THE SILVERLINING TO LOCKDOWN

Silverlining Press Release, 17 July 2020

Bristol distributor celebrates a bumper second quarter of sales

Specialist factual and documentary distributor, Silverlining Rights Limited has made the most of three months in lockdown by securing a host of sales to channels across the globe in the second quarter. The crime genre, in particular, saw good take up with sales in Asia, the Nordics and Australia and New Zealand.

“We really didn’t know what to expect when the world came to a standstill in March,” says Samantha Sintes, Global Content Sales Executive at Silverlining. “But as it turns out, the lockdown has been good for business and we’re on track to have a great year.” Sintes puts this down to an intensive round of video calls with buyers just before lockdown began, which gave the company a head start on scheduling gaps and requirements.

A star performer on the Silverlining slate in this quarter has been Inside the Mind of Agatha Christie (1 x 60’ from Knickerbockerglory). With access to the author’s personal diaries and never-before-seen documents, the one-hour special has been picked up in over 70 territories including Austria, New Zealand, France, Africa, Belgium, Switzerland and Lebanon. A lockdown addition to the Silverlining slate, The Hunt for Britain’s Slave Gangs (1 x 60’ from Longtail Films), follows the operation to bring down the biggest human slavery outfit ever caught in the UK. Channels in Denmark and Sweden were quick to pick up this Panorama special whilst in Australia, Silverlining secured a lucrative deal for Brinkworth Productions on its ratings winner Police: Hour of Duty (4 x 60’). This immersive and refreshing take on the blue light police series offers an inside look at one hour in this world, real time.

As final proof that lockdown has provided some light relief, another new entry to Silverlining’s programme catalogue, Sex in Lockdown (1 x 60’ from Curve Media) is off to a good start with sales in Israel, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Iceland and Greenland. “There may be some fatigue around lockdown-centred content as the world goes back to a vague sense of normality,” says Sintes, “However we expect that it will be the light-hearted and feel-good programming like this which will be in high demand as we get stuck into our marketing strategy to buyers in the third quarter.”