ALL3MEDIA Scores New European Deals

LONDON, June 16: ALL3MEDIA
International has secured a raft of deals on behalf of its sister company Lion
Television for its factual programming in Europe, including one with Discovery
Poland for two one-hour specials: Murder in Paradise 1943 and The Secret Life of Elizabeth.

Murder in Paradise 1943 is a new investigation into the brutal murder of
Sir Harry Oakes, the gold-mining millionaire in the Bahamas, which embroiled
the Duke of Windsor, while The Secret Life of Elizabeth, explores whether the “Virgin Queen” had an illegitimate
child.

Other Polish broadcast
deals include pubcaster TVP acquiring The Great Wall of China and the series Guarding the Queen, which is focused on the Grenadier
Guards—the Changing Guard at Buckingham Palace and frontline infantry
unit doing active service in Afghanistan and Iraq. Also in the region, Studio
Printel picked up the DVD rights to Secrets of the First Emperor—Lion’s first Chinese-based major
co-production with Channel 4, Discovery and Phoenix Satellite Television.

Ukraine’s Direct Sight
purchased the rights for The Great Wall of China and Secrets of the Forbidden City for Inter TV. Both of these programs were also
picked up by the Specktrum Channel, which airs in Hungary, the Czech Republic
and Slovakia. In addition, Specktrum Channel has secured Lion’s
factual-entertainment positive-parenting show I Want My Mummy and the new magazine-style travel series The
Rough Guide. I Want My Mummy also airs in Russia, Italy, Germany, Slovakia,
Romania and Belgium as a format.

Stephen Driscoll, the VP
of international sales at ALL3MEDIA International, commented: “We have been
enjoying real growth in factual sales over the last year into Eastern and
Central Europe, high demand for quality factual entertainment and high-end,
blue-chip documentaries. Lion Television’s programming fits perfectly into such
market demand.”

Richard Bradley, the co-managing director at Lion Television, added: “We at Lion are
delighted that All3MEDIA International has achieved such success with our shows
in Eastern Europe; the success of I Want My Mummy is particularly thrilling as it is such a
distinctive parenting format with its warmth and humor, rather than dictatorial
style content, and I am particularly pleased to see all our epic China
docudramas being broadcast in the region.”

—By Irene Lew