Sparking a Global Exchange

Sparks Network is continuing to build its membership base globally and adding to its catalogue by signing up for an increasing number of third-party rights.

CCCP from the Netherlands, south&browse from Germany and Fireball SEM from South Africa are the latest members to join Sparks Network’s group of companies. The group now has 22 members in total, spanning countries such as Italy, Spain, Finland, the Czech Republic, Greece, Canada, the U.S. and more.

Last year, Sparks opened a regional office in Hong Kong, as Asia has become an important focus of the company’s expansion efforts of late. “The new office in Hong Kong has been going very well,” says Fredrik af Malmborg, the managing director of Sparks Network. “We’re looking at having ten members at least in the Asia Pacific. We’d like to strengthen an inter-Asian network. We have Japan, Korea, China, Indonesia, Australia and now we’re looking at Malaysia, Thailand and India.”

The company’s Asian efforts have already paid off, as Sparks recently scored a raft of new commissions through its Hong Kong office, including a deal for the game show Clueless in Vietnam and a local treatment of Super Soccer Stars being produced in Indonesia.

“They have a growing middle class and the value in television is improving all the time,” says af Malmborg of the region. “I think maybe a few years ago it was a strange format market. It’s maturing now and more and more is being licensed. We also see some high-quality shows coming out of Asia, especially Japan and Korea.”

He also sees potential in the African market, and says the Middle East has been particularly appealing as well. “The Middle East is an interesting area,” af Malmborg says. “We always sold and licensed programming to the big pan-Arabic channels, but what we’re seeing now also is that we’re selling more and more to national channels, like in Egypt, Tunisia, Lebanon. To some extent, we see two windows there: first you can sell the series pan-Arabic, then to each country a few months later.”

Latin America is another area Sparks is eyeing, says af Malmborg, with the company working alongside Somos Zebra, its partner in the region. There, the focus is on scripted dramas and telenovelas. “We see a good demand for scripted formats and I think long-running drama is very strong,” af Malmborg notes. “Broadcasters want big, long-running projects, and drama, especially in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, is very strong.” He points to Ezel from Ay Yapim in Turkey as a drama that’s worked particularly well in the catalogue.

On the non-scripted side, Sparks found success at the recent MIPCOM market with OTW’s Bucket List, which has been piloted in the Middle East, optioned in Italy, France, Belgium and Germany, and is airing in its second season in Sweden. Other top titles af Malmborg highlights include Hide and Seek from TV Tokyo, Wanted from Trio Orange, Tourist Guides from Susamuru and OTW’s Everyday Heroes.

Also a strong title at MIPCOM, Lady Burlesque from Europroduzione is in license or option negotiations in some ten different countries and has been commissioned for a second season in Italy. Europroduzione is not a Sparks member, but came to the catalogue as a third-party deal. “As sparks has built up a rather powerful distribution team over the last years, we are signing up an increasing number of series and formats from non-member producers and broadcasters,” af Malmborg notes. “Our focus is on unique formats with a high production value in the original country.”

When evaluating third-party formats for the catalogue, af Malmborg says originality is a key element he’s after. “What we’re not looking for is something that looks like something else, even though we probably could sell another music-talent quest. It has to feel unique and fresh. And, of course, have good execution; nobody buys formats that are not well executed, regardless of how good the idea is. The production value and the uniqueness of the idea can bring you something that people haven’t necessarily seen before.”