Eiken and EiTB launch the second edition of Innova Basque Audiovisual to promote the production of pilot programs

As a novelty, Innova Basque Audiovisual incorporates a formats workshop, taught by international experts, to facilitate the identification of key elements for internationalization.

Basque Audiovisual Cluster (Oak)and EiTB have launched the second edition of Innova Basque Audiovisual, the initiative that emerged last year to promote the production of pilot programs and which made possible the recording, broadcast and international marketing of four innovative audiovisual projects.

As in the previous edition, the ideas will be analyzed by an international jury, which will select the best projects based on their sales possibilities to external markets, for production and subsequent broadcast by ETB. According to the participation rules, open to all audiovisual production companies based in the Basque Country, the finalist projects will be broadcast in special ETB programs throughout the month of September.

The deadline for the presentation of projects will be open until March and, as a novelty in this edition, a workshop on international formats will be held in February with the aim that companies can identify the key elements to create exportable products to any market. The course will be taught by experts from FRAPA, an international organization specialized in this field of television.
Likewise, the initiative will be presented in two of the main markets in the world, MIPFORMAT and MIPCOM, through the Basque Audiovisual stand in these markets held in Cannes, which ensures the international dissemination of the project.

Internationalization and innovation

The basis of Innova Basque Audiovisual is directly related to the internationalization of audiovisual projects and the search for innovative forms of public-private financing. In this sense, this initiative represents a “win-win” strategy in which all agents involved obtain advantages and share limited risks.

From an industrial point of view, the objective of Innova Basque Audiovisual is to allow companies to find fundamental economic support so that ideas “on paper” become real products, which facilitates their sale in international markets.

In this sense, the effectiveness of the project has been demonstrated in the first edition, since both the winning program (Pausoka's talent show “Ama, vótamé”) and the other three finalist ideas (“You or me?”, by 3Koma; “Who are you pointing your finger at”, by Bainet; and “Council of Wise Men” by Pausoka), have accessed international markets.

Thus, Pausoka sold the international rights to “Ama, vátame” to the distributor Global Agency, which hopes to sell it this year to more than 20 countries. In fact, it is currently available in the US, China, Russia and the Spanish state, through Endemol. “You or Me?”, by 3Koma, for its part, has been sold to Canada (both in the French-speaking and English-speaking areas), the US, the United Kingdom and Italy.