Babylon Berlin


A “new game” for German drama

The floodgates have opened for premium German drama after a comparatively slow start in the high-end TV market, and now producers and distributors are thinking about getting ahead of the competition. Kaltrina Bylykbashi reports Premium German drama made for an international audience has seen a steady but sharp rise in the past two years, as […]

Viasat World’s Epic Drama heads to Bulgaria

Viasat World’s Epic Drama channel is to launch in Bulgaria via telco Vivacom. The channel will be made available on Vivacom TV, where it will reach around 450,000 users. Epic Drama’s SVOD catalogue will also be available to subscribers by the end of the year. Epic Drama will join Viasat World’s other channels – TV1000, […]

Is this Europe’s next super-indie trio?

Mediawan has ambition and the cash, but what is the strategy? France’s newest production-distribution group has closed six takeover deals in the past year, and is now looking beyond its Gallic foundations. Pascale Paoli-Lebailly talks with co-founder Pierre-Antoine Capton about the plans to grow. By acquiring a 77% share of drama-orientated TV production group Makever […]

UFA Fiction exec transfers to Beta

Beta Film has tapped a producer from German compatriot UFA Fiction to become its international development and coproduction chief. Friedemann Goez has been named executive for German, European and international developments and coproductions. Goez was previously at UFA Fiction, where he worked on series such as Beta coproduction The Same Sky, which is from Paula […]

Netflix takes US rights to Babylon Berlin

Streaming service Netflix has acquired exclusive rights to big-budget German drama Babylon Berlin. The series is notable as a coproduction between free TV pubcaster ARD and pay TV provider Sky Germany, with Beta Film distributing it worldwide. Netflix has swooped on US rights, news first reported by German TV trade site DWDL.de. SVT in Sweden, […]

UK, Germany, Russia dominate revamped MIPDrama

The UK has three of the twelve entries in this year’s MIPDrama Screenings with Germany and Russia both taking two apiece. In its second year. MIPTV organiser Reed Midem has organised the MIPDrama Screenings into two categories: finished projects and works in progress, to ensure buyers know whether they will see full episodes or excerpts. […]

Sky and Scandis buy Babylon Berlin

Beta Film has sealed a raft of deals for Babylon Berlin, the upcoming €40 million (US$42 million) German period drama. Pay TV operator Sky has acquired the show for the UK and Germany, and Beta Film has also locked in several Scandi deals, with SVT Sweden, NRK Norway, DR Denmark, YLE Finland and RUV Iceland […]

Sky Germany spends Eight Days on new original

The German arm of pay TV giant Sky is developing Acht Tage (Eight Days) as its latest original programme. Sky Germany is working with Munich-based production company Neuesuper on the drama, which will tell the story of the final eight days of mankind. Each of the eight episodes will follow one of those last days. […]

Das Boot fits as Sonar joins Sky drama

LA-based Sonar Entertainment will coproduce Sky’s German television remake of the anti-war film Das Boot. Sonar will coproduce the eight-part drama with Bavaria Fernsehproduktion and Sky Deutschland, the German arm of European paycaster Sky. Sonar also takes worldwide sales rights, excluding the Sky pay TV territories: Germany, Austria, UK, Ireland and Italy. In June, Sky […]

German drama sells to Scandis

Beta Film has shopped 40 hours of scripted content to broadcasters in Scandinavia. Public broadcasters DR in Denmark, NRK (Norway), SVT (Sweden) and YLE (Finland) have all acquired shows including Oliver Hirschbiegel’s 6x60mins Berlin-set spy drama The Same Sky and the 15th century 6x60mins period drama Maximilian and Marie de Bourgogne. The quartet all also […]