ZDF Enterprises Racks Up MIPTV Sales

MAINZ, April 25: ZDF Enterprises’ fictional programs proved
to be a hit with international buyers at MIPTV—accounting for
approximately 45 percent of the company’s sales revenue at the market—led
by new deals on H20-Just Add Water, which
has now been sold into over 100 countries since its launch at MIPCOM 2006.

H20-Just Add Water was
recently licensed to TG4 in Ireland, the merchandising specialist CNR and
Cartoon Network Latin America, among others. International deals were also
secured for series such as Rosenheim Cops, The Specialists and Stolberg, as well as the latest TV movies in the Rosamunde
Pilcher Collection. The Finnish broadcaster YLE picked up the detective series Stolberg and reruns of the classic Derrick. Mediaset Italy also secured the rights to the new
series Here Comes Kalle.

Children’s series comprised 35 percent of the company’s
revenue, with documentaries accounting for the remaining 20 percent. In terms
of children’s series, the Swiss channel SF DRS acquired Little Princess, Martin Morning and Shaolin Wuzang. On
the factual front, ZDF also licensed a comprehensive package of World War II
documentaries to Danish channel DRTV, including the series Hitler’s
Henchmen, Hitler’s Children, The War of the Century and one-offs like The Berlin Airlift and Hitler’s Family.

The bulk of the revenue—37 percent—came from
German-speaking countries, followed by Italy, Scandinavia and Latin America.
The German channels n-tv, Planet, Kabel 1, Spiegel TV and the Austrian
broadcaster ORF secured the rights for a large number of documentaries and international
productions represented by ZDF Enterprises in German-speaking territories.