Sundance Renews Eco-friendly Series, Acquires BBC Show

NEW YORK, July 18: Sundance Channel has ordered second
seasons of the eco-friendly title Big Ideas for a Small Planet, as well as the interstitial series Eco-Biz and Ecoists, and has acquired the U.S. rights to the second season of the BBC’s It's
Not Easy Being Green.

Scout Productions has signed on to produce the second season
of the 13-part series Big Ideas for a Small Planet, which features the innovators and innovations
involved in the environmental revolution. The series first launched on the
Sundance Channel’s weekly programming block The Green on April 17. It is executive produced by Michael
Williams, David Collins and David Metzler from Scout Productions and is
overseen for Sundance Channel by senior VP of original programming and
development, Lynne Kirby, and Samuel J. Paul, the director of original
programming and development.

Sundance Channel has also renewed a deal with kontentreal to
produce Ecoists, a series of one-minute
interstitial and online pieces featuring some of today's most active and
recognizable environmental activists as they share ideas, information and
enthusiasm about their cause of choice. The line up for the 2007 Ecoists
included Robert Kennedy Jr., Daryl Hannah,
Woody Harrelson, Laird Hamilton and Amber Valleta.

NBC Universal’s Peacock Productions will again produce a
series of pieces titled Eco-Biz, news
segments that profile business leaders who have developed environmentally
sustainable policies and eco-friendly business tactics that have had a positive
impact on the bottom line.

Produced by the BBC, the first season of It's Not Easy
Being Green followed the lives of the
Strawbridge family as they moved to a neglected farmhouse with three acres in
Cornwall, with aims of becoming a modern self-sustaining household. In season
two, Dick Strawbridge, his son James, and friend Jim will travel around England
helping other people to go green and go organic. Both seasons of the series
were acquired from BBC Worldwide.

"The Green is a
year-round commitment for Sundance Channel," stated Laura Michalchyshyn,
Sundance Channel’s executive VP and general manager of programming and creative
affairs. "In addition to the dozens of documentary films and other short
form programming we air, we continue to slot in new series to keep the block current
and fresh. Big Ideas for a Small Planet really resonated with our viewers and the environmental community as
an entertaining, solution-based series. Scout did a fantastic job of gathering
39 inspirational stories and packaged them thematically into 13 extremely
watchable half-hour episodes. We are confident that they will be able to create
equally upbeat and aspirational second season for Sundance Channel."