German TV Fare Going Like Hot Cakes

Each year, the German Screenings, the most important programme market for ARD and ZDF, sets up shop in a different German city.

In 1999, the 24th German Screenings came to Cologne to offer a showcase of programmes by TELEPOOL, ZDF Enterprises and german united distributors, and the initial results suggest that this edition was one of the most successful so far.

An important feature of the Screenings is that they are not just another of the usual TV programme trade fairs - to begin with, it is the only international market dedicated exclusively to German productions, and it is also a unique opportunity for TV executives to really have a chance to come to grips with the contents of the programmes on view in the Screenings because the participants decide how they put their screening day together.

In addition to the individual programme presentations, participants can obtain a good overview of new productions through the Special Screenings which were organised by TELEPOOL, ZDF Enterprises and german united distributors with directors and actors in attendance to talk about their shows.

While ZDF Enterprises showed a selection of its new doctor series - The Sternbergs - Doctors, Brothers, Passion and Heartbeat Northern Medecine under the slogan "ZDF's Doctor Series - Bloody Good!", TELEPOOL invited the Screenings delegates to "spend an entertaining afternoon with Germany's most fascinating Power Women", such as Senta Berger in At Fifty Men Kiss Differently, Jennifer Nitsch in Men Are Like Chocolate and Suzanne von Borsody in I Love My Family, Really I Do!, and german united distributors presented a selection from its children's programmes (Einstein's Kids), new fiction (Trio For Life) and wildlife programmes (Expedition Into The Animal World).

Last December, Cologne's Dorint Kongress Hotel was the venue over four days for around 60 screening rooms with more than 200 buyers from a total of 40 countries around the globe. In this professional setting, the buyers were able to devote all of their attention to viewing the programmes on offer and have one-on-one discussions with the sales agents. According to organiser Silke Spahr of 1999's host german united distributors, this is seldom possible in the hustle and bustle of the big trade fairs like MIP-TV and MIP-COM in Cannes. This time round, the Screenings were able to welcome participants for the first time from Russian State Television RTR as well as guests from Bosnia Herzegovina and Nigeria.

Soon after the last programme had shown at the Screenings, the sellers made the first announcements of deals made this year: ZDF Enterprises was able to sign a total of 70 deals with over 20 partners from 13 countries. Deals worth no less than 18 million Francs were concluded with French-speaking territories. The most successful title was Der Kardinal, which was shown by ZDF in early 2000 and is "Mr Derrick" Horst Tappert's first TV movie since he retired from the internationally successful detective series. ZDF also found a lot of interest for the detective series Siska, which will be aired in 17 countries in future, as well as the documentaries Der Ötztal-Mann und seine Welt and the series Sphinx.

The German Screenings were also the year's most successful trade fair for Munich-based TELEPOOL with more than 100 programmes sold. Highlights in the area of fiction were the ARD series Power Women (Lauter tolle Frauen), Love And Other Catastrophes (Liebe und weitere Katastrophen) as well as the TV movies Supersingle, Women Are Better Liars (Frauen lügen besser), and Your Best Years (Deine besten Jahre). On the documentary front, there was strong demand for the series Schauplätze der Weltkulturen. A package of programmes with more than 30 hours of documentaries was sold to a French TV station, while the series Kein schöner Land which visits different regions of Germany, was sold to South Africa.

German united distributors also reported brisk business at the 24th Screenings: more than 250 hours of programming were sold to Eastern Europe, including such detective TV movies as Schimanski and Tatort episodes or the series Trio For Life (Drei mit Herz). A deal with France worth 11 million Francs was also on the table to be signed. Moreover, the first part of a volume deal for Italy will include such TV movies as the thriller Schitour, episodes of Tatort and Die Männer vom K3. In addition, the children's series The Pepperkorns (Die Pfefferkörner) and Pauline were sold to Italy and Eastern Europe, while Hungarian television picked up the family TV movie Der Hund aus der Elbe. Documentaries from the german united distributors' catalogue were also much in demand - such as Die amerikanische Reise des Alexander von Humboldt and the two-parter Die Ballade von Baikalsee, while Spanish broadcasters bagged 20 wildlife productions, and it may be only a matter time before colleagues from Denmark and Norway follow suit and also buy some nature programmes "made in Germany".