ZDF Reports Solid Sales at MIPCOM

MAINZ, October 16: Kids’
fare such as Jonathan M. Shiff’s The Elephant Princess, as well as event TV movies like The Miracle of
Berlin from teamworx and UFA’s Ship
of No Return, were among the
best-selling titles for ZDF Enterprises at MIPCOM.

“We have finalized
contracts on productions from all program genres with 25 clients representing
more than 50 countries,” said Dr. Alexander Coridass, the CEO of ZDF
Enterprises. “We are very pleased with the results obtained by the programs we
presented here for the first time, such as our MIPCOM highlight The Elephant
Princess, a new co-production of
ZDF, our Australian partner Jonathan M. Shiff (H2O: Just Add Water) and Network Ten Australia. We also found new
buyers for our perennial hit series and TV movies such as Here Comes Kalle, Roads to Happiness, SOKO Cologne and SOKO 5113, as
well as the event productions The Miracle of Berlin (teamworx) and Ship of No Return (UFA). The announcement of this year’s
International Emmy Awards during MIPCOM gave us more cause for satisfaction,
since the crime series The Killing,
which we distribute worldwide, and the event TV movie The Miracle of Berlin were both nominated.”

In the way of kids’
programming, The Elephant Princess
was acquired by Italy’s RAI, RAISat and Nickelodeon Spain. H2O: Just Add
Water, licensed in more than 120
countries, was sold to Canada’s YTV, Norway’s NRK, Italy’s RTI/Mediaset,
Romania’s Milenium, Poland’s Eurocom and Nickelodeon/Viacom for the U.S., Canada
and the U.K. The Lost Treasure of Fiji and Scooter were sold
as series or in their TV movie versions to ITV U.K., Nickelodeon Spain and
Icelandic TV. And ABC Australia secured the broadcasting rights to Shaolin
Wuzang and the second season of Martin
Morning.

TV movies also secured
successful sales, including to Australia, Sweden, Japan, Slovenia, the Czech
Republic, Slovakia and Poland. Romantic TV movies and TV movie collections also
were among the most sought-after: new Inga Lindstrüm and Rosamunde Pilcher
films will soon be aired on M6 and TF1 in France, SVT in Sweden, Swiss TV,
Slovakia’s Markiza, Diema Bulgaria, Kanal2 in Estonia, the Czech Republic’s
Hollywood CE and BTV in Lithuania.

Series receiving strong
sales include Here Comes Kalle,
which went to RTI/Mediaset Italy, TF1 in France and BTV in Lithuania, among
others. France, Spain, Finland and Slovakia took on the rights to the crime
series Hamburg Dockland, KDD,
SOKO Cologne, Siska, The Criminalist and SOKO 5113.

A key deal in the
documentary genre was the sale of a major package to n-tv Germany for 65 hours
of programming, including 40 hours from the series Modern Marvels, for which ZDF Enterprises is the exclusive sales
agent in the German-language territories for AETN International. Further
documentary clients at MIPCOM were Germany’s Focus TV, Super RTL, Kabel 1 and
Planet, as well as Switzerland’s SF, Austria’s ORF, The History Channel U.K.
and RTV Slovenia.

—By Kristin
Brzoznowski