Miptv 2015 news 4 by MIPMarkets

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DAY

Thursday 16 April 2015

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MIP DIGITAL FRONTS • NINA

• WITNESSES • CANDICE RENOIR News from the MIP Digital Fronts Screenings and conference sessions See p.6

[LES TÉMOINS]

• TEMPLETON

MEDAILLES D’HONNEUR

• THE UNEXPECTED GETAWAY

Four industry luminaries were honoured at a Gala Dinner See p.3 IN PICTURES

STAND : P-1. C50.D51 www.newendistribution.com

• POLO

• LOOPDIDOO

The stars are out in Cannes this week. Our photographers caught them on camera See p.13

• THE MYSTERIOUS CITIES OF GOLD

WOMEN IN TECH

• MARIE CURIE

A WOMAN AT THE FOREFRONT

• SUPERNATURAL FILES ‘When it’s bad for women, it’s bad for business’ was the message at the MIPTV Women in Tech & Media Breakfast See p.17

•THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT

• LADY

LIBERTY

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freeing CREATIVE CONTENT

THE MILLENNIAL SHIFT

THURSDAY 16 APRIL

OFFICIAL CONFERENCES & SCREENINGS

PRODUCERS TOOLBOX: WORKING WITH A BRAND 10.00-10.45 | Agora Speaker

11.00-11.15 | Agora

■■ Bonin

Bough, Vice President of Global Media and Consumer Engagement, Mondelez International, USA

Presented by ■■ Anat

Szekely, co-CEO, MeMeMe Studios,

Israel

Anat Szekely

Bonin Bough

TRENDING TOPICS 14.00-15.00 | Agora Speakers ■■ Louisa

Heinrich, Founder, Superhuman Limited, UK @customdeluxe

■■ Jocelyn

11.15-11.30 | Agora

■■ Daniel

Ravner, Founder and CEO, Practical Innovation, Israel @danielravner

Breakthrough Digital Video Campaigns in Asia and China

■■ Simon

Presented by Ngai, Vice President, Strategy & Partnerships, WebTVAsia, Malaysia

Johnson, Founder, VideoInk, USA

Staffans, Format Developer, MediaCity Finland,

Finland

■■ Desmond

Desmond Ngai

Moderator ■■ James

Martin, Head of Social Media, MIP Markets, France @jamesmart_in

11.30-11.45 | Agora

Thomas Plessis

Presented by ■■ Thomas

Plessis, Co-Founder & CEO, Dim Sum Entertainment, France @thomasplessis Testot, Producer & Actor, Dim Sum Entertainment, France @fredtestot

PRESS CONFERENCE MIPTV, END OF MARKET ROUND UP 12.30-13.15 | Agora ■■ Laurine

Garaude, Director of the Television Division, Reed MIDEM, France

Laurine Garaude

■■ Fred

Fred Testot

11.45-12.00 | Agora Presented by ■■ Jan

Riemens, CEO, Zoomin, The Netherlands

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Jan Riemens

10/04/2015 09:33

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MEDAILLES D’HONNEUR

Reed MIDEM CEO Paul Zilk presented the MIPTV 2015 Medaille d’Honneur to: Electus CEO Ben Silverman (left); head of international business at Globo, Ricardo Scalamandre; FremantleMedia CEO Cecile Frot-Coutaz; and Irfan Sahin, CEO, Dogan TV Holding PAUL Zilk surprised outgoing Reed MIDEM London managing director Peter Rhodes with an impromptu speech at the end of the Gala Dinner. Peter “has been serving — and sometimes tormenting — with love, of course — our UK and Australian clients for three decades”, he joked, adding: “In all seriousness, we are grateful to Peter Rhodes for his many contributions through the years. He has been a passionate advocate of serving his client needs and, in doing so, built many relationships in the UK and Down Under.” Peter Rhodes is pictured with his wife Sue and Paul Zilk

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MEDAILLES D’HONNEUR

Medaille d’Honneur winner Ricardo Scalamandre with the Globo team

Electus’ Cyrus Farrokh (left), John Pollak, Ben Silverman, Eli Shibley and Chris Moreton

Jens Richter (left), Cecile Frot-Coutaz and Keith Hindle from FremantleMedia

Medaille d’Honneur recipient Irfan Sahin with members of the Turkish delegation

Eileen Bell from Enterprise Ireland, Arzu Ozturkmen from Bogazici University in Istanbul and Tareq Zuaiter from Tareq Zuaiter Distributions

Elke Moritz and Reiner Moritz of Poorhouse International with TV2’s Anette Romer

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NEWS YouTube stars urge vloggers to keep it real with their viewers

YouTube hit Cupcake Jemma with Vsauce founder Michael Stevens

TAYING close to viewers and “seeing yourself as an equal with them” is the key to building up a loyal community of followers, a popular YouTube channel creator has told a gathered audience at MIPTV. Speaking at a session dedicated to YouTube at MIPTV yesterday, fashion and beauty blogger and vlogger Fleur de Force said: “The main thing is to care about your viewers, and not see yourself above them. You have to remain a fan of other people’s work”. With 1.2 million subscribers to her YouTube channel and 264,000 followers on Twitter, Fleur de Force was speaking on stage as one of three highly successful YouTube celebrities

in Cannes to share their experiences. She was joined by London cake shop-owner Jemma Wilson, known as Cupcake Jemma, whose YouTube channel showing personal videos and cakemaking guides has over 300,000 subscribers, who said that as many as 40% of the customers coming into her shop do so because they have seen her online. The session was chaired by Michael Stevens, founder of Vsauce, a multichannel YouTube platform posting videos on science, technology, gaming and culture. He highlighted the phenomenal performance of YouTube, which is growing by 300 hours’ worth of content every minute. Also appearing at the session

Cupcake Jemma

was internet personality Luzu, who posts videos entirely in Spanish aimed at viewers in Latin America, Spain and the US.

The world according to Australian online talents IF YOU’RE surprised that a state body like Screen Australia is funding and developing online-only talent, you should be: “As a government funding agency we’re pretty much unique in supporting online content,” Fiona Cameron, its chief operating officer, said at the Screen Australia Digital Screening. Some of the content was risky, she said, and without the safety net of a broadcaster guaranteeing audiences and revenues, the danger was it would fall flat. But the talent she brought to the screening proved that the opposite — breakout success — was also possible. John Luc (known to his internet followers as mychonny) was on first. Initially attracting his 2.2 million subscribers thanks to comedy content based on his life, family, and subverting Asian stereotypes, he has now

translated his work into a comedy show, web series and feature film, Sucker, starring Timothy Spall. Derek Muller’s science channel Veritasium has more than 2.3 million viewers and has led to a documentary on uranium selling to broadcasters worldwide. “Science is beautiful but it’s not always intuitive,” he said. Like so many of the figures on MIPTV stages this week, he urged the audience to remember that authenticity in online video was key: “Some of what I do on YouTube doesn’t look good at all. On YouTube, what is successful is not the shiny but the authentic. When it’s true to the people, it doesn’t matter if it’s shot on an iPhone,” he said. Also taking the stage was Natalie Tran, a vlogger, performer, actor and writer with over 1.7 million subscribers

for her comic monologues and sketches. Success can be down to openness, she said: “I find it helpful to be open to the idea of working with the audience in a collaborative way. The audience craves this connection. If you’re not willing to do this, then your longevity – a rare commodity online – is non-existent.” 70% of her audience is female, and she said she found it reassuring both that women liked and were consuming comedy made by women. Last up were Nick Boshier and Connor Van Vuuren, to talk about web series Bondi Hipsters, featuring a pair of hipsters who “think they’re good for the world, but actually they’re part of the problem”. Their risque humour has been seen 34 million times over four YouTube channels, and successfully transferred to TV.

Veritasium’s Derek Muller

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NEWS For Gen Z, traditional TV isn’t dying, says Robbins: it’s dead

WESOMENESSTV founder and CEO Brian Robbins is not a man to pull his punches. Speaking at the MIP Digital Screenings, he said: “Traditional TV viewing among teens and tweens is dead. Not dying, dead. Teens are changing everything. They are the most in uential genera tion ever in terms of media consumption and they are watching content on YouTube, online and mobile.” During a sure-footed presentation in the Grand Auditorium, Robbins demonstrated the way in which Awesome-

nessTV, a multi-channel network (MCN) that creates content for Generation Z (teens), is having a huge impact on more traditional media platforms such as TV and cinema. “We made a film called Expelled starring YouTube star Cameron Dallas. It took 22

days to make but went to number one on iTunes when it was released. It was the most social film of , ahead of ault In Our Stars, Guardians Of The Galaxy and The Maze Runner.” Robbins was joined on stage by AwesomenessTV president Brett Bouttier, who talked about the company’s future content plans. These include the launch of teen comedy series Richie Rich on et i and the creation of hours of original content for US mo ile platform eri on, re ect ing the growing trend for Gen Z to view content via mobile. Robbins then showed a trailer of a new upcoming movie starring YouTube comedy duo SMOSH. Underlining the power of YouTube talent, Robbins also invited YouTube sensation Meg DeAngelis on stage. DeAngelis took a selfie of herself and the MIP audience and shared it via social media. ithin minutes, the selfie had attracted , likes.

AwesomenessTV’s Brian Robbins: “Teens are changing everything”

The case for live-content streaming DAILYMOTION vice-president of international content Marc Eychenne and an expert panel discussed the fast-growing potential of live-content streaming in a stimulating session at yesterday’s MIP Digital Screenings. According to Eychenne: “More and more content-providers in different verticals, such as lifestyle, sport, music, gaming and comedy, are interested in what live streaming can do for their businesses.” This claim was backed by statistics that show Dailymotion handled million hours of li e streaming in . ith li e streaming technology now extremely simple to use, the company estimates that there are around li e streams on its platform at any one time.

Julie-Anne Gross, head of TV and new media rights at the rench oot all ederation, e plained how the organisation had

used live streaming on Dailymotion to build interest in some of its less popular activities, such as lower league and amateur foot-

French Football Federation’s Julie-Anne Gross: building fan engagement

Dailymotion’s Marc Eychenne: 150 million hours of live streaming in 2014

YouTube sensation Meg DeAngelis: 50,000 likes in 10 minutes

ball. “The strategy was successful,” she said. “After a year of showing our lower league games live via Dailymotion, we were able to secure a TV distribution deal for them. We also used the platform to build engagement with national football-team fans by creating live content around press announcements.” Michael Haenisch, CEO of ermany s reaks aming, described how the decision by Dailymotion and other platforms to invest in live-streaming technology had helped drive interest in e-sports — the term used to describe organised multi-player gaming competitions. “We used to do live streaming ourselves, but it was expensive and we weren’t reaching large audiences,” he said. “But once Dailymotion came into the market, we started to see the audience for e sports gro significantly.

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NEWS Dramas driven by data Booster for Rooster

EW FORM Digital, the joint venture of Discovery Communications, Brian Grazer, Ron Howard and others, calls itself the only data-

Kathleen Grace, New Form Digital’s chief creative officer

driven digital studio focused on scripted mobile-friendly content targeted to the social-media generation. Or, as Kathleen Grace, the studio’s chief creative officer, said: “ e mine data to see what works in the marketplace. Then we identify and develop digital native talent.” The result is — predictably — a focus on comedy, horror, sci fi, and drama. But that doesn’t make the properties predictable, as the clips showed. Instant Getaway, written, directed by and starring actor Joe Penna, was characterled, with a strong sense of authorship. And Occupy Alice by the comedian, writer and presenter Arden Rose is about a young woman who takes on the care of her teenage sister, with hilarious results. “In one year e e produced and sold 14 original series to a variety of platforms, including MCNs, digital destinations, brands and media,” Grace said.

“A I S especially young ones — have left television,” said Burnie Burns, cofounder and creative director of digital studio Rooster Teeth. But Burns and his co-founders at Rooster Teeth had predicted since the 1990s that all content would be delivered digitally, and they were ready. The studio, now 11-years-old, pioneered web video series, and crafts big commercial live-action and animated series such as sci-fi comedy mega-franchise Red Vs. Blue. Now in its 13th season, the show has boosted its way to becoming the second-longest running sci fi franchise in the world after Doctor Who. “ hat sets us apart is our focus on narrative,” Burns said. “And e look at hat made Red Vs. Blue go to 13 seasons and applied that to the next show. Red Vs. Blue had trouble

Rooster Teeth co-founder and creative director Burnie Burns

breaking into Asia because the comedy is very word-driven. But our next show, RWBY, is action-led.”

Collective’s wisdom Vice’s new ventures LL TI igital Studio chairman Michael Green said, during his company’s I igital Screening, that he’d been representing creative talent since 2000. But even a $50m (€47m) deal with Jive Records that he engineered for the Backstreet Boys couldn’t rob him of the conviction that, in his ords, “the gatekeepers really have the better part of the deal”. ollecti e igital Studio has attempted to reverse that, by exploiting creators’ ever-closer links with their audiences and then charging brands for access to those eye alls or financing content independently and then licencing it on. The slate of shows previewed by co-founder Reza Izad included a high-budget online video series adaptation of James Patterson’s hit Maxi-

Michael Green

mum Ride novels; a shortform animation series from Explosm entitled Cyanide Happiness and a longer-form project being developed with the new-school jackass gags of Natural Born Pranksters. “ ith us you get really strong talent relationships, deep understanding of the IP and an audience that is 60% global,” Izad said.

LAST year, ice launched ice News in Cannes, a venture that many predicted would fail. Now, it has had 225 million views and will be debuting a 30-minute live nightly show on HBO. ice s Shannon elley used the I igital Screening to launch Broadly, a global channel devoted to the issues facing omen. “If you look at the current landscape of women’s media, there’s no platform that talks to us as we do each other,” Kelley, who is spear-

heading the new channel, said. The exclusive content presented showed a range of documentary and current affairs programming, which Kelley said would be divided between daily editorial, indepth and investigative formats. Later, Eddy Moretti, Vice’s chief creati e officer, also sho ed the first fruits of Vice’s partnership with Live ation. The result: a ne take on the music ideo that “takes the spirit of live and mixes it with the cinematic aspects of the music video”.

Shannon Kelley

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Game on for Machinima as billions of millennials consume content

“I

N ONE month, we produce more than 10 times the annual output of the largest fully-distributed cable network in the US,” said Chad Gutstein, CEO of Machinima, which creates, curates and celebrates fandom and gamer content across

multiple video platforms to engage a global millennial audience. Gutstein was speaking at a MIP Digital Fronts session for his ‘many-to-many’ programme service. He was joined on stage by UK-based gamer/video creator Gizzy Gazza, Machinima’s chief

operating officer aniel Ti ets and director of programming Shane Burruss. “Millennials consume 3.8 billion Machinima videos and the equivalent of 38,000 years of our content per month,” Gutstein said. Machinima creators hail from 109 countries and cross-border consumption is huge. Only 40% of Machinima’s views come from the country in which the content was created, Gutstein said: “Most is happening across borders.” And in the US, 52% of Machinima content viewed is produced outside it. “Think a out that, said utstein. “ rom a T perspective, that could never happen.” Gizzy Gazza’s Minecraft-based channel has grown to 20 million monthly views in a few months, 85% of which are US-based. “Minecraft is a sandbox game,”

Machinima’s Chad Gutstein and Daniel Tibbets: cross-border consumption is huge

Experts in online video show and tell WHAT have you done during

conferences this week? If you’ve answered emails, watched cat videos, clapped too hard, nodded at the speaker, Facebookstalked the person next to you or simply fallen asleep, you’re the ideal audience for Things You Do In A Conference video, sho cased y Topito at the I igital Sho And Tell. The French company that started as a blog is now a multi-channel business specialising in humorous lists on every conceivable subject. Its two- to three-minute videos receive an average of 200,000+ views. “E-commerce is an important part of our revenue, said Topito s Laurent Moreau. Qsoft Holding presented the B+ Sho , the first political satire show in Egypt. Modelled on on Ste art s The aily Sho , it achie ed fi e million ie s in seven months, at a time when 50,000 was considered a vi-

Topito’s Laurent Moreau: “E-commerce is an important part of our revenue”

ral success. Its satire led to a warrant for presenter Bassem Youssef’s arrest, and it was the

first internet to T con ersion in the Middle East. Johan Fernstedt showcased a

said Gazza. “You can do anything you ant in it. I studied T and film, and I put that into inecraft.” Machinima reported that its multiplayer online battle arena channel MachinimaRealm is approaching one billion lifetime views. It began life as a World Of Warcraft-dedicated channel, then transitioned into Minecraft and now its scope includes League Of Legends. Once exclusively broadcast on YouTu e, achinima is no on imeo, vessel, Facebook, Xbox and more, vastly increasing its scope and monetisation opportunities. Gutstein predicted that in a few years, Machinima will be producing content with budgets comparable to those of linear television — scripted (€3m-€6m) and unscripted (€300,000-€3m). e added: “ I T is a truly transactional market — a business first en ironment e look forward to working with new partners to develop our talent base and give them the tools to rise.” content campaign created by Chimney’s Australian arm, which aimed to prove its skills by selling the unsellable — a clapped-out used car. Some 1.2 million hits and a viral sensation made the client, a car-insurance company, very happy. Paul Kontonis presented Global nline ideo Association A , an industry funded non profit ody that orks to advance the cause of multichannel networks (MCNs) that have sprung up around ouTu e. “The ecosystem is rapidly changing, and it’s a challenging en ironment. The predicta ility is not there, but there is a lot of money coming into the space. We try to provide some common ground,” Kontonis said. Executive chairman Bastian Manintveld said Spain’s MCN 2btube has 50 million views across its channels. He said that it is much easier to monetise creators in the US, and that it is expanding into the Latin American market via Mexico.

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NEWS Nordic drama: success stories founded on trust and courage

FTER The Killing, Borgen, The Bridge, Wallander and a slew of other Nordic hits, drama executives are getting pretty tired of being asked the secret to their success. But for Piv Bernth, head of drama at DR and a panelist on Tuesday’s session The Hottest Drama From The Cold, the short answer is ‘courage’. Courage to do things differently. “We did The Killing because procedurals had got boring,” said Bernth. “You could watch an episode and predict what would happen. That’s why we said we have to do a long story, we have to tease the audience and we have to challenge them.” The Killing broke the mould and created a new way of doing drama. But then Bernth insisted they break that too.

Scriptwriter Dunja Gry Jensen

“And now I tell new writers to forget about Borgen and The Killing, move on and develop new stories. If you just do the same thing again and again, you will tire yourself, and the audience. What we need most in our broadcast corporations is courageous executives,” she said. “As public service corporations we should be courageous because we are not dependent on earning money. And we have to take chances on the content.” Henrik Bjorn, director, showrunner and writer of hotly-tipped series Jordskott, from Palladium Film in Sweden has courage too. The courage to pitch a television drama when he’d only ever made films efore. And the courage to shoot a test. “We needed to convince SVT that this wasn’t just a good idea, ut that e could film it,” he said. Then the commis-

sioner Christian Wikander, head of drama at SVT in Sweden, needed the courage to say ‘yes’. “[Henrik] came to us with 10 minutes of footage,” Wikander said. “And for a company with no track record on the drama side, that was really a key to us listening.” He complimented Bjorn on being open to feedback, and to bringing the best competencies into the room. Scriptwriter Dunja Gry Jensen, creator of Danish show Norskov on TV2, had the courage to take a blank piece of paper and create a drama. “Being a screenwriter is the hardest of all,” she said. “When you’re writing, it’s all abstract: the characters, the way they’re talking, the room, everything is abstract. But when it starts to become concrete and manifest, that’s a wonderful place.”

Palladium Film’s Henrik Bjorn

She praised DR’s fabled ‘One Vision’ approach — partly devised by fellow panelist Bernth — of trusting the creative to deliver without micromanaging every part of what she or he does. The head of drama at commercial channel TV2, the home of Norskov, is using that approach too. “And TV2 put their trust in me by asking me to represent them today and talk about the show,” Jensen said. “The problem is that they cannot plan ahead as DR can. TV2 has to air the show before they can decide whether they want to make another season.” Broadcasters need courage to take on new young writing talent too. But Wikander says it doesn’t happen overnight. “At SVT we make 10 or 11 titles per year in different formats,” he said. “I envy the Danish Film School which has managed to feed the need for new talent. We are slowly getting that engine going. And besides that we have shorter series that we make for the web. But as a new writer, it’s still hard to go from those lowcost productions to The Bridge.”

Piv Bernth, head of drama, DR

IN PICTURES It’s been a star-studded Cannes with talent from screen, stage and online here to promote their latest shows. The News team caught it all on camera

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Daniel ‘Malakai’ Cabrera (left), Caine Sinclair (above) and William Spencer of Marriott International’s Two Bellmen

Jessica Raine and David Walliams promoting All3media’s new Agatha Christie drama Partners In Crime

Alejandra Onieva (left) and Florencia Ortiz of Skyline Production’s Dalia De Las Hadas

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IN PICTURES Piper Perabo (left) and Stephen Kay are in Cannes to promote Corona Television and FremantleMedia Internationalâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s The Fight

Patrick Hivon of Zandel Mediaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Missing: An Interactive Thriller

Idris Elba is in Cannes with his documentary Mandela, My Dad And Me for Content Television

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Xena Zupanic (left), Amira Bergmann, Violetta Smikalina and Uthe Bacher with Sephirot Productions’ 4SuckerS

StudioCanal’s Crossing Lines – The Time Is Now (season three) stars Goran Visnjic and Elizabeth Mitchell

Richard Coyle is in Cannes promoting NBC’s A.D. The Bible Continues and Vanishing Guru documentary The Bike Diaries

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NEWS MIPTV NEWCOMER

AMC goes around the world with first runs of hit shows

A Maria Cervera, director of international, Plano A Plano, Spain

“PLANO A Plano was formed by producer Cesar Benitez and writer-producer Aitor Gabilondo. Our first production is thriller drama El Principe, set against the background of jihad recruitment and narcotic trafficking in a Spanish border town. The series is the best representation of our brand — in-house developed stories that explore cultural and social events inside a fast-paced, entertaining plot and high production values. It became last season’s hottest national primetime series on Telecino and is returning for a second season. “We are also producing Alli Abajo, soon to air, a North versus South cultural shock comedy about a small-town single man who finds himself trapped in vibrant Seville when his controlling mother falls into a coma. “We are at MIPTV not only to represent our projects outside our borders, but also to establish relationships with other companies and possible partners interested in co-developing more ambitious projects. At the same time, we are exploring the field of formats and entertainment, and have added experienced producer Jose Manuel Rey to our team. “Plano A Plano is also currently preparing an ambitious drama series for public broadcaster TVE, a new series for Mediaset Espana, and developing our first international co-production, a thriller mini-series with France’s MakingProd and international sales agent Eccho Rights.

MC, the US cable network that grew enormously in the domestic market by producing blockbuster original dramas like Breaking Bad, Mad Men and The Walking Dead, plans to apply the same strategy to its global expansion. Bruce Tuchman, president of AMC and Sundance Channel Global, said the company plans to use exclusive first runs of its original dramas to establish the presence of AMC Global, the channel’s international network in more than 115 countries and territories. “Our Walking Dead series was the numberone rated show all over the US, including the broadcast networks and that was unprecedented for a cable TV show,” he said. “Our shows are unconventional, but they are high budget and high quality. We have taken genres that have not been really catered for in a long while and blown them out of the room.” He was referring to AMC’s now iconic shows like Mad Men (about ad executives in the Sixties), Breaking Bad (a hapless teacher who becomes a ruthless drug lord), and The Walking Dead (surviving after a zombie apocalypse). “They give us

AMC’s Bruce Tuchman; “high budget ... high quality”

some of the hottest properties in TV,” he added. AMC Global has snapped up the “first window programming” for a set of new AMC original series produced by AMC Studios. They include The Walking Dead’s prequel Fear The Walking Dead, as well as Into The Badlands and Halt And Catch Fire. The international AMC channels will premiere these new shows less than 24 hours after their US debut.

Electus well-placed for the future ELECTUS founder and chairman Ben Silverman says his illustrious career in TV has been punctuated by “around 40 trips to MIPTV and MIPCOM… and I’m still only 45! It has been a cornerstone of my calendar and career. It’s great to be able to connect so personally with people who I only talk to by email for the rest of the year.” Silver ma n’s a ffection for the markets makes his receipt of a MIPTV Electus’ Ben Silverman d’Honneur something he views with great pride. “I was very happy to get the call. And it’s great to be recognised alongside so many other talented executives from across the business.” Silverman is five years into running Electus and is in bullish mood. “I think we’re uniquely positioned. It’s very rare for companies to be creative-led. And it’s unusual for independent studios to be in all genres. We have tremendous expertise in formats and alternative programming but our scripted slate is

also as robust as it has ever been with Jane The Virgin, Marco Polo, Casanova and Flaked, a new project with Will Arnett.” News from this market is that a German broadcaster has acquired the format for Jane The Virgin, a project that Silverman believes could be the next Ugly Betty. “And I’m really excited about Casanova, which we are making for Amazon. It is going to be groundbreaking in terms of its sexuality and visual style. It will be like Fifty Shades Of Casanova.” In terms of trends, Silverman sees content polarising into hyper-local and global. In a career characterised by an ability to react swiftly to changing market dynamics, he has also managed to hitch Electus to the SVOD juggernaut. “The thing I didn’t anticipate a few years ago was the success of the ad-free streaming services. But three of our four scripted series are for Netflix or Amazon, so we definitely addressed that.”

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Bringing women on board will ensure better business

HE KEY message from speakers at the MIPTV Women In Tech & Media Breakfast networking

event yesterday was that “when it’s bad for women, it’s bad for business”. Moderator Catherine Warren,

president of Canada-based media, entertainment and technology consultancy FanTrust, said the event aimed to answer why women are underrepresented on the boards of media and tech companies. “We have to shatter the glass ceiling with the digital hammer,” she said. Panelist Marci Weisler, co-founder of US-based SWSI Media, said the company was launched to help female entrepreneurs access finance. “There are very few women venture capitalists. Also, there are several companies targeting women consumers that don’t have women on their board of directors,” Weisler said. “These companies have been known to go astray because the board doesn’t have anyone who understands their targeted audience.”

SWSI Media’s Marci Weisler

Sarah Wood, co-founder and chief operating officer of UKbased international social-video advertising company Unruly, believes “diversity is the driver of disruption and innovation”. To that end, the company holds a once-a-quarter hackathon to ork on a specific pro ect to enable everyone to “feel included”. At PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), the global accountancy giant, there is a concerted effort to monitor how women are faring from the moment they oin the company and through their careers there, said Vicki Huff, PwC’s global leader, technology, communications, entertainment & media in the US. rance is one of the ma or economies that have pledged to improve the role of women in maor corporations y , rla Noonan, Groupe AB’s managing director and independent director at French telecommunications giant Iliad, reminded the audience. “ y , omen must represent on the ma or companies boards. It is not a choice. Kicking and screaming, we shall drag women on to the boards.”

AnalogFolk finds spirit of Malibu CREATING an award-winning

branded content campaign is as difficult as planning the perfect holiday. But with #bestsummerever, Malibu and digital agency AnalogFolk might have pulled it off. The case study was covered in the MIP Digital Talks: Brands, The New Programmers session A Successful Video Strategy: The Secret Sauce on Tuesday. “The brief was to make Malibu the most talked about spirit brand in summer, which is no mean task. The traditional Caribbean vibe wasn’t relevant to millennials,” said Malibu’s global content director, Emma Johansson. Working with AnalogFolk, they recognised that people love a list of things to do in a perfect holiday, and decided to send seven millennials on a ‘best summer ever’ experience covered from

all angles on digital and social media. “It was a road trip around the US and Europe, which happen to be our key selling markets,” Johansson said. The content was “structured but not scripted,” said AnalogFolk’s executive creative director, Simon Richings. “It had to make sense but without losing the spontaneity.” Casting the participants was critical, and the Malibu-branded silver Airstream RV in which they traveled was followed by a bus with the director, editors, producers and client. There was close collaboration with the Malibu legal team, who dealt with any issues surrounding marketing an alcohol brand. Although multiple channels were used, YouTube was the main outlet, and films ere uploaded.

“YouTube were involved all the way, from consultancy to technically optimising content, and they were also good at sharing how YouTube worked as a cultural space,” Richings said. The campaign’s authenticity and targeting worked for Malibu. The main metric, ‘buzz’, increased y , su scri ers grew by half and the team more than doubled its viewing targets. “We shifted the traditional metrics in the US, too,” Johansson said, “which is a hard task.” “We want to go bigger [next year] and keep what’s best, be more purposeful,” Richings said, adding that he didn’t see the next steps in terms of a new campaign: “The audience doesn’t think in terms of campaigns, that’s a budget thing. The audience is ‘always on’.”

Malibu’s Emma Johannson

NEWS LUMIERE TAKES ZDF TITLES THE DRAMA department of Germany’s ZDF Enterprises has signed a MIPTV deal with Benelux’s Lumiere. The deal comprises: Tellus, a youth-oriented series about young eco-activists who get themselves into big trouble; the third season of Scandi police series Johan Falk, inspired by real cases from Swedish special ops files; and the second season of Arne Dahl, about an elite police unit that investigates complex, violent crimes with international connections. Lumiere takes all rights for the Benelux territories in the deal, which is the latest in a well-established partnership between the two companies. Lumiere’s production arm Lunanime was involved in the co-production of the crime series The Team, which ZDF Enterprises distributes worldwide.

NOBLE OFFERING FROM POL-KA NEWLY restructured Argentinian producer Pol-ka has been at MIPTV with a host of content to offer to the international market. Following a major consolidation of the company’s operations, including the merger with Artear International and the acquisition of its slate. Among the content that has been brought to the market by Pol-ka is a 13-part television adaptation of Nosotros los Nobles, the highest-grossing movie in Mexican cinema history, and drama series Cunning Girls and Day & Night.

Versailles shines as example of best of British and French work

ERSAILLES has been one of the most talked about series both in the run-up to and during MIPTV. Writer and showrunner David Wolstencroft happily agreed with a statement by Fabrice de la Patelliere of Canal+ that the new series is an excellent, perhaps even the best-ever, example of Anglo/ French collaboration. “The French crew were absolutely amazing,” Wolstencroft said. “Our director of photography Pierre-Yves Bastard brought a very specific look to the production and, like everyone working on the show, was so passionate about getting it right. The series has benefited hugely from the attention to detail and obsessive perfectionism displayed by everyone. “For example, the set decorators had to create all the 17th-century furniture because all the original stuff was destroyed during the French Revolution. The work they did was astonishing.” The costumes by Madeline Fontaine were every bit as much a la-

George Blagden, aka, Louis XIV: the clothes affect how you perfom

bour of love, said Wolstencroft: “Being so accurate and beautifully constructed, they helped the actors to inhabit their characters. So yes, with all that visual talent creating the set and costumes, and the sort of pacing that you’d associate with Hollywood, it really is a great example of Anglo/ French co-operation.” Actor George Blagden, who plays Louis XIV, was initially not sure about his costume, but for purely

practical reasons: “We started filming at the Palace of Versailles in August and it was really hot,” he said. “My costume was made of five layers of material which was quite tough after I’d been wearing it for a few hours. That said, I love playing costume dramas, and it is true that when you put on clothes that come from a bygone era it affects how you hold yourself and ultimately how you perform.”

Markets are a must for Mediaset MEDIASET and its team of six buyers have been at MIPTV with a €300m budget in order to acquire a range of shows for the broadcaster’s primetime and SVOD channels. “For us, MIPTV and MIPCOM are two of the most important events on the yearly calendar,” Zelda Stewart, Mediaset’s head of acquisitions, said. “We have been looking for dramas for our three primetime channels (Canale 5, Rete 4 and Italia 1) as well as content for our pay-TV platform and for our SVOD service Infinity. We’re also always on the look-out for long-running soap/dramas, and top-flight event programming.” Recent acquisitions by the team include Lionsgate’s Orange Is

The Mediaset acquisitions team: Sonia Latoui (left), Andrea Piazza, Zelda Stewart, Lucia Del Prete, Giacomo Poletti and Imma Petrosino

The New Black, and the quirky supernatural comedy Deadbeat, 100 Code from Red Arrow, The Musketeers II from the BBC, and Hemlock Grove and Hannibal from Gaumont.

“Like many broadcasters, we are increasingly looking further afield for shows, because great TV really can and does come from anywhere these days,” Stewart added.

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Beyblade, the third generation, set to burst on to kids’ market

APANESE animation company d-rights has announced a new generation of its globally successful children’s brand, Beyblade. Based on an original manga, the Beyblade franchise includes TV series, films, games and toys. The toys are sold in over 80 countries. The first generation of toys sold 160 million units, generating revenues of $165bn ( 155bn). The second-generation of 190 million units are worth $2bn, according to the company. The third generation of toys, to be released in July in Japan, followed by a global roll-out, introduce a new battling concept, with spinning tops that physically burst in battle to add to the excitement. Another feature is the cloud system, which allows kids to take part in real-world activities such as Beyblade battles, and

Sunrights’ Mark Northwood (left), with d-rights’ Shuji Wada, Takaaki Nakazawa and Wataru Sato

where victory and defeat can be converted into points. Beyblade is aimed at children of six to 11, with eight being the key target age. The new concept will be the first to benefit from the new ownership of d-rights. Asatsu DK (ADK), Japan’s third largest advertising company with interests in the content industry, bought a

51% share in the company from Mitsubishi at the turn of the year. ADK company Sunrights, based in New York, will spearhead the project in Western markets. Shuji Wada, the new president of d-rights, said: “With the backing of the combined strength of both ADK and Mitsubishi, d-rights will be able to position the new Beyblade for even bigger success.”

1001 reasons to buy Nordic drama GAUMONT Television Europe has announced its second Englishlanguage project in six months. Following the launch of Spy City last October now comes 1001 (12 x 60 mins) from Real Humans creator Lars Lundstrom, which will be co-produced by Gaumont Television Europe, Lundstrom’s production company Matador Film and Eyeworks Scandi Fiction. “We are starting to see a huge trend into drama production,

making Europe the new frontier for television,” said Christophe Raindee, vice-CEO of Gaumont, the legendary European motionpicture studio created in 1895. Elizabeth Dreyer, head of international co-productions for Gaumont Television Europe, said 1001 was an example of the studio’s new co-production model, which sees it work with proven talent in Europe and “bringing their storytelling to audiences worldwide”.

1001’s storyline starts in the 1980s with a Swedish medical research project that goes calamitously wrong. Thirty years later, a policewoman investigating a murder receives a message from an anonymous caller demanding that 1,001 million be transferred into various bank accounts or more people will die. The blackmailer knows something about the past that must never get out.

DEAL CLOSED FOR GENERATION GAP TELEVISA and Survivor producer Mark Burnett have joined forces on a new format called Generation Gap. The family game show has been commissioned by Televisa, which will produce it for broadcast in Mexico. “I am very confident this agreement and our production will help to spread the popularity of the format worldwide,” said Televisa Entertainment global director Ricardo Ehrsam. Generation Gap, in which four families square off against each other to win a fabulous cash prize, brings together all ages. It will be distributed by Televisa International, in conjunction with MGM Group worldwide.

TV2 NORWAY PILOTS SHORTEST STRAW THE FIRST primetime game-show format from the exclusive partnership between Nordic World and Boxatricks is to be piloted on TV2 Norway. The Shortest Straw is backed by a cross-border alliance of Israel’s TV Format Fund, Norway’s largest commercial broadcaster TV2 and one of the original Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? creators, David Briggs. The pilot of the 60-minute format will go into production in the UK this August, under the guidance of Boxatricks co-founders Steve Springford and Colman Hutchinson.

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NEWS GLOBAL DEALS FOR DRAMA GERMAN distributor Global Screen saw early sales for its slate of films and series, including: Naked Among Wolves (1 x 102 mins) to France (M6), Lithuania (LRT), Benelux (Just Entertainment), Poland (Televizija Polska) and Austria; and titles from film series 30 Finest Fairy Tales to Brazil, France, Benelux, Kazakhstan, Slovakia, Lithuania, Poland and Turkey. A Dangerous Fortune (2 x 90 mins), an adaptation of Ken Follett’s best-selling novel, will be delivered in 2016, but first images received interest from France, Spain, Italy, Scandinavia, Asia and Eastern Europe.

Naked Among Wolves (Global Screen)

WAR STORIES THE UK’s Channel 4 has picked up Norwegian World War Two drama The Heavy Water War for its digital channel More4. The series, a hit for Norway’s NRK, was produced by Filmkameratene AS, Headline Pictures and Sebasto Film for NRK and sold into More4 by Arrow Films. Arrow acquisitions director Tom Stewart said the drama “promises to be one of the Nordic jewels of 2015”. John M Jacobsen, producer at Filmkameratene AS, added: “We have brought TV back to an era where the family can share an experience regardless of age and gender.”

Norwegian debut delivers an instant hit for BBC Brit

BC BRIT, one of the three global genre brands from BBC Worldwide, scored hit ratings as the most watched international channel in Norway when it launched this month. Making its international debut in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland, BBC Brit kicked off with exceptionally high overnight figures on its launch day across Scandinavia. Replacing BBC Entertainment, the new channel beat BBC Entertainment’s average share al-

most five times over in its key demographic aged 21 to 50 and is now the eighth biggest channel in Norway. BBC Brit attracted a higher share than popular Norwegian brands, including TV 2 Zebra, VOX and Viasat 4. Tobi de Graaff, executive vicepresident for Western Europe, BBC Worldwide, pledged the channel would offer exclusive first-runs of the best of British TV; all new episodes of Top Gear will have their Nordic premiere on the channel alongside shows featuring some of the biggest

names in TV including Graham Norton, Louis Theroux and Stephen Fry. BBC Earth also launched this week, featuring a mix of premium factual content. It forms part of BBC Worldwide’s strategy to inspire global audiences and cement the BBC’s international reputation. Available through DTH, DTT, cable and IPTV providers, BBC Brit and BBC Earth are available in HD and sit alongside BBC Lifestyle and BBC HD across the Nordic market.

App lets users set news agenda A VIDEO news channel of your own, with a customised news feed from the best professional sources and with your personal logo to clearly identify it. That’s the pitch from Newstag, a new Swedish venture spearheaded by CEO Henrik Eklund, a former head of digital distribution at news agency AP. The app for phone and tablet is free to users and provides a portal through which they can customise their own channel using the subject tags attached to the content. Packages of news clips of between 30 and 90 seconds are sourced from all the main professional news providers, including AP, Bloomberg and Reuters, as well as state-backed services such as Russia Today, Voice Of America and Deutsche Welle. Menus allow users to chose broad categories, such as business, and also sub-menus to narrow this down to say, air travel. Once a “tagstream” is set up, the channel will run continuously, pulling in all the content from the various news sources. Multiple feeds can be selected by topic or region. “If, for instance, someone in Eu-

Henrik Eklund, CEO of Newstag

rope is worried about a relation in a West African country and wants regular news not normally available, they could set up, say, an ‘ebola’ channel,” Eklund said. The app is currently running in beta and will allow users to pro-

ject their channel from their device on to a larger screen, personalised with their logo or photo. Funding will come mainly from six-second “brand plates” which allow companies to attach their brand to particular kinds of content.

THE NEW MIPTV REVIEW FOR TABLETS Check out the MIPTV Highlights • • • • •

The deals The stars The conferences The photos The videos

And much more in the new MIPTV Review for tablets

Available on iOS and Android from Thursday 30 April 2015

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NEWS CO-PRO DEAL FOR CLASSIC DRAMA ATLANTIQUE Productions, a French producer of high-end, English-language drama series for the global market, and Cattleya, an Italian independent film and TV production company, have entered into a co-development and co-production agreement to turn two major properties into TV series. The first, Django, will be a re-imagining of the cult Western that has its roots in the highconcept spaghetti Western tradition, but with the grit of modern TV dramas. The film, which was released in 1966, is considered one of best examples of its genre. The second, Suspiria De Profundis, is inspired by the 19th-century English writer Thomas De Quincey’s book, which was made into the classic Italian horror film Suspiria in 1977 by Dario Argento, who will be artistic supervisor for the series.

HOPSTER’S ON A ROLL HOPSTER, a British kids TV and educational platform for pre-schoolers is rolling out a global English-language version to 100 territories, including Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, South Africa, India and Dubai. The move follows a raft of multi-territory content deals with Corus Entertainment’s Nelvana, Millimages, Cake, and EarthTree Media. As well as this content the platform has games built on international curricula. Nick Walters, Hopster founder and CEO, said: “A new generation of kids is finding things on mobile. In India alone, more families have smartphones than digital TV, so there’s huge potential for a mobile-first service like Hopster. We’ve handpicked the best shows from around the world.”

University students enjoying a little market research in Palais

F SOME of the execs on Australian exhibition stands look even more youthful than usual this week, don’t be surprised. They might be students from Queensland University Of Technology (QUT). Joe Carter, study area co-ordinator on QUT’s prestigious Entertainment Industries degree, told MIPTV News: “As part of the course we like to give students the opportunity to go on an international study trip that can contribute towards their final degree. Through contact with Peter Rhodes, managing director of Reed MIDEM’s London office, we were able to arrange for 15 students to participate in MIPTV and another 15 to come to MIPCOM in October.” Funded by a combination of government assistance, university grants, a Reed MIDEM discount and personal contributions, the 15 students have been thrown in at the deep end, said Carter. “We didn’t want them just to be wandering around the Palais. We wanted this to be an intensive,

Joe Carter and Rachel Barros

immersive experience. So they have been working on stands with the likes of ABC, SBS, Screen Australia, Flame Distribution and Escapade Media. And they’ve been doing a really good job.” Rachel Barros, a final year student on QUT’s Entertainment Industries course, said working at MIPTV had been “overwhelming at first but really exciting.

Working on the stands has been a great insight into how the world of business works. And we’ve also had the opportunity to attend some really interesting conference sessions.” The students write a blog or journal at the market then head to the UK to visit the BBC’s MediaCityUK in Salford and the Australian High Commission, where they will present their findings.

FRAPA celebrates membership boost

FRAPA’s Bianca Rootsaert

FRAPA has signed up new members from Japan, Spain, Ireland and the Nordic territories at MIPTV and is in advanced discus-

sions with producer associations from Korea, the Basque region and Turkey. Bianca Rootsaert, FRAPA’s managing consultant, said the buzz around the format protection association had increased significantly following the appointment earlier this month of four highprofile general board members: ITV Studio’s Mike Beale, Sony Pictures Television’s Lisette van Diepen, Zodiak Media’s Grant Ross and Red Arrow Entertainment Group’s Michael Schmidt. The board expansion forms part of the mission of new FRAPA co-chairs, The Gurin Company’s Phil Gurin and Nordic World’s Jan Salling, to transition the association into a new era, while

intensifying its efforts to build a global community for today’s billion-dollar formats industry. “All the big format companies now want to be part of the ‘good guys’,” Rootsaert said, citing major Japanese format player Nippon TV, which joined the FRAPA community this week. “The fact is, the bigger and more successful a format is, the more vulnerable it becomes to piracy, so it makes sense that the holders of some of the world’s most valuable IP are now joining FRAPA.” Rootsaert said that, as more countries and companies entered the format industry, an increasingly important part of FRAPA’s mission was to help ‘format virgins’ to negotiate the pitfalls.

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NEWS SECRET DEAL FOR CBBC AND ABC3 ZODIAK Kids Studios has announced a dual territory commission for live-action series The Secret Life Of Boys. The series will be available first online on CBBC in the UK and ABC3 in Australia as 25 x 5 mins segments, playable on mobile viewing devices and computers. It will also be created as a 5 x 30 mins series for the channels. The Secret Life Of Boys centres on Ginger, an 11-year-old girl who has to spend her summer holidays with her English cousins, a family of four tween and teen boys. During the show, there are opportunities for the user to click around and uncover extra punchlines, character insights and hidden secrets. The more the user interacts, the closer they get to uncovering the truth behind Ginger’s UK trip and just what the boys are really getting up to. “We know that our children’s audience will have fun engaging with the characters and comedy on many different levels,” said Sue Nott, executive producer, CBBC. Chris Rose, commissioning editor, ABC Children’s Television, added: “This unique drama will unfold to our audience through interactive content and strong storytelling, online and on the ABC3 channel.” Zodiak Kids owns worldwide rights to the series.

Sky River leads to first-time co-production partnership

SI G N I N G c e remony was held at MIPTV to celebrate the start of production on Sky River Of The Himalayas (3 x 52 mins), marking the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation ORF

and CCTV10 in China’s first-ever international co-production. The production also brings together broadcast partners ARTE and ZDF. All companies were represented at the signing, as well as film production companies pre tv, dreiD.at and EOS Films.

ORF CEO Alexander Wrabetz (left), CITVC vice-president Tang Shiding and ORF chief financial officer Richard Grasl celebrate the co-pro deal in Cannes

The 4K three-part wildlife series will document the largest river in Asia, which passes through China, India and Bangladesh. As well as breathtaking scenery, it will feature the extraordinary variety of human communities whose lives are shaped by the river and their relationship with the animals and land. The waterway flows through Earth’s every climate zone. Known in Tibet as Yarlung Tsangpo, the river becomes the Brahmaputra in India’s Assam before transforming into the Jamuna as it carves its way through Bangladesh to the Bay of Bengal. Production is scheduled for completion in Spring 2017, with ORF Enterprise and CITVC overseeing distribution.

Hahn and m4e share kids’ expertise FOLLOWING the global success of their co-production hybrid live action and CGI-animated kids series Mia And Me, Hahn Film and German brand management and media company m4e have joined forces to establish Hahn & m4e Productions. “We have put all our eggs in one basket to expand both our creative content offering and distribution capability,” m4e’s CEO, Hans Ulrich Stoef, said. “We already have 11 strong projects at MIPTV in advanced stages of development and a further nine shows on the start line.”

M4e’s Jo Daris, Hahn & m4e Production’s Hans Ulrich Stoef and Gerhard Hahn

Created by Gerhard Hahn, Mia And Me takes place in the real world and the land of Centopia. Series two (26 x 23 mins) is produced JIANGSU Broadcasting Corporation (JSBC) signed an option deal at MIPTV this by Hahn & m4e week for its latest format, Super Combat Teams, with nice entertainment group, Productions, Itacovering Denmark, Norway, Finland and Sweden. The original game-show format sees contestants from all over the world challenge their physical limits. ly’s Rainbow and At the signing were: JSBC’s Josh Germany’s ZDF Zhang (left), international distribution; Television NetLi Hanchun, assistant director; and work, and is due to Qiu Yuanyuan, director and general launch in Germany manager; with nice entertainment and other territogroup’s Henrik Biskjaer, head of ries next month. acquisitions and development; Jonas Series three is in Linnander-Manfred, chief pipeline production for deofficer; and Niels Lindberg, developer. livery in 2016.

“We have always shared the same vision and we love what Gerhard Hahn produces,” Stoef said. “We are now the market leader in Germany for quality kids’ programming and we want to continue looking for talented third party collaborators.” Hahn & m4e Productions’ new slate includes Wissper, a 52 x 7 mins animation about a girl who can talk to animals and Atchoo!, a 52 x 11 mins 2D animation coproduction with Studio Campedelli and Cartobaleno Animation Studio about a boy who turns into an animal when he sneezes.

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Discovery Canada and Take the Shot at full pelt on fur trade tale

ISCOVERY CANADA has signed a deal with Canadian independent producer Take the Shot Productions to broadcast a scripted drama series set in the 18th-century North American fur trade — with principal photography starting this summer. Set in the action-filled world of competing fur traders, the series,

Frontier, tells the story of the violent power struggle to gain dominance in a ruthless industry. It has been created by producer brothers Rob and Peter Blackie, with Alex Patrick, John Vatcher and Perry Chafe from Take the Shot executive producing. Commenting on the show, Discovery Canada director of commissioning and production Edwina Follows said the show was

the “perfect fit” for the channel’s audience. Take the Shot chief executive John Vatcher said: “Frontier presents an outstanding opportunity to produce a series bursting with action, compelling characters, and historical significance on an unprecedented scale in Canada.” Filming on the 6 x 60 mins series will begin in July.

Buyers make a date with Dori Media “CIEGA A Citas (Date Blind) has done great business for us this market,” said Dori Media president Nadav Palti. “This week we sold 140 episodes to Vietnam’s Lasta Multimedia, owners of free-to-air channels of Let’s Viet and Hanam in North Vietnam. And we licensed the format to Shanghai’s Croton Media to develop for the Chinese market. A Russian version is in production for Russia 1 with Russkoe Film Company, and a Spanish version is on air on Mediaset Espana’s Cuatro channel.” The series is about a young woman on a race to get a ‘real’ boyfriend in time for her sis-

Dori Media Group president Nadav Palti

ter’s wedding, and Palti calls it not a telenovela but a ‘newvela’. “Newvelas are more sophisticated, sexy and comedic,” he said. “This one has now sold to over 40 territories, and I expect to see new versions in production in all major European markets — west as well as east — soon.” Palti said social media was offering audiences new ways to watch episodes and engage with their favourite shows. “Viva Walla is an ad-based AVOD service that we own jointly with Walla, Israel’s largest social-media platform. We get a million users a day, and our most popular episode achieved 2.15 million views,” he said.

Canalplay offers Maker On Demand CANALPLAY, the Canal+ Group’s streaming service, has announced a deal with Disney France to launch Maker On Demand, a new product offering from Maker Studios. The free service for Canalplay subscribers features short-form video content from Maker’s exclusive portfolio and launches this summer. Canalplay is the first SVOD platform in France to offer Maker’s

2,000-strong video content slate in varied genres including gaming, sports, fashion and beauty and will refresh the content on a monthly basis. “We are delighted with this collaboration, which represents an important milestone in Canalplay’s digital offering,” said Patrick Holzman, director of Canalplay. “With Canalplay’s power and Maker Studio’s unparalleled expertise in online

video content, we will enable our subscribers to discover new talent and share with them new high-quality formats adapted for use on smartphones and tablets.” The launch of Maker On Demand is in line with Canalplay’s strategic direction to promote new digital formats. In September 2014 Canalplay launched two labels dedicated to original digital series: Digital Revelations and French Of Humour.

DOGWOOF COLLARS DOCU DEALS

Cartel Land, Matthew Heineman’s award-winning documentary about vigilantes opposing Mexican drug gangs

UK DOCUMENTARY distributor Dogwoof has closed several sales deals for Cartel Land, Matthew Heineman’s Sundancewinning feature, including with DR in Denmark, Sweden’s SVT, NKR in Norway, YLE in Finland and VPRO in Netherlands. Cartel Land tells the story of two vigilante groups on the US border formed to combat the ruthless Mexican drug cartels. Mette Hoffman Meyer, DR’s commissioning editor, called it “one of the scariest films I have seen. The access into a society of corruption, murder and violence is just mindblowing.” Other Dogwoof sales at MIPTV include: Todd Miller’s Dinosaur 13 to NDR Arte and History Channel (Japan); Mor Loushy’s Censored Voices, Kim Longinotto’s Love Is All and Dreamcatcher, and Ryan Mullins’ Chameleon to DR; Chameleon, Dreamcatcher and Censored Voices to SVT; Dreamcatcher to VGTV in Norway; Censored Voices to NRK; and Finding Fela and Dreamcatcher to VRT in Belgium.

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NEWS Russian dramas inspired by world war anniversaries

Mata Hari

NSPIRED by the 70th anniversary of victory in the Second orld ar, the ussian film and TV industries have gone into high gear, producing a raft of films ased on the e ents and the people who helped bring the glo al con ict to an end. enat Davletyarov’s The Dawns Here Are Quiet is a new interpretation

The Dawns Here Are Quiet

of the novel by Russian writer Boris Vasilyev, which was previously made into a film in . Due to be released at the end of April, the Star Media production is set in the late spring of . ar from the frontline, at a desolate and far-flung crossroads, the ermans send in a s uad of paratroopers in an attempt to get

through to the Kirov railway and the White Sea via the Baltic Sea anal. ut these are no ordinary paratroopers. This is a team of seasoned and highly trained infiltrators, the elite of the affen SS, ho see themsel es as super humans. The only thing in their way is the anti-aircraft artillery unit of corporal asko and fi e

The Battle For Sevastopol

young omen ho are eing trained as gunners. It may seem like a fight of local significance, ut one of the country s main strategic transport networks is at stake. an the corporal and his ‘petite newbies’ prevent Nazi sabotage and, if so, at what cost? Another film ith the astonishing contri ution of ussian omen at its heart is Sergey Mokritskiy’s Battle For Sevastopol, which premiered in osco and ie earlier this month. The ussian krainian co production hich as completed despite the political situation between the countries) is based on the true story of one of the most efficient and deadly snipers in orld history ho as a oman called Lyudmila a lichenko, played y ulia eresild. o ing ack in time to the irst World War and once again focusing on the role of omen in ar, mitriy eskhie s attalion is an epic production set in . The film tells the story of the first ussian omen s attalion, hich as formed as part of an ill conceived propaganda ploy by the Russian Provisional Government in late ay of against a background of political instaility and anarchy. Also coming out of ussia is a episode T series ased on the life of exotic dancer Mata Hari who was accused of being a spy. irected y ennis erry for Star Media, the series shot in Russia and Portugal and has an international cast including Vahina Giocante, Christopher Lam ert, ohn alko ich and utger auer. It is eing aired on ussia s hannel ne.

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