Factual


TBI Weekly: Women’s World Cup shows FTA broadcasters’ enduring appeal

The ratings success of the Women’s World Cup shows the power that free-to-air broadcasters around the world still wield and their potential to drive huge audiences, writes Ross Biddiscombe. There is every reason to believe that the FIFA Women’s World Cup of 2019 will be seen as a broadcasting breakthrough moment for women’s football after […]

TBI Weekly: Netflix’s rare transparency serves “global inspiration” to producers

Netflix’s unprecedented transparency in detailing its documentary strategy at this week’s Sunny Side of the Doc market in France has provided “global inspiration” to producers while raising the bar for broadcasters.  A year into his role at Netflix, former Canal+ exec Diego Buñuel, who serves as a director of original documentary at the streamer, took […]

Exclusive: Discovery “making changes” in commissioning post-UKTV split

Discovery Networks Europe is rejigging its commissioning team on the back of its UKTV channels split with BBC Studios – a move that sees the departure of fact ent exec Steve Jones. TBI understands that Jones, an exec producer for fact ent at Discovery Networks Europe who guided a number of prominent local commissions, has […]

Sales round-up: Beta scores for drama trio; Wag TV inks 50-hour Polish deal

Germany’s Beta Film seals deals for drama trio Beta Film has struck a series of deals for dramas The Pier (pictured), Trigger and Hassel with the likes of German streamer Joyn, HBO Baltics and SBS Australia. Joyn – ProSiebenSat.1’s joint venture with Discovery – has acquired all three dramas, while in the Baltics, Spanish drama The Pier […]

Cracking down on co-productions

Alastair Fothergill, producer of Netflix’s Our Planet, has warned that SVOD players “will not consider co-productions” around natural history in the future as the digital giants look to plant their flags in the genre. Manori Ravindran reports The veteran natural history producer, who left the BBC’s Natural History Unit (NHU) in 2012 to set up […]

Exclusive: Canal+ scales Pyramids series from Pernel, Vivendi Ent

Samuel Kissous’ Pernel Media and Vivendi Entertainment have partnered on a 4K series delving into the construction of the Pyramids for France’s Canal+. Secrets Of The Pyramid Builders (6 x 45 minutes) will examine the construction of Egypt’s Pyramids and the Great Sphinx of Giza from the perspectives of those who worked to build them. […]

China’s CCTV-9 boards Zed’s ‘Wild Treasures Of China’

French producer-distributor Zed and China’s CCTV-9 have teamed for blue-chip series Wild Treasures Of China. The 5 x 52-minute programme, unveiled at this week’s Sunny Side of the Doc in La Rochelle, focuses on the rare species that inhabit China’s untamed wilderness. The project has a budget of €3m ($3.4m) and will be shot in […]

Inside Netflix’s original documentary strategy

Netflix exec Diego Buñuel has called for “insane” contemporary stories that can “punch through the grid” as the business ramps up European production going into 2020. The exec, who delivered a presentation at Sunny Side of the Doc in La Rochelle on Tuesday (25 June), impressed delegates with his candour about working for the SVOD […]

Kew Media Distribution: Beyond ‘Neverland’

Tim Dams explores the rise of documentary powerhouse Kew Media Distribution Halfway through 2019, there’s little doubt about the most impactful documentary of the year – Dan Reed’s explosive and revelatory Michael Jackson film, Leaving Neverland. The documentary, which prompted a rethink about the legacy of the late pop icon as well as furious backlash […]

TBI Factual Hot Picks – June 2019

With Sunny Side of the Doc kicking off in France, TBI Magazine picks out a selection of the latest factual docs to hit the market, ranging from shows about jungle warfare to cats behaving badly. Jungle War DRG       Psycho Pussies: Cats Behaving Badly Orange Smarty/Channel 5 (UK)       Curse Of […]

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