NEWS: MARKET LAUNCHES
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CONTENTS
6 NEWS
26 FEATURES
MIPTV Online+ session report — What’s Hot, What’s Not; Angry Birds fly to Netflix; Meghan Markle voices Disney doc; feelgood content from Orange Smarty; Turkish drama goes to Latin America; and more...
26 ‘We started with no ideas’ Shaftesbury CEO Christina Jennings on the structure of recent Shaftesbury co-production, eight-part thriller series The Sounds
28 Buying in the age of streaming
16 PRODUCT NEWS
The rise of the streamers poses new challenges and new opportunities for buyers around the world
Multiplatform content from around the world available to the international marketplace
30 Streaming: the challenges continue The shape of the streaming landscape changes as local and regional SVOD and AVOD services emerge around the world
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32 What’s behind the success of Asia’s formats Asia’s strength in the international market lies in the diversity and innovation of its output
34 ‘I’m a terrible co-production partner’ Xilam Animation CEO Marc du Pontavice on producing for the international market
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DIRECTOR OF PUBLICATIONS Paul Zilk MARKETING DIRECTOR Mathieu Regnault EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT Editor in Chief Julian Newby Deputy Editor Debbie Lincoln Reporter Andy Fry Editorial Management Boutique Editions Head of Graphic Studio Herve Traisnel Graphic Studio Manager Frederic Beauseigneur Graphic Designer Carole Peres
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PRODUCTION DEPARTMENT Publishing Director Martin Screpel Publishing Manager Amrane Lamiri 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 © 2020, Reed MIDEM Market Publications. Publication registered 1st quarter 2020. ISSN 1967-5178.
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IN POWER
OUT OF CONTROL
S TAR R I NG Ó L AFU R DAR R I Ó L AF S S O N 8 X 6 0 M I N P O L I T IC A L D R A M A S E R I E S
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What’s Hot, What’s Not In a MIPTV Online+ day-one virtual session, Guy Bisson, research director of UK data and analytics firm Ampere Analysis, presented a study of how streaming and the internationalisation of content has impacted what commissioners want across scripted and unscripted programming
Guy Bisson: “Nº1 globally is drama”
THE MIPTV Online+ session, What’s Hot What’s Not: Scripted And Unscripted Commissioning And Development Trends, began by looking at the key drivers that are shaping the current international market for entertainment content. “I think we are in the middle of a self-perpetuating cycle and that cycle was kicked off by the global rights demands of the streaming platforms,” Ampere Analysis research director Guy Bisson said. “Their move into original production and the competitive edge that gave them, led to local players copying that strategy and that led to more and more original production, audience fragmentation and the need to differentiate through content.” All of those factors drove up budgets and investment “putting strain on the entire system. And the competitive advantage and the cost advantage of international production became an attractive option,” Bisson said. “That fed back in, of course, into demand for global rights. So we are in a cycle, it is self-perpetuat-
ing and I expect it to continue for some time to come.” The top-20 commissioners across the world comprise the big network TV groups — including the US networks, the BBC and other national broadcasters — and then the global or large-regional streaming platforms. “It is these commissioners who are setting the agenda today,” he said. “And what are they commissioning? Well Nº1 globally is drama. Also significant, however, is documentary and the largest commissioner of documentary is the BBC.” Meanwhile supply is restricted as a result of the biggest producers holding on to their own content. For example, just 10% of Disney’s production output today is for entities outside the Disney family. “The impact of that is two-fold: one is a potential shortage in access to content; the other is that the position and power of the independents is elevated — independents like Banijay, Fremantle, Endemol, where most of their production is for third parties. They are be-
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coming increasingly important in the wider market.” And while drama still fuels all the headlines around the world, “globally, streaming platforms are increasingly commissioning unscripted content. At the same time linear platforms and channels are reducing the proportion of their commissioning that is unscripted. That of course is driven by their move into drama.” These two dynamics have a wide impact on the whole market. New entrants are also influencing market trends, often driven by social media, “the likes of Facebook, YouTube, Snapchat — but also brand new entrants like Jeffrey Katzenberg’s short-form platform, Quibi”, Bisson said. For scripted they are largely commissioning comedy, crime and sci-fi, and for unscripted it’s documentary, entertainment, news and reality.” Another key trend is internationalisation: “Looking just at Netflix’s upcoming slate, there are 291 new titles in the works and less than half of those are being made in the US, and the rest across a diverse array of international markets.”
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A related trend is co-production, dominated by the largest single-market public broadcasters and the streaming platforms. “Single-market broadcasters need single-market rights; large streaming platforms need rest-of-world. And so these two types of company are driving the agenda for co-production, which is increasingly important for scripted content specifically.” So what sells best right now? “It’s very clear that children’s content travels the most, but crime-andthriller is not far off, sci-fi is a significant genre and romance, drama and action are also important,” Bisson said. On the subject of “the elephant in the room” — Covid-19 and the likely impact of that on production cycles — Bisson said: “That could of course lead to a shortage of content or a slow-down in production cycles including re-commissions and renewals of key dramas and series. We’ll be putting out regular insights on the ongoing impact of that virus on the wider industry.”
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NENT LAUNCHES VIAPLAY IN ICELAND NORDIC Entertainment Group (NENT Group) is launching its Viaplay streaming service in Iceland on April 1, making the service available in all five Nordic countries. All Viaplay originals and kids’ content will be dubbed or subtitled in Icelandic and selected sports content will have Icelandic commentary. The Viaplay series and movies package will be priced at ISK599 (€4) per month in Iceland and, like its other markets, it will be available in Iceland through direct subscriptions and third-party partnerships. NENT Group has secured the exclusive Icelandic media rights to Formula 1, Bundesliga football and handball, WTA tennis, Major League Baseball, NASCAR, Dutch Eredivisie, Danish Superliga, Swedish Allsvenskan, Division 1 Feminine, French Cup football, the CONCACAF Nations League, the 2021 Copa America, and more. The majority of these events are currently postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak, and NENT Group will launch its Viaplay sports package in Iceland when these events become available. NENT Group’s president and CEO, Anders Jensen, said: “Viaplay is a Nordic streaming success story and completing our regional footprint with Iceland is a very natural next step. From April 1, we will offer viewers in Iceland more high-quality Nordic originals than anybody else, along with award-winning films and series and premium kids’ content, with world-class live sports to come. Viaplay already has 1.6 million subscribers across the Nordic region and is built to scale quickly.”
Rovio and Cake join forces to bring Angry Birds to Netflix NETFLIX and Cake, in partnership with Rovio Entertainment, have announced the new series Angry Birds: Summer Madness. The 40 x 11 mins series will debut globally in 2021, “taking its cue from the humour and tone of The Angry Birds Movie franchise while revealing a fresh new look”, the companies jointly said. The series sees the birds breaking all the rules at summer camp while fending off the pigs on the other side of the lake, who seem hell-bent on causing mayhem. This is the latest collaboration in a long-term partnership between the two companies, which includes international distribution rights to Rovio’s expanding library of non-dialogue shorts. “Angry Birds are about to smash the small screen and we are thrilled to be making the journey with Netflix as our global partner,” Ed
Galton, Cake’s chief creative officer and managing director, said Rovio chief marketing officer Ville Heijari added: “Angry Birds animated content plays a key role in our long-term franchise strategy. After more than a decade in hit games, blockbuster mov-
ies and licensed products, this is the Angry Birds’ first foray into a long-form series.” Curtis Lelash, director of original animated series, for Netflix said: “Angry Birds have been a true phenomenon for kids around the world.”
Angry Birds: Summer Madness
Hitler’s Supercars series pre-sold to C4 TCB MMEDIA Rights, the London-based rights-ownership and distribution company, has greenlit two more original factual titles adding to its roster of 25 TCB Original shows. Hitler’s Supercars is a 1 x 60 mins special, which has pre-sold to Channel 4 in the UK. Produced by UK indie Wiser Films, the film explores the story of how, during the rise of the Third Reich, two German car manufacturers were ordered to build the most high-performance vehicles the world had ever seen. The series is executive produced by Wiser Films co-founders Tas Brooker & Jim Wiseman with Hannah Demidowicz and Nicola Davey for TCB. Extreme Ice Machines is an 8 x 60 series about machines that allow us to live and thrive in extreme weather conditions, produced by MIPTV Online+ Daily 1 •
Canadian production company Architect Films. An undisclosed US network has joined the project through a pre-sale. Executive producers are Architect Film’s Tanya Linton, Mike Sheerin and Cara Volchoff, and for TCB Hannah Demidowicz. Paul Heaney, founder and CEO
TCB’s Paul Heaney
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of TCB Media Rights, said: “It is right now that channels’ offerings need topping up or gaps filled so as a factual distributor we have a focused marketing job to do. TCB doesn’t need to add to workloads by simply sending availabilities lists to all of our buyers, but in some cases that is exactly what they need. A consultative selling approach is at the heart of what we do: we will take on and share the precise challenges that our clients are facing and help them solve their potential problems. We have always responded to what the networks require and these titles demonstrate that.’ TCB Media Rights is currently in negotiation to agree its next iteration in conjunction with FTI Consulting Canada after its parent company Kew Media Group went into administration last week.
Scripted Series / Comedy Drama, 10 x 22’ redarrowstudios.com/international
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Meghan Markle-narrated Elephant coming to Disney+ for Earth Month DISNEY has announced that the Disneynature film Elephant, which is narrated by Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, is coming to Disney+ on Friday. Disneynature’s Elephant follows African elephant Shani and her son Jomo as their herd make an epic journey hundreds of miles across the Kalahari Desert, from the Okavango delta to the Zambezi river, just as countless generations have done before. Shani and her family are among the last elephants on earth to make these lengthy migrations. She’s mother to one-year-old Jomo, who has yet to experience a migration, and at 40 years old, she is next in line as herd matriarch, a position currently held by her older sister Gaia. Gaia’s herd is among countless species — from hippopotamus to lechwe to baboons — that rely upon the life-giving water that
flows from the mountains and transforms the heart of the desert into a green oasis known as the
Okavango delta. But the season’s end is near and soon there will be a mass exodus.
Elephant (Disneynature)
Quibi unveils all-action April line-up
Cam Newton’s Iron Sharpens Iron
JEFFREY Katzenberg’s shortform online streamer Quibi has unveiled the full slate of programming that will be available on the service in April, including the new unscripted series Iron Sharpens Iron, from Cam Newton’s Iconic Saga Productions. Premiering April 20, Iron Sharpens Iron sees professional athletes from different sports team up to share details of their individual training programmes. Teamings include Trae Young of the Atlanta Hawks, UFC star Amanda Nunes, and World Cup winner Carli Lloyd. Newton and Young will partner up in an episode, as will Nunes and Lloyd. Other athletes appearing include Melvin Gordon, Nyjah Huston, Lolo Jones, Simon Pagenaud, Andy Ruiz Jr., Pascal Siakam, Sloane Stephens, PK Subban, Justin Turner, Kerri Walsh-Jennings, Michelle Wie, MIPTV Online+ Daily 1 • 10 • 31 March 2020
Water is precious to life, and perhaps nowhere is this more apparent than the Kalahari Desert in southern Africa, one of the driest places on the planet. The water is receding and paradise will soon turn to dust as the delta becomes a series of vanishing pools. Gaia instinctively knows she must lead the herd directly into the baking Kalahari Desert, before the remaining water holes dry up. The herd’s success will depend on her experience and wisdom, which has been handed down over many generations. The programme joins Dolphin Reef, narrated by Natalie Portman, and Disneynature’s theatrical release from 2019, Penguins, on the Disney+ April slate. Elephant is produced by Mark Linfield, Vanessa Berlowitz and Roy Conli; Dolphin Reef is directed by Silverback Films co-founder Keith Scholey. Dolphin Reef follows Pacific bottlenose dolphin Echo as it attempts to find its place in dolphin society. The projects are broadcast in commemoration of Earth Month.
and Deontay Wilder. The series is executive produced by NFL quarterback Newton. Among other premieres are the previously announced unscripted titles I Promise, Elba V Block, Let’s Roll With Tony Greenhand, Fight Like a Girl, Cup Of Joe and Floored. The LeBron James-produced I Promise, takes a look at the first academic year inside the I Promise School , which opened in 2018. In stunt series Elba V Block, actor Idris Elba takes to the road with renowned rally-car driver Ken Block; Let’s Roll With Tony Greenhand follows the cannabis artist and features his creations that have attracted an A-list clientelle; and in Fight Like A Girl, a young woman struggling with personal issues is paired with a WWE superstar. Joe Jonas’s eight-part travel series Cup Of Joe and dance competition format Floored both get an April 27 debut on Quibi.
2020 HIGHLIGHTS T h e U l t i m a t e R e fe r e n c e i n Fa c t u a l D o c u m e n t a r y HISTORY
NATURE & DISCOVERY UHD
THE STORY OF DRUG TRAFFICKING 3x52’
ARCHEOLOGY
WILD PYRENEES 3x52’
SCIENCE
ART & CULTURE
UHD
UHD
SPECIAL ANNIVERSARY SAPIENS: THE NEW BEGINNING 2x45’
SCREEN GENERATION 52’
INTIMATE BEETHOVEN 52’
INVESTIGATION
BIOPIC
WHEN BIG TECH TARGETS HEALTHCARE 52’ & 90’
LOOKING FOR MELANIA TRUMP 52’
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Orange Smarty introduces feelgood titles to market ORANGE Smarty, the independent distributor that specialises in multiplatform factual content, brings 175 hours of new programming to the international marketplace. The new slate “covers the feelgood spectrum”, from cheeky toddlers to naughty cats, via perfect properties, pilgrims — and pubic hair. It also features titles from six producers new to Orange Smarty’s fast-growing catalogue, including the UK’s Primal Media, Yeti Media and Little Gem, Canada’s Summerhill Media, Australia’s Jaffle Media and New Zealand’s ASC Media. Highlights include ASC Media/ TVNZ’s Living With The Boss, a series and format in which employees invite the boss to stay in their houses, in a bid to forge a personal connection and improve their working lives. Commissioned by the BBC,
comedy documentary, Yeti’s The Wedding Guru follows Onkar Singh Purewal, the self-styled “greatest event manager the world has ever seen”. In One Tribe/BBC One’s Dirty Vegan, Dirty Sanchez frontman Matt Pritchard, now an ultra-athlete and chef, cooks up “banging” vegan recipes. Also on the roster is series 13 of Channel 4’s evergreen property-search series A Place In The Sun, produced by Freeform Productions; and family life goes under the microscope in Sky Atlantic’s powerful four-parter This Is Our Family. Filmed over three years by producer Little Gem, each 60-minute film provides an intimate look at the evolution of four families as they deal with such universal themes as birth, death and marriage. Primal Media’s Home Free, meanwhile, is a heartwarming account of young people with learning disabilities
who are leaving home for the first time. GooWoo Media/Channel 5’s Naughty Toddlers Caught On Camera and Naughty Cats On Camera deliver exactly what they promise; Milk and Honey/Channel 4’s Bring Back The Bush: Where Did Our Pubic Hair Go?, examines society’s fixation with hairless bodies; and Jaffle Media/ Channel 9’s Giving Life, tells the inspiring stories of those whose lives have been saved — and who have saved lives — as a result of blood donation. Karen Young, founder and CEO of Orange Smarty, said: “There’s been a lot of talk about how COVID-19 is proving a boon for distributors, the perception being that broadcasters will take any old show to fill the holes that have suddenly appeared in schedules. Wrong. We’re working closely with our broadcast partners to
The Wedding Guru (Yeti Television)
help curate and package shows across genres, from feelgood to family to factual, to ensure that audiences suffer no drop in the quality of their entertainment during these incredibly challenging times. That not only requires laser-sharp marketing but a real knowledge of our clients’ strengths, needs and positioning. We believe our new titles will help in that effort by delivering shows that keep broadcasters relevant — and the nation smiling.”
Ukraine takes hit Turkish series MISTCO, a leading distributor of Turkish dramas, has announced new deals for titles Melek: A Mother’s Struggle and Hold My Hand. After its successful debut in Turkey, Melek: A Mother’s Struggle,
Producer of both series, Sureyya Onal
broadcast on Turkish national network TRT 1 and produced by Us Yapım, is now airing on Wednesday nights on Ukrainian network Inter UA. The series tells of Melek’s struggle as a single
mother alone with her children, regretting leaving her family and the man who loved her. Inter UA and Mistco have also sealed a deal for bestselling title Hold My Hand, from TRT1 and Us Yapım — a love story that starts with tragedy, but with a positive outcome. Producer of both series, Sureyya Onal, said: “Our foremost priority was to get the audience to believe that the story takes place within a family similar to theirs. Turkish people generally attach utmost importance to their families and applied Turkish family values intensely in the series. But the universality of love, kindness, and conscience is also important to our stories, so, we have considered audiences from all around the world with our titles.”
MIPTV Online+ Daily 1 • 12 • 31 March 2020
Hold My Hand, sold to 30 countries
Aysegul Tuzun, managing director at Mistco, said: “Melek: A Mother’s Struggle is doing well in Turkey despite huge competition, and our expectations are high for international sales. Hold My Hand remains one of our best-performing titles and has sold to over 30 countries as of now.”
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NETFLIX COMMISSIONS LOVE IS BLIND FROM KINETIC CONTENT KINETIC Content, a Red Arrow Studios company, has been commissioned by Netflix to produce two new seasons of its global hit series Love Is Blind. Is love blind? Hosts Vanessa and Nick Lachey will ask the question again as new singles prepare to enter the pods for the dating experiment’s second season. The second season is currently casting in Chicago, with the third season to follow. Executive producers for the show are Chris Coelen, Sam Dean, Ally Simpson, Eric Detwiler and Brian Smith for Kinetic Content. Love Is Blind has been a hit for Netflix since its February 13 launch. The 10-episode show was the Nº1 title on the service in multiple territories around the world including the US, the UK, Germany, Australia and Canada, and continues to rank in the Top 10 in most countries where it is seen. The show’s two-hour finale on February 27 and reunion special on March 5 generated worldwide media coverage and attracted big audiences to the streamer. In Love is Blind, singles who want to be loved for who they are, rather than what they look like, have signed up for a less conventional approach to modern dating where they hope to meet the person they want to spend the rest of their lives with, without ever having seen them.
Eccho Rights’ global hit Cennet gets premiere in Latin America ECCHO Rights has closed deals in a number of territories for Turkish drama Cennet. The series recently premiered in Latin America on Canal 4 in Uruguay. With deals now closing in Eastern Europe, the Baltics and Asia, drama series Cennet premiered on Canal 4 in Uruguay at the start of this year, marking its first showing in Latin America. More deals in the territory are to be announced soon. Cennet was abandoned as a baby, and has struggled bravely through life, desperate for the motherly love she never had. Despite her poor background, the young woman has worked hard to become the top student in her architecture class and lands her dream job at a successful firm. But when the CEO of the company discovers a birthmark on Cennet’s neck, identical to that of the baby she
abandoned over 20 years ago, she starts to believe that Cennet’s appearance is no coincidence — and reacts not with maternal love, but instead hatches a plan to get her out of her life. Eccho Rights is a global rights
management company with offices in Stockholm, Istanbul, Madrid and Manila. Since 2018, Eccho Rights has been part of Korea’s CJ ENM, one of Asia’s largest media and entertainment companies.
Cennet (Eccho Rights)
Kaplan to head upcoming series Heresy NUCLEUS Media Rights has announced that industry veteran Butch Kaplan will serve as executive producer and showrunner for its upcoming drama Heresy. The 8 x 55 mins series is a co-production with Italian producer 3zero2 and stars Rudolf Martin (Ford Vs. Ferrari, NCIS). Production is set to start in late 2020 for a release in the first quarter of 2022. Kaplan joins creator and lead writer Mark Melville, producers Bruno Zarka (Nucleus Media), and Piero Crispino (3zero2). Heresy is an action drama that tells the story of an extraordinary young woman who fights the Holy Inquisition. Kaplan’s producer credits include The Notebook, Oldboy, Babylon A.D., AMC’s Fear The Walking Dead, Sundance Channel’s The Red Road, USA Cable’s Dark Prince, and F.X.’s DEVS — Alex
Garland’s upcoming new sci-fi series. He is a member of the Directors Guild of America and the Producers Guild of America and represents the Czech Republic on the International Committee. “Butch is an incredible talent and a true Hollywood Veteran who brings to the show his unique and sharp vision in addition to his international production expertise,” CEO, Nucleus Media Rights, Bruno Zarka, said. Kaplan added: “I look forward to working with the Nucleus Media Rights team in bringing daring and innovative entertainment to the world of viewers.” Heresy showrunner Butch Kaplan
MIPTV Online+ Daily 1 • 14 • 31 March 2020
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ZDF ENTERPRISES
BAVARIA FICTION
SURPRISE Supervise! The Prism Is A Dancer Show is a 90-minute format that meticulously examines the internet profiles — including Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn — of an unsuspecting studio audience prior to filming. The host — sometimes supported by a celebrity guest — uses the audience members’ online posts to surprise and entertain them. The gentle grilling continues with added studio stunts and clips. When they leave the stage, featured audience members are rewarded with prizes in return for allowing their digital footprint to be used to entertain viewers.
FREUD (8 x 45 mins) is a German-language Netflix Original series in co-production with ORF, Satel Film and Bavaria Fiction. Blending a period setting with contemporary-style storytelling, Freud is a crime thriller series based on the life of the celebrated psychoanalyst. The extravagant Vienna of the 1890s, famous for its decadence and the dark underbelly of its high society, is the backdrop for mysterious murders and political intrigue. The story follows Sigmund Freud (Robert Finster), in Vienna in 1886, just as his revolutionary theories are being met with strong opposition from colleagues and the wider Austrian society. He meets the war veteran and policeman Alfred Kiss (Georg Friedrich) and notorious medium Fleur Salome (Ella Rumpf) and unwittingly becomes part of a nerve-racking investigation into a murderous conspiracy. ZDFE is the international distributor. Another priority title is German crime drama Dark Woods, inspired by the real-life disappearance of a woman in Lower Saxony. In the summer of 1989, Barbara Neder (Silke Bodenbender), the sister of high-ranking police officer Thomas Bethge (Matthias Brand), disappears shortly after two couples have been murdered in nearby woodlands. Bethge’s quest for justice continues long after his retirement, as he applies meticulous research to follow the trail of a suspected serial killer. Worldwide distribution is by Global Screen.
Surprise Supervise! The Prism Is A Dancer Show (ZDF Enterprises)
QUINTUS MEDIA DISTRIBUTOR Quintus Studios unveils two new documentaries produced by Berlin-based WeltN24. Dreamcars: Inside The Factory (6 x 60 mins) features six renowned European car companies that open their factory doors to provide an insight into the production of high-end vehicles, including Aston Martin, Bugatti, Bentley, Lamborghini, Rimac and Porsche. The series shows the process from beginning to end as it tells the story of six supercars as they are built and tested on the track. Steel Monsters (4 x 60 mins), is about a selection of the biggest, heaviest or deadliest machines developed and built for very specific mega-tasks. This series showcases outstanding technological achievements and examples of how creative engineers overcome problems. Included are the Antonov An-225, the biggest cargo plane in the world, and the more than 13,000-ton Collossus, the largest movable machine in the world.
Freud (Bavaria Fiction)
MIPTV Online+ Daily 1 • 16 • 31 March 2020
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XILAM ANIMATION FRENCH animation studio Xilam Animation presents De Gaulle At The Beach (30 x 2.15 mins), a new 2D animated comedy series adapted from Jean-Yves Ferri’s comic strip of the same name, and targeted at an adult audience. Produced by Xilam’s recently acquired CGI specialist studio Cube Creative for ARTE France, De Gaulle At The Beach is a collection of absurd, light-hearted stories featuring Charles de Gaulle, the renowned French leader. This year marks a treble commemoration for de Gaulle — the 130th anniversary of his birth, the 50th anniversary of his death and the 80th anniversary of de Gaulle’s dramatic appeal to the French Resistance from the UK capital. In 1956, wearied by the ingratitude of the French and mediocrity of the country’s leaders, Charles de Gaulle, goes on a well-deserved holiday. He is accompanied by his wife Yvonne who never fails to put him in his place; his somewhat naive son, Philippe; the ever-faithful Captain Lebornec, who is devoted to the general but sometimes bewildered by his attitude; and Wehrmacht, a descendant of Hitler’s dog.
De Gaulle At The Beach (Xilam Animation)
MILLIMAGES NEW EPISODES are available now of the fourth season of Molang (52 x 5 mins), with production recently completed. The series follows Molang and Piu Piu as they take their humour and good spirit across the ages. The Molang series now comprise 208 episodes, plus TV specials on three themes — Halloween, Christmas and Summer Break. Other titles from Millimages include: Louie & Yoko Build (78 x 7 mins), commissioned by France Televisions, in which Louie and Yoko use their toolbox to see what they can build; and The Adventures Of Nasredin (21 x 5 mins), commissioned by Gulli France, featuring a cult oriental character who can’t help mocking the absurdity of today’s world.
Louie & Yoko Build (Millimages)
MIPTV Online+ Daily 1 • 18 • 31 March 2020
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PILOT PRODUCTIONS
RED ARROW STUDIOS INTERNATIONAL
ULTIMATE Blitzkrieg – WW2 Battle Of Crete (3 x 60 mins) is a documentary that tells the story of the largest airborne invasion in history, and the four-year German occupation of the Greek island of Crete that followed. With the help of documentary footage from the day, CGI, expert contributors and survivors, the series revisits the island and its battlefields to tell the story of this bloody battle and its aftermath. Among the broadcasters already taking the series from Pilot Productions are: History Channel UK; FoxTel and SBS Australia; American Public Television in the US; Spiegel TV in Germany; and Viasat Europe.
DOCUMENTARY series The Secret History Of World War II (6 x 45 mins), from Woodcut Media for Histoire in France and Cannel 5 in the UK, is brought to the international market by Red Arrow Studios International. From Dunkirk and D-Day to the Battle of Britain and the Blitz, The Secret History Of World War II aims to uncover the hidden stories behind key moments in the conflict. Filmed in the US, UK and France, the series digs below the headlines for a fresh and fascinating perspective on this extraordinary time in history.
The Secret History Of World War II (Red Arrow Studios International)
WAG ENTERTAINMENT WEIRD Earth (10 x 60 mins) reveals inexplicable weather phenomena captured on camera around the world, from sinister lightning shooting up from the earth to logic-defying horizontal tornadoes. Each episode features four freaky weather events. The series combines interviews with eyewitnesses, CGI, location filming, experiments that aim to prove or disprove theories, and expert testimony from senior scientists who are attempting to rationalise these freak events and phenomena.
Ultimate Blitzkrieg – WW2 Battle Of Crete (Pilot Productions)
Weird Earth (WAG Entertainment)
MIPTV Online+ Daily 1 • 20 • 31 March 2020
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ABC COMMERCIAL
DYNAMIC TELEVISION
THE DIVERSE ABC Commercial slate of new programmes includes: documentary series Revelation (3 x 90 mins/HD); Silent No More (3 x 60/HD) which explores the issues around #MeToo and the workplace; Fight For Planet A (3 x 60 mins/HD), looking at the modern-day throwaway lifestyle; Miriam Margolyes: Almost Australian (3 x 60 mins/HD), a frank and funny journey to the heart of the nation; and Jaimen Hudson: From Sky To Sea (1 x 60 mins/1 x 90 mins/4K), following a wheelchair-bound photographer as he attempts to fulfill his dream of diving with great white sharks. Returning shows include the third series of Restoration Australia (8 x 60 mins/HD), the fifth series of You Can’t Ask That (8 x 30 mins/HD) and the fourth series of the fast-paced comedy series Black Comedy (6 x 30 mins/HD).
VAGRANT Queen (10 x 60 mins) heads the current slate for Dynamic Television. The sci-fi series follows Elida from child queen to orphaned outcast, as she scavenges the treacherous corners of the galaxy, always one step ahead of the Republic army, which is determined to extinguish her bloodline. Other titles from Dynamic include: Creepshow (12 x 30 mins/6 x 60 mins), in which The Creep tells grim horror stories from the pages of the Creepshow comic book; Sommerdahl Murders, following a murder mystery in the Danish coastal town of Helsingor; and two seasons of Almost Never, a series about The Wonderland, a boy band which, after losing a talent contest to a girl band, decides to find success the hard way, by working hard.
Miriam Margolyes: Almost Australian (ABC Commercial)
Vagrant Queen (Dynamic Television)
DCD RIGHTS HOW TO Make… (3 x 60 mins) features material scientist Zoe Laughlin as she challenges herself to make her version of some of the world’s everyday items. Working at the interface of science, art and product design, each episode focuses on a specific domestic item — including trainers, toothpaste, a brush and headphones. Laughlin borrows design ideas and materials from the past and present, as well as experimenting with some of the latest cutting-edge materials. UK-based distributor DCD Rights also presents new documentary series, Emergency Rescue: Air, Land & Sea (10 x 60 mins). The inspiring series follows elite teams of men and women who put their own lives on the line to save members of the public who get into trouble in wild mountains and along dangerous coastlines. How To Make (DCD Rights)
MIPTV Online+ Daily 1 • 22 • 31 March 2020
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ISRAELI producer and distributer ADD Content’s young-adult drama Ziggy, created by Shahar Segall and Oren Yaakobi, is the story of 16-year-old Dori, a teenager with vitiligo, a longterm skin condition characterised by patches of the skin losing their pigment. The condition lowers his confidence and in order to fulfill his secret dream of singing and performing on stage, he invents a charismatic and talented alter ego. As Ziggy Dori he can conquer bullies and shine through the mask he adopts as his signature costume. The show follows Dori’s journey to success and his battle to keep his true identity a secret, while he falls in love and makes friends. Nickelodeon Hot has commissioned 40 episodes of the series, offered internationally by ADD as a format and finished series.
PARIS-based GAD holds a slate of documentary, arts and cultural programming, including: music specials Turandot By Giacomo Puccini (1 x 119 mins/HD); Boris Godunov By Modeste Moussorgski At Bolshoi Theater (1 x 171 mins/HD); Beethoven’s Choral Symphony – Sir Simon Rattle Conducts The London Symphony Orchestra (1 x 110 mins/HD); William Christie, The Art Of Giving (1 x 53 mins/HD); Baroque Odyssey, A Birthday Concert In The Gardens Of William Christie (1 x 43 mins/4K); Lux Aeterna – Teodor Currentzis Conducts Musicaeterna At The Sainte-Chapelle (1 x 67 mins/4K); and Czech Roots – Kazushi Ono Directs London Symphony Orchestra (1 x 90 mins/4K). Other titles include: The Big Burn (1 x 52 mins/4K), about mega fires; Who Wrote The Bible? (1 x 52 mins/HD); The Time Factory (1 x 52 mins/90 mins/HD), about the relationship between humans and time; The Dark Side Of Green Energies (1 x 54 mins/HD); Resilience – Ryad Merhy (1 x 52 mins/HD), a profile of the boxer; and the second season of Worldwide Wine Civilizations (10 x 26 mins/HD).
Turandot By Giacomo Puccini (GAD)
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Ziggy (ADD Content)
FREMANTLE REALITY dating-show format Five Guys A Week, is presented to the international market by Fremantle. Created by Label1 for Channel 4 in the UK, the series has now also featured on TV2 in Denmark, and channels and platforms to be announced in Canada, Norway and Finland are all producing local versions of the show. Global commissions for the series had previously been announced in Sweden and France. In the show one single girl invites five guys who are looking for love to move into her home and live with her for a week, all at the same time, all under one roof. Each day she eliminates one of them, down to the last man standing. Fremantle holds global format rights.
ABOUT Premium Content is launching new Australian drama series Operation Buffalo to the international market. Set in the outback of South Australia, the six-part series is about the events and frightening truths of British atomic testing in the 1950s, blending espionage thriller, political satire and biting black comedy. APC has participated in the financing of the project and takes worldwide distribution rights. Another title on the slate — produced by Warner Bros. International Television Production Finland and the UK’s Wall to Wall Media — is the six-part series Man In Room 301, a psychological thriller that weaves between the past and present to tell the story of the Kurtti family, whose lives irrevocably change when two-yearold Tommi is killed by a gunshot. While on their family holiday in Greece 12 years later, they come across a man that looks just like the boy’s alleged killer. A third priority is new drama series La Linea Invisible (6 x 45 mins), APC’s latest collaboration with Movistar+, set in 1963 in the early days of the Basque nationalist paramilitary group ETA. The series follows an idealistic young man who gets gradually more involved with the increasingly violent organisation until there is no turning back.
MIPTV Online+ Daily 1 • 24 • 31 March 2020
FULL FEATURE FEATURE: CO-PRODUCTION
‘We started with no ideas’
Rachelle Lefevre and Matt Whelan star in The Sounds
In the current golden age of TV fiction, coproduction deals can be key to satisfying the global demand for content. Andy Fry spoke to Shaftesbury Films founder Christina Jennings about the structure of a recent Shaftesbury co-production, eightpart thriller series The Sounds
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AUNCHED in 1987, Canadian producer Shaftesbury Films has grown into one of the international market’s most successful independent production companies. Founded by Christina Jennings, the company is active across drama, kids and family and has both branded-content and tech divisions. In TV drama production, its slate includes more than 200 episodes of Murdoch Mysteries as well as Frankie Drake Mysteries, Hudson & Rex, Departure, Dead Still, The Sounds and Slasher. A specialist in co-production, Jennings explained how MIPTV played a key role in The Sounds, a project involving Shaftesbury in Canada, and companies in
New Zealand and Australia. “We had wanted to do a co-production with Australia and New Zealand for years, so at a recent MIP, I scheduled a working dinner with Kelly Martin of South Pacific Pictures to find a show. We started with no ideas. Instead the first question was, ‘How do we make a show work for both our territories?’” Jennings said. “There weren’t a lot of examples to turn to so, we made a list of the things that each of us could bring to the table. For example, New Zealand has unique exotic settings like the South Island — so we decided to look at the idea of a Canadian protagonist located there in a kind of fishout-of-water story. We thought about the cost of shooting and decided New Zealand made sense, but we wanted a North
American-style directing sensibility. We talked around issues like where to do post-production. Once we had our criteria we looked at 15-20 ideas and agreed on The Sounds. We developed it together — then once we had a script and a bible we started thinking about how to raise the finance. So even though we established a lot of criteria upfront, it’s important to stress that this co-production didn’t start as a business deal. It always has to be a creative-led partnership.” It’s still a common option with a TV drama production to go to your domestic broadcaster first, Jennings said. “But the international market is so flexible now that you don’t have to. With The Sounds, we starting by seeing what we could raise internally and via soft incentives, tax credits etc. Then, the first place we went to fund the gap was SVOD platform Acorn Media Enterprises. We knew them and felt this female protagonist thriller could work for them.” After Acorn signed up there was still a gap in the finances so South Pacific took the idea to distributor All3Media International, which with South Pacific
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ON MIPBLOG.COM is part of the All3Media group of companies. “All along, we had a line in our budget for Canada — but public broadcaster CBC Canada was actually the last place we went to. Ten years ago we probably would have gone to CBC right out of the gate, but our instinct with this show was not to sell Canadian rights too early. As a company, we’re comfortable with the new options in the market because we’ve been doing co-production from the start. It’s not that different.” With a 2020 debut, The Sounds is created by best-selling author Sarah-Kate Lynch — who is also lead writer; Peter Stebbings directs. Acorn Media Enterprises has secured all rights in the US, Ireland and the UK; secondary rights in Australia; and home-entertainment and non-exclusive SVOD rights in New Zealand. The series is commissioned by Acorn Media Enterprises (AME) and Sky NZ, in association with CBC, which has the Canadian broadcast rights; Acorn TV has the home entertainment rights and is offering the series to its Canadian subscribers. All3Media International is distributing the series to the rest of the world. Christina Jennings
Christina Jennings:
“The first question was, ‘How do we make a show work for both our territories?’”
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FULL FEATURE FEATURE: BUYERS
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Kerry Washington and Reese Witherspoon star in Little Fires Everywhere, for Hulu
Buying in the age of streaming With so much great content being produced and with such high demand around the world, you might suppose that the life of a programme buyer is an easy one. But along with the opportunities there are challenges, as Andy Fry reports HE RISE of streamers, the inflated cost of talent and production, broadcaster/ studio consolidation, centralised group-buying strategies—– all this suggests that securing access to quality content will be more challenging than ever in 2020. Increased reliance on cross-border co-productions and more partnerships between buyers and distributors are likely, as the latter are best-placed to monitor trends in the global content market. Viaplay’s ownership of DRG is an example of this. Similarly, Viacom-owned Channel 5 has managed to boost its profile in scripted series through a partnership with All3Media International — with titles including Blood, Penance and All Creatures Great And Small. The pursuit of high-quality yet affordable content means buyers will increasingly find themselves sitting around the negotiating table with partners including talent agents, brands and in-
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vestors. For example MGM Television recently sealed a partnership with management and production company 42 (Traitors, Wild Bill). In an on-demand world where new TV streaming services are appearing with frightening regularity and where audiences can watch what they want when they want — and brand-loyalty is becoming a thing of the past — one solution is to take triedand-tested subject matter and give writers and directors the freedom to reinvent it. This is what the BBC has done with its new adaptations of A Christmas Carol, adapted by Peaky Blinders’ Steven Knight; and Dracula, adapted by Sherlock’s Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss. Another solution is to work with scripted formats, as this offers the opportunity to customise a proven production. Scripted formats are especially useful when it comes to exporting dramas from Asia to the West and vice-versa, and for
scripted shows that originate in Latin America and Israel — so expect more deals in 2020. TV buying strategies have tended to focus on securing long-running franchises that can be repeated regularly in clearly signposted schedule grids, releasing pressure on production costs and marketing. These franchises are still important to many traditional broadcasters, but audiences are getting more used to varying content lengths via their streaming platforms and mobile devices — a shift in consumer behaviour may encourage more buyers to focus on short-form content or atypical-length series, for example; willingness to shake up the schedule in this way may help to win back digital natives. Buyers will need to be alert to unexpected opportunities as the more streamers come online. While streamers generally seek to hold on to all rights, agile acquisition teams may spot tactical opportunities to pick up some series in specific territories, or for short windows. Competition for subscribers may encourage some streamers to enter partnerships with traditional broadcasters as a way of promoting their services — or partially recouping investment in content. Also it’s worth keeping an eye on whether Netflix changes its strategy with regard to rights
MIPTV Online+ Daily 1 • 28 • 31 March 2020
sharing and windowing. As Disney, Warner and Comcast start taking back licensed content from the SVOD platform for use on their own services — The Office and Friends, for example — Netflix may have to increase its volume of originals. And the best way to do that without worrying shareholders will be a pragmatic approach to co-production and distribution. In terms of genre, this year looks like it will extend the trend towards female-led scripted series — with Anna Kendrick’s Love Life; Amy Schumer’s Love, Beth; Reese Witherspoon’s Little Fires Everywhere and Rosario Dawson’s Brairpatch launching — as well as a grown up Lizzie McGuire on Disney+. Space is another theme to the year, with Star Trek: Picard, Space Force and Avenue 5 all appearing. The race is also on to fill the Game Of Thrones fantasy void, with The Witcher an early candidate. The true-crime bandwagon will keep rolling — no surprise given the recent success of Netflix’s Madeleine McCann documentary series; and true-crime dramas this year are exploring everything from Bill Clinton’s impeachment to serial killer Dennis Nilsen, played by David Tennant. In factual, Amazon Prime’s Ted Bundy: Falling For A Killer, MTV’s True Life Crimes and CNN’s reboot of Forensic Files also get a 2020 launch.
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FEATURE: THE STREAMERS
Streaming: the challenges continue
NENT CEO Anders Jensen
France TV president Delphine Ernotte Cunci
ITV CEO Carolyn McCall
A current TV industry talking point is how much of an impact new SVOD aggregators Disney+, HBO Max, Apple TV+ and others might have on the big two — Netflix and Amazon. But this is only part of the streaming story as local and regional SVOD and AVOD services emerge around the world. Andy Fry looks at some examples in Europe AVING seen their linear businesses disrupted by SVOD services, UK public broadcaster the BBC and commercial rival ITV put their differences aside and launched BritBox, a service that offers a mix of classic British shows and exclusive originals for around $8 a month. BritBox launched in North America first, where it is reckoned to have 500,000 subscribers. A UK version launched in November 2019, with ITV CEO Carolyn McCall calling it “a milestone moment. We look forward to bringing the best in British programming to viewers in one place.” BritBox is currently owned 90% by ITV, though the BBC has the option to increase its share to 25%. Shows at launch included Downton Abbey, Victoria, Happy Valley, Broadchurch, Les Miserables and Love Island. And while ITV and BBC archive is core to the Britbox strategy, the partners are keen to secure TV content from other UK suppliers — for example Channel 4 comes come on board this year. Reemah Sakaan, group director
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ITV SVOD, said: “Originals are really important, but they aren’t everything. You’ve got to establish the brand and the business. It’s a brand new brand in the UK market.” Nordic Entertainment’s (NENT) SVOD aggregator Viaplay was among the first of Europe’s homegrown streaming platforms. Available across Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, it currently has 1.46 million subscribers and is expanding into Iceland this week (April 1). Part of a group that also controls several free-to-air and pay-TV assets, one of Viaplay’s key differentiators is access to premium live sports rights. NENT CEO Anders Jensen outlined plans at MIPTV 2019 to double original — mainly scripted — content on Viaplay. Germany’s ProSiebenSat1 was one of the first European outfits to dive into streaming via its Maxdome platform. Then in 2018, it changed direction when it announced the revamp of its OTT service in partnership with Discovery, the US owner of Eurosport. The result is Joyn, which launched as a free service in June 2019 and then added a premium subscription
offering, Joyn Plus+, in November that year. Rather than a single SVOD aggregation service, Joyn offers a wide array of linear and on-demand channels. In addition to content from ProSiebenSat.1 and Discovery, it also includes channels from public broadcasters ARD and ZDF as well as partners including Viacom, WELT and Sport1. Within two months of launch, the free (ad-funded) version of Joyn had 3.8 million users per month, with more than half of the content (61%) watched on mobile. ProSiebenSat1 expects Joyn to achieve its target of 10 million monthly active users quite soon. As yet, it’s too early to know how the (€6.99) premium version is performing. After a protracted regulatory battle, France Televisions, TF1 and M6 finally secured permission to launch streaming service Salto in summer 2019. The goal is for the new service to debut in June. French platforms including Altice, Canal+ and Orange have all said they would be open to carrying the service — as they do with other streamers.
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The new platform will complement each broadcaster’s existing OTT services and will offer a broad array of content. Delphine Ernotte Cunci, president of France TV, says: “Salto will showcase the best of French and European creation.” Launched in 2010, Ivi has emerged as the leading Russian streaming service with around 43 million unique visitors a month and an estimated 42% share of the legal online video market. It offers a broad array of domestic and international content from partners including CTC Media, Warner Bros., Disney and NBCU. It has also acquired content from BBC Studios, including scripted series Call The Midwife and Top Of The Lake. At the end of 2018, Ivi’s revenues were reckoned to be around $60m, with the paid-for component model accounting for around 70% of the total. The next stage of Ivi’s growth will involve more original production designed to drive premium take up. With this in mind, the platform recently secured $40m from leading Russian and foreign investors.
FULL FEATURE FEATURE: ASIAN FORMATS
What’s behind the success of Asia’s formats ONTRARY to Asia’s madcap image, there is a rich vein of slow-burning formats — shows that encourage people to escape the rat race or learn to relax — that has come from this region. If there is a quality that seems to shine through with Asian formats, it isn’t eccentricity, but a positivity that encourages family viewing. Japan, Korea and China are the formats powerhouses of the region. So what are the special qualities of formats from these countries? Japan is still a driving force for entertainment format exports. Ninja Warrior, Takeshi’s Castle, Dragons’ Den, Total Blackout, Hole In The Wall and The Iron Chef are just a few of the more high-profile franchises to have shown staying power on the international market. One explanation for Japan’s success is the high volume of variety shows on mainstream Japanese TV. New shows and new strands within those shows mean there is a constant pipeline of original ideas coming through — the best of which have been seen during MIP’s well-established Treasure Box Japan event over the years. Hole In The Wall, for example, originated as a segment within a Fuji TV variety show. After generating significant interest
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online, it was converted into a fully-formed international show by Fuji and Fremantle. Japan’s success with entertainment formats has encouraged some of the country’s leading IP creators to explore the potential of scripted formats. Nippon TV, for example, has licensed Mother, Woman – My Life For My Children and Abandoned, to markets including Turkey. It is now promoting Top Knife, Off The Record and Our Dearest Sakura. Korea’s explosion onto the global content scene has primarily been driven by the popularity of its dramas, which sell well in their original form — and K-Pop, which has done amazing things for the country’s international profile. Recently, Korea’s success in dramas has provided a platform for creators in the Korean TV industry to start selling formats. Korea can’t yet boast the same volume of format exports as Japan but it has had some huge breakthroughs. On the scripted side, ABC’s adaptation of KBS’ The Good Doctor was as significant in its own way as ABC’s adaptation of LatAm scripted series Ugly Betty or Showtime’s adaptation of Israeli drama Homeland. There have been parallel successes in unscripted — first NBC’s Better Late Than Never! (based on CJ ENM’s Grandpas Over Flowers) and then The Masked
There is an old cliche that Asian TV formats are interesting because they’re a bit crazy — which probably goes all the way back to Za Gama (Endurance) in the 1980s. But the reality is that Asia’s strength in the international market lies in the diversity and innovation of its output
Singer, an MBC celebrity singing format that is currently taking the world by storm. Adapted initially by Fox Network in the US, the show has passed 30 format deals. After the success of Grandpas Over Flowers, CJ ENM looks set for further success. One of its formats, I Can See Your Voice, is currently up to 11 format deals. Another, Love At First Song, has secured deals in Korea and Denmark. John Legend’s Get Lifted Film Co, Simon Lythgoe and Critical Content are also reportedly working on an American adaptation of Love At First Song. A few years back, Chinese regulators decided to stem the import of foreign entertainment shows by limiting the number of international formats that
Global hit: The Masked Singer
MIPTV Online+ Daily 1 • 32 • 31 March 2020
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domestic broadcasters could air. One positive impact of this — for the Chinese TV industry — has been a growing number of original Chinese formats, which are now starting to trickle out into the global market. Key players in this reversal have been China’s streaming platforms. YouKu, for example, licensed its format Dunk Of China to Fox Networks Group Asia, while iQiyi licensed street-dance talent show Hot-Blood Dance Crew to US production company U2K. iQiyi also licensed the format to Malaysia’s Astro, Singapore’s Starhub TV and Hong Kong’s myTV Super — which is a reminder that there is a strong intra-Asia trade in entertainment formats that has nothing to do with western markets.
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FULL FEATURE FEATURE: ANIMATION
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‘I’m a terrible co-production partner’ Xilam Animation CEO Marc du Pontavice launched his Paris-based business in 1999 and has built it into one of the world’s leading animation studios. Hit series including Oggy And The Cockroaches and Zig And Sharko have sold to more than 190 countries. Here he speaks about producing for the international market RECENT breakout success for Xilam includes Mr Magoo, a reimagining of the classic animation property created in 1949— a title that fits perfectly into Marc du Pontavice’s list of rules for what genres work best internationally. “Slapstick comedy, action adventure, sci-fi, anything that takes audiences away from their day-to-day lives” are his top choices. “But that only gets you so far. You also need characters that are universal and relatable; and you need relationships between characters that audiences can connect with.” Oggy And The Cockroaches doesn’t just work because of the slapstick and gags, it works because audiences relate to the situation Oggy is in, he said. “They find him adorable, and they recognise the challenges he faces. Another show of ours that connects with global audiences is Moka’s Fabulous Adventures. It has a lot of visual comedy
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and weirdness, but what really makes it work is Moka’s relationship with Cherry. Of course, one of the luxuries of animation in terms of export is that we can work with animals and imaginary characters. That can take the audience away from the frustration they might feel at seeing human characters that don’t really reflect the way they live their own lives.” Co-production works for many producers, but for Marc du Pontavice: “I’m a terrible co-production partner, which is why I haven’t done it very often over that last 25 years. I love working with broadcaster notes, but I find sharing a vision between entities is difficult. I also think co-production equates to a loss of energy and time even when it involves two great producers. So ideally I don’t do it, if I can avoid it.” But if you do enter into a co-production you need to be really clear about who controls the vision, he said. “While I don’t co-produce a lot, Xilam
Marc du Pontavice: “You need characters that are universal and relatable”
does a lot of physical production abroad. The key here is to maintain strong control over the pipeline — because the client depends on you for quality and timing. We have a studio in Vietnam and we do some animation in the Philippines. We used to do a lot of work with South Korea but as that got more expensive we moved south. India wasn’t so much of an option for us when we first started working abroad because we were focused on 2D and their industry was geared more around CGI.” Meanwhile, du Pontavice is happy with the disruption the SVOD players have brought to the marketplace. “As a distributor, it has been great — because streamers now account for 43% of our revenues [2019]. And that is not just substitutional — some of it is incremental. It’s also really interesting to see your show reach the whole world via one platform instead of the traditional distribution rollout. As a producer, global platforms make dealmaking more com-
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plex. For us, controlling rights is still important — we don’t want to be work-for-hire. So we still need to be financing shows and doing deals that allow us to retain ownership of our programming.” And while animation has long production lead times, Xilam has not been tempted to go big on live-action. “It’s more difficult to make it universal than animation and its long-term value is not so great,” du Pontavice said. “For us, diversification has been about expanding into CGI and building our pre-school slate with shows like Paprika. Pre-school is, of course, interesting to us because of its licensing and merchandising potential.” Another area of growth for the company is adult animation. “Our Oscar nomination for feature film I Lost My Body has put us on to a different piece of the animation map and secured us a major deal with Netflix. This is a great development for us — a new frontier in a fast-growing business.”
