Factual has been on the rise all over the world, particularly in Asia. There has also been a lot of new content from China, Japan, Singapore, …
Asia may not pay a lot of money for the first deal you can do multiple deals and so construct a viable package.
Wildlife is the biggest Genre at the moment but it has been a bit over done. Nearly every single Channel in the UK is looking for some sort of wildlife related content. E.g. docusoap second zoo , Wildlife Sanctuary. Not a new trend but a safe option in a very competitive market. It can deliver a family audience and play in many different parts of the schedule.
A case from All3Media was quite revealing. There is a Place called Karnataka in India where the government had funded four top tier Cinematographers to film in the National Parks. They linked up with a production company for Editorial, David Attenborough for voiceover and finally for All3Media for help with Distribution. What I thought was particularly interesting was how the program had been brought together by sub non-traditional means.
It was also interesting, to me, how they viewed having David Attenborough do the narration gave the show much wider appeal. I happened to watch a BBC clip over the weekend with Simon Reeve interviewing a family living in a train tunnel in Los Angeles. They had never heard of him but had heard of David Attenborough.
True Crime is an area that is doing very well but is a little “over flooded” at the moment. So funding something that “punch through” and be challenging at interesting for the viewers is becoming quite difficult. Climate Change is a big hit at the moment. There was consensus on the Panel that environmental shows are popular however some are starting to be a bit “preachy” so even with a lot of offerings it can be difficult to pick the ones that will “punch through”. Well-being and Mental-health are proving popular.