| Green Issues Take Root On TV Worldwide |
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| Monday, 07 April 2008 | |
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From thrillers to documentaries, reality shows and formats for kids, shows on the environment are this year's hot favourites with television programme-makers worldwide and appear set to dominate prime-time viewing. Bowing to the demand for programmes on the environment, the influential MIPTV trade show gathering more than 13,000 executives from the TV, Internet, telecoms, advertising and video game industries kicked off Monday with an opening "Green Day." "Green (TV) is absolutely red hot," Paul Johnson, director of the TV division of the show's organisers Reed MIDEM, told AFP. Environmentally-flavoured programmes are on the rise on primetime spots on the big public broadcasters and satellite channels, as well as on an exploding number of Internet platforms. America's cable TV Sundance Channel, which is at the forefront of the green TV wave, is launching its second season of "The Green" - weekly primetime eco-conscious programmes hosted by Hollywood icon Robert Redford. The channel's other ecologically minded shows include the highly successful "Big Ideas for A Small Planet" and "Ecobiz," featuring forward-thinking entrepreneurs with tips on how to make the world more environmentally friendly. Viewers worldwide will soon be able to tune into Sundance's pioneering programmes as "Big Ideas" is to be distributed to 13 territories, from North and South America across the Middle East and Asia Pacific, including Australia, Sundance's Laura Michalchyshyn told AFP. But media giants are also capitalising on public interest in the planet's health and starting to use some of the newest TV platforms, such as the Internet. News Corp has launched a new TV channel on its MySpace site, the world's largest social networking site. MySpaceTV lets users view National Geographic as well as video clips about global warming and recycling submitted by users around the world. Meanwhile the green wave is breaking away from the more traditional documentary format and spilling over into popular TV genres, including drama, reality and kids shows. Environmentalist and adventurer David de Rothschild, who wrote the "Global Warming Survival Guide," recently teamed up with hugely popular kids cable channel Nickelodeon in Britain, on a week-long multi-media project called "Nick's Big Green Thing." And the stars of a new two-part BBC drama "Alchemy" have jetted into Cannes to promote their global warming conspiracy thriller in which the oil industry, environmental activists and politicians collide in a battle that pits economic success against ecological responsibility. At the two-day MIPDOC show centered on documentaries this weekend that precedes the main MIPTV event, environmentally-skewed documentaries accounted for 10 percent of the hundreds of shows up for grabs. The green theme, as Sundance's Michalchyshyn put it, "is not a choice any more, people want solutions." Sapa |
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