As demand increases, KI announced the sale of a raft of comedies and dramas into Asia, Australia, Europe, Latin America and North America.
Keshet International has completed multiple finished tape deals for its scripted slate, including new US rom-com The Baker and the Beauty (ABC) and The A Word S3 (BBC One) alongside foreign-language titles such as False Flag (Keshet 12), The Paper (HRT) and 7 Faces (BluTV).
Keren Shahar, KI’s COO and President of Distribution, says, “While we all do our bit to help slow the spread of this virus by isolating at home, series like these offer total escapism and the opportunity to explore the globe from the comfort of our sofas. Regardless of where these dramas originate, we are seeing increased interest across our scripted finished tape slate, and we are doing everything we can to connect buyers quickly and easily with all the content they need at this difficult time.”
In Australia, streaming platform Stan has acquired The Baker and the Beauty produced by Universal Television and ABC Studios in association with Keshet Studios. Premiering day and date with its American debut on ABC from 14 April, this 9×60’ feel-good rom-com follows the unlikely romance ignited when the lives and cultures of Cuban baker Daniel and international fashion mogul Noa collide. Meanwhile, both seasons (10×30’) of the original Israeli series created by Assis Azar for Keshet 12 have been sold into Planet TV in Slovenia.
Ahead of its UK premiere on BBC One from 5 May, the third series of The A Word – the award-winning family drama based on Keren Margalit’s Yellow Peppers co-produced by Fifty Fathoms and Keshet Productions – has been licensed by AMC Networks’ SundanceTV in the United States, YLE in Finland, and BBC First in Australia for a first window. All have previously acquired the first and second seasons of this uplifting and moving drama about a young boy diagnosed with autism, with BBC iPlayer relicensing them both to allow box-setting with the season three premiere in the UK, and BBC First re-licensing them for Pay TV in Australia. In addition, RTL Croatia has acquired both series for its RTL Play premium SVOD service in Croatia, with SBS acquiring them for a second FTA window in Australia.
AMC Networks has also acquired New Form Digital’s Cold, a chilling 10×12’ / 1×120’ drama that follows 16-year-old Isla on her quest to uncover the shocking truth behind a series of brutal murders, for SundanceTV in Latin America, as well as both 8×30’ series of Complex Networks’ In The Vault. Focusing on the surviving freshman students at Woodlawn College after one of their dorm-mates is murdered, the first season of this YA thriller has also been picked up in Canada by CBC’s French network Société Radio Canada.
YLE in Finland has also picked up the first two series of New Form Digital’s award-winning short-form comedy-drama jam-packed with social media stars, Mr Student Body President (20×12’ together).
Following the news that KI’s Keshet Productions is adapting the Israeli thriller for Apple TV with Uma Thurman to star, False Flag has been picked up by TV4 in Sweden (S1 8×45’), with SBS in Australia acquiring streaming rights for both the first and second season (S2 10×40’) – and the territory premiere – of the award-winning drama originally created by Amit Cohen and Maria Feldman for Keshet 12.
Meanwhile in Croatia, both series of FLX’s relatable Swedish comedy Happy at Sea (S1 10×30’, S2 8×30’) have been acquired by RTL Croatia for RTL Play, along with Turkish drama 7 Faces (7×60’), Bir Films’ distinctive and thought-provoking series featuring seven intertwined stories of modern life in Istanbul.
Finally, KI has sold both series of Drugi Plan’s critically acclaimed drama The Paper (Novine) (S1 12×60’, S2 11×60’), which lifts the lid on political corruption, crime, betrayal and the lust for power in Croatia, to Federalna Televizija in Bosnia and Herzegovina and TV Vijesti in Montenegro.
