MIPCOM: The Week in Factual

Shines a spotlight on the factual highlights from this year’s MIPCOM.

The wonders of the natural world continued to dazzle at MIPCOM, where factual programs exploring oceans, wildlife and our planet were prime picks. Among the high-profile highlights was Blue Planet II, the brand-new seven-part landmark series from BBC Studios’ Natural History Unit, following on from 2001’s The Blue Planet. During the market, BBC Worldwide entered into a co-production deal with China’s Tencent for the natural-history series, which will broadcast simultaneously in China and the U.K. on Tencent’s v.qq.com platform and video app.

NHK Enterprises presented the documentary Deep Ocean: Journey to the Deepest to the international marketplace. A co-production of NHK and ZDF, the doc made use of an unmanned deep-sea 4K camera rig to probe the depths of the ocean for two months. Blue Ant International presold a package of 4K natural-history content, including programming from Love Nature’s productions Camp Zambia II and Camp Sri Lanka, to National Geographic. ORF-Enterprise licensed a ten-hour bundle to Al Jazeera Documentary Channel that included the wildlife docs Lionsrock, Vanishing Kings I, Garden Wild, Wild Istanbul and Oetscher: The Gentle Giant, among a host of other agreements signed by the distributor. Zee Entertainment Enterprises and Smithsonian Channel commissioned the 4K/UHD feature documentary Life of Earth: From Space and Life of Earth: The Age of Human, examining the planet’s 4.5 billion-year history from the vantage point of space. It marked the first foray into the blue-chip specialist factual genre for Zee.

MIPCOM Personality of the Year David Zaslav, the president and CEO of Discovery Communications, revealed a new partnership between the family of the late Steve Irwin (The Crocodile Hunter) and Animal Planet to develop and produce TV projects across the network’s platforms. In other partnership news, A+E Networks announced it is teaming up with China Central Television (CCTV) and China International Television Corporation (CITVC) to co-produce The Silk Road: Reborn. The agreement marks A+E Networks’ first collaboration with CITVC to co-produce factual programming for the global marketplace.

Outside of programs spotlighting animals, nature and the wider world around us, there continued to be strong interest from the international market for factual projects centered on famous faces. Beyond Distribution sold the documentary Escobar Exposed to Canal+ Group to air on Planète+ Crime Investigation in France. The title is touted to be the only documentary about the infamous drug lord to feature exclusive in-depth interviews with Pablo Escobar’s son, Juan Pablo—who was in Cannes to promote the doc—and Pablo Escobar’s widow, Tata, along with previously unseen footage. FilmRise teamed up with American Public Television to release the documentary Mario Lanza: The Best of Everything, which celebrates the life and career of the world’s most famous tenor with the “voice from God.” And TCB Media Rights notched up presales for two of its royal-themed MIPCOM launches, Elizabeth and The Private Lives of the Monarchs.

True crime continued to be a hot genre (though there didn’t seem to be quite as many high-profile titles in this space as there have been at recent MIP markets). BBC Worldwide picked up the rights to distribute the new true-crime series 20 Years on Death Row internationally, outside of France and the U.K., where the show was acquired by UKTV’s Really. The appetite for food programming persisted, with FremantleMedia International extending its output deal with FOX Turkey’s 24 Kitchen, which will continue to serve as the exclusive home of Jamie Oliver shows in the country, along with a host of other culinary content. Food was also among the top categories that Scripps Networks Interactive was betting on at the market, where it showcased nearly 100 hours of new content across such categories as home, cooking and travel—many of the programs also feature familiar TV personalities, an asset that has become increasingly important in helping a series or feature stand out in the factual landscape.

Catch up on these stories and more on TVReal.ws.