TVREAL
Last week in Cannes, Terra Mater Factual Studios licensed more than 100 hours of programming to international buyers from Europe and Asia.
In France, a slew of content is headed to France TV, ARTE or Canal +, while TVB in Poland went for 14 productions, including Superpigs, Wild Uganda, Earth—The Nature of Our Planet and It’s a Wild Christmas.
Over in Asia, documentary packages were acquired by CCIC and CCTV. Deals were also secured with Korea’s Kim Media, Thailand’s Thairath TV and Hong Kong’s TVB.
Among the best-selling titles for the company was Ant Mountain, which is the sequel to the hit documentary David Attenborough’s Light on Earth. The doc was snapped up by France 5, Kim Media, TVB and Thairath TV.
Walter Köhler, the CEO of Terra Mater Factual Studios, said: “The unique quality of our productions is stimulating huge demand worldwide. We have had all manner of productive meetings [at MIPTV]—and in fact I signed a contract with our Korean partner Kim Media [in Cannes]. Business has gone very well indeed.”
Sabine Holzer, who oversees TV documentaries produced by Terra Mater, noted: “At this event, our absolute sales hits have been the brand-new documentary Sex, Lies and Butterflies as well as Superpigs and A Life Among Monkeys, which is about macaques in Sri Lanka. Our nature films speak a universal language, as do the scientific and history-related titles. In addition, we are known for our high quality of production, which of course requires high budgets. We have nevertheless been able to build stable relationships with our most reliable co-production partners in recent years; large channels such as National Geographic, PBS or Smithsonian Networks in the USA, France Télévisions and ARTE in France, or the NDR in Germany. This has enabled us to make blue-chip documentaries as co-productions.”
