UKTV Licenses Six Series from Disney Entertainment

UKTV has secured the rights to six series from Disney Entertainment for its Alibi, Drama and Dave channels and UKTV Play.

Coming to UKTV Play as part of the deal are all seven seasons of Sons of Anarchy, centered on a notorious outlaw motorcycle club intent on protecting their sheltered small town against drug dealers, corporate developers and overzealous law officers, and all five seasons of Brothers and Sisters, about a family whose members lead very different lives but are always there for each other.

Brothers and Sisters will launch on UKTV Play in late spring, while Sons of Anarchy will be added to the service in the summer.

For the crime channel Alibi, UKTV has picked up Alaska Daily, in which a recently disgraced reporter leaves her high-profile New York life behind to join a daily metro newspaper in Anchorage, and The Company You Keep, based on the Korean drama My Fellow Citizens. The latter sees a night of passion lead to love between a con man and an undercover CIA officer. Both will air this summer.

The free-to-air channel Drama will air A Small Light, based on a true story, in May. The series follows the young, carefree secretary who hid Otto Frank and his family from the Nazis in World War II.

Dave, meanwhile, will air Mike, which comes from creator and screenwriter Steven Rogers and the team behind I, Tonya, as well as showrunner Karen Gist, executive producer of Our Kind of People. It explores the dynamic and controversial story of Mike Tyson. It is set to air later this year.

“I’m thrilled to announce this deal with Disney for these premium dramas,” said Melanie Rumani, global head of acquisitions at UKTV and BBC Studios. “Growing our portfolio of content for UKTV Play and providing Drama, Alibi and Dave audiences with more excellent content is a huge priority for us, and these programs are sure to be a hit when they air later this year.”

Dayna Donaldson, VP of content sales for the U.K. and the Nordics at The Walt Disney Company, added, “It’s great to be working with UKTV to showcase these brilliant dramas to new audiences across the U.K. These engaging stories, and the great acting and behind-the-scenes talent that feature in them, are further examples of the outstanding dramas that Disney Entertainment is bringing to fans in the U.K. and the wider Europe, Middle East and Africa region.”