Warner Bros. licensing active formats

Warner Bros. is to license the formats to the Without a Trace and Cold Case drama series for the first time. It is also the first time Warners has offered format rights while still producing the show in question in the US.

It will offer the two shows, which are produced by Jerry Bruckheimer Television, as formats to international broadcasters interested in airing local versions. The studio expects to sell the formats initially to two to three larger markets.

Without a Trace, starring Anthony LaPaglia as a member of the elite FBI Missing Persons Squad, was the world’s seventh most popular acquisitions in 2005, according to the Global TV Acquisitions report from TBI publisher Informa Telecoms and Media. In that year the show was the second most popular programme in Spain, after the CSI franchises, and in Sweden, where it airs on SVT.