TV Formats: 2015 Year in Review

As the format industry continued to search for “the next big thing,” the year saw many partnerships and pacts come about, with companies looking at collaborations as a way to pool creative resources. Indeed, there were plenty of acquisitions, investments, first-look pacts, co-development deals and the like across companies and countries big and small.

One of the largest moves came early in 2015, when ITV plc acquired John de Mol’s format powerhouse Talpa Media. Several months later, ITV Studios entered into exclusive production partnerships with Talpa in Australia, the Nordics and the Middle East. ITV Studios Global Entertainment secured a landmark format-collaboration agreement with South Korea’s CJ E&M and signed a co-production deal for a new show with China’s Huace.

Banijay Group and Zodiak Media agreed to merge their assets to create a single production and distribution entity. French media conglomerate Vivendi swooped in to take a 26.2-percent stake in the combined outfit. The deal is scheduled to close in the first half of this year.

FremantleMedia made several investments that bolstered its position among the format behemoths. The company acquired a 25-percent stake in the indie producer Man Alive Entertainment, which was set up by a former head of entertainment at Channel 4, and a 25-percent stake in Full Fat TV, which was established by the former managing director of Endemol label Remarkable TV. Additionally, FremantleMedia entered into an exclusive joint-venture partnership with Shanghai Media Group’s BesTV and China Media Capital in a bid to create and develop entertainment formats for the Chinese market.

Keshet International (KI) also had its eye on China in 2015. Through a new two-way deal, Huace Group/Croton Media is developing local versions of KI’s scripted formats Traffic Light and Loaded for Chinese audiences, while Keshet Studios optioned Dating Hunter from the Chinese producer for the U.S. market. A separate agreement saw KI align with Telefe in Argentina for a co-development deal to create new entertainment formats.

Red Arrow Entertainment and Nippon TV struck up a co-development pact of their own, planning to work together on new entertainment and reality formats. This followed on the pair’s partnership to remake the European drama The Last Cop for Hulu Japan, a landmark deal for the country’s scripted-format business.

Asia garnered quite a bit of attention on the global format stage last year. China, in particular, was a hot spot for commissions. The British hit The Only Way is Essex got a local Chinese version. The Dori Media Group comedy formats Ciega a Citas, Little Mom and So Where Were We were licensed for the Chinese market. The local version of Top Gear was a big hit, scoring more than 200 million viewers on TV and online. This month, a Chinese adaptation of the classic U.S. sitcom Mad About You makes its debut. The show will launch on Dragon TV and will be available for streaming on Youku Tudou shortly after the satellite-TV premiere.

China was also among the long list of countries to sign up for a local version of Lip Sync Battle, which was one of the breakout formats in 2015. The show began on Spike TV in the U.S. and has since traveled to the Philippines, the U.K., Chile and a slew of other territories. Lip Sync Battle combined two format trends that seem to be perennially popular: celebrities and competition.

Other top-selling formats in 2015 that tapped into these trends included Armoza Formats’ prime-time entertainment show I Can Do That!, which notched up sales to Germany’s ZDF and SBS 6 in the Netherlands, among many other countries. Global Agency’s reality singing format It’s Showtime has seen much success since its launch, including FremantleMedia licensing the format rights for 20 countries. The hypnosis-themed game-show format You’re Back in the Room received a lot of interest internationally, with sales to such markets as the U.S., Australia, France and the Netherlands, in addition to its recommission in the U.K. Also, social-experiment formats flourished, with hits such as Married at First Sight raising the profile of this unique genre.

Nevertheless, many of the established entertainment hits continued their reign in 2015. A number of new territories signed up for The Voice, including India and South Africa, while its junior version, The Voice Kids, gained popularity. In the U.K., the franchise caused a stir when it was reported that the hit singing competition would move from the BBC to ITV in 2017 (the word “poached” was used at the time). Dancing with the Stars was renewed for a 22nd season in the U.S. that kicks off this March. For the upcoming 11th season of America’s Got Talent, Simon Cowell has joined the judging panel. American Idol, however, is coming to an end this year—its 15th and final season debuts this week.

The U.S. has long been considered a tough market to crack for formats, but 2015 gave further proof that the country is increasingly opening up to international imports. NBC is putting Game of Silence, based on the Turkish drama Suskunlar, on air this year. The ITV series Collision is getting a U.S. treatment, with Eleventh Hour Films prepping a version for NBC in partnership with TriStar Television. ABC Studios commissioned a pilot script based on the Spanish format Motivos Personales. The ABC network also licensed two scripted formats from Austria: the crime series Janus and the comedy Braunschlag. USA Network gave a 13-episode order for the drama Queen of the South, an adaptation of the Telemundo telenovela La Reina del Sur. Meanwhile, Electus is working with showrunner and producer Marta Kauffman to adapt the British hit Doc Martin for the U.S.

As TV Formats Weekly looks ahead at what’s to come in 2016, the spirit of collaboration remains paramount. Companies should continue to align their creative efforts—and who knows, maybe one of these partnerships will finally yield the global format hit the industry has been long awaiting. This year, World Screen has again teamed up with Global Agency for The Formats Project, which aims to find the world’s freshest new formats and support them in achieving international success.

TV Formats Weekly and TVFormats.ws will continue to deliver the latest news, exclusive interviews, in-depth features and profiles throughout the year to keep you abreast of what’s new and what’s next in the world of formats.