Japan’s NHK, Nippon TV & Asia Docs buy from TVF

Broadcasters and streamers in Japan including local powerhouses NHK and Nippon TV have picked up a raft of shows from TVF International.

Japanese public broadcaster NHK has added shows including Arming the Arctic, which explores rising geopolitical tensions in the region and was produced by Wildcat Films and TVF International for RTL Germany.

The TVF co-production, which launched at MIPCOM 2024, pre-sold to RTL and has since sold to YLE, NRK, RTVE, TVI Portugal, ERR, Asharq Documentary.

NHK also licensed a special from long-running series, The Snake Master, produced by TV Burabha, which goes face-to-face with the rare and venomous snakes of Thailand, while Nippon TV has picked up two TVF shows for Tokyovision.

China’s Abandoned Daughters, produced by Mediacorp for CNA, has intimate access to women adopted during China’s strict one-child policy for forced marriages, while SBS-commissioned documentary The Surgery Ship is from Media Stockade and follows volunteer doctors on board a floating hospital providing care in remote and developing regions.

Elsewhere, Japanese VOD platform Asia Docs has added singles including activist doc The Daughter Tree produced by Trinetra Productions for Arte, and Lost & Found, which is from Falls Family Films for NHK and tracks efforts to reunite Japanese artefacts with their owners from the coast of Canada.

The VOD platform also licensed two films produced by Mediacorp for CNA: From North Korea with Love, which grants exclusive access to a generation of influencers who have defected from North Korea, and Click to Ransom (1 x 48), which goes inside a Japanese hospital in the midst of a ransomware attack.

TVF has also struck a co-pro deal with Tokyovision for Japan’s Wild Side, a 2 x 52-minute series that reveals the wonders of Japan’s animal kingdom across all four seasons.

Sam Joyce, TVF’s senior acquisitions manager, said: “This pure-wildlife co-pro is perhaps our most ambitious yet, and is already drawing major interest from buyers around the world. And on the sales side, opportunities in the territory are a testament to our slate of premium one-offs and dynamic, access-driven series, which hit the mark for major buyers in Japan.”

Deals were brokered by Joyce. Ayushi Singh, sales exec at TVF, now manages broadcaster relationships in the territory.