The ABC is commissioning local versions of European shows So Not OK and The Bully Project.
Based on a Swedish format, So Not OK combines sketches, practical experiments and research data to investigate what is deemed to be appropriate public behaviour.
A Dutch creation, The Bully Project sees victims secretly filming their lives for a day before the footage is shown to classmates and the bully.
The format deals were announced at MipTV by ABC head of content and creative development Adrian Swift.
The Swedish adaptation will be retitled You Can’t Do That In Public, a co-production between the ABC and Screentime.
Produced by Sweden's Elk Entertainment, the original debuted on TV3 last year and has been renewed.
Each week two comedians test the limits of unwritten everyday rules, such as: Is it OK to bring your children to work – and what’s a valid reason? Can you ask an acquaintance how much he or she earns per year? Is it OK to give a painting as a housewarming present and then expect it to be up on the wall the next time you visit?
Dutch producer Skyhigh TV created The Bully Project, which premiered earlier this year on RTL in the Netherlands.
Swift told the Mip Formats conference in Cannes that shrinking budgets and audience fragmentation had prompted the ABC to turn to the international market for some new formats after previously relying on local producers to develop them.
“Like every broadcaster around the world, faced with declining budgets and declining audiences, there are parts of the schedule where you have less to lose by using a format. It de-risks things,” Swift said, quoted by C21 Media.
Swift said he acquired the rights to The Bully Project because it “shines a light on a big fundamental social issue…By buying the bible we learned so much about the duty of care in the Dutch market and that informed what we could do in Australia.”