Buyers Flock to Big Broad Dramas, and 9 Other London Screenings, Mip London Trends

Fremantle’s “Sandokan” and BBC Studios reboot “Walking With Dinosaurs,” this week’s London TV Screenings did nothing to dent its recent status in a new biz order as one of Europe’s two key TV markets alongside October’s Mipcom. It was these titles and a brace of classy star-studded crime thrillers – Andrew Lincoln’s “Cold Water,” Jesse Williams’ “Costiera,” Mark Gatiss’ “Bookish,” “Maigret” with Benjamin Wainwright – which looked to be moving the needle at this year’s London Screenings, which unspooled Feb.

23-28. Mip London was much quieter with attendees often chasing buyers packing London Screenings, centered around Leicester Square and Soho, rather than frequenting the market’s Savoy Hotel.

It remains to be seen what kind of new market edge France’s Series Mania, already Europe’s premier co-production meet, may develop as some MipTV veterans head for Lille rather than London. Taken together, however, this week’s two London TV events said a lot about the state of international TV business.

10 takes and a deal drill-down: “Right now, the market is very much focused on reaching audiences.” Jens Richter, Fremantle CEO commercial and international, tells Variety. That market realism is playing out in multiple ways.

Companies are moving into English-language drama which can sell to the U.S., whether Fremantle with its banner Screenings duo “Sandokan” and “Costiera” or Federation Studios with family succession drama-thriller “I, Jack Wright.” Niche dramas are ever rarer. ITV Studios’ top scripted swings, “Cold Water” and “The Hack,” “are still going to have slightly older audiences but they’re targeted at a much broader audience, broadening that funnel out more into a wider appeal for everybody,” says Ruth Berry, president