Juliette Béchu: “We are always trying to have fresh content in our catalogue”

A major international distribution company dedicated to distributing children’s and family content across the world, Superights offers programs from all genres and for all demographics from its offices in Paris, Milan, London and Los Angeles. The company’s activities include all rights, non-linear and linear, from TV to VOD and theatrical.

“We are always trying to acquire new series of different genres, themes and forms of animation, so we have a catalogue of programs that do not look like each other. We also like to work with producers from everywhere in the world, and to get the chance to meet new creators and their projects. That is the main idea: to always have fresh content in our catalogue. Having shows that explore new horizons also allows us to meet new clients and explore new markets,”  said Juliette Béchu, International Sales Manager & Acquisitions at Superights, in conversation with Señal News.

Based in Paris, Juliette Béchu is in charge of the company's sales in Asia Pacific, Japan, India, Australia, New Zealand and the United States. The latter is, according to her, one of the trickiest markets. “The United States is a huge market, and also a very hard one to penetrate. You can either sign a deal with a large group and have your exposure that way, or you can try to multiply. The US market can really be worth it, but it is also a lot of work. In the United States you get the feeling that even if it is just one market, it has multiple territories within it. It is necessary to understand all the complexities of this market,”  Béchu analyzed.

During the last edition of the Kidscreen Summit in Miami, Superights presented its brand new live-action show, “Home Sweet Rome,” a coming-of-age series about Lucy, a 13-year-old girl who moves from the United States to start a new life in Rome with her dad, who just married an Italian pop star. Although the company does not have a lot of experience in the live-action genre, it sees a lot of potential in it. “That is kind of a first for us. It is great, because it really gets us the chance to explore a new market and talk to new broadcasters that maybe we were not talking to before. We hope it is going to work for us, as it is surely a great fit for our catalogue,”  the executive commented.

The aesthetics of a live-action show may seem very different in a catalogue full of animated shows, but according to the International Sales Manager & Acquisitions at Superights, it is all about assembling a varied and different offering, while maintaining a unified style. “‘Home Sweet Rome,’ for example, is new but not completely different, it makes sense. That is really important for us at Superights: to always pick new things even if they are different, so that our catalog has programs that do not look like each other but always make sense in terms of image,”  she affirmed.

In addition to the live-action show "Home Sweet Rome" (13x26'), the company is also currently focusing on some other titles from its catalogue, including shows like the slapstick comedy “Deep in the Bowl” (52x5'), the educational “I Love This Job” (26×7’), the CGI-animated “Go! Go! Cory Carson” (62x7'), and the 2D-animated “Me and My Compost” (52x'11), which is still in development, among many other shows.

By Diego Alfagemez and Federico Marzullo