Sarah Tong, director of sales at UK-based distributor Hat Trick International, discusses current trends in true crime, makeover and lifestyle, and a demand in the market for accessible science and technology.

Tells us about your current slate and recent success stories.
We’re really excited about our forthcoming factual and scripted slate, both finished and formats. We continue to push our science and health format Do You Want To Live Forever? which answers the age-old question with pairs of volunteers following the advice of our experts. Also, in the format space we’ve just completed season three of Have I Got News For You for CNN in the USA: the time is now for a news-based entertainment format which has proved not just a huge success in the UK but across Europe and now in the US too.

We have a number of new series adding to our George Clarke catalogue – a new series of Amazing Spaces, along with his new franchises Building Home and Kitchen vs Garden, all for Channel 4 in the UK. And two new series from James May – The Dull Men’s Club for Discovery (which will move to a second season) and Great Explorers for Channel 5.

From Keo Films for Channel 4 we have Mystery of the Bitcoin Billionaire hosted by Gabriel Gatehouse and with versions for both Channel 4 and shorter webcast versions for the accompanying website. Also, from Keo for Channel 4 is Welcome to Britain which was filmed over two years and follows both the people determined to come to the UK and those determined to keep them out.

What trends in unscripted are you looking to take advantage of?
There is still an appetite for crime in unscripted that we are capitalising on, both with our catalogue titles (such as Serial Killer with Piers Morgan and Click for Murder) as well as with new titles that we’ll be launching over the next six months.

There’s also a continued interest in lifestyle and makeover style shows, especially those driven by known talent. The recently launched George Clarke’s Building Home and James May’s Dull Men’s Club have both done really well and we have more from both presenters that we’ll be launching at Mipcom

We also have an amazing access documentary from Zandland and a new health format from Plum Pictures, that we will launch at Mipcom.

Accessible science and technology are also areas that continue to be popular, and we have Britain’s Mega Port (for Channel 5, produced by Middlechild) that we anticipate being in high demand. As well as the continued interest in the science/health hybrid format Do You Want To Live Forever? From Lune Pictures for Channel 9 Australia

Have I Got News For You US

It was said at RealScreen in January “content used to be king, now the deal model is king”: do you agree? And what does that mean for the quality of content?
Yes, to some extent. In a world where there’s less commissioning and less funding, it’s more important than ever to be monetising every right on every title. However, content is still the most important part of what we do and I still believe that quality will win out. If a show is brilliant then it will stand the test of time and not only sell to multiple territories now, but sell to multiple windows over the course of its life. Titles such as Killer Women with Piers Morgan is still selling across different platforms nearly 10 years after it launched on ITV1.

How would you assess the health of the market?
It’s tough for platforms because of the ad market, which has a knock-on effect to distributors trying to sell their content to those platforms who have less money for commissions and acquisitions, and are repeating more and buying less, and becoming even more risk adverse. But we have made it this far by not spreading ourselves too thin and staying committed to our quality over quantity mantra. Our reward is that we are still here and still enjoying what we do. Especially as it’s such a tough market, it’s more important than ever to be working in a great team and with great producers and enjoying what we do.

What’s the biggest challenge facing your company at the moment?
The usual – finding quality content that’s not affiliated to big groups and so available for distribution, finding slots to sell to, finding deals that make sense and will put productions into profit.

What’s your company’s three-year plan?
We hope to still be representing the fantastic roster of producers that we currently do, but hopefully adding more quality producers who we enjoy working with and who enjoy working with us.

Best unscripted show you’ve seen recently that wasn’t your own?
Beckham on Netflix.