France 2


$1.5m presales for Zed’s Annihilation

A doc series that sheds new light on the rise of Hitler has secured US$1.5 million in presales from a variety of broadcasters. Annihilation will broadcast throughout the world in January to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the liberation of prisoners at Nazi war camps following deals with distributor Zed. Those attached are France […]

France 2 goes Missing with Spanish drama format

French broadcaster France 2 has commissioned a remake of Spanish crime drama Desparecida (Missing). The show will be known as Disparue, and go out on the public channel in 2015 following the deal with format rights owner Grupo Ganga. Local producer Quad Television is producing. The format follows the emotional rollercoaster of the family after […]

Sunny (Chinese) Side of the Doc

The screening and copro documentary market Sunny Side of the Doc remains a very French event, but China was the territory on everyone’s lips this week, reports Pascale Paoli-Lebailly. A study by research house The Wit ranks France as part of the top three documentary distributing countries, behind UK and the US thanks to the […]

News brief: Newen acquires France 2 drama

Newen Distribution has acquired rights to Witnesses, a 6x52mins drama from France 2. Newen has taken the rights from producer Cinétéve and will look to repeat its success selling Spiral (Engrenages) to the international market to the likes of BBC Two and Netflix. France 2 commissioned Witnesses, which is known locally as Les Temoins.

Terry Thullier lands France 2 job, new top team for France 4

France Télévisions group news chief Terry Thullier will replace Philippe Vilamitjana at France 2, while children’s chief Tiphaine de Raguenel will be one of two execs now running France 4. Local reports say Vilamitjana was ousted after his new season scheduled failed to gain traction, leading to this week’s changes. Thullier will remain as news […]

France’s new wave

With shortform content, event TV and international copros, a new wave of French producers are keeping TV as a core business but experimenting with digital and new collaborative models, reports Pascale Paoli-Lebailly. Last year, the French TV market found a new Eldorado. Besides scripted reality concepts, which flourished on both private and public TV networks, […]

New Belgian pay TV service launches with raft of intn’l channels

Dutch telco KPN has launched a new pay TVservice in Belgium, Snow. The service will combine TV, internet and telephony in a bundled offering, competing with existing providers Telenet and Belgacom. The Snow service will be marketed separately from KPN Belgium’s existing mobile telecom offering in the country, Base. The service offers 33 channels including […]

France 2 orders local version of Jimmy McGovern Series Accused

French public broadcast channel France 2 has greenlit a local version of Jimmy McGovern-penned British drama series Accused, TBI has learned. The French show will be made by Troisième Oeil. The French production house already makes shows including Vous Trouvez ça Normal? (You Think this is right?) for France 2. The UK show airs on […]

French TNT explodes

The French broadcasting family is about to get bigger. This month will see the arrival in the free-to-air game of a major player, Canal+, whose acquisition of DTT outlets Direct 8 and Direct Star from Group Bolloré was approved by the Competition Authority in July. Marie-Agnès Bruneau reports. French communications regulator the CSA is about […]