FremantleMedia International Targets Asia & MidEast Sales

CANNES: The hugely popular Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) sports property Bellator is already attracting a great deal of interest for FremantleMedia International in the Middle East and Africa.

The company has high hopes that its female-skewed entertainment show XOX, Betsey Johnson will also garner a high level of interest with buyers across the territories. Both the Middle East and Africa have already proven to be healthy business areas for the company, according to Jamie Lynn, the executive VP of sales and distribution for EMEA. “As the region’s commercial channel offerings and services expand, there is increasing demand for more varied content,” he says. “In the Middle East, the Gulf territories have tended to fund the biggest commercial projects on pan-regional broadcasters, but we are seeing huge growth specifically in Egypt.” South Africa remains the leading African market, he says, adding, “we are also seeing increasing demand and new opportunities in Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana and Angola, amongst others.”

Sales for FremantleMedia International across the Asia Pacific have been hottest in Australia, New Zealand, Korea, China, India, the Philippines, Thailand and Japan. New opportunities have been opening up in Mongolia and Myanmar as well, notes Paul Ridley, the company’s senior executive VP of sales and distribution for the Asia Pacific. For MIPTV, Ridley highlights the extreme game show Total Blackout as well as the factual show World’s Strangest. There’s also a new series starring Jamie Oliver, Jamie & Jimmy’s Food Fight Club. “Jamie has a very high profile in the Asia-Pacific region, but generally broadcasters know that if FremantleMedia has produced a show, or we are representing a production from a third-party partner, they are being presented with a high-quality production,” says Ridley.