Mediawan Rights, the distribution arm of the wider media group, manages scripted, unscripted, format and feature documentary sales, keying European content onto international airwaves. And if initially heritage titles, foreign-language fare and time-tested perennials made up much of the catalogue, the group’s expanding footprint and well-capitalized partnerships promise a new yield of premium fare developed in-house and marked by global ambitions.
“We’ve seen a radical shift,” says Mediawan Rights CEO Valérie Vleeschhouwer. “Our catalogue from six years ago has little in common with that of today. We really wanted to move upmarket, to increase our own creative output in both fiction and documentary distribution to better respond to global demand. [In doing so] we’ve gone from being a local player to a truly international one.”
As distribution titles like the Emmy-winning doc “Kubrick by Kubrick” and the Dutch thriller “The Golden Hour” travel far and wide – with the former selling to more than 25 territories and the latter ranking among Netflix’s most-watched series across the globe – Vleeschhouwer and her team now want to offer a greater range of English language drama developed and produced from within the Mediawan group.
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To that end, Mediawan inked a €100 million co-development deal with equity partner Entourage Ventures in 2023, signing a multi-year pact to finance and shepherd scripted, animated and nonfiction series in order to gain ease and agility. “A partner like Entourage gives us speed and striking power for more ambitious projects,” says Vleeschhouwer. “While the deal itself requires us to be more of an investor, partner and co-producer than a pure distributor. We have to be extremely reactive in a constantly evolving market.”
Last year, the partners launched the Secuoya Studios-produced “Zorro,” while developing the literary adaption “Civilizations” and teeing-up the English-language thriller “Kabul,” which is now shooting. Among the most ambitious titles born of the pact is “The Count of Monte-Cristo,” an eight-part adaptation led by Sam Claflin and Jeremy Irons, and helmed by two-time Palme d’Or winner Bille August.
Produced by Italy’s Palomar in collaboration with France’s DEMD, the ambitious series shot on location in Paris, Malta and Rome, dramatizing chapters of the Alexandre Dumas book – like an opulent, episode-long centerpiece set at the Carnival in Rome – never before adapted for screen. only the project’s ambitions were also structural in scope, as both Palomar and DEMD are parts of the Mediawan group, and “The Count of Monte-Cristo” marks the first vertically integrated production sold worldwide by Mediawan Rights, in cooperation with CAA for North America.
“This is exactly the type of content we’re aiming for,” says Vleeschhouwer. “The series is timeless and evergreen; it will be an event in the forthcoming year, and will remain just as powerful in a decade’s time. And that reflects our own day-to-day work supporting talent and creating heritage, value and IPs that will endure.”
Of course, the Mediawan Rights CEO is wary of a one-size-fits all method, emphasizing agility in languages, territories, and partners, and opting for a unique launch strategy tailor-made for each project. Today, in-group productions account for 50% of Mediawan Rights’ distribution activity – though Vleeschhouwer is hardly averse to finding synergistic opportunities with the third-party producers that make up the other half.
“We’re open to all content that’s going to stay relevant,” says Vleeschhouwer. “We think linear, we think platforms, we think FAST, we think VOD – our aim is to have a catalog that can reach all audiences through any use. An audiovisual work only lives when it’s broadcast.”
On the film front, the commercial arm specializes in feature docs with auteur pedigree, recently landing a raft of sales for Oliver Stone’s Venice-selected “Nuclear Now” and now accompanying Johan Grimonprez’s “Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat” on a festival tour that kicked off with a special jury prize in Sundance.
And by way of agility, Vleeschhouwer and team have made scripted formats a key part of their approach, tripling sales in recent years by targeting markets that ready-made series couldn’t reach.
“Formats have allowed us to exploit our catalogue on wider basis and reach countries where the ready-made would not sell,” says Vleeschhouwer, pointing toward examples like the French series “Philharmonia,” which inspired the Korean remake “Maestra: Strings of Truth” in quick succession. “In less than a year [after the format sale] the program was on the air. And in a market with less funding and greater uncertainty, having a track record of successful formats can save time and money. We can reassure our producer partners, and [in turn] help them to be extremely agile as well.”
