ABOUT THE CONTENT EUROPE GLOBAL FORMATS PITCH COMPETITION

C21 has partnered with Talpa Studios to launch The Content Europe Global Formats Pitch Competition, designed to uncover the next global formats hit.

The winning project will pick up a development deal with Talpa Studios to further-develop the project into a fully realised format proposition with international market potential. The studio is not looking to purchase the idea outright, it is looking to collaborate.

The winner will also receive £20,000 worth of marketing across C21Media’s digital, print and event products to support development and pre-sales promotion of the show.

The competition aims to discover and develop a brand-new hit format in one of the following categories: Primetime Entertainment, Reality & Social Experiment or Factual Entertainment.

C21’s editor-in-chief & managing director David Jenkinson said: “This partnership with Talpa Studios means The Content Europe Global Formats Pitch Competition will provide unprecedented opportunity to format creators to partner with one of the most prolific development studios in the business. It adds a dimension to the event which will supercharge creativity and help bring the next big thing to the world.”

Talpa Studios chief creative officer Jasper Hoogendoorn added: “We’re excited to partner with C21 on this new initiative and look forward to discovering exceptional creative talent and new ideas to collaborate on. At Talpa Studios, we’re always searching for bold ideas with global potential, and this collaboration creates a fantastic platform to uncover some incredible talent.”

From the pool of submissions made between 3 March and 24 March, a shortlist of the top projects will be selected from which up to 8 finalists will be chosen.

The selected finalists will be invited to pitch live in front of a panel of esteemed judges and delegates at Content Europe in Lisbon on April 21, 2026.

TIMELINE

Open for entries

03/03/2026
Entry deadline

24/03/2026
Finalists notified

09/04/2026

Live pitch at Content Europe

21/04/2026

EVENT DETAILS

This event is taking place at:
Content Europe 2026.

To purchase a Content Europe 2026 ticket, please CLICK HERE.

2026 FINALISTS

FLUENT IN 40

Reality & Social Experiment Format
Wonder Circuit Media

France

SYNOPSIS

Ten English speakers. Forty days. No English.

In Fluent in 40: (French Edition,) contestants are dropped into France with one mission: become as fluent in French as possible in just 40 days. Living together in a shared house, they begin each day with intensive language lessons—but the real learning happens outside the classroom.

From navigating bustling markets and ordering in cafés to performing on stage or interviewing locals, contestants must survive daily life using only the language they’re learning. Cultural mishaps, hilarious misunderstandings, and breakthrough moments turn every interaction into a test of courage, creativity, and communication.

Each week, contestants face immersive challenges designed to push their skills to the limit and reveal just how far they’ve come—or how much further they still have to go.

After forty days of total immersion, native speakers evaluate their progress. The contestant who demonstrates the greatest transformation wins a cash prize—and the chance to continue their journey abroad.

Fluent in 40 is designed as a global format. In each edition, contestants travel to a new country to learn its language and culture—from Germans learning Spanish in Spain, to Americans learning French in Paris, to the English mastering Italian in Rome.

PITCHING

TBC

COMPANY PROFILE

Our Team

Lenna Bauerly – Content Creator
Emmy-nominated songwriter and storyteller Lenna Bauerly brings a global perspective to media. Having lived and worked in the UK and the Cayman Islands, and spent time in Cuba and mainland China, her international experiences inform her creative voice. Her songs have been featured across major networks including CBS, NBC, ABC, Amazon, Nickelodeon, and Netflix, reaching audiences worldwide. Now based in Paris, she develops original IP across television, music, and family brands.

Thom Chapman
Thom Chapman is an international media executive with more than 20 years in the entertainment industry. He has worked on global franchises including PAW Patrol, Peanuts, and Bakugan, and previously held a role at Spin Master before founding Victura Media.

Emma Evans
Emma Evans has more than 30 years of experience in sales, acquisitions, licensing, and brand partnerships, with roles at the BBC, Universal Studios, Novel Entertainment, and Abbey Home Media.

CONTACT

Lenna Bauerly

[email protected]

FORTUNE$: The Secret Safes

Reality & Social Experiment Format
OCCAM PRODUCTIONS

Switzerland

SYNOPSIS

Day one: twelve strangers arrive at a luxury villa. Each receives a sealed safe containing a secret amount — part of a $100,000 pot distributed unequally. The richest player at the end of seven days wins it all.

Each episode covers one day, structured in three acts.

Act 1 — The Flash Deal: players bid in high-stakes auctions (Dutch, blind, Lottery) to win power cards — immunity, safe swaps, fortune hijacks, double votes. Every bet feeds the Golden Safe, a communal jackpot whose growing value remains hidden until the finale.

Act 2 — Confrontation: at any time, any player who suspects another of being richer can publicly challenge them. Three outcomes: they negotiate a deal, they swap safes blindly, or the group votes and the loser’s fortune is split among the others.

Act 3 — The end-of-day elimination: the player with the lowest fortune is revealed and permanently eliminated. Their money goes to the Golden Safe.

The finale introduces the ultimate dilemma: each remaining player must choose — keep their personal safe, or swap it for the Golden Safe. But if multiple players choose the Golden Safe, they share it. The safes are opened one by one. The richest player wins FORTUNE$.

PITCHING

TBC

COMPANY PROFILE

OCCAM Productions is a creative studio founded by social science and game theory researchers, operating between Paris and Lausanne (Switzerland). Led by Ismael Benslimane — PhD in Philosophy and former social experiment consultant — the company develops original non-scripted IP rooted in behavioural science: social dilemmas, cognitive biases, game theory, influence and manipulation, group dynamics.

Our flagship format Tandem, featured at The WIT Fresh TV 2025, is a social experiment series inspired by Schelling’s focal point theory — how two strangers with no way to communicate can find each other — airing in primetime in May 2026 on RTS (Swiss national broadcast).

OCCAM’s development slate has been recognised with multiple SAJE screenwriting grants for The Last Judgment (2025), Complicit Duos (2024) and Guilty or Innocent (2023).

CONTACT

Ismael Benslimane

[email protected]

GIMME THE BEAT!

Beavers Studio

Spain

SYNOPSIS

What should a great music star really have? A voice like Whitney Houston? Dancing skills like Michael Jackson? Or piano-playing abilities like John Lennon? It’s simpler than that: a true artist is someone who can connect with an audience.

GIMME THE BEAT is the talent show searching for the next big music star—but with a twist: there is no music. Contestants must perform without a backing track, relying on their voice, personality, and stage presence to win over both the audience and the mentors.

Amateur performers take the stage and, if a mentor duo—made up of a world-renowned DJ and a successful singer—likes what they see, they activate a backing track or join the performance, claiming the artist for their team. If multiple teams compete, the contestant chooses.

Once teams are formed, they face creative challenges, live performances, and ultimately must create an original hit with their mentors.Versatility, charisma, and authenticity are everything. Only one will win €100,000. They don’t need music to become a star. They need something more. THIS IS GIMME THE BEAT!

PITCHING

TBC

COMPANY PROFILE

BEAVERS STUDIO is the label of TV format creator Ignacio Matas, focused on developing new projects for television production companies. He has extensive experience in the creation, development, and adaptation of entertainment formats across a wide range of genres (reality, quiz shows, talent shows, dating, etc.), as well as docuseries and documentaries.

He has served as Entertainment Coordinator at companies such as Mediacrest. In addition, he has worked as a creative for new projects at leading production companies including Shine Iberia (Banijay) and Secuoya Studios, among others. Some of his original ideas have been produced and adapted internationally, and he has also overseen the adaptation of major international formats for the Spanish market. Furthermore, several of his projects have been selected at international television markets and festivals.

CONTACT

IGNACIO MATAS

[email protected]

Inside Joke

Watermelon

Portugal

SYNOPSIS

Inside Joke takes comedy into the heart of real communities. In each episode, a charismatic resident host guides a different comedian into an extraordinary gathering, from fan conventions and specialist expos to quirky festivals and passionate subcultures. Their challenge is simple, but risky: understand the room well enough to make it laugh.

Over the course of a single day, the host and comedian immerse themselves in this unfamiliar world, meeting the people who define it, taking part in its rituals, and uncovering the passions, rules, and humor that hold the community together. As the comedian navigates awkward encounters, surprising revelations, and comic pressure points, they must begin shaping everything they learn into an original bespoke stand-up set.

The episode builds toward one high-stakes climax: a live performance for the very crowd the comedian has spent the day trying to decode. If they get it right, they win the room. If they get it wrong, the silence will say everything.

Full of real jeopardy, Inside Joke combines immersive factual storytelling with the tension of a comedy challenge. With one returning host, a fresh comedian every episode, and endless worlds to explore, it is a scalable, distinctive, and internationally adaptable format.

PITCHING

TBC

COMPANY PROFILE

We are an entertainment content production company ready to create and develop projects from initial concept to finished product. Or, as we often say, “from a single seed to a whole watermelon”.

Our experience lies in areas like Content Creation (Story Concept, Script Writing, Storytelling, and Production of Animation, Music, Video, and Advertisement) & Content Development (Gamification, Apps, Transmedia Narratives & Brand Content). We apply our talent to partners around the world and to our own productions, keeping our focus on the chosen audience. And, whenever we can, connecting every project to a cause.

After all, why not help the world while doing what we love?

We are creators, producers, and packagers, passionate about what we do, who realize that a good slice of watermelon can perform wonders!

CONTACT

Richard Fernandes

[email protected]

THE MONEY TREE

Freelance

United Kingdom

SYNOPSIS

Who says money doesn’t grow on trees?

THE MONEY TREE is a high-stakes trivia game-show where answers literally fall down from an iconic 100ft ‘money tree’ in the studio (see poster attached).

As the answers fall – one after the other – teams must hold their nerve – deciding when to ‘lock-in’ if it’s correct, and when to let it drop, if they think it’s a wrong answer (a ‘bad apple’ devilishly designed by the tree to tempt them into making a mistake).

In the ultimate test of greed and strategy, do you take what’s offered now, or do you wait for more, knowing that hesitation and picking a bad apple could cost everything.

After four fast-paced rounds, sorting truths from temptations, the team with the most money at the end will see the cash they’ve won fall from the tree in a final show-stopping moment.

PITCHING

TBC

COMPANY PROFILE

I’m a freelance developer based in the UK. I previously worked in development teams at Objective, BBC Studios and Studio Ramsay Global.

I specialise in high-concept entertainment formats, premium talent led, and food.

I was one of the creators of Next Level Chef, and co-created the game-show Bank Balance (BBC1), business competition Food Stars (FOX/ BBC1), premium docu-series Knife Edge: Chasing Michelin Stars (Apple TV), and funny factual format Trailblazers: A Rocky Mountain Road Trip (BBC2), amongst others.

CONTACT

Tom Day

[email protected]

Six Degrees of Connection

OCCAM PRODUCTIONS

Switzerland

SYNOPSIS

Day one: six duos are released from an European city center. No phone, no money, no internet. The race is on.

To advance, duos must find someone connected to their social network — verified in near-real-time by the Control Room. Once the link is confirmed, they receive a ticket and travel alongside the connection they’ve uncovered. At the next stop, the search starts over.

Regularly, duos face on-location “Six Degrees” challenges — find and handshake the local radio host, track down two siblings in the city — forcing them into the local social fabric and offering a chance to earn bonus lifelines.

Three lifelines provide strategic escape routes: a phone call, a text-only window, a free ride with a stranger, or turning an unknown person into a verified connection.

At the end of each episode, the duo closest to the starting point is permanently eliminated — the Red Lantern.

A host duo runs the show from the Control Room — a live nerve centre based at the starting city where connections are verified, challenges are issued, and every duo’s position is tracked and live commented in real time on a giant GPS map.

PITCHING

TBC

COMPANY PROFILE

Our flagship format Tandem, featured at The WIT Fresh TV 2025, is a social experiment series inspired by Schelling’s focal point theory — how two strangers with no way to communicate can find each other — airing on primetime on May 2026 on RTS (Swiss national broadcast).

OCCAM’s development slate has been recognised with multiple SAJE screenwriting grants for FORTUNE$, The Last Judgment (2025), Complice duos (2024) or Guilt or innocent (2023).

CONTACT

Ismael Benslimane

[email protected]

The Freeze

Freelance

United Kingdom

SYNOPSIS

The Freeze takes the classic party game of hotter or colder and transforms it into a high stakes, real world challenge where 10 pairs of contestants have to rely on gut instinct and great guesswork to find a staggering sum of money, with only one simple clue to get them there; are they getting hotter or colder?

Every 15 minutes our teams receive their only clue from a handheld ‘Thermometer’, telling them whether they are hotter or colder than they were before, with some of these updates being hidden behind questions and challenges to ramp up the pressure. That’s not all though, as every hour the coldest team will be frozen out and eliminated from the competition – ensuring that all our contestants are feeling the heat at all times.

With each race set against the changing backdrops of iconic towns, cities and regions, The Freeze takes the simplest of games and brings it into the real world to ask how far you’d be prepared to go, when all you know is that you’re getting hotter or colder.

PITCHING

TBC

CONTACT

James Moore

[email protected]

The Get Together

PLOOOPS LLC

United States of America

SYNOPSIS

Each episode of The Get Together follows two or more loved ones who have quietly drifted apart through one shared weekend designed to bring them back together.

On arrival at the Reconnection Zone — a warm, cinematic standing location adapted per territory — participants contribute a handwritten recipe carrying personal memory to the Reconnection Cookbook. Over Days 1 and 2, they collaborate on a Purpose Project: a meaningful community task chosen from four fixed categories — Build & Restore, Nourish & Care, Teach Share & Mentor, or Celebrate & Connect — selected to symbolically mirror the emotional gap in their relationship.

Midway through Day 2, the host quietly separates each participant for the Bridge Moment: a private walk during which each person answers three questions on camera. Neither hears the other’s answers until the Big Table Dinner — the emotional high point of every episode — where the reveal happens over the meal they cook together from their recipe.

On Day 3, participants create a symbolic Memory Capsule representing what they rediscovered, placed on the Legacy Shelf — a cumulative visual archive that fills across the season. The series finale brings all participants back together for one communal Big Table Dinner, the complete Legacy Shelf behind them.

PITCHING

TBC

COMPANY PROFILE

PLOOOPS is an independent company through which Cengiz Yildiz develops and brings original unscripted TV formats to the international market.

Cengiz has developed 11 original formats since 2016 across factual, competition, game show, and lifestyle genres. His format BOSS LADY was selected as one of Deadline’s 10 Global TV Formats to Watch for in 2019. In 2020, he was invited by the MIPTV team as one of MIPFORMATS’ Producers to Watch — a selection recognising international producing talent globally.

Prior to this, Cengiz spent eight years based in Istanbul producing and directing television commercials and developing unscripted formats for Turkish and international broadcasters. He returned to the international format market at Content London 2024 following a period of relocation and personal circumstances.

The Get Together is PLOOOPS’ current primary international format proposition.

CONTACT

Cengiz Yildiz

[email protected]

JUDGES

Thomas Robins
Head of Sky originals,
Sky NZ

Robins has been writing, directing, and producing award-winning film and TV content in New Zealand for over 25 years. In that time, he has built an impressive slate of premium international and local content spanning many genres, including the ground-breaking international Emmy Award-winning Reservoir Hill (TVNZ) and Netflix action-adventure series The New Legends of Monkey.

A co-founder of production company KHF Media, Robins joined Sky in 2021 as head of scripted, a role he has retained whilst becoming head of Sky New Zealand Originals in 2023. During his time at Sky, Robins has been involved in the commissioning and development of many critically acclaimed comedy, drama and factual series, including Dark City: The Cleaner, Miles From Nowhere and Not Even seasons one and two.

Robins is focused on commissioning international coproductions, with the aim of taking more local productions to the world stage.

Claudine Bayma
General manager,
Kwai Brazil

Bayma is the general manager of Kwai Brazil, leading the platform’s entire operation in the country. With over 25 years of international experience in marketing, content production, business development and digital media, she has held leadership positions at major global entertainment and media companies including Sony Pictures Entertainment, Sony Television, Discovery Networks, and Globo International.

At Kwai, she is at the forefront of driving innovation in shortform content, spearheading initiatives in the growing creator economy, vertical storytelling, original microdramas and other short-video formats. Under her leadership, Kwai Brazil has been amplifying new narratives and empowering creators to connect with audiences through culturally relevant, high-impact content.

Andrew Nissen
VP, scripted,
Blink49 Studios

Based in LA, Nissen plays a key role in driving the studio’s scripted strategy and expanding its slate of premium content.

He joined Blink49 Studios from Lionsgate, where he was director of scripted television, development. During his tenure, he helped shepherd a diverse range of acclaimed projects, including A Gentleman in Moscow and Sharp Objects.

With a proven track record in identifying compelling stories and fostering creative partnerships, Nissen brings a strong blend of strategic vision and creative expertise to his role.

His deep experience collaborating with top writers, producers and talent underscores his commitment to developing distinctive, high-quality scripted series that resonate with global audiences.