International TV market MIPCOM Cannes kicked off Monday with a flurry of licensing deals, a sign that despite the uncertainty and challenges facing the global TV industry, there is still business being done.
Paramount Global Content Distribution announced a major European deal on Monday, licensing the new Good Wife spin-off Elsbeth to French free-to-air network TF1 in France. The show features Carrie Preston as Elsbeth Tascioni, the astute but unconventional attorney she played in both The Good Wife and The Good Fight. Wendell Pierce co-stars as NYPD Captain C.W. Wagner and Carra Patterson as Officer Kaya Blanke.
Studiocanal announced a raft of deals for The Night Logan Woke Up, the first TV series from famed Canadian film auteur Xavier Dolan (I Killed My Mother, Tom at the Farm), with Netflix taking U.S. rights and international deals signed with Star Channel Japan, SBS Australia, BeTV Belgium, CANAL+ Poland, WDR in Germany and Filmin Spain and Portugal among others. Dolan also stars in the 5-episode psychological thriller, based on Michel Marc Bouchard’s play La Nuit où Laurier Gaudreault s’est réveillé.
On the documentary side, Studiocanal sold the first season of its non-fiction series The Wonders of Europe, about the people who built some of the biggest and most unique landmarks in Europe, to SBS Australia, DR Denmark, Rai Italy, RTVE Spain, RTP Portugal, and Sky Arts NZ among others. The group’s historical docudrama Rise of the Vikings sold to AMC Networks International Southern Europe, RTL+ channel GeoTV for Germany, and to TV5 for French-speaking Canada.
Mediawan Rights, which premiered the first episode of its new Zorro drama series at MIPCOM Sunday night, announced it has sold rights to the show to M6 group in France, Mediaset in Italy, DPG Media for VTM channels in Flemish Belgium and RTL KLUB in Hungary, among others. The new take on the famed swashbuckler will go out in 2024 on Amazon Prime Video in the U.S., Latin America, Spain, Andorra and Portugal.
“We are thrilled with these first deals for Zorro,” said Mediawan Rights managing director Valérie Vleeschhouwer. “It shows how strong the IP is and that this great news version will embrace a global audience all over the world.”
ZDF Studios, the commercial sales arm of the German public broadcaster, announced a groundbreaking deal with Hispanic media group Castalia Communications that will see them launch a Free Ad-Supported Streaming TV (FAST) service for the Latin American region using ZDF Studios’ extensive back catalog. The channel, which will focus on a curated selection of Spanish-language drama programming, is set to launch in the second quarter of 2024. Latin America has seen strong growth in the FAST market, with a recent report by Global Industry Analysts Inc. predicting business in the region will top $217 billion by 2026.
All3Media International also announced the launch of three new FAST channels: The outdoor-focused Gardening with Monty Don, cooking competition channel the Great British Menu, and car channel Fifth Gear, on Amazon Freevee. The channels will also be distributed on other streaming services in the U.S..
On the sales side, All3Media announced deals for New Pictures’ The Long Shadow, the British limited series on the five-year hunt for serial killer Peter Sutcliffe. All3Media closed deals with MagentaTV in Germany, Virgin Media Television in Ireland, VRT in Belgium, Cosmote TV in Greece and with Canal+’s Polar+ channel in France. Prime Video has acquired rights to the seven-part series in a pan-territory deal for Africa. Australian streamer Stan picked up the series for Australia and Japan’s NHK Enterprises has taken the show for the Mystery Channel, one of the PAY TV channels owned by AXN Co., Ltd. in Japan. Sundance Now has exclusive rights for The Long Shadow in the U.S. and Canada. Written by George Kay (Hijack, Criminal: UK) and directed by Lewis Arnold (Sherwood, Time, Des), the series premiered on ITV in the U.K..
Cineflix Rights closed multiple deals for some of its high-profile drama series, inking agreements with Sky in the U.K., Parmaount+ in Canada and Warner Bros. Discovery in New Zealand for Season 2 of Last King of The Cross, an Australian period crime drama starring Tim Roth, Lincoln Younes, Claude Jabbour and Callan Mulvey. Season 2 of the show, which explores the rise of a poor immigrant who became Sydney’s most notorious nightclub mogul, is set during the ecstasy-fueled 2000s.
Cineflix also did a deal with NBC Universal International Networks for Season 2 of Reginald the Vampire, the YA fantasy comedy adapted from Johnny B. Truant’s Fat Vampire novels, featuring Spider-Man: Homecoming star Jacob Batalon as a plus-sized bloodsucker. NBCUI will air the show in the U.K., France, German-speaking Europe, Spain, Portugal and across Central and Eastern Europe, German-speaking Europe, and the U.K. Sky in the U.K. has also licensed the series, as has Canada’s Bell Media and M6’s 6Play streaming platform in France.
James Durie, head of scripted at Cineflix Rights, said the deals highlights the company’s strategy of developing successful scripted franchises that could travel worldwide.
Dean Devlin’s Electric Entertainment also signed licensing deals for five of its franchised series, inking deals with Turkish SVOD service BluTV for rights to SYFY series The Ark, Amazon Freevee’s Leverage: Redemption, crime series Almost Paradise and fantasy adventure shows The Librarians and The Outpost.
The deal includes Seasons 1 and 2 of The Ark, Leverage: Redemption and Almost Paradise, the first four seasons of The Librarians and The Outpost. The agreement also includes rights for the PBS Civil War period series Mercy Street.
New York-based producer and streaming group FilmRise announced an exclusive worldwide distribution deal at MIPCOM that will see FilmRise take digital media, digital linear, television and ancillary rights to more than 80 hours of The Wiggles, the classic Australian children’s edutainment series that ran from 1998 through 2012.
The deal includes the early TV programs created by the original lineup of the kids musical group, known for their brightly colored outfits and infectious sing-a-long tunes, as well as several hourlong specials, featuring songs like “Fruit Salad, Yummy, Yummy,” “Hot Potato” and “Do the Monkey.” The agreement was negotiated by Katherine Weinstein at FilmRise, and Luke Field, general manager of The Wiggles.
FilmRise also announced a deal licensing U.S. AVOD and FAST rights to over 1,500 hours of select content from The CW’s free streaming service, a deal that includes hit Canadian series Heartland, Gordon Ramsay’s Hell’s Kitchen and 80s cult hit The Greatest American Hero.
Fremantle announced new sales deals for their new reality TV format, The Piano, inking agreements with RTL4 in the Netherlands and TV2 in Denmark. The show sees talented amateur pianists playing on public pianos and sharing their personal stories and music with the general public. What the pianists don’t know is that two superstar judges are secretly watching, and one pianist from each episode will be chosen to play on one of the world’s most prestigious stages. The Piano debuted on Channel 4 in the U.K. and won Best Reality Format at MIPCOM’s international format awards this year.