Format commissions and print sales for long-running, hit format

Independent international distribution company Lineup Industries has secured new deals for its international hit format Long Lost Family (aka Find My Family). Nelonen in Finland is the latest broadcaster to commission a local version of the format, while Sweden’s TV4, Reshet in Israel and the UK’s ITV have each recommissioned a further season following popularity in their respective territories. In the US, TLC has increased its order of episodes following the success of the first eight.

Lineup Industries has also sold three different finished versions of the hit format. Foxtel has snapped up both seasons of the US version and season five and six of the UK version which has been running for six seasons on ITV (in addition to a previously acquired 1-4). ITV Africa has also taken the first three seasons of the UK version. In further deals, the US series, has sold to Discovery Italy and New Zealand’s TV3 has acquired the Australian version of the show which originally aired on Ten.

Julian Curtis, co-founder of Lineup Industries said: “These deals underscore the prominence of Long Lost Family as one of the best performing factual entertainment shows in the market. The fact that both the finished seasons and the format are proving to be enduringly popular is testament to the strength of the show and its resonance with global audiences.”

Long Lost Family is one of the most successful factual entertainment shows on Dutch TV for KRO on NPO 1 and in the UK on ITV1 where the sixth season has just aired and it has been commissioned for an impressive seventh season. Other international territories include Ireland, also in its sixth season of airing the UK show on TV3, Italy and Denmark as well as recent launches in the US (TLC), Australia (Ten) and Hungary (RTL Klub).

Long Lost Family offers a last chance for people who are desperate to find long lost relatives. In each episode viewers are taken on a moving journey, from the revealing moment relatives are told their loved one has been traced, to the raw moment of the reunion which, in many cases, would only ever have happened in their wildest dreams. Long Lost Family explores the background and social context of each family’s estrangement and why it occurred.

Lineup Industries handles global rights to both the format and the finished versions of Long Lost Family.