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ZDF Enterprises began this fall’s main TV-industry trade fair, MIPCOM, by inking a slate of deals with a number of major broadcasters and media providers. Sensational sales were recorded for the International-Emmy nominated and BAFTA-Award winning crime series “The Killing,” with either one or two seasons going to BBC and SBS Australia, DirecTV (Latin America), AXN (Spain), Channel 1 (Russia), KLB (France), Ale Kino/Canal+ (Poland), Mega Channel (Greece, Cyprus) and Lumière (Benelux). Other crime series in demand are the brand-new Danish-Swedish thriller “The Bridge” and Sweden’s “Sebastian Bergmann” (both BBC). Buyers know they can rely on ZDF Enterprises for top-notch children’s and youth programming, and a number of broadcasters already placed their orders at MIPCOM Junior, the kids’ market that traditionally kicks off MIPCOM. Not surprisingly, the Jonathan M. Shiff mermaid super-series “H2O – Just Add Water” continued to rack up sales from Disney Portugal, Spain’s Antena 3 (reruns), Nickelodeon France, HRT Croatia. Noga (Israel) acquired the other Shiff hit “Elephant Princess” seasons 1 and 2 along with fellow Australian teen program “Dance Academy,” which also went to Skjarinn (Iceland) and Direct Sight (Ukraine). Animated programs also had buyers putting in orders for shows like “Jungle Book” (Televisa, Mexico; Direct Sight, Ukraine; Turner Germany (Pay TV); “Tempo Express” (TVE, Spain); and Sherlock Yack (YLE Finland and Noga Israel). Documentaries – and especially ZDF Enterprises’ new factual series – also did brisk sales at MIPCOM from the start. Deals were drawn up with DR TV (Denmark), TV2 (Norway), NRK (Norway), French Canada, NHK (Japan), TF1 (France, with five programs), TV Kultura (Russia) and China (LIC, with 7 programs). France Télévisions acquired the brand-new doc “Egypt’s Lost Rival.” Italy’s RAI splurged on scripted drama this fall, acquiring 35 episodes of “Stuttgart Homicide,” and 100 episodes of the telenovela “Ways to Happiness” as well as five romantic TV movies. No less than 240 episodes of the daily soap “Alisa,” in turn, were snapped up by HRT Croatia. Free-TV rights to Stieg Larsson’s spectacular Millennium trilogy were bought up by Austria’s ORF and Switzerland’s SF. Finally, a variety of other important packages were prepared during the first days of MIPCOM: three TV movies for Spain’s Antena 3, a variety of crime series for Finland’s YLE, collections of romantic programs for UAB Baltijos TV (Lithuania), LNK Lithuania, LNT Latvia and Kanal 2 (Estonia), which acquired 100 episodes of the medical daily “Flickering Hearts.” On the first day of MIPCOM, however, there was already another reason to celebrate: the 'Millennium' trilogy, co-produced by ZDF Enterprises, Yellow Bird, SVT, and Nordisk Film, was nominated for the International Emmy Awards in three categories - Michael Nyqvist as best actor, Naomi Rapace as best actress and the entire three episodes as best TV-Movie/Mini-Series. On top of this the Australian Youth series "Dance Academy", co-produced by ZDF Enterprises, Werner Film Productions, Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Australian Children's Television Foundation and internationally distributed by ZDF Enterprises, was nominated in the category ‘Children & Young People’. The awards ceremony will be held on 21st November in New York City. |
