Channel 4 International, VRT Announce First-Look Distribution Deal

LONDON, July 26: In a two-year
distribution deal, Belgian public broadcaster VRT will have an exclusive first
look at Channel 4 International’s programming catalogue, and has agreed to
acquire a minimum of 45 hours of programming each year for representation
throughout Belgium.

The deal gives VRT an
exclusive first look at Channel 4 International’s catalogue of factual
entertainment, lifestyle, history, science and current affairs programming as
well as a selection of drama, light entertainment, library back catalogue and
pre-sale titles.

VRT has acquired a variety
of titles that include The Lusitania, produced by Darlow Smithson for the BBC and Discovery Channel, in
association with M6 and NDR. The program covers the sinking of the liner The
Lusitania, which marked a
pivotal moment in World War I. VRT has also picked up the critically-acclaimed Animals
in the Womb, from Pioneer
Productions for Channel 4, which illustrates the dangerous and difficult
journey a mammal undertakes in the mother’s womb; and the two-hour
drama-documentary Hindenburg, about
the fatal voyage of the giant German airship Hindenburg, produced by Pioneer
Productions for Channel 4, ZDF and Smithsonian Networks. Finally, VRT has also
secured Firefly’s The Boy Who Sees Without Eyes, about a boy named Ben who has been completely blind
since the age of three when he lost both eyes to retinal cancer, but still
manages to move unaided thanks to a sound technique he developed.