Scripted

One out of four German viewers has a date every single Sunday night: It’s time for Tatort (Crime Scene), the most beloved fictional primetime show of the country. Now, the iconic and massively successful ARD movie cycle sets sails to the US and Canada through a new acquisition by North American streaming service MHz Choice. Beta Film has sold 250 hours of the legendary cycle to the streamer.

Crime Scene has been a cornerstone of German television for over five decades, consistently holding record ratings with a peak of up to 41% market share and more than 14 million viewers on German public broadcaster ARD to this day with comparable market shares in the younger target group. The series' unique format, which features different teams of investigators in various German cities, offers a diverse and elaborate range of crime stories, characters, and storytelling, providing viewers with a fresh and intriguing perspective on the genre. Since its premiere, Crime Scene has become a phenomenon with more than 30 episodes produced every year.

The MHz Choice deal includes Cologne Cops (Tatort: Köln, 45x2h) with chief detectives Max and Freddy, who don’t seem much alike, but are united by their undaunted determination to fight evil; Germany’s favorite Crime Will Tell (Tatort: Münster, 33x2h) with Jan Josef Liefers in the lead role as quirky coroner Prof. Karl-Friedrich Boerne; Mind Witness (Tatort: Dortmund, 19x2h) centering on homicide detectives Faber and Bonisch hunting down killers, and the classic cult cycle Grim City (Tatort: Duisburg, 18x2h) featuring Chief Inspector Horst Schimanski (Goetz George). In addition to the crime cycles produced on behalf of WDR, selected WDR/Radio Bremen commissioned productions of A Duo to Die For (Tatort: Bremen, 10x2h) are also available on MHz Choice.

Beta Film and WDR mediagroup are collaborating in global distribution, WDR mediagroup handles the license rights, while Beta Film holds the international distribution rights to the catalog of WDR's commercial subsidiary.