Format

Los Angeles-based TGC Global Entertainment (TGC GE), the international distribution company launched by US format veteran Phil Gurin to represent premium formatted content, has closed format acquisition deals with Swedish public broadcaster SVT and Bafot Studios in Nigeria.

Cecilia Ingebrigtsen, TGC GE’s sales and acquisitions agent for Europe and the Nordics, has licensed the worldwide rights to three of SVT’s latest formats: The Lost Games, Immigrants for Swedes and Smash the Wall. In a separate deal, TGC GE has also signed a format representation deal with Lagos-based production company Bafot Studios for The Big Family Dream.

The Lost Games, which revisits 12 defunct Olympic sports, from poetry recital through dueling with pistols to high jump from a standing start. Blending sports, humour and history, five teams made up of sporting stars and entertainers compete across three disciplines — while wearing historically appropriate sportswear.

Quiz show Immigrants for Swedes (IFS) puts Swedish culture in the hot seat. The title is a wordplay on the acronym for Sweden’s SFI introductory language programme for immigrants. However, instead of incomers, three native-born Swedes take part in a hilarious true-or-false guessing game about Swedish life hosted by culturally diverse celebrities. Finally, TGC GE has acquired SVT’s Smash the Wall, a David-and-Goliath quiz in which heroic contestants challenge a ‘wall’ of five celebrities.

Cecilia Ingebrigtsen said: “As we set off to the London Screenings, it’s the perfect moment to add new formats from SVT to TGC GE’s ever-growing catalogue. Immigrants for Swedes, Smash the Wall and The Lost Games are all SVT-produced formats and all three have proven themselves with Swedish viewers. As a result, I’m confident they’ll perform equally well for global audiences. I’ve worked with SVT in the past and I hope that relationship will continue into the future. I’m looking forward to adding many more great SVT formats to our format slate.”

Bafot Studios’ The Big Family Dream is the first Africa-originated format to find a home in TGC GE’s growing catalogue of international IP. Now in its third season on the Africa Magic Family platform and NTA Nigeria — Africa’s largest TV network — the format is billed as a “financial literacy game show” in which16 families go head-to-head to see who can save the most — and win a life-changing prize, from a kitchen make-over to a dream house. The deal was brokered by Roxanne Pompa, who is now acting as a sales and acquisitions agent for the distributor concentrating on Latin America and U.S. Spanish language.
Pompa was most recently Vice President, International Formats for Paramount Global Content Distribution and previously at CBS and will now join the roster of TGC GE’s international sales agents - Cecilia Ingebrigtsen, Jess Khanom and Rosemond Perdue with Grace O’Doherty, based in the US as director of development.