26/11/2009
UK-based global content distribution outfit Outright Distribution’s Senior Sales Manager for Asia, Leonora Teale has totted up over 50 hours of programming deals into Asia in recent months, with sales across both Shed Media and 3rd party produced shows.
The first deals kick off in Japan with the 3rd series of the hugely successful BBC2 show The Choir, produced by Twenty Twenty, starring Gareth Malone.
The Choir: Unsung Town (4 x 50) has been bought by programming agency MICO for state broadcaster NHK along with the hour long special catch-up episode from series 2, entitled The Choir: Boys Don’t Sing Revisited.
Over on terrestrial commercial channel TV Asahi, a one-off episode of the US version of Supernanny has aired, as part of its Sunday evening magazine show "Otona no Sonata".
Staying in Japan, LaLa TV has secured Wall To Wall’s one hour Agatha Christie: A Life In Pictures which tells the remarkable true story of Agatha Christie; the queen of crime and the best-selling novelist of the 20th century. The deal was brokered by Intervision International Inc, an agent for the cable channel. Also on the list is Flame TV’s Dickens’ Secret Lover, this time brokered by MICO.
Then over in Korea, Supernanny returns to the territory with Joongang Media’s Q Channel going for the 4th season of the US version of the series.
To Hong Kong then, with ATV going for Ricochet’s Breaking Into Tesco and the two part second series of Wall to Wall’s Child Genius.
For pan territory deals, MB Media Productions’ feature length special, The Body Machine has been bought by Discovery Science for Asia Pacific, excluding Japan and the same show has been sold in China to the themed documentary timeslot SAGA on Free TV through agent LIC. SAGA is syndicated on 66 local and regional Free TV channels throughout China, including BTV (Beijing TV) and SMG (Shanghai).
Then Asian Food Channel which covers South East Asia has been enticed by KEO films’ River Cottage franchise picking up 4 separate series of the seasonally themed shows plus a Christmas special. They also have picked up Ricochet’s 4 part series for BBC3 Blood, Sweat and Takeaways.
To round it all off, ABC Australia’s Asia feed, Australia Network has also picked up Blood, Sweat and Takeaways. In the programme 6 young British fast food addicts travel to Asia to live and work with the people who make their food, and discover the human cost of the low prices of convenience food.