Ex-Talpa exec launches Medialaan sales arm

Former head of sales at Talpa Global Gepke Nedelof and Flemish broadcaster Medialaan are launching distribution business Be Entertainment.

The company will act as Medialaan’s sales arm, selling format rights to in-house productions and acquired third party content from Belgium and further afield.

Nederlof, who worked at Talpa’s distribution arm between 2010 and May this year, will lead Be as managing director.

“Belgium, particularly Flanders, is a true content hotspot that is still pretty unknown internationally,” she said. “It’s a small country with broadcasters daring enough to test new ideas and an audience eager to consume new content.”

Nederlof claimed Flemish Belgium was “the ultimate breeding ground for an international content company to test drive new formats in order to offer only the best proven titles to the international market”.

Be is not the first Flemish-focused formats distributor on the market: Eternal Glory seller The New Flemish Primitives launched back in 2011.

Be will sit alongside assets such as VTM, Q2, Vitaya, KADET and Joe in the Medialaan portfolio.

Medialaan television programming director Ricus Jansegers said exporting Belgian formats was “a long cherished dream” for the company.

“Be-Entertainment is the embodiment of this dream,” he added. “Medialaan holds a strong position in the Belgian market, giving us the opportunity to develop and test new ideas resulting in a catalogue of strong formats with a proven track record. The combination of this high quality content and Gepke’s international expertise are the perfect mix for international success.”