Channel 4 Turns To Auction & Dog Formats In Search For Next ‘Gogglebox’-Style International Smash
deadline.comEXCLUSIVE: Channel 4 has greenlit formats on auctions and dogs in the search for its next Gogglebox-style international smash via the £30M (£37M) two-year Global Format Fund, which has kicked off its third funding round.Responsibility for the fund has passed from Head of Factual Entertainment Alf Lawrie to Senior Commissioning Editor Vivienne Molokwu, one of the architects of last year’s Black to Front day of programing, who unveiled The Dog Academy and The Greatest Auction to Deadline.In the former, difficult dogs will be sent to an academy by their desperate owners and a crack team of Britain’s top trainers will help them in dog management skills and dog psychology.
The show comes from former Channel 4 Head of Documentaries Nick Mirksy’s Five Mile Films shingle.Meanwhile, Salvage Hunters producer Curve Media’s The Greatest Auction takes a competitive, youthful twist on the traditional auction genre by creating a special arena in which auctioneers will hold court as they sell rare items, but the valuation will only be heard by the viewer.
The owner must wait till they enter the auction to find out what their item could potentially be worth.“Both shows feel really warm and they’re in genres we know have an appeal to audiences, both here and internationally,” Molokwu told Deadline. “It’s not just Brits who love dogs and auctions, so we have one eye firmly on the UK market and the other on international.”The Global Format Fund was forged in the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic to seek the next Gogglebox or Come Dine With Me and has ringfenced £30M across two years on shows Channel 4 believes will travel, with Channel 4 taking 50% of international sales compared to the established 20% as detailed by the UK’s terms of trade.
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