March 30th, 2009 6:35 pm

FremantleMedia to expand drama catalogue

FremantleMedia (‘Neighbours’) will expand it’s drama catalogue with Australian produced projects headed for US cable.

UK-based media conglomerate FremantleMedia Enterprises, best know for their reality TV formats, ‘Idol’, ‘X-Factor’, ‘Got Talent’, ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ and ‘Project Runway’, are currently looking to expand their drama catalogue.

While at the MIP TV conference in Cannes, FremantleMedia announced that they had secured a number of first-look programming deals with international drama producers, including Mike Tollin (‘Smallville’) and Australian producer Roger Simpson (‘Satisfaction’, ‘Answered By Fire’ and ‘Stingers’).

CEO David Ellender said Fremantle would be targeting US cable networks for the shows that emerge from the first-look deals, meaning some Australian produced series could end up on US cable networks.

Cable TV’s financing “models are a bit more fluid than the network model,” Ellender said.

FremantleMedia already own the distribution rights to long running Australian soap ‘Neighbours’, which they acquired when they bought Grundy Television.

Fremantle plan to deficit-fund part of the series’ budgets, via its own funding and co-financing brought in via international co-production and foreign pre-sales, which he Ellender adds is ”an interesting ingredient given that everybody’s looking at budgets, the cost of programming.”

Ellender also said that they are currently looking for “probably three to four other deals with showrunners.”

FremantleMedia Enterprises already have several similar deals set up in the UK, in which their drama properties include the BBC’s ‘Merlin’, which has been sold in 113 territories including Network Ten in Australia.