Selling formats: Can we manifest success?

By Siobhan Crawford 17-03-2025

In her latest monthly column, C21’s formats expert examines how producers and creators need to talk their shows into being in the modern commissioning landscape.

I listened to an exceptional podcast recently. It was about manifesting abundance and the realisation that we control the radio (we are the radio/the receiver). What music (or emotion) comes out is completely our choosing and that impacts our reality. It made me think about selling formats.

God knows distributors are hardworking, we are strategic, we are hustlers selling all types of crap alongside the gems and we keep going. But in a world without logic in commissioning I sometimes wonder how a commission happens (Stranded on Honeymoon Island for BBC1 was some kind of voodoo)? Is ‘loud talk’ the new Fomo in format commissioning? Can we talk a format into being?

Is talk the new Fomo?
The Box from Seefood in Norway has been commissioned now in seven (big) countries, the ratings were not always solid and we don’t know if outside of the strong visual it can be repeatable and still exciting, but the market is gripped. Now, Seefood’s Aleksander Herresthal spoke to me about this (and the rest of the world) many months ago when there was nothing to watch, nothing was ready and he basically hooked us at a time of new IP sparsity.

The Box from Norway’s Seefood

Since then he has promoted the format aggressively on Linkedin, we have seen repeated press announcements, we have been sent emails with teasers and he had an entire panel at the MipLondon event to talk about this one format. The format feels like it has been in our face since conception and honestly, sometimes it felt too much… you could say brutal but effective. It was not a format that re-invented the genre like Extracted from Fox. But it was better promoted than any format I have seen recently, simply put… it was unmissable. And when enough people are teased with ‘upcoming’ materials, when something is not given to us, when there is a shortage of information to satiate our curiosity, we go a little wild. And I wonder if this is the way to sell formats today. To talk them into success.

Can you think of another format that has been spoken about to the same extent in recent memory? I can. The Traitors. Can you think of another? Destination X. Can you think of another? Rising Star. You see where I am going with this. Not all examples are created equal, but I am caring about the simple act of whipping the market into a commissioning frenzy.

Talpa-style
To date the main methods of distribution have been the timed six monthly market launches and pre-pitches, you may get teased with ‘upcoming’ development formats too plus press releases, newsletters and monitor ratings. Distributors are increasingly using a channel first approach (like Seefood did) and trying to move directly to commission, away from optioning.

But success in today’s market is anything but quick (certainly not seven countries within six months) – we can look at a two years plus development period for the UK & USA, or 12 month options in Europe. Up until now Fomo was the only reason a handful of formats from a handful of companies went straight to commission and for that method you have to look at the creators of Fomo, Talpa.

Talpa just sell formats differently to everyone else. They blindly make you want the next one because they created The Voice and we cannot miss the 2.0 version and, if you don’t get it, your competitor will. The Floor has only enforced the belief that good things come from Talpa. But they don’t talk things into existence. You are either a Talpa loyal follower or you are not.

They have slowly and quietly counted the number of The Floor sales to 20. They are now slowly and quietly counting the sale of Quiz with Balls the same way but there is no media onslaught. People come to Talpa and wait for the next one. I wonder if it is even possible to have the ‘talk your way into success’ approach when you have a catalogue to talk about plus their goal seems to be worldwide penetration of their formats rather than hyping one. Admittedly FOMO does not occur on all Talpa formats, but you need to buy more than just the hits to invest in the relationship with Talpa. And for them it is hushed, revered tones you talk in.

Talking out loud
We talk a lot about effective distribution, managing expectations and when is good enough good enough, but the idea that increasing communication could change our success rate in Formatland is huge. Just think, if you don’t shout about your format – should the rest of us care about your format enough to buy it? Have we reached the end of Fomo? Are people now willing to miss out because we are in a place of reboot abundance and we only have a scarcity of new IP in a low risk market? Are the old ways of distributing enough? Can a distributor shout equally about multiple formats that belong to third party owners… or can producers self-distributing make this method effective?

And can someone try this with the next format for Mipcom to see if this is the future because I am now really curious if self-distributing loudly is the way to success in 2025?