Keren Shahar and Arthur Essebag
Keshet International (KI) and France’s independent production company Satisfaction Group have signed a multi-territory agreement to form a creative alliance in the non-scripted formats space. By aligning their ambitions to expand their reach and showcase groundbreaking content, this significant collaboration sets out to establish a virtuous circle between both parties where newly co-created IPs will circulate.
Both companies have agreed to collaborate on developing and producing new and existing non-scripted formats through their production labels and hubs in France, Germany, Israel, the UK, and the US. The two companies will encourage their creative teams to pool ideas and share local knowledge and experience of key markets to secure new commissions, while also combining forces to co-develop, co-produce, and distribute new formats with international appeal.
Driven by their shared desire to create and bring the next big hit formats to the international TV market, while also leveraging their own established talent and IP, this partnership will also incorporate a “first look” on all existing and new non-scripted formats added to the parties’ catalogues for production by the other party. For both KI and Satisfaction, this will mean that their production companies and hubs will each have a first-look option on any new formats entering Satisfaction’s or KI’s catalogue in each of their own local territories, including Tresor in Germany, and Keshet 12 in Israel.
Keren Shahar, KI’s CEO says, “We are big fans of Arthur’s creativity, his visionary talents, and his entrepreneurial business approach. Keshet International is a formats company at its core, and it didn’t take much to see that we and Satisfaction share the same ethos and ambitions. By launching this exciting creative partnership, we aim to generate and champion a new wave of unscripted creativity together.”
Arthur Essebag, founder of Satisfaction Group, stated, "Following our recent partnerships with Fulwell 73 and Yes Yes Media, this new alliance with Keshet International, very well known for its creative power will bring another strong partner to shower the market with new co-developed IPs; where, all together, we will become the hub for independent producers, guardians of creativity and IPs.”
Kelly Wright, KI’s MD of Distribution adds, “This partnership feels perfectly timed, given the growing opportunity for non-scripted programming in the market right now. Tresor and our non-scripted team at Keshet Studios are already developing some Satisfaction formats for Germany and the US, while Satisfaction is also looking to acquire some of our existing formats in France. More news to follow soon.”
KI has recently launched an unscripted division of Keshet Studios, following the appointment of Rebecca Mayer and Ben Long as EVP of Unscripted and VP of Unscripted, respectively. While Satisfaction has recently ventured into English-language markets with a stake in Yes Yes Media The outfit has also formed a joint venture with Fulwell 73, the U.K.-based production company behind The Late Late Show with James Corden. The Group has also launched Satisfaction Iberia with Daniel Domenjo.