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The Feds take original format ‘Hardware Challenge’ global with Electus

PRESS RELEASE

The Feds, Australia’s next generation, multi-screen content production house has ramped up its international formats portfolio on both the sales and acquisition fronts.

Keeping up the winning momentum of taking the top prize at the MIPFormats International Pitch competition in Cannes, France in 2014 for ground breaking format ‘Zombie Bootcamp’, The Feds have been active in the U.S. and European markets over the last 12 months.

Strengthening its commitment to original content development, The Feds has recently struck a series development deal with global power house, Red Bull TV, which will be detailed in due course.

On the acquisition front, The Feds has secured the Australian and New Zealand rights to hotly contested French format ‘My Life Made in….France’. Created by Upside Distribution and Camera Subjective, ‘My Life Made in France’, features a Parisian based journalist who decides to take the concept of “going local” very seriously by trying to live for a year only using products manufactured in France.

‘My Life Made in France’ debuted last March on primetime in France on Canal Plus attracting the pay TV channel’s highest ratings for a documentary to date. In September, My Life Made in France secured the Prix Spécial Format 2014 awarded by TV France International to the most innovative programme with the greatest potential for export.

"We were impressed by the traction that the series attracted from the international market when it debuted at MIPTV last April. To be able to secure this title for Australia and New Zealand is incredibly timely given our local manufacturing issues, labelling and distribution concerns particularly for consumer goods and food produce. These are universal themes with very distinct local variations,” said The Feds, Founder and Director of Content & Broadcast, Lizzy Nash.

Significantly, on the global format front, U.S. multimedia studio and distributor Electus International has bought the original format created by The Feds, and licensed the format for ‘Hardware Challenge’, a six part, half hour entertainment series featuring three screen special effects technicians who create extraordinary contraptions from every day materials that are readily found in hardware stores.
“Hardware Challenge takes D.I.Y skills and creativity to a whole new level. Devised as a friendly challenge by Australian SFX experts who have spent years making the impossible possible on screen, the concept was developed by The Feds as an original format that showcases the skills of the SFX industry and entertains with daring and creative D.I.Y. possibilities,” said Nash.

The experts for the original pilot featured Australian SFX stars Dave Goldie, Lloyd Finnemore and Artie Spink, known for their special effects work in the Gods of Egypt, Mad Max: Fury Road as well as Wolverine, The Great Gatsby, The Matrix and Mission Impossible 2.

“As a format, ‘Hardware Challenge’, entertains and engages audiences across the board that are fans of inventiveness and ingenuity. Additionally, it highlights the smarts of the global SFX industry which we are confident will have appeal in the U.S. and internationally," Nash added.

In 2014 The Feds secured Screen Australia funding under the Enterprise Program that has significantly bolstered their efforts to take innovative Australian content across global borders.

ted multimedia entertainment studio to unite producers, creators, advertisers and distributors under one roof and produce all forms of content for distribution across a variety of platforms around the world. Headed by Ben Silverman in partnership with IAC [NASDAQ: IACI], the company connects advertisers, distributors and content creators early on in the development process, enabling marketers and advertisers to be a true partner in campaigns and content creation. Electus International, the global distribution arm of Electus, is responsible for all international sales and distribution for Electus' programming and its studio partners as well as programs and formats from other well-known 3rd party provider