TRX make children’s rights move

MIPJUNIOR: David and Matthew Frank’s online TV rights portal The RightsXchange (TRX) is moving into children’s distribution.

TRX, which opened for business earlier this week, will offer thousands of hours of kids content to buyers via its online deal-making platform.

Companies including Foothill Entertainment, Jetpack Distribution, Novel Entertainment, Splash Entertainment and Studio 100 have linked up with TRX, which recently secured a deal with BBCWorldwide.

The Frank brothers, who founded RDF Media and also previously worked for Zodiak Media, created the deal-making tool in 2014.

It enables rights deals to be competed online and allows distributors to reach buyers in new international markets, which in turn get access to rights that would otherwise have been difficult to secure.

The company, which has raised £11m (US$15m) of finance to date, operates globally and offers more than 15,000 hours of programming, with over 500 buyers registered.

Distributors already registered and able to sell via TRX include Discovery Communications, All3Media International, Bloomberg and Antenna Group.

Nigel Pickard, TRX president, is a veteran of the kids world having been CEO of Zodiak UK Kids before joining TRX. Prior to that he was controller of children’s and youth programmes at ITV and has also headed up the BBC’s children’s output.

Pickard said TRX’s move into kids programming will allow distributors “not only to broaden their client base, but also do more deals, more easily.”

“The ever-growing number of new channels and platforms means the kids market is becoming increasingly complex and TRX offers instant clarity on the rights available to both traditional and online platforms,” he said.