Anke Stoll, VP of Acquisitions and Co-Productions at Keshet International, spoke to TTV+ about the content she’s looking for in the international market.

TTVMedia, through its TTV+ platform and backed by Eccho Rights, launched the initiative Buyers: What Are Buyers Looking For? during Miptv, to find out more about international buyers’ programming needs.

The interviews were conducted through the base of over 5,000 buyers registered on TTV+, a 24/7 online marketplace where buyers can look through catalogs from thousands of companies, and in which distributors can contact them to close businesses.

This time, we present Anke Stoll, VP of Acquisitions and Co-Productions at Keshet International.

Could you please introduce yourself and the company?

I’m Anke Stoll and I’m the VP of Acquisitions and Co-Productions at Keshet International. Keshet International is the global distribution and production arm of Keshet Media. Keshet Media is headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel, but we have global offices in LA, New York, London and Munich.

What type of content are you looking for?

The Keshet catalog represents a mix of genres. We represent high-quality English-language drama series, but many foreign-language drama series, as well as great entertainment formats and factual content. I’m looking to buy for our international catalog both at the early stage of ideas, as well as ready-mades, in all genres.

What kind of ideas or stories are you looking for in order to feed your catalog?

Our catalog is quite contemporary based on the drama side. We are well known for our crime series and thrillers, we are well known for our espionage drama series. And we are looking to acquire more in this types of dramas, but as well looking to buy more on the dramedy and comedy side. Because obviously our world has changed dramatically and viewers want more light-hearted content.

What should a content have for you to show interest in it?

We are buying for the international catalog, so I’m looking for titles which can travel. With a global approach, a universal theme, which can engage different cultures and different viewers. So it’s very much global content vs local content.

Is there any particular content that has caught your attention over the last 12 months?

Yes. As I said earlier, I think the focus has shifted slightly to light-hearted series, dramedy and comedy work really well. We are especially looking now for a new romantic comedy, that’s a genre which is up-and-coming again, as well as maybe musical-related series. The focus is very much now on being entertained, being able to escape as well. We are still keen on our very much stable content like crime series and thrillers.

Is there any specific content that worked well on your catalog?

Drama series are really working well for us. We just launched Line in the Sand from our Israeli channel which is a police crime series. We are launching Furia, a co-production between Viaplay in Scandinavia and ZDF in Germany, which is a political thriller. So these sort of series work really well for us. Comedies are on the up-and-coming for us as well. We have produced several remakes of our romantic comedy The Baker and the Beauty, which was a great success. And therefore it’s this mix of shows which works really well for us.