Fred Burcksen

Fred Burcksen
VP, Sales, Merchandising and Co-production
ZDF Enterprises

ZDF Enterprises, the commercial arm of the German public broadcaster ZDF, had its most successful year ever in 2008. Since its founding in 1993, the division has overseen the distribution of ZDF’s original content globally, from high-end, blue-chip documentary productions to kids’ content, dramas and more. ZDF Enterprises has also built up its own strong catalogue of programming complementary to ZDF’s output. Fred Burcksen has been on the front lines of the company’s growth, having joined ZDF Enterprises just two years after its creation.

For Burcksen, a signature of ZDF Enterprises is its wealth of German crime dramas. "Those are probably what we are known for the best," he says, "that’s where it all started. We have such a great variety. If you go on holiday in Italy or France or Spain, you can see a crime series of ours every night."

On the back of successes like Siska and Derrick, ZDF Enterprises has expanded its crime-drama portfolio and is launching a new one at MIPTV, Verdict Revised. Produced for Sweden’s TV4, ZDF Enterprises came on as a co-producer and distribution partner on the show, as it did last year with the Danish offering The Killing, which was nominated for an International Emmy. On the drama front, also launching at MIPTV will be a package of romance TV movies, with the Bastei Collection, and suspense thrillers with the Marie Brand Collection.

Given the strength of ZDF’s factual output, ZDF Enterprises has also become a key provider of documentary programming, and a frequent co-producer with the likes of AETN, NHK, Discovery Channel and National Geographic, among many other heavyweights in the genre. At MIPTV, ZDF Enterprises is presenting a broad doc slate, from science fare like Super Comet to wildlife with World’s Wildest Encounters to docudramas such as Busting the Berlin Wall and Stauffenberg: The True Story, about the German army officer who attempted to assassinate Adolf Hitler.

A relatively new success story for ZDF Enterprises has been kids’ programming, most notably H2O: Just Add Water and The Elephant Princess, which the company co-produces with Jonathan M. Shiff.

Co-productions are a huge part of Burcksen’s mandate, be it looking for partners for in-house ZDF-led projects, or coming on board properties initiated by broadcasters and producers internationally. "First and foremost [we look for something that] could be of use to the network," Burcksen says. "We have a different mission compared to the network, but it’s our first task to always look at their priorities."

If a project is not of interest to ZDF programmers, Burcksen looks for partners among other broadcasters in German-speaking territories. Alternatively, ZDF Enterprises can just sign on to serve as a project’s international distributor. "We’re always looking for investment opportunities, if we see potential for the project to in the end do a good job for the producer or the copyright holder, and make some money ourselves."

Click to clips of Busting the Berlin Wall and The Bastei-Collection.