Cookie and his pal Gonger hit the road in their food truck. They’ll learn where food comes from and collect ingredients right from the source.

Pequeñas Aventureras The Magical Wand Chase Special (Kids 25, 1x45 min.) Elmo, Abby, and their friends take off from Sesame Street in hot-air balloons to retrieve Abby’s magic wand, which was snatched away by a colorful bird.

Sésamo (Kids 2-5, 52x26 min.) Get ready to learn, dance, and play with your favorite furry friends.

Pequeñas Aventureras (Kids 3-6, 18x6 min.)

This series, with themes that foster gender equity and science skills for children, features Abby Cadabby, Lola and Susana the Worm.

Once Upon a Sesame Street Christmas (Kids 2-5, 1x52 min.) This musical holiday special celebrates the winter holidays and answers the question: why do we leave cookies for Santa?

The Furchester Hotel (Kids 3-6, 102x11 min. & 1x22 min.) Promotes creative problem-solving skills and persistence and depicts a close-knit family of Muppet monsters who own and operate an “almost” world-class hotel.

Sesame Street (Kids 2-5, 35x30 min. per year) It’s another sunny day on Sesame Street, with its famously furry cast, celebrity guests and trademark mix of live-action, animation and wondrous fun.

SINKING SHIP ENTERTAINMENT

O (1-416) 533-8172 m distribution@sinkingship.ca w www.sinkingship.ca Stand: P-1.A51 Contact: Marilyn Kynaston, head, sales & dist.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Endlings (Kids 9-12 live action & CGI, 12x22 min.) Set in the near future, a sci-fi action adventure series for families that sees the fantastical face off against the seemingly unremarkable.

The Unlisted (Kids 8-12 live action, 15x22 min.) Twelve-year-old identical twins Dru and Kal, with the help of a group of underground vigilante kids, work to stop a secret society, named The Entity, who plan to impose global control over the world’s youth.

Odd Squad (Kids 4-8 live action & CGI, 80x22 min., 1x66 min. movie & 1x44 min.) A comedy where kid agents equipped with the world’s most advanced and unpredictable gadgetry work for a secret government agency run by kids.

Odd Squad Dino Dana (Kids 4-8 live action & CGI, 52x22 min.)

Dana is a spunky 10-year-old “paleontologist in training” who eats, sleeps and breathes dinos.

Annedroids (Kids 6-10 live action & CGI, 52x22 min.) Budding scientist Anne builds robots to help her perform experiments with her friends Nick and Shania and her android creations.

Rank the Prank (Kids 8-12 live action, 13x22 min.) Two pairs of prank-loving kids are teamed up with two of the biggest and best special effects artists in the world to perform an incredible hiddencamera prank on the unknowing public.

Scout & The Gumboot Kids (Kids 2-5 live action/stop motion, 30x11 min.) Scout, a curious mouse, leads the Gumboot Kids through a series of clues that take them outdoors to solve nature mysteries.

Giver (Family/co-viewing unscripted, 43x22 min.)

Features playground makeovers with teams of 6to 12-year-olds working together with their communities to build and improve local playgrounds.

SKY VISION

O (44) 7935117429 m jenna.brown@sky.uk w www.skyvision.com Stand: R7.C39 Contact: Andrea Zarzecki, snr. sales mgr.; Leona Connell, dir., sales; Peter Pas, head, sales, AsiaPac Rim; Jane Millichip, mng. dir.; Harry Tan, head, mktg.; Mandy Lawn, head, events; Moreyba Bidessie, drama acq. mgr.; Niki Page, head, acq.; Barnaby Shingleton, dir., ent. & factual; Andrew Bowers, acq. exec.; Lasharna Ross, producer liaison exec.; Sam Adams, events exec.; Simona Garibaldi, sales agent; Stefan Schmitz, sales agent; Guillermina Ortega, sales agent; Caroline Clarke, snr. sales mgr., Asia; Patrick Phelan, snr. sales mgr.; Jason Simms, dir., drama & comedy; Karen Wise, head, sales, EMEA; Kai Linnell, sales mgr.; Ismael Ramiro, snr. sales coord.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS In The Long Run (Drama, 6x30 min.) An affectionate comedy-drama about what “home” really means. Created by and starring Idris Elba, it is inspired by his 1980s inner-city London childhood.

Bulletproof

GET DAILY NEWS ON LATIN AMERICAN TV

Patrick Melrose (Drama, 5x60 min.) Benedict Cumberbatch leads a stellar cast in this family saga spanning four decades. Based on the acclaimed Edward St. Aubyn novels.

Bulletproof (Drama, 6x60 min. 4K) Full of grit and sometimes gloss, mixes action, drama and humor to deliver a distinctive and dynamic new take on the police buddy genre.

Fighting Season (Drama, 6x60 min.) A provocative and emotional mystery about soldiers returning from combat harboring a secret that threatens to destroy their lives, and those of their families.

Hotspots: On the Frontlines (Factual, 7x60 min.) Fighting fake news with relevant reports from the frontline. A look behind the scenes of global reporting, hosted by veteran war correspondents.

Revolution (Ent., 8x60 min. & 1x60 min.) A large-scale, competitive entertainment show featuring a thrill-packed war on wheels over a jaw-dropping, purpose-built course. Skill, speed and nerves of steel are basic requirements.

My Wonderful Life (Factual, 4x60 min.) A groundbreaking series where people close to the end of their life plan surprises for their loved ones, to be delivered after they have gone.

Pacific with Sam Neill (Factual, 6x60 min.) An epic series to mark the 250th anniversary of Captain James Cook’s first voyage to the Pacific, hosted by leading actor Sam Neill.

Lose Weight for Good (Factual, 6x30 min.)

Inspirational chef Tom Kerridge helps struggling dieters by dispensing sound advice and sharing the tasty, easy, low calorie recipes and that helped him lose 76 kilos.

The Biggest Little Railway in the World (Factual, 5x60 min.) Sixty model railway enthusiasts and engineers join forces and attempt to build the longest model railway in the world— across the stunning terrain of Scotland.

SMITHSONIAN CHANNEL

O (1-202) 261-1700 m ideas@smithsonianchannel.com w www.smithsonianchannel.com Stand: R7.E2 Contact: David Royle, EVP & chief pgmng. officer; Chris Hoelzl, SVP, research & dvpmt.; Suzie Eckl, mgr., pgm. dvpmt.

Waco: The Longest Siege (History, 1x60 min.)

Twenty-five years ago, the longest shootout in American law enforcement history ends when the sprawling Branch Davidian compound in Texas is engulfed in flames.

The Real Jesus of Nazareth (History, 4x60 min.) Robert Powell, who portrayed Christ in the miniseries Jesus of Nazareth, returns to the Holy Land to track down the historical truth.

Aerial Africa (Travel/adventure, 6x60 min.) A visual feast that celebrates the natural wonders of southern Africa’s landscape and reveals fascinating stories that can only be discovered from the air.

Air Warriors (Science/aviation, 21x60 min.) Tells the stories of the most influential aircraft of modern times, combining extraordinary engineering and technological feats with great dramatic stories.

America’s Mississippi (Natural history, 3x60 min.) 4K series capturing the natural life on America’s greatest river, featuring extraordinary natural history and iconic cultural landmarks.

The Mountain Lion and Me (Natural history, 1x60 min.) A unique story about the remarkable relationship between the mountain lion—one of the most elusive creatures in the world—and a filmmaker.

SONAR ENTERTAINMENT

O (1-424) 230-7140 w sonarent.com

Stand: R7.N11 Contact: Tom Lesinski, CEO; David Ellender, pres., global dist. & coprod.; Andrea Gorfolova, pres., kids, family & factual; Jenna Santoianni, EVP, TV series; Carol Eymery, EVP, intl. dist., EMEA; Roberta Ibba-Hartog, SVP, intl. dist., EMEA; Kylie Munnich, SVP, intl. dist., Australasia; Alan Zapakin, SVP, mktg. & publicity; Ashley Rite, VP, kids & family; Fred Joubaud, dir., intl. dist. & acq., EMEA; Louise Oliver, intl. dist. mgr., EMEA; Sarah Castellvi, mgr., mktg. & publicity.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Das Boot (WWII drama, 8x60 min.) Follows the acclaimed novel and movie, expanding the storylines of the heroic men and women confronted with the realities of war on land and sea.

Das Boot The Real Jesus of Nazareth PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS America in Color (History, 11x60 min.) This landmark series uses colorization to tell the story of America in color for the first time, and brings history back to life.

The Pacific War in Color (History, 8x60 min.)

The definitive story of the Pacific War, from the prewar peace to the occupation of Japan. Told through extraordinary color archival film and audio.

Sacred Sites (History, 12x60 min.) A unique glimpse into the world’s most hallowed shrines, temples and monuments. Filmed in stunning 4K, this series unravels the mysteries that surround them.

The Lost Tapes (History, 10x60 min.) Uses contemporary film and audio to retell events in real time as they occurred, including Pearl Harbor, the LA riots, Patty Hearst’s kidnapping and Malcolm X.

The Son (Drama, S2: 10x60 min.) A multigenerational drama charting the rise and fall of a Texas oil empire, based on the novel by Philipp Meyer, starring Pierce Brosnan.

Taboo (Drama, 8x60 min.) James Delaney (Tom Hardy) returns home after ten years in Africa to inherit what is left of his father’s shipping empire and rebuild a life.

SONY CREATIVE PRODUCTS

O (81-3) 5786-8169 m takeshi.nakamura@sonymusic.co.jp w www.scp.co.jp/en/index.html Contact: Takeshi Nakamura, global business, lic. mgr.

*LIST_418_ALT_LIS_1006_LISTINGS 3/21/18 4:54 PM Page 26

26

TV LISTINGS

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Mofy Season 1 (Animation, 26x5 min.) Animated by the famous Misseri Studio of Florence, Italy, this cotton stop-frame animation shows the softest place on earth.

Mofy Season 3 Mofy Season 2 (Animation, 26x5 min.) Following the worldwide success of season one, season two brings the total number of episodes to 52.

Mofy Season 3 (Animation, 26x5 min.) Mofy returns with more action, more music, more adorable characters. The series’ cotton animation continues to inspire viewers of all ages.

Gaspard and Lisa (Animation, 51x11 min.)

Gaspard and Lisa are two 6-year-old best friends who experience the wonders and challenges of school, family, friendship in their Paris neighborhood.

Pingu (Animation, 157x5 min.) Created in 1986, Pingu is a charming and cheeky young penguin who is always up to mischief, getting himself into comical situations.

Pingu in the City (Animation, 52x7 min.) In fresh 3D CG, Pingu will attract children by trying out different jobs. Produced by Polygon Pictures.

Chandra Nandini (Drama, 260x30 min.) The tale of the unexplored love story of the brave warrior Chandragupta Maurya and Nandini.

Yeh Hai Mohabbatein (This is Love) (Drama, 458x30-60 min.) The story of two individuals, Raman and Ishita, connected by their common love for little Ruhi and how they discover each other through their sweet and sour relationship.

Love Ka Hai Intezar (The Wait for Love) (Drama, 260x30 min.) Actress Kamini Mathur is an ordinary girl at heart, looking for true love and then she meets Madhav Singh, a prince. Surrounded by powerful enemies, will these starcrossed lovers find a way to be together?

Ek Hasina Thi (There Was a Beautiful Woman) (Drama, 216x30 min.) The story of Durga, who changes her identity and comes back to rewrite her own destiny, correct the wrongs and serve justice that was denied.

Rishton Ka Chakravyuh (Family Secrets) (Drama, 260x30 min.) A 17-year-old girl, abandoned at birth and adopted by a poor family in the same city, returns as the sole yet reluctant heir to her royal family and a saga begins.

Aarambh (The Beginning) (Costume drama, 24x60 min.) In the clash of two civilizations, the Aryans and the Dravidians, a love story blossoms between the ideal Aryan, Varundev, and the Dravidian queen, Devasena, who are pitted against each other in a battle to death.

New Shows on Star (Drama) Tu Suraj Mein Saanj (Season 2), Dhaai Kilo Prem and Ek Astha Aisi bhi.

STUDIO 100 MEDIA & M4E

O (49-89) 960-855-0 m distribution@studio100media.com w www.studio100.m4e.de

STAR INDIA

m manish.vaidya@startv.com w www.contentsales.startv.com Stand: P-1.D51 Contact: Leena Salins, AVP, synd.; Deep Hegiste, asst. mgr., synd.; Shruti Raghavendran, asst. mgr., synd.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Iss Pyaar Ko Kya Naam Doon (Strange Love 3) (Drama, 260x30 min.) Season three of the blockbuster series, starring the international superstar Barun Sobti.

Saraswatichandra (Saras & Kumud) (Drama, 444x30-60 min.) A poignant love story of soul mates Saras and Kumud, who are denied the joy of becoming one by destiny and traditions.

Ishqbaaaz (The Love Gamblers) (Drama, 365x30 min.) The story of three cousin brothers who share an unbreakable bond despite their dysfunctional family.

Stand: R7.C15 Contact: Hans Bourlon, CEO, Studio 100; Ulli Stoef, CEO, Studio 100 Media & m4e; Martin Krieger, head, global dist.; Jo Daris, CCO; Tanja Aichberger Schätzle, snr. sales exec.; Dorian Bühr, sales exec.; Joe Hofer, intl. PR & events mgr.; Petra Keil, dir., channel & pgm. mngmt.; Holger Scheer, head, post prod.

Wissper (CGI preschool adventure/comedy, 52x7 min. & S2) Wissper is a little girl who can talk to animals—she can sense their feelings and thus help them around the world.

Nils Holgersson (CGI adventure, 52x13 min.)

One day an elf changes Nils into a miniature human. With his faithful friend Martin the gander, Nils embarks on an extraordinary journey among the wild geese.

The Wild Adventures of Blinky Bill (CGI adventure comedy, 52x12 min.) Without Blinky, Green Patch would be a quiet refuge from the dangerous outback. With this kid koala, everyday life has a way of spiraling into a chain of escapades.

Maya the Bee (CGI preschool adventure, 130x13 min.) The brand-new season features 52 new adventures with Maya, the little bee who is so unlike any of the other bees, and her very best friends.

Ghost Rockers (Live-action mystery, 209x12 min. & 1x92 min.) After their summer holidays the Ghost Rockers receive a sinister message from someone called the Queen of Clubs challenging them to play a game!

Drop Dead Weird (Live-action comedy, 26x24 min.) Three Aussie kids trying to fit into their new hometown are harboring an enormous secret: their parents are zombies.

Random & Whacky (Live-action comedy, 15x24 min.) Comedy series about a top-secret agent who solves the problems faced by real-life kids.

NOX (Crime thriller, 6x60 min.) In the darkness beneath Paris, retired cop Catherine Suzini is forced back into action when her daughter Julie disappears, during a police intervention, into the Paris sewers.

Crime Time (Crime drama, 4x60 min.) Follows the irresistible rise and descent into hell of this smalltime cop from Manaus as he becomes “Tony,” the almighty host of the show “Crime Time,” where crime scenes are broadcast night after night.

The Lawyer (Thriller, 10x60 min.) A promising defense lawyer is drawn into a dangerous game when he uncovers the truth about his parents’ death.

Paris etc. (Dramedy, 12x30 min.) Everyday experiences blend with larger-than-life drama, following the engaging stories of five very different heroines as their lives cross over the course of a season.

The Teach (Crime drama, S2: 10x60 min.)

Teacher Paweł Zawadski finds himself embroiled in a homicidal game at an elite high school in the new season of this crime thriller.

Baron Noir (Political thriller, S2: 8x60 min.)

César Award-winner Kad Merad returns as manipulative politician Philippe Rickwaert in the new season of this realistic, critically-acclaimed depiction of modern-day politics.

Ride Upon the Storm (Drama, S1-2: 20x60 min.) Creator Adam Price (Borgen) turns his attention to how faith and religion affect our lives in this modern, character-led drama produced by Camilla Hammerich and starring Lars Mikkelsen.

STUDIOCANAL

SUNRIGHTS

w www.studiocanaltvseries.com

w www.sunrights-inc.com

Stand: P1.A1 Contact: Francoise Guyonnet, exec. mng. dir., STUDIOCANAL TV; Anna Marsh, EVP, intl. dist.; Beatriz Campos, VP, sales; Sarah Mottershead, snr. sales coord.; Jack Solesbury, sales mgr.; André Le Brocquy, sales coord.; Rola Bauer, mng. dir., STUDIOCANAL TV; Sandra Munivrana, sales asst., STUDIOCANAL TV; Jonas Bauer, head, intl. acq. & coprod.; Stéphanie Bro, SVP, mktg. & publicity; Kalle Friz, CEO, STUDIOCANAL Germany; Barbara Knabe, head, TV dist. & world sales (Germany); Sebastian Miska, snr. sales mgr. TV/digital & TV series acq. (Germany); Katheryn Needham, head, TV & digital sales (U.K.); Julia Breatas, snr. mgr., TV sales (U.K.); Laure de Boissard, SVP, TV/SVOD (France); Camille Dupeuble, sales mgr., TV (France); Zelda Camilleri, sales mgr., TV (France); Lionel Balzan, acq., video, TV, new media, France, mgr.

Stand: R7.K20 Contact: Daizo Suzuki, pres.; Masakazu Soeda, mng. dir.; Ayako Tsunekawa, creative/mktg. dir.; Natasha Gross, dir., TV sales & lic.

O (44-20) 7534-2700 m sales@studiocanaltv.com

Beyblade Burst PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Beyblade Burst (Boys action, 51x22 min.) This is the story of a group of passionate Bladers who follow their dreams on an unforgettable journey to the top.

Beyblade Burst Evolution (Boys action, 51x22 min.) Valt travels to Spain after being scouted by a prestigious Spanish club. He and his friends fight to make it to the World League.

The Wild Adventures of Blinky Bill

Love Ka Hai Intezar

O (1-646) 284-9801 m mia.yamashiro@sunrights-inc.com

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Arthur and the Minimoys—The Series (CGI adventure/fantasy, 26x26 min.) Arthur found the world of the Minimoys and visits his friends. The King of the Minimoys is organizing the resistance against tyrant Malthazar.

Tip the Mouse (CGI preschool comedy, 78x7 min.)

Season two of the preschool series is now available, with 26 new adventures of the little mouse.

Mia and me (Fantasy/adventure, S1-3: 78x23 min., S4 & feature in dvpmt.) Mia and her friends in Centopia are facing the arrival of a new villain who poses a new threat to their fantastic world.

GET DAILY NEWS ON THE ASIAN REGION

SUPERIGHTS NOX PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Come Home (Family drama, 3x60 min.) When mother Marie mysteriously leaves the family home, the repercussions are enormous. But when secrets are revealed from the past, both Marie and her husband Greg realize they can’t just walk away from their lives.

O (33) 516-500-016 m sales@superights.net w www.superights.net Stand: R7.G19 Contact: Nathalie Pinguet, deputy mng. dir., intl. sales & acq.; Safaa Benazzouz, sales mgr.; Jeromine Ader, sales coord.

*LIST_418_ALT_LIS_1006_LISTINGS 3/22/18 9:31 AM Page 27

TV LISTINGS 27 PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Pat the Dog (Kids cartoon comedy 3D, 78x7 min.) Tells the daily adventures of an ordinary little dog, Pat, and his owner, Lola. Pat would do anything to save Lola’s day. Season two coming soon.

Story Time! (Preschool/family 2D, 26x13 min.)

A collection of beautiful tales, both forgotten wonders and original series. The series has been designed to open children up to other cultures.

A Year to Remember The World According to 80-Year-Olds (Format, 8x41 min.) A group of outspoken senior citizens stay in a super-modern house in the company of four trendy youngsters to review all aspects of modern-day life.

TCB MEDIA RIGHTS Pat the Dog Helen’s Little School (Preschool comedy 3D, 52x11 min.) Follows 5-year-old Helen and her unruly toy students in this not-so-ordinary class, where they will discover that helping and listening to each other is the best way to learn.

Emmy & Gooroo (Preschool comedy 2D, 52x11 min.) Follows Emmy, a creative and resourceful 5-year-old girl, and her best friend Gooroo, a big, furry and huggable creature, in their daily adventures in the magic forest.

Bo Bear (Preschool/family live action, 26x5 min.) In each episode, a kid faces a new situation that could sound difficult or challenging, but with the help of Bo Bear, it becomes a life learning lesson.

The Horn Quartet (Kids/family 2D, 1x26 min. & 10x3 min. web series) In the course of an amusing trip to the beach, four cows will discover freedom in an unknown world that extends far from their meadow.

Puffin Rock (Preschool comedy 2D, 78x7 min.)

Set on a beautiful island off the Irish coast.

Nature and wildlife are central to the stories of Oona and Baba, a cute sister and brother puffling pair.

Clay Time (Preschool 2D edutainment, 30x3 min. & 30x90 sec.) Aimed at 3- to 5-year-olds, young viewers are invited to develop their imagination with a universal activity: modeling clay.

Will (Kids comedy 2D, 52x2 min.) Will is a highly energetic and clever boy who lives his life to the fullest in a wheelchair.

Boyster (Kids comedy 2D, 52x13 min.) Half oyster, half human, Boyster is different from the other boys in this comedy series dealing with universal topics such as finding one’s identity, social exclusion and the desire to fit in.

O (44-203) 735-5222 m office@tcbmediarights.com w www.tcbmediarights.com Stand: R8.D3 Contact: Paul Heaney, CEO; Dina Subhani, dir.; Mem Bakar, snr. sales mgr.; Simona Argenti, sales mgr.; Holly Cowdery, sales exec.; Claire Runham, acq. & coprod. exec.; Claire Lowe, commercial & business affairs dir.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Animal Airport (Animals/pets, S3: 26x30 min./13x60 min.) From 10,000 bees overnight to a two-legged Mongolian street dog, looks at the wild experiences of the staff at Heathrow’s Animal Reception Centre.

Bondi Rescue (Reality/ent., S13: 10x30 min.)

In the record-breaking heat of the summer, crowds are up as the lifeguards continue to save lives, deal with sharks and perform serious first aid and life-saving resuscitations.

Combat Machines (Science & technology, 8x60 min.) The stories of the machines that changed warfare, from the remarkable engineering inventions, technological prowess and the personal accounts of those who used them.

Get Away for Winter (Travel & adventure, 15x60 min.) With the help of a local property expert, friends and families view four properties on the search for their perfect winter getaway.

A Killer’s Mistake (Crime & investigation, 10x60 min.) Each episode focuses on the key error that a killer made that led to their arrest, with emotionally charged interviews, dramatic reconstruction and interviews with experts.

TALPA

O (54-11) 5252-2100 m telefilms@telefilms.com.ar w www.telefilms.com.ar Contact: Tomás Darcyl, pres.; Ricardo Costianovsky, CEO. PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS All the Money in the World (Feature film) The story of the kidnapping of 16-year-old John Paul Getty III and the desperate attempt by his devoted mother to convince his billionaire grandfather Jean Paul Getty to pay the ransom.

All the Money in the World Den of Thieves (Feature film) A gritty crime saga that follows the lives of an elite unit of the L.A. County Sheriff’s Dept. and the state’s most successful bank robbery crew as the outlaws plan a seemingly impossible heist on the Federal Reserve Bank.

7 Days in Entebbe (Feature film) Inspired by the true events of the 1976 hijacking of an Air France flight en route from Tel Aviv to Paris, and the most daring rescue mission ever attempted.

Midnight Sun (Feature film) Katie, who has a lifethreatening sensitivity to sunlight, is presented with the gut-wrenching dilemma of whether she can live a normal life when she meets Charlie.

12 Strong (Feature film) Tells the story of the first Special Forces team deployed to Afghanistan after 9/11; under the leadership of a new captain, the team must work with an Afghan warlord to take down the Taliban.

O (43-1) 87003-0 m office@terramater.at

w www.talpa.tv

w www.terramater.at Bondi Rescue Marry Me, Marry My Family (Lifestyle, 3x60 min.) The journey to every wedding brings tears, tension, chaos and compromise. What happens when you try to send two vastly different cultures down the aisle?

Modern Royals (Reality & ent., 1x60 min.)

With interviews with royal correspondents and journalists, explores how Prince William, wife Kate, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have modernized the British royal family.

Rich Kids Go Skint (Reality & ent., 6x60 min.)

Rich kids ditch their fast cars, five-star hotels

Moon presents the perfect moment to explore the most recent scientific breakthroughs shining light on the Moon’s most enduring mysteries.

Sex, Lies and Butterflies (Nature, 1x50 min.

4K) While everything tries to eat them, these winged superheroes have evolved an array of survival tricks.

TELEFILMS

TERRA MATER FACTUAL STUDIOS

O (31-35) 533-3111 m sales@talpa.tv Stand: C16.B PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS The Voice Senior (Format, 4x70 min.) In this brand new spin-off of the worldwide successful talent show, it’s the seniors’ turn to shine.

A Year to Remember (Format, 8x72 min.) The studio show takes viewers back to one specific year in the past. Two witty celebrity captains team up with a guest celebrity that actually experienced the year in question.

So You Think You Can Sing (Format, 7x82 min.) The contestants not only need to have a singing talent, but above all a good sense of selfknowledge and negotiation skills.

and endless shopping trips to go skint with families living on the breadline.

Sammy & Bella’s Kitchen Rescue (Food, 12x30 min.) Follow Sammy and Bella as they share fast and easy recipes, handy kitchen hacks and get down to business rearranging and rescuing kitchens across Australia.

Vikings—The Lost Realm (History, 6x60 min.)

Archaeologist Tim Sutherland travels to Scandinavia, Estonia, and beyond to get insights into the world of those they called the North Men—the Vikings.

Stand: R7.N1 Contact: Sabine Holzer, head, specialist factual; Sven Westphal, snr. intl. coprod. mgr.; Berend Dreier, sales dir.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Wild Winners (Nature, 3x50 min.) Reveals the characteristics of cats, birds and monkeys in a new light by comparing and contrasting their unique skill sets and highlighting their distinctive superpowers.

The Moon—Our Gateway to the Universe (Science, 1x50 min. 4K) A new space race to the

GET DAILY NEWS ON MIDDLE EASTERN & AFRICAN TV

Wonders of Africa—What a Difference a Day Makes!

Wild Korea (Nature, 2x50 min. 4K) Lush wetlands and mudflats in contrast to the soaring mountains and turbulent seas; curious raccoon dogs, beautiful goshawks.

Wonders of Africa—What a Difference a Day Makes! (Nature, 1x50 min.) Strengthening family bonds, catching lunch and assuring the survival of a new generation—it’s a round-theclock job for Africa’s wildlife.

Wild Uganda (Nature, 1x50 min. 4K) Mountain gorillas, the largest known and most studied chimpanzee community on Earth and Savannah elephants raiding salt caves—welcome to “Wild Uganda.”

A Life Among Monkeys (Nature, 1x50 min.

4K) The unique story of primatologist Dr Wolfgang Dittus and the charismatic toque macaque monkeys, set amid ancient temple ruins in Sri Lanka.

SuperPigs (Nature, 1x50 min. 4K) Unafraid of frostbite or heatstroke, pigs reside anywhere from Siberia to the Bahamas. Exploring their lives we ask, what is the key to their remarkable success?

Attenborough’s Ant Mountain (Nature, 1x50 min. 4K) Up high in the Swiss Alps the snows are melting and now it’s their turn— wood ants.

Tasmania—Weird and Wonderful (Nature, 1x50 min. 4K) At the bottom of the world, a unique island ark filled with some of the strangest creatures, like wombats, white wallabies, jumping ants and glowing worms.

TM INTERNATIONAL

O (49-89) 450610-44 m sales@tmg.de w www.tminternational.de

Stand: R8.A6 Contact: Herbert L. Kloiber, mng. dir.; Giannina Antola, head, intl. sales; Angelika Koch, sales agent, Concorde Media/TM Intl.; Cosima von Spreti, VP, acq. & coprod.; Henriette Gutmann, head, mktg. & comms.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS The Name of the Rose (Thriller, 8x60 min.)

Based on the bestselling novel of the same name, the series depicts the suspenseful hunt for a murderer in a secluded abbey.

Hubert & Staller (Crime/comedy/action, 116x60 min.) In this top-rated access primetime series set in the Alpine foothills, inspectors Hubert and Staller lure perps into confessions with shrewdness and a light hand.

*LIST_418_ALT_LIS_1006_LISTINGS 3/21/18 4:54 PM Page 28

28

TV LISTINGS

Thanks for the Memories Thanks for the Memories (Romantic comedy, 2x90 min./1x140 min.) The miniseries is based on Cecelia Ahern’s novel. After an accident Joyce has strange memories and keeps stumbling into an attractive college professor.

TV ASAHI CORPORATION

O (81-3) 6406-1952 m ml-international@tv-asahi.co.jp w tv-asahicontents.com

tion using real rules where kids often beat the former champs!

Doraemon (Animation, 1,048x22 min.) Longrunning animation series about a cat-like robot from the future, Doraemon, helping an elementary schoolboy, Nobita.

Shin Chan (Animation, 762x22 min.) Comedy animation about a mischievous 5-year-old, Shinnosuke Nohara, and his family and friends.

Ninja Hattori (Animation, 276x22 min.) Hattori kun, a ninja boy born and trained in the valley of Iga, comes to stay with Ken in Tokyo.

New Japan Pro-Wrestling (Sports, 130x60 min.) The action from Japan’s premier wrestling organization, NJPW, now comes with full English commentary.

TV AZTECA INTERNATIONAL

O (5255) 5166-2330 m jrico@tvazteca.com.mx

w www.tvaztecainternacional.com Stand: R8.B10 Contact: Patricia Jasín, VP; Ramón Salomón, operations content dir.; Andres R. Payá, mktg.; Jorge Berthely, intl. sales; Melissa Pillow, sales rep., Europe, Turkey, Israel, U.S., NZ & Australia; Berta Orozco, sales rep., Spain, Africa, MENA, Asia & French-speaking territories.

Stand: R7.H6 Contact: Yumi Shimizu, dir., intl. dist.; Yuka Kakui, head, format sales; Nakamura Mayumi, format sales; Takahiro Kishimoto, head, animation; Maiko Sumida, intl. business; Setsuko Yoda, intl. business; Yoshiyuki Sugimoto, head, animation sales; Yayoi Motofuji, animation sales.

Wild By Nature

Ossan’s Love PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Ossan’s Love (Comedy drama, 7x60 min.)

Haruta, a 33-year-old bachelor, is desperately looking for a girlfriend. Suddenly he finds himself the object of desire of two male co-workers.

Where On EARTH Are We? (Doc./ent., 12x60 min.) TV Asahi goes to the places no TV shows have ever stepped in to.

Test of Friends (Game format, 60 min. eps.)

We all have friends. But how many of them are real friends you can rely on? More importantly, how far will they go for you?

Experts Visiting Experts (Travel doc. format, 60 min. eps.) Seasoned professionals from various genres visit their counterparts in a foreign country and make surprising discoveries.

Hide-and-Seek with Drones (Game format, 30 min. eps.) By using high-tech drones, the children’s pastime of hide-and-seek has become an entirely futuristic and thrilling game for all ages. vs KIDS (Sports/competition format, 60 min. eps.) Can kid champions top former top athletes in the same sport? A real competi-

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Wild By Nature (Wildlife docureality, 30x30 min.) Actor and naturalist Arturo Islas travels jungles, deserts and seas in search of the wonderful species of fauna in Mexico.

Two Lakes (Dos Lagos) (Drama, 13x60 min.)

Three families living in one house in three different eras—1944, 1975 and 2015—all find themselves dealing with the spirit of a girl who died there mysteriously.

El César (Biographical drama, 26x60 min.) The life of legendary Mexican boxer Julio César Chavez, who fell prey to addiction and the trappings of power.

Bad Maids (Las Malcriadas) (Melodrama, 90x60 min.) Socially relevant and modern drama dealing with universal, controversial and topical issues.

Missing Bride (Desaparecida) (Mystery, 80x60 min.) The disappearance of a wife and mother opens a Pandora’s box in a family with many secrets.

3 Families (Comedy, 100x60 min.) A telenovela with sitcom undertones dealing with the unexpected events of the daily lives of Mexico’s three main social groups as they try to move upward while keeping love as a cornerstone.

Nothing Personal (Nada Personal) (Melo drama, 80x60 min.) Mariana Aragón is set up by a corrupt organized crime task force after

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witnessing the murder of her friends; she must battle to get out of prison and bring down the people who destroyed her life.

Iron Lady (La Fiscal de Hierro) (Drama/ action, 80x60 min.) When her father is murdered by the country’s most-wanted drug baron, the “Iron Prosecutor” will use every means at her disposal to see that justice is served.

Living to Race (Entre Correr y Vivir) (Action drama, 40x60 min.) The story of the legendary racecar drivers Ricardo and Pedro Rodríguez is entwined with the present-day story of Rodrigo Hernández.

The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story (Drama, 9x60 min.)

The second installment of FX’s award-winning limited-series franchise explores the murder of high-profile fashion designer Gianni Versace.

Snowfall (Drama, 10x60 min.) Drama set against the infancy of the crack cocaine epidemic and its ultimate radical impact on the culture as we know it.

The Chi (Drama, 10x60 min.) A timely comingof-age drama centered on a group of residents who become linked by coincidence but bonded by the need for connection and redemption.

TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX TELEVISION DISTRIBUTION

TWOFOUR RIGHTS

O (1-310) 369-1000 m FoxTVD@fox.com w www.foxfast.com

Stand: P3.A1 Contact: Mark Kaner, pres.; Gina Brogi, pres., global dist.; Kristen Finney, EVP, EMEA; Richard Samuels, EVP, AsiaPac & mng. dir., Sydney office; Greg Drebin, EVP, worldwide mktg.; David Smyth, SVP & dvpmt., EMEA & mng. dir., U.K. office; Manuel Alduy, SVP & dvpmt., EMEA & mng. dir., Paris office; Brendan Zauner, SVP, AsiaPac; Maria Rodriguez, VP, EMEA; George Giodas, VP, EMEA; Simon Bathe, VP, sales, Europe; Martine Bazin, VP, sales, EMEA; Vanessa Patenon, VP, sales, EMEA; Cristina Sala, VP, sales, Europe; Dorothy Crompton, VP, format lic., TVD; Tina Kwon, exec. dir., AsiaPac; Christophe Jiang, dir., sales liaison, China; Yan-Jong Wong, dir., sales, AsiaPac; Kate Stevenson, snr. mgr., sales, EMEA; Dragana Kos, snr. mgr., sales, Europe.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS The Resident (Drama, 14x60 min.) A provocative new medical drama that rips back the curtain to reveal the truth of what happens behind the scenes at hospitals.

Trust (Drama, 10x60 min.) Tells the story of John Paul Getty III, heir to the Getty oil fortune, who is kidnapped by the mafia for a multimilliondollar ransom.

The Orville (Sci-fi comedic drama, 12x60 min.)

Set 400 years in the future, following the voyages of The Orville, a not-so-top-of-the-line exploratory ship in Earth’s interstellar Fleet.

The Resident 9-1-1 (Drama, 10x60 min.) A new fast-paced procedural drama about the lives and careers of emergency responders who put their lives on the line to save others.

LA to Vegas (Comedy, 15x30 min.) A workplace comedy about an airline crew and eccentric passengers who, every weekend, take a no-frills roundtrip flight from Los Angeles to Las Vegas.

Better Things (Comedy, 10x30 min.) Centers on Sam Fox (Pamela Adlon), a single, working actor with no filter, raising her three daughters in Los Angeles.

O (44-1752) 727-400 m sales@twofour-rights.co.uk w www.twofour-rights.co.uk Stand: ITV Studios House Contact: Melanie Leach, chief exec., Twofour Group; Andrew Mackenzie, chief creative officer, Twofour Group; Anthony Hughes, COO; Holly Hodges, head, operations & VP, sales; Eniela Bella, VP, sales; Rob Bassett, snr. sales exec.; Marta Csizmadia, sales exec.; Tom Burton, sales exec.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS What Would Your Kid Do? (Ent. & format, 6x60 min.) Game-show format that sees parents try to guess how their children will behave in a variety of challenging situations in order to win some incredible prizes.

What Would Your Kid Do? Change Your Tune (Ent. & format, 6x60 min.) In this feel-good time travel format, five truly terrible singers compete to transform their singing abilities in order to win a cash prize, revealing hit after hit of dramatic and heart-warming live musical performances.

Weekender (Factual ent. & format, 10x60 min.)

Now into a seventh season, this format sees a cast of returning reps welcome young holiday makers to a holiday hotspot, which captures the drama and high jinx of their first trip abroad.

Give It a Year (Factual ent. & format, 6x60 min.)

Using production techniques borrowed from This Time Next Year, tells the stories of the first year of business, fast-forwarding the first year of trading to deliver multiple instant reveals of success or failure.

This Time Next Year (Ent. & format, S1-3: 6x60 min.) With 14 territories in production, a second series in Australia, and two further series commissioned in the U.K., this format is leading the way in the “television time travel” genre trend.

A Night with My Ex (Ent. & format, 6x60 min.)

Places ex-couples in a rigged apartment block capturing their every move. Now in production across four territories.

Extreme Cake Makers (Factual ent., 48x30 min.) Lifts the lid on the successes and failures of a crazy, creative and elite group who produce the world’s most delicious and breathtaking creations.

*LIST_418_ALT_LIS_1006_LISTINGS 3/22/18 9:34 AM Page 29

TV LISTINGS 29 The Hotel Inspector (Factual, S14: 8x60 min.)

Alex Polizzi has brought countless hotels and B&Bs up and down the country back from the brink, but she’s not finished yet. She’s back for a brand-new series, armed with a bag of new tricks to keep the hotel industry on its toes.

The Indian Dream Hotel (Factual, S4: 4x60 min.) A group of retirees head to a different country for an experience of a lifetime to see if retirement abroad is as charming as it seems.

VIACOM INTERNATIONAL MEDIA NETWORKS w b2b.viacom.com Stand: R7.N7 Contact: Lauren Marriott, VP, intl. pgm. sales; Amanda Cordner, snr. dir., intl. sales strategy; Guillermo Borensztein, VP, content sales & coprod.; Emmanuelle Bon, EMEA sales; Marie Bariller, EMEA sales; Daniel Broberg, EMEA sales; Reka Gaspar, EMEA sales; Agata Ziomek, EMEA sales; Maria Del Rosario Cosentino, Americas sales; June Yeoh, AsiaPac sales; Laura Burrell, format sales; Meera Sharma, airline sales.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS The Adventures of Kid Danger (Kids animation, 10x30 min.) Kid Danger and Captain Man (and their crew) use their sharp wit and epic crime-fighting skills to battle bizarre criminals and super villains, with their number one priority being to keep Swellview safe.

Knight Squad (Kids live action, 20x30 min.) At a magical school for knights in training, two mismatched students form an unlikely alliance to protect each other’s secret and pursue their dreams.

100 Días Para Enamorarse (Dramedy, 80x60 min.) The series from Telefe follows the story of two friends who go to extremes to try and save their relationships.

VIACOM INTERNATIONAL MEDIA NETWORKS AMÉRICAS w b2b.viacom.com Stand: R7.K5 Contact: Darío Turovelzky, SVP; Rita Herring, SVP; Guillermo Borensztein, VP; Elena Antonini, dir., sales; María Del Rosario Cosentino, dir., sales; María Ibarra, sales, LatAm & Canada; Natalia Delmas, sales, South America; Renato Martinez, sales, Brazil.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS 100 Days to Fall in Love (Dramedy, 80x60 min.) After 18 years of marriage, two friends approach their husbands with a deal: they are to take a break from their married lives for 100 days, during which they can do as they please as long as they follow ten strict rules.

Top Wing (Preschool, 26x30 min.) Follows a team of eager young birds as they work together to help their island community, go on amazing adventures and earn their wings as full-feathered rescue birds.

Corporate (Comedy, 10x30 min.) Takes you inside Hampton Deville, your average, soulless multinational corporation, and follows the miserable lives of two downtrodden employees who between them have to navigate an ever-revolving series of disasters.

Borges Importadora (Comedy, 10x30 min.)

Tells the story of four employees of an importer company who, after being cheated by their former boss, decide to turn the firm into an internet video production house.

MTV Floribama Shore (Ent., 20x60 min.)

Eight young adults come to spend the summer in the hottest beach town on the Gulf Coast, Panama City Beach.

Amazingness (Format, 8x30 min.) Introduces the world to the most ridiculously talented young people in the country, an eclectic and diverse mix of amateur and viral talent who compete to earn the top spot.

Concorde (Factual, 2x60 min.) Tells the story of the Anglo-French airliner through the eyes of the designers, pilots and passengers and looks at how it saw off competition from the Americans and Soviets to become the world’s only supersonic airliner.

Road Less Traveled

Laado (Veerpur Ki Mardani)

100 Days to Fall in Love

Top Wing

were cheating on them and were together when they died in an accident. In the chaos that follows they find each other.

Ishq Mein Marjawan (Romance/thriller, 260x30 min.) Aarohi has been married into a fake family set up, with con artists playing the role of her in-laws.

Tu Aashiqui (Romance, 260x30 min.) Pantki has been sold by her own mother to be a mistress to a wealthy man, Pran. Ahaan, Pran’s own nephew, frees Pankti from the clutches of his uncle.

Borges Importadora Ltda (Comedy, 10x30 min.) Porta dos Fundos’ new series tells the story of four employees of an importer company, cheated by their former boss, who turn the bankrupt firm into an internet video production house.

Sandro of América (Bio., 13x60 min.) Portrays the life of Roberto Sánchez, the renowned Argentine singer-songwriter known as Sandro, revealing facts never told about the artist’s life.

Vikki RPM (Teen, 60x60 min.) A new and amusing twist to the story of Romeo and Juliet, this time on the racetrack.

Se Busca Comediante (Reality, 23x60 min.)

Some of Latin America’s most hilarious comedians, El Diablito, Alexis de Anda, Berth Oh and Manu NNa, go on a road trip across Mexico to find out what makes Mexicans laugh.

Rhizome Suites (Series) Connected by both visible and hidden bonds, the characters choose the Rhizome suites to fulfill their fantasies and dark impulses.

Laado (Veerpur Ki Mardani) (Family, 260x30 min.) Ammaji has given up her volatile past and is now solely focused on protecting her granddaughters. But one wrong move takes Ammaji back to where it all began.

Dil Se Dil Tak (Family/romance, 260x30 min.)

Parth and Sharvari, unable to have kids, take the help of a surrogate. What happens when the surrogate falls in love with Parth?

Belan Wali Bahu (Romance/comedy, 260x30 min.) Roopa accidently kills her husband with her rolling pin. He decides to stay with her as a ghost. The only hitch is that she’s the only one who can see him!

Naagin 2 (Fantasy, 76 hrs.) The legacy continues with Shivanya’s daughter, Shivangi. Can Shivangi come into her own skin as a ‘Icchadhari’ naagin and protect the Naagmani? Or will the evil forces win this time?

Ishq Ka Rang Safed (Family/romance, 341x30 min.) Set in the traditional city of Benaras in North India, the story of a strongminded young widow who meets a spoilt, carefree young man. Will their love withstand society, religion and tradition?

Meri Aashiqui Tum Se Hi (Romance, 446x30 min.) Ranveer, the son of a driver in a very rich household, is secretly in love with the daughter of the family.

Madhubala (Romance, 648x30 min.) A girl with simple dreams is compelled to act and to everyone’s surprise a new star is born. Fate forces her to marry RK, a leading superstar.

Watch how their hate turns into love.

VIACOM18/INDIACAST MEDIA DISTRIBUTION

VIVICAST MEDIA

w www.indiacast.com

w www.vivicast.com

Stand: P-1.E73 Contact: Debkumar Dasgupta, SVP & head, synd., digital & South Asia; Sonal Gupta, AsiaPac & Europe; Bhavishya Rao, MENAP & Americas; Keerthana Anand, AsiaPac & Europe.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Bepannah (Romance/thriller, 260x30 min.)

Aditya and Zoya discover that their spouses

Stand: P-1.D66 Contact: Stuart Smitherman, pres.; Amy Shapiro, VP, acq.; Matthew Pohlman, VP, worldwide sales.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Ball Trip (Doc., 12x26 min. 4K/HDR) Brings a new look at the world of football from the eyes of a football fanatic. Co-pro opportunity.

O (91-22) 6697-7715

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Water Puppet—Behind the Curtain (Travel/doc./arts, 1x80 min. 4K/HDR) A look at a Vietnamese tradition dating from the 11th century, from the farmers of Northern Vietnam to the artists of the Thang-rong Theater.

Sex, Power and the Divine (Doc., 1x44 min.)

Takes viewers into the land of a million Gods to explore the roles of women throughout India.

Journey to Herculaneum (Travel/history, 1x52 min. 4K/HDR) The ancient city of Herculaneum from its ashes to the new city that arose in the Middle Ages and the omnipresent volcano of destruction. (Available for the Americas) Road Less Traveled (Travel/culture, 10x60 min. 4K/HDR) Jonathan Legg scours the globe in search of uncharted adventure from Antarctica to the jungles of Cambodia, Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe and beyond.

Landscape Hunter (Travel/adventure, 7x30 min. 4K/HDR) The most exciting, unpredictable hunt in search of the beauty of Italy’s landscapes, from the Dolomites to dinosaurs. (Available for the Americas)

WWE

O (1-203) 352-8600 m wweintl@wwecorp.com w www.wwe.com Stand: R7.C25 Contact: James Frewin, snr. dir., content media dist., EMEA; Thomas Sitrin, snr. dir., content media dist., LatAm; Frank Eimer, commercial exec., GSA. PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Raw (Sports/ent., 52x60 min./52x120 min./52x180 min.) Live, weekly, in-ring programs featuring edge-of-your-seat action and unpredictable drama.

m info@vivicast.com

Raw

*LIST_418_ALT_LIS_1006_LISTINGS 3/21/18 4:54 PM Page 30

30

TV LISTINGS

SmackDown (Sports/ent., 52x60 min./ 52x120 min.) Live, weekly, in-ring flagship program featuring edge-of-your seat action and unpredictable drama.

Total Divas (Sports/ent., 12x60 min.) Reality series featuring the real women of WWE—go inside their personal lives like never before.

WWE Experience (Sports/ent., 52x60 min.)

Weekly highlight program with fresh commentary and in-depth analysis of the action-packed matches and storylines from WWE Raw and WWE SmackDown Live.

WWE BottomLine (Sports/ent., 52x60 min.) Weekly highlight program that chronicles the action from WWE Raw and WWE SmackDown Live with post-match analysis and exclusive updates.

WWE AfterBurn (Sports/ent., 52x60 min.)

Weekly highlight program that chronicles the action from WWE Raw and WWE SmackDown Live with post-match analysis and exclusive updates.

ZDF ENTERPRISES

O (49) 6131-9910 m info@zdf-enterprises.de w www.zdf-enterprises.de Stand: P-1.L2/M1 Contact: Fred Burcksen, pres. & CEO; Robert Franke, VP, ZDFE.drama; Ralf Rueckauer, VP, ZDFE.unscripted; Peter Lang, VP, ZDFE.junior; Christine Denilauler, VP, mktg. & corp. comms.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS The Story of Europe (History & biographies, 6x50 min.) Tells the story of Europe, exploring different chapters of its eventful history. It’s a journey through time and across space, from physical beginnings to the first human settlers.

XILAM ANIMATION

O (33-1) 4018-7200 m info@xilam.com

come to the rescue of her young owner, 10-yearold Zoe, at the Grand Mountain National Park that they call home.

ZEE ENTERTAINMENT ENTERPRISES

O (91-22) 7106-1465 m response@atl.esselgroup.com w www.globalcontenthub.net Stand: P-1.K51 Contact: Sunita Uchil, chief business officer, global synd. & prod. & intl. ad sales; Nitin Michael, region head, synd., MENAP; Sandeep Hardasmalani, region head, synd., AsiaPac; Manjyot Sandhu, asst. VP, synd.; Sarah Coursey, lead synd. & prod., Americas.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Life of Earth from Space (Doc., 2x60 min.)

Delivers a cinematic, blue-chip view of the entire life history of our planet, using the latest hi-res imagery from the International Space Station, Gyro-stabilized 4K drone cinematography and new techniques in 3D digital mapping.

ZODIAK KIDS

O (44-20) 7013-4000 m sales@zodiakkids.com w www.zodiakkids.com Stand: C20.A Contact: Jean-Philippe Randisi, CEO; Delphine Dumont, VP, sales & coprod.; Julia Rowlands, VP, sales, acq. & coprod.; Danielle Davies, VP, sales & coprod.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Lilybuds (Preschool animation, 52x11 min.)

The Lilybuds are tiny, magical gardeners who live under our noses, undetected, in an urban oasis called Garden Park.

w www.xilam.com Stand: R7.J9 Contact: Marc du Pontavice, chmn. & CEO; Morgann Favennec, EVP, dvpmt. & global sales; Jessica Delahaie, SVP, media dist. EMEA & Canada; Leyla Formoso, SVP, media dist., LatAm & Iberia; Céline Carenco, SVP, media dist., AsiaPac; Cathy Leclère, mktg. ops. mgr.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Mr Magoo (Kids 6-11 slapstick comedy, 78x7 min.) In the neighborhood everybody loves Mister Magoo, the dynamic, kindhearted and cheerful guy always happy to give a helping hand. But beware—he also causes disasters!

Paprika (Kids 3-6 comedy, 75x7 min. & 11x2 min.) Olivia and Stan are the Paprika twins, taking everyday life and turning it into colorful and zany adventures.

Mr Magoo A New Kind of Magic (Kids 6-11 comedy, 52x13 min.) Willow the fairy and her beloved husband, Gregore the ogre, have no choice but to emigrate and settle in the real world with their children.

Oggy and the Cockroaches—Seasons 5-7 (Kids 6-11 slapstick comedy, 350x7 min.) In season five, we discover the clash between Oggy and the cockroaches has been around forever, and in seasons six and seven we’ll find a mix of brand-new epi sodes and full remakes of classic stories from seasons one and two, all produced in 4K. If I Were An Animal (Kids 5-8 wildlife doc., 52x5 min.) The first wildlife documentary written as fiction and told by kids for kids.

Joe All Alone The Story of Europe History of Weapons (Science & knowledge, 10x50 min.) Showcases the evolution of weapon technology throughout the history of the world.

Africa River Wild (Wildlife & nature, 7x50 min.)

Rivers are the lifeblood of Africa. The rivers of this great continent spread fresh water and life, through parched desert and scrubland.

Cash or Trash (Docutainment, 55 min. eps.) The hugely popular daily show that uncovers the price of the public’s treasures and hidden heirlooms.

You’ll Never Get It! (Quiz show, 90 min. eps.) Two teams of celebrities face their opponents with razor-sharp wit as they try to answer the oddest questions on TV. The showmaster, in his turn, introduces all manner of amazing people and places.

The Manipulation Game (Docutainment, 60 min. eps.) Over the course of four social experiments, expert and host Sascha Lobo reveals the major mechanisms of opinion shaping in social media.

Crimson Rivers (Crime/suspense, 8x50 min./4x100 min.) Set in a world full of gruesome criminal cases, sadistic killers, creepy rituals and mysterious incidents. After the bestselling novel and the successful feature adaptation, the author Jean-Christophe Grangé sends his fearless hero Pierre Niémans, with a new partner, on a hunt for the evil.

Ku’damm 59 (Family drama, 3x90 min.) Berlin 1959: Monika and Freddy are pursuing careers as musicians and dancers, while their mother Caterina never leaves their side as their manager, forever mindful of social conventions. Meanwhile, Helga has come to terms with Wolfgang’s homosexuality and is trying to be a good mother.

The Bureau of Magical Things (Kids live action, 20x26 min.) Follows the adventures of teenage girl Kyra, who is magically transformed into a Tri-ling when caught in a clash between an elf and a fairy.

Lassie (Kids animation, 52x22 min.) Lassie is smart, loyal and ready to cross rivers and fires to

GET DAILY NEWS ON TELENOVELAS

Life of Earth from Space Lala’s Ladiez (Sitcom, 20x60 min. & format) Revolves around an Indo-British interracial family from Southall, London, where the protagonist always finds himself in a pickle because of the compulsive disorderliness and the weird shenanigans of his five crazy daughters.

Altar’d (Fitness, S1 & S2, 6x60 min.) Twelve weeks before their wedding day, a bride and groom determined to get into their best shape are separated and put through a rigorous regimen with the help of fitness and nutrition experts.

Finding Fido (Lifestyle, S1 & S2, 6x60 min.) In each episode, canine expert Seth Casteel helps an enthusiastic dog owner-to-be find the perfect companion for his or her lifestyle.

Piya Albela (The Temptress) (Family drama, 125x30 min.) A modern-day interpretation of the classic love story of Menaka and Vishwamitra.

Jeet Gayi Toh Piyaa Morre (Against the Odds) (Drama, 122x30 min.) Based on the story of Beauty and the Beast, centers on a marriage that takes place between the members of two rival families, the Chauhans and the Rajawats.

Yoga Girls (Lifestyle, 6x60 min.) Features two groups of yoga instructors, one driven by selfpromotion, the other the die-hard traditionalists, competing to attract clients and gain recognition.

Kundali Bhagya (Destined Love) (Drama, 150x30 min.) Preeta and Shrishti discover the existence of their mother Sarla and their sister Pragya after the death of their father and cross paths with two rich brothers, Rishabh and Karan.

Tee and Mo (Preschool animation, 50x7 min.)

The adventures of a fun-loving 3-year-old monkey, Tee, and first-time super-mum, Mo, as they navigate the swings and roundabouts of their life together.

Kody Kapow (Preschool animation, 52x11 min.) An aspiring martial arts-style superhero named Kody spends the summer with his extended family in a small village in China.

Magiki (Preschool animation, 52x11 min.)

Magiki is a fantasy land of ditzy fairies and sassy mermaids where Princess Billie explores realworld issues of fairness, sibling rivalry and selfconfidence.

Sammy & Co (Preschool animation, S2: 52x11 min.) Following the success of the feature film A Turtle’s Tale: Sammy’s Adventures, this 3D CGI animation explores an underwater world filled with action and humor.

Floogals (Preschool animation/live action, S2: 52x11 min.) Fleeker, Flo and Boomer are pocketsized alien adventurers on a mission to observe, experience and detail the new and exciting world around them, planet Earth!

Joe All Alone (Live-action scripted, 4x30 min.) Joe Holt is 13. His mum and her boyfriend are heading off for Spain, while Joe’s being left behind in their London flat—but that’s only the start of the trouble.

Secret Life of Boys (Live-action interactive scripted comedy, S2: 10x30 min.) Centers on Ginger, an 11-year-old girl who has to spend her summer holidays with her English cousins, a family of four tween and teen boys.

Millie Inbetween (Live-action scripted comedy, S4: 12x30 min.) Millie’s parents have just split up and she and her big sister Lauren are alternating between Mum’s house and Dad’s flat.

LoliRock (Animation, S2: 26x26 min.) Follows the journey of young Iris, a spirited teenage girl with a beautiful voice and an unending desire to help others. When Iris joins the girl group LoliRock, her life is changed forever, as a new world of music, mysteries and magical powers is revealed.

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ADVERTISERS’ INDEX

4K Media 189 9 Story Media Group 203 A+E Networks 349, 356 ABS-CBN Corporation 43 Acun Medya Global 311 Alfred Haber Distribution 127 all3media international 89, 251, 337, 404 Armoza Formats 296, 297, 315, 317 Artist View Entertainment 47 Asia TV Forum 457 AsiaSat 71 Astro 385 ATRESMEDIA Televisión 37 ATV 13 Banijay Rights 319, 321 BBC Studios 302, 303 BBC Studios Latin America 429 Beyond Distribution 357 Bomanbridge Media 382, 383 Brightcove 454, 455 Busan Contents Market 137 CAKE 183 Calinos Entertainment 2, 3 Canada Media Fund 55 Caracol Television 420 CBS Studios International 67 CDC United Network 452 CJ E&M 261, 304, 305 Crown Media International Distribution 10, 11 Cyber Group Studios 166, 167, 217, 232 dick clark productions, International 39, 41 DISCOP 461 Discovery, Inc. 19 Distribution360 211, 335 Eccho Rights 6, 7, 142, 143 Endemol Shine International 93-108 Entertainment One Family & Brands 185 Escapade Media 113 Filmax International 49 Fox Networks Group Content Distribution 277, 325 FoxTelecolombia/Estudios TeleMéxico 73 FremantleMedia 293, 306, 344 FremantleMedia International 141, 144, 237, 250, 350, 351, 381, 384, 405, 408 Gaumont 155, 490 Global Agency 240, 241, 242, 243, 244, 245, 294, 295, 298, 299 Global Screen 253 GMA Worldwide 263 GoldBee 207 GRB Entertainment 123, 125, 287, 379 Great Point Media 61 Gusto Worldwide Media 354, 355 Hasbro Studios 187 HBO Latin America 437 Imagina International Sales 147 Incendo 259 Intellecta 119 Inter Medya 1, 29, 248, 249, 308, 309, 453 International Academy of TV Arts & Sciences 419 Italian Trade Agency 149 Jetpack Distribution 209 KABO International 327

Kanal D International 160, 288 Keshet International 116, 117, 271, 343 Kew Media Group 269, 367 Lionsgate Entertainment 69, 238, 239 MarVista Entertainment 4, 5 Mediatoon Distribution 216, 218 Miramax 15 MISTCO 246, 247, 264, 265 Mondo TV Group 165, 219, 221, 223 Multicom Entertainment Group 489 NATPE 441, 483 New Films International 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 129 ORF-Enterprise 63 Rabbit Films 135 Rai Com 279 Rainbow 170, 171 Record TV 421, 422, 423 Red Arrow Studios International 313, 361 Rewind Networks 403 RTVE 145 Russia Television and Radio/Sovtelexport 257 Saban Brands 181 Series Mania 283 Serious Lunch 193, 194, 195, 197 Sesame Workshop 213 Sinking Ship Entertainment 215 Smithsonian Channel 59 SoHo Formats 139 Sonar Entertainment 8, 9 Sony Creative Products 175 Sony Pictures Television 65 SPI International/FILMBOX 131, 159, 380, 397, 406, 407, 424, 425 Splash Entertainment 172, 173 Star India 255 Star Media 133 Studio 100 Media & m4e 199 STUDIOCANAL 91 Sunny Side of the Doc 459 SUNRIGHTS 201 Superights 177, 179 Talpa 333 TCB Media Rights 352, 353 Telefilms 433 TEPAL 463 Terra Mater Factual Studios 363 TM International 35 Turner Asia Pacific 393 TV Asahi Corporation 329 TV Azteca International 31, 431 TV5MONDE Asia-Pacific 389 Twentieth Century Fox Television Distribution 17, 75, 307 Twofour Rights 300, 301 Universal Cinergia 451 Univision Communications 121 Viacom International Media Networks Américas 439 Viacom18/IndiaCast Media Distribution 273 WWE 51, 427 Xilam Animation 191 ZDF Enterprises 33, 45, 168, 169, 275, 359 Zee Entertainment Enterprises 111, 409

4/18 WORLD SCREEN 485

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WORLD’S END

IN THE STARS Almost every national constitution forbids the establishment of an official state religion. But this secular bent doesn’t stop people from looking to the heavens for answers to life’s most troublesome questions: Will I succeed?

Will I find love? Will I clone my dog?

Every day, papers, magazines and websites worldwide print horoscopes— projections for people born in a specific month, based on the positions of the stars and planets. While many people rely on these daily, weekly or monthly messages for guidance in their lives, some readers skip over them entirely.

The editors of WS recognize that these little pearls of random foresight occasionally prove pro phetic.

But rather than poring over charts of the zodiac to predict world events, our staff prefers to use past horoscopes in an attempt to legitimize the science.

As you can see here, had some of these media figures remembered to consult their horoscopes on significant dates, they could have avoided a few surprises.

Henry Cavill

Alec Baldwin

Kristen Bell

Barbra Streisand

HENRY CAVILL

KRISTEN BELL

Global distinction: British hunk.

Sign: Taurus (b. May 5, 1983) Significant date: March 5, 2018 Noteworthy activity: To his dismay, the Man of Steel

Global distinction: The Good Place star.

Sign: Cancer (b. July 18, 1980) Significant date: February 26, 2018 Noteworthy activity: During an appearance on The Joel

and Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice star—who previously appeared on the small screen in The Tudors—discovers that his Wikipedia page says he recently passed away. The very-much-alive 34-yearold actor then takes to Instagram to share a screenshot of his alleged date of death, along with a picture of himself looking understandably perplexed and a caption that reads: “When you learn that you died 2 days ago….”

Horoscope: “Set the record straight. Certain people may have misconceptions or preconceived notions about you that need to be quelled abruptly.” (chicagotribune.com)

McHale Show, the petite blonde talks about her experience with anal worms. “Your kids get them because they put their hands in their mouth and they lay eggs,” she tells the host. “You have to monitor it and look in their poop, and when you wipe their butt, sure enough, I wiped and saw a little white worm.” She also reveals that she caught them from her children, noting “it was very itchy.”

Horoscope: “There is likely to be something you would rather the world did not find out about. Avoid embarrassment by making sure it remains private.” (dailymail.co.uk)

ALEC BALDWIN

BARBRA STREISAND

Global distinction: American actor & comedian.

Sign: Aries (b. April 3, 1958) Significant date: March 2, 2018 Noteworthy activity: The actor engages in a Twitter spat

Global distinction: Singing & acting legend.

Sign: Taurus (b. April 24, 1942) Significant date: February 27, 2018 Noteworthy activity: The iconic entertainer reveals that

with U.S. President Donald Trump, whom he often portrays on Saturday Night Live, a job he said is “like agony” in a recent interview. “Alex [sic] Baldwin, whose dieing [sic] mediocre career was saved by his impersonation of me on SNL, now says playing DJT was agony for him,” Trump tweets. “Alex, it was also agony for those who were forced to watch. You were terrible. Bring back Darrell Hammond, much funnier and a far greater talent!” Hammond has also played Trump on SNL. Horoscope: “If you have some open confrontation approaching you, don’t engage in it; be wiser and craftier than your opponents.” (gotohoroscope.com)

prior to the death of her beloved 14-year-old dog Samantha, she had cells extracted from the pooch’s mouth and stomach. The DNA was used to create Coton de Tulear clones, three of which are alive and well.

Horoscope: “It’s probably not the best of times to be too extravagant, with Venus in retrograde, but if you have an unusual concept which really inspires you, do believe in it and follow your own vision.” (consciouslifenews.com)

EMMA WATSON Global distinction: Hollywood starlet.

Sign: Aries (b. April 15, 1990) Significant date: March 4, 2018 Noteworthy activity: The young actress shows off a temporary tattoo supporting the Time’s Up movement at an Academy Awards after party. Unfortunately, the cursive ink reads “Times Up,” missing the apostrophe and rendering the phrase grammatically incorrect.

Horoscope: “Stay focused and pay more attention to detail and getting things right the first time.” (mercurynews.com) 488 WORLD SCREEN 4/18

JENNIFER GARNER Global distinction: Alias alum.

Sign: Aries (b. April 17, 1972) Significant date: March 4, 2018 Noteworthy activity: While attending the Oscars, the actress gets a very uneasy look on her face out of nowhere, as if she realized something shocking or unpleasant. Her reaction is caught on camera and subsequently turned into a meme, with people jokingly speculating upon the many random things Garner could have possibly been thinking about, such as forgetting to shut her car lights off or perhaps accidentally passing gas.

Horoscope: “All eyes are on you, so make sure you display what you need others to know about you and conceal what you need to keep for yourself.” (chaninicholas.com)

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