"Space Farmers"
Ahead of MIPTV, TVF International has closed deals with a range of broadcasters in France. ARTE licensed the second series of "The Longest Day" (3x48), an award-winning insight into family life on the frontlines of the climate crisis, as well as the series "Asia on Film" (6x48) and "Keeping the Music Alive: In Defiance of the Taliban" (2x48), which recently won the Gold Award at the 2023 World Media Festivals, and comes from Emmy Award-winning producers, Babel Doc.
Elsewhere, French pubcaster, France TV, acquired landmark aerial series, "Australia From Above" (5x52), from RJ Media, and Mediawan acquired the latest series of ITV’s long-running fishing show, "Monster Carp" (4x60). Mediawan also picked up "Brilliant Corners", Series 3 (6x52), an adventure activism series about surfing; a heart-warming pets and vets series, "A Dog for Life" (13x24), which pairs rescue dogs with loving owners in search of the perfect canine companion and a number of science documentaries, including "Killer Asteroid: Defending Earth" (1x50), "Mars Calling" (1x50) from Thomas Lucas Productions, and Mediacorp’s "Space Farmers" (2x48), which investigates the revolutionising effect of space science on food production.
Canal Plus acquired feature documentary from Binding Films, "The Will to Fly" (1x95), which tells the story of trailblazing aerial skiing Olympic gold medallist, Lydia Lassila, and "Click to Ransom" (1x48) a Mediacorp production exploring the shadowy underworld of ransomware attacks for their Crime and Investigation channel.
True-crime has also been a popular genre for Belgian pubcaster, RTBF, in French-Speaking Europe, who have taken a number of programmes from TVF International for their linear and online feeds. RTBF licensed "The Big Boss: A 21st Century Criminal" (2x47) and "The Bitcoin Kid: Inside a Crypto-Heist" (1x48) from Veracity Productions. RTBF also licensed "The Negotiators" (4x48), a deep dive into the high-stakes profession of hostage negotiation. The broadcaster also selected a number of documentaries that explore sex and relationships from RTE’s series, "Vogue Williams Investigates" (13x52).
All deals were brokered by Hannah Cesarani, Senior Sales and Acquisitions Executive at TVF International who commented: "It is great to see such a broad range of TVF titles finding broadcast and online homes across France and French-speaking Europe. Whilst factual programming across traditional genres of science and history has always been popular with French audiences, we are now seeing an increased interest in true-crime and investigation series in the region too. As we head into MIPTV with over 300 hours of new unscripted programming on our slate, we’re looking forward to bringing the best of these to our broadcast partners in France."