One day longer and hosting unveils of big, big must-check-out series such as Paramount’s “King & Conqueror,” Fremantle’s “Sandokan” and BBC Studios reboot “Walking With Dinosaurs,” this week’s London TV Screenings did nothing to dent its recent status in a new biz order as one of Europe’s two key TV markets alongside October’s Mipcom.
It was these titles and a brace of classy star-studded crime thrillers – Andrew Lincoln’s “Cold Water,” Jesse Williams’ “Costiera,” Mark Gatiss’ “Bookish,” “Maigret” with Benjamin Wainwright – which looked to be moving the needle at this year’s London Screenings, which unspooled Feb. 23-28.
Mip London was much quieter with attendees often chasing buyers packing London Screenings, centered around Leicester Square and Soho, rather than frequenting the market’s Savoy Hotel.
It remains to be seen what kind of new market edge France’s Series Mania, already Europe’s premier co-production meet, may develop as some MipTV veterans head for Lille rather than London.
Taken together, however, this week’s two London TV events said a lot about the state of international TV business. 10 takes and a deal drill-down:
Sandokan
Credit: Erika Kuenka
A New Reality and Realism in Market Dealing
“Right now, the market is very much focused on reaching audiences.” Jens Richter, Fremantle CEO commercial and international, tells Variety. That market realism is playing out in multiple ways. Companies are moving into English-language drama which can sell to the U.S., whether Fremantle with its banner Screenings duo “Sandokan” and “Costiera” or Federation Studios with family succession drama-thriller “I, Jack Wright.” Niche dramas are ever rarer. ITV Studios’ top scripted swings, “Cold Water” and “The Hack,” “are still going to have slightly older audiences but they’re targeted at a much broader audience, broadening that funnel out more into a wider appeal for everybody,” says Ruth Berry, president global partnerships & Zoo 55, ITV Studios.
Andrew Lincoln in ‘Cold Water’
Andrew Lincoln makes his British TV return in ITV Studios’ ‘Cold Water’ (Credit: Mark Mainz)
Beckham Becomes MIP London’s MVP
While the lineup of panellists might not have matched the sort of C-Suite level execs that are drawn to the French Riviera each October for Mipcom, MIP London organizers did pull out the stops for their headline act on Wednesday. A scrum formed outside the main lecture hall to see David Beckham chat to Netflix’s content chief Bela Bejaria long before the doors opened and likely many meetings arranged that time found themselves strangely canceled.
Star Punch
Stars indeed count for ever more in today’s challenged TV environment where money is tighter and shows have to stand out in a crowd. James Norton and Nikolaj William Coster-Waldau head “King & Conqueror,” Turkish superstar Can Yaman and Ed Westwick and John Hannah head “Sandokan.”
And if you’re going to do crime, get a star. The combination could be lethal. At the Screenings, ITV announced that hit detective comedy “Ludwig,” starring David Mitchell, will air in 85 markets worldwide. Of new shows in London, “Cold Water” has “The Walking Dead’s” Andrew Lincoln, Jesse Williams heads Fremantle procedural “Costiera,” and Beta Film’s “Bookish,” its biggest swing in London, stars “Sherlock’s” Mark Gatiss, who also co-created the show. Around half of ITV’s top formats at the Screenings have one way or another a celeb presence. “Our clients definitely ask for that star power recognition. You really need to have something that helps you cut through and elevate a show in the schedule. This refers to all programming genres, especially drama,” says Berry.
Costiera
Courtesy Prime Video
But What Did Beckham Say?
Beckham didn’t say a whole lot (although he did elicit sharply-drawn breathes from the crowd when he admitted he wasn’t into “U.K. drama”), but that didn’t matter — it was Beckham, in a suit, looking every inch the star (and not nearly the 50 years of age he turns in May). But the recent Emmy winner did provide a few new insights into his wife’s Victoria’s upcoming docuseries with Netflix (“It’s so emotional, there’s drama — and the drama’s real,” he said) and gave some fun anecdotes about “getting back into his underwear” for a recent Hugo Boss shoot. At the end he revealed he would soon be announcing a new brand partnership for his “sticky stuff,” quickly clarifying — to the relief of the audience — that he meant his homegrown “honey.”
Resilient Doc Business
But, beyond taking in high-profile dramas and David Beckham, if they had the time, what were buyers interested in at London? “The largest trend that I’ve seen here is the growth in docu content, non-fiction, unscripted, it’s very rapid,” Sidharth Jain at India’s The Story Ink said at Mip London. A significant number of the deals announced out of the Screenings were on docuseries: Fox Ent. Global’s docu-soap “Billion Dollar Playground; Keshet Intl.’s “Hitler’s Treasure Hunters,” now sold to 60 territories, and “Seven Wonders of the Ancient World,” and Red Bull Studios’ series and films, such as “The Real Mo Farah” and “The Dawn Wall,” which were acquired by Blue Ant. But buyers are selective. “The appetite is for docs on environmental issues, the tech-society relationship and more perennial character stories, especially indigenous stories,” says Emma Simpson, head of acquisitions and development at Journeyman Pictures.
Asia’s New Global Era
Asia was fairly well represented at Mip London with detailed country focuses on China, Korea and Japan and a strong contingent attending from Singapore’s Infocomm Media Development Authority. One Mip London panel highlighted how Japanese creativity is finding new pathways to international success through strategic partnerships and adaptation of content for global audiences, such as manga IP. Just three years old, The Seven, a Tokyo Broadcasting System company, has produced Netflix global hits “Alice in Borderland” and “Yu Yu Hakusho” and has ongoing collaborations with American and Korean partners, taking in a project with “Face/Off” producer David Permut and a partnership with Korean director J.Q. Lee on Netflix zombie series “All of Us Are Dead.” “In the past, there was difficulty or hurdles for Japanese scripted shows to travel,” said The Seven’s Fumi Nishibashi. That’s now far less the case.
All of us are Dead
Credit: Yang Hae-sung/Netflix © 2021
Crime Thrillers: The Challenge
The London markets unspoiled after 2024 when crime thrillers accounted for 25% of global scripted orders. That percentage may indeed have even gone up: 40% of Global 6 streamer commissions, second half 2024, were crime thrillers, both stats according to Ampere Analysis. So everyone’s pouring into crime. The challenge is to cut deals. One solution is lighter crime. Set on Italy’s dazzling Positano coast, is the “ultimate blue sky procedural,” says Richter. There’s also a return to case per episode, procedurals. “In these quite dark times, there is a joy to be found in escaping into a world with self-contained dilemmas that 46 minutes later are resolved, and normally, justice prevails,” says “Bookish” producer Walter Iuzzolino at Eagle Eye Pictures, calling Bookish “comfy crime.” Above all, however, shows “have to have an angle, an originality,” says U.K.-based Alan Rudoff who acquires rights for a number of distributors, investors and producers across all genres. In the case of “Bookish,” its cases are spread over two episodes, allowing the series to plumb its characters, and their emotional wounds at deep loss of loved ones in WWII.
‘Bookish’
Credit: UKTV, Nicolas Velter
Streamers Embrace the Creative Economy….
Streamers – most notably Netflix and Prime Video – are embracing the creator economy. Hannah Blyth, head of TV licensing at Prime Video’s U.K. arm, pointed to the example of “Molly-Mae: Behind It All,” a docu-series that follows the life of British social media influencer Molly-Mae Hague as she deals with her break-up with the boxer Tommy Fury. “The benefit is that you have these influencers who have very engaged, very loyal fan bases,” she said. However, she cautioned that “it still needs to be compelling content that makes sense as long form.”
Scale Matters, and FAST and Digital Channels Too
And big companies are gearing up for FAST and digital delivery. In one of the Screenings banner announcements, ITV Studios signed a deal with Vice Studios to become its exclusive global distribution partner. The agreement takes in choice titles: “Dark Side of the Ring” franchise and “United Gangs of America.” But there’s a larger picture. At Mipcom, ITV announced Zoo 55, a digital label to enhance its digital media presence, including YouTube and FAST channels. The deal adds nearly 2,000 hours of Vice content to ITS Studios 90,000+ hour catalogue – “an exciting and rare opportunity to strengthen both our content pipeline and digital footprint,” said ITV Studios’ Berry.
Video is King
During a Thursday Omdia Analysis presentation, María Rua Aguete highlighted the dominance of video content in the global media and entertainment industry, with platforms like TikTok, YouTube and Netflix leading the market. By 2025, the industry is projected to reach $1.07 trillion, with 70% of that being video content. She also noted that Netflix is expected to surpass Meta and YouTube in revenues this year, a major milestone for the company, which has recently embraced ad-supported tiers and live sports. Rua also emphasized the increasing importance that social media ad campaigns have on younger audiences, YouTube’s expanding role in movie distribution and a shift towards connected TVs for YouTube consumption.
The Deals:
Variety broke top titles on the London Screenings slates of Fremantle, Banijay and ITV Studios. Below is further news announced during a London TV week hosting both the Screenings and a first MIP London:
*Flagging one of the big sales hits of 2024 U.K. dramas, ITV Studios announced at the London TV Screenings that the Britbox-bound detective comedy “Ludwig,” BBC’s biggest new scripted show of 2024 attracting over 9.5 million viewers, will air in 85 markets. Buyers include major broadcasters: Germany’s ZDF, Sweden’s SVT.
*Banijay Entertainment unveiled fresh formats “Football Island” and “Date on Stage” at the London TV Screenings, the first, from the Netherlands blending sports, survival and competition reality, the second weaving romance and comedy.
*High-energy game show format “Ants,” inspired by ant colonies, has been picked up by Fremantle from Nippon TV, and further developed by Fremantle North America for global roll-out.
*Emmy Winner ”Baby Reindeer” creator and star Richard Gadd has rounded out the cast to his follow-up, HBO-BBC estranged brothers’ drama “Half Man” with 13 additions led by Neve McIntosh (“Doctor Who”) and Marianne McIvor (“Lady Chatterley’s Lover”). Gadd and Jamie Bell (“All of Us Strangers,” “Rocket Man”) star.
*Smash hit psychological reality “The Traitors” has now been commissioned in 30 territories, distributor All3Media Intl. announced at the London TV Screenings.
*New Regency is driving into Europe, making its first European sales acquisition, smart genre crime thriller “Beyond” (aka “Oderbruch”), from CBS Studios, ARD, Syrreal, and a ratings water cooler for ARD.
*”The X-Files” writer Frank Spotnitz is returning to sci-fi with alien invasion thriller “We Come in Peace,” sold by Newen Connect’ and set to be produced by Black Spark Film & TV and Spotnitz’s London-based Big Light Productions. Spotnitz serves as writing supervisor as well as executive producer.
*”Doctor Who” has a Season 2 premiere date of April 12 on Disney+ in the U.S. and on BBC and BBC iPlayer in the U.K, with “The Traitors” host Alan Cumming as guest star.
*Beta Film has picked up international distribution rights to Leticia Dolera‘s family drama “Pubertat – Secrets, Lies and Human Castles,” the Spanish writer-director-actor’s follow-up to “Perfect Life,” a double Canneseries winner.
*ITV standout drama “Malpractice,” a medical thriller sold to 70 countries, and docuseries “TikTok: Murder Gone Viral,” have been renewed for second seasons.
*ZDF Studios affiliate Doclights has begun production on three new nature documentaries, “Hawaii – Water and Soul,” “Indonesia – World of Wonders” and Canada’s “Wild Eastern Edge.” ZDF is the international distributor for all three series.
*BBC Studios and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) have renewed a multi-year deal spanning drama, comedy, kids shows and entertainment, including Alan Carr’s autobiographical comedy “Changing Ends” (Seasons 3-4) and standup favorite “Live At the Apollo.” ABC secured first-run rights to children’s series, such as preschool hit “Hey Duggee.”
*ITV Studios and China’s Zhejiang Media Group have inked to co-develop unscripted content for local and global markets, tapping into a global demand for new formats that reflect diverse cultures. First up is “Go Fishing!,” to be revealed in the coming months.
*Fox Ent. Global, Fox Ent.’s worldwide content sales division, has secured key international pre-sales for Foxtel’s Australian docu-soap “Billion Dollar Playground,” taking in the U.K. (BBC), Canada (Corus Ent.), New Zealand (Bravo) and Netherlands (Talpa TV).
*Beta Film, Greece’s Foss Productions, behind smash hit “The Beach,” are teaming up on a new six-part period drama “The Great Chimera,” adapting for the first time M. Karagatsis’ boundary-pushing 1930s-set Greek modern classic. Beta Film co-produces and has international distribution rights.t.
*Bringing to market jailed daughter thriller “Unconditional,” billed as Keshet’s biggest show ever, Keshet Intl. has sold unscripted six-part “Hitler’s Treasure Hunters” across 60 territories, including deals with Hearst Networks EMEA, Warner Bros. Discovery for Spain, and Polsat for Poland. Meanwhile, “Seven Wonders of the Ancient World” has pre-sold to Australia’s SBS and France’s TF1’s Histoire TV channel, following Channel Five’s partnership in the U.K.
*Cineflix Rights has boarded “Nordic Blue” crime thriller “Hildur,” written by top Scandinavian scribe Matti Laine (“Bordertown”) and backed, among others, by Sagafilm and private investment fund IPR.VC.
*France TV Distribution, the commercial arm of the French public broadcaster France Télévisions, has renewed comedy series “Apsergirl” for a second season as it brings onto market at Mip London thriller “Danger in the Valley,” co-written by bestselling Michel Bussi (“Prison Island,”).
*Warner Bros. Discovery U.K. & Ireland has ordered “Secrets of the Curry Kitchen,” a new culinary series starring celebrated chef Asma Khan, set to bow this May on Food Network and Discovery+. The 10-part half-hour is produced by Banijay U.K.‘s Sidney Street Productions.
*Taking in high-profile titles such as “The Real Mo Farah” and “The Dawn Wall,” Blue Ant Studios has struck an exclusive worldwide distribution rights deal to series and films from Austria’s Red Bull Studios, which join Blue Ant’s library of over 7,500 hours of programming drives ever more into third-party content.
*Storied Indian production house Narang Films unveiled a genre-heavy slate of international projects at Mip London, led by vampire series “The Dependence,” a gritty vampire series blending action, crime and western genres. It is co-penned by Simon Fantauzzo (“Taj: Royal Blood”), who is also writing “Protector” and “Carnage,” described as a “blood-soaked highway” horror anthology.
*Top Finnish commercial broadcaster MTV, behind TV hits “Conflict” and “Helsinki Crimes,” has announced it is ramping up its international co-productions, including a new project, crime thriller “The Last to Disappear,” based on a book by Irish author and screenwriter Jo Spain (“Harry Wild”).
*India’s Baweja Studios, which produced ZEE5 movie “Mrs,” and House of Talkies, behind Netflix series “House of Fire,” have inked a three-project pact at Mip London, details to be disclosed in the future.
‘Unconditional’
Credit: Keshet
