French Crime Series ‘Bright Minds’ Hot Seller for France TV Distribution (EXCLUSIVE)
France TV Distribution is ratcheting up global sales for the hit Gallic crime series “Bright Minds,” with deals ranging from Japan to the U.S., Canada and Latin America.
In its third season, the show, which airs on France 2, follows a police detective who finds a brilliant partner in a young autistic woman with encyclopedic knowledge of criminal investigations who works in the police records bureau. Together, they realize their complementary skills are the key to solving cases.
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France TV Distribution, which is presenting its current lineup this week at the Unifrance Rendez-Vous market in Biarritz, sold the show to Japanese public broadcaster NHK, which has been airing it since July.
In North America, Walter Presents picked up U.S. rights; AMI-télé took Canada and AXN Channel acquired it for Latin America.
“Bright Minds” has also sold across Europe, including to Cosmo TV and Atresmedia in Spain; Discovery Italy; RSI for Italian-speaking Switzerland; and VRT for Belgium’s Flemish-speaking region of Flanders.
Walter Presents acquired the series early on for the U.K. and Ireland, Russia and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS); and Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. The global streaming service likewise has Australian rights to the show.
France TV Distribution also sold “Bright Minds” to Fox in Portugal and Portuguese-speaking Africa; LRT in Lithuania; and NBCUniversal International Networks and Direct-to-Consumer for its Polish channel 13 Ulica and its Diva outlet in Albania, Bosnia Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia.
The Salto streaming service is also airing the show in France.
Produced by JLA Productions, “Bright Minds” has been a major hit in France, where Seasons 1 and 2 attracted 4.6 and 5.2 million viewers on average, respectively. Currently airing on France 2, Season 3 has continued to beat audience records, with more than 5 million viewers, representing a 28.6% audience share.
France TV Distribution is also handling Season 4 of the series, which is in production.
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