Germany reaches for the Grosse Verkauf.

Traditionally, the German television industry has always been a major participant in the Cannes TV tradeshows. Even though the days when rows of German-chartered boats lined the piers across from the Palais de Festivals are long gone, Germany is gaining visibility once again. At this year's MIP, German companies are displaying an impressive line-up of programs and, unlike in recent years, executives' expectations are high for the spring market.

Beta Film, currently the largest independent international distributor in Germany, is focusing its sales activities on mini-event series and, bringing a broad selection of new titles to Cannes. This year's program line-up will be led by four-part, 20 million euro miniseries War and Peace, adapted from the legendary Russian novel of the same title.

Besides its large stand at the sunny side of the Palais, another Beta highlight is the so-called Beta brunch at the Majestic Hotel ballroom, where buyers come together to watch the newest program trailers and listen to CEO Jan Mojto's always-cheerful opening speech. Back when his company faced insolvency, the former Kirch Group (and Beta) manager formed his own production company--called EOS, which stands for Events on Screen. Once Kirch went bankrupt, Mojto acquired Beta Film (then owned by Kirch), and most of its library. Today, Beta boasts content from its own library, as well as EOS's library.

But Betas competition is heating up. In January, German distributor Telepool announced that it would begin handling international sales for the RTL Television channel, the leading commercial network in Germany. Previously, Telepool acted solely as the distribution arm of the regional public service members that form the ARD channel, representing a cross-section of ARD TV documentaries, series and TV movies. The new deal grants Telepool access to a genre that had been unrepresented in its library--the hard action series--and TV movies for which the RTL channel is known. Moreover, considering the large number of programs available in its library, and the newly acquired RTL content, Telepool's size may begin to rival that of Beta.

Telepool will attend MIP with a significantly larger sales staff, since the former RTL sales team has taken shelter under its banner. The International Sales division is being headed by Irina Ignatiew and former RTL sales manager Peter Hille, who both act as vps.

But the German TV map has a complex topography and Telepool is not the only distribution company with public and ARD roots. Bavaria Studios and Studio Hamburg are both shareholders in German United Distributors. But ARD-members WDR (shareholder of Bavaria Studios, along with BR) and NDR (owner of Studio Hamburg) also own direct stakes in German United Distributors.

The German United stand is traditionally located in the bunker, but this year it'll show up with a new spring look. "Sometimes you need to give new motivation to your costumers and yourself," said Silke Spahr, the company's managing director. The company, which has a head office in Cologne, is known for its TV documentaries. And it won't disappoint at this year's event; the highlight will be 90-minute Hitler and Mussolini, which features never-before-seen material from historic archives. Spahr recognized a general market trend in TV documentaries.

German United co-shareholders Bavaria Studios and Studio Hamburg are also introducing new programs to the international market place. Bavaria has reported continuous international success for its telenovelas, with good sales results for Storm of Love in particular. It seems as though crime does indeed pay for Bavaria, with sales of Vienna Crime Squad into France and Italy among others. This spring, miniseries Bitter Tropics will be one of Bavaria's highlights. The series tells the story of two 18th-century women living on a plantation on the island of Martinique.

Studio Hamburg will offer three new high-quality productions: HD-produced wildlife documentary The Track of the Tuna, a miniseries called Destined to Witness and kids' crime series whodunnit.de.

Now onto German public television. The second largest public player is ZDF, which is always represented in Cannes by commercial division ZDF Enterprises. ZDF's expectations for this year's MIP-TV are high, thanks to the success of MIPCOM. "Our success at MIPCOM exceeded the high expectations of ZDF Enterprises," Alexander Coridass, the company's CEO, reported.

For the last three years, SevenOne International, the new sales arm of German commercial TV group ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG, has proven to be very successful. This spring the company will bring more staff members to Cannes and, according to managing director Jens Richter, the stand will be a bit larger. The young company has benefited from the fact that German program formats are being sold abroad on a bigger scale. In the past, this was a rare occurrence. Now, scientific quiz format Clever! and improvisational comedy format Schiller Street have been exported to many countries. Beat your Host, a format that was introduced last fall, is, according to Richter, doing very well: "We soon will be able to announce first sales," he said.

On the other hand, German company Tandem Communications is a relatively small independent focusing on co-producing international TV productions and distributing them (with a special sub-distribution deal with Starz Media). This spring's highlight will be new action series Painkiller Jane (a Starz series). The 22-part series premiered April 6 on the SciFi Channel in the U.S. Also for sale at MIP: TV movie compilation The Nora Roberts Collection, which comprises four event movies.

During its economic boom, Germany was also famous for its family and kids entertainment companies--TV Loonland AG and EM.TV & Merchandising, which today is simply called EM.TV AG. Both companies not only survived the downhill slope, they are up and running again. After resolving some shareholder problems last year that caused a drastic change in management, TV Loonland has reported increased sales this year. The company's major products are preschool animated series Little Princess and The Owl. Loonland will also introduce a brand new concept called Face Academy, where kids in the audience will be able to send in their own photos via the Internet. If chosen, their face can become one of the characters' faces and even become a "star" in one of the episodes. EM.TV content subsidiary EM.TV Entertainment is bringing a complete bouquet of new 2D and 3D-animated series into Cannes, with titles like Enyo and No Cookies for Trolls.