Rabbit International, the international distribution arm of Finnish independent production company Rabbit Films, has been named as the distributor of all content originating from its parent company, Monday Media Group. “When we bought Rabbit Films earlier this year, one of the major drivers for us was the access to the existing distribution set-up," Martin Dalgaard, CEO of the Monday Media Group, said.
Under the newly set deal, the Rabbit International team is set to distribute all formats and finished tape that have been originated in the 13 Monday-affiliated production companies, spanning across the Nordics and Benelux. "The Rabbit International team has done a spectacular job in turning such self-developed local formats as Over the Atlantic and Ultimate Escape into worldwide success stories," Dalgaard said. "We have the highest confidence in the team in promoting all of the fantastic content that is originated within the Monday Media Group. This is a natural step in our vision to strengthen the group even further!”.
To coincide with the partnership, Rabbit has promoted its key sales team. Jonathan Tuovinen, previously Head of International, has been named Senior Vice President, International. Tuovinen has lead the Rabbit International team since 2016, having previously held positions at NBCUniversal International Formats and Banijay Rights. He will be responsible for overseeing the strategic expansion of Rabbit Films' distribution network, ensuring that Monday Media Group's content reaches new global audiences.
Amid the changes, Samantha Ferguson has been named Vice President, International Sales. Ferguson has been with the company since 2019 and previously held the title of International Sales Manager. She is in charge of sales to English-speaking territories and Asia, recently brokering the deal for the highly anticipated upcoming Australian version of the adventure reality format Ultimate Escape for Seven Network. Additionally, Marta Csizmadia, who joined the company in 2020, has been promoted to Senior Sales Consultant. Csizmadia is the sales liaison for CEE, Middle East and Africa. “We are humbled and excited by the faith entrusted in our team," Jonathan Tuovinen said. "The other Monday Media Group companies have done an exceptional job in creating high quality series in various different genres. I speak for the whole team by saying that we can’t wait to share all of this new amazing content -both as formats and as tape- with the rest of the world."
In addition, Rabbit will attend the Mipcom 2023 market in Cannes for the first time representing titles from the Monday group. The first new Monday-originated formats that will be distributed by Rabbit include "The Nation’s Next Fashion Designer," from Monday Denmark, currently airing on DR1. The elimination-based competition reality format sees talented fashion designers compete for an opportunity to sell their clothes at the nation’s largest department stores.
"Truth or Dare" an eight-part celebrity game show format, produced by Monday Norway for Dagbladet.no, Norway’s largest tabloid newspaper. In the show, a group of the most daring celebs get together to play spin the bottle. Anything can happen! There is already also an 8 x 30’ Danish version of Truth or Dare, which airs on DR P3. Also forming part of the catalog is "Losing It Together," a factual format that aired this spring on NRK1 in Norway, produced by Teddy TV. It features a famous female comedian, who is joined by four normal people on a year-long weight loss journey. The show has been both a phenomenal ratings as well as critical success: it’s currently the highest performing non-scripted series of the year on NRK!