You might say that they are victims of their own success. The Flanders Audiovisual Fund (VAF) was so efficient at funding and promoting feature films and documentaries that surely, the Flemish government thought, they could do the same with television?

That’s why the marketing team of VAF is heading to Cannes next month – not for the coveted film festival (that’s in May), but for MIPTV, the world’s biggest TV industry event for marketing, sales and rubbing shoulders. “I have a meeting every half hour of the day,” says Sue Green, who represents three Flemish television producers. “I get requests from all over the world for meetings. I try to see everyone who asks, but I’m already running out of slots!”

Green represents the New Flemish Primitives, a consortium of three producers, who are normally competitors, but, she says, “decided that internationally, there was more strength in numbers”.

This is also the view of the VAF, which can now offer producers who used to go it alone at MIPTV an umbrella under which to present themselves. The VAF stand provides meeting places and technical facilities so producers can show clips of their programmes to potential buyers from other markets. And that is the hope of every production company – not just that your quiz show or comedy series is popular at home but that other countries or regions will want to option the format of your show. They make their own versions of the show, and you get paid for the original idea.

Sometimes, you might even get more. Flemish producer and director Tim Van Aelst, for instance, spent last summer in Los Angeles as executive producer of Off Their Rockers, the American version of his company’s hit show Benidorm Bastards.

The Media Fund

At the end of 2010, Flemish media minister Ingrid Lieten created the Media Fund within VAF for the funding of quality television projects and to promote Flemish TV internationally. An annual sum of €4 million comes from Lieten and an additional €2.52 million from culture minister Joke Schauvliege. “I specifically chose not to give this money to the public broadcaster but to create an independent fund so that private companies, producers and cable companies can all introduce projects,” says Lieten.

Just like for films, the VAF receives applications for funding from TV producers and decides which projects to fund. Fiction, documentary and animation projects are all considered. VAF also assists with selling Flemish TV formats to other markets at venues like the four-day MIPTV and its sister event MIPCOM in the autumn.

Pierre Drouot, director of the VAF, says that the basis for success in both areas is the relationship between his organisation and producers. “We are in close contact with TV producers; we listen to their needs,” he tells me. “That’s the same approach we take with film; it’s the quality of the relationship that counts – communicating needs and exchanging information.”

Though some may raise their eyebrows at the idea of the government funding television outside of the VRT public broadcaster, Lieten’s decision has potentially wide-reaching consequences: “We are a very small cultural region,” she says, “so we think that it is very important that we don’t just see American series or documentaries on TV, but also series, movies, documentaries and animation in which the creativity comes from people within Flanders.”

MIP-what?

MIPTV (Marche International des Programmes de Television) was launched in the 1960s and this year will welcome 4,000 buyers from 100 countries, making it the largest TV industry event in the world. This year minister Lieten will spend a day at MIPTV to see exactly where her money is going. “Maybe she’ll even be motivated to spend more,” smiles Drouot, “once she sees that the funding is well invested.”

VAF plans a working lunch with the minister and Flemish TV producers “so both parties can learn from each other,” says Drouot.

Minister Lieten echoes the thought: “I want to learn, both from our local people who are there in a group and from the international people. I want to see whether our policy is accurate now, or if we still need to change it for the challenges that lie ahead.”

On the day of her visit, the VAF will host a reception called A Taste of Flanders’ Creativity, open to interested MIPTV attendees, which will showcase the creativity of the Flemish audio-visual industry with trailers of several local productions and also culinary specialities of the region.

“A sign of success would be that I have the feeling that our local people could play an active role,” says Lieten, “that they have a lot to offer visitors and that they were able to make useful contacts.”

Three’s Company

Last year three Flemish production houses – De Filistijnen, deMensen and the well-known Woestijnvis, creator of shows like Man bijt hond (Man Bites Dog) and De slimste mens ter wereld (The Smartest Person in the World) – hired Sue Green to represent them collectively in the international market under the moniker The New Flemish Primitives.

“Nothing was really happening before,” she says about the selling of Flemish TV formats abroad. “In terms of self-promotion, they have never really done that in the way that, say, the Dutch do. The Flemish are modest about it.”

It’s a Flemish trait, to be sure, but in this case, it was hurting the industry. “They have very interesting ideas and make fun and entertaining television that appeals to a wide audience,” says Green. But no one outside Flanders was seeing it, and producers were not taking advantage of the financial resources generated by the selling of those interesting ideas.

There have been exceptions, most notably Woestijnvis’ De Mol (The Mole), which, since its debut in the late 1990s has been sold to 47 territories, including major English-language markets like the US, Britain and Australia. The Mole, in fact, could be credited with sparking a bit more interest in Flemish productions. And now that Shelter’s Benidorm Bastards has won both Europe’s Golden Rose and America’s Emmy Award for best comedy, Flemish TV is poised to really take off.

Green, a British national, used to work for Fremantle, one of the largest TV production and distribution companies in the world. After marrying a Fleming, she settled in Flanders about six years ago. “I used to say to them at Fremantle that they should take a look at the programmes that were being developed in smaller markets, and especially in Flanders,” she says. “In the olden days, the big companies looked mainly to key television markets for intellectual properties – the UK, the US, France, Germany. Now the world is more globalised, and they are going out to smaller markets.”

And Green, 47, is making sure they don’t miss Flanders. She has made a deal with the Fox network in the US to produce Basta, the clever undercover journalist show that made headlines early last year. Norway has bought Tomtesterom (represented internationally as How To), the reality show where people put how-to books to the test, and it’s being considered by three English-language markets. France is looking into making their own version of De slimste mens.

The quality of programming in Flanders tends to be high, says Green, because of its acceptance of subtitles and, hence, international programming. “The Flemish have a tradition of watching BBC series and other international series, so there is a certain quality threshold that is already in place. Local programmes are on a par with programmes coming in from the outside that are being made with far, far bigger budgets.”

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