Cineflix Secures Deals Ahead of ATF

LONDON, November 16: In
advance of the Asia Television Forum (ATF), Cineflix International has sold 12
of its in-house, co-produced and third-party factual titles to several Asian
broadcasters.

Thailand’s UBC has picked
up Birth Days, a series about
the emotionally charged first days and weeks at home with a newborn baby. They
also signed a deal for several other programs including: Urban Legends (15×30-minute), which presents three stories as
genuine documentary reports, even though only one is true; Surf Patrol (13×30-minute), about Australia’s world-famous
lifesavers as they patrol the country’s beaches; Border Security, which follows an expert team protecting Australia’s
borders; and Medical Emergency,
which deals with the staff and patients at a busy hospital emergency ward.

Urban Legends has also been secured by Hong Kong’s ATV.
Meanwhile, mainland China’s Leland International has picked up the fourth
season of Mayday, series that
investigates both high-profile and little-known air disasters, as well as Machines
of War, a 3×1-hour series that
looks at major milestones in the development of weapons. Also in China, Wuhan
TV has acquired the second season of Huge Moves, in which teams of movers tackle colossal structures.
The channel also snatched up the 20×30-minute ExperiMental, which uses oddball experiments to show how
science is part of our everyday lives.

In Japan, Media Universal
has picked up selected episodes of Mayday and the 90-minute Mayday
spin-off special feature, Crash of the Century. Nippon TV has purchased the 10×30-minute Body
Specialists, which explores
cosmetic and plastic surgical procedures and Zero Hour, which dramatizes the last hour leading up to some
of the world’s most memorable historical events.

“These recent deals are
extremely encouraging with business in Asia getting stronger all the time,”
said Kate Llewellyn Jones, the sales manager for Asia at Cineflix
International. “The quality and diversity of new territories and companies
attending the market is certainly on the ascendance.”

—By Ned Berke