Mipcom 2015 News 1

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DAY Monday 5 October 2015

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OPEN FOR BUSINESS

After the devastating storm, thanks to delegates, the city of Cannes and the Palais des Festivals, MIPCOM 2015 is open for business

OPENING NIGHT PARTY The MIPCOM Opening Night Party, sponsored by Turkish state broadcaster TRT, is tonight at the Carlton. All delegates are invited

WORLD PREMIERE TV SCREENING

Tonight’s World Premiere TV Screening is The Last Panthers for Sky Atlantic and Canal+ page 26

MEDIA MASTERMIND Sophie Turner Laing gives the Media Mastermind Keynote in her first MIPCOM as CEO of Endemol Shine Group. Grand Auditiorium 16.30

www.mipcom.com

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Stand Croisette 11 Cannes T: +33 (0)4 92 99 89 11 E: formats@fremantlemedia.com www.fremantlemedia.com

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From Executive Producer Steven Soderbergh

It’s personal.

MIPCOM 2015:

EXCLUSIVE SCREENING OF EPISODE 1 & 2

STARRING: Riley Keough | Mar y Lynn Rajskub | Paul Sparks | Kate Lyn Sheil [Season 1: 13 x 3 0 mins] AT MIPCOM 2015: R9.A32 FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE VISIT: STARZGLOBAL.COM

FOR BREAKING NEWS AND PRODUCT UPDATES, PLEASE FOLLOW US ON: facebook.com/starzworldwide instagram.com/starz_worldwide twitter.com/starz_worldwide

STARZ and related channels and service marks are the property of Starz Entertainment, LLC. The Girlfriend Experience © 2015 Transactional Pictures of NY LP. All rights reserved.

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SEASON 1: 10 X 30 MINS

SEASON 1: 8 X 60 MINS SEASON 2: 10 X 60 MINS SEASON 3: 10 X 60 MINS

8 X 60 MINS

SEASON 1: 6 X 30 MINS SEASON 2: 10 X 30 MINS

1 X 109 MINS

SEASON 1: 8 X 60 MINS SEASON 2: 10 X 60 MINS

AT MIPCOM 2015: R9.A32 FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE VISIT: STARZGLOBAL.COM

SEASON 1: 10 X 60 MINS SEASON 2: 12 X 60 MINS SEASON 3: 10 X 60 MINS

FOR BREAKING NEWS AND PRODUCT UPDATES, PLEASE FOLLOW US ON: facebook.com/starzworldwide instagram.com/starz_worldwide twitter.com/starz_worldwide

STARZ and related channels and service marks are the property of Starz Entertainment, LLC. Ash vs Evil Dead © 2015 Starz Entertainment, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Survivors Remorse © 2015 Starz Entertainment, LLC. All rights reserved. The Girlfriend Experience © 2015 Transactional Pictures of NY LP. All rights reserved., Power © 2015 Starz Entertainment, LLC. All rights reserved., Black Sails © 2016 Starz Entertainment, LLC.All rights reserved. Flesh and Bone © 2015 Starz Entertainment, LLC. All Rights Reserved The Dresser © Playground Television Limited UK 2015. All rights reserved Hit The Floor © 2014 Viacom International Inc. All Rights Reserved

mipcom

Conference & Events

CONTENTS NEWS

FEATURES

8 What happened at MIPJunior; early market deals; new drama in Cannes: we meet the stars

97 Next-gen entertainment

PRODUCT NEWS

105 The golden girls

62 Content for sale in Cannes

121 Big move to the small screen

112 From book to screen

+ hedule

A NEW CREATIVE EXCELLENCESc

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHTS

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ren Confe Reshaping the Content Game… Into The Stream mme a r g o r p

MEDIA MASTERMIND KEYNOTES

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Monday 5 October, Grand Auditorium 10.45-11.15 JIMMY MAYMANN Executive Vice President and President, AOL Content & Consumer Brands, Former CEO of The Huffington Post

11.30-12.00

AN INTERNATIONAL coalition of producers and broadcasters came together to make the hybrid live-action/ animation Seven And Me, which MIPJunior delegates viewed last night at the Drink & Screen. The show’s human star, Leila Jolene, made a surprise appearance. She plays Snow, a descendent of Snow White in modern-day New York, who receives seven trunks in the post, each one containing a dwarf. Distribution of the 26 x 26 mins series is being handled by AB International

SHAHRZAD RAFATI Founder & CEO BroadbandTV

12.10-12.40 JIM PACKER President, Worldwide Television & Digital Distribution Lionsgate

GEORGE STROMPOLOS Founder & CEO Fullscreen

16.30-17.00

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101 Disruption, not destruction

MIKE HOPKINS CEO Hulu

17.10-17.40

SOPHIE TURNER LAING CEO Endemol Shine Group

ADAM CROZIER Chief Executive ITV

Tuesday 6 October, Grand Auditorium

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11.40-12.10

‘OUTCAST’ KEYNOTE SESSION From classical to contemporary Featuring we have gardening shows to make your schedule bloom

all3mediainternational.com

DAVID ALPERT, Executive Producer ‘Outcast’ and ‘The Walking Dead’ PATRICK FUGIT, Lead Cast ‘Outcast’ SHARON TAL YGUADO, Head of Fox International Studios and EVP Global Scripted Entertainment, Fox International Channels

Take your picture in our 3D garden outside the JW Marriott

2015

MARK GORDON CEO The Mark Gordon Company

MIPCOM Stand R8.C20

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‘WAR AND PEACE’ KEYNOTE SESSION Featuring ANDREW DAVIES, Screenwriter FAITH PENHALE, Head of Drama, BBC Cymru Wales HARVEY WEINSTEIN, Co-Chairman, The Weinstein Company

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NEWS UK’s Fourth Wall Creative wins International Pitch

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H E 2015 MI PJunior International Pitch has been won by The Boy Who Switched Off The

Sun, a cautionary tale about the dangers of interfering with nature, produced by British company Fourth Wall Creative.

Pitched by Joe Moroney, managing director of Fourth Wall, the 3D fi lm beat off stiff competition from four other pitches shortlisted from over 100 submissions.

The award was made by head of the jury Mohamad Yehya, general manager of Majid Enter ta in ment (UA E), wh ich sponsored the MIPJunior International Pitch for the fi rst time this year.

And evidently this was a happy partnership: Yehya announced this weekend that Majid has agreed to extend its sponsorship for the next three years.

Formed nearly 40 years ago to publish the eponymous comic

The presentation of the MIPJunior International Pitch 2015

MIPJunior International Pitch winner Joe Moroney of Fourth Wall

book Majid, and now a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi Media Company, the group launched its first kids’ TV channel last week.

Sponsoring the awards is intended to send a clear message to the kids’ community about its priorities. “We’ll support new ideas and creative concepts,” said Yehya. “Keep up the good work. We are here to help.”

Producers and partners celebrate the world premiere of action comedy series Zorro The Chronicles (26 x 22 mins). This new adaptation of the tales of the masked hero and the quest for justice is produced in high-definition CGI by Cyber Group Studios, in association with Zorro Productions, in collaboration with Blue Spirit Studios, and with the participation of France Televisions and Rai

mipcom neWs 1 ®

The official MIPCOM daily newspaper Monday 5 October 2015

Director of Publications Paul Zilk Director of Communication Mike Williams EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT Editor in Chief Julian Newby Deputy Editor Debbie Lincoln Sub Editors Neil Churchman, Neil Crossley, Sarah Kovandzich Reporters Ben Cooper, Andy Fry, Emelia Jones, Juliana Koranteng, Max Leonard, Rachel Murrell, Gary Smith, Hannah Stephens, Joanna Stephens, Nigel Wilmott Editorial Management Boutique Editions Technical Editor in Chief Herve Traisnel Deputy Technical Editor in Chief Frederic Beauseigneur Graphic Designers Gaelle Daireaux, Veronique Duthille, Carole Peres Head of Photographers Yann Coatsaliou / 360 Medias Photographers Christian Alminana, Olivier Houeix, Michel Johner, Yohann Mortier.

PRODUCTION DEPARTMENT Publishing Director Martin Screpel Publishing Manager Amrane Lamiri Publishing Co-ordinators Nour Ezzedeen, Emilie Lambert Production Assistant, Cannes Office Eric Laurent Printer Riccobono Imprimeurs, Le Muy (France).

ADVERTISING CONTACT IN CANNES Silvia Ferreira: +33 (0)6 17 47 55 45 Reed MIDEM, a joint stock company (SAS), with a capital of €310.000, 662 003 557 R.C.S. NANTERRE, having offices located at 27-33 Quai Alphonse Le Gallo - 92100 BOULOGNE-BILLANCOURT (FRANCE), VAT number FR91 662 003 557. Contents © 2015, Reed MIDEM Market Publications. Publication registered 3rd quarter 2015. Printed on FSC certified paper.

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GLOBAL SCREEN PRESENTS

VISIT US AT MIPCOM 2015 Booth: P-1.K1, Hall: Palais-1 | info@globalscreen.de | www.globalscreen.de

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NEWS

Rainbow Ruby helps UNESCO spread the word on education

Picture Box’s Marilyn Kynaston

EDUTAINMENT’S GROWING ROLE “EDUTAINMENT has always been a big part of pre-school but it’s now growing in the six- to-nineyear-old demographic too,” said Marilyn Kynaston of Canada’s Picture Box Distribution in the Science Edutainment For Little Geeks session.

She noted four key trends in edutainment programming: “More digital streaming in schools and libraries, more respect for STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) programming, a blurring of the lines between public and commercial broadcasters — both are picking up edutainment shows — and a growing interest in edutainment for older age groups.”

She said the changes were partly driven by technical developments that made possible new and divergent methods of animation and distribution. But there was also “something in the zeitgeist” that explained parents’ increasing interest in learning-based programming.

Kynaston’s company distributes edutainment shows such as Prime Radicals and Annedroids.

Also on the panel were Jonathan Finkelstein of Apartment 11 Productions, presenting Look Kool/C’est Wow, and Carlos Soldevila of Trio Orange, presenting L’Academie Secrete.

The session was presented by the Canada Media Fund and Telefilm Canada.

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J E&M and DHX Media have announced a new preschool animated series at MIPJunior. Rainbow Ruby will be the first animation series to support girls’ and women’s education in partnership with UNESCO. Speaking at the MIPJunior lunch to launch the series, Ken Faier, senior vice-president and general manager, DHX Media content – kids and family, said the collaboration had been exciting.

“It was phenomenal,” he said.

“We had boarding done in LA, voices in Canada, so it was a bit of a co-production and it’s very exciting. The animation is fantastic and CJ E&M has been great to work with.”

This was a sentiment echoed by Sehoon Chong, CJ E&M head of animation global business. “DHX is a major global player in the kids industry and CJ is a strong leader in Asia. We also have a growing foothold in the Latin America market, so this will be the gate-

opener for us to truly be in the global market. We are also very excited to have this global partnership with UNESCO,” he said.

The collaboration will present a significant opportunity for the UN body to educate girls and women, a factor highlighted by UNESCO section chief, Maki Hayashikawa.

“It’s a really attractive collaboration because we can get messages really far out to the audiences

we normally wouldn’t be able to reach,” she said. “We work in education but we don’t work directly with children or young mothers or fathers. We work with government people to try to influence people’s mindsets, But of course there’s a huge gap between the government and the ordinary people. So having the opportunity to send our messages through their animation is going to be a great achievement for us.”

Sehoon Chong of CJ E&M (left), Ken Faier of DHX Media, Maki Hayashikawa and Elvira Gotz of UNESCO, Ha Narae, executive producer, CJ E&M, and UNESCO’s Shantha Retnasingam

Accolades for market Trendsetters THE VIEW From The Top: What Do Buyers Want? panel at MIPJunior closed with WorldScreen’s Anna Carugati presenting each participant with the WorldScreen Kids’ Content Trendsetter Award.

“We owe you a debt of gratitude,” she said, “for making shows that contribute so much to our children’s lives and development, opening them up to things that we as parents may not always be able to. Please continue the fantastic job you’re doing and help us not to have too many more Donald Trumps in the world!” she said.

The recipients were: Jules Borkent, senior vice-president global programming and international

acquisitions, Nickelodeon; Adina Pitt, vice-president content acquisitions and co-productions, Cartoon Network and Boomerang; Karen K Miller, vice-president, worldwide programming strategy, acquisitions and coproductions, Disney Channels Worldwide; Sebastian Debertin, head of fiction, acquisition and co-production, KiKA, and Caroline Cochaux, programmes and broadcast director executive, France and international, Lagardere Active TV Channels.

Earlier in the session they had shared their insights on what they were looking for in the market.

Cross-platform ideas were top of everyone’s list.

“Disney’s brand defines its con-

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tent and how we tell stories. Our mission is to find new ways to engage with our audiences, and that’s not just linear, it’s across all the platforms,” Miller said.

“Give us something where we can have a dialogue about franchises, because we live in a world of IP,” Pitt added.

Jules Borkent (left), Karen K Miller, Caroline Cochaux, Adina Pitt, Anna Carugati and Sebastian Debertin

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NEWS Advice on how to make the most of your remake

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AN ICONIC character isn’t a panacea. If you look at the successes and failures of the last few years, you can see where the value is on the screen and where it isn’t,” Allen Bohbot of 41 Entertainment said at the Iconic Reboots Vs Original IP discussion.

FremantleMedia’s new Danger Mouse launched last week as the UK’s number-one show. “There’s a difference between ‘can we?’ and ‘should we?’” the company’s Bob Higgins said, of the decision to remake an old property.

He noted the difference between people’s action-packed memories of the show and the simple

animation of the 1980s original: “What we wanted to deliver in the remake was the memory,” he said.

Pierre Siracusa of France Televisions, home of Peanuts, Zorro and more, brought a broadcaster’s perspective. “In a hyper-competitive world we have to have these iconic rendezvous for kids, with role models that are strong enough to be modernised” he said, adding: “But is the essence of this character still interesting for the new generation?”

“The less gimmicky you are with your content, the more it will withstand the test of time,” Chris Keenan of HIT Entertainment said. His company’s Bob

The Builder revival stayed close to the property’s DNA, but they

raised the level with the production values to stay relevant.

Although the discussion was dominated by classics, Bohbot closed by reminding delegates that: “Finding the new idea that will be the next Power Rangers, that’s still the business we want to be in.”

41 Entertainment’s Allen Bohbot: “you can see where the value is on the screen”

Nelvana in partnership with Bento Box of US NELVANA, the Corus-owned animation studio is in Cannes with a slate of shows targeting a range of kids demographics. It is also using MIPCOM to unveil a strategic partnership with US adult animation studio Bento Box Entertainment. Nelvana Enterprises co-head Andrew Kerr said: “One of our new titles at this market is Mech Mice, an animated series for six- to 11-yearolds. A partnership with Oktobor Animation and Playmates Toys, it is based on an original idea from Lance Priebe, creator of Disney’s Club Penguin and founder of digital gaming studio Hyper Hippo.”

Other titles on show at MIPCOM include Mysticons, an action adventure series for girls; Hotel Transylvania, an animated TV spin-off from the successful movie franchise; Zhu Zhu Pets, a series based on an international

Corus/Nelvana’s Colin Bohm (left) and Andrew Kerr

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toy property; and The Very Fairy Princess, a property for young girls based on the best-selling books by Julie Andrews and Emma Walton Hamilton. Corus Entertainment head of kids Colin Bohm said Nelvana was currently ramping up production in response to demand from the global market. In terms of working practice he said: “Partnership is in our DNA. We realised some time ago that our skills are best employed as part of a global franchise, so all of these projects also involve high-quality global partners.”

On the subject of the Bento Box partnership, Bohm said a new company called Bento Box Canada would be formed to create content for the 18- to 34-yearold market. “The first project we are working on is The Pandas. A pipeline of edgy new series will then follow in 2016.”

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mipcom

NEWS

Building brand awareness for a fragmented new generation The Muppets

GROWN-UP MUPPETS HAVE GLOBAL REACH DISNEY MEDIA DISTRIBUTION has confirmed that ABC Studios’ The Muppets has been licensed to broadcasters in 122 territories worldwide. The Muppets is a contemporary, documentary-style show that explores the Muppets’ personal lives and relationships, in a more grown-up Muppet show, aimed at kids of all ages. Meanwhile, the latest Shondaland drama series, The Catch, has been licensed to broadcasters in 186 territories. “It’s such a great time in the industry for scripted programming right now and the universal appeal of ABC Studios’ highlights its creativity and strength,” said Ben Pyne, Disney Media Networks’ president, global distribution.

David Kleeman

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What Do Kids Want? session.

The dichotomy was indicative of kids’ desire to push the boundaries but also to have a safe space — as was the growing popularity of horror and sci-fi programming.

For those genres the buzz around the new Star Wars film and the popular video game Five Nights

S KIDS’ attention becomes more divided, their viewing habits become complex: “We have kids that are listing Call Of Duty and Peppa Pig as their favourite brands,” said David Kleeman of research firm Dubit, at the Viewing Trends:

Boing bags Portfolio’s Freaktown BOING, Turner Broadcasting System’s French kids’ channel has signed a deal to broadcast Portfolio Entertainment’s Freaktown in France and Frenchspeaking EMEA territories.

“The first thing was the original look of the show,” said Stephane Pasquier-Miyazaki, director of programmes and creative services, Turner France.

“Even though the look was new it was easily accessible. It can be easy to lose young kids with jokes that are too sophisticated, but this show keeps all four- to 10-yearolds amused.”

Freaktown has started the market

Portfolio’s Joy Rosen and Turner France’s Stephane Pasquier-Miyazaki

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At Freddy’s were also contributory factors.

Dubit’s data came from a monthly survey of 1,000 families in the US and UK, and a number of other countries.

There were, Kleeman said, two dominant brands in the most recently surveyed nations: Lego in the UK and US, and Candy Crush in Turkey and Brazil. “Candy Crush is fascinating because it’s really a single platform. It’s not a narrative, it’s not moving to TV.” The main challenge, he thought, was the consolidation conundrum: “The same thing that’s promoting consolidation — the tablet — is also fragmenting kids’ worlds,” he said. “Now, you’re only one home button away from apps, social, ebooks and more.”

Being everywhere was not necessarily the answer: “It’s easy to overspend and spread yourself too thinly,” he said.

Instead, he advocated concentrating on a brand’s uniqueness, as well as cross-media, and oldschool channels — parents and TV — to help kids discover a brand. strongly, also selling to Cartoon Network in Asia Pacific, The Walt Disney Company Southeast Asia and ABC Australia.

The animated series (52 x 11 mins), whose French title is Bizarreville, follows the adventures of a skeleton, Ben Bones, and his freaky friends, as they protect their town from the evil Princess Boo Boo the Bouncy.

“It’s crammed with laugh-outloud moments and unpredictable twists that will perfectly complement the highly entertaining programming available on these major kids’ networks,” said Joy Rosen, Portfolio’s CEO and cofounder.

The series was commissioned

by Telethon Canada and will air next year.

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mipcom

NEWS

SB Projects and Cyber Group in tune with plans for Rock Angels

Code Max (Pixcom)

PIXCOM CRACKS CODE MAX CODE Max, a newly aired children’s game-show format from Pixcom, is already enjoying success.

“I’m delighted to say that, even though we’ve only broadcast three episodes on Quebecois TV channel Radio Canada, the network loves it and a second series has already been commissioned,” Nicola Merola, president of Pixcom said.

Each episode features four young participants who, in competing teams of two, face off to see who can save the world from Max, the main character of the show. The series employs unique technology that allows the participants to immerse themselves in a virtual world.

Max uses his artificial intelligence and delirious imagination to invent extravagant and eccentric catastrophes to throw at the competing teams, who have to interact with a giant screen.

“We’re very proud of the technology because it features an animated character that reacts to the players in real time — not an easy thing to do well but, thanks to our technology partner 4U2C, it works seamlessly,” Merola said.

Pixcom premiered the show to the international market at MIPJunior, and is at MIPCOM with its slate, which includes Licensed To Drill, Trashopolis and Dangerous Flights.

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COOTER Braun, talent manager for Justin Bieber, Carly Rae Jepsen and others, is moving into kids TV with a partnership announced at MIPJunior.

His company SB Projects and subsidiary School Boy Records are working with France’s Cyber Group Studios on Rock Angels, a 26 x 22 mins CG animation for six- to 12-year-olds.

It follows girl group Sky Angels after they tie a TV talent contest with rock band The Rock Ons and join forces, as Rock Angels, to take on the world.

Chief operating officer Scott Manson explained the cross-media move at MIPJunior: “We’re planning to treat Rock Angels as our next global superstar talent,” Manson said. “Right from this early stage we’re making sure the business world is built around them, whether that’s them performing in virtual reality, or the toy licences, or performing on a stadium screen as the opening act for one of our stars. We’ll have the ability to

Pierre Sissmann (left) and Scott Manson: bringing animation and music together

reach millions of people.”

“In the virtual world it will be easier to control the talent!” he said, and hailed the “best-inclass” partners — including Cyber Group, showrunner Mike de Seve from Baboon Animation who will story edit, and a cast of writers, producers and A&Rs. Both Manson and Cyber Group’s Pierre Sissmann were excited by the 360 possibilities of the project.

“I was head of European A&R at Sony Music, I worked at Disney, and then I founded Cyber Group Studios,” Sissmann said. “This brings together what I’ve done in music and the animation business, and creates something that goes a step further.”

Sissmann said they were talking to two major global broadcasters for the 2016 launch, and also welcomed worldwide interest.

PJ Masks takes eOne on a new adventure EONE has been at MIPJunior as the new majority owner of global property Peppa Pig, but it was another Astley Baker Davies creation, PJ Masks, that was at the top of the company’s agenda.

“PJ Masks launched in the US two weeks ago on Disney Junior, and we’re number one in the first two weeks on air there, which is fantastic news,” Olivier Dumont, managing director of eOne Family and eOne Licensing, said.

“It’s going to launch on France 5 in December, and then in all the other Disney Junior networks around the world from January.”

The company was showcasing new digital assets around the animation, which follows a group of pre-school kids who don magic pyjamas and become superheroes

at night. He added: “Once it’s embedded on air, we’ll roll out a licensing and merchandising programme around the world. We’re looking for partners for that.”

Ben And Holly’s Little Kingdom, meanwhile, will debut in the US on Nick Jr next week. “The property’s done extremely well in quite a few markets, very often with the same broadcasters that did well with Peppa Pig,” Dumont said, about the famous pig’s stable mate. eOne has been brand manager of Peppa Pig since 2004, and has now increased its 50% stake to 85%.

Olivier Dumont: number one on Disney Junior in two weeks

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NEWS YouTube Kids app designed to entertain, enrich and explore

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OUTUBE’s global head of family and lea r n ing, Ma li k Ducard, opened his MIPJunior Keynote by contrasting the state of kids’ programming today with when he started in television 13 years ago — a time when “a tablet was something you took when you had a headache”.

Ducard, whose eldest son had just been born at the time, referred to his three children’s “digital native” experiences throughout the address — such as when his six-year-old, after watching his favourite show, Phineas And Ferb, was given a how-to draw Phineas tutorial. He ran to get pencils and paper: “It was watchtime, playtime and active-time all at once,” Ducard said.

The emphasis on activity is only one of the attractions of the new YouTube Kids app, which launched several months ago in

Malik Ducard: new YouTube Kids app based on “the three Es”

Hasbro ‘in control of own destiny’ “WE HAVE so many great stories to tell,” said Stephen Davis,

chief content officer and executive vice-president of Hasbro, speaking of the transformation of the 92-year-old toy company into a heavy-hitter in today’s multiplatform environment.

“We have over 1,500 brands,” Davis added. “And we wanted to be in control of our own destiny.”

The process began with Hasbro’s huge reservoir of IP. It gathered pace with the creation of content development and production operations — Hasbro Studios for television and Allspark Pictures for film. Then came the distribution machine established through Hasbro’s jointly owned channel Discovery Family and partnerships with digital platforms, including Hulu and Netflix.

“We want to put our content into as many hands as possible,” Davis said. “Increasingly, kids are their own programmers and they don’t want to wait. So we want them to see us anywhere

and everywhere they are.”

Research is at the core of everything that Hasbro does. The company’s innovation team focuses on evolving the delivery mechanisms with more short-

Hasbro’s Stephen Davis: “best time to be in the kids’ TV market”

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the US. Ducard reported that it had been downloaded eight million times in the US (the sole territory in which it is currently available, although he said that would change).

Ducard said YouTube Kids is based around “the three Es” — entertaining children, enriching t hem a nd explor i ng new stories and characters. He also emphasised the app’s diversity: 65% of the channels on the home pages are from outside the US. Ducard’s second message was that international producers should embrace YouTube Family and Learning. He cited Korean animation Tayo The Little Bus, which does not have a TV presence in the US. However, his children — along with many others — had discovered it online. He also referenced Russia’s Masha And The Bear, which has garnered five billion views, helping to drive further TV and licensing deals.

“These global creators aren’t waiting for anyone to say ‘yes’ to their distribution,” he added. “They are believing in themselves and investing in themselves.” form and immersive content, such as toys-to-life action figures.

But it is great storytelling that keeps the properties evolving and relevant, Davis said. “With Transformers, we got Adam Beechen and nine other great writers in a room and plotted the next 10 years of the show.

With My Little Pony, there’s a new season coming soon, the third movie, and the spin-off Equestria Girls.”

Even games without characters can be adapted into successful movies, as demonstrated by Ouija, which grossed $103m.

“Not every game requires a show, but those opportunities are there,” Davis said.

“This is the best time to be in the kids’ TV market,” he concluded.

“There are more platforms than ever, and kids are making their own content, which encourages them to seek out more.”

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NEWS SPT demonstrates the art of building international sales

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HE ART Of More, which had its world premiere last night at MIPCOM, has been sold by Sony Pictures

Television (SPT) into 25 territories.

The 10-episode drama, which debuts next month on US digital streaming service Crackle, has

been sold to Viacom’s Colors Infinity channel in India, OSN for the Middle East and DSmart in Turkey.

The Art Of More charts a young man’s rise to the top of the New York art-dealing world by exploiting the antiquities-smuggling connections he made while serving as a soldier in Iraq. Among the talent attached to the series is Dennis Quaid, Kate Bosworth, Christian Cooke and Cary Elwes, all of whom were in town last night for the SPT world premiere.

Keith Le Goy, SPT’s president of international distribution, said: “The Art Of More is a fast-paced, fresh, star-studded peek inside the glamorous and cut-throat world of international auctions and art dealing. The drama and its stellar cast will stand out and deliver for linear broadcasters and on-demand platforms, who are showing huge interest in the show.”

Created by Chuck Rose, The Art Of More is written and executive produced by Rose and Gardner Stern. Other executive producers include Quaid, Gary Fleder and Golden Globe-winning producer Laurence Mark.

Keith Le Goy, president international distribution Sony Pictures Television (left), with stars of Crackle’s first one-hour scripted drama The Art Of More — Cary Elwes, Dennis Quaid, Kate Bosworth and Christian Cooke, and Eric Berger, vice-president, digital networks, SPT and general manager of Crackle.

Daybreak casts light on Churchill ANYONE who thought there

was nothing new to be said about Winston Churchill is about to be surprised. A major new ITV primetime drama, Churchill’s Secret, reveals that the great war leader had not just one secret, but two.

“The first concerns the stroke he suffered in 1953, when he was prime minister for the second time, which not only very nearly killed him but was covered up,” said executive producer Hal Vogel of Daybreak Pictures. “The second Churchill secret I won’t reveal, but that is the much sadder story that lies at the heart of our film.”

Based on Jonathan Smith’s novel, KBO: The Churchill Secret, the TV movie is brought to

market by Passion Distribution.

Its cast of A-list British talent includes Michael Gambon as Churchill, Lindsay Duncan as Clementine and Romola Garai as Millie Appleyard, the tough Yorkshire nurse who looked after Churchill following his stroke. The off-screen talent includes writer Stewart Harcourt, director Charles Sturridge and producer Timothy Bricknell.

“Michael had been asked to play Winston many times and had always turned it down,” Vogel said. “But with Stewart’s brilliant script and Charles on board, he felt this was a part he wanted to play. He delivered a portrait that is deeply touching and moving in a way that only a truly

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great actor can. It’s an absolutely astonishing performance.”

Elin Thomas, Passion Distribution’s global head of sales, reported “a fantastic response” from broadcasters to the initial rushes. “The fact that this is a terrific drama viewing is a key selling point,” she added.

“We’ve had tears being discreetly dabbed away in our presentations so far, showing the film has the power to evoke a really strong response. Michael Gambon plays Churchill in a way that shows his mental strength, determination and wit, but brilliantly portrays his immense vulnerability at this time in his life.

This is primetime event drama at its best.”

Michael Gambon in Churchill’s Secret

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NEWS

International Emmy Kids Awards find new home at Cannes market

T Fantawild’s Lo (left), Kiyoshi’s Bohara, Fantawild’s Xu and Kiyoshi’s Chhadva

KIYOSHI CRAZY FOR FANTAWILD CONTENT MUMBAI-based producer/distributor Kiyoshi Entertainment has acquired the worldwide cable and digital rights to more than 100 hours of content from Chinese animation studio Fantawild.

The deal was sealed at MIPCOM by Kiyoshi CEO Rohit Bohara, Kiyoshi managing director Bhupen Chhadva, Fantawild head of distribution Allen Lo and Fantawild regional manager Ren Xu. “This is the first cooperation between our companies,” Bohara said, adding that Kiyoshi now has a catalogue of 7,000 hours of kids content. “We hope it will be the start of a long and productive relationship.

Our plan is to target regional channels in India and digital platforms around the world.”

According to Lo, Fantawild produces some of China’s most popular animation series, including Boonie Bears, which airs on CCTV in China and has been distributed to around 100 countries worldwide.

The current deal with Kiyoshi includes titles such as Find Out How, Back To The Wild and New Star Town.

HE International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences announced this week that the International Emmy Kids Awards ceremony is moving to Cannes, where it will be presented in partnership with Reed MIDEM, at MIPTV. The first ceremony will take place on April 5, 2016. It will close the Kids@ MIPTV track, which includes the MIPTV Future Of Kids TV Summit. At the same time, the Academy also announced the nominations for the next event.

All told, there are 24 nominees in six categories.

“MIPTV is a terrific venue for showcasing and recognising the remarkable amount of quality kids programming around the world, and Reed MIDEM is a great partner,” Academy president and CEO Bruce L Paisner said. “We look forward to welcoming nominees to a new home and to continuing to serve the global children’s TV industry.”

Paul Zilk, CEO of Reed MI-

Paul Zilk and Bruce L Paisner

DEM, added: “We are honoured and delighted that the International Emmy Kids Awards are coming to MIPTV in April 2016.

Reed MIDEM has been promoting the best in children’s television since the creation of MIPTV in 1963 and MIPCOM in 1985.

These events are the largest gatherings of the international kids programming community in the world. We welcome this opportu-

nity to continue to work in partnership with the International Academy.”

This year’s nominations span 13 countries: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, France, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Singapore, the Netherlands, Norway and the UK. Presenting partners are: Ernst & Young, MIPTV, Shaw Rocket Fund, TV Kids and WDR.

Experts debate what platforms want from kids “WE WANT shows that are visually distinctive, aspirational but grounded, and can live beyond the screen,” said Tara Sorensen, head of kids programming at Amazon Studios at the session on What Do Platforms Want?. “Our call-out to kids is ‘view and do’.

We are looking to be part of our

Amazon’s Tara Sorensen: “part of our viewers’ lives”

viewers’ lives across the week.”

Exclusivity is critical for all platforms, but if you don’t have the cash reserves of an Amazon, you have to achieve it by other means.

For Nick Walters, CEO of preschool SVOD service Hopster, the focus is acquiring shows around which to build a unique digital learning experience.

“We acquired Earthtree Media’s Learn To Draw and created Hopster Create around it to further inspire kids,” he said. “And we’d love to do that with Night Zookeeper from Joshua Davidson.

In both cases, the journey we’re trying to create is from video to touchscreen and back.”

Sean Chu CEO of WeKids Asia wants to own the online Mandarin-speaking audience in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. He has

24

acquired 3,000+ episodes of animation, and will dub or subtitle into mandarin. “We look for unique design, strong characters, and international appeal,” he said.

Carlos Tibi, CEO of ICFLIX in the UAE, is holding out for a hero. Or preferably several. “We want heroes and role models for six to 11-year-olds in formats that can localise to our North African/ Middle Eastern audiences,” he said. “Key suppliers are DHX and DreamWorks.

For a kids’ SVOD platform like Hopster, said Walters, success depends on a subtle blend of education and entertainment. “We have to appeal to both the parent with the credit card and the kid who is just one click away from Angry Birds.”

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NEWS CANADA’S CORUS RISES TO THE NEW REALITIES CORUS Entertainment brings a strong roster of new reality series to MIPCOM as a distributor for the first time, including Cheer Stars, pre-sold to ABC, and property series Masters Of Flip and Buying The View.

Cheer Stars is an observational documentary series tracking the trials and tribulations of Canada’s top competitive cheerleading team.

Buying The View follows buyers on a quest to find a house with a spectacular view and Masters Of Flip, the number-one new series on Corus’s W Network, follows husband-and-wife team, Kortney and Dave Wilson who wager their own finances to breathe new life into old, rundown Nashville homes to sell them at a profit.

John MacDonald, executive vicepresident of television and head of women and family at Corus Entertainment, said audience demand for reality property series showed no sign of abating.

“We saw an opportunity in the success of unscripted reality and lifestyle programming on our own networks and dedicated 18 months to work on developing fresh content with our producing partners, while retaining worldwide distribution rights,” he said.

“We are now in a great position to sell to the international marketplace, especially with our insights as a broadcaster.”

John MacDonald, executive vice-president of television and head of women and family, Corus Entertainment

Last Panthers a leap forward for high-quality crime drama

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HE LAST Panthers is the latest crime drama series from Sky Atlantic and Canal+ is the World Premiere TV Screening at 18.30 today in the Grand Auditorium.

SundanceTV has come on board as co-pro-

ducer of the series and will be airing in the second quarter of next year.

“The Last Panthers has set the bar very high for quality drama and I think it will appeal to channels and platforms globally,” Sky Vision’s head of sales, Leona Connell, said.

StudioCanal’s Katrina Neylon (left), SundanceTV’s Christian Vesper, Warp Films’ Peter Carlton, Haut et Court’s Simon Arnal and Sky Vision’s Leona Connell.

Multiview pioneer Kring reprises Heroes TIM KRING creator/executive producer of NBC’s action fantasy drama Heroes, and arguably the father of multiplatform TV storytelling, is at MIPCOM to show how multiviewing has progressed via the sequel Heroes Reborn.

A 13-episode series, Heroes Reborn debuted in the US in September. It follows Heroes, which was watched globally by more than 76 million fans on air, online and on mobile before it ended five years ago.

Heroes Reborn chronicles the fate of a handful of the original characters with super powers, plus a host of new ones. This time they are no longer curiosities, but quarries who are hunted and persecuted.

While multiplatform narration was still experimental five years ago when the original series ended, Kring noted that it is standard today and generating income for NBC. “In addition to the series, we’ve developed two video games for mobile and console that true gamers would love, six e-books and a digital prequel,” he said.

“Before, the only way the network could make money was on-air advertising, which diminished when the ratings also fell. Now the metrics have changed and you can measure time-shift viewing as well. Now the viewers who do not watch the series live on TV are finally valuable to the network.”

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Kring, however, had foreseen multiplatform viewing, taken for granted today, when Heroes originally aired in 2006.

“Wanting to tell the Heroes stories in multiplatform format came from wanting to be relevant because the demographic of our audience was young, technically savvy and connected,” he said.

And then by the time of the season finale, Heroes was the most downloaded TV show worldwide, the most streamed, and one of the most recorded.

Being a pioneer has paid off, he added. “It was a very hard show to do. It was a huge project and the first season took 14 months to complete. But we made sure the premise was elastic enough to have new stories with new characters who are relevant.”

Heroes Reborn creator Tim Kring

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NEWS RED ARROW AND NIPPON TV TEAM-UP FOR FORMATS GLOBAL production and distribution group Red Arrow Entertainment and Japanese commercial broadcaster Nippon TV have announced a co-development partnership at MIPCOM. The deal will enable both companies to work closely to develop new entertainment and reality formats for the international market. The first project to emerge from the partnership will be announced shortly.

Yukiko Kimishima, divisional president of Nippon TV, said: “Back in 2008 Michael Schmidt brought our format Masquerade to the ProSiebenSat.1 Group with a German adaptation. Since then, we have nurtured a strong creative partnership, and I believe this new alliance is something that was meant to be. We look forward to benefiting from Red Arrow’s expertise in global format development and seeing our formats evolve significantly.”

Michael Schmidt, chief creative officer at Red Arrow Entertainment Group, said: “Nippon TV is an entertainment powerhouse run by a team of incredibly dedicated and creative people. Together we have forged a long-standing and trusting business relationship, the highlight so far being the successful Japanese remake of our hit show The Last Cop. I am excited to have formalised our collaboration and am looking forward to hitting the international market with great formats from our combined development teams.”

Michael Schmidt of Red Arrow Entertainment Group and Yukiko Kimishima of Nippon TV

Videocon boss predicts big growth for Indian pay-TV

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UMBAI-based satellite TV operator Videocon d2h is becoming a major player in the underdeveloped Indian pay-TV market.

Speaking in Cannes at the company’s MIPCOM debut, CEO Rohit Jain said that while traditional pay-TV matures in the US, there are hundreds of millions of Indian homes still without TV and several million more that have not migrated from analogue to digital set-top boxes.

“OTT and cord-cutting in the US are driven by price arbitrage; it is cheaper to subscribe to OTT. India is the reverse,” Jain said.

Having risen to become the second fastest growing satellite operator after launching six years ago, Videocon has licensed quality content to reach more than 14 million Indian homes.

Jain explained that Indian consumers were unlikely to drift to OTT because it was still much cheaper to pay around $5 a month for traditional pay-TV. It cost about $20 for broadband connection, and that excluded the content.

“Meanwhile, millions of homes are without TV and even more have analogue; therefore, the growth potential is huge,” he added.

This has enticed international private investors who subscribed to Videocon’s NASDAQ IPO in April, he said. “So, after focusing on

Videocon’s Rohit Jain

Asian conferences, we came to MIPCOM to be on a more global platform and to focus on investing in rights to great international content,” he said.

Star prize for MIPCOM QuizUp tie-in MIPCOM delegates have the rare opportunity to drive back home in a Tesla, the pioneering all-electric car, thanks to a competition being launched in Cannes to promote NBCUniversal’s new show QuizUp. The format for QuizUp’s TV version is being sold by NBCUniversal International Formats in Cannes.

The show sees studio contestants vie for the chance to win $1m as they play against selected viewers, who can compete at home via their mobile phones to win major cash prizes.

Today and tomorrow, delegates will be invited to use this year’s MIPCOM app to download another app based on QuizUp, the trivia quiz

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game show that NBC has commissioned from Los Angeles-based Apploff Entertainment and game developer Plain Vanilla Corp.

Once downloaded, the QuizUp app can be activated for attendees to try to win one of the world’s most coveted cars.

The original QuizUp app is being played by more than 75 million users globally.

A Tesla is waiting to be won

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NEWS The Five: Harlan Coben unravels the mystery of writing series TV

A

CTORS Tom Cullen, O-T Fagbenle and Lee Ingleby are in Cannes for the international launch of The Five, the first original series written for Sky Living by bestselling author Harlan Coben.

Also in town is the series lead writer, Danny Brocklehurst, and executive producer Nicola Shindler, from production company Red. Distributor of the series is StudioCanal.

The thriller follows a group of friends who are united by a terrible incident. Haunted by the disappearance of one of their younger brothers while he was in their care some years earlier, the group is forced to revisit the past when the missing boy’s DNA turns up at the scene of a murder.

Coben had been playing around with the story for some time when he was approached by Shindler, who was keen to adapt one of his novels for television.

“I was debating writing a novel but in a sense it was too big and needed more visuals to tell the

story,” Coben told Julian Newby.

“After seeing the work Nicola had done in the past, I could see we shared a similar passion. And when she hooked-in Danny, it all sort of fell into place.”

Coben said the time was right for him to dabble in series TV. “I think we’re living now a golden age where television is allowing us to do things we have never done before. In a sense I’m writing a novel on TV; this has all the complexity, all the emotion and all the suspense of a novel — this is not a procedural, I’m able to tell a story across 10 hours and that’s really intriguing for a novelist.

That’s what I think has excited and thrilled me about this project.”

Danny Brocklehurst said the “golden age” that Coben spoke about had its birth in the US. “HBO, Showtime, those kinds of networks, have shown us that television can have the same artistic ambitions as cinema. Shows like The Sopranos and Breaking Bad have raised the bar in TV. Now you have everybody wanting to be ambitious.”

Shindler added: “It’s not like TV is the poor relation any more.

There’s proper funding for it and people watch it as much, if not more, than they used to. It’s no longer the case that if you can’t get something made for cinema, try for TV.” And as with so many of the big

series that have captured the imagination of the global television audience in recent years, The Five’s lead actors are comparative unknowns.

“It’s a young exciting cast, though not necessarily names you’ve seen before — but all of them will have become great actors, in my view, by the time the show’s over. With all that vibrancy and the directing, you’ll see with all of that combined this was just too great a situation for me not to be involved in,” Coben said.

Harlan Coben

Red’s Andrew Critchley (left), StudioCanal’s Katrina Neylon, actors O-T Fagbenle, Lee Ingleby, Tom Cullen, with Red’s Nicola Schindler, Danny Brocklehurst and Richard Fee

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NEWS Armoza chief shares company’s secrets to a successful 10 years

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N THE eve of Armoz a Fo r m a t s’ 10th anniversary celebration, taking place in Cannes tomorrow night, its CEO Avi Armoza looked back on a decade of profound change for the formats industry and his company’s contribution to today’s vibrant global market.

“When I launched Armoza Formats, the business was 80% controlled by the US, the UK and the Netherlands,” Armoza said. “We were among the pioneers who helped show the market that good formats can come from anywhere.

And we were also the first format distributor in Israel. After we proved there was a business model, a lot of other companies followed our example. So I think we can be proud of opening up the formats world — and leading the world to the Israeli formats market.”

As an independent, Armoza Formats also proved that you don’t

have to be attached to a major broadcaster or production supergroup to build a strong brand.

“All it takes is creativity, strong formats and marketing,” he added.

In its first 10 years, the company has grown from two people to 20.

“We’ve expanded organically,” Armoza said. “We’ve been successful at setting targets from year to year and achieving them.

For example, we wanted a format in an English-speaking territory: we sold The Bubble to the BBC. We wanted a show on a US net: we sold Still Standing to NBC. We wanted to get into development: we created a primetime format, I Can Do That!, which is now on air in 20-plus countries.”

Looking at the next 10 years, Armoza said his company’s speed of reaction — and pro-action — would prove to be invaluable in a world changing at warp speed.

“Tomorrow’s market will require a new kind of content,” he added.

“We are in a good position to play

a central role in this new world because we are fast, flexible and embrace change.” A talent for

Armoza Formats’ Avi Armoza: “creativity, strong formats and marketing”

Sunrights has new spin on Beyblade

Sunrights’ Hiroya Nishimura: “a gateway for Japanese and Asian content to reach the West”

“cherry-picking great people” has also been at the heart of Armoza Formats’ growth. “Everybody who works for us is not only highly professional but also a ‘mensch’,” Armoza said.

“In my view, this is our true value. We build honest, straightforward, long-term relationships with our clients.”

SUNRIGHTS — the New Yorkbased total-rights management company set up by Japan’s drights in 2013 to distribute its IP to western markets — is at MIPCOM to raise awareness of its next major project: a re-imagining of the classic Japanese anime series Beyblade, which will be marketed directly to western broadcasters.

“We will start communicating with partners for a 2017 launch,” said Sunrights’ president Hiroya Nishimura. “MIPCOM is a very big event for us since it will give us a chance to meet with many potential partners.”

Sunrights’ first sales into Western markets were for anime series B-Daman Crossfire, inspired by a popular Tomy toy. “Most of our titles are well integrated

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with toys,” Nishimura said. “We produce animated series incorporating these toys. In western markets, such relationships sometimes risk being seen as product placement or advertisements.” He added that Sunrights also helps producers to develop series in line with toys that can then be sold overseas.

Part of Sunrights’ mission is to act as a bridge between East and West, conveying the wishes and requirements of western players to Japanese rights-holders. “In the past, we just targeted Asian markets that were familiar with Japan,” Nishimura said. “So Japanese producers didn’t have to be so sensitive to [other cultures] in terms of characters and stories.”

Another long-term goal is to become a conduit to the West for third-party licence holders. “We want to be a gateway for Japanese and Asian content to reach the West,” Nishimura added.

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NEWS

“It’s a good time to be in television” The cast of Crackle’s first one-hour scripted drama, The Art Of More, is in Cannes for the international launch. The series’ star and executive producer Dennis Quaid spoke to Julian Newby ahead of the launch

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HE ART Of More is a drama series set in the high-stakes world of New York auction houses. It follows Graham Connor (Christian Cooke), who after serving as a soldier uses connections he made with smuggling rings in Iraq to infiltrate a world inhabited by the super rich.

Dennis Quaid plays Samuel Brukner, whose character unravels through the series — but who we know from the outset has huge wealth and a ruthless streak.

“Samuel is a lot of fun to play, that’s for sure,” Quaid said. “Because he doesn’t back off from anything. He’s an industrialist in real estate, from Indiana, and he

wants to be part of the New York society scene, an insider, but he’s always had a chip on his shoulder as an outsider — although he has more money than anybody.”

Quaid got a call from series creator Chuck Rose at the start of the project. “Chuck had a bible that had a story going throughout the entire 10 episodes, which really appealed to me — there was a real arc to the character and it seemed like a lot of fun. A great challenge, so I said yes.” Quaid said it’s always difficult to find the complete character in just one read-through. “In the beginning it’s always tentative — until you find it. And then you get to the point where you know more

about the character than the writer or the director.”

While on the surface Brukner and the people he mixes with enjoy a life of luxury surrounded by priceless works of art, they are never too far away from the dark and ruthless world of international organised crime. “Yes it’s based in reality. We have seen the destruction of many precious objects and archaeological sites by Isis and during the Iraq war — this is what happens in the art world — you have fraud, you have theft, all kinds of things come into it,” he said.

Primarily a movie actor, Quaid is more than happy to inhabit Brukner’s character over 10 one-

hour episodes — or even more.

“Television used to be a place that you wanted to get out of to do movies but there seems to be a turnaround,” he said. “The studios are making big tent-pole movies with all the special effects, and who’s making the independent films any more? They are very difficult to get off the ground — there seems only to be a handful of them in any year, so storytelling has come to television with the large audience that’s out there. And there is this ability to tell a long-form story now, over time, and develop character and to do it in a way that is unrestricted by network censorship — and tell a real story, like a novel. And to do it in three to five years in 50 hours.” He added: “It’s a good time to be in television.”

The Art Of More premieres November 19 on Crackle in the US. Dennis Quaid, Cary Elwes, Christian Cooke and Kate Bosworth are in Cannes to launch the series internationally along with Eric Berger, executive vice-president of digital networks for Sony Pictures Television (SPT), parent company of Crackle. Gardner Stern and Chuck Rose are writers and executive producers of the series, which is distributed internationally by SPT.

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NEWS NETFLIX MAKES IT REAL FOR ROB REAL Rob, an eight-episode sitcom series, produced, directed and starring Rob Schneider, has been acquired by Netflix for the US, UK, Canada, LATAM, Australia and New Zealand.

Distributed by Tricon Films & Television, the series is an exaggerated yet brutally honest depiction of Schneider’s real life, managing the ups and downs of a Hollywood career, having a younger Mexican wife, a new baby, an ever-present stalker and a completely incompetent assistant.

“Having Real Rob on Netflix is fantastic, for me it’s the perfect home for the show,” Schneider said. “And after funding the series ourselves, it’s something of a relief as well. But if we’re going to make more series, which I’d like to do, first I’ll have to have a long talk with my wife as she’s really not keen on becoming well-known.”

Schneider admits to being a big John Cleese fan and Fawlty Towers was a source of inspiration: “In Real Rob I get to do some nasty but funny stuff that is inspired by how Cleese played Basil Fawlty, and because it is on Netflix, we don’t have to stick rigidly to 30-minute episodes, Even so, we had to go through the pain of cutting out bits that we loved from time to time.”

Globo has global ambitions for new plot-driven dramas

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aphael Correa Netto, executive director of international business at Brazilian broadcaster Globo, is at MIPCOM with a wide range of dramas.

“We have amazing series and mini-series, with great plots, which have conquered the demanding Brazilian audience and are showing their strength abroad,” said Correa. “Merciless is an example. The series about serial killer Edu was licensed to Korean Group EPG. Written by Gloria Perez (The Clone), this is our first series recorded and post-produced in 4K.” Globo will also feature a series called Doomed, about a sommelier who has affairs with several married women and then falls in love with the daughter of his boss. “In Brazil, it was seen by over 38 million people per day in 2014 [source: Ibope]. It has also aired on Telefe [Argentina] and TV Azteca [Mexico],” said Correa. “We have also licensed a show called The Party to 10 countries, including South Korea [EPG], Ecuador [Ecuavisa], and Portugal [SIC]. This one is a miniseries about a luxury par-

Globo’s Raphael Correa Netto: “innovative narratives and technologies”

ty that turns into a mysterious crime scene.”

In terms of priorities, Correa said Globo wants to make its shows as popular in Asia and Africa as they have proved in Latin America: “We have achieved some results in China, where we licensed the telenovela Side By Side recently. And in 2014, we licensed, for the first time, titles to Pakistan, Indonesia and the Philippines. Australia also bet on our drama. Africa has also become an important market, as our content is now available there in

French, English and Portuguese.”

In terms of trends, he said: “The marketplace for content is quite active. With new broadcasting windows, there is demand for content to fill programming schedules, and Globo produces a wide range of fiction, in different genres and formats, that meets this need. Our products, produced in a unique way, with innovative narratives and technologies, can serve for both linear and on-demand programming. We believe a well-told story that entertains and stirs emotions will always be valuable.”

DONISHA Prendergast, granddaughter of music legend Bob Marley, is at MIPCOM as part of a group of young emerging filmmakers sponsored by the Media Business Institute (MBI). Donisha, an actor, social activist and film director, will attend exclusive screenings and meet executives, buyers, sellers, advertisers, and content providers from around the world.

Rob Schneider, star of Real Rob

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NEWS STUDIO 100 DEAL BRINGS BESSON’S SERIES TO LIFE STUDIO 100 Media and Studio 100 Animation have concluded a co-production and distribution agreement with EuropaCorp Television, the TV-production arm of the French film studio EuropaCorp, founded by French director, screenwriter and producer Luc Besson, for the new CGI animation Arthur And The Minimoys — The Series. Paris-based Studio 100 Animation will co-produce the new kids series with EuropaCorp Television, with the participation of Gulli and Tiji (Lagardere Group).

Studio 100 Media will be the exclusive distributor.

Patrick Elmendorff, CEO of Studio 100 Media said: “We are more than happy to collaborate with EuropaCorp and Luc Besson who has created a truly fantastic character.

With a strong co-production and distribution team in place, Arthur And The Minimoys promises to entertain kids around the globe.”

Known in North America as Arthur And The Invisibles, the animation is based on Luc Besson’s children’s book and the feature film, which he also produced. Targeted at five- to nine-year-olds, the series follows the adventures of an average little boy who falls into a vivid world of magic, fantasy and action.

Daro’s Rochat looks back on 33 years of ‘doing something right’

Daro’s inaugural stand in 1984. Included in the photograph are Monique Rochat (left), PierreAndre Rochat (second left) and Larry Harmon, better known as Bozo The Clown (far right)

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ARO FILM Distribution was formed in 1982 by Pierre-Andre Rochat and his wife Monique Rochat. Thirty-three years on, the Monaco-based company represents more than 100 production companies and has a catalogue of 5,000 hours, ranging from blockbuster films and action series to TV movies, cartoons and documentaries.

According to (Pierre-Andre) Rochat: “Our primary focus this year will be promoting and selling our slate of new action and thriller TV movies for which we hold the worldwide distribution rights, excluding North America.

But as always, we continue to bolster this offering with our exceptional library of classic movies, including The Shawshank Redemption and Papillon. A particular highlight for our buyers this year will be our new Steven Seagal action title Killing Salazar, which I am very excited to present.”

Looking back on how the market has changed over the last three decades, Rochat said: “It’s very simple. In the early days, we would sell free-TV rights. They were the only rights that

existed. Now we have over 30 different kinds of diversified media rights, so you can imagine the market has evolved significantly to accommodate this.”

Rochat recalled that his first deal was with Ireland’s RTE for a mixture of children’s cartoons. “To this day, I’m proud to say we are still working with RTE, so I must have done something right,” he added.

It isn’t just Daro’s content catalogue that has changed over the years. Technology has also moved on: “We would use a three-quarter inch U-matic tape machine [for screening], which was a predecessor to the VHS format,” he said. “At the time it was considered to be the absolute height of technology.”

Coming up to the present day, what would be his advice for companies at their first MIPCOM? “Be organised and make sure your schedule is full before the market. Don’t rely on walk-by traffic. And do everybody a favour — be on time, because you have no idea how much you can screw up everyone’s diary because you spent too long on your morning coffee.”

Eurocinema launch has OTT appeal

Arthur And The Minimoys — The Series

EUROCINEMA, the North American VOD channel dedicated to European cinema, plans to expand its global footprint with the launch of Eurocinema World, a 24/7 live channel and SVOD service featuring award-winning European films and select Euro-centric lifestyle segments.

Showcasing winners and nominees from the global film-festival circuit, Eurocinema World will launch early next year in the US, Latin America, Europe and Asia. Operators will have the option to add Eurocinema World as

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a 24/7 live channel and/or a SVOD service.

“Considering the rapidly growing demand for high-quality programmed channels, Eurocinema World is perfect for the new OTT platforms that are emerging around the world,” said Eurocinema’s president/CEO Sebastien Perioche. “We’ve recently witnessed a change in consumer demand from TVOD to SVOD, while linear remains a classic choice. We’re delighted to see that there’s still a real need for quality 24/7 live channels.”

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A DA P T E D BY T H E C R E ATO R O F D OW N TO N A B B E Y

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Distributed by Hat Trick International

Visit us at MIPCOM 2015 Stand R7: F24 www.hattrickinternational.com | @Hattrickint

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NEWS

Cisneros content deal helps Estrella extend global reach

Bondi Vet Dr Chris Brown

NEW SEASON IN STORE FOR FRED’S BONDI VET DISTRIBUTOR Fred Media has announced the eighth season of Bondi Vet, which will see 23 new 60-minute episodes produced for delivery between April and August next year. The eighth season will premiere on Network Ten, while Animal Planet UK is set to schedule it in early 2017.

Hosted by Dr Chris Brown, Bondi Vet has been broadcast in over 170 countries and in multiple languages.

Set in Sydney’s iconic Bondi, home to one of the world’s most famous beaches, the series follows Dr Chris as he goes about his daily work and offers a range of dramatic and heart-warming scenes treating a huge variety of animals. It also features Dr Lisa Chimes at the local animal emergency hospital and wildlife conservationist Tim Faulkner at the Australian Reptile Park.

“The world can’t get enough of Dr Chris Brown and we are delighted to see the eighth season confirmed and available for our broadcast partners in 2016,” Fred Media general manager, Michael Aldrich, said. “He’s a familiar face on international networks – he even had to brush up on his schoolboy French this year to complete some station IDs for our broadcast partners in France and Canada.”

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S-BASED Cisneros Media Distribution (CMD), the international distributor specialising in Hispanic entertainment, is at MIPCOM shortly after clinching a multi-year representation deal with Estrella TV, the privately owned US-based Spanishlanguage broadcaster.

California-based Estrella TV produces more than 40 hours of original programming weekly and owns a catalogue of 7,500-

plus hours of content and formats. Its TV shows include reality formats Rica Famosa Latina (Rich Famous Latin Woman) and Historias Delirantes (Urban Legends).

The “outstanding library of content” now joins CMD’s own 30,000 hours of entertainment for international sale, said Marcello Coltro, executive vice-president content distribution at CMD’s parent company, Cisneros Media.

“This deal is an important step

for Estrella TV as we embark on the international exportation of our top-rated content,” added Lenard Liberman, CEO of Estrella TV and its parent company, Liberman Broadcasting. “We signed this agreement with great expectations and confidence in Cisneros Media Distribution, a renowned media company that had a significant role in establishing the presence of Spanishlanguage programming in international markets.”

Rica Famosa Latina (Estrella TV)

Reelz deals for TCB Media Rights TCB MEDIA Rights has closed a string of US deals for four of its MIPCOM priorities, including a new Frank Sinatra documentary, which will be released ahead of the iconic entertainer’s 100th birthday anniversary in December.

US network Reelz has commissioned Sinatra & The Jack Pack, which chronicles the intriguing relationship between Ol’ Blue Eyes and US president Jack Kennedy.

Produced by Irish independent Circle Films, the documentary tells the story of Sinatra’s rise to become one of Kennedy’s closest friends and confidants — and why he was abruptly ejected from Jack’s gang.

The Sinatra commission follows on the heels of two other Reelz commissions in the run-up to MIPCOM — AMS Pictures’ Murder Made Me Famous and Story House Productions’ Copycat Killers. The latter has also been presold to Discovery Nordic and Foxtel Australia.

“To have three of our shows commissioned in the US is a major coup and a great start to MIPCOM 2015,” said TCB CEO Paul Heaney. “Sinatra & The Jack Pack is particularly topical in the run-up to the 100th anniversary of Sinatra’s birth next month. It’s a great story about two powerful and charismatic men. It’s already

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generating interest and we predict more sales by the end of the week.”

Also headed for the US is Supercar Superbuild, which has been acquired by Smithsonian Channel.

Sinatra & The Jack Pack (TCB Media Rights)

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Glen’s year in front of the lens

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AIN GLEN, better known as Jorah Mormont in HBO hit series Game Of Thrones, is in Cannes this week to promote a new scripted series called Cleverman. Distributed by Red Arrow International, it imagines a near-future society in which humans co-exist with creatures from ancient mythology that have suddenly re-emerged. The creatures, known as “the hairypeople”, are feared by humans and confined in a ghetto.

Glen, who plays a powerful industrialist in the six-part series, told the MIPCOM Daily News that Cleverman is “a hard-hitting show that deals with a very relevant topic — which is how people deal with ‘the other’ in society. In a world where so many conflicts are caused by disputes between different cultures, the brutal oppression depicted by the show will ring bells with the international audience that this show is intended for.”

Glen, who spends the second half of the year immersed in Game Of Thrones, filmed Cleverman in the first half of 2015. He said the big appeal of the show was “the compelling script.

But it was also a wonderful opportunity for me to film in Australia. Sydney is a great city to work in and I liked the production team very much. They’re a fun and talented bunch of people.”

On paper, the show looks like it has a complex story mythology, but Glen expects it to engage audiences right from the start: “It has a very compelling opening sequence that captures what the series is about very quickly. Then, as the series progresses, the world deepens and broadens in a way that will really appeal to the audience. The special effects are important, but what is really appealing is that it is a great characterbased drama.”

The show was produced by Goalpost Pictures and Pukeko Pictures for ABC TV Australia, with creatures and effects by Jacob Nash and Weta Workshop. In a coup for the show, US cable channel Sundance TV has also come on board as a partner.

Asked if he would do more series, Glen said: “I enjoyed it hugely and am very proud of it. It would be lovely to do more.”

Iain Glen

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NEWS KITCHEN TAPS INTO LATIN-SPANISH DUBBING MARKET MIAMI-based language translation, dubbing and subtitling studio The Kitchen has completed a deal to offer Spanish dubbing services, with Cisneros Media Distribution (CMD).

The Kitchen will be the exclusive sales and marketing agent for Latin-Spanish dubbing worldwide and CMD will be the exclusive provider of the voices, utilising its large cast under contract with its affiliated production companies in Venezuela.

The alliance will also allow The Kitchen to expand its offerings of post-production and media services.

“With this alliance we are expanding our business model to offer additional services to our clientele,” Cosme Lopez, senior vice-president and general manager of pay-TV channels and services, Cisneros Media Distribution, said.

“While The Kitchen has always offered Latin-Spanish dubbing in our Miami facility, it was difficult to offer competitive pricing for the Latin-, or neutral-Spanish markets” said Ken Lorber, president/CEO of The Kitchen.

“We’re offering the very best of both worlds, putting all of our services and resources into this new venture,” he said.

Zig Zag, Urban Brew partner in South African production hub Zig Zag CEO Danny Fenton and Urban Brew Studios’ chief content officer Markus Davies

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HE UK and South Africa’s largest remaining independent production companies, Zig Zag Productions and Urban Brew Studios (UBS), are combining forces to create cross-genre programming for the South African, UK and international markets.

UK’s Zig Zag has taken an international option for Urban Brew’s The Virus Hunter, a 6 x 60 mins observational documentary series that follows the world’s leading virologists as they travel to remote areas to pre-empt the next deadly virus.

Zig Zag and UBS are co-creators of iServed And Survived, a re-enactment series that explores modern day heroes serving mankind, despite the risk to their own lives, and Urban Brew has optioned Zig Zag’s Strike A Match format for the South African market.

“Our DNA structures are very similar,” Markus Davies, Urban Brew Studios’ chief

content officer, said. “We look at the world through the same binoculars.

“Up until now, UBS has been a prolific and major media player within Africa; our fully equipped studios produce over 50 hours of original content per week spanning television and radio. However, this is the first time we have stepped into the international glare and I think it is a giant leap forward.”

Danny Fenton, CEO of Zig Zag, said the coproduction agreement was part of Zig Zag’s strategy to push further into emerging markets. “I was struck by Markus Davies’ enthusiasm and ambition to put UBS on the global stage,” he said.

“We are particularly excited to work together on a carousel production base for a joint-venture game-show format; in a similar way that the format Wipeout draws nations to compete in an original Argentinian base, we want to create an international hub in South Africa.”

Hitler drama charts his rise to power CMD’s Cosme Lopez

The Kitchen’s Ken Lorber

BETA Film has pre-sold the upcoming UFA/ Hitler’s rise to power — from the end of the Beta high-end drama series Hitler (working First World War until the catastrophe of the title) to French broadcaster TF1.

Second World War and the Holocaust.

The 10-hour event series from the produc- Based on previously unexamined documents ers of the international sales and audience relating to the List Regiment, in which Hithit Generation War is being developed with ler served, it offers a closer look at Hitler’s Germany’s RTL and is currently in pre-pro- personality, on how he was shaped into what duction. The show is based on he became, and his social rethe biography Hitler’s First lationships, which eventually War by the internationally evolved into the backbone of renowned historian Thomas the Nazi party.

Weber and will shed new light “With Hitler, we are attempton the most closely examined ing to lift the traditional hisfigure of modern history. torical mini-series to a new The scripts are written by Niki level. The early support of Stein and Hark Bohm; produchigh-ranking channels such ers are UFA’s Benjamin Benas TF1 and RTL has helped us edict and Joachim Kosack. in this audacious undertaking Each episode concentrates of confronting the past,” Benon one chapter in the story of Hitler (UFA/Beta Film) edict and Kosack said.

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NEWS

Sean Bean : “spellbinding”

‘What would we not do to defeat death?’

Joanna Stephens spoke to the Rainmark Films producers behind The Frankenstein Chronicles

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HIS morning sees Endemol Shine International’s MIPCOM screening of The Frankenstein Chronicles, ITV’s new drama set in the feral back streets of Georgian London and featuring Game Of Thrones star Sean Bean as John Marlott, a river-police officer with a troubled past.

While chasing a gang of opium smugglers, Marlott discovers the corpse of a child — only it’s not a child, but a grotesque assembly of human body parts.

“You have never seen Sean Bean like this before,” said executive producer Tracey Scoffield (Dirty Pretty Things), managing director of producer Rainmark Films.

“He’s in nearly every scene and his performance is absolutely spellbinding,” added producer David Tanner, Rainmark’s head of production.

Scoffield and Tanner were talking to MIPCOM News from Belfast, where The Frankenstein Chronicles is presently filming. “It’s going wonderfully,” Scoffield said. “It’s a great part of the process, seeing your vision come together.”

Season one of the six-part drama is set to air on ITV in November. Scoffield reports that international interest in the project is strong.

“That’s for two reasons,” she said. “The first is that Frankenstein is a universal brand and people are interested in new and intriguing

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iterations of the Frankenstein idea. And the second is that Sean Bean is involved. He has a remarkable following among both men and women, which not many actors have.”

Canal+ acquired the drama from Endemol Shine International in July, “which set the hare running” on international sales, Tanner added.

Musing on the Frankenstein myth’s enduring appeal, Scoffield said: “One of the characters — Mary Shelley — says: ‘What would we not do to defeat death?’ I think that’s what it’s all about.”

As for The Frankenstein Chronicles’ appeal to broadcasters, she added: “TV is excited by its combination of genres. As its title suggests, there’s a horror element to the story, but it’s also a crime drama and a procedural drama with elements of the supernatural.”

Tanner added: “It also stands out visually. Its setting in pre-industrialised London is very arresting.”

Created by Benjamin Ross and Barrie Langford, The Frankenstein Chronicles also stars Anna Maxwell Martin, Charlie CreedMiles, Sam West and Steven Berkoff.

mipcom

NEWS RT’s dynamic decade RUSSIAN state-funded television network RT (Russia Today) celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. Launched in December 2005, the RT network now comprises three global news channels broadcasting in English, Spanish and Arabic; RT America broadcasting from Washington, DC; RT UK from London; and documentary channel RTDoc, in English and Russian.

Editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan spoke to MIPCOM News editor Julian Newby

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as RT grown as you expected it to?

RT’s accomplishments of the last decade surpassed our most ambitious expectations. In just 10 years RT has grown into a global operation delivering content in six languages across different platforms, and reaching more than 700 million people — or over a quarter of all cable subscribers worldwide — on TV alone. RT’s talented, diverse team, made up of professionals from more than 40 countries, has made us the number-one TV news network on YouTube with nearly three billion views; the top non-Anglo-Saxon international TV news channel online in terms of PC audience according to comScore; a three-time International Emmy finalist for News, which is a record for a Russian channel; and a winner of the Monte Carlo TV Festival for best newscast.

the likelihood of sectarian violence in Libya and the dangers of arming Syrian rebels — both of which, unfortunately, have since become reality. This is why people from around the world turn to RT — to hear the other side of the story.

RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan

Who do you consider your competitors?

The news market was already crowded when RT arrived. Operations like CNN, the BBC and Deutsche Welle have been around for decades, and most of them command budgets many times that of RT. But the digital revolution has erased both geographic and medium barriers between news providers and we have used these changes to our advantage, to reach international audiences via new-media platforms.

And when it came to content, we never tried to be a Russian version of CNN and instead focused on delivering something distinct: a truly fresh perspective on international headlines and news altogether overlooked by the rest of the media. That set us apart from the rather homogenous news programming that had saturated the market.

How specifically have you set yourselves apart from the competition?

RT has a fundamentally different approach to programming, embodied by our motto

Two years ago you launched news agency Ruptly. How has that developed?

Ruptly is a Berlin-based, full-service video-news agency delivering real-time and archived visual news content from all the global hotspots to all types of media outlets, from traditional broadcasters to mobile multimedia platforms. Today Ruptly’s clients number in the hundreds and hail from over 30 countries across all continents. Its exclusive, high-definition video materials, including unique drone footage of protests in Maidan and Ferguson, have been featured by premier broadcasting and internet publishing outlets in the US, UK, France and China.

Question More. This translates into covering stories that the rest of the mainstream media ignores. For example, for nearly three weeks RT was the only TV channel on the scene of the Occupy Wall Street protests; the movement that was originally dismissed by the mainstream media as a non-story went on to become a global phenomenon, and earned RT its second International Emmy nod.

It means giving a stage to voices shut out by the mainstream media. This is exactly what we did when we exclusively broadcast Julian Assange’s interview series, and hosted the debate for third-party candidates ahead of the 2012 US presidential election. It also often means being a voice of dissent. In 2011-2012, RT was advocating caution during the mass media exuberance over the Arab Spring, warning about

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What’s next for RT? We are actively building up RT’s Frenchlanguage content on RT Francais. The website went live just a few months ago, and in this short time has already amassed an audience of 750,000 unique monthly users. We are excited about bringing RT’s news coverage, original programming and mould-breaking perspective to millions of French-speaking viewers and readers in Europe, Africa and North America.

When it came to content, we never tried to be a Russian version of CNN Margarita Simonyan

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NEWS

Dynamic brings supernatural thrills and Icelandic chills

Telefe’s Tomas Yankelevich

KI AND TELEFE TEAM UP IN FORMAT DEAL KESHET International (KI) and Argentinian broadcaster Telefe, have closed a co-development deal to create new entertainment formats. On the back of the successful local adaptation of KI’s interactive talent format Rising Star — broadcast in Argentina as Elegidos — as well as the explosive game show Boom!, launching this month, KI and Telefe have agreed to co-develop and co-finance entertainment formats with international appeal. They will aim to develop two pilots a year for initial broadcast in the creators’ territories, with some projects already under way.

KI will retain distribution rights for the resulting properties worldwide according to the deal. “Keshet continues to demonstrate the highest standards of innovation in entertainment television year after year,” Tomas Yankelevich, Telefe’s global content & international business director, said. “We embark on this exciting challenge, which will allow us to work on new content that has international reach, with great enthusiasm.”

KI and Huace Group/Croton Media are also working on a two-way deal which will see the development of local versions of KI’s award-winning scripted properties Traffic Light and Loaded for Chinese audiences. Keshet Studios has optioned Huace Group/ Croton Media’s show Dating Hunter for the US market.

Dating Hunter is the first Chinese format to be re-versioned for the US market, said the company.

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YNAMIC Television, the LA-based development, financing and distribution company is at MIPCOM with Wynonna Earp, a new supernatural thriller series from IDW Entertainment and produced by Seven24. The series is available for pre-sales.

Based on the IDW Publishing graphic novel created by Beau Smith, Wynonna Earp premieres on the Syfy Channel in April next year. Producer and showrunner is Emily Andras (Lost Girl, Killjoys); principal photography begins this month in Calgary, Alberta.

The announcement comes two years after the company’s MIPCOM debut, and founder and managing partner Dan March said the company was fulfilling its ambitions.

“I think we’re gradually building the business we envisioned,” March told MIPCOM News.

“We’ll have brought over 80 hours of new drama to the market in our first two years. I think in that respect we’ve really exceeded our expectations.”

Set to be a big hit for the company is Trapped, the crime series produced by RVK Studio, which tells the story of a troubled cop investigating a murder when his small Icelandic town is hit by a

Dan March: “exceeded our expectations”

Klaus Zimmermann: “good momentum”

powerful blizzard, trapping the villagers — and most likely the killer — in the town. Trapped was acquired by The Weinstein Company last month.

Dynamic managing partner Klaus Zimmermann believes that his and March’s background — Zimmermann as former co-head of Atlantique Productions and March formerly of Echo Bridge Entertainment — bring a depth of experience as well as fresh ideas to the company.

“If you look at the hours of primetime drama that we’ve been able to co-produce and distribute, we are really specialised in this drama that travels,” Zimmermann said. “If you just take the example of Trapped — which is this Icelandic show that nobody

had heard of — with our clever development and co-production we managed to make this sell all over the world including in the English-speaking territories, even though this is a foreign language drama. So this is different to the traditional approach.”

With the rise of Nordic Noir and the success of other bi-lingual productions out of Europe and other territories, Zimmermann — who has opened Dynamic offices in Paris and Berlin — said there were an increasing number of opportunities to sell non-English-speaking shows in Englishspeaking territories. “This was not the case, I would say, five or six years ago, so times are changing and we’re lucky to have had a good momentum in the market.”

RUSSIA’s Channel One has acquired the singing game show The Winner Is… from Talpa Global, the licensing arm of Talpa Content’s formats and finished series. The show, which debuted in 2012 on SBS6 in the Netherlands, has now been sold to more than 30 countries, including the US, Germany, Italy and China.

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NEWS

Eurodata study sheds light on key young adult markets

E Watchever’s Karim Ayari

WATCHEVER AIMS HIGH WITH MAJOR SVOD REVAMP WATCHEVER, the German SVOD service for TV series, shows and movies, has launched a totally repackaged service structured around 25 branded channels covering a diversity of genres. The new-look channels were developed in association with international producers and broadcasters including CBS, the BBC, Disney and ZDF Enterprises.

Watchever simultaneously introduced a new recommendation engine combining a sophisticated algorithm with additional input from a dedicated in-house editorial team. Subscribers will be able to select up to five different profiles at any time. “Our decision to completely revisit the way subscribers use our service was driven by our objective to give much better visibility to a huge amount of diversified content,” said Watchever CEO, Karim Ayari.

“At MIPCOM our team will explain our new approach to delivering and packaging content in a SVOD environment and hopefully recruit additional licensors to join the new Watchever platform,” he added. “We intend to play an active role in the further development of the German SVOD scene with the full support of our shareholder Vivendi.”

URODATA TV Worldwide’s Young Adults Report, released last month, drills down into the TV consumption of the 1534 demographic in the world’s leading markets. Key findings include: entertainment is the top genre among younger viewers, reality is far and away the most popular entertainment sub-genre, and time-shifted viewing is a clear audience booster.

Covering the 2014-15 TV season, the report offers a comprehensive overview of the young adults’ market, including consumption trends, viewing preferences and the programming strategies of key players. It covers 10 markets — Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, the UK and the US — and four programming genres: fiction, entertainment, factual and sports.

Based on analysis of individual channel data, the report reveals that time-shifted viewing is a

strong and growing trend. In the US, ABC ranked first of the channels surveyed in terms of the percentage of additional audience gained via time-shifted viewing (+26% of 18- to 34-year-olds).

Modern Family and How To Get Away With Murder were the most popular shows on ABC for time-shifted viewing.

The report’s country-by-country analysis of programming strategies shows that entertainment represents 55% of the top 20 programmes across the 10 markets surveyed. Original creations — including local adaptations of international formats — are the best performing entertainment shows in access prime and primetime.

Magnificent seven for Wuaki.tv VOD STREAMING service Wuaki.tv is set to launch in Austria and Ireland next week, bringing to seven, the number of markets in which the Barcelona-based, Japanese-owned company operates.

Having already established itself in Spain, the UK, France, Germany and Italy, it aims to be present in 10 markets by the end of the year. Wuaki.tv is focusing on smaller territories that are “strategic because of the level of sophistication of their VOD [markets]”, company CEO and founder, Jacinto Roca, said.

Wuaki.tv offers thousands of hours of new and classic movies and TV series for rental and purchase. Its content, which includes titles from the major Hollywood studios and European distributors, can be streamed on internet-

Wuaki.tv to launch in Austria and Ireland

connected PCs, laptops, gaming consoles, tablets, iPhones, Chromecast and smart TVs. The company’s Austrian and Irish users will also benefit from Wuaki.tv’s new offline functionality, which allows customers to

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download content on to iOS and Android devices to be viewed without the need for an internet connection.

Wuaki.tv, which was founded in 2009, was acquired by Japan’s ecommerce giant Rakuten in 2012.

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NEWS

Climbing sales for Gaumont’s Belle And Sebastian series

Norma at the Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona

GAD’S MIXED BAG FEATURES MUSIC AND MUCH MORE GAD DISTRIBUTION is presenting 20 new shows at MIPCOM, covering a range of topics including jazz concerts, electronic music shows, contemporary dance events and current affairs.

GAD is looking for international pre-sales for several shows including Maids, which reveals the real face of modern slavery, and The Time When The Arabs Danced, which examines how Islamic fundamentalism targets art and artists.

Also on offer are The Secret History Of FIFA, an investigation into the corruption scandals at football’s world governing body; and Soyuz Ms-03 Mission: At The Heart Of The Conquest Of Space, which will follow a six-month space mission due to blast off in November next year.

The distributor is also bringing new programmes in 4K to MIPCOM including Worldwide Wine Civilizations, London Symphony Orchestra: Michael Tilson Thomas Conducts Matthews, Gershwin And Shostakovich With Yuja Wang, and Norma by Vincenzo Bellini, which was filmed at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona.

Belle And Sebastian (Gaumont Animation)

Gaumont’s Pierre Belaisch

AUMONT’s new animated series Belle And Sebastian looks set to be one of the hot properties of the market. It has already been sold to M6 and Canal+ in France, Quebec’s Radio Canada, VRT in Belgium and Swiss broadcaster RTS. Pierre Belaisch, Gaumont’s president of animation, is confident that more deals will be closed this week: “We have strong interest from several major European territories which I believe will result in a raft of deals,” he said. “Reactions to the show have been uniformly extremely positive.”

Despite the success of the 2013 Belle And Sebastian film in which a boy and his dog try to foil a Nazi plan to capture French resistance fighters, the animated series is based on the original live-action TV series from the 1960s. “We took the central characters and placed them in a situation that kids will enjoy where Belle and Sebastian are surrounded by some friends and also some people who are jealous of them,” Belaisch added. “Basically it’s a boy and his extraordinary dog against the world, in a beautiful Alpine setting.”

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More Meatballs from DHX and Turner

DHX MEDIA has signed a deal with Turner Broadcasting for the new animated series Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs: The Series, which is based on the blockbuster film franchise.

The 2009 animated feature comedy and its 2013 sequel were produced by Sony Pictures Animation, and distributed by Columbia Pictures. Both films were critical and commercial successes, grossing a combined $510m in cinemas.

“Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs has a huge global fan base following the successful movie franchise,” said Josh Scherba, senior vice-president distribution at DHX Media.

“We are confident that the equally whacky and wonderful TV series will resonate with children and families globally.”

A co-production with Sony Pictures Animation, the animated series, originally commissioned by TELETOON in Canada, has been picked up by Turner Broadcasting for its sec-

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ond flagship kids channel, Boomerang, across EMEA, APAC, and Latin America.

“As we continue to expand our programming line-up, we’re on the lookout for great content that whole families can enjoy,” explained Cecilia Persson, vice-president of acquisitions and co-productions, international at Turner Broadcasting. “Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs offers exactly that and we’re delighted to have acquired the series for Boomerang right across our international markets.”

Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs: The Series (DHX Media)

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NEWS SPI’S 4K VENTURE GOES GLOBAL DURING MIPCOM SPI INTERNATIONAL, the Poland-headquartered pay-TV channel operator, has launched its first worldwide native 4K TV channel. The full commercial version of the FunBox 4K/UHD channel will premiere during MIPCOM and will be available to all platforms and devices which support 4K streaming over the internet. The channel features documentaries as well as sports and music programming, and interactive games. “We are becoming one of the largest native 4K/ UHD content aggregators in the world,” said Berk Uziyel, executive director of FilmBox International, which is operated by SPI. “We are planning to acquire more native 4K content,” he added.

UNIVISION IN SYNC WITH SCREENZ TO ENGAGE VIEWERS UNIVISION and Screenz are to use Screenz’s Real Time Entertainment Platform to develop and deploy audience high-engagement apps for Univision Network television programmes. The latest version features scalability of up to 2.8 million interactions per second and up to 100 million per minute.

As second-screen interactions allow for greater engagement, the Real Time Platform also facilitates new revenue streams for the Spanish broadcaster, on both the first and second screen — presenting brands directly to engaged viewers. Screenz will also be revealing three highly anticipated new interactive television formats, including the new reality game show 6 Tribes, the interactive live event The Tower and a new dating reality series Date The Nation.

Optomen seeks perfect fit for new third-party content

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PTOMEN International — the distribution arm of London-based Optomen Television — is launching a third-party distribution department at MIPCOM 2015.

Director of sales at the company, Caroline Stephenson, has been working towards the launch alongside senior aquisitions executive Alex Brudenell. Brudenell is charged with sourcing and acquiring third-party content that fits with Optomen International’s current distribution slate of 2,500 hours of primetime factual and factual entertainment programming.

Optomen International has earmarked a budget to secure rights

Optomen International’s Caroline Stephenson: “skill and experience”

to up to 100 hours of third-party content by the end of the year.

“As a distributor that has always worked hand in hand with producers we have the skill and experience of handling a wide range of projects right from their initial treatment to screen,” Caroline Stephenson said.

“We have the mindset and flexibility of a boutique but crucially, we also have the backing to offer distribution terms on a par with our larger rivals,” she added.

“Given Alex’s established track record in spotting and maximising the best global return on rights and Optomen International’s credentials in content sales, we believe we are a serious proposition for any producer.”

Boisdale brand expands in Cannes BOISDALE TV, a new lifestyle TV platform centred on music and entertainment, is being unveiled at MIPCOM, and its leading executives are here to license the network’s shows and acquire new ones.

UK-based Boisdale Entertainment, a developer of live entertainment and events, and Octopus TV, the digital video service provider, are jointly launching the network, which offers music and entertainment content.

Octopus TV scouts for the required music acts, shoots the productions, live streams and delivers the content digitally. Boisdale Entertainment brings in its expertise of promoting live concerts for private and corporate clients at its chain of restaurants.

Boisdale Entertainment has hosted shows starring international music acts including Jools Holland, Buddy Greco, Manfred Mann and Rebecca Ferguson, who has recorded several international hits after becoming a runner-up on The

Andrew Eborn (left) with singer Rebecca Ferguson and Boisdale Entertainment’s Ranald Macdonald

X Factor in the UK. “Octopus TV can empower anyone to be their own broadcaster, open new revenue streams and save costs whilst providing tremendous promotional and marketing benefits,” said Octopus

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president Andrew Eborn.

Boisdale Entertainment founder Ranald Macdonald added: “This partnership represents an exciting expansion for the Boisdale brand, and anticipates the forthcoming launch of Boisdale TV.”

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PRODUCT NEWS GROUPE PVP

EARTH TOUCH

WILDLIFE and factual entertainment producer and distributor Earth Touch, which has offices in Durban, Washington and London, is debuting two new 60-minute specials at MIPCOM, both co-productions from Mallinson Sadler Productions and Northern Sky Entertainment.

Drain The Titanic reveals never-before-seen footage of the ship which lays on the floor of the Atlantic after sinking on its tragic maiden voyage. The documentary creates a realistic, detailed model of the shipwreck as it would be if it were on dry land. Drain The Bermuda Triangle explores the strange natural phenomena which occur within the region which has seen a high number of unexplained disappearances, including the 8 km-deep Puerto Rico Trench, the submerged Grand Bahama Canyon and the Abyssal Plains. The island of Bermuda sits on a massive seamount rising 3 km straight up from the seabed.

Drain The Titanic (Earth Touch

KOKO MEDIA

INK GLOBAL is showcasing a range of Russian projects at MIPCOM, including: Masha And The Bear, a series about a little girl and the bear who becomes her reluctant playmate.

A new 13-part series called Masha’s Scary Tales is due at the end of 2015; D6 is an animation series about six kids who become the planet’s only defence against aliens intent on global domination; and The Mojicons is a new show that reveals the behind-the-scenes world of the internet, where the Mojicons live. When a digital villain steals the @ symbol, the Mojicons must restore their system.

LIONSGATE

CREATED by Zander Lehmann and directed by Jason Reitman (Juno; Up In The Air), Casual (10 x 30 mins) is a quirky comedy drama, brought to MIPCOM by the US’ Lionsgate, about a pair of siblings facing the challenges of dating, love and family relationships. Alex is a young internet entrepreneur who has vowed to help his recently divorced therapist sister, now living with him, to embrace her new life and the craziness of reentering the dating pool.

Casual (Lionsgate)

QUEBECOIS producer Groupe PVP’s documentary series Konnected.tv (recently acquired by French distributor Zed), is set to premiere on the Canadian network APTN in 2016 before airing on Knowledge Network in 2017. The 13 x 30 mins series is hosted

by Cree musician Pakesso Mukash, as he travels across the Americas to meet indigenous leaders seeking to preserve their culture, language, spirituality and traditions. The series is supported by a website and social networking platform, and a second season is in development.

Konnected.tv (Groupe PVP)

INK GLOBAL

Masha And The Bear (Ink Global)

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THE UK’s Koko Media is in Cannes to showcase its new project covering television, publishing and licensing. In Deer Little Forest (52 x 11 mins), from illustrator Jo Rose, the characters include enthusiastic Flo and her band of charming and wise woodland buddies — helpful Bodhi Bear; Rowan the Philosophical Fox, a yogi and Japanese gardener; fact-finder Barley-Crumb Badger; irrepressible Lockhart Deer; and local boy and best friend Toby.

AB INTERNATIONAL DISTRIBUTION

A NEW season of cult primetime comedy Desperate Parents! is brought to MIPCOM by AB International Distribution. The show profiles the everyday life of two couples and their children as they struggle with different methods of parenting. The French distributor is also highlighting Research Unit (112 x 52 mins), an HD series that follows an elite criminal investigation unit in their work and relationships. A further 12 episodes are due for broadcast on TF1.

Desperate Parents! (AB International Distribution)

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Deer Little Forest (Koko Media)

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PRODUCT NEWS

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PROINTEL PRODUCCIONES

PROINTEL Producciones, a company created by TV veteran ‘Chicho’ Ibanez Serrador in the 1970s is back at MIPCOM with new content. Top of the priorities are doc-reality shows, including Sky With Diamonds, a documentary series and a cooking game show.

HAT TRICK INTERNATIONAL

UK-BASED distributor Hat Trick International launches primetime mini-series Doctor Thorne (3 x 60 mins) at MIPCOM. The period drama, based on an Anthony Trollope novel and adapted for television by Julian Fellowes, is a tale of envy, lust, greed, vanity and false values – but mainly love. Tom Hollander, Ian McShane, Alison Brie and Rebecca Front star in the story of a doctor living with his beautiful niece Mary, a girl blessed with every gift except money. Mary has grown up alongside the Gresham sisters and their handsome brother whose home is the estate at Greshamsbury Park. When the terrifying Lady Arabella Gresham discovers that her son has fallen for Dr Thorne’s penniless niece, she is horrified.

Doctor Thorne (Hat Trick International)

ZDF ENTERPRISES, the sales, production and distribution arm of Germany’s pubcaster ZDF, brings a variety of programming to Cannes. On the kids slate is: pre-school series Coconut The Little Dragon (104 x 12 mins); Four And A Half Friends (26 x 26 mins), about a group of little detectives; and live-action series Mako Mermaids (68 x 26 mins/3 x 90 mins). Leading the drama line-up is the third season of crime series Bron | Broen (The Bridge, 1 x 60 mins/5 x 110 mins). Other dramas include: Scandinavian thriller The Fourth Man (3 x 60 mins), which revisits the 1975 terrorist attack on the West German embassy; and Wataha (6 x 60’), set on the Polish-Ukrainian border. Entertainment formats include: The Game Begins (1 x 180 mins); QuizChampion (1 x 150 mins) and Crime Watch XY (1 x 90 mins), which reconstructs unsolved criminal cases.

Coconut The Little Dragon (ZDFE)

MUVI

VOD SOFTWARE provider Muvi is at MIPCOM to showcase Muvi Studio to international TV companies looking to launch their own-branded OTT Multi-Screen OTT VOD service. Muvi Studio, based on the cloud, provides everything from IT infrastructure, hosting, unlimited storage, CDN, security, HTML5 video player, DRM, transcoding and encoding videos to providing the front-end website and mobile apps, manageable by one single admin panel.

GLOBAL SCREEN

ARMAN’s Secret (13 x 25 mins) is a fantasy series about five teens who, when they arrive at the Lilientals’ horse stables, soon realise it is enchanted. They must stick together to confront the sinister Garwin and break the spell that haunts the beautiful valley. The second season is currently is in pre-production. The German distributor also brings: Hidden Identity (2 x 90 mins), a thriller about a private banker who becomes the key witness in a money-laundering case against a Russian gangster; and Fatal News (2 x 90 mins), a political thriller that unravels after a politician is found dead.

Arman’s Secret (Global Screen)

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ZED

FRENCH producer and distributor Zed comes to Cannes with new project Hillary Clinton, A Woman On The Edge, produced by Flach Films for France 3.

The film follows Clinton’s campaign for the US presidency while having to negotiate rumours of scandal. Zed also brings Frank Sinatra Or America’s Golden Age, a film that spans 50 years of the singer’s career, and will be broadcast for Sinatra’s 100th birthday anniversary in December 2015. © Official White House Photo by Pete Souza

ZDF ENTERPRISES (ZDFE)

Sky With Diamonds (Prointel Producciones)

Hillary Clinton, A Woman On The Edge (Zed)

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PRODUCT NEWS MGM

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TOEI ANIMATION

MGM’s slate of theatrical films includes Spectre, the 24th film in the Bond adventure, directed by Sam Mendes and starring Daniel Craig; Creed, the next chapter in the Rocky franchise, starring Sylvester Stallone and Michael B Jordan; comedy How To Be Single, starring Dakota Johnson, Rebel Wilson, Damon Wayans, Jr and Leslie Mann; The Magnificent Seven, with Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke and Vincent D’Onofrio; Ben-Hur, starring Jack Huston and Morgan Freeman; Me Before You, starring Emilia Clarke and Sam Claflin; and Barbershop 3, starring Ice Cube, Cedric the Entertainer, Regina Hall, Common and Nicki Minaj.

AFTER a successful airing on Fuji TV in Japan, Toei Animation is making the international launch of Dragon Ball Super – the first Dragon Ball series for 18 years — at MIPCOM. Reuniting the characters, Dragon Ball Super follows the aftermath of Goku’s fierce battle with Majin Buu, as he attempts to maintain earth’s fragile peace. The series is overseen by Dragon Ball’s original creator, Akira Toriyama and produced with Fuji TV.

Spectre (MGM)

HG DISTRIBUTION

HORIZON (10 x 6 mins) is a new web series that follows the stories of five characters who try to flee the city of Bristol as an alien ship appears. Sex Around The World (24 x 52 mins) takes a humorous and frank look at sexual practices around the world. From the HG Distribution factual slate comes Schools Like No Others (26 x 52 mins), a tour of some of the world’s most fascinating schools. The Quebecois company also brings: Art With Mati & Dada (39 x 7 mins), an animated series aimed at four- to eight-year-olds about a young girl who is magically transported into the lives of great artists; the sixth series of live-action kids’ show Monster Motel (128 x 24 mins); and stop-motion animation Wapos Bay (34 x 24 mins), about a group of kids whose playground is a vast area that’s been home to their Cree ancestors for millennia.

Dragon Ball Super (Toei Animation)

NHK ENTERPRISES

CONTENT TELEVISION

BLENDING horror and murder mystery, psychological thriller Slasher (8 x 60 mins) tells the story of a young woman caught up in a series of horrifying copycat murders based on the killings of her parents. Slasher stars Wendy Crewson, Steve Byers and Dean McDermott, and is brought to MIPCOM by Content Television, which has a presence in London, LA and Toronto.

JETPACK DISTRIBUTION

AT MIPCOM Japan’s NHK Enterprises launches Pikaia!

(13 x 15 mins), an animation series that teaches kids about evolution. Each episode consists of an 11-minute story and a four-minute quiz and information section.

Pikaia and teenagers Vince and Hanna are sent back to the Cambrian period to explore the ancient sea and its creatures. NHK has also produced apps for kids to understand how organisms evolved. The company also brings a third season of live-action kids’ science show Discover Science (26 x 14 mins), bringing the total number of episodes to 78.

YOKO (52 x 12 mins) is a pre-school 3D CGI series that follows the adventures of Mai, Oto and Vik, three children who love to play outside. Their games arouse the curiosity of Yoko, a magical forest creature who turns ordinary children’s games into fantastic adventures. The series, co-produced by Somuga, Dibulitoon and Wizard Film, is brought to Cannes by the UK’s Jetpack Distribution.

Slasher (Content Television)

Yoko (Jetpack Distribution)

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Pikaia! (NHK Enterprises)

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PRODUCT NEWS RED ARROW INTERNATIONAL

NEW SHOWS brought to MIPCOM by Red Arrow International include: The Romeo Section (10 x 60 mins), an espionage thriller for CBC Canada from showrunner Chris Haddock (Boardwalk Empire, Da Vinci’s Inquest); Cleverman (6 x 60 mins), starring Iain Glen and Frances O’Connor, featuring creatures and effects by Weta Workshop; family movie Peter & Wendy (1 x 120 mins), starring Stanley Tucci and Paloma Faith; and new comedy series Donny! (6 x 30 mins), starring real-life advertising exec and TV personality Donny Deutsch.

In factual and formats the slate includes new reality show Diet Wars; dating format Kiss Bang Love; new social experiment The Day The Cash Came; and celebrity roast panel show Safeword.

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CYBER GROUP STUDIOS

NEW EPISODES of Zorro The Chronicles are brought to MIPCOM by France’s Cyber Group Studios.

The CG-animated adventure series produced by Cyber Group Studios for France Televisions and Rai portrays masked swordsman Zorro’s fight for justice. The company is also launching the pre-sales of comedy animation Mirette Investigates (52 x 11 mins/2D/HD), featuring a 10-year-old girl with a passion for investigation with Jean-Pat, her “catssistant”, a lazy but efficient ginger tomcat. Other priorities are The Long Long Holiday (10 x 26 mins/5 x 50 mins) and G-Fighters’ (26 x 22 mins).

Zorro The Chronicles (Cyber Group Studios)

TELEMUNDO INTERNACIONAL

The Romeo Section (Red Arrow International)

GUSTO WORLDWIDE MEDIA

LAUNCHING at MIPCOM, Fish – The Dish (15 x 30 mins) is a 4K HD cooking series celebrating the art of cooking seafood, including more than 60 recipes. The Canadian company also brings A Is For Apple (30 x 30 mins/4K /HD), a food entertainment show supported by a website with recipes, videos and beautiful food photography.

Other highlights include documentary series Fish – The Adventure, season 1, (6 x 30 mins/4K/HD), One World Kitchen (30 x 30 mins/4K/HD) and documentary Crate To Plate (6 x 30 mins/4K/HD).

TELEMUNDO’s telenovela slate at MIPCOM includes Bajo El Mismo Cielo (120 x 60 mins), about an LA widower who works as a gardener. Despite the pain of losing his son to gang violence, his life changes when he falls in love with a troubled gang member. La Chucara (138 x 60 mins) is about a woman who finds love when she returns to her family farm. Matriarcas (90 x 60 mins), tells of a woman who learns that she has 33 grandchildren from her son and sets out to meet them all – and their mothers. Other priorities from the Miami-headquartered company include: drug thriller El Senor De Los Cielo (70 x 60 mins); Senora Acero (70 x 60 mins) about a mother who, after jail, returns to a criminal life in order to protect her son; and Done Esta Elisa? (95 x 60 mins) about a young woman who goes missing.

PIONEER PRODUCTIONS

FACTUAL producer Pioneer Productions has been commissioned by The Weather Channel to produce a third series of Strangest Weather On Earth (8 x 60 mins) in the US. The series features invisible twisters, exploding boulders, desert ice storms and even a golf course infested with sharks and explains the science behind bizarre weather events.

The UK’s Channel 4 has also acquired the series as the third instalment of their World’s Weirdest Weather strand.

Strangest Weather On Earth (Pioneer Productions)

JJ STEREO

Live Takover: London (JJ Stereo)

Fish - The Dish (Gusto Worldwide Media)

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LIVE Takeover: London (7 x 30 mins) is a livemusic series featuring performances from acts including Fall Out Boy, Ella Eyre, Conor Maynard, Ella Henderson, Jess Glynn, Lawson, Kwabs and Krept & Konan. The final episode shows the highlights from the series. Filmed in an underground colosseum-style set in front of a small audience of fans, the series is broadcast on MTV and distributed by Precious Media.

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PRODUCT NEWS PEACE POINT RIGHTS

THE NEW third series of Shack Attack! (season 1: 13 x 30 mins/season 2: 13 x 30 mins/ season 3: 13 x 30 mins) is brought to MIPCOM by Canada’s Peace Point Rights. Design duo Colin McAllister and Justin Ryan transform their lakeside holiday homes into rural sanctuaries. Without the hefty budget their high-end clientele’s usually allow, these spoiled designers do the unthinkable and economise and pitch in to get the job done.

GENIUS BRANDS INTERNATIONAL (GBI)

SPACE POP (working title) is a new project for tweens brought to MIPCOM by GBI. The company has created the 104-episode short-form animated series featuring original music from music-business veteran Ron Fair, and storylines written by Steve Banks (SpongeBob Square Pants). When the evil Empress takes over the Planets of The Pentangle, five teenage princesses disguise themselves as a band called Space Pop. Their mission is to spread the message of freedom and joy through music and join the Rebel Resistance Force to fight the Empress. GBI is also developing a global fashion licensing and merchandising programme for Space Pop.

mipcom

DW TRANSTEL

GERMANY’s DW Transtel brings documentary series Our Technical World (6 x 30 mins/HD) to Cannes. The series explores how technology affects everyday life. Subjects include: how LED lighting can optimise mood and biorhythms; transportation by unmanned super tankers controlled by a computer and satellite; and robots used in surgery that reduce recovery times. The series is available in English, Spanish and Arabic versions.

Our Technical World (DW Transited)

HOHO ENTERTAINMENT Shack Attack! (Peace Point Rights)

Space Pop (GBI)

PASSION DISTRIBUTION

THE UK’s Passion Distribution is headlining its MIPCOM slate with a range of titles including: Churchill’s Secret (1 x 120 mins), a drama for ITV with a cast including Michael Gambon; Dead Of Winter: The Donner Party (2 x 60 mins/ 1 x 120 mins), a drama-documentary from The Weather Channel that brings to life one of the most macabre and sensational survival stories; factual entertainment series Wedding Town (15 x 30 mins); Lookalikes ( 5 x 30 mins), a structured reality show about a lookalike talent agency; and Terror In Paris (1 x 60 mins), a documentary about the terrorist attack on Charlie Hebdo. Returning series include Klondike: Gold Fever (10 x 60 mins), Cold Water Cowboys (8 x 60 mins), Fat Guys In The Woods (8 x 60 mins) and Prospectors (10 x 60 mins).

THE UK’s Channel 5 has commissioned CGanimated series Shane The Chef for its Milkshake strand and it is brought to MIPCOM by children’s production and rights company Hoho Entertainment.

The 52 x 11 mins series is aimed at pre-schoolers and is set to air in spring 2017. Ambitious chef Shane and his daughter Izzy run a restaurant in Munchington. Shane’s passion for food leads to adventures — including an attempt on the record for the world’s biggest baguette, the search for wild herbs in the woods and growing large vegetables for the village county fair.

DCD RIGHTS

UK-BASED distributor DCD Rights is showcasing a new documentary series Mumbai Railways (4 x 60 mins) at MIPCOM. From BBC Productions, the HD series explores the world’s busiest railway at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus in Mumbai, India. Four presenters, including broadcaster and historian Dan Snow and Anita Rani, try commuting Mumbai-style in the rush hour. They meet the teams that control up to 1,500 trains per day and go behind the scenes to reveal the science and systems behind the operation.

Mumbai Railways (DCD Rights)

Shane The Chef (Hoho Entertainment)

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Swastik Patra sales@dqentertainment.com

Directed by Sergio Manfio, characters by Giorgio Cavazzano, character development Gruppo Alcuni, animation by DQ Entertainment. The song “The Little Chick Cheep” is produced by Radio Globo.

THE FIRST EVER ANIMATED MUSICAL SERIES The series “Pio, the Little Chick Cheep” is taken from the international success of the song “The Little Chick Cheep”, whose video has been viewed more than a billion times worldwide.

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PRODUCT NEWS ENTERTAINMENT ONE (EONE)

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ABC COMMERCIAL

ON THE ABC slate for MIPCOM, Between A Frock And A Hard Place (1 x 58 mins/HD) is the story behind one of the world’s most loved films, The Adventures Of Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert. The Australian distributor also brings: new comedy The Ex-PM (6 x 27 mins/HD); natural-science series Beneath New Zealand (3 x 43 mins/HD); 72 Cutest Animals (12 x 30 mins/HD); psychiatric series Changing Minds - The Inside Story (6 x 57 mins/HD); heart-warming reality special The Graceland Happiness Project (1 x 60 mins/HD); restoration show Life In Ruins (7 x 57 mins/HD); and kids highlights, including Hoot Hoot! (26 x 5 mins/HD), Emma! (30 x 4 mins/HD), The Wiggles Meet The Orchestra (1 x 60 mins/HD) and Bobbie The Bear (10 x 3 mins).

PJ Masks (eOne)

Elise Lockwood © Latent Image Productions

A MIPCOM highlight for Canadian distributor eOne is new CGI-animated pre-school series PJ Masks.

Produced by eOne and Frog Box, in collaboration with French animation studio TeamTO, and with Disney Junior and France 5, the series is based on French author Romuald Racioppo’s picture-book series. PJ Masks follows the nighttime adventures of three young friends who transform into their dynamic superhero alter egos, Catboy, Owlette and Gekko, when they put their pyjamas on.

BOPAUL MEDIA WORLDWIDE (BMW)

RECENT acquisitions showcased at MIPCOM by BMW include: the 600-title VCI Entertainment catalogue of vintage and new independent films, including Rhineland, Thor At The Bus Stop and 2 Little Monsters; seven-hour drama Mussolini: The Untold Story, starring George C Scott, Robert Downey Jr and Raul Julia; The Miracle Worker (1 x 90 mins), starring Patty Duke Astin and Melissa Gilbert; new game/talent series The Big Big Show (24 x 60 mins), featuring comedians Andrew Dice Clay, Tom Green and Tara Reid; and a new season of travel series Bikini Destinations (63 x 30 mins).

DISTRIBUTION 360

ARGONON INTERNATIONAL

A NEW deal sees Canada’s Distribution360 adding 50 documentary and factual titles from CBC/RadioCanada launched to the international marketplace at MIPCOM. Titles include: Jellyfish Rule! (1 x 60 mins), exploring how man-made changes allow jellyfish to thrive; current affairs show Return To Ukraine (1 x 60 mins); internet real-crime special The Sextortion Of Amanda Todd (1 x 60 mins); and Safe Haven For Chimps (1 x 60 mins). The D360 kids’ slate includes: YaYa & Zouk (78 x 5 mins); Nico Can Dance (65 x 2 mins); and teen quiz Ride Or Wrong (43 x 3 mins).

ARGONON International is bringing the documentary A Very British Brothel to the international market at MIPCOM. Produced by Transparent TV, the show was transmitted on Channel 4 in the UK earlier this year.

Set in the city of Sheffield, which is in the north of the UK, A Very British Brothel is an observational documentary with unprecedented access to the business which is run by a mother and her daughter.

The programme follows the efforts of the women to fill the daily rota of the establishment, how the management deals with problem clients, and the lives of the working girls.

Jellyfish Rule! (D360)

A Very British Brothel (Argonon International)

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Between A Frock And A Hard Place (ABC Commercial)

ZEE ENTERTAINMENT ENTERPRISES LIMITED (ZEEL)

MUMBAI-based ZEEL returns to MIPCOM with a wide-ranging catalogue, including: historic drama Razia Sultan, about a female warrior and leader; Gangaa, an inspiring story of a child widow; family drama Jamai Raja (Son-in-Law); modern family drama KumKum Bhagya (Wedding Bells); talent show Dance India Dance; Rock Your Yoga; Good Food America, hosted by chef, Danny Boome; The Incurables, about people who use alternative methods to heal their diseases; and talk and lifestyle show The Lisa OZ Show.

Razia Sultan (ZEEL)

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PRODUCT NEWS CHOCOLATE LIBERATION FRONT (CLF)

PRODUCTION company CLF, Germany’s Hahn Film and Toonz Entertainment in India are co-producing a new CGI animation series for 9- to 12-year-olds, 1001 Nights: The Untold Stories (26 x 24 mins).

Based on the Arabian Nights tales, the new stories feature brave teen Sherazade on a quest to help her friend Karim who has been unjustly dethroned by his brother. An evil spell was cast and he has been turned into a monster. Now they must escape from the Golden City and set off to find a cure for Karim.

ALL3MEDIA INTERNATIONAL

A TOP factual highlight for all3media is China: Treasures Of The Jade Empire, a documentary from Lion Television. The special features the tombs of China’s Han Dynasty, where the founders of the Silk Road were laid to rest with artworks representing armies, civilians and livestock. A factual entertainment format highlight is Secret Lives Of Americans, which gives individuals the chance to reveal their guilty secrets to friends and family.

Topics include addiction, mental health, unemployment, debt and abuse.

China: Treasures Of The Jade Empire (all3media International)

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CINEFLIX RIGHTS

THE DAY Hitler Died (1 x 60 min/HD) uses recently rediscovered eyewitness interviews, together with archive film and reconstruction, to provide a definitive account of the dictator’s final days in a Berlin bunker. Source material was gathered by American lawyer and judge Michael Musmanno who sat at the Nuremberg trials and was determined to end rumours after the war that Hitler had survived.

The Day Hitler Died (Cineflix Rights)

GALAXY POP 1001 Nights: The Untold Stories (CLF)

FLAME DISTRIBUTION

AUSTRALIA’s Flame Distribution has added Canadian show Restoration Garage (18 x 60 mins) to its MIPCOM slate of over 200 hours of new factual and documentary content. Produced for the Canadian History Channel, it features the workshop of an antique and classic-car restoration company as they salvage rare gems from around the world.

The company is also working with the BBC on the distribution of the latest series in the Hairy Bikers franchise, Hairy Bikers — The Pubs That Built Britain (15 x 30 mins). Hairy bikers Si King and Dave Myers find pubs that have been at the heart of communities for centuries.

Hairy Bikers — The Pubs That Built Britain (Flame Distribution)

AUSTRALIAN producer Galaxy Pop returns to MIPCOM to highlight its kids’ series Get Ace. The show follows the adventures of Ace McDougal, a young boy with amazing super-powered dental braces. A second season is due to begin production later this year. Also slated for production is teen comedy feature New Cupid, scheduled to shoot on the North-Eastern coast of Australia in 2016. A recent deal sees the company open new offices in Los Angeles, signing with Hollywood entertainment management firm The Gotham Group for representation.

TRICON FILMS & TELEVISION

IN THE Incredible Food Race (6 x 60 mins) two families compete in a series of food challenges leading to the main event — a cook-off to make a kid-approved meal against the clock in an outdoor stadium. The winning family is awarded a year’s worth of groceries. The Toronto-based company also brings Breakneck Builds (14 x 30 mins) which showcases modular technology, where amazing designs are taken from drawing board to reality in weeks. Armies of skilled tradespeople and engineers build structures of wood, glass and foldable steel and deliver the modules to sites where crews build a home in only a couple of days.

The Incredible Food Race (Tricon Films & Television)

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PRODUCT NEWS

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LOOKING GLASS INTERNATIONAL

AZTECA

FACTUAL distributor Looking Glass International is highlighting entertaining documentary series The Eccentrics (10 x 30 mins) at MIPCOM. The series, which travels the world, discovers a range of original and eccentric people and their exceptional lives. The stories include archives and testimonies from family members and friends of eccentrics including: the man who lives as Tarzan; a man who lives as a merman, and manufactures mermaid tails; and an aboriginal storyteller.

MEXICO’s Azteca offers new telenovela Tanto Amor (Under The Storm) to the international market at MIPCOM. The 120 x 60 mins series stars Melissa Barrera and Leonardo Garcia and is a complex story of love and fate where tragedy and betrayal lead to romance and happiness.

Tanto Amor (Azteca)

OHM:TV

COLOGNE-based ohm:tv is launching a new slapstick 3D animation at MIPCOM. Karl (104 x 2 mins/HD) is a non-dialogue show, produced by Brazilian animation studio Spirit Animation, which follows the antics of Jonny and Karl as they battle between eating healthy and unhealthy food.

BLUE ANT MEDIA

TWO TITLES top the roster of 100+ hours of new content from Canada’s Blue Ant Media.

Great Blue Wild (6 x 60 mins/4K) hears tales of wild underwater adventures from divingfocused shops around the world, with encounter stories featuring whales, sharks, dolphins, giant manta rays and spectacular schools of fish. Baby Animals (7 x 30 mind/4K) follows a range of cute creatures from birth to adolescence and adulthood.

BEYOND DISTRIBUTION Karl (ohm:tv)

NEWZULU

TECH specialist Newzulu is showcasing two products at MIPCOM. Nuzzle Live Suite is a crowd-sourced cloud-based live-streaming service, providing media outlets with 24/7 access to secured and verified live streams from Newzulu’s worldwide reporters, geolocated calls to Newzulu’s worldwide reporters to cover specific subjects/events and live reporter kits to equip clients’ reporters or audience with Newzulu’s livestreaming mobile technology. The Newzulu Platform is a cloud-based digital asset management system to gather, moderate and organise UGC content.

BEYOND Distribution offers a packed factual lineup at MIPCOM, including: Mountain Rescue, following the elite rescue squad working on Mont Blanc; Chasing Monsters, an action-packed exploration of colossal and dangerous underwater creatures; Body Donors – Life After Death, the story of people who donate their bodies to medical science; and Building La Dolce Vita With Debbie Travis, following design expert Debbie Travis as she transforms a farmhouse in Tuscany into a luxury women’s retreat.

Mountain Rescue (Beyond Distribution)

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The Eccentrics (Looking Glass International)

FREMANTLEMEDIA INTERNATIONAL (FMI)

IN NEW game show The Eureka Moment two couples test their knowledge with a series of dangerous stunts and wacky experiments in the bid to win the holiday of a lifetime. A MIPCOM launch is set for witty drama Capital, based on a novel by John Lanchester, where all the residents of one street in London receive an anonymous postcard bearing the menacing message: “We Want What You Have”. The company also brings boy-band competition La Banda, developed with Simon Cowell’s Syco Entertainment, FremantleMedia and Saban Brands. The first season of the US Hispanic version of La Banda (14 x 60 mins) broadcast on Univision. Simply Nigella, featuring chef Nigella Lawson, is a new show introducing a pared-down approach to cooking and eating.

The Eureka Moment (FMI)

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PRODUCT NEWS ITV STUDIOS GLOBAL ENTERTAINMENT (ITVS GE)

TELESCREEN

FROM an idea by novelist Charlie Higson, Jekyll And Hyde (10 x 60 mins) is a fantasy series inspired

by Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel The Strange Case Of Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde. Set in 1930s London, Jekyll And Hyde follows the grandson of the original doctor, a sensitive young man who begins to fall under the power of a darkness he cannot control. He has inherited the curse of his grandfather, and when angered or in danger he transforms into Hyde, a fearless figure of incredible strength. As he tries to discover his past and search for a cure, he is drawn into Hyde’s world of monstrous creatures and freaks of nature.

GERMAN brand management and media company m4e and its sales division Telescreen headline their slate of programmes at MIPCOM with the first episodes of Wissper (52 x 7 mins) and Wissper (Telescreen) the first episode of Atchoo! (52 x 11 mins). Wissper is a CGI-animated series aimed at four- to sevenyear-old girls, about a little girl who can talk to animals. The UK’s Milkshake is already on board as commissioning broadcaster. Atchoo! (52 x 11 mins), aimed at sixto nine-year-olds) features a young boy who when he feels a strong emotion sneezes and turns into an animal.

BREAKTHROUGH ENTERTAINMENT

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NEW TV movie Anne Of Green Gables, based on the 1908 novel by Lucy Maud Montgomery, is unveiled at MIPCOM by Breakthrough Entertainment. The Breakthrough-produced film was created in association with the author’s granddaughter, Kate Macdonald Butler who serves as an executive producer. Martin Sheen plays Matthew Cuthbert, the shy brother of straightlaced Marilla Cuthbert in the two-hour movie. They take in Anne from an orphanage and forge a bond that changes their lives forever. Anne is played by 13-yearold Ella Ballentine and Marilla by Sara Botsford.

Explore the world of Pokémon!

Join Ash, Pikachu, and friends in more than 160 countries and in more than 30 languages. Visit us at Stand P0. A20, Level 0, to hear more about a property that spans 19 seasons and 18 movies!

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Anne Of Green Gables (Breakthrough Entertainment)

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PILOT PRODUCTIONS

TRAVEL and adventure content specialist Pilot Productions is launching Tough Boats (6 x 52 mins) at MIPCOM. Currently in production and produced in HD, Tough Boats features journeys in tough and challenging environments, including a jungle river in Borneo, a paddle steamer in a Bangladeshi delta, an Amazon river expedition from Peru to Brazil and across one of Africa’s largest inland deltas on the River Niger.

ARMOZA FORMATS

ISRAEL’s Armoza Formats is launching a slate of formats and daily stripped shows at MIPCOM. Live From My Home is a 30-minute daily show in which four talented amateurs compete to win a singing competition. Each day, a contestant sets up a stage and rehearses in their homes. The performance is evaluated by their fellow artists, with the winner receiving a cash prize. Armoza also brings drama Zagouri Empire. The 60-minute episode series is an intense family comedy drama featuring a superstitious family in fear of their great-aunts’ curse. A third season has already been commissioned.

NOVOVISION

FRENCH producer Novovision brings animal hidden-camera programme Prank My Pet (26 x 22 mins) to MIPCOM. Following on from the human prank series X-Prank Series: Urgent Landing, this show features dogs, cats, ducks, chickens, parrots, rabbits and more exotic animals reacting to unpredictable situations.

Prank My Pet heads a MIPCOM slate from the company that includes Crazy Hidden Camera, Mad Boys, Junior Hidden Camera, Gagsters, Crazy Xmas and Yalla Nadhak. The series has pre-sold to countries across Southeast Asia.

KABO INTERNATIONAL

277_GoAsean_N1_COM Tough Boats (Pilot Productions)

Live From My Home (Armoza Formats)

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KABO International brings the game-show format Who’s Who? to MIPCOM. Created by UK-based Rose Bay Media and Noel Gay Television, Who’s Who? sees three contestants face six guests. Given a list of their genuine occupations or hobbies the contestants must work out who’s who by posing questions and asking the guests to perform challenges or tell stories. Produced in 10 countries so far, the most recent version aired on NRK Norway.

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PRODUCT NEWS CORUS ENTERTAINMENT

SONAR ENTERTAINMENT

PRECIOUS

HIGH on the MIPCOM priority list for Canada’s Corus Entertainment is its growing slate of reality and lifestyle series developed for its portfolio of women-focused and family networks. In Cannes, Corus debuts: Cheer Stars (10 x 60 mins), which follows a world-champion cheerleading team as they balance competing with schoolwork and relationships; Buying The View (26 x 30 mins), a new series about the hunt for luxury properties with world-class views; and Masters Of Flip (12 x 60 mins), starring husband-and-wife house flippers who breathe new life into old, rundown homes.

284_CANNES I GET_N1_COM Cheer Stars (Corus Entertainment)

THE MIPCOM line-up from distributor Precious includes: World Class: Bartender Of The Year (2 x 24 mins), following the mixology competition and the global final in South Africa; short feature F1 Jenson Button Singapore (1 x 3 mins), a portrait of the McLaren-Honda driver Jenson Button; The World’s Toughest Rowing Race: Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge (1 x 48 mins), following the journey from La Gomera in the Canary Islands across to Antigua in the Caribbean; GT Academy (5 x 24 mins), a documentarystyle reality show that gives motorsport fans the opportunity to progress from armchair video-gamer to professional racing driver; and music performance series Live Takeover: London (7 x 22 mins).

LA-BASED Sonar Entertainment brings actionthriller four-hour mini-series The Fixer to MIPCOM. Suspicious of the official explanation of an oil rig disaster, Ellie (Kathleen Robertson), investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board, spearheads a private investigation with a secret tipster named Carter (Eric Dane).

The Fixer is produced by Muse Entertainment and distributed worldwide by Sonar Entertainment outside of Canada.

World Class: Bartender Of The Year (Precious)

The Fixer (Sonar Entertainment)

CANNES RETAILERS OFFER BY LOTS

TO MIPCOM FIRST TIMERS For more offers

cannes-i-get.com Thanks to our partners

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BANIJAY INTERNATIONAL

UK-BASED distributor Banijay International launches The Injustice Files (10 x 60 mins) at MIPCOM, an investigation series from US cable network Fusion.

The in-house production from Fusion — a joint venture between Univision Communications and Disney ABC — reveals the true stories of men, women and children who are fighting for justice, including unarmed kids killed by police and innocent men in jail for crimes they didn’t commit. The series is hosted by reporter Mariana van Zeller.

MAGICAL ADVENTURE A

PACKED FULL OF H EALTH,

The Injustice Files (Banijay International) If I Were An Animal… (Xilam)

XILAM

FITNESS AND FU N!

NEW SHOWS and new series at MIPCOM from France’s XILAM include: If I Were An Animal… (39 x 7 mins/13 x 30 mins), a wildlife documentary written as fiction and told by kids for kids, adopting the point of view of the animal child; season five of Oggy And The Cockroaches (78 x 7 mins/26 x 30 mins), adding to the 300 episodes of the popular animation; and Paprika (78 x 7 mins/26 x 30 mins), a preschool animation about twins Olivia and Stan. Stan is a brave daredevil who puts faith in his motorised wheelchair and Olivia is creative, efficient and brainy.

NELVANA

NELVANA, producer and distributor of children’s content, is showcasing new animation series Hotel Transylvania, based on the blockbuster feature film, in partnership with Sony Pictures Animation. The Canadian company also brings Mysticons, a new animated action series produced in partnership with Tornante and The Topps Company, set to launch on Nickelodeon globally in 2017. Nelvana is also debuting an animated series based on ZhuZhu Pets toys and Very Fairy Princess, an animated pre-school series in partnership with Julie Andrews, based on her book series.

For More Info Contact EMAIL TEL WEB

natalie@escapademedia.com.au +61 2 8353 2794 escapademedia.com.au

Visit FO-FO at

MIPCOM 2015 STAND P-1. G79

MEDIA © 2015 Escapade Media Pty Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

Mysticons (Nelvana)

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PRODUCT NEWS HOOPLAKIDZ

HOOPLAKIDZ is working with YouTube on original series The Adventures Of Annie & Ben (52 x 7 mins).

The show — available in eight languages — is about three friends who enjoy going on adventures, traveling and music.

The Adventures Of Annie & Ben (Hooplakidz)

POORHOUSE INTERNATIONAL

ARTS programming specialist Poorhouse International is highlighting two of its shows at MIPCOM. The Garden Of Earthly Delights Goes 4K is a documentary to celebrate the 500th anniversary of painter Hieronymus Bosch, commissioned by ARTE from RM Creative and LGM. Adrian Maben, best known for Pink Floyd At Pompeii, will direct. All In A Box commemorates the 40th anniversary of the death of Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich. Producer Telmondis has recorded all 15 symphonies and six concertos with Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra. Worldwide television rights to the box set are available through Poorhouse International.

LEFT POCKET STUDIO

THE PILOT episode of Emmy & GooRoo from Shanghai-based Left Pocket Studio is available at MIPCOM. The pre-school 2D animation series (52 x 11 mins) is about a little girl, her furry monster GooRoo and their adventures in a magic forest where animals, elves and other creatures live together in harmony. Left Pocket also brings its new project, Mini Mind Warriors to Cannes, about mini-size heroes protecting humans and resisting an invasion.

ZIG ZAG PRODUCTIONS

LONDON-based Zig Zag Productions’ new formats are showcased at MIPCOM for the first time, including: Money Can Buy You Love (1 x 60 mins), in which matchmaker Mairead Molloy helps millionaires across Europe to find the perfect partner; Beat The Reflex, commissioned by Channel 4 in the UK, a quiz which tests speed of recognition-and-recall on a series of visual and audio and popculture challenges; The Bluffer’s Guide To…, in which topics including first dates, etiquette and the use of dating apps are humorously explored, including celebrity comments; The Virus Hunter, which follows Dr. Nathan Wolfe to remote areas in the world in an attempt to pre-empt the next deadly virus; and The180_TWOFOUR54_N1_COM Honeymoon Is Over, a reality series that puts newlyweds to the test.

Mairead Molloy, Money Can Buy 030_DOG TV_N1_COM You Love (Zig Zag Productions) Emmy & GooRoo (Left Pocket Studio)

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Make your next project or set up your company at twofour54, home to Abu Dhabi’s media and entertainment industry. Along with access to world-class studios and production services, you can take advantage of unique benefits such as:

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Whether it’s a business or a TV show, we can help you make it at twofour54.

Visit our panel discussion at MIPCOM 2015 to learn more about the journey of Abu Dhabi’s content evolution.

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COOLERSEA

VERSATILE MEDIA

KOREA’S Coolersea is at MIPCOM with Kooger, The Dog (26 x 12 mins), an HD animation depicting the daily life of a French bulldog, Kooger, his owner, his friends in doggie daycare and at the park. Most backgrounds and long shots are 3D live action and the dog characters with exaggerated body movements are in 2D.

TWO TITLES top the line-up from China’s Versatile Media.

Axel 2: The Floating Planet follows Axel, Jono and Princess Gaga as they set off on a quest. They meet inventor Dr Kinder and with the aid of him and his furry subordinate 4-Eyes, Axel and his friends must prevent a galactic catastrophe. In Thingdom Lucas is a little boy who goes on an expedition to watch whales with his mother. When his game device falls overboard Lucas tries to rescue it and falls into a mysterious vortex that leads him to Thingdom, a magical island where all discarded things are alive.

Kooger, The Dog (Coolersea)

GIL FORMATS

GIL FORMATS, the content creator and distribution arm of Israeli independent Gil Productions, makes its first showing at MIPCOM with new observational factual entertainment format Life On Duty (12 x 60 mins). The format follows characters from three emergency services — police, fire, and hospital trauma — and contrasts the tough and at times heroic days and nights spent on the job with their often neglected private lives. Life On Duty has been commissioned by Channel 10 Israel (12 x 60 mins) to air in 2016.

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VIZ MEDIA EUROPE

ANIME specialist Viz Media Europe debuts Yo-kai Watch (26 x 22 mins) to the international marketplace at MIPCOM. The French company holds distribution rights for Europe. The brand is wellknown in Japan on TV, in gaming and toy markets. The joint production between Level-5, Dentsu and TV Tokyo airs on TV Tokyo and is aimed at four- to 12-year-olds. Yokai Watch follows young Nate who receives a special watch that allows him to discover mysterious creatures called Yo-kai who cause nuisances in everyday life.

Yo-kai Watch (Viz Media Europe)

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SERIES PREMIERE

Hybe is the latest, and freshest in startup lifestyle media. It’s a destination and a community where you can explore the entrepreneurial lifestyle and engage with new ideas and the people behind them.

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MONDAY 5 OCTOBER DRAMA SCREENINGS ‘The Girlfriend Experience’

By Starz

MIPCOM 2015 Welcome Press Breakfast

9.00-10.30 | Auditorium K

8.30-9.15 | Blue Lounge, Press & News Hub

Breakfast served from 8.30.

By Invitation.

Presenters

Turkey: Market Overview

Gene George, EVP, Worldwide Distribution, Starz, USA Carmi Zlotnik, Managing Director, Starz, USA

9.30-9.50 | Auditorium A Presenter Sahar Baghery, Head of Research and Content Strategy, Eurodata TV Worldwide, France

‘The Frankenstein Chronicles’

By Endemol Shine Group

Megasession: Dialogue with the Americas

11.00-12.30 | Auditorium K

9.50-10.40 | Auditorium A

Presenter Cathy Payne, Chief Executive, Endemol Shine International, UK

Speakers Kerem Çatay, CEO, Ay Yapim, Turkey Pelin Diştaş Yaşaroğlu, General Manager, Kanal D, Turkey Kim Moses, Producer, Sander / Moses Productions, USA Can Okan, CEO / President, ITV - Inter Medya, Turkey Juan Vicente, Director International Content, Megavision, Chile

Moderator Anna Carugati, Group Editorial Director, World Screen, USA

INTO THE STREAM View from Over-the-Top 9.00-9.15 | Esterel Speaker Christopher Vollmer, Global Managing Director of Strategy&’s Digital Services and leader of Strategy&’s Global Media and Entertainment Practice, PwC, USA

Kerem Çatay

Pelin Diştaş Yaşaroğlu

Kim Moses

Broadcast: Simple as an App 9.15-9.45 | Esterel Followed by Meet the Speakers.

Speakers Can Okan

Juan Vicente

Fresh TV from Turkey 10.45-11.15 | Auditorium A

Ziba Kaboli-Gerbrands, Director, Content Acquisition, Roku, USA @zibak Risto Kuulasmaa, Head of Television and Online, Yleisradio, Finland Nick North, Director of Audiences, BBC, UK

Moderator

In partnership with The WIT

Catherine Warren, Founder and President, FanTrust Entertainment Strategies, Canada

Presenter

The New Disrupters

Virginia Mouseler, CEO, The Wit, Switzerland

Ziba Kaboli-Gerbrands

10.00-10.30 | Esterel Followed by Meet the Speakers.

Speakers

SUMMITS & EVENTS First Timers Networking & Breakfast 9.00-10.30 | Matchmaking Lounge Welcome Breakfast from 8.30.

news_24x33_monday.indd 1

Matt Baxter, Global Head of Original Content, Spotify, USA Matt Baxter Jean-Marc Denoual, Vice President, Operation and Partnerships, Molotov, France Tony Zameczkowski, VP & Managing Director, International, Victorious, USA

Moderator Catherine Warren, Founder and President, FanTrust Entertainment Strategies, Canada

02/10/2015 15:14

OFFICIAL CONFERENCE & SCREENINGS MEDIA MASTERMIND KEYNOTES 10.45-11.15 | Grand Auditorium

JIMMY MAYMANN

4K Ultra HD TV Welcome Address

JIMMY MAYMANN EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT AND PRESIDENT, AOL CONTENT & CONSUMER BRANDS, FORMER CEO OF THE HUFFINGTON POST

10.00-10.15 | Sony 4K Ultra HD Theatre Michel Chabrol, Director Marketing Innovation & Digital Cinema, Eutelsat, France Joe Nakata, Senior Producer, Visual Entertainment, Sony Corporation, Japan Claudia Vaccarone, Head of Market Research & Customer Experience, Eutelsat, France

Michel Chabrol

SHAHRZAD RAFATI FOUNDER & CEO, BROADBANDTV interVieWed By

Joe Nakata

Chair Chris Forrester, Journalist & Industry Consultant, UK Claudia Vaccarone

ŠStudio Le Beaukal

sPeakers

SHAHRZAD RAFATI

Kate Bulkley, Media Commentator / Journalist, UK

11.30-12.00 | Grand Auditorium

Japan Readies for 4K Ultra HD 10.15-11.15 | Sony 4K Ultra HD Theatre sPeakers Hiromichi Iwasaki, Executive Producer, NHK Enterprises, Japan Yoshiharu Kashima, Senior Manager, Programming Department, Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK), Japan Hisamichi Sato, Senior Manager, NTT Plala, Japan

Chair Chris Forrester, Journalist & Industry Consultant, UK

India Adopts 4K Ultra HD 11.30-12.45 | Sony 4K Ultra HD Theatre

GEORGE STROMPOLOS

GEORGE STROMPOLOS FOUNDER & CEO, FULLSCREEN

interVieWed By Kate Bulkley, Media Commentator / Journalist, UK

12.10-12.40 | Grand Auditorium

India is fully embracing 4K Ultra HD. Cricket-mad viewers could watch day after day of cricket in spectacular 4K Ultra HD. Existing 4K Ultra HD broadcasters are now expanding their 4K Ultra HD offerings.

keynote sPeaker Rohit Jain, Deputy CEO, Videocon d2h, India

PaneL Anil Wanvari, Founder, CEO & Editor in Chief, Indiantelevision.com, India Mark Wilson-Dunn, Vice President, BT Media and Broadcast, UK

Chair Chris Forrester, Journalist & Industry Consultant, UK

JIM PACKER

MIKE HOPKINS

JIM PACKER PRESIDENT, WORLDWIDE TELEVISION & DIGITAL DISTRIBUTION, LIONSGATE MIKE HOPKINS CEO, HULU

news_24x33_monday.indd 2

02/10/2015 15:14

MONDAY 5 OCTOBER THOUGHT LEADERSHIP EVENTS Women in Global Entertainment Power Lunch 12.30-14.30 | Majestic Hotel Doors open at 12.00.

By invitation In partnership with Media Partner

Speakers Danielle Carrig, Sr. Vice President, Communications + Public Affairs, Lifetime, USA Pelin Diştaş Yaşaroğlu, General Manager, Kanal D, Turkey Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy, Academy Award & Emmy Award Winning Documentary Filmmaker, Pakistan Sarah Phelps, Writer and Executive Producer, ‘And Then There Were None’, UK Sharon Tal Yguado, Head of Fox International Studios and EVP Global Scripted Entertainment, Fox International Channels, USA @TigaTV Vivian Yin, CEO, FremantleMedia China, China

Moderator Marisa Guthrie, Television Editor, East Coast, The Hollywood Reporter, USA

MIPCOM 4K Ultra HD Keynote 14.00-14.30 | Sony 4K Ultra HD Theatre Keynote speaker Dr Hans Hoffmann, Head of Media Fundamentals and Production Technology, EBU, Switzerland

The Programme Makers in 4K Ultra HD 14.30-15.30 | Sony 4K Ultra HD Theatre Speakers Anthony Geffen, CEO and Executive Producer, Atlantic Productions, UK Cosetta Lagani, Head of Sky 3D channel, Sky Italia, Italy David Royle, Executive Vice President, Programming & Production, Smithsonian Networks, USA

Chair Chris Forrester, Journalist & Industry Consultant, UK

SCREENINGS Fresh TV Formats 13.10-14.10 | Grand Auditorium & Balcony

The 4K Ultra HD Specialists 15.45-16.45 | Sony 4K Ultra HD Theatre Speaker Dr Giuliano Berretta, President, DBW Communication, Italy

In partnership with

Chair Chris Forrester, Journalist & Industry Consultant, UK

Presenter Virginia Mouseler, CEO, The Wit, Switzerland

INTO THE STREAM Satisfying the TV Audiences of Tomorrow: The ConsumerLab Findings 14.15-15.00 | Esterel Followed by Meet the Speakers.

DRAMA SCREENINGS ‘Mercy Street’

By Electric Entertainment By invitation.

14.30-16.00 | Auditorium K Presenter Sonia Mehandjiyska, Head of International Distribution, Electric Entertainment, USA

Susanna Dinnage, Executive Vice President & Managing Director, Discovery Networks UK & Ireland, UK Alexander Lewin, Vice President, International Distribution and Programming, Maker Studios, USA Stella Medlicott, Chief Marketing Officer, Broadcast and Media Services, Ericsson, UK Stella Medlicott Nick North, Director of Audiences, BBC, UK Sam Toles, Vice President, Content Strategy and Business Development, Vimeo, USA

Moderator Kate Bulkley, Media Commentator / Journalist, UK

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© Credit Courtesy of Antony PlattPBS

Speakers

02/10/2015 15:14

OFFICIAL CONFERENCE & SCREENINGS RESHAPING THE CONTENT GAME Novel Adaptations: the Road to Success?

MEDIA MASTERMIND KEYNOTES 16.30-17.00 | Grand Auditorium

15.15-16.15 | Esterel sPeakers Craig Cegielski, Co-CEO, FremantleMedia North America, USA @MrCegielski Jenna Glazier, SVP Television Series, Sonar Entertainment, USA Diederick Santer, Co-CEO, Kudos, UK Carmi Zlotnik, Managing Director, Starz, USA

Moderator

SOPHIE TURNER LAING

SOPHIE TURNER LAING CEO, ENDEMOL SHINE GROUP

Michael Pickard, Editor, DramaQuaterly, C21 Media, UK

interVieWed By David Jenkinson, Editor-in-Chief & Managing Director, C21 Media, UK

Craig Cegielski

Jenna Glazier

Diederick Santer

Carmi Zlotnik

17.10-17.40 | Grand Auditorium

INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT Reshaping the Kids Multi-Platform Landscape ADAM CROZIER CHIEF EXECUTIVE, ITV

16.30-17.30 | Auditorium K By ADAM CROZIER

sPeakers Jamie DaVicky, Creator, ‘The Fo-Fo Figgily Show’, Australia Ian Kenny, Director, ‘The Fo-Fo Figgily Show’, Australia Tom Slater, Producer, ‘The Fo-Fo Figgily Show’, Australia

interVieWed By Anna Carugati, Group Editorial Director, World Screen, USA

MIPCOM OPENING NIGHT WORLD PREMIERE TV SCREENING ‘The Last Panthers’ From Sky Atlantic and CANAL+, distributed by Sky Vision and STUDIOCANAL

18.30-19.45 | Grand Auditorium Doors open at 18.00.

GORAN BOGDAN

JOHN HURT

6 x 60’ CRIME DRAMA SERIES

SAMANTHA MORTON

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FEATURE THE DIGITAL DISRUPTORS

Next-gen entertainment More and more players are wading into the international waters of internet-delivered, data-driven streaming video entertainment. Juliana Koranteng looks at some of the next-generation entertainment brands that are making waves ‘Customers can watch on-the-go’ Brand name: iflix Based in: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Owners: Catcha Group; Evolution Media Capital; heavyweight Hollywood backers, including Imagine Entertainment’s Brian Grazer, Electus’ Ben Silverman and MGM’s Gary Barber, on the advisory board

James Bridges

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The disruption: James Bridges, iflix’s chief content officer, says the multi-device service described as the “Netflix of South East Asia” is filling a cavernous gap in the region. “It’s clear that OTT [over-the-top] consumption habits have led to the production of more shows that feed both the bingeing and snacking behaviours common to the on-demand world,” he says. “Iflix faced infrastructure challenges in delivering OTT entertainment to emerging markets in South East Asia and MENA. Streaming speeds are comparatively low and data costs comparatively high on a disposable-income basis, so we first introduced a compression technology that offers terrific quality and experience. Then we went to our distribution partners and secured rights not just for streaming, but also for temporary download to view offline. In most emerging markets, free wi-fi is readily available in coffee shops and restaurants. So our customers can download a movie or a few episodes of their favourite show at no data cost, then watch them on-the-go at their convenience.”

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FEATURE

Paolo Roatta

Alexander Mazzara

‘Take part, share, connect’

‘Direct route to consumers’

Brand name: iLIKE.TV

Brand: joiz

Based in: Rome, Italy

Based in: Zurich, Switzerland

Owner: Arkimedia

Owner: joiz Group

The disruption: Paolo Roatta, iLIKE.TV’s CEO and founder, was inspired by social media’s ability to re-enact the shared viewing experience that traditional mass-market broadcasting is famous for supplying. This time, however, the technology exists to encourage viewers to “take part, share, connect” — and iLIKE.TV’s propriety technology offers social TV that is more than just a second-screen experience. “Today, viewers want to experience richer TV entertainment,” Roatta says. “Instead of passively watching linear broadcasting, they want to take part in the actual entertainment, as they do on Facebook or YouTube. They want to be able to share with their friends in real time, as they do on Snapchat or on Instagram. And they enjoy and value the possibility of connecting with new friends, as they do on Tinder or WeChat.

Television has always been a shared experience. We enjoy something on TV because we know we’re not alone watching it. When Miley Cyrus is twerking live on stage at the MTV Video Music Awards, it’s sensational because millions of people are watching it at the same moment that I’m watching it. We came up with our award-winning technology because we noticed that advertisers are increasingly interested in the mix of traditional TV and the emerging digital platforms.

The disruption: Alexander Mazzara, cofounder and CEO of joiz, has created a business where the millennial audience not only watches but also creates and contributes to content in real time. And it is proving to be a hit with brand-owners. “It’s all about taking entertainment and marketing to a whole new level — a very personalised level,” Mazzara says. “As consumers and users engage with entertainment across multiple platforms, the new TV networks, along with brands and advertisers, can harvest and take full ownership of a huge amount of smart data. This provides new revenue streams and business models as we monetise those audiences. It’s that direct route to consumers that is revolutionising the industry.”

It’s all about taking entertainment and marketing to a whole new level Alexander Mazzara 98

Michael Grams

‘About giving viewers a choice’ Brand: KlowdTV Based in: Virginia, US Owner: KlowdTV The disruption: Tech startup KlowdTV spotted that the US pay-TV market, with its expensive monthly fees, was declining but that no one was truly addressing the reasons why. With a growing number of independent TV networks as partners, including beIN Sports, Bloomberg Television and outdoor lifestyle channel RIDE TV, KlowdTV promises more affordable subscription packages for viewers. Chief financial officer and co-founder Michael Grams says: “The broadcast and cable-TV industry business model as it is today is one of the most unsatisfactory experiences there is. When you look at consumer satisfaction surveys, it’s one of the lowest. And while Netflix and Hulu offer great content, they don’t offer live channels. That’s where we come in. We believe there’s a certain amount of viewing fatigue [with the on-demand services].

Some consumers just want to sit down and watch TV without going through 10,000 titles. The traditional price points have been too high at between $20 and $150 a month.

We offer $8-$12 and bundle everything into smaller packages. The market is becoming more receptive to streaming, and transmission costs are coming way down. It’s about giving viewers a choice.”

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FEATURE THE DIGITAL DISRUPTORS

Disruption, not destruction The overarching themes of the MIPCOM 2015 conference programme — Reshaping The Content Game and Into The Stream — hint at the future of global TV. Juliana Koranteng looks at the digital upstarts that are changing the game DIGITAL media companies, once seen simply as providers of online content to complement traditional broadcaster fare, are changing the content production and delivery landscape. Senior executives from digitalmedia conglomerate AOL Inc, now a subsidiary of US telecommunications giant Verizon, and such YouTube multichannel networks (MCNs) as Canada’s BroadbandTV (BBTV) and California-based Fullscreen are among the MIPCOM Mastermind Media keynoters discussing why their businesses are now core to the global industry. MCN Victorious, from Singapore, is taking part in The New Disruptors panel.

These businesses are no longer sidelines or passing fads. They use cloud technology, high-speed wireless and broadband internet’s large bandwidth to distribute videos to a new generation of viewers who expect nothing less than professionally created entertainment on all screens.

“The world is going to be 80%-plus mobile and, at

The world is going to be 80%-plus mobile and we want to be the company that helps the world bridge the gap from online to mobile Jimmy Maymann 101

AOL, we want to be the company that helps the world bridge the gap from online to mobile,” says Jimmy Maymann, executive vice-president and president of AOL content and consumer brands.

These new-generation networks are forcing established broadcast, cable and satellite players as well as advertisers to sit up, take note and react. But during the process of disrupting the established legacy players, they are not destroying the business but helping to generate more of it, according to Paul Verna, New York-based senior analyst at eMarketer.

“I think there’s a real disruption taking place,” Verna says. “The companies doing this, including broadcasters like Disney, HBO and Comcast investing in streaming platforms, are responding to changes in consumer behaviour and technology developments moving in that direction. Many legacy TV and movie entertainment companies are getting into delivering content digitally, so they have not been completely left out of the equation — TV advertising is still the biggest single source of revenue and it’s not expected to diminish. In fact, the whole TV industry is growing because traditional TV is holding its own and digital is growing exponentially at the same time.”

AOL has lived through various technological revolutions since it was founded as (the appropriately called) Control Video Corporation in 1983. Tech-driven video

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FEATURE

AOL’s Jimmy Maymann

BBTV’s Shahrzad Rafati

eMarketer’s Paul Verna

entertainment and advertising have been a constant in its various incarnations, however, including during its Nineties’ heyday, when it made history as the web portal that owned Time Warner.

Today, AOL’s assets include the portal with more than 200 million active monthly users; digital media brands, including news aggregator The Huffington Post; the AOL On network, which features original online video content; and One by AOL, the behemoth international programmatic ads platform.

Despite being famous for its text-based online journalism, The Huffington Post had a goal of 50% of its content having a video component, meaning that video was “a big global priority for the site”, Maymann says, in explaining the role video plays in its assets. Moreover, AOL is eventually expected to help drive the success of Go90, the new free mobile video entertainment platform being launched by parent company Verizon, which already serves 102 million-plus mobile subscribers.

BBTV, the Canadian media and tech company that operates a YouTube MCN with 5.7 billion monthly views, recently confounded the industry by announcing a joint venture called Outspeak with The Huffington Post, which has more than 214 million monthly unique visitors. Described as the “first next-generation online video journalism network”, Outspeak aims to disrupt the global TV news networks as we have known them for decades. It will give journalists a multiplatform outlet to break, create and broadcast stories online in a way broadcast TV has never done.

But the video ambitions of BBTV — the world’s third largest MCN, 51% controlled by German broadcast giant RTL Group — do not end there. It recently acquired India-based YoBoHo, a children’s and family YouTube MCN boasting three billion-plus monthly views, to add to its numerous other international MCN brands.

With trade publication Variety commissioning a survey that revealed that eight of North America’s top-10 celebrities found fame via online video, the video-entertainment landscape is undergoing an upheaval that old and new media have no choice but to deal with.

This partly explains why BBTV formed a joint venture called Windfall with international music publisher BMG to create a talent agency to nurture future YouTube music-video stars. BMG and RTL are subsidiaries of German media conglomerate Bertelsmann.

Already offering YouTube channels in the North American, Spanish, Portuguese, German, French, Japanese and Russian markets, BBTV’s goal is to go truly global.

“We are contributing to traditional media by bridging the gap between digital and other non-digital formats,” says Shahrzad Rafati, BBTV’s founder and CEO. “In creating and developing our ecosystem, we’re creating

The whole TV industry is growing because traditional TV is holding its own and digital is growing exponentially at the same time Paul Verna 102

more opportunities for creators and media brands in the digital sphere to spread into traditional media such as linear TV, but also into books, films and more.”

Another MIPCOM participant is California-based Fullscreen, also a leading YouTube MCN. Owned jointly by media and technology investment company The Chernin Group and AT&T, the US telecoms and payTV conglomerate, Fullscreen is backed by financially powerful supporters.

In January, the company launched Fullscreen Films to produce movies for cinemas. The Fullscreen Live division, meanwhile, promotes live shows featuring its YouTube stars. Via acquisitions, Fullscreen also owns professional video-content producers such as Rooster Teeth.

In his Mastermind Media keynote at MIPCOM, Fullscreen founder and CEO George Strompolos discusses the challenges of launching on YouTube with user-generated content. Today, Fullscreen has developed into a professional outfit handling content by 70,000 creators for 60,000 subscribers, generating five billion-plus views that brand-owners want to connect with.

Online media-owners cannot get enough of video.

Social-media goliath Facebook is turning into a direct rival of video-sharing pioneer YouTube. Thanks to about 1.5 billion active monthly users worldwide, Facebook will reportedly record more than two trillion video views in 2015, about 66% of YouTube’s number of views — something no one imagined even last year.

Ephemeral messaging app Snapchat launched in 2011 and captured the imagination of millennials. According to the company, more than 100 million active daily users watch video four billion times daily on Snapchat. Its rapid growth is generating more ad revenues and has prompted fund-raising experts to value Snapchat at $16bn.

And yet, as part of its long-term strategy, in January, Snapchat launched Discover, a service designed to promote the professional video content of major media brands, including international TV networks CNN and ESPN, to its users. Even the world’s largest audio music streaming service, Spotify (also on The New Disrupters panel), has started to feature video content from Disney subsidiaries ABC, YouTube MCN Maker Studios and sports network ESPN, plus Viacom’s Comedy Central channel, among others.

In addition to making their traditional TV content available online, the established legacy media corporations are embarking on the innovative use of online video.

US national terrestrial CBS has announced plans to transmit next year’s Super Bowl, the American football competition that is also the nation’s biggest sports championship, live on TV and streaming platforms simultaneously for the first time.

If there is any uncertainty in the disrupted video market, it is which business model will prevail. Currently, the fragmented industry is accommodating numerous variations, from the ad dollars upon which YouTube depends to the subscriptions that feed Netflix. But, as eMarketer’s Paul Verna notes: “TV is nowhere near crashing the way physical music has done. In fact, this huge number of diverse companies would not be competing for the space if the sector was not healthy.”

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mipcom

FEATURE WOMEN IN ENTERTAINMENT

The golden girls Kerry Washington as Olivia Pope in Shonda Rhimes’ Scandal

How much of this golden age of TV drama we’re living in is down to the women behind the scenes? On the day that MIPCOM turns the spotlight on women in entertainment, Andy Fry speaks to some of the women on the drama scene

I

F THIS is the golden age of scripted television, then a lot of the credit for that fact must go to the female creatives and executives working in the international drama business.

How different, for example, would primetime TV look if it weren’t for Shonda Rhimes and Betsy Beers, the duo behind Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal and How To Get Away With Murder? And would Netflix and Amazon be getting as much attention if they didn’t have Jenji Kohan’s Orange Is The New Black and Jill Soloway’s Transparent scooping up awards at every turn?

The industry’s female showrunners have proved particularly sure-footed in terms of addressing diversity.

Ilene Chaiken, for example, has helped turn a drama about a black hip-hop dynasty (Fox TV’s Empire) into one of the biggest mainstream successes of the last decade. And Courtney Kemp Agboh has proved equally pioneering with Starz drama series Power.

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Alongside Kohan and Soloway, women showrunners making their mark in the comedy drama arena include Jennie Snyder Urman (Jane The Virgin) and Marti Noxon (UnReal), while I. Marlene King’s ABC Family hit series Pretty Little Liars shows a profound understanding of how to whip up social media fever.

And when Showtime Network president David Nevins talked recently about his pursuit of “great TV”, he presumably had shows like Michelle Ashford’s Masters Of Sex in mind.

Turning to Europe, you can see a strong female influence in Nordic Noir (DR’s Piv Bernth, Yellowbird’s Berna Levin), high-end co-production (Rola Bauer) and the UK-originated character-driven dramas that have set the benchmark for quality drama around the world (Red’s Nicola Shindler, Company’s Michele Buck, Neal Street’s Pippa Harris). Equally one could point to the growing influence women have in commissioning and distribution.

mipcom

FEATURE MGM Studio’s Roma Khanna

Omari Hardwick and Joseph Sikora in Starz’s Power

Tandem’s Bauer

Katie Newman,

executive producer drama, ITV Studios Commenting on ITV’s new drama epic Beowulf, which she co-created and executive produced, Katie Newman says: “In this fantasy genre, creators have traditionally been men, with stories often told through a masculine lens.

Hopefully our Beowulf will appeal to women just as much as men. Personally, I never want to create a series without fantastic, complex and engaging female characters and it’s one of the things I’m most proud of in the show.

Rheda, played by Joanne Whalley, is Herot’s Thane who strives to rule in an increasingly threatening world. We have a single mother who runs the blacksmith with her feisty teenage daughter who yearns to be a warrior and a female healer who isn’t quite what she appears to be.”

Yet for all these achievements, it’s important to keep in mind that women are still significantly under-represented in key areas of the scripted TV business. The best evidence for this is a regularly updated report called Boxed In, produced by the Centre for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University. The most recent edition, released in September 2015, shows that: “Women are still under-represented in the key gatekeeping roles of creator and executive producer,” says the Centre’s executive director Dr Martha Lauzen in an interview with the MIPCOM Daily News.

“Women comprise just 23% of creators on broadcast network programmes and 22% on broadcast, cable and Netflix programme (in the US). Women account for 26% of executive producers on broadcast programmes and 23% of executive producers on broadcast, cable, and Netflix programmes.”

Those figures would not seem too bad if they were part of an upward growth trend — but in fact they have stalled, Lauzen says: “I think there is a perception gap between how people think women are faring in television, both on screen and behind the scenes, and women’s actual employment. I have seen media reports suggesting that women have ‘taken over television’ based on the anecdotal stories of a few high-profile women.

But the numbers keep us grounded in a more realistic discussion of the current status of women in television.

I also think that television benefits from its comparison to film. The numbers of women employed in film have

been so dismal for so long, that when people see the slightly higher numbers of women working in television, it seems like a relief. The television industry has traditionally been more welcoming of women than the film industry.”

For Lauzen, the argument in favour of employing more women in key roles is not just about being fair. There is also a business case: “In the academic literature on business management there is a concept called ‘requisite variety’. This concept suggests that the composition of an organisation’s staff should reflect the composition of its customer base, and that companies achieving such a balance will experience higher profits and sales. The reasoning is that these companies will have a greater understanding of their customers and thus will profit from that insight. I think the same is true for companies producing entertainment content. Programmes employing greater diversity behind the scenes will inevitably do a better job of producing shows that appeal to a wide range of viewers.”

In terms of what the business should do about it, Lauzen says: “People tend to prefer to work with others who

The television industry has traditionally been more welcoming of women than the film industry Mark Burnett and Roma Downey, creating for MGM through United Artists Media Group

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FEATURE Making scripted production hours familyfriendly would add millions to the budget Nicola Chindler The cast of Spotless, which debuts on Esquire TV in the US next month

reflect their own demographic profile and tend to create what they know. Since men comprise the majority of behind-the-scenes individuals in the business this means that many men will need to make a conscious effort to change the gender dynamic.”

Boxed In supports this thesis, showing that programmes employing at least one woman in key creative roles also feature higher percentages of female characters and employ greater percentages of women as directors, writers, and editors. For example, “on broadcast programmes with at least one female creator, women comprised 50% of writers. On programmes with no female creators, women comprised 15% of writers.”

Jane Campion, director, Top Of The Lake

Jane Campion’s first foray into TV was Top Of The Lake (TOTL), a murder mystery with a uniquely female perspective. Campion, who is back on board for a second series of Top Of The Lake, explains the appeal of TV: “Audiences get very conservative about what they are willing to go out and see in the cinema, but there seems to me to be a big audience of people that wants adventurous content. But they have got families and they can’t always go out, and they get used to watching it on their own screens — and you know I’m one of them. I also love the idea that you can tell a longer story [on TV] and you can get to know the characters, let the whole thing grow and develop — and you have room for whimsy if you want it. I’m looking for a place where I have got some freedom and it seems at the moment it’s here where I have freedom, and that has been proven through the process of making TOTL.”

duction make it tough for women to gain a foothold.

“I’ve never felt that my progress through the business has been held up because I’m a woman. But it is difficult to achieve gender balance on set. I’ve literally no idea how you reconcile the hours of production with women’s desire to spend time with their family. Making scripted production hours family-friendly would add millions to the budget.”

Tandem Productions co-founder and COO Rola Bauer is widely-acknowledged to have been a pioneer in the current trend towards big budget event co-productions.

These days, she has extended her slate so that it now contains a number of returning series such as CrossWomen who have carved out successful careers ing Lines and Spotless (which will debut on Esin the drama business include Red Production quire TV in the US next month).

Company founder Nicola Shindler, who will be To a large extent, Bauer says she has progressed at MIPCOM with new Harlan Coben scripted through the business without giving much drama The Five (distributed by Red’s parent thought to her gender — or whether being a company StudioCanal). Among her many credwoman has required her to work harder than its are Happy Valley (written by Sally Wainmale counterparts: “The point about running wright) and Scott & Bailey, a detective your own company is that you don’t think franchise that is based around two strong too much about your gender. You’re too female leads. busy thinking about how you are going to Shindler, who broke into the front rank of make the payroll for the next month. The the business at a young age, recalls how obstacles along the way are just part of Anne Mensah, “when I started there were very few fethe process. You’re not giving 200% efhead of drama, Sky male producers and script editors. But fort because you’re a women but because Anne Mensah has turned that has changed… there’s a generation that’s what the job demands.” pay-TV platform Sky into one that has advanced alongside me and now Like Shindler, Bauer has seen women of the leading players in occupies a range of production and comprogress in executive functions but not so international drama. She says the key to the appeal of shows missioning roles.” much on the production floor. However like Fortitude and The Last She is certain that this influx of female she believes that the growing demand for Panthers is to put story first: talent has inspired a younger generation drama may now be working in women’s “It’s about falling in love with a great idea, and finding the of women to follow suit and positively infavour: “There is such strong demand for right project to co-produce, fluenced the way women are portrayed on great content now that we’re not looking rather than finding the finance screen: “Scott & Bailey has helped chalat sexual politics we’re purely looking at before the idea. If you follow the lead of the creatives behind lenge the television myth that women at ability. It’s almost like the situation with the project, you end up with work are bitchy and confrontational. This WW2 when the men were away so the great drama. I want Sky to be is a show about women who work togethwomen had they chance to prove they the first port of call for creative talent who want the er and are close, supportive friends.” could do the same job just as well. There freedom to do their best work But she says there are some areas of the is a need for talent in drama now, so it’s in co-productions.” business where the practicalities of proall hands on deck!”

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FEATURE

Sophie Turner Laing,

Michelle Ashford’s Masters Of Sex

CEO Endemol Shine Group

Sophie Turner Laing, Endemol Shine Group CEO, tells the MIPCOM Daily News that the business has changed dramatically since she started out. But one thing that hasn’t changed is the need for passion: “When I started at MIP, you were lucky to have a public service broadcaster and a commercial broadcaster. But now it doesn’t matter where you are in the world, there is a myriad of platforms and each one needs distinctive content.

For me it’s exciting that new portals of creativity are coming through. What we need to do is to make sure we have production companies that are absolutely on the front foot about driving the genre on. A brilliant example is Kudos, which made Humans for Channel 4 and AMC. I think really genius talent has always been able to command exactly what it wants. But it’s a question of finding the right talent for the right project because not everybody can work on everything.

Ultimately it’s super important that whoever is involved in a particular programme is passionate about it, and you can tell that from their eyes, not necessarily their credits.”

Bauer is clear that women can’t be carried through production — and need to deliver to the same level as their male counterparts. But she advises them to be bold: “I do encourage women to have a voice. Don’t feel like you have to couch things in a certain way. Recognise the opportunity and seize it.”

Roma Khanna, president, TV group and digital, MGM Studios is another leading executive who has made her mark on the scripted TV business. Her company has titles such as Fargo, Teen Wolf and Vikings “and there is more in development,” she says, “We also have our relationship with Mark Burnett and Roma Downey through United Artists Media Group.”

During Khanna’s career she has seen women including Bonnie Hammer, Dana Walden, Nancy Dubuc and Anne Sweeney reach senior positions within US media organisations — something that she believes has been important for women rising through the ranks: “Everyone needs to have role models that reflect your own personal ability to succeed if you put the work in.”

In terms of showrunners, she shares Lauzen’s view that there is business benefit to be had “by having a diversity of life experience behind the camera. As TV drama becomes more prolific we need more unique perspectives to give us a wider range of stories. In addition, anyone in the TV business will tell you there is a shortage of great showrunners, so by making the talent base more diverse maybe we can address that.”

In terms of how the business can turn things around, she advocates “more risk-taking. It’s all about taking a chance on people. We can all get into a rut where, because business is tough, we turn to people we can rely on. But if we always go back to people who delivered in the past then we start to replicate the past. The solution is a better mix of voices.”

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Ultimately it’s super important that whoever is involved in a particular programme is passionate about it Sophie Turner Laing THE NUMBERS WOMEN accounted for 40% of all speaking characters and 40% of major characters in the 2014-2015 sweep of the Boxed In survey*. 78% of female characters were white, 13% were African American, 4% were Latina, 4% were Asian, and 1% were another race or ethnicity.

The majority of female characters (60%) were in their 20s and 30s.

The % of female characters drops dramatically from their 30s to their 40s. 32% of female characters were in their 30s but only 19% of female characters were in their 40s. Male characters experienced only a slight decline in numbers (29% to 28%). Male characters were more likely than female characters to be seen working. 55% of male characters and 43% of female characters were seen working.

Women comprised 25% of individuals in key behind-the-scenes roles on programmes airing on broadcast networks and cable channels, and available through Netflix in 2014-2015. This figure represents no change from 2013-14 and a decline of one percentage point from 2012-13. Women fared best as producers (38%), followed by writers (25%), executive producers (23%), creators (22%), editors (20%), directors (12%), and directors of photography (1%). 57% of shows employed four or fewer women. Only 5% employed four or fewer men.

Broadcast and cable programmes with at least one woman executive producer featured more female characters and employed more women directors, writers, and editors than programmes with no women executive producers. On programmes with at least one woman producer, females comprised 42% of major characters. On programmes with no women executive producers, females accounted for 35% of major characters. On programmes with at least one woman executive producer, women accounted for 32% of writers, compared with 8% on programmes with no women executive producers. *Findings for Broadcast, Cable & Netflix Shows (in the US)

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FEATURE BOOK-BASED DRAMAS

book to screen

From

In this golden age of scripted television, content creators continue to rely heavily on books for inspiration. From literary classics such as Anne Of Green Gables and War And Peace to contemporary bestsellers like Game Of Thrones and Outlander, the relationship between page and screen is as dynamic as ever, writes Andy Fry

Neal Street Productions’ Penny Dreadful, which brings together several fictional characters in a gothic horror series

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CCORDING to Gene Stein, CEO of Sonar

Entertainment, books are probably still the single biggest source of IP for his company. “A key part of our job is to make sure we are constantly on top of developments in the publishing business,” he says.

Stein, whose current slate includes projects based on Terry Brooks’ fantasy epic Shannara and Stephen King’s thriller Mr Mercedes, cites a number of reasons why books are so important: “First and foremost, they are a source of good stories.

But in addition, they have the power to attract great screenwriters and directors. They also provide comfort

Books provide comfort to networks, who like the fact that a project has been endorsed by a fanbase in another medium Gene Stein 112

to networks, who like the fact that a project has already been endorsed by a fanbase in another medium.

And there is also value in name recognition when you get to launch.”

Starz’s managing director Carmi Zlotnik endorses Stein’s final point: “One of our big successes right now is Outlander, based on a series of books by Diana Gabaldon.

The first book sold 25 million copies, which means we came into the project with an enormous fanbase to help drive the project. Not only that, it’s a great starting position when someone has put time and effort into creating the characters and a world that provide the basis of your show.”

mipcom

MICHAEL CONNELLY: FROM AUTHOR TO AUTEUR

Outlander, based on the historical time travel Outlander series of novels by Diana Gabaldon

While there are plenty of positives, however, the bookto-screen transition also brings challenges. Playground Entertainment founder and CEO Colin Callender, whose recent credits include a critically acclaimed adaptation of Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall, says: “The first thing is that the prose style of a novel is fundamentally different to the dialogue and visual style of film and TV. Somehow, you have to find a way to bring the inner life of the key characters to the screen. Sometimes you can use voiceover, but that won’t work in all situations.

The second big challenge is actually the very thing that Zlotnik and Stein cite as a benefit — the fanbase: “It’s not easy to keep the original fanbase happy while also creating a piece of original and satisfying TV,” Callender says. “The nature of making TV is that sometimes you have to leave elements from the book behind, perhaps even dropping characters.”

Zlotnik and Stein agree that keeping the fanbase onside is critical. “You have to respect that audience,” Zlotnik says. “The way we did that with Outlander was to try and build a partnership with the fanbase. We made sure Diana Gabaldon was on board our decisions — for example, about cast selections. We took advantage of the fact that she is active in social media and we held events at places like Comic-Con, so that the fans could see what we were doing. We had a lot of success with this model and will go the same way with American Gods.”

Are there any risks, however, with keeping the novelist so close to the project? Wouldn’t it be better to keep the author away to avoid the risk of an ego clash

It’s not easy to keep the original fanbase happy while also creating a piece of original and satisfying TV. Sometimes you have to leave elements from the book behind Colin Callender 113

Harry Bosch creator Michael Connelly

THE HARRY Bosch books by crime writer Michael Connelly have been translated into over 30 languages and read by millions. Now Bosch is also a TV series on Amazon, produced by Fabrik Entertainment created by Connelly and writer/showrunner Eric Overmyer.

Explaining his ability to switch codes, Connelly says: “I was just as easily influenced as a writer of books by movies and TV shows growing up as I was by the books that I read. Easily. I’d say a movie like Chinatown had as much influence on me as a writer as The Long Goodbye did. I know that I write visually, which means I see pictures in my head and then I describe them on the page. So you can’t help but… think about what it would be like to see that process reversed.”

This does not mean the process of transition is somehow easier, Connelly says. Discussing Bosch’s lengthy period in development limbo, he says: “I’ve had some success and disappointments with Hollywood. Harry Bosch languished for years at Paramount and that was because, when scripts were written, they didn’t capture his character — they were just procedurals. And no matter how frustrating it was for me, it was a very smart move on [Paramount’s] part not to make the movies based on what I read in the scripts. And I had a part in the scripts — I’m not blaming everyone else. I was hired at least twice to try and rewrite other people’s scripts and get the character of Harry Bosch in there and I had a hard time doing it. So I was part of the issue...”

In a sense, it seems as though the Bosch books were waiting for TV to catch up in terms of ambition.

“Now we’ve got here, we have an immense amount of character and material to draw from, so it becomes a no-brainer: we’ll go for the long-form, we’ll go for television or streaming or whatever we call this now, and have hours instead of minutes to tell the Harry Bosch stories. I went through a lot of frustration but it was for a very good reason. And we are at that reason now.”

mipcom

FEATURE with the screenwriter? “As a general rule, we’d look to keep the author involved because they are the creators of the world and they have great insights,” Stein says. “With Shannara, Terry Brooks has been fantastic to work with and a great way of connecting with the original fanbase.

So what that means is that compatibility between the writers is important to the success of the project.”

Callender agrees, adding that most novelists “respect the fact that TV is a different medium. Hilary Mantel had a very clear understanding of why certain elements had to change.”

first day of principal photography, working to a fee structure agreed when you took out the original option.”

Inevitably, one factor that influences this process is how high-profile a book is, Garner says: “With bestsellers and hot properties, agents usually know there is a good chance of a bidding war, so they will have an idea about who to take the book to.”

While book options can go for a lot of money, Stein says it is naive Tally Garner to assume that offering the biggest option fee will guarantee access to a project. “Stephen King isn’t reliBook selection is, of course, a critical part of the pro- ant on options fees to make a living. With a project cess. Tally Garner, a former literary agent who now like Mr Mercedes, he wants to know you’ve got the runs indie producer Mam Tor, says there is both a for- right team. Having David E Kelley and Jack Bender mal and an informal side to this: “When I produced involved [on Mr Mercedes] was a clear attraction, Boy A [in a previous role], I was introduced to the book because he wants to know we’ll do the production by a friend. Recommendation has a part in the business, properly. This is especially important if you’re talkbut you also need open lines of communication with ing about the start of a long-running franchise, where publishers and agents. I’m constantly talking to people rewards come with renewal.” about what is coming up — often before it has been Garner has a first-look deal with Endemol Shine Interpublished.” national, so theoretically she could get financial support The process of securing an option varies project by pro- if she wanted to bid aggressively on a project. “But it ject, adds Garner, who also brought Jonathan Strange & isn’t necessarily the case that best-selling books make Mr Norrell to screen. “But typically, you’d be looking the best films or TV series,” she says. “My main priorto get an 18-month to two-year option on the TV rights, ity is to find projects that I’m enthusiastic about and that with a holdback on film rights so you don’t end up com- I think are in line with what channels are looking for.” peting with a rival project. If you get the project into This doesn’t need to be novels either. In the UK, one of production, then usually you’ll acquire the rights on the the most successful book adaptations of recent years

It isn’t necessarily the case that bestselling books make the best films or TV series

Call The Midwife, based on a memoir by Jennifer Worth

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FEATURE is Call The Midwife, based on a popular memoir by Jennifer Worth. And global phenomenon The Walking Dead is based on a comic-book series by writer Robert Kirkman and artist Tony Moore. Kirkman’s exorcism drama Outcast, based on his comic book of the same name, is the subject of a MIPCOM session this week.

“I have optioned one novel [The Hive by Gill Hornby],” Garner says. “But I also have some really interesting non-fiction projects, including The Skeleton Cupboard by clinical psychologist Tanya Byron and Mary S Lovell’s Bess Of Hardwick, about the creation of [historical English country house] Chatsworth. I also have a project called Confessions Of A GP, which actually started life as a doctor’s online blog.”

Given the competition for top titles, one obvious alternative is to go after classic works, which are rights-free and have great name recognition. ITV Studios Glob-

al Entertainment, for example, is at MIPCOM with Beowulf, an event drama based on the Norse mythological hero. And BBC Worldwide is busy promoting War And Peace, the sweeping epic by Leo Tolstoy.

With the right property, this approach is a no-brainer — but it is an area that needs to be treated with caution for a couple of reasons. The first is that anyone can do it, so you can spend a lot of time and money developing a version of a story only to find that someone else has done the same thing. This potential for duplication is particularly common when writers’ works first come out of copyright.

The second is that classic works can be creatively restrictive because of the mores of the era in which they were written. Given the recent wave of new periodbased novels, producers can now work with modern books that look at history through a contemporary, revisionist lens. Character romances can be racier, female characters can be bolder, diverse characters can be introduced and fast-paced murderous plotlines can be eked out. By comparison, the classics can seem pretty pedestrian.

This desire to reinvent history has actually led to an interesting trend whereby classic works are used as the starting point for original ideas. The reimagining of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories as contemporary series Sherlock is an example — and there is also a US detective series loosely based on Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn in the works.

We are also moving into an era of literary mash-ups.

First came Neal Street Productions’ Penny Dreadful, which brings together several fictional characters in a gothic horror series, and now we have Tony Jordan’s Dickensian, which imagines a Victorian London peopled by some of Charles Dickens’ most-loved characters, including Scrooge, Fagin and Miss Havisham.

Another trend of interest is the growing number of novelists trying their hand at screenwriting. Stein says Sonar is now working on a TV-drama project with a high-profile thriller writer — to be announced soon — while Scandi author Jo Nesbo recently wrote political thriller Occupied.

Benedict Cumberbatch is Sherlock in the reimagining of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories

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Tony Jordan’s Dickensian, which imagines a Victorian London peopled by some of Charles Dickens’ most-loved characters

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mipcom

FEATURE StudioCanal-owned Red Productions, meanwhile, is at MIPCOM with The Five, written by Harlan Coben. With a growing number of writers including William Boyd, Anthony Horovitz and David Nicholls comfortable in either medium, the message seems to be that modern authors have grown up attuned to the demands of TV. Speaking to the MIPCOM Daily, Coben said: “I love writing novels and I wouldn’t trade that for anything in the world. Ninety-nine per cent of the TV writers you will meet could only dream of selling as many books as I have. So why would I go in the opposite direction? A few years ago, I would argue that we were — and I think we still are — living in the golden age of mystery writing. I think we’re now also living in the golden age of television, where TV is allowing us to do things we have never done before. With The Five, in a sense I’m writing a novel on TV. This has all the complexity, all the emotion, all the suspense of a novel — this is not a procedural. I’m able to tell a story across 10 episodes and that’s really intriguing for a novelist. That’s what I think has excited and thrilled me about this project.”

Also significant is the number of projects that are based on books that have previously been transformed into TV series. This provides a kind of double-lock security system, whereby properties have proved themselves both as books

and TV shows. Current examples include A+E Networks’ ambitious reworking of Alex Haley’s Roots, Netflix’s House Of Cards based on the novel by Michael Dobbs, ITV Studios Global Entertainment’s Poldark based on Winston Graham’s series of novels and Beta Film’s Winnetou, a Western series based on the books by Karl May. Looking at the projects under copyright that are currently coming through prompts one other question — why now? Shannara is not a new property, nor are other book-based projects such as Bosch, The Man In The High Castle (both Amazon), The Night Manager (a John Le Carre novel being adapted for AMC) and SS-GB (a BBC-backed drama based on a classic Len Deighton novel).

Sometimes, Stein suggests, there are practical reasons.

“Shannara, for example, was in film development for a long time,” he says. “But I also think it’s to do with the direction TV has gone. With the growing emphasis on event projects and improved technology, TV is now capable of doing justice to even the most ambitious book-based projects.”

For Callender, there is another simple point to keep in mind: “Just because a book has been successful doesn’t mean now is the right time to turn it into a TV series.

Any producer has to ask themselves, why does this story need to be told now?”

The Five, written by bestselling mystery writer Harlan Coben

With The Five, in a sense I’m writing a novel on TV. I’m able to tell a story across 10 episodes and that’s really intriguing for a novelist Harlan Coben

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FEATURE

Legendary film brand MGM has expanded into scripted TV with a range of titles including Vikings

FILM TO TV

Big move to the small screen Everybody’s at it — producers, directors, writers, actors, not to mention some of the biggest brands in television entertainment. The mass migration from film to TV continues to gather pace, writes Andy Fry — and it’s a trend that looks set to continue

W

HEN media mogul Harvey Weinstein

came to MIPCOM 2012 to give a keynote speech, it was rock-solid proof that the traditional barriers between the film and TV business had come crashing down. Credited with more than 300 Academy Award nominations, Weinstein told delegates that “the movie

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business is shrinking” and that he was looking for “new horizons”. Unveiling his blockbuster period drama Marco Polo, he said: “Television has become so exciting. The likes of Starz, Showtime, HBO, the BBC and Canal+ have engineered some fantastic programming that audiences have a real appetite for.”

Weinstein, whose production company The Weinstein

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FEATURE

Bill Paxton: any stigma attached to acting on TV has gone

Christophe Riandee, vice-CEO of Gaumont

Jane Campion — took the plunge to TV

Lionsgate TV chairman and CEO Kevin Beggs

M Night Shyamalan — a move to the small screen

StudioCanal chief operating officer Romain Bessi

Company (TWC) is currently cowe’ve seen more best-in-class creaproducing TV mini-series War tive talent look at the medium in a And Peace, is back in Cannes this new light. At the same time, there year. But now he is part of an inhas been a squeeze on mid-budget dustry-wide movement from film movies that has forced talent to go to TV. There is also growing numlooking for other opportunities. ber of companies that are managCombined, this has led to the ining to straddle the two sectors. flux of talent we’re seeing now.”

A case in point is MGM. Still one Then there is the commercial opof the best-known brands in the portunity. “From a purely business movie business, the last few years point of view, the infrastructure have seen the company expand and skillsets we’ve learned in film into scripted TV with titles includare the same ones we need to coming Fargo, Teen Wolf and Vikings. pete in TV,” Khanna says. “CreaAn alliance with producers Mark tive storytelling is at the core of our Burnett and Roma Downey also company but we also have experbrought with it AD: The Bible tise in distribution and financing.

Continues (a follow-up to The BiWe see TV as an amazing opporble), which aired for a season on tunity because of its great stability NBC earlier this year. if you get it right. To some extent Roma Khanna Roma Khanna, MGM Studios’ you’re crossing your fingers with a president, television group and digital, says her com- film, but with TV you’re looking at a 10- to 22-hour pany’s increased engagement with TV is the result of order that can turn into a franchise, as we’ve seen with a number of factors. “Firstly, there are the talent-based most of our shows.” trends,” she says. “As TV channels and platforms have become more filmic in the way they tell their stories, You get a similar message from StudioCanal. Tra-

We see TV as an amazing opportunity because of its great stability if you get it right. To some extent you’re crossing your fingers with a film

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FEATURE

Jo Nesbo’s Headhunters started out as a movie before becoming become a TV project

Film distributor SquareOne Entertainment leapt into the TV market when it acquired period drama Versailles

Hannibal, from legendary film company Gaumont

There are lots of synergies between film and TV that made diversification a compelling idea Romain Bessi ditionally known as a film studio, the company has established itself as a major force in TV with the acquisition of leading independents including Tandem Communications and Red Production Company.

“Film is a good business for us,” says chief operating officer Romain Bessi. “But there are lots of synergies between film and TV that made diversification a compelling idea.”

One is the ability to leverage existing relationships, Bessi adds: “We have built up a lot of strong relationships with talent in the film business and now we can talk to them about TV projects. We are also in a fortunate position because our sister company, French payTV platform Canal+, wants to invest in original TV formats. So by bringing Tandem and Red into the group, we are in a strong position to benefit from that.”

Like Khanna, Bessi also cites business advantages that put his company in a strong position: “We think being a one-stop shop for film and TV is an advantage in today’s consolidated market. And there is also the

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fact that we have a large film library. With the trend for film titles to be remade as TV series, having control of well-known movie IP is an opportunity.”

Not to be overlooked, either, is the branding benefit of having an established movie-studio name, says Christophe Riandee, vice-CEO of Gaumont. “Being the oldest film studio in the world, everyone knows the name Gaumont,” he adds. “We find our heritage incredibly valuable. And now, with our studio in Los Angeles and our successful series such as Hannibal and the justlaunched Narcos, the name Gaumont is front and centre between film and TV development and distribution.”

Echoing his peers, Riandee cites a mix of factors driving the growing bond between film and TV. “There are fewer films being produced now than years ago,” he says, echoing Khanna’s analysis. “And more and more talent, especially A-list talent, has moved into the world of TV, creating tremendous opportunities. Storytelling and character development in TV has expanded incredibly in the last few years.

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FEATURE It has become much more interesting to explore in depth a story over 13 hours compared to 90-to-120 minutes for a feature film.”

Riandee also points out that film companies sometimes have an unexpected heritage in TV: “Gaumont actually invented serialised programming back in the Twenties with the silent crime film serial Fantomas,” he says. “This series was screened in theatres and marked one of the first [instances] of producing scripted programming. So Gaumont has always been in this area one way or another from the Twenties to today.”

the time… We also bring them interesting talent as well.”

One area where this dialogue works particularly well is development, with ideas able to shift between media in search of the best home. Beggs reported that Jo Nesbo’s Headhunters, for example, started out as a film project before being switched over to become a TV project.

What is also evident is that we have not seen the last of film companies entering the TV arena. A series of developments in the last few months underline the shift towards integration. Legendary Entertainment, known for blockbuster movOne thing seems clear: compaies such as Jurassic World and nies that manage to get their film Interstellar, is now involved in proand TV divisions working in harductions including The Crusaders, mony excel. At MIPCOM 2014, Downward Dog and Colony (an Lionsgate TV chairman and CEO action series for USA Networks).

Kevin Beggs used his keynote to It has also appointed former Sony describe how growth in his diPictures TV exec Michael Grindon Christophe Riandee vision really kicked in after the to head a worldwide TV distribucompany built up its film-industion unit. In a similar move, Studio try capabilities. “We’re in meetings with people on 8 has hired Chernin Co TV president Katherine Pope the film side all the time,” he said. “They’re sup- to run a new TV division. portive of what we do and bring us opportunities all In Europe, meanwhile, leading movie producer DNA

It has become much more interesting to explore a story over 13 hours compared to 90-to-120 minutes for a feature film

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FEATURE WILD ABOUT TV WILD Bunch TV was launched this year by film producer and distributor Wild Bunch. The new operation extends the Paris-based company’s activities into the co-production and distribution of TV series for the international market.

“We’ve been aware for quite some time that there’s a wave of talent moving from cinema to TV, and also that young talent tends to head straight for TV rather than looking for work in the film industry,” says Carole Baraton, head of international sales at Wild Bunch and Wild Bunch TV. “It’s currently happening much more in the US and the UK, but creative people here in France are definitely part of that wave too.”

Wild Bunch brings 15 years of cinema experience to its new TV division, leveraging its expertise in identifying successful projects, its relationship with both talent and creatives, and its track record in international financing, distribution and sales. “We’re very excited about developing great TV series, and we’re starting as we mean to go on with Medici: Masters Of Florence, an eight-part Italian series produced in English about the rise of the Medici family and the Italian Renaissance,” Baraton says.

Created by Frank Spotnitz (The X-Files) and Nicholas Meyer (Houdini), the series features Dustin Hoffman and Richard Madden, and is directed

by Sergio Mimica-Gezzan (The Pillars Of The Earth).

Next up is Four Seasons In Havana, an eight-part Spanish series based on the writings of Cuban-born novelist and journalist Leonardo Padura. The “Caribbean Noir” drama, directed by Felix Viscarret, is set in the crumbling Havana of the Nineties.

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Films (Ex Machina; Far From The Madding Crowd) has put a series of TV dramas into development, including an adaptation of Hilary Mantel’s French Revolution novel A Place Of Greater Safety, to be written by Richard Warlow (Ripper Street).

There are also developments in distribution. In Germany, film distributor SquareOne Entertainment made a bold leap into the TV market when it acquired the German rights to Zodiak Rights’ period drama Versailles. “SquareOne is entering an exciting new arena as the company expands into television acquisitions and production and we are delighted to be in business with the team at Zodiak,” says SquareOne CEO Al Munteanu, unveiling the deal. “We were always attracted to the epic nature of Versailles and our instincts were reconfirmed after watching the first episode and material on future episodes at MIPTV. Versailles is water-cooler TV audiences won’t want to miss.”

Over the last three-to-five years, a growing number of archive movies have been reinvented as TV series.

High-profile examples include 12 Monkeys, Fargo, Hannibal, Parenthood, Sleepy Hollow, Teen Wolf and Transporter. And there are more on their way. Hitting the market this autumn are Limitless, Minority Report, Rush Hour, Supergirl, Scream, Ash Vs Evil Dead and Uncle Buck. Others that have been announced for the near future include Training Day, Red and Shooter.

mipcom

FEATURE

Kevin Spacey in House Of Cards, one of many actors who have migrated to TV

A key reason for this trend is that producers and channels are trying to create some kind of pre-transmission buzz in the marketplace. But that is not enough in itself to justify a movie-to-TV adaptation, according to MGM’s Khanna: “There’s so much scripted TV around that, to succeed at a global level, your storytelling must be exceptional. So we wouldn’t embark on this kind of adaptation unless we were convinced the characters and world could sustain an entire TV series.”

Fargo was an example of a show that fitted the bill and there are rumours that MGM is now also planning reboots of In The Heat Of The Night and Fame (which has been both a TV series and a film). Khanna will not be drawn on details regarding specific projects, but says: “We have other ideas in active development, but we are not rushing in. We’ll only proceed if an idea meets the highest creative standards. Of course, part of the challenge is that you need a writer or producer who wants to reinvent it.”

StudioCanal’s Bessi says his company is also developing TV ideas based on its film library and expects “to be moving forward with something next year”. The acquisition of Red is an important development in this respect, Bessi adds, “because we now have UK-based production capability to go alongside our very deep UK film library”. Titles that have been mentioned as possible adaptations include Billy Liar and The Wicker Man. One key reason why film talent is now happy to work in scripted TV is the resurgence of the mini-series and limited-series format. Because shorter run dramas do not take as long to produce — and often do not return — film talent can experiment with TV without affecting their movie-making schedule.

Among directors, the last few years have seen Jane Campion (Top Of The Lake), Martin Scorsese (Boardwalk Empire), M Night Shyamalan (Wayward Pines) and Steven Soderbergh (The Knick) take the plunge.

No less impressive has been the migration of actors, with Kevin Spacey (House Of Cards), Billy Bob Thornton (Fargo), Laurence Fishburne (CSI; Hannibal; Roots), Matthew McConaughey (True Detective,

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Billy Bob Thornton in MGM’s Fargo

season one), Vince Vaughan (True Detective, season two) and Ben Kingsley (Tut) just a few of the many names to have appeared on the small screen. Speaking earlier this year at MIPTV, Bill Paxton — in Cannes to promote the Western mini-series Texas Rising — said any stigma attached to acting on TV had long since gone.

While it could be said that this is a case of Hollywood actors simply swapping one West Coast project for another, there is actually a very international feel to this trend. Michael Gambon and Stanley Tucci in Fortitude, Michael Sheen in Masters Of Sex, Paul Giamatti in Downton Abbey, Cillian Murphy and Tom Hardy in Peaky Blinders, Eva Green in Penny Dreadful and Maggie Gyllenhaal in The Honourable Woman are all good examples of how the business is changing. Coming soon are Jude Law and Diane Keaton in The Young Pope.

It is tempting to ask whether there are any film actors left who would not consider TV. It’s hard, for example, to imagine Johnny Depp, Tom Hanks, Will Smith or Tom Cruise on the small screen — at least today, as opposed to at the start of their careers. That said, Matthew McConaughey appeared on TV in the same year he won an Oscar. And coming up we have a cameo from Oscar-nominated Bradley Cooper in Limitless.

So never say never…

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