ORF Announces MIPCOM Deals

VIENNA: The Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (ORF) sealed deals on titles from across its portfolio at MIPCOM last week, including its HD Universum docs, drama series and TV movies and kids fare.

The Universum doc titles River Without Frontiers, The Wild Balkans, Let it Snow, Emperor Franz Joseph and World War I, 1918—A New Beginning, Sanctuary—Escape to Uncertainty and Hitler’s Counterfeiters; the Austrian fiction titles The Wine Tycoon and Four Women and a Funeral and the kids’ show Explorer Express have been sold worldwide to channels in Asia, Europe, the U.S. and Latin America.

"The offers by ORF are very much sought after worldwide and, finally, buyers have again budgets for acquisitions," said Beatrice Riesenfelder, the head of sales and acquisitions at ORF. "We have seen at MIPCOM that they are primarily interested in high quality, European content, which is very convenient for the ORF given its huge offer of such content. We have been able to conclude some very positive deals both in the field of documentaries and children’s programs. Also, our TV series and TV movies were sold in countries that usually do not look after Austrian fictional content, such as China, Iran and Latin America. MIPCOM was generally characterized by a very positive undertone, which makes an end of the crisis foreseeable on the program market as well."

A slate of HD Universum documentaries sold to some 18 markets, including Italy, France, Romania, Hungary, Canada and Switzerland, Russia and Thailand. CCTV opted for scripted fare with Wine Tycoon and Four Women and a Funeral, while Fast Forward will be broadcast in Denmark, Lithuania and Slovenia. On the kids’ front, ARTE acquired further episodes of the science series Explorer Express, and other productions having been sold to the Middle East and Brazil. ORF’s classical music programs were sold to Russia and Slovenia. Plus, more than 150 hours of ORF content, across of variety of genres, was licensed into Eastern Europe.