TCB stocks up for Cannes, hires two

How Did They Build That? looks at impressive engineering projects

Kew Media-backed distributor TCB Media Rights has bolstered its content catalogue ahead of Mipcom and hired a pair of executives to deal with the rapid growth of the company.

UK-based TCB will have 40 new shows on its slate in Cannes next month, 15 of which are returning series. The new additions take its catalogue to more than 2,900 hours.

The company said it is poised to have doubled its revenues over the last 24 months to £22m (US$27m) and has consequently hired John Bentham and Royston Perera to boost its legal and rights departments.

Bentham previously worked in senior roles at Endemol Shine, Company Pictures and Fremantle, and has now been appointed legal and business affairs manager.

Perera, a rights management specialist whose CV includes stints at Discovery Networks International and Sky, has taken the newly created position of rights executive.

Headlining TCB’s Mipcom line-up are five show launches: How Did They Build That? (8×60’), How I Created a Cult (3×60’), Shipwreck Secrets (6×60’), Lords of the Oceans (13×60’) and Hitched in Vegas (10×60’).

How Did They Build That?, produced by Curve Media, taps into growing global demand for premium science and engineering content. The series was commissioned by TCB as part of its distributor-as-commissioner model and focuses on engineering projects such as an underground luxury hotel in China and a 500m sky garden in Singapore.

Another TCB Original, How I Created a Cult, marks the distributor’s move into high-end documentary. The three-part premium doc from UK indie Conscious Life follows the journey of Andrew Cohen from enigmatic seeker of enlightenment to the head of a sinister cult with absolute power over thousands of followers and a spiritual empire worth millions.

Six-part series Shipwreck Secrets is produced by Like A Shot Entertainment, the UK prodco behind top-selling TCB title Abandoned Engineering. It explores sunken shipwrecks using cutting-edge technology and deep dive equipment.

Arcadia TV’s occupational reality series Lords of the Ocean joins Matt and Robin Lohnes in the world’s deadliest workplace: the North Atlantic. For 50 years, the Lohnes’ family business, Dominion Diving, has helped people fight back when things go wrong at sea.

Hunch Media’s Hitched in Vegas accompanies couples from across the globe as they tie the knot in America’s wedding capital.