Distribution veteran Paul Heaney has been busy building an unscripted catalogue with his new sales outfit BossaNova and is showcasing its programming playlist via C21’s Digital Screenings this week.

London-based BossaNova, Paul Heaney and Dina Subhani’s new content creation, funding and distribution company, was launched at the start of October last year.

BossaNova aims to “pioneer and highlight the need for a new approach to programme creation, funding and distribution,” leveraging the network of buyer relationships Heaney and Subhani built up over 35 years in media and distribution to create opportunities for producers looking to grow their businesses, according to the company.

Heaney has previously pioneered the early involvement of sales houses in projects, helping to co-create shows by matching the right idea with the right producer and the most relevant platform or broadcaster, and has brought all of that to the new firm.

Heaney, CEO of the new venture, said at launch: “We want BossaNova to be at the very centre as far as the ideas and shows we work with are concerned. Our intention is to be dynamic and agile with quick and clear decision-making. Our ambition is to be a significant help to platforms that have specific content needs and producers that need all of the above plus endorsement, experience and co-development of ideas.

“We will be talking to the buying and commissioning communities and that will be the start of the benefit chain for indies. Obviously, we are a distributor but the term does not now wholly fit the role. These days it’s all about coproductions and collaboration in the most collegiate way possible. We will not succeed without buy-in from both sides of the industry and we intend to make this work for them and for all.”

The new company’s first slate of shows was unveiled at the turn of the year and included five series and two 90-minute specials. The roster includes the first three seasons (30×60’) of Stampede Productions’ Borderforce USA, which follows the work of US Customs & Border Protection officers. BossaNova has deficit-financed the third season (10×60’), which is currently in production and will air later this year on UKTV. The franchise has now been sold to eight networks and channels since the start of the year with “many, many more” lined up.

Also on offer are the first two seasons of The Car Years (14×30’/7×60), with S2 again deficit-financed by BossaNova and broadcast in the UK by ITV4. Produced by indie Wiser Films, the show is hosted by motoring broadcasters Vicki Butler Henderson and Alex Riley, who are on a mission to champion the best cars from a moment in time, with an expert panel picking a winner.

On the documentary features front, Cruising: The Biggest Storm (1×90’), produced by Australia’s CJZ for Network Seven, examines the biggest crises in the cruise industry’s history.

The unveiling of the company’s first programming slate was quickly followed by the first BossaNova Development Day on January 21. It’s a concept Heaney pioneered while at TCB and has carried across to his new venture, bringing together more than 50 buyers and 30 producers to fast-track the creation of stand-out factual projects.

“This is the recreation and progression of the ‘hub and community’ – Peter Andrews at SBS gets the credit for that phrase – we so successfully created at TCB. We must have stumbled on to something special as the numbers of attendees this year was huge and the quality of projects is very high,” Heaney says.

Since January the BossaNova slate has grown rapidly. A deal was struck in March for more than 600 hours of content from Australian prodco CJZ and New Zealand’s Greenstone Television.

The deal reunites the previously TCB catalogue titles like Border Patrol (108×30’) and Dog Patrol (106×30’), The Big Ward and Puppy School and shortly adds the hugely successful long runners from the Beyond catalogue, Motorway Patrol (196×30’), Highway Patrol (107×30’) and Highway Cops (70×30’) and it also includes more than 20 other factual series.

“Both in premium documentary and higher-volume projects, BossaNova will be working hard with CJZ and Greenstone to sell shows, to innovate and to find new ideas and markets. Relationship is a very overused word in our industry, but it’s the strength and depth of it that matters,” Heaney says.

And illustrating how nimble companies like BossaNova can be when required, the distributor recently inked a deal with French factual network RMC Découverte for a fast-turnaround documentary about the headline-grabbing Suez Canal blockage. Stuck In The Suez – Dredging a Supersize Cargo Ship is an hour-long doc from French factual indie Factual Factory, with funding from BossaNova.

“Stuck in the Suez is exactly the type of project BossaNova was created for – to be able to tell the important stories of our time to global audiences in a way that is flexible, creative and collaborative,” says Heaney.

ITV’s recent Ross Kemp-fronted King of Tigers is also now part of the BossaNova sales slate. The 2×60’ doc follows the explosion of interest in people who keep exotic animals and big cats, following Netflix’s Tiger King factual series, which became one of the biggest hits of lockdown around the world. King of Tigers, from UK prodco Honey Bee, looks at those in the UK who are responsible for more than 4,000 privately owned tigers, lions, leopards, pumas, wolves, bears, crocodiles, zebras, primates and poisonous snakes.

Smaller pets are the focus of Cats & Dogs At War, a 4×60’ series from Flying Saucer for 5Star in the UK. The docuseries looks at what happens when the age-old battle between cats and dogs spills over and starts making the lives of their owners hell. Cat expert Chirag and dog trainer Nanci are coming together on a mission to help families across the nation.

In recent weeks, BossaNova also signed a partnership deal with fledgling UK factual prodco Content Kings. The first two projects under the deal are already underway, recent ITV primetime hit Accused of Murdering Our Son: The Steven Clark Story and an as-yet untitled true crime series with further details to be announced soon, as well as factual show Lost Liners: Palaces of the Ocean Floor, which is nearing the end of development.

Regarding the direction of BossaNova’s travel through 2021, Heaney adds: “We’ve got the opportunity now to work even closer with producers. If a producer is doing a casting reel, a sizzle, getting access to something, why not talk to us right now. We can breathe oxygen into their development slate and give them the benefit of the data we’re accruing – proper in-depth information from buyers.

“Buyers are giving us cut-glass, brilliant feedback, which we cherish and use with producers, which we think will benefit. We’re interested in producers that make shows across genres and combining subjects, styles and sub genres that wouldn’t normally go together. There is demand for ‘hybrids’ in this sense.”