Beta Film has acquired international sales rights to the Greek drama series “The Beach,” a primetime sensation for Greek public broadcaster ERT, the Munich-based production and distribution powerhouse announced on the eve of Mipcom.
The 24-part one hour series begins on an idyllic commune on the shores of Crete in 1969, where love and freedom intertwine, until a murder exposes the messy entanglements spurred on by the hippie residents. Yet even the straightlaced police officer assigned to investigate the crime finds he can’t resist the temptations of paradise.
Stefanos Blatsos (“Love After”) directs the hit drama set at Matala Beach in Crete with scripts from George Chrysovitsanos and Kostas Gerampinis. The cast includes Danai Michalaki (“Wild Bees”), starring as Hypatia, a London-based doctor coming back to her hometown, where she meets Harry, played by Dimitris Mothonaios (“A Day in the Life of a Teddy Bear”).
Since launching on ERT in early September, when nearly one in three Greek viewers tuned in, the show has dominated primetime TV slots and topped the trending tab on X (formerly Twitter), hitting a peak market share of 15% — more than doubling ERT1’s daily ratings average and catapulting the channel into the top ranks nationwide.
Produced by Foss Productions in co-production with ERT, the show attracted nearly one million viewers to its linear premiere, while racking up more than 3.6 million on-demand views for ERTFLIX, the official VOD platform of the local commissioning broadcaster — an all-time high. On the heels of the show’s groundbreaking success, forthcoming seasons have already been greenlit.
“The Beach” is part of a Mipcom slate for Beta that includes more than 20 new dramas and seasons from 15 countries, totalling 300 hours of fresh content. Highlights include “Concordia,” by multi-Emmy-awarded EP Frank Doelger and produced by Intaglio, ZDF, France TV, Hulu Japan and MBC, which will celebrate its world premiere at the Palais de Festivals in Cannes, and the Channel 4-Starz crime drama “The Couple Next Door,” starring Sam Heughan (“Outlander”) and Eleonor Tomlinson (“Poldark”).
Other buzz titles include “Elsa Morante’s La Storia,” based on the iconic Italian novel set in Rome after the Second World War, and “Estonia,” a big-budget civil maritime disaster series by Måns Månsson (“Chernobyl”), which bowed at the Toronto Film Festival. Also having a market premiere is the Ukrainian drama “In Her Car,” which is shot in the war-torn country and takes the viewer into the heart of the ongoing crisis.
