ORF, ORF-Enterprise and Film Austria presented themselves jointly at the key content and program fair in southern France. High demand was again seen for ORF’s blue-chip UNIVERSUM Nature and History documentaries and TV-series.

Cannes/Vienna – Over 5,000 visitors from 80 countries attended the content and program fair in search of fresh content. The top-class award-winning blue-chip documentaries from ORF’s UNIVERSUM strand, reaching audiences all over the globe, attracted a great deal of interest.

“ORF productions have a double impact: they ensure considerable reach among the home audience as well as attracting more and more viewers around the world. ORF-Enterprise rightly made a name for itself as a premium boutique for quality content with the multiple award-winning UNIVERSUM films and excellent entertainment,” sums up ORF-Enterprise CEO Oliver Böhm.

“The importance of personal contact in a competitive market has become evident after the pandemic years, when meetings were mostly held digitally. There is a strong demand for high-quality Austrian productions from our best-selling genres factual and drama. We were more than happy to personally present our fresh line-up to our long-lasting partners again,” adds Armin Luttenberger, Head of Content Sales International at ORF-Enterprise.

“Climate and environmental protection begin with an awareness of our natural treasures, our untouched scenic beauty and the endangered animal species. UNIVERSUM lives up to its responsibility to contribute to climate protection and is increasingly addressing the critical issues of pollution and climate. We want our nature films to provide an impetus for rethinking and to encourage viewers to behave in ways that conserve resources. The worldwide appeal of the UNIVERSUM documentaries contributes massively to spread this message,” summarizes Head of Natural History, ORF UNIVERSUM, Gernot Lercher.

Content Highlights from Austria travel the world

The  strong interest of the participants in the “UNIVERSUM Nature Apéro” on the opening night of the fair was encouraging: new highlights such as “The Egg - Bursting Into Life”, “Colombia - Wild and Free”, “Hudson River Wild”, “Lake Tanganyika - Africa's Blue Heart”, “Life on the Wing - Miracle of Bird Migration”, “Slovenia - Where Nature Comes First” or – broadcasted on the occasion of the Soccer World Cup in Qatar – “Qatar – Pearls in the Sand” were presented to buyers and experts from all over the world for the very first time.

Visitors to the joint booth of ORF, ORF-Enterprise and Film Austria also showed great interest in fictional content from Austria. “Soko Kitzbuehel”, “Tatort” and “Fast Forward” rank as international bestsellers, and the latest addition to the “Soko”-family, “Soko Linz”, is introducing a new team of investigators operating in a different environment. These sales records not only prove the major appeal of ORF’s original stories, but they are also a strong stimulus for Austria as a production location.

“The joint presence of Film Austria with ORF and ORF-Enterprise underlines the quality content from Austria, and it is a great opportunity to introduce the world market to the creativity of Austrian producers,” says Nikolaus Wisiak from the Austrian Producers' Association “Film Austria”, looking back at MIPTV 2022.

From Austria into the whole world: the latest sales successes of ORF-Enterprise

The UNIVERSUM history documentary “Venus von Willendorf – The Naked Truth” was picked by YLE (Finland), while SVT (Sweden) and RTP (Portugal) selected the UNIVERSUM nature documentaries “Hudson River Wild” and “Colombia - Wild and Free”. In addition to other titles, the Portuguese pubcaster also licensed the documentary “Portugal - Wild Land on the Edge” – a film by filmmaker and now Head of ORF UNIVERSUM, Gernot Lercher. His latest work was also recently licensed by PBS (USA). TRT (Turkey) also acquired a package of nature documentaries from the top-class UNIVERSUM portfolio.

Broadcaster KTO opted for classical concerts from Austria: with Handel's “Messiah”, “Schubert in Stainz” and “Vespers of the Blessed Virgin” from the styriarte Festival, three musical highlights from Austria are going to France.

The recent sales successes of “Soko Kitzbuehel” to Spain (AMC, Atresmedia), France (Canal+), Germany (Sky), and Switzerland (RTS) are complemented by a large content package licensed by Olympusat (USA). This means that further seasons of “Suburbia - Women on the Edge”, “Fast Forward” and “Walking on Sunshine” - amongst other fiction highlights - found their way across the Atlantic.

About ORF-Enterprise

As a marketing subsidiary of ORF, ORF-Enterprise is exclusively responsible for marketing the leading Austrian media group’s entire national media output. The portfolio includes four television stations (ORF 1, ORF 2, ORF III Kultur und Information, ORF SPORT +), three national radio stations (Ö1, Hitradio Ö3, radio FM4), the print magazine ORF nachlese, the entire digital output on ORF.at, ORF-TVthek and ORF-Radiothek as well as ORF TELETEXT. The Content Sales International and Licensing and Media Cooperations division licences ORF content and brands worldwide. ORF-Enterprise operates its own music publishing house ORF-Enterprise Musikverlag as well as its own record label. The company is the national representative of leading international creative festivals such as Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity and organiser of national advertising prizes such as ORF-TOP SPOT, ORF-WERBEHAHN and ORF-ONWARD. The management consists of Oliver Böhm (CEO, advertising marketing, content exploitation) and Heinz Mosser (finance and administration, music publishing & label, sound & vision, ORF nachlese). ORF-Enterprise is a 100 percent subsidiary of the ORF media group. More information at https://enterprise.ORF.at, https://contentsales.ORF.at and https://musikverlag.ORF.at.

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