Charity auction format wins Natpe pitch

NATPE: An Estonian format in which viewers bid for celebrities’ personal items in real time has won Natpe Budapest’s inaugural Pitch & Play Live event.

Best Offer debuted on Kanal 11 in Estonia earlier this year and was pitched by the network’s manager Nele Paves in front of a panel of format industry experts on Wednesday.

Produced by Tallinn-based Osakond, the show featured famous faces from Estonia auctioning off items that included a Tiffany silver platter from Hilary Clinton, which raised €10,000 (US$11,110).

Viewers were able to bid on the items online during the show, with bidding always starting at €1 and all the funds going to a charity of the celebrity’s choosing.

The 13-episode first season of Best Offer raised more than €20,000, Paves told delegates during her pitch, which saw off competition from Ukrainian formats Crack Them Up Kids and Pick the Right Box.

The judging panel consisted of Amos Neumann, chief operating officer of Armoza Formats; Can Okan, CEO/president of ITV Inter Medya; and Girts Licis, head of CEE, formats and content development at Modern Times Group.

Formats had to be non-scripted, have been created after June 1 2015, be without an international distributor and have originated from the CEE market.

Neumann told C21 that the trio chose Best Offer because it had the most potential to be adapted internationally and because it incorporated an online element to give “the best 360 solution.”

Best Offer will now be offered a development meeting with an as-yet-unnamed distributor.