ALL3MEDIA Inks Deals with Australian Broadcasters

LONDON, August 5:
ALL3MEDIA International has completed a raft of deals with several Australian
broadcasters for drama and factual programming, including BBC HD and BBC
Knowledge taking on a range of China-based programs.

ABC Australia has acquired
Lilies, set in working-class
Liverpool in the 1920s; The Man Who Lost His Head, a feel-good film set in the U.K. and New Zealand;
and season 11 of the murder mystery drama series Midsomer Murders. Also included in the deal are the documentaries Around
the World in 80 Gardens, which
highlights some of the most culturally and historically significant gardens,
and The Secrets of the Forbidden City, revealing unexpected information about China.

BBC HD and BBC Knowledge,
which are new channels in the territory, also have acquired second runs on Lilies, Around the World in 80 Gardens and the China history films The Great Wall, The Secrets of the Forbidden City and The First Emperor: The Man Who Made China, a drama-documentary profiling Qin Shi Huangdi who
united China and built the Great Wall.

UKTV Australia has
re-licensed Midsomer Murders,
acquiring for the first time season seven and re-licensing five preceding
seasons.

Showtime Australia has
picked up the crime drama He Kills Coppers, based on Jake Arnott’s bestselling book and set during London’s
World Cup fever in 1966, and Libeskind, a 90-minute documentary tracing the life, influences and work of
architect Daniel Libeskind.

FOXTEL has acquired for
Australia and New Zealand a package of documentaries for its biography and
crime channels, including Guarding the Queen and Queens Cavalry from Lion and It’s Not Easy Being a Wolf Boy, Battered Men and My 100,000 Lovers
from North One Television.

Peter Grant, the VP sales
at ALL3MEDIA International, said: “We are delighted to secure these deals with
broadcasters in Australia, which showcase some of the stars of our current
drama and factual programming catalogues. Australia has always been a key
territory for us, with U.K.-produced programming proving extremely
popular—we are confident that this selection of titles will prove a great
success with Australian [audiences].”

—By Jackie Stewart