Electus Launches International Co-Production Model

Electus International has established a new international co-production business model that it is branding 6/26.

Created by John Pollak, the president of worldwide television and international at Electus, the new unscripted model brings together in one sales coalition four international broadcasters—Australia’s Nine, France’s TF1, Germany’s NITRO (Media Group RTL Germany) and Nordics’ MTG—which are looking to co-commission for their respective territories original, unscripted format-driven, factual entertainment series from U.S. producers, as well as other independent content creators globally.

Through a pitch and sales process managed by Pollak and Electus, each of the four broadcasters will hear pitches, approve creative and ultimately greenlight shows, committing to equally co-fund an initial straight-to-series order of no less than six episodes. Any subsequent series pickup would commit an automatic up-order of 26 new episodes (though the broadcasters maintain some leeway to tailor the up-order to their specific needs).

Electus, the producers and the international broadcasters will share in backend participation from the distribution of content outside their territories, including to U.S. networks.

Pollak commented: “As producers continue navigating this challenging media environment, we’re all looking at new ways to create and sell content. At the same time, international broadcasters—which Electus International knows so well through our longstanding distribution business—want direct access to the best producers in the U.S. and around the world. By putting these two groups together in a shared co-pro model, we offer international commissioners original stories, characters and worlds they would only get from U.S. and independent productions while guaranteeing producers significant volume in a straight-to-series model. We see it as a huge ‘win-win-win’ and look forward to working with the U.S. unscripted production community, and our global content partners, to facilitate great pitches for Nine, TF1, NITRO and MTG.”

Michael Healy, Nine Network’s director of television, commented: “Nine Network Australia is excited to have the opportunity to be part of the strong alliance of leading international broadcasters brought together by Electus and to work with this group to develop, produce and broadcast new formats and titles.”

Jakob Mejlhede, MTG’s executive VP and head of programming and content development, remarked: “Our viewers have an appetite for more factual programs across our channels and streaming services. Being part of this unscripted co-production model, where Electus is channeling creative ideas and MTG, together with partners, shares the investment and ownership in new series, is a great complement to the wide array of high-quality programs we today produce ourselves or acquire from leading international studios.”

Oliver Schablitzki, the executive VP of NITRO, added: “This alliance with strong partners from all around the globe is a bold move within the highly competitive non-scripted market. Its mission is nothing less than finding the next hit in factual entertainment.”

Julien Degroote, the head of non-scripted commissioning and format development at TF1 Group, commented: “We are thrilled to jump into this new adventure with a trustful company as Electus. TV is all about passion and creativity. We will try to contribute to it by working with impressive international broadcasters.”