Campaign Profile

Cineflix Rights senior execs Tom Misselbrook, Sandra Piha, Richard Life and Mike Gould outline the company’s content strategies across scripted, unscripted, formats and digital.

Cineflix’s distribution arm, Cineflix Rights, has in recent years cemented its position as a leading player in the global market, combining deep reservoirs of experience with a capacity to adapt as the business evolves. Now into its third decade, the firm’s ability to pivot across cycles, platforms and buyer demands is a defining strength.

From its UK base, the independent company offers a robust mix of scripted and factual titles. At the same time, it is expanding the ways in which its catalogue is monetised, pushing further into FAST, AVoD and YouTube as those ecosystems become core to the distribution landscape.

In scripted, Cineflix Rights offers a tightly curated line-up. It is “very focused, very selective,” says senior VP of scripted sales and development Tom Misselbrook, but still manages to span tone, geography and target audience.

Headlining the 2026 slate is crime procedural Anna Pigeon. Starring Tracy Spiridakos, it follows a park ranger who “leaves her life in New York to go to the Glacier National Park in Montana, where she is essentially law enforcement”. Built around a case-of-the-week structure, “it is full of action, all on location, showcasing the untamed wilderness that she has to exist in,” says Misselbrook. “It’s a really good indicator of the type of show that we want to put out there.”

Anna Pigeon arrives at “the right time,” says Misselbrook, with buyers actively seeking “this sort of blue-sky crime show.” Tonally, it aims for the broadest possible reach. “It has lighter, playful moments, but it’s a show that leans into action and the stakes always feel high.”

The ambition is for the project to run and run, riding a wave of outdoorsy dramas triggered by the popularity of Paramount’s hit series Yellowstone. “It’s adapted from Nevada Barr’s long-running series of 19 Anna Pigeon novels,” says Misselbrook, “so there’s a huge source for us to work with.”

Filmed in Canada, the show is a coproduction between USA Network and Canada’s Bell Media. Misselbrook says the US – despite its continued importance as a source of investment – remains “quite challenging with a smaller set of obvious buyers.” But for Cineflix Rights, he adds, the North American copro is a tried-and-tested model, combining advantageous Canadian production economics and incentives with a US anchor partner before seeking out international partnerships.

Sunny Nights is another show that underscores Cineflix Rights’ appetite for projects with a clear hook and international ambition. A crime-comedy with US talent including Will Forte and D’Arcy Carden, it has quickly attracted partners including Hulu. Misselbrook notes that this show was also “set up with the ambition of doing multiple seasons.”

The rest of the scripted slate also reflects Cineflix Rights’ balancing act between commercial clarity and creative distinction. The Walsh Sisters, adapted from Marian Keyes’ novels, is a comedy-drama that is “dramatic, heartbreaking, but also really funny… with a lot of heart and warmth,” Already a success for Ireland’s RTÉ and the BBC in the UK, it has the potential to “to become a cult series,” says Misselbrook.

Elsewhere, Hildur offers a twist on Nordic noir: ‘Nordic Blue’. Set against Iceland’s spectacular Westfjords, it pairs a serial killer investigation with a deeply personal cold case but introduces a lighter tonal edge: “There are moments of levity that you don’t normally see in Nordic noir,” says Misselbrook.

Across its scripted titles, Cineflix Rights likes to get involved early where possible, Misselbrook says, “to help steer the project with the international piece in mind” – key to the firm’s scripted strategy is coproduction and pre-sales, although the firm also has the flexibility to come in later as a deficit financer.

What is consistent, however, is the need for shows with “a strong hook and a clear understanding of what the show is… something you can sell in a line.” In today’s market, “you need shows that are super strong creatively, but also very commercial.”

Cineflix Rights’ factual slate is also built around cut-through. In a crowded unscripted market, senior VP Sandra Piha’s says the focus is on “standout” content that can travel, flex across slots and still feel distinctive. A good illustration is Cirque Life, which Piha calls “a character-driven, visually spectacular new docuseries.”

According to Piha, the show offers “behind the scenes exclusive access to a global brand,” as cameras follow Cirque du Soleil performers through the relentless demands of 10 shows a week. With its blend of access, spectacle and human stakes, it is “premium event television with universal appeal,” she says, capable of moving “seamlessly across arts, entertainment and family-friendly slots.”

Another genre that continues to deliver, says Piha, is true crime, provided it offers something unexpected. “There is still a huge demand globally for shows where there’s a twist that an audience would never see coming.” Confessions of a Killer exemplifies that approach. A deep dive into the unsettling story of a suicide pact that was eventually discovered to have been a double murder, it is built around “never heard before confession tapes,” says Piha, and challenges assumptions about “good people.”

Similarly, Kings of Coke leans into premium storytelling within the same genre. “An incredible story, as gripping as any Narcos-style drama,” says Piha, it charts how “a crew of bank robbers evolved into one of the most powerful cocaine trafficking operations in North America and how the police eventually took them down.”

Lifestyle remains a cornerstone for Cineflix Rights, says Piha, highlighting Top of the Block, a format that combines property, competition and social experiment. With its “tight 30-minute, four-act structure” and a format that is “instantly clear and endlessly repeatable,” it is “easy to strip, binge or slot into weekend blocks.”

There is also room for spectacle-driven factual. The Great Icelandic Swim with Ross Edgley taps into audiences’ appetite for extreme challenges, following the ultra-endurance athlete as he attempts to swim 1,000 miles around Iceland.

Across the slate, one reality underpins everything, she says: financing has tightened. “In the current market, pre-sales aren’t optional, they’re essential.” Cineflix Rights has leaned into this shift, positioning itself as “a trusted partner for broadcasters,” she says. Examples include Mysteries of Ancient Medicine (Go Button Media), pre-sold to National Geographic; and Deep Water Secrets (Cream TV) funded via a Hearst sale.

At the same time, buyer behaviour is increasingly risk averse. “In a competitive landscape buyers lean towards well-known brands to de-risk their strategy and budgets.” This plays into Cineflix Rights’ strength in returning franchises and extensions of established IP. Property Brothers: Under Pressure is a case in point, a new iteration of a proven brand. Likewise, Château DIY: Win the Dream evolves an existing hit into a competition format, with couples competing for “their very own French château.”

History programming is still important but evolving, says Piha, with buyers seeking “shows that shed new light on a period they think they already know about.” War Trains answers that brief by combining military history with engineering and transport, exploring how railways shaped global conflict with “top-notch production and CGI.”

Alongside these newer titles, Cineflix Rights continues to nurture established brands, with returning series such as An Optimist’s Guide to the Planet, The Wall, Moving Houses and Richard Hammond’s Workshop remaining key sales drivers.

The company’s success with formats is also expanding internationally, with Tempting Fortune now moving into a third season and rolling out across multiple territories.

Cineflix Rights head of acquisitions Richard Life says a key factor in rolling out a format into multiple territories is “finding local production partners who not only have the ability to reproduce a winning formula, but to also refresh the format and give it new life.”

He cites the example of Tempting Fortune Italy, where production partner Blu Yazmine “took the essential elements of the original Channel 4 series and “adapted it into a more formatted series appropriate to Sky Italia’s primetime audience”. The UK producers and creators of the format Voltage TV were very happy with how Blu Yazmine partly re-invented the series and in turn have taken elements of that into the new season for the show in the UK. “In turn, our partners in Norway, Monster Films, took the best elements of both Italy and the UK in producing their own show for NRK.”

With broadcasters tightening their belts, Life says being able to offer flexibility on budgets and helping producers keep costs down is a key factor in maintaining the success of an international format. “Tempting Fortune requires a certain level of budget to be made, but we have been able to find a major cost-saving solution by creating a production hub in Malaysia. This has enabled local productions to be shot back-to-back, sharing crew, sets and other production infrastructure.”

If Cineflix Rights’ launch strategies are built around clarity and cut-through, its digital business – overseen by senior VP Mike Gould – is focused on giving content an extended life. Now entering its fourth year, the company’s FAST strategy is reaching what Gould describes as “an interesting stage of maturity,” underpinned by platform deals in the US and anchored by strong performers such as Real Disaster channel.

Pointing to the next phase, Gould says dedicated brand channels will soon be rolling out across additional platforms in key new territories, marking a significant step in bringing established franchises into the free streaming space.

As the English-language FAST market becomes more crowded, the focus is shifting towards international expansion. Cineflix Rights is experimenting with localisation at scale, using both pre-existing broadcaster dubs/subtitles and AI-generation to open up new territories. “We absolutely want to make sure that we’re getting a quality of dub that is going to be faithful to the brand,” Gould says, adding that when best-in-class AI systems are deployed, “the quality is really good.”

What has become clear is that not all FAST strategies are equal. “The single brand channels, where the viewer knows what they’re going to get, tend to perform best.” Genre channels still work but require stronger distribution to cut through.

A key lesson is that “not everything needs to go into FAST,” says Gould. Some titles are better suited to AVoD and knowing where each piece of content belongs is now a key part of the strategy. The financial upside, however, is becoming harder to ignore: “some AVoD rev-share performance is starting to emulate what we’d get on the second window fee and in some cases exceed that.”

YouTube, meanwhile, has become another substantial pillar. Cineflix Rights now operates 26 channels spanning both owned brands and partnerships with producers, with a strategy centred on full episodes supported by clips, shorts and live streams.

Gould works alongside sales teams to balance traditional deals with emerging digital value, ensuring that rights, holdbacks and windows are structured to maximise long-term returns. As these worlds converge, Cineflix Rights’ approach is increasingly holistic – treating digital not as an add-on, but as an integral part of the distribution strategy.

The company is exploring how it can work more closely with creators, particularly those already operating around its IP. The key, says Gould, is finding ways to collaborate without disrupting what made those voices successful in the first place.

For now, the digital focus remains on sweating pre-existing IP, but Gould says the next phase will involve developing original content tailored specifically for the platform. That could include “YouTube-first programming, behind-the-scenes content or shoulder formats” designed to keep key brands active between traditional windows.

Based on the growth of the company’s social footprint, Gould says this expansion into digital originals is only a matter of time. “The trajectory of our viewing and revenue is only going in one direction – and that’s positive.”