With every new television season, the producers invent new shows to keep the viewers glued to the screen.
Ukrainian producers are no exception. While many shows on the Ukrainian TV are the licensed adaptations of foreign shows, the Ukrainians are also inventing new formats that get sold abroad to Europe and Asia.
Over a dozen of Ukrainian TV shows were sold for broadcasters abroad to adapt and show. The main buyer is Russia, while at the same time Ukraine has put restrictions on the Russian-made TV shows that can screen in Ukraine, banning any series that promote Russian military or law enforcers.
Some Ukrainian shows were sold to Japan, China, Germany, France and the U.S., among other countries.
Sniff of success
In August, Japanese broadcasting companyNHK started shooting a detective drama “The Sniffer,” an adaptation of a Ukrainian series with the same name produced in 2013 by Film.UA studio and aired on ICTV.
In the show, Sniffer is a Special Investigations Bureau part-time detective who solves crimes using his supernatural power – a supersensitive sense of smell. This ability was one of the reasons why the Japanese broadcaster was interested, according to Atsushi Ochi, head of drama department at NHK.
“We are confident viewers of Japan will like the series even more when we add the traditional Japanese hue to the plot,” Ochi told the Kyiv Post.
NHK expects to sell the Japanese version of “The Sniffer” to other Asian broadcasters. That is the first time NHK took up the adaptation of a foreign drama.
But it isn’t the first success for “The Sniffer.” The Ukrainian hit show was sold to France’s TF1 channel in 2014 and to Russia in 2013. The rights for showing the Ukrainian version were sold to 60 countries.
The Ukrainian creators of the show explain the success with the global trend for detective dramas.
“Also, we managed to visualize the smell,” Film.UA studio spokesperson Polina Tolmacheva says proudly.
Reality for export
Ukrainian TV channels have been adapting big foreign shows since 2008. The most successful ones were “X Factor,” “Ukraine’s Got Talent” and “The Voice.”
But lately, the roles are switching. Ukrainian networks have been creating more and more of original TV show formats and license them to foreign broadcasters.
In the Ukrainian reality show “Khata na Tata” (“Daddy in Charge”), the mother of the family goes on vacation for a week leaving all the household duties to the father. The show highlights the condescending attitude that the participating men have towards the home duties of their wives.
“Daddy in Charge” was sold to Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. The local adaptation premiered in Lithuania in spring and was a success – the broadcaster now looks to buy the rights to adapt the second season of the show.
Another international success was “Go dance!” or “Maidance”, a 2012 show where teams of 12 Ukrainian cities competed in a mass dance battle on Maidan Nezalezhnosti, Kyiv central square. It was sold to France, Norway, China, U.S and Russia.
Behind both shows is StarLightMedia, a media group that produces shows for several Ukrainian channels. Its spokesperson Olga Vaganova says that the group will be trying to license out every original show they make in the future.
At the same time, for the past year Ukrainian TV channels are focused on struggling to replace the now-banned Russian TV series and coping with the economic crisis, so the creation of the new formats was put on hold.
“But it doesn’t mean we don’t have ideas,” says Vaganova. n
