TIFFCOM: Nippon TV Format Deal for ‘Housekeeper’ Points to Catalog Strength

Nippon TV has licensed the scripted format rights to its hit drama series “I’m Mita, Your Housekeeper” for remake by Turkey’s Medyapim and MF Yapim. The deal was announced on Monday, just days before the start of TIFFCOM, the rights market adjunct to the Tokyo International Film Festival.

The show follows the exploits of a super housekeeper who perfectly completes everything she is asked to do. She works without emotion and never deviates from the task, but often comes up with unusual solutions. A ratings winner, the show has won numerous prizes including the Tokyo Drama Awards Grand Prix.

TIFFCOM is this year moving entirely online as a move that reflects the difficulties of in-person meetings at the time when the coronavirus is still rampant in many parts of the world. But like the market, and housekeeper Mita, Nippon TV is showing its ability to cope with the industry’s systemic change.

That involves adaptation as a local broadcaster, a significant position in the country’s still developing streaming market, and exploitation of its position as rights owner.

As well as owning Hulu Japan, which accounts for approximately a quarter of Japan’s streaming market, Nippon TV has full ownership of over 90% of its content. That enables it to exploit its IP across VOD/live-streaming, animation and film production, fitness clubs, eSports, and android creation and digital mixed reality technology.

Last month the company stepped up a gear. Having previously commissioned and broadcast animation content, Nippon TV last month formally launched its own animation division.

At the recent MIPCOM market (which was also held completely online for the first time this year), the company enjoyed success with “9 Windows,” a series that is part-way between the game show and talent contest genres, and was developed with the U.K.’s The Story Lab. With contestants beamed in from their homes, it is very 2020.

Nippon TV has previously presented other game show formats including “Mute It”. And it has enjoyed recent success with one-hour drama series “Mothers,” for which it announced scripted format deals in Thailand, South Korea, France, Turkey, Ukraine and Latin America.

The deal between Nippon and its Turkish partners is the seventh they have inked. Production on four of the previous six has now been completed, and they have enjoyed success in Turkey.

Nippon TV’s biggest format licensing hit, however, remains “Dragons’ Den,” which has spawned more than 40 versions as “Shark Tank” in 186 territories.