EXCLUSIVE: British formats are back in vogue, according to research firm K7’s annual Tracking the Giants report.
Driven by new hits like The 1% Club and The Piano, along with evergreens such as MasterChef, the UK accounted for one-third (33%) of all new adaptations overseas last year, K7 said. That 33% figure put the UK way ahead of the U.S., which fell from 24% to 19% of all launches.
The UK figure was up from 25% the year prior and is an impressive recovery from a “significant decline” reported in 2022-2023, K7 said. The UK was also the only country among the top five exporters from 2023 to achieve growth in new adaptations with 11.
Representing an impressive 18% rise, the 119 new adaptations of Brit formats was driven by BBC Studios’ The 1% Club, which airs on ITV in the UK and had 10 launches alone in 2024 including on Prime Video in the States hosted by Patton Oswalt. The 1% Club was second only to John de Mol’s The Floor from The Netherlands for new launches, which knocked The Traitors off its perch to take K7’s top format prize in 2024.
Other UK shows to win big abroad were Fremantle’s The Piano and resurgent evergreen hits like MasterChef, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? and The Weakest Link, along with spin-offs of Love Island, Lego Masters and Taskmaster.
Looking forwards, K7 said the UK’s momentum “shows no signs of slowing, with at least 50 new adaptations of UK formats already confirmed for launch or production as of February 2025.”
The report will be welcome news for British format creators and execs, who had raised fears last year that, domestically, they were losing out to foreign adaptations like Denmark’s Stranded on Honeymoon Island, Belgium’s 99 to Beat and Korea’s Genius Game, which have recently been adapted by the BBC and ITV.
For those selling both scripted and non-scripted shows it is also a great time to be winning big on the formats side, given the shrinking of the scripted market driven by less money from American co-producers.
“British TV has a history of success around the globe,” said K7 Media CEO and founder Keri Lewis Brown. “What we’re seeing now is the UK’s storytelling heritage, format innovation, and global collaboration showing resurgence in a challenging climate and fast changing world.”
The report stressed that the likes of The Netherlands and Belgium remain format heavyweights, evidenced by the success of The Floor and Stranded on Honeymoon Island, while Japan continues to perform well driven by the success of LOL: Last One Laughing. Overall, there were around 360 new launches in 2024, which was slightly down on the prior year.
For the third year in a row, Banijay was the top-selling unscripted format distributor, followed by on-the-block seller ITV Studios then The Piano sales house Fremantle.
The post Brit Formats Are Back: Report Shows 18% Rise In UK Adaptations Last Year Driven By ‘The 1% Club’, ‘The Piano’, ‘MasterChef’ appeared first on Deadline.
