 Your once-a-month recap of trends in the factual and non-scripted formats sectors, with news digests, interviews, analysis & more. |
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This month’s digest of the biggest stories in the factual and format spheres explores the known IP trend, digital-first activities, creator collaborations, restructuring for the new landscape, and the challenges and opportunities in exporting Asian IP.
What’s Inside
Breakthrough Factual with BossaNova Media: A conversation with Francesca Johnson & Iona Hopper, BossaNova's new acquisitions leads.
A Story of Crime and Punishment: Lynn Novick talks about her upcoming PBS doc Crime and Punishment in America, a key highlight for PBS Distribution at MIPCOM.
Known Names, Unknown Stories: A recap of the known IP commissions and sales that made headlines across the true-crime, lifestyle, and entertainment spheres.
New Models, Familiar Faces: New company launches and restructures targeted at capitalizing on emerging trends.
Digital Scale & Archive Might: YouTube channels and library monetization across AVOD, FAST, and digital, including some high-profile archive deals.
Asian Format Innovation: Recapping a BCWW panel about Korean format exports, plus recent deals on Asian IP.
Creator Collaboration: A look at how format IP owners are working with social media influencers.
Breakthrough Factual with BossaNova Media
Ahead of their first Development Days and MIPCOM with BossaNova Media, Francesca Johnson and Iona Hopper, who are leading acquisitions at Paul Heaney’s factual outfit, joined ScreenMDM Talks to share what they’re looking for across the history/mystery, access, and true-crime genres.
A Story of Crime and Punishment with Lynn Novick
Acclaimed documentary filmmaker Lynn Novick discusses her upcoming PBS documentary series, Crime and Punishment in America, which condenses more than 200 years of U.S. justice into an eight-hour series that PBS Distribution is bringing to the global market at MIPCOM.
Known Names, Unknown Stories
From true crime to lifestyle and entertainment, demand for known IP was clear across our news coverage of the factual sphere over the last month.
In true crime, Sky Documentaries commissioned a special about the recent trial of Duane “Keffe D” Davis for the murder of Tupac Shakur, as well as a three-part documentary reexamining two double murders in the coastal community of Pembrokeshire in the 1980s; Ample Entertainment is prepping a new take on O.J. Simpson for Peacock. The fallout from the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of Rust in 2021 by Alec Baldwin is explored in a Rory Kennedy feature doc that Blue Ant Media is distributing. A Blackfella Films doc series about the events leading up to the police shooting of 19-year-old Kumanjayi Walker, and the subsequent reckoning in Australia about justice, policing and race, was picked up by Netflix.
Meanwhile, Love Monday TV’s new documentary featuring previously unheard audio recordings of Princess Diana is being launched to the international market at MIPCOM with Cineflix Rights. 72 Films landed a commission from BBC Factual for Kings and Queens: The Story of the Monarchy, a six-part series fusing dramatic reenactments, graphics, and insights from historians, with Fremantle handling international distribution. The Beckham Feud—Truth & Lies, an ITN Productions special for 5 in the U.K., logged a range of deals for Orange Smarty. Sony Pictures Television’s Maxine Productions is producing a three-part doc series about Matthew Perry for Netflix.
On the arts, culture and lifestyle fronts, Sphere Abacus boarded the rights to Kubrick’s War: The Making of Full Metal Jacket; 11:11 Media is producing a new original series for Roku about 2000s pop culture, featuring and executive-produced by Paris Hilton; Food Network ordered a third season of Harry Potter: Wizards of Baking after season two reached more than 10 million viewers across linear, HBO Max, and discovery+; Genius Sports, NBA star Chris Paul’s Ohh Dip!!! Entertainment, and Connor Schell’s Words + Pictures joined forces for a new sports media company to develop content built on the perspectives of athletes and creators; and KC Global Media Asia unveiled a new series that takes audiences inside the world of high-profile Asian content creators.
Meanwhile, in the entertainment format space, Keller/Noll is developing a game-show format inspired by the classic board game Sequence, working with Goliath and Perfect Game, the IP-driven media company formed by Corey Rogers (formerly of All3Media America) and Ross Greenberg (ex-Studio Ramsay and Cineflix).
New Models, Familiar Faces
Holly Cowdery and Claire Runham have reunited to establish a new media consultancy focused on helping producers strike partnerships, secure financing, and maximize distribution opportunities. RUNCOWRUN is being positioned as a flexible resource for non-scripted producers navigating the new realities of the business, leveraging the founders’ extensive experience in the sector. Australia’s WTFN Group is merging its digital business, Radar, with its content distribution arm, Fred Media, under Radar Studios, which will be organized around three pillars: a slate of FAST and digital channels; distribution, encompassing in-house and third-party fare; and content, via third-party acquisitions and new originals. Also in Australia, WildBear Entertainment appointed a new leadership team under co-founder and CEO Michael Tear, and implemented a new strategy to accelerate international growth and diversify revenue. Dan Blazer, co-founder of BlazHoffski and the creator of the Hello Goodbye format, joined forces with Belgian format creator Wannes Deleu to launch Must Sea Media, focused on developing non-scripted IP.
Digital Scale & Archive Might
Aurora, part of Banijay Entertainment, is working with TV presenter, chef and author Si King (one half of The Hairy Bikers) and his new production company, Magnetic North Productions, on his first dedicated YouTube channel. Ample Entertainment expanded its creator-led business with a new YouTube channel in partnership with popular interior designer and author Nate Berkus. YouTuber Drew Binsky inked a Netflix deal, bringing his travel content to the platform. Meanwhile, TVF International sealed deals totaling more than 1,000 hours across AVOD, FAST, and other digital services.
The last month also saw a batch of high-profile archive deals. Production companies, creators, publishers, and digital platforms will be able to license footage from the ITN archive exclusively through the Reuters Connect marketplace beginning in 2027. ITN also enlisted Merzigo to scale the digital reach of its significant archive of royal family content and news coverage on Facebook and YouTube. To mark the 25th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks in the U.S., National Geographic launched an interactive video archive featuring never-before-seen footage and eyewitness testimony.
Asian Format Innovation
If you’re an Asian producer with great IP you want remade internationally, focus on local authenticity, simplicity, and collaboration, a panel of leading executives said at BCWW in Seoul. Among the most well-attended sessions at BCWW, a panel featuring executives from ITV Studios, Blink49 Studios, HECE Medya, and K7 Media, moderated by Something Special’s Jin Woo Hwang, weighed in on the state of the Korean formats business. The market remains a vital hub for creativity, but its format export sector has slowed since the peak days of The Masked Singer and I Can See Your Voice. The numbers were laid out clearly by Trang Nguyen, APAC and MEA manager at K7 Media, the research firm whose Tracking the Giants report spotlights the major drivers in the formats business.
In the last month, we also covered a Brazilian format deal for CJ ENM, as well as Tim Crescenti’s Small World IFT becoming the non-exclusive international representative for Fuji TV’s format library as the Japanese media group looks to expand the reach of its IP worldwide.
Creator Collaboration
Banijay Germany is producing a creator-led version of its Schlag den Star (Beat the Star) format, launching on YouTube and Twitch next month. Ahead of the return of Big Brother on ITV2 and ITVX, the popular creator crew The Bov Boys delivered a 24-hour live stream from the house on Twitch, ITV Reality and the show’s YouTube channels. ITV also commissioned from Initial a Big Brother companion show for ITV2, ITVX, YouTube, and major podcast platforms. Targeted at leveraging social media platforms, Talpa Studios’ Catch Up was commissioned in Germany for ProSieben and Joyn.
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