Mediaset Distribution: New formats and ambitions
Mediaset Distribution is one of the leading distributor of Italian content and this MIPCOM the company will be offering its clients brand new series and formats with the ambition to grow its international reach. Manuela Caputi, Head of Mediaset Distribution, talks with Maria Chiara Duranti about the highlights in the catalog.
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The Phone Secrets
What are the highlights in Mediaset Distribution’s catalog for MIPTV?
We are presenting several new titles: crime drama The Final Act (8x80’) with famous actor Gabriel Garko, a comedy titled Beauty Center- A Few Years Later (8x80’), spin-off of a famous series broadcast a couple of years ago, and we are in production with season 2 for crime series Code Name Solo (4x100’).
Mediaset is well known for its fiction productions. Which are your latest hits in the genre?
We are very well known for our crime series focused on mafia set in Rome or in the South of Italy, recently we had a good with Code Name Solo with 4.5 million viewers on our flagship Canale 5. This is a story about an undercover mission in the Corona mob clan and we also have long-running series Antimafia Squad whose last season titled The Boss is Back was broadcast this year. The comedy series Beauty Center – A Few Years Later recently broadcast by our flagship channel is doing well and we are distributing the format and the ready-made at MIPTV.
You are actively growing your non-fiction slate. Has there been international interest for your latest shows?
The idea is to develop more and more the format division and sell more formats. We had a very big response with the launch of the unscripted format The Phone Secrets, a gameshow that got interest before the market. The format sees 3 couples sitting around a table with their smartphones connected to a LED wall. One person per couple then unlocks their handset and hands control of it to their partners who has 2 minutes to go to their personal messages, photos and chats. The players accept to share their secrets with the aim to win an exotic holiday.
Is Mediaset strengthening its relationship with Italian producers to represent them on the international markets?
Yes, we have a good collaboration with independent producers like Videoevoluzione whose factual series Guerrila Gardens is distributed by us as well as the coaching series Il Capo sono io (I am the Boss), which received a lot of interest in Latin America with our partner Marcel Vinay at Comarex. Also, we have developed a good partnership with Nando Moscariello, CEO of Vivi la Vita and creator of social experiment The Phone Secrets. We are currently distributing his unscripted paper formats such as factual entertainment Breaking Love, Jail, the reality contest The Bodyguard, the factual swapping pilot Shock Therapy and factual entertainment My DNA. Also, we have a very successful quiz show On Your Skin, 500 episodes broadcast daily from Monday to Friday from Bic Formats and a talent format titled Making OFF whose concept is related to the idea of producing a music video clip. Beside these news entries, we have the factual series of Rocco Siffredi’s Family produced by Verve Media, another important player that work with us. Both the sitcom The Siffredi Family and the late show The Hard Academy are in our catalog at MIPTV.
At MIPCOM 2016 you announced a major deal with Astro in Malaysia. Tell us more about that. Are you planning similar partnerships in other territories?
It’s was a very good deal made by Mediaset Distribution and Astro, South East Asia’s leading pay TV broadcaster for the production and distribution of our series. The agreement has 3 parties, Mediaset, Astro and Global Station, a Malaysian production house behind some of the most successful drama series in Malaysia. This is a milestone dor us marking a long-term partnership relying on the strengths of the respective parties in which Astro and Global Station will begin to co-produce Mediaset series Tuscan Passion which will be adapted for the Malaysian and South East Asian audiences.
This is the first-time collaboration between Astro and Mediaset. Astro has also closed an agreement to acquire Mediaset’s original series Intelligence, For Love Alone, Beyond the Lake and Kissed by Love which are all set to premiere.
What other key points do you have in your strategy for growth? Which are the main markets that you are targeting?
We would like to increase the volume of sales in Eastern Europe of drama series and movie features, as we have a large library. At the same time, we are trying to open the market of unscripted formats with our own creativity.
Italian fiction is becoming more and more recognized with its high production quality and distinct style but it has yet to achieve the fame of “Nordic noir”, for example. What is the reason for this?
I can say that we have been a precursor of the trend genre at Mediaset. In fact, as Mediaset we launched several years ago, an intriguing thriller like Mystery Island (6x100’) set in a peaceful town broken by inexplicable murders. After that we launched the thriller Into the Woods, a miniseries of 4 episodes that tells the story of a young woman a psychologist who teaches at the campus in her town. She has been away and she in back, but she will find a community that is not peaceful as it looks like, there are some mysteriously killings that involved an unexpected people very close to her instead she will discover the truth behind the death of her mother. In can define it as an Italian Nordic noir genre. Also, the series The Chosen (2 seasons of 24 episodes) set in Rome with a Jesuit priest working for the Vatican and facing paranormal phenomena can be considered very close to the noir genre. As well as the series, The Secrets of Borgo Larici, a period drama set in 1922 in a quiet and orderly place where everything seems perfect and it’s not. I think that we are good in producing prime time series for mainstream channels. ▪
We are presenting several new titles: crime drama The Final Act (8x80’) with famous actor Gabriel Garko, a comedy titled Beauty Center- A Few Years Later (8x80’), spin-off of a famous series broadcast a couple of years ago, and we are in production with season 2 for crime series Code Name Solo (4x100’).
Mediaset is well known for its fiction productions. Which are your latest hits in the genre?
We are very well known for our crime series focused on mafia set in Rome or in the South of Italy, recently we had a good with Code Name Solo with 4.5 million viewers on our flagship Canale 5. This is a story about an undercover mission in the Corona mob clan and we also have long-running series Antimafia Squad whose last season titled The Boss is Back was broadcast this year. The comedy series Beauty Center – A Few Years Later recently broadcast by our flagship channel is doing well and we are distributing the format and the ready-made at MIPTV.
You are actively growing your non-fiction slate. Has there been international interest for your latest shows?
The idea is to develop more and more the format division and sell more formats. We had a very big response with the launch of the unscripted format The Phone Secrets, a gameshow that got interest before the market. The format sees 3 couples sitting around a table with their smartphones connected to a LED wall. One person per couple then unlocks their handset and hands control of it to their partners who has 2 minutes to go to their personal messages, photos and chats. The players accept to share their secrets with the aim to win an exotic holiday.
Into the Woods
Is Mediaset strengthening its relationship with Italian producers to represent them on the international markets?
Yes, we have a good collaboration with independent producers like Videoevoluzione whose factual series Guerrila Gardens is distributed by us as well as the coaching series Il Capo sono io (I am the Boss), which received a lot of interest in Latin America with our partner Marcel Vinay at Comarex. Also, we have developed a good partnership with Nando Moscariello, CEO of Vivi la Vita and creator of social experiment The Phone Secrets. We are currently distributing his unscripted paper formats such as factual entertainment Breaking Love, Jail, the reality contest The Bodyguard, the factual swapping pilot Shock Therapy and factual entertainment My DNA. Also, we have a very successful quiz show On Your Skin, 500 episodes broadcast daily from Monday to Friday from Bic Formats and a talent format titled Making OFF whose concept is related to the idea of producing a music video clip. Beside these news entries, we have the factual series of Rocco Siffredi’s Family produced by Verve Media, another important player that work with us. Both the sitcom The Siffredi Family and the late show The Hard Academy are in our catalog at MIPTV.
At MIPCOM 2016 you announced a major deal with Astro in Malaysia. Tell us more about that. Are you planning similar partnerships in other territories?
It’s was a very good deal made by Mediaset Distribution and Astro, South East Asia’s leading pay TV broadcaster for the production and distribution of our series. The agreement has 3 parties, Mediaset, Astro and Global Station, a Malaysian production house behind some of the most successful drama series in Malaysia. This is a milestone dor us marking a long-term partnership relying on the strengths of the respective parties in which Astro and Global Station will begin to co-produce Mediaset series Tuscan Passion which will be adapted for the Malaysian and South East Asian audiences.
This is the first-time collaboration between Astro and Mediaset. Astro has also closed an agreement to acquire Mediaset’s original series Intelligence, For Love Alone, Beyond the Lake and Kissed by Love which are all set to premiere.
Tuscan Passion
What other key points do you have in your strategy for growth? Which are the main markets that you are targeting?
We would like to increase the volume of sales in Eastern Europe of drama series and movie features, as we have a large library. At the same time, we are trying to open the market of unscripted formats with our own creativity.
Italian fiction is becoming more and more recognized with its high production quality and distinct style but it has yet to achieve the fame of “Nordic noir”, for example. What is the reason for this?
I can say that we have been a precursor of the trend genre at Mediaset. In fact, as Mediaset we launched several years ago, an intriguing thriller like Mystery Island (6x100’) set in a peaceful town broken by inexplicable murders. After that we launched the thriller Into the Woods, a miniseries of 4 episodes that tells the story of a young woman a psychologist who teaches at the campus in her town. She has been away and she in back, but she will find a community that is not peaceful as it looks like, there are some mysteriously killings that involved an unexpected people very close to her instead she will discover the truth behind the death of her mother. In can define it as an Italian Nordic noir genre. Also, the series The Chosen (2 seasons of 24 episodes) set in Rome with a Jesuit priest working for the Vatican and facing paranormal phenomena can be considered very close to the noir genre. As well as the series, The Secrets of Borgo Larici, a period drama set in 1922 in a quiet and orderly place where everything seems perfect and it’s not. I think that we are good in producing prime time series for mainstream channels. ▪
