Programming Profile

Having acquired Sienna Films and BGM in March of this year, Montreal’s Sphere Media went into the pandemic and production lockdown in strong shape, with a broad portfolio of library content to sell via C21’s Digital Screenings.

Just days before the global shutdown of the TV industry kicked into gear in early March, French-Canadian producer-distributor Sphere Media concluded the second of two major production company acquisitions, buying Cardinal producer Sienna Films from the embattled Kew Media Group.

The deal came just days after Sphere Media did a deal with Kew to acquire BGM, the company formerly known as Bristow Global Media and another top Canadian indie. As such, Montreal-headquartered Sphere Media, which has around 100 staff and small office in Toronto, gained a boost to its already strong library of content, just as production came to a standstill.

And while the global pandemic has put a halt on the physical attendance of global markets such as MipTV and Sunny Side of the Doc, Sphere Media’s VP of production and operations, and executive producer Josée Vallée says videoconferencing and remote working has led to greater and more fruitful discussions.

“I’m having more contact and discussion with people around the world than before,” she says. “I think they have a curiosity and want to see how we can work together internationally.”

On the scripted front, Vallée says that all of the drama divisions right now are working on projects in development. “We don’t know yet if we’re going to restart production this fall, we’re still negotiating with broadcasters and waiting to see what’s going to happen with insurance,” she explains. “We have two shows in French and one show in English that we are supposed to start pre-production on at the end of summer/beginning of fall.”

In the meantime, the company has plenty of finished tape ready to go. Chief among its in-demand titles is Outbreak, a 10-part drama focusing on a deadly pandemic. To call the show timely would be an understatement.

“We started broadcasting it at the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis and ended the broadcast around mid-March,” Vallée says. “Viewers responded very well, and we got a 36% market share on TVA. And because the subject was very timely, we’ve sold the project, the ready-made, almost entirely around the world now.”

The show is still available for France, the US and several smaller territories in Europe. “But we sold to Russia, to Japan,” she adds. “We sold to South America, to all of Eastern Europe. By Christmas people will never want to talk about the pandemic ever again. But right now, they want to see it and maybe try to understand it.”

Among the other key drama titles, Vallée highlights TVA drama Judgement and Radio-Canada series Cerebrum. The former is “not only action-driven, but also emotionally driven,” she says, and the company has penned a deal with an as-yet undisclosed French prodco for a potential French adaptation.

Cerebrum, meanwhile, is a tense thriller with a focus on mental health. “We’ve just been picked up for a second season with Radio Canada, and we’re hoping to start shooting in September,” Vallée says.

Finally, the Sphere Media library doesn’t just comprise drama. The company has a strong showing in factual, and Vallée draws attention to two non-fiction titles in particular: muscle car restoration series Transmission Impossible and the animal refuge-focused A Zoo Like No Other (aka Un Zoo pas Comme les Autres).

The latter focuses on a private zoo run by a couple out of northern Quebec. “It’s kind of a reality show, and it’s very cute,” she says. “And it’s a great co-viewing show – it can draw in families as well as just adults.