FormatBiz | The second edition of IPXCHANGE in Cologne opened with a learning talk and the presentations of new unscripted series

For the second time, TV producers were gathered at the MMC Studios in Cologne on September 18/19, 2023, for the international Independent Producers' Exchange or IPXCHANGE, an industry event organized by TV producer Wolfgang Link and TV marketing expert Sandra Lehner.

On the first day, after a learning session by Danny Fenton (CEO of ZigZag Productions), in which he presented his experiences on successful format development in his talk "The Science of Formats, Tanja van der Goes (All Right Media) showed a lineup of new formats. Among the new titles, she pitched she talked about: X Days Outside, a reality survival series to premiere next November on NPO3 in The Netherlands.
The other titles presented:
Ik ga Viraal (tr: I’m going viral) a talent game show in search of the new social media star. The show premiered last August on Streamz in Belgium.
Wie Denk Je Wel Dat Je Bent? (tr: The Opposites) a scientific entertaining show that presents two different and opposite experience, for example vegetarians vs meat-eaters.

Justin Scroggie, the British format doctor and consultant, who has (co-)developed and supervised Chef in Your Ear, Sing my Song and Doctors vs. Internet, among others, talked about the format’s market with a focus on Germany. While Jason Mitchell, founder of The Connected Set presented a controversial factual series titled Dirty Secrets about the bad hygiene habits we all have, that can be soarted by some experts.

And finally, Tim Crescenti, CEO of Small World after exposing some funny anecdotes about the format’s industry, including a nice call from guru and master of formats: Paul Gilbert (SVP International Formats at CBS, now Paramount). He introduced his new game show, that will be launched at MIPCOM, after a successful option closed in Italy with a big producer. Noot vir not (tr: Note for Note) is an Afrikaans language musical quiz show aired by SABC2 on South African Television with the longest continually running show made in the country. The musical game show was a hit in South Africa with more than 700 episodes broadcast since 1991.
"After 44 successful seasons- said Crescenti – was time to bring it to the global industry. Four contestants take part in each episode, during which they interpret a number of musical clues. The initial episode is followed by semi-finals and a finale. A guest artist or band perform a song as part of each episode.