Apr 29, 2002

MIPTV 2002 DEAL ROUND-UP

The UK’s Channel 4 and ZDF in Germany struck a factual partnership consisting of programme exchanges, mutual investments and joint programme development. Among the shows to be made are: The SS, Ice World, Metropolis: The Power of Cities, The Private Life of Pompeii and Napoleon's Waterloo. Channel 4 also sold the Kenneth Branagh period epic Shackleton to CCTV (China), NHK (Japan), TVNZ (New Zealand), Arts Channel (Singapore) and TVB (HK). European sales were signed with Telecinco (Spain), YLE (Finland) and France 2. Promark Entertainment won TV and home video rights to four 60-minute documentaries from Original Productions including Shipwrecks and Salvage and Greatest Motorcycles Ever. MTV Networks International inked a 3-year deal with Channel 4 covering the terrestrial rights for UK versions of the MTV Music Awards and MTV Video Music Awards. MTV also closed deals with German networks ZDF, Super RTL and Kinderkanal for Nickelodeon content. UK distributor Action Time acquired the international rights excluding North America for the MTV format Flipped. The Gurin Company (US) has taken rights to produce US versions of Action Time's dating format It's a Love Thing. Action Time has picked up worldwide rights ex-US to Gurin's Ransacked. The Gurin Company and Sweden’s Jarowskij teamed up to create a new joint venture called Gurin Jarowskij USA aimed at developing low-cost drama for the international marketplace. Two of BBC Worldwide’s new animations have seen presales with deals for Ace Lightning and Andy Pandy. New Zealand's TVNZ has come onboard both series, while SIC (Portugal) has picked up Ace Lightning and Indonesia’s TV7 has taken Andy Pandy. David Attenborough’s Natural history series The Life of Mammals has gone to MNET in South Africa, ABC in Australia and YLE in Finland. The BBC has also sold some 700 hours of high-end documentaries and drama to Finnish public broadcaster YLE, Israeli broadcaster Noga Communications, Russian broadcaster Centre TV and RTP in Portugal. Tele Images signed a French rights deal with Japan’s Yomiuri Telecasting Corporation to adapt Japanese game/talk show format Kokology. Spain's BRB International and US company Foothill Entertainment signed a co-production agreement to develop, produce and distribute animated series Pirate School (26x30’), which will be broadcast by the BBC. Saban International Paris and UK broadcaster ITV closed a pre-buy for animated series Tofu Family (52x11’). Beyond Productions (Australia) and Pearson Broadband have closed a deal to co-produce a factual series aimed at children called Backyard Science (26x30’ or 52x15’) based on the Dorling Kindersley books. Europe Images International (France) signed a long-term agreement with Tang Media, which will market 2,500 hours of programming to China. Fireworks International (UK) sold seasons one and two of its teen drama series Being Eve to US kids networks Noggin (a joint venture between Nickelodeon and Sesame Workshop). The 26x30' series blends live-action with cgi, music video and photomontage. South African broadcaster M-Net secured rights to Southern Star’s The Secret Lives of Us. US cable channel Tech TV purchased rights for Carlton International’s The Thunderbirds, the classic puppet animation created by Gerry Anderson. The company also picked up rights to documentary series Future Fighting Machines sold by the UK’s Minotaur. TechTV also purchased 26 hours of Mentorn’s Techno Games. Australia’s ABC sold 100 new episodes of Bananas in Pyjamas to ABS/CBN in the Philippines. Malaysia’s Gama Taktik also picked up some 60 episodes from the series. UBC Thailand licensed factual programming for pay satellite TV including Going Public, Frocks, Woks & Gossip and The Face. Canada’s Alliance Atlantis signed major deals for drama programmes with key broadcasters in Spain (Telecinco), France (TF1 and M6), Belgium (RTL), South Africa (SABC), Asian territories (HBO Asia, MBC Korea) and Latin America (Globo Sat, Televisa). TWI sold four documentary miniseries to RTE, fifty hours of extreme sports programming to the Extreme Channel, action adventure series Friends in High Places to pan-European cable network UPC, Rediscovering Brubeck, Heart of Ice and Colour of War III to Cyprus’ CYBC. Video deals were done with the UK's LACE International and Warner Vision International, Japan Sports Vision, and the US’s Acorn and Delta. Canada’s S&S Productions sold comedy show Red Green (16x30’) to Australia’s Comedy Channel. Italy’s Mediatrade and the BBC have inked a pact by which Mediatrade has full rights over the BBC factual programming that it distributes, including Walking with Beasts, to develop DVD, video, publishing interactive and other merchandise. Mediatrade also acquired DeAngelis’ Elisa and Renzo and Lucia. The UK's Granada International licensed detective series Hercule Poirot to Italy’s Mediaset in a 13-film deal. New animation series Engie Benjy was sold to Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan, and drama series The Forsythe Saga went to Scandinavia. Drama special Me and Mrs Jones was picked up in France, Iceland and Czech TV. Granada also won its first ever commission from Discovery Networks Europe for a show based on its 13-part format What's the Big Idea?, in which members of the public pitch their own innovations and inventions to a panel of industry experts. Granada has also concluded an agreement with French broadcaster TF1 subsidiary, Glem TV who will work to develop Granada formats in France while feeding new program ideas back into the UK. Discovery Networks Europe picked up the 12x30’ science series The Edge from London Television Service. Cartoon Network Europe and France’s Alphanim entered a codevelopment agreement on Robotboy (52x13’) to be delivered in 2003. Ragdoll (UK) will provide an additional 105 Teletubbies episodes to Discovery Kids Latin America. Spain’s Cromosoma sold 104 episode of The Triplets to and inked a licensing deal with Fox Kids Holland, while Fox Kids Italy acquired 13 episodes of Miniman and 39 episodes of the Triplets. Paramount International Television passed a deal for a movies and TV series package with Irish public network RTE International. Germany’s Peppermint has secured Asian distribution rights to Swedish company’s Strix reality formats as well as to the entire catalogue of US children's producer DIC Entertainment, which amounts to 59 titles and over 1,100 episodes. Australian broadcaster XYZ Entertainment secured 150 hours of programs from E! Networks. E! Networks also signed with Tanglong International Media to air an E! block in China reaching a potential audience of 300 million viewers. C21 team Contact: Jo KavanaghPayne Gregory B Payne 805 965 4488