Top Deals in Documentaries

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Documentaries

Top Deals in Documentaries

Every edition, we try and bring you trends on content demand trends within our industry. Vitrina tracks transactions across IP-Development, Production, Distribution, Acquisition and Collaborations from 60+ markets. This gives us the best global scan and understanding of what contents hot and what’s not.
In this edition, besides our usual fare of latest Production Financing, Distribution and Acquisition trends, we have an additional attraction – DOCUMENTARIES! Factual and documentaries have been the new darlings of a host of streamers and licensees. Easy and bite-sized content for viewers, they are also relatively easier to localize and travel far and beyond the original shores they were intended for. In this edition, we look at the latest trends in international documentary productions and acquisitions.

Hot & Trending

Examining the BBC’s content catalog for 2023/24 reveals a notable reduction of nearly 1000 hours overall. However, documentary programming has experienced a deliberate surge, commissioned to nearly 2000 hours—second only to drama. This strategic reorientation underscores a discernible global trend, emphasizing networks’ increasing reliance on the potency of documentary storytelling. As the world grapples with uncertainty, the rise of factual narratives reflects not just an evolution in content preferences, but a testament to the enduring allure of real stories in an ever-changing media landscape.

High Impact Documentary Content

So which high-impact documentary titles have already shown to be successful in other markets and streaming services?

Most Distributed Documentary Titles

Which documentary titles have been chosen by platforms globally? This is one of the powerful indicators tracked by Vitrina to determine high demand and high impact content. We found more than 3200 titles that have been acquired by multiple platforms.

The Green Planet

1 Season · TV-PG
Documentary
Country of origin: USA
Worldwide Reach: 94 Platforms
Platforms including BBC, CBC, TVNZ, Movistar Plus, PBS and more

Expedition with Steve Backshall

2 Seasons · English
Documentary
Country of origin: United Kingdom
Worldwide Reach: 89 Platforms
Platforms including Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video, Tubi, Max and more

Top Gear

33 Seasons · TV-PG
Talk · Documentary · Action & Adventure
Country of origin: United Kingdom
Worldwide Reach: 84 Platforms
Platforms including Prime Video, ABC, Hulu, Crunchyroll

Most Distributed Documentary Titles

Which documentary titles have been chosen by platforms globally? This is one of the powerful indicators tracked by Vitrina to determine high demand and high impact content. We found more than 3200 titles that have been acquired by multiple platforms.

Abacus Media Rights

United Kingdom

TVF International

United Kingdom

Dogwoof

United Kingdom

Top Dealmakers For Documentaries

Who are the most influential dealmakers in the industry for documentaries?

Vitrina tracks deals, transactions and catalogs across Content IP, Development, Production, Acquisitions and Collaborations. We follow the activities of influential dealmakers across genres, countries, and companies. Understanding key distributors of documentary content is valuable. However, identifying influential dealmakers brings you closer to finalizing deals. Check out top dealmakers picked up by our system. Click on link to know the others

Jonathan Ford

Abacus Media Rights

Rachel Job

All3Media International

Jens Richter

Fremantle

Zai Bennett

Sky UK

Lisa Heller

HBO

Angela Bates

Screen Australia

Top Buyers Of Documentary Content

Who are the largest acquirers for Anime content? From our daily monitoring of content acquisition deals as well as streamer catalogs, we are able to create lists of the largest buyers for every genre, language and country. For Anime, the three largest buyers are:

Special Broadcasting Service (SBS)

Australia

Netflix

USA

SVT

Sweden

Recently Trending Documentaries

Let’s take a look at some of the most notable titles in documentaries being acquired globally. Starting with trending documentaries, we also look at some of the most acquired titles in recent weeks including a special mention of documentaries featured at the recently concluded MIPCOM 2023 event

Recently Acquired Documentaries
Untold Arctic Wars

Documentary
Country of origin: Finland
A six-part documentary series about the least known events of World War II. The series reveal a little-known picture and countless unknown details of the events of World War II in the north.

Planet Earth III

Action & Adventure · Animation
Country of origin: United Kingdom
Journeying to the far reaches of our planet, this eight part series follows some of the world’s most amazing species, telling extraordinary stories that are dramatic, thrilling, funny and sometimes heart-breaking, but always full of hope.

Secrets in the Ice

Mystery · Documentary
Country of origin: USA
Mysterious frozen lakes filled with bones, mummified bodies hanging from inside a glacier, and a 30,000-year-old virus frozen in ice brought back to life in a laboratory.

New Documentaries Being Produced
Super Surgeons: A Chance at Life

Documentary
Country of origin: United Kingdom
Documentary following pioneering surgeons at Royal Marsden Hospital as they face some of the most complex and challenging oncological cases in the world.

Doctor Who: Unleashed

Action & Adventure · Animation
Country of origin: United Kingdom
Following the same format of Doctor Who: Confidential, Steffan Powell will take you behind the scenes of each episode of BBC’s Doctor Who.

The Circus

Documentary
Country of origin: USA
Come one, come all to The Circus. This real-time documentary series pulls back the curtain on the current political stories, revealing the intense, inspiring and infuriating stories behind the headlines. Key characters and events are presented in real time, as they are happening.

Documentaries At MIPCOM 2023
The Wonders Of Europe

Documentary
Country of origin: United Kingdom  · France
THE WONDERS OF EUROPE is a four-part docuseries that tells the story of the people who built some of the biggest and most unique landmarks in Europe.

RAI, DR TV, TRVE, RTV Slovenia, Dubai Media Inc., Sky Arts and SBS signed a deals for ‘The Wonders of Europe’ with StudioCanal at MIPCOM 2023

JFK: The Home Movie That Changed The World

Documentary
Country of origin: United Kingdom
JFK: THE HOME MOVIE THAT CHANGED THE WORLD uncovers the fascinating story behind the 26 seconds of home movie that captured everything from start to finish.

SBS and Viasat World signed a pre-buy deal with Passion Distribution for ‘JFK: The Home Movie That Changed The World’

Coco Chanel Unbuttoned

Documentary
Country of origin: United Kingdom
The story of original influencer Coco Chanel, whose designs still represent the zenith of female sexuality, style and power.

Nova TV, Movistar Plus, Now TV, Doku TV, Canal+ Preimum and Rádio e Televisāo de Portugal acquired rights for ‘Coco Chanel Unbuttoned’ from Fremantle

Our Regular Features

Our weekly global scan of new Productions getting greenlit/ financed as well as high-demand content and IP being acquired from around the world.

Trending among Content Acquisitions Teams World Over
Vitrina’s Methodology

Our “High-Demand Content” lists are based on following dealmakers – thousands of leaders in Content Acquisition for every major and minor streamer, broadcaster and distributor. We follow their actions individually as well as cumulatively to understand global demand. We call this approach “Collective Wisdom of Content Curators“. Read more about our methodology.

Latest TV Productions

Fireman Sam

WildBrain signed several distribution and acquisition deals with 30 distributors and networks around the world for the returning series ‘Fireman Sam’

The Night Logan Woke Up

10 networks, including Netflix, acquired rights for ‘The Night Logan Woke Up’ from Studio Canal at MIPCOM 2023

World on Fire

10 networks, including SBS, Movistar, SVT, YLE acquired rights for drama series ‘World On Fire’ from ITV Studios

Latest Film Productions

Give Me Your Eyes

Prime Video acquired rights to ‘Give Me Your Eyes’ from Spain based The Mediapro Studio Distribution at the MIPCOM 2023 event

Paramporul

Prime Video picked up streaming rights for Paramporul from AP International. Also, Aha acquired rights to the same title from Kavi Creations

Born to Fly

Red Bull Media House licensed ‘Born To Fly’ to 8 networks around Europe

High Demand UnScripted Drama’s

Huset

DR Sales signed licensing deals with 8 networks, including BBC and SBS Viceland for ‘Huset’

La Storia

Beta Film signed licensing deals with 6 Scandinavian networks for currently in-production (produced by Picomedia and Thalie Images) Italian drama ‘La Storia’

The Long Shadow

All3Media International signed acquisition deals with 8 broadcasters and networks worldwide at the recently concluded MIPCOM 2023 event for ‘The Long Shadow’

Trending TV Formats

The Genius Game United Kingdom

ITV signed a Format Adaption deal with Banijay Group owned Remarkable Television for ‘The Genius Game United Kingdom’

La Storia

JioCinema to adapt ‘Temptation Island’ for India. The recently signed a Format Adaptation deal with Banijay Asia

Got Talent

South Africa based Primedia Pictures acquired Format Rights to ‘Got Talent’ from Fremantle

WEBINAR: Documentaries Content Acquisition Strategies

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