Banijay Rights Notches Up Deals on Artist of the Year Formats

Banijay Rights has secured new deals for the factual format brands Portrait Artist of the Year and Landscape Artist of the Year.

Portrait Artist of the Year has been recommissioned for a second season by Danish public broadcaster DR1. The 6×1-hour local series is produced by Banijay Group’s Mastiff Denmark and began airing this month. Locally known as Danmarks Bedste Portraetmaler, the show was originally produced by Storyvault Films for Sky Arts. NBC Universal’s digital service Bluprint recently picked up secondary rights in the U.S. to seasons one and two of Portrait Artist of the Year following its premiere on Ovation TV.

Landscape Artist of the Year has been commissioned by Blue Ant Media for Canada. The Canadian version of Landscape Artist of the Year will be modeled on the original U.K. format.

Andreas Lemos, VP of sales for North America and acquisitions at Banijay Rights, commented, “Portrait Artist of the Year and Landscape Artist of the Year deliver hugely entertaining viewing that has proven to work as well on mainstream terrestrial channels as it does on genre-specific digital platforms. We’re delighted to see this fantastically adaptable format is consistently recommissioned alongside its continuing success as a finished program and look forward to it delivering more artistic inspiration—all wrapped up in a gripping competition—to new viewers around the world.”