Los Angeles-based TGC Global Entertainment (TGC GE) has inked format acquisition deals with SVT Sales, the commercial arm of the Swedish public broadcaster SVT and Nigeria’s Bafot Studios.
TGC GE, the international distribution company launched by US format veteran Phil Gurin (Shark Tank, The Singing Bee), has bagged the formats in time for its outing at the London TV Screenings this afternoon.
The deal with SVT Sales includes three of the Swedish pubcasters latest formats: The Lost Games, Immigrants for Swedes and Smash the Wall, while the pact with Lagos-based production company Bafot Studios covers The Big Family Dream.
The Lost Games revisits various defunct Olympic sports, from dueling with pistols to high-jump from a standing start. Mixing sports, humour and history, the show has sporting stars and entertainers competing across three disciplines wearing historically appropriate sportswear.
Immigrants for Swedes is a quizshow that “puts Swedish culture in the hot seat,” according to TGC GE. It sees three native Swedes take part in a true-or-false guessing game about Swedish life hosted by culturally diverse celebrities. The LA firm has also acquired SVT’s Smash the Wall, a quiz in which heroic contestants challenge a ‘wall’ of five celebrities.
The Big Family Dream, meanwhile, is in its third season on the Africa Magic Family platform and NTA Nigeria and is billed as a “financial literacy gameshow” in which16 families go head-to-head to see who can save the most money. The Bafot deal was brokered by Roxanne Pompa, who is now acting as a sales and acquisitions agent for TGC GE for Latin America and US Hispanic markets.
Pompa was previously VP of international formats for Paramount Global Content Distribution and joins GE’s international sales agents Cecilia Ingebrigtsen, Jess Khanom and Rosemond Perdue, with Grace O’Doherty as director of development.
Regarding the news formats pick-ups, Ingebrigtsen said: “As we set off to the London TV Screenings, it’s the perfect moment to add new formats from SVT Sales 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.”
