| |||
|
A few days into Cannes’ MIP TV, one of the TV industry’s most important trade fairs, ZDF Enterprises is reporting strong sales from international buyers. “We are particularly pleased that our new ‘factual series’ programs are in such great demand,” says Alexander Coridass, President and CEO of the ZDF subsidiary. Infotainment at its most exciting, the “factual series” comprise programs such as the Arctic-driller series “License to Drill” (6 x 45’), the repo-man saga “Repossessed” (10 x 60’) and the maximum-security prison stories “Hard Times” (22 x 60’). Some of these productions have been sold to Australia’s ABC, Canada’s Canwest, the Discovery Channel in Europe, Africa and the Middle East, Denmark’s DR-TV, Norway’s TV2 and Austria’s Servus TV. Other programs from ZDF Enterprises’s prestigious documentary catalogue are also in demand, such as “Hitler’s Lost Battleship” (National Geographic Channel U.S. and NGCI), the six-part “A Traveler’s Guide to the Planets” (NGCI), “1755 – The Lisbon Earthquake” (France’s arte and Canal +), “America Before Columbus” and “Busting the Wall” (TF 1 Histoire), “Adventure Ocean Quest” and “Ice Race” (RAI), “Secrets in the Dust” (History Channel UK, France 5, NHK, Russia’s TV Kultura). ZDF Enterprises’ scripted dramas – especially crime series and romances – continue to fill broadcasters’ time slots all over the world: the two seasons of the cult Danish police thriller “The Killing” (30 x 60’) will be seen in the UK (Arrow Films and BBC), France (KLB, Canal +), French Canada (Téléquébec) and the Benelux (Lumière). A sizable number of TV movies, such as romantic dramas by Inga Lindström and Rosamunde Pilcher, have been sold to France’s TF 1, TF 6 and France Télévisions, NHK, RTBF, Astral (French Canada), Antena 3, Italy’s RTI Mediaset and RSI, and Hungary’s Story TV; ZDF Enterprises’ sales team is also about to close a package deal with Italian broadcasters. A perennial staple of ZDF Enterprises’ portfolio are children’s and youth programs – and they continue to find their way onto buyers’ shopping lists at this spring’s MIP TV. A number of programs are going to Argentina’s Canal Encuentro, Spain’s TV3 (“The Jungle Book” and “Marsupilami”), Sweden’s SVT (“Ludovic”), Singapore’s MediaCorp/Peppermint (“Fun with Claude”). Particularly buoyant sales are being recorded for the Australian teen and youth series “Dance Academy” (52 x 26’), which has been acquired by Disney for Portugal and Spain, Norway’s NRK, Finland’s YLE, South Korea’s Kenny’n Co. France’s canal + and French Canada’s Astral. Among the firm’s sales to the German-speaking countries are “The Jungle Book” to Turner Deutschland, the first season of “The Elephant Princess” to Austria’s ORF, and seasons 3 and 4 of “Mission X” to Switzerland’s SRF. |
