Show of the week: The Secret Life of Teens/Students

The Secret Life of Students is an observational doc series that, in its first season, followed a dozen young scholars as they started at university, following their real lives and their online and social media lives.

It aired on Channel 4 in the UK and the free-to-air broadcaster is now readying a version of the show that will delve into the lives of teens will hit the channel in autumn or winter.

The shows are produced by Raw TV, the UK prodco recently acquired by Discovery, and ITV Studios Global Entertainment launched the The Secret Life of… as a format at MIPCOM.

“The format is the D:Rig [advanced fixed rig] technology, graphics, the way stories are tracked and overall know-how; there’s a lot of secret sauce being applied in the background,” says Mike Beale, director of international formats at ITVSGE.

He adds: “The technology captures everything the participants do on their phone and social media, and there is also a complicated consent model.”

Making the The Secret Life of… format involves one part of the production team following the subjects and the other their digital lives and personas. There are certain regions and territories where Beale is particularly hopeful of a deal. “It will work well in northern Europe, and I think something in the US will happen,” he says.

Buyers looking for an edgy, revealing format with some social experiment overtones should head for ITV Studios’ MIPCOM stand, or possibly, given the nature of the format, hit them up on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

The show: The Secret Life of Students/Teens
The producer: Raw TV
The distributor: ITV Studios Global Entertainment
The broadcaster: Channel 4 (UK)
The concept: Ob-doc format that utilises cutting edge technology to show the secret lives of students and teenagers

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