Politically, 2018 may have been a turbulent and uncertain year (an understatement perhaps), but Boom! PR’s clients have demonstrated consistent and unparalleled success over the last 12 months – with an abundance of announcements topping the television industry news agenda.
As a rather cold January got 2018 under way, and cities across the UK began polishing up their bids to become the new HQ of Channel 4, we flew into the warmer climate of Miami’s NATPE market with news that our client UK indie Zig Zag Productions would be represented by ICM Partners in the US. Such news highlighted Zig Zag’s expansion plans for the US market as it looked to build on the 200 hours of US-produced programming already under its belt. In the same month, boss Danny Fenton wrote in Broadcast magazine that NATPE “offers fantastic opportunities for UK producers” before highlighting that the ‘FAANGs’ were all in Florida in full force.
And these streamers’ more diverse commissioning strategies was arguably one of the biggest TV industry trends of 2018. Indeed, February saw us announce that another longstanding client Barcroft Media win their first commission from US SVoD giant Netflix for ’Amazing Interiors’, a deal that further contributed to CEO Sam Barcroft’s vision to “turn the TV model upside down”. Throughout the year, Barcroft would go on to strike deals for content with the likes of the Snapchat Discovery platform and Facebook Watch – a trend that’s sure to continue in 2019 as they continue to disrupt the traditional TV industry model.
February also saw leading UK production company Raw commissioned by ITV to produce a fourth series of hit documentary series ‘Heathrow: Britain’s Busiest Airport’, We also announced our clients Bristol-based Icon Films had landed a Travel Channel commission for adventure series ‘Hunting Evidence’, and Buccaneer Media’s acclaimed crime drama ‘Marcella’ returned to ITV for a second run.
The run-up to MipTV in April proved to be exceptionally busy months for our clients. Toronto-based distribution company Syndicado acquired the US digital distribution rights to ‘lost’ Leonard Cohen documentary ‘Bird on Wire’ and ‘The World of Peter Sellers’. Meanwhile, another Canadian client, Montreal-based producer-distributor Media Ranch was commissioned by Canada’s Bell Media to produce ‘The Goldwater Rule’ (later renamed ‘The Ex-pert’) starring high profile lawyer Anne-France Goldwater, and France-based independent TV company Pernel Media was commissioned by France 5 to produce a second series of docu-drama ‘The Real War of Thrones; A History of Europe’.