Buyers at this year's MIPCOM television-industry trade fair in Cannes acknowledged ZDF Enterprises' "Passion for Excellence" by showing exceptional interest in its line-up. The motto chosen by the distributor this year for the fall market not only refers to the firm's overall commitment to top-quality programs, but also applies to customer service and innovativeness in the digital arena. Christian Massmann, Head of Sales at ZDF Enterprises: "We provide more than 'just' television content. One example is our special all-media roll-out for all platforms that we're offering for programs such as "The Jungle Book," "H2O," "Fun with Claude," "The Protectors" and others. With our diversified catalogue and our digital strategy, we're also well equipped for the coming challenges: from global brand management to extra content for all imaginable digital devices, from high-caliber event programs and multimedia applications to short clips - we believe in our 'passion for excellence.'"

International buyers acquired and optioned a number of new programs produced or coproduced by ZDF Enterprises. In times of sinking budgets, broadcasters found a trove of programs with top production values at affordable prices.

Topping the shopping list for children's fare are the Jonathan M. Shiff blockbuster productions "The Elephant Princess" and "H2O - Just Add Water". Buyers for "The Elephant Princess" include Canada's Family Channel, Spain's NBC Universal ES, Vietnam's Thaole Media, Italy's Mediaset, Belgium's VRT and Holland's NPO, and for "H2O" Spain's Antena 3, Portugal's LNK Audiovisuais, Belgium's VRT, Holland's NPO and Canada's Vrak TV. Other sought-after children's programs include the preschooler series "Fun with Claude" (Australia's ABCTV, Poland's Canal +, Finland's YLE and Italy's RAI), "Igam Ogam" (ABCTV) and "Laura's Star" (Poland's Canal + and ABCTV), as well as "Shaolin Wuzang" (Portugal's Nickelodeon ES, ABCTV).

As one of the mainstays of the ZDF Enterprises portfolio, documentaries are always in great demand. This year, buyers were particularly interested in history programs, especially recent history, with package deals being inked by Discovery Channel UK, Australia's SBS2, History Channel ES in Spain and Portugal, Denmark's DR-TV, Sweden's SVT, Slovenia's RTV, China's Hubu Media and Fox Italy.

Fiction programs were also snapped up by international broadcasters: two seasons each of "Hamburg Dockland" and "The Criminalist" by AXN (Spain and Portugal), an important multi-title crime program by Finland's YLE, 250 episodes of the telenovela "Julia" by Estonia's kanal 2, six Barbara Wood TV movies by the Czech Republic's Hollywood CE, eight "Cruise into Cloud Nine" films by Italy's RAI, over 40 episodes of "Leipzig Homicide" by Fox Italy, an important romance package of 21 TV movies by Switzerland's RSI, a number of Inga Lindström romances, "Dream Journeys" and other TV Movies, as well as the brand-new crime series "Verdict Revised," by France's TF1, five Pilcher romances by France's M6 and a major TV movie package by Canada's Canal Vie.

Digital ancillary products such as websites (all-media packages), games and modules are opening up new venues for ZDF Enterprises. Clients are increasingly interested in these attractive offers that heighten the value of a production.

Finally, zdf-archive.com has inaugurated its videoclip service (P500) with an online sales platform. Deals have already been made with renowned newspaper publishers (Die Zeit, WAZ), Microsoft (eColumbus) and the Deutsche Bahn.