Ovation Picks Up U.K. Docs

SANTA MONICA: Ovation has secured a number of documentaries from distributors in the U.K., including seven from BBC Worldwide.

Ovation picked up seven documentaries from BBC Worldwide, including the U.S. premiere rights to Princess Diana: Her Life in Jewels and Van Gogh: Painted with Words. Other titles include the mini-series Aristocrats, Diana’s Dresses, How to be a Prince, Royal London and Van Dyck: Undressed. Ovation also secured rights to Digital Rights Group’s The Queen’s Sister and Wallis and Edward.

In a licensing deal that includes more than 19 titles, Ovation picked up performance films from Eagle Rock featuring Tina Turner, The Doors, The Pretenders, Willie Nelson, The Beach Boys and more. Ovation also acquired the U.S. premiere rights to the latest performance of The Nutcracker by the Royal Opera House from Electric Sky, as well as Matthew Bourne’s Nutcracker from ITV Global Entertainment and the rights to William and Kate: A Modern Royal Romance and U.S. basic cable rights to Bertie and Elizabeth.

“Our programming partners in the U.K. have been a reliable source for high-quality, documentary and non-scripted programming,” said Kris Slava, the senior VP of programming at Ovation. “At MIPCOM, we are be setting the stage for our next big push—looking to find more co-production partners and unearth new scripted product that is in the production pipeline.”