Keshet International’s Sebastian Burkhardt Talks Formats

Format buyers, by and large, have a clear vision of the types of projects that best fit the brands they’re acquiring for, and what will and won’t work for them. However, sometimes it pays to go off-piste, suggests Sebastian Burkhardt, head of business development and acquisitions at Keshet International, whose portfolio includes the breakthrough interactive format Rising Star, game shows BOOM! and new launch Who’s On Top?, plus scripted formats The A Word (currently in production for BBC One) and False Flag. The latter is being remade in English for FOX in the U.S., with the original series having been recently sold to FOX International Channels and set to air in 127 countries.

“The best ideas are those that elevate a genre or subject area in a new disruptive way—that’s how I’d describe a lot of the content in our portfolio, from Rising Star to The A Word, and what we are seeking to acquire more of,” Burkhardt says.

“There has been a trend for niche subject matters to become mainstream, for example, things that were formerly thought of as ‘geeky’ like zombies and vampires. Even the U.K.’s highest rated show this year, The Great British Bake Off, and the similarly targeted The Sewing Bee, have taken niche subject matters and harnessed their core fan bases to take the topics mainstream. We expect this growth to continue as platforms like Facebook and YouTube connect small yet dedicated groups with a common interest to form powerful forces that can bring quirky subjects to TV.”

“We have a very broad global client base, many of which have different needs,” he adds. “But they are all looking for ideas that will set them apart from the competition and engage viewers through original storytelling and, if possible, with interactivity—or more specifically, social engagement—at their core. That might be ‘event television’ that creates real-time, unmissable moments; studio-based entertainment or game-show concepts bright and shiny enough to act as prime-time ‘lighthouses;’ or drama and comedy series that have the potential to be re-versioned for local audiences and feed the SVOD platforms’ growing appetite for premium scripted content.”

Burkhardt says Keshet is on a mission to challenge “the adversity to risk-taking” that has beset the formats industry in recent years, with cash-strapped broadcasters opting to fill their schedules with reliable bankers rather than take a chance on a potentially expensive failure.

“We identify and back innovative ideas at a very early stage and throw the necessary resources behind those ideas to bring them to life,” he adds. The track record and pedigree of the creative team behind a concept are also a major factor in Keshet’s decision to back a project, Burkhardt says. “We work with producers and creators at all stages of development, leading the whole development chain from paper idea to broadcast.”

As far as rights are concerned, Burkhardt says Keshet views its formats as brands and, as such, looks to extend them over as many platforms as reasonably make sense for the property in question. “We are always looking to exploit our properties to their full potential,” he adds. “That could mean creating viewer engagement tools (the recent launch of the BOOM! app that sits alongside the TV format is a great example), smart windowing of content across different platforms or exploring sponsorship, home-entertainment and licensing opportunities.”

And if you can add passion to the process, so much the better, Burkhardt notes. “I’d encourage creators to embrace their passions, tackling new genres and subject matters in disruptive ways, because that alone is very infectious and has driven some of the most innovative and arresting ideas on the market.”