Viewpoints: acquisitions strategies

Victoria Stubbs
Programming Executive
Electric Sky
United Kingdom

What are your acquisitions strategies?

Print media, online media and attendance at markets all play a crucial part in researching and staying on top of new productions. Feedback from our sales team is also a useful way to shop for acquisitions, which will fit our eventual clients' needs and sit well in our catalogue. We like to get involved as soon as possible in a program, from the early development stage, to helping raise funding and to assisting in giving the final piece international appeal - which worked well with Michael Atwell of MAPTV and the series ' The Diana Years'. It is satisfying to work closely with producers to help raise funding and see a project grow into a finished piece.

Takeaway My Takeaway

What programs are you looking for?

We are interested in factual programming of all kinds, but are always looking for long-running series and strong one-offs. Lifestyle programming with international appeal is high on the agenda. We consider projects from any origin, as long as production values are high and there is a definite international appeal to the subject matter. In fact, many of our multi-award winning programs come from outside the UK, such as Kaufmann Productions "Cuttlefish - The Brainy Bunch". Formats Rights have also taken off for us recently, we have these rights for several titles, including; "One Year to Pay off Your Mortgage" from Shine and "Takeaway My Takeaway" from Prospect Pictures and are keen to grow our Format Rights catalogue.

What foreign programs did you buy this year?

Examples of some non-UK based titles we acquired in the last year include "Wildlife Nannies", a Context TV Production for ZDF and Voom, which follows baby animals and the humans who devote their lives to looking after them. "Speedology", a Big Fish Entertainment production for National Geographic Channel US, which looks at cars, bikes and boats and the men and women whose ambition it is to break the speed records. "Flatly Stacked", "Stacked Like Me" and "Penis Dementia" are a trio of fun shows that take a lighter look at body image and are from Canadian producers, Markham Street Films.

What national programs did you buy this year?

Among our UK acquisitions, we have"Reigning in Hell"; on the pre-sale list is "Cannibal Superstar". We also have a set of three "Destination' series" from YoYo Media, which were made for BBC World and cover the world of fashion, music and art.

What are your acquisition plans?

We are always looking to expand our catalogue with factual genres of all kinds. Development deals have become of more interest to us, as it is a great way to forge a strong relationship with a producer and show faith in each other. Digital media and online content has also become a strong focus for us and we are in fact launching a new online content sales site at MIPCOM.