YLE taps Magnify for mental illness format

Finnish public broadcaster YLE has brought in UK distributor Magnify Media to represent its series Mental, marking the latter’s first move into scripted formats.

Magnify Media, which was launched in 2015 by former DRG MD Andrea Jackson, will search for international broadcasters to adapt the format.

The show tells the stories of four teenagers locked up in a psychiatric unit and was a big hit for the Finnish broadcaster, which said it was watched 2.8 million times online.

The show is aimed at a 15- to 24-year-old audience and aims to de-stigmatise mental illness.

“Taking the step into scripted formats had to be with the right property, and this is a magnificent piece of multi-platform IP, with a clear public-service remit and positive social impact,” Andrea Jackson, MD of Magnify Media.

Magnify will launch the format at MipTV next month alongside unscripted formats such as Plimsoll Productions’ Teach My Pet to Do That (8×30′); Norwegian shows Five Days Inside and Happy Go Lucky; and Irish show Fittest Family.