BBC Worldwide Scores European Output Deals

LONDON: BBC Worldwide has secured output deals in Germany, Italy, Kazakhstan, Finland and Norway, totaling more than 1,200 hours of programming.

In Finland, YLE has already picked up natural history offerings such as South Pacific and Yellowstone, along with Tess of the D’Urbervilles, and documentaries such as Bruce Parry’s Amazon. This is the eleventh year that YLE have renewed their mixed package output deal with BBC Worldwide.

Norway’s NRK renewed its three-year output deal. In the past, NRK has picked up titles such as Mistresses, Cranford, Wild China and Baby Borrowers.

Italian broadcaster Rai renewed a three-year factual output deal with BBC Worldwide for the eleventh time. BBC programs such as Atlantis and The Great Rift will appear across all of Rai’s channels: Rai Uno; Rai2; Rai3 and Rai Educational.

Germany’s new pay-TV channel Spiegel Geschichte will also feature titles from BBC Worldwide’s catalogue. Spiegel Geschichte, which launched in July, will broadcast programs such as the Ascent of Money, Space Age, Leonardo and Mystery of the Black Death.

BBC Worldwide concluded its first output deal in Kazakhstan with commercial broadcaster Channel 7. The two-year deal includes back catalogue programming as well as Life on Mars, Ashes to Ashes and Jamie Oliver’s The Naked Chef.

Tim Mutimer, the senior VP for EMEA sales and distribution at BBC Worldwide, said: “These five latest output deals highlight both the strength of BBC Worldwide’s catalogue and the strong relationships we have with broadcasters across Europe. While YLE, NRK and Rai have all been important clients for a number of years, Spiegel Geschichte and Channel 7 are both new channels and provide us with more windows in two of our key markets.

“Output deals are a key part of the our sales strategy as they allow us to showcase a number of titles—both new releases and our classic programming—as well as securing revenue in the long term. ”