Discovery Canada, MICO Ink HD Deal

TORONTO/TOKYO, November
29: Discovery Channel Canada has inked a three-year deal with MICO, gaining
first-look and exclusive access to the NHK distribution arm’s high-definition
catalogue for Canadian broadcast.

Discovery Canada already
has a strategic partnership with NHK, signed in 2006, that includes the recent
same-day NHK and Discovery HD broadcast of the newest HD satellite pictures of
the moon, and the NHK co-production of the HD titles Race
to Mars and Mars Rising. This new agreement will see the best of MICO’s HD
catalogue featured on Discovery HD in Canada. Under the three-year alliance,
MICO will offer Discovery an exclusive first look at all new English-language
HD programs. Discovery will acquire 20 hours or more of programming from the
MICO catalogue in the first year, and 25 hours or more in each of years two and
three. The first titles acquired under the new deal include Monster of the
Sea and The Mysterious Black
Rabbits.

“Building on our
successful co-production and content-sharing agreement with NHK, this new
licensing deal with MICO ensures that our viewers will enjoy even more of their
world in stunning high definition in the years to come,” said Paul Lewis, the
president and general manager of Discovery Channel Canada.

—By Mansha Daswani