Campaign Profile

Kelly Wright, MD of Distribution at Keshet International, discusses how the market is changing, what opportunities she sees and the new product coming down the company’s production pipeline.

Given the state of the international market, how is demand for factual finished tape changing? And how are you securing your factual pipeline since selling your stake in Greenbird?

English-language factual finished tape continues to sell well for us. We are still actively acquiring, developing and shopping premium docuseries, true crime and ancient history series from independent producers for international distribution. Our commissioning initiative, Keshet International’s Greenlight: Factual & Formats, is our annual call to action for producers, and we also partner with indies like SandStone Global to develop premium factual content for distribution.

Can you give us an update on Greenlight: Factual & Formats?

Since officially launching our commissioning initiative, we have greenlit two straight-to-series factual orders for distribution. Hitler’s Treasure Hunters is a 6×60’ historical docuseries ordered from Perpetual Entertainment to coincide with the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. It tells all about the special branch of the Nazi SS tasked with stealing treasures and religious relics to help win the war and prove Aryan supremacy. Catch Me If You Can is a 10×60’ true crime docuseries from Woodcut Media that delves into the chilling world of murderers who evaded capture while taunting those tasked with bringing them to justice.

We’ve signed shopping agreements for a number of the other 30 projects presented at our Producer Pitch event last November and hope to announce additional co-commissions soon.

What recent deals have you done in the unscripted space?

Our co-development deal with SandStone Global will see us co-develop two new premium ancient history documentary series together: Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and Vikings, both of which will be presented by award-winning historian and presenter Professor Bettany Hughes OBE. We’re also in paid development on a new format in the dating space – more news to follow soon on this exciting AI-related project.

We boarded Earthbound, a 6×60’ premium documentary series narrated by actor and environmentalist Orlando Bloom, produced by Ritual Arts and Amazing Owl, which we are in the process of pre-selling. We’re also partnered with Matila Rohr Productions on bringing to the market some gorgeous natural history films and series filmed in the Arctic Circle, such as Arctic Wildlife and their award-winning Tale of… films.

I was also pleased that we managed to acquire 100 Days That Rocked the Royals from ITN Productions this spring. It’s been great to have such a timely, high-quality royal doc on our factual slate.

How is the market for non-English-language drama changing for Keshet?

Right now, I’d say we have the strongest drama slate we’ve ever had. The international scripted market seems to be filling the gap left by the US, which is producing a lot of procedurals and sitcoms, with genres that are in high demand, while the production values of content coming out of countries like the Czech Republic, Finland and Israel is rapidly catching up the US and UK and we are well-placed to acquire the best of them.

I’m a huge fan of Conflict from Backmann & Hoderoff and XYZ Films. The realism and timeliness of the subject matter – a proxy war being waged in Europe from Finland’s coast – and the English-dominant script made this one of the hottest dramas previewed at the London TV Screenings earlier this year. We have three episodes to screen now and we’ll be officially launching all six to market at Mipcom.

Meanwhile, Artza Productions’ The 11th Body is currently premiering on Keshet 12 to 100% rave reviews – something that is unheard of in Israel! It’s a character-driven crime drama that begins when an extra cadaver is discovered in a medical lab. Everyone thinks it’s a mistake, except for Iris, our lead detective, whose hunch leads to an investigation that starts with body laundering and unveils a turf war related to gentrification, race and corruption. Officially launching at Mipcom, this stylish drama was selected for the MipTV Drama Showcase alongside Snapper Films’ six-part mystery drama The Valhalla Project for Elisa, which we are also distributing.

And let’s not forget Movie SRO’s Extractors for streamer Voyo, a returning spy thriller with a first season that sees two young women taken hostage while hiking in Asia. In other news, our Keshet drama A Body That Works, starring Yehuda Levi, Rotem Sela and Lior Raz (Fauda), launches this month on Netflix, which brings the show to global audiences in 92 territories.

Given the issues facing the English-language scripted business, what opportunities do they create for Keshet? And what new projects do you have in the foreign-language drama area?

With viewing habits shifting and people being more open to watching multilanguage series these days, it’s great to have two high-budget, high-profile English-dominant dramas featuring international casts like Conflict, starring Peter Franzen (Vikings), and The Valhalla Project on our slate. And there’s always an appetite for crime drama and shows ripped from the headlines. So we have something for any buyer looking for finished tape, as well as a great selection of formats to choose from too. We are optioning and licensing more scripted formats this year than recently. We just licensed The Baker and the Beauty in France – Marathon Studio and Terence Films adaptation for TF1 will be the first scripted Keshet format to be remade in France to date! Keep your eye out for news of the first French adaptation of a Keshet drama, to be announced soon.

The market for format revivals seems to be hotting up. What is Keshet doing in this space? And Europe, in particular CEE and Spain, are active for Keshet right now – what deals are you doing there?

We’re optioning formats all over the place right now and actively mining deep into our catalogue to feed demand. Europe and CEE are greenlighting the most adaptations, with Spain the “hottest” territory for us right now. Topanga Crea’s The Hit List recently launched strongly in the Canaries, and we’ll shortly be announcing another commission for another Keshet International gameshow format. We’ve recently seen our gameshow BOOM! launch in Serbia and The Hit List produced in France and Spain. And our Unscripted team at Keshet Studios will soon be sharing their own news of their first commission, a reboot of a legacy Keshet format, with a cabler. Watch this space in July!