Newly-Minted Sphere Abacus Set For MIPCOM Debut With David Suchet Heading To Cannes And A Slate That Includes Gunpowder Plot Drama

deadline.com:

EXCLUSIVE: Sphere Abacus heads into its first MIPCOM next week with some splashy titles as it attempts to make waves in a crowded market.

The newly-minted outfit was created this summer when Canada’s Sphere Media completed a C$24.6M ($18.2M) deal for UK-based Abacus Media Rights, the UK-based distributor that sells Leaving Neverland and Scrublands.

Ahead of jetting into Cannes – with iconic Poirot actor David Suchet joining the party – Managing Director Jonathan Ford and Sphere Media CEO Bruno Dubé spoke to Deadline.

Abacus was only formed in 2020, but Ford saw an opportunity to put the foot on the accelerator with the Sphere deal when the opportunity arose. “We’re the eighth biggest UK distributor, but there’s a big gap between us and the seventh,” he says. “We didn’t own production businesses, we didn’t own IP and to help close that gap, the most appropriate step was to be part of a bigger group.” Dubé explains the rationale from the Sphere perspective: “The acquisition of Abacus not only gives us access to a greater number of potential partners for the creation and production of high-value content, but also access to a wonderful team for pre-sales and content exploitation.” Notably, Sphere’s sales division was dwarfed by the Abacus operation, meaning the acquisition is additive and doesn’t create an overlap. David Suchet Travels To Cannes For MIPCOM, Sphere Abacus will be joined by David Suchet.