Talpa Studios is taking two new entertainment formats to Mipcom next week, and the pitch is as much about the partnership model behind them as the shows themselves.
John de Mol’s formats group will shop “Sing With Me” and “The Golden Elevators” to international buyers. The slate arrives with a data point Talpa is making central to its pitch: shows developed through partnerships now account for more than 40% of its catalog.
Talpa Studios was formed in September 2023, led by CEO Maarten Meijs, but the creative DNA runs through John de Mol, whose earlier companies developed “Big Brother,” “Deal or No Deal,” “Fear Factor” and “The Voice.” That track record gives the catalog a built-in buyer audience at a market like Mipcom.
Two new formats, two different buyer logics
“Sing With Me,” developed with Dutch producer IDTV, the creator of “The Traitors,” is a music entertainment format. An aspiring singer starts solo, and an established artist who hears something special can step in and turn the performance into a duet. It launches on SBS6 in the Netherlands on Nov. 7.
“The Golden Elevators” is a quiz format with social strategy, ordered by ITV in the U.K. and SBS6 in the Netherlands. Ten contestants choose between two elevators, each representing a possible answer to 10 questions. Correct answers send them up; wrong answers send them out. Before the doors close, contestants can cooperate or deliberately mislead a rival, with the survivors sharing a jackpot at the top.
The two commissions show the dual-track Talpa is running: one format built for a local launch first, another greenlit in two major markets simultaneously.
Why the partnerships number matters
Talpa Studios is scaling through co-development and distribution partnerships. It says it now has 26 formats active across 34 countries, and partnership-developed titles account for more than 40% of the catalog. Sebastian van Barneveld, director of global distribution, positions that as a deliberate response to a fragmenting market.
“In a rapidly changing market, strong ideas need more than creativity alone. Collaboration and flexibility are key to making them travel,” he said.
That matters for buyers because a format with two home broadcasters attached arrives with some risk already removed. It also matters for producers because fewer ideas have to be fully financed and proven in one market before they can travel.
The partnership model has already produced titles such as “A Party to Die For” with ITV Studios, and “Let’s Play Ball,” co-developed with EndemolShine Nederland and Signal.Stream, which has commissions in French Canada and Finland.
What else is moving
- The Floor has reached more than 30 territories, making it the most widely placed title in the current slate.
- The Alliance launched on Prime Video in India as a celebrity adaptation, and a second season has been confirmed.
- Caught in the Middle is returning for a second season in the Netherlands and has adaptations in Spain and Australia.
- The Winner Takes It All landed its first international sale to France Télévisions and a recommission in the Netherlands.
Signal.Stream, a strategic partner focused on streaming-generation formats, is also bringing traction to market: “Most Wanted” has new commissions in Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Romania, while “Catch Us” has added commissions from TV4 in Sweden and ProSieben in Germany.
For media teams, watch the second market
The practical read for entertainment marketers and media planners is to treat dual-market commissions as a leading indicator. A format that lands two broadcasters with different audience profiles before its international rollout is signalling that the idea can be localised without breaking. That is the metric Talpa is using in its own pitch, and it is likely to shape how unscripted slates are bought over the next year.
Source: Variety
