Fox takes on The Gruen Transfer

Fox is taking on distribution of hit Australian format The Gruen Transfer. Its formats division, Fox Look, along with ABC Commercial, the commercial department of Australian public broadcaster, will launch it internationally as The Big Sell.

ABC Commercial was previously handling format and tape sales of the show internationally and optioned the format to Endemol in France and Nordisk in Denmark.

The panel show has been extremely popular in Australia. It focuses on the advertising industry and is made by Zapruder’s other films, the production company of Australian comedian and presenter Andrew Denton.

“There are other shows about advertising but they tend to be either clips shows that aim to be funny, or documentary style shows, which are often still, basically clip shows,” Denton previously told TBIvision. “Advertising is often dismissed as the stuff crammed between the programmes, but it has the highest production values per second? It’s advertising. We wanted to dissect that rather than films or TV.”

The President of Fox Look, David Lyle, said “As an Australian working in the international TV business, I have been very aware of how well The Gruen Transfer has done in beating the opposition, season after season. A smart, witty, contemporary show that demonstrates such strength deserves to be an international hit. Just as Australia’s success with Masterchef turned heads elsewhere, so The Big Sell should be Australia’s next big export success.”