Cannes, France: With ‘super formats’ Survivor, Big Brother and The Apprentice firmly entrenched in the television landscape, buyers and sellers went to the south of France for the 2004 edition of MIPTV March 29 to April 2 in the hopes of grabbing the rights to the next big thing. Canadians were right in the thick of it.

But the activity took on an almost surreal quality in Cannes, as buyers looked beyond the reality shows that have become synonymous with the format craze to comedies and dramas.

‘People are going around the market looking for shows, asking ‘What have you got that we can turn into formats?’,’ said Norm Bolen, executive vice-president of programming at Alliance Atlantis.

Toronto-based Breakthrough Films & Television executive producer Ira Levy couldn’t help but to laugh as he related a story about a Scandinavian buyer who met with him mid-week inquiring about the rights to the scripts of Breakthrough’s primetime soap Paradise Falls, which airs on Showcase. ‘Naked people in hot tubs works just as well with Northern Europeans,’ he said.

The formats frenzy was definitely contributing to the upbeat atmosphere. Breakthrough was also entertaining offers from Australian and Irish producers about picking up the format rights to the Toronto 1 factual series Exchanging Vows.

Levy, in Cannes with Breakthrough’s largest-ever contingent, said he was feeling very positive about this year’s market thanks to such interest.

While formats have been creating a buzz at markets such as MIPCOM and MIPTV for years, Levy sees this as a ‘benchmark year.’

Others looking at format acquisitions include Kevin DeWalt of Regina-based Minds Eye International, who was working on the rights to a pair of Belgian shows: Two Women, Three Billion Men as well as Highheels and Tarantulas (working title).

Montreal’s Zone3, meanwhile, was looking at selling the rights to its Phenomia, a tween docusoap that allows viewers to choose young people who will star in a rock opera. ‘We’ve gotten some interest from a French distributor looking for worldwide rights,’ said Vincent Leduc, executive producer and VP of production at Zone3. His company is already riding high on the success of its formatted Ma Maison RONA, which came to English Canada last year as Rona Dream Home on Global.

‘The public has no interest where [the original concept] came from so long as it entertains,’ said Patricia Lavoie, VP of youth and family programming at Zone3. ‘It’s a trend that I don’t think will go away.’

The surge in formats comes as no surprise to Michel Rodrigue, president and CEO of Montreal-based Distraction Formats. He’s been in the business of buying and selling formats since 1996 and is considered a pioneer in this particular corner of the TV market. Distraction boasts a catalogue of more than 100 titles.

‘Everybody is in the format business because it is the new form of distributing television content,’ Rodrigue said. ‘The beauty of it is it fits everybody’s local quotas. In Europe, most countries have national quotas. By using a format, the production is a 100% national program.’

Rodrigue estimates that 35% of all top-10 shows in Europe are formats as opposed to previous decades when they were virtually all U.S.-produced dramas such as Dallas and Baywatch. ‘Nowadays, you can’t see any American shows in the top 10. They are all local shows,’ he said. ‘It just goes to show that finished product doesn’t travel as well. Format is the new way of delivering content. It seems that everybody and his sister has a format to sell somewhere, an idea or a concept.’

Of course while the market has picked up steam in recent years, there is nothing inherently new in the concept. Rodrigue points to All in The Family and Three’s Company as formats that were sold in the 1970s and as examples that formats need not be applied only to reality programs. ‘You can format anything,’ he said.

To that end, Distraction picked up a German police series at MIPTV, which the company will roll out at MIPCOM in the fall. Distraction also recently picked up international rights to an Italian reality show called Il Protagonista, and quickly found a licencee for U.S. rights in Survivor creator Mark Burnett.

The company also announced at MIPTV that it has signed its thirtieth territory for its scripted comedy format Love Bugs with Italian production house Einstein Multimedia.

Rodrigue estimates that a buyer can pick up format rights for 10% of the show’s production costs, which gives them critical essentials such as scripts, show bible and budget and covers typical development costs.

‘Most of these formats have a proven track record. You have demographics. The development is already done. Most producers spend an average of 15% on development of a first series. Well, for 10% you buy the recipe, the format, and you have a product with a track record – a proven success,’ he said.

Of course there remain many questions about the phenomenon, including how much can you make off your run-of-the-mill format and how much is too much when acquiring the stuff?

‘The economics haven’t been worked out yet,’ said Alliance Atlantis’ Bolen.

Indeed, according to Isme Bennie, director of programming and acquisitions at CHUM-owned Bravo!, Space and Drive-In Classics, once a broadcaster has bought the rights, paid the licence fee and finished producing a new version of a show, costs can become prohibitive. ‘It’s cheaper to buy the British version, say, than to buy the format, when all is said and done,’ she said.

Others wonder whether so many should be putting time and money into an area with very little library potential. Besides, they say, of the thousands of formats on the market, only a handful ever make it.

But such doses of reality, as usual, can’t dissuade buyers and sellers from looking to get in on the next big thing. For now, formats have helped put a buzz back on the floor at MIPTV. And that’s good enough for a good many.

-www.miptv.com