Channel 4 Orders More Animal Airport

Channel 4 has commissioned Icon Films to produce a third installment of the observational documentary Animal Airport for More 4.

TCB Media Rights acquired distribution rights for the series outside of the U.K. Previously produced for Discovery Networks International by Icon Films, the new 13-episode season of Animal Airport once again follows the challenges faced on a daily basis by the staff at Heathrow’s Animal Reception Centre (ARC). The ARC handles nearly 300,000 animals every year. This includes dogs, cats, birds, reptiles, arachnids and insects, as well as hundreds of exotic or large animals such as horses, cheetahs and leopards.

TCB Media Rights distributed the first two seasons of Animal Airport, selling the show to 95 countries, including to Discovery in the U.S., Channel Seven in Australia and SBS in the Netherlands. The series was commissioned for Channel 4 by David Sayer, the head of Daytime. Executive producers for Animal Airport are Stephen McQuillan for Icon Films and Paul Heaney for TCB Media Rights.

“We are absolutely delighted to be making Animal Airport for Channel 4 and bringing the extraordinary stories from Heathrow’s Animal Reception Centre back into people’s living rooms!” said McQuillan, the head of factual for Icon Films.

“Animal Airport is simply a unique combination of the jeopardy that an airport and its hard-working staff can give to the viewer along with the universal attraction of animals, large and small, domesticated and wild,” said Heaney, the CEO of TCB Media Rights. “Hopefully the buyers will see these brand-new series as robust and versatile for their schedules.”