Off The Fence (OTF), the Academy Award-winning independent producer and distributor, has entered into a development deal with Emmy Award-winning US journalists Gloria Gomez and Robin Carter.

Under the agreement, which was brokered by global entertainment and sports agency Gersh, OTF will co-develop and produce new true-crime series based on the intelligence, access and contacts amassed by Gomez and Carter during their careers as investigative journalists on the US domestic beat.

The first project to come out of the new partnership is Love & Death Row: The Rosalie Bolin Story, a true-crime series based by Gomez and Carter’s investigation into one of the strangest and most complex stories in the history of the US criminal-justice system.

The story starts in 1986, when rapist and serial killer Oscar Ray Bolin was convicted of the murder of three women in Florida. Enter Rosalie Martinez, a paralegal married to a prominent defence attorney, who met Bolin in 1995 when she visited his cell on death row to discuss his case. The meeting left Martinez “breathless” and determined to prove Bolin’s innocence. She left her husband and four daughters, resigned from the public defender’s office and embarked on an intense relationship with Bolin, becoming his wife in 1996 via a speaker-phone ceremony. They remained together until his execution in 2016, since when Martinez has rebuilt her life as a private investigator and death-penalty mitigation specialist.

Gomez, a general-assignment reporter specialising in court cases and the criminal-justice system, has worked with the Tampa Bay FOX 13 News team for the past 20 years. Carter, a photojournalist with three decades of experience at news stations in Virginia, Texas and Florida, joined NBC 5 in 2019. She has worked in all facets of television, including news production, medical reporting, consumer affairs and special projects.

Celine Ritchie, head of development at OTF, said: “The experiences and perspectives of those who have been on the frontline of stranger-than-fiction cases exerts a powerful fascination — and it would be difficult to find a stranger or more powerful story than Love & Death Row, or two more reliable or insightful witnesses than Gloria and Robin. One of Off the Fence’s particular strengths is its ability to forge creative partnerships with people who have great stories waiting be told.”

In another US co-development partnership, OTF has joined forces with Makuhari Media on feature documentary King of Kandahar. The three-part series chronicles the life of Lieutenant Colonel Mohammed Iqbal Selanee, a teenage interpreter for the US forces in Afghanistan who rose to command an elite, CIA-directed paramilitary unit. An unsung hero of modern warfare, Selanee saved the lives of two US journalists and shielded hundreds of Afghans stranded at Kandahar Air Base, jeopardising the lives of own family to ensure the safety of his American comrades.

Stefanie Fischer, managing director at Off The Fence, on dealing with transformation and factual’s appeal.

With buyers flocking to London TV Screenings and Mip London this week, Broadcast International speaks to Stefanie Fischer, managing director at Off The Fence, about the complexity of financing and why hybrid AVOD/SVOD offers opportunities.

Describe the state of the distribution sector in a few sentences.
The distribution sector is in a period of both challenge and transformation. While linear broadcasters remain key buyers, their budgets continue to tighten, shifting more focus towards digital-first models. At the same time, global streamers are refining their strategies, moving away from expensive exclusivity deals toward more flexible windowing approaches. This presents both risks and opportunities for distributors, particularly those with high-quality, specialist factual content that can perform well across multiple platforms and territories.

What is the biggest challenge for the global distribution industry in 2025?
One of the biggest challenges is navigating the increasingly fragmented rights landscape. With streamers moving towards cost efficiency and broadcasters becoming more risk-averse, distributors must structure deals that balance exclusivity with the widest possible reach. Additionally, filling funding gaps for premium content is becoming more difficult, making co-productions and pre-sales essential but also more complex.

What is the biggest opportunity for the global distribution industry in 2025?
The growing demand for specialist factual content presents a significant opportunity. Audiences are increasingly looking for high-quality, knowledge-driven content, and buyers - from global streamers to FAST channels - are responding. The rise of ad-supported platforms and hybrid SVOD/AVOD models is also opening new revenue streams, allowing us to maximize the value of our content across multiple windows.

How have discussions with buyers (both commissioners and acquisitions execs) changed in the last 12 months?
Buyers are more cautious than ever, prioritizing content with strong audience engagement potential. Streamers are demanding more flexible rights deals rather than full buyouts, and linear broadcasters are increasingly interested in co-financing models to mitigate risk. There’s also a growing emphasis on content that can work across multiple platforms, making adaptability a key consideration in acquisitions.

Where is growth going to come for your business in 2025 and beyond?
Growth will come from diversification—expanding into emerging AVOD/FAST markets, forming strategic co-production partnerships, and leveraging data-driven insights to optimize content performance. Additionally, specialist factual content with evergreen appeal, such as science, history, and true crime, continues to attract buyers globally, ensuring long-term value.

How important are global streamers to scripted coproductions and how do you expect their changing positions regarding rights will affect your pipeline?
While global streamers remain key players, their evolving rights strategies are forcing producers and distributors to rethink financing structures. Streamers are becoming more selective and less willing to fully fund productions, pushing distributors to secure a mix of regional deals, pre-sales, and co-financing to close gaps. This shift requires greater agility in structuring deals, but it also creates more opportunities for content to have multiple life cycles across different platforms.

For the official article click HERE. 

Specialist factual producer and distributor Off The Fence (OTF) has inked a one-year co-development partnership with Amsterdam-based AI specialist Return to Earth Studio.

Under the deal, OTF and the newly launched creative studio will produce AI-powered storytelling projects.

The first project to come out of the new collaboration is What If Evolution… (3 x 60 mins), which will fuse the latest applications in generative AI video with OTF’s expertise in natural-history storytelling. A team of scientists and AI artists will work together to imagine the animals that might have evolved had the Earth’s history played out differently. The three-part series will “blend state-of-the-art technology, robust science and the latest thinking in palaeontology, genetics and evolutionary biology to explore the dynamic processes that have and will continue to shape life on Earth.”

Among the questions that will be addressed is how life would have evolved if the continents never split, and what hybrid creatures might have resulted if the animal species we know today had interbred with each other — or with our own species. The series’ leading scientists and biologists will also share their own evolutionary fantasies, making a case for their favourite counter-factual origin stories. Some of the concepts featured will explore scientifically plausible outcomes of environmental shifts or evolutionary pressures, while others — though more fantastical — will seek to inspire debate by illuminating fundamental biological principles.

Bo Stehmeier, CEO of OTF, said: “We’re at an inflection point, both in terms of AI and what audiences around the world expect from factual storytellers. We know there’s still huge demand for traditional blue-chip documentaries, particularly from older-skewing audiences. But in parallel, the data is showing us that younger demographics want their natural-history programming served up in a fresher, more visual, more surprising format. To deliver that, it’s vital that OTF partners with companies who are native to this brave new world — partners who have the creative and economic skills to operate in this environment but who also share our core corporate, environmental and social values. We believe that Return to Earth Studios is that partner and that, together, we will re-imagine the future of factual storytelling.”

The co-founders of Return to Earth Studio are creative director Laen Sanches and executive producer Tony Stearns. Sanches has been at the forefront of generative AI filmmaking since 2022, when his animated short film PLSTC won 20 international awards and was screened on Franco-German broadcaster ARTE. Stearns has more than 25 years of production experience at top creative agencies in the US and Europe.

Stearns said: “Return to Earth Studio has embraced AI as a means to a more efficient and sustainable production model, and enabler of thrilling new possibilities for visualising the what-if’s of our human imagination. We are honored to partner with the renowned storytellers of OTF to help them create fresh, never-before-seen content.”

Sanches said: “Imagining how life could have evolved differently is fascinating, but visualizing the details can be challenging. With the latest generative creative tools, we can now explore these possibilities with a new approach and greater precision. This allows us to study for example different shapes, textures, behaviors, and even sounds. Through our partnership with OTF, we’re excited to bring these visions to life and share them with the world.”

What If Evolution…  will be introduced at The London TV Screenings, alongside OTF’s more traditional slate of premium natural-history programming, which this year includes two new feature docs currently in production. Last Mermaids of Korea looks at the ‘Haenyo’ – female divers who hold their breath for more than two minutes to depths of 20 metres hunting culinary treasures for restaurants. Beavers from Above goes to remote locations in the quest to find out what an invasion of beavers means on the frontline of climate change, doubling their number and taking over the entire western Alaskan tundra in the last 20 years.