EXCLUSIVE: Canada’s Serial Maven Studios has launched a distribution division ahead of MIPCOM.
The unit debuts with 300 hours of factual content, with Serial Maven CEO Solange Attwood in charge.
Twelve titles will comprise the slate, with programs commissioned by the likes of the BBC, Netflix, Smithsonian, E! Entertainment, PBS, CBC, NHK and Discovery. They include one-off Secrets of Egypt’s Valley of the Whales (from Argonon’s Windfall Films and Rezolution Pictures in association with Handle Productions, ten-part series Search and Rescue: North Shore from Peg Leg Films), Cosmic Mysteries from Deep Field Productions and Gareth Malone’s Easter Passion from Somersault Studios.
Other are Netflix nature doc Tiger 24 from W Films, A Wild Irish Year and The Wild Gardener from Crossing the Line, ten-parter Locals Welcome and All it Takes from Artifactual Media, So Surreal: Behind the Mask from Rezolution Pictures and Trading Skills from Riverbank Pictures.
“With a diverse range of premium content and twelve brand new titles our distribution division is built on quality, speed and a solution-based approach for our platform partners,” said Attwood.
Former Blue Ant Media execs Attwood and Asha Daniere launched Serial Maven earlier this year with a model what they called “a next generation studio whose primary purpose is intellectual property.” The company develops, finances, produces, acquires and distributes content. A third Blue Ant exec, Julie Chang, was drafted in as COO in May.
The launch of the distribution arm comes ahead of MIPCOM next month, which will be the first since MIPTV’s final edition in April. Buyers and sellers are watching closely how the market shapes up, with sources telling Deadline in recent week that some larger distributors have considered whether to make the trip to Cannes.