Orange Smarty Closes String of Deals in Australia & New Zealand

Orange Smarty has landed a host of sales for its factual content with various broadcasters across Australia and New Zealand, including an extensive deal with Foxtel.

Australia’s Foxtel has licensed a 200-hour documentary package from Orange Smarty, which includes CTVC’s Pilgrimage: The Road to Santiago (3×45 min.) for BBC Two. The show’s recently announced follow-up series Pilgrimage: The Road to Rome, also part of the deal, bows on BBC Two later this year. Both series see famous people follow age-old religious routes, living as modern-day pilgrims.

The package also includes the first and second seasons of Coast vs Country, a house-hunting show that sees buyers choose between prospective properties by the ocean and in the countryside, ultimately choosing their favorite scenery. The show will be available for New Zealand viewers as well, as TVNZ has acquired its first two seasons.

Also headed for Foxtel is BAFTA- and RTS-winning series Catching A Killer, a four-parter that follows the Thames Valley Police Major Crimes Unit over a two-year period. A Place In The Sun is similarly on its way to Foxtel, with the broadcaster licensing the series’ eleventh season—its most recent—as well as relicensing seasons one, two, three, six and seven. A Freeform production for Channel 4, the property-search format shows experts helping house hunters find their dream vacation homes.

Orangy Smarty also struck a deal with Australia’s SBS, which has taken three 44-minute specials from the youth-skewing Stacey Dooley Investigates strand: Gypsy Kids in Crisis, Sex in Strange Places and The Young & Homeless.

Prime has also taken both seasons of Pilgrimage: The Road to Santiago, along with the first two seasons of Curve Media Productions’ Call The Cleaners, all of which will broadcast on SKY’s VIBE Channel. SKY has also acquired three shows from ITN Productions for VIBE: Channel 4’s The Truth About Slim People and its four-part follow-up The Secret Lives of Slim People, and Channel 5’s Xmas Excess and Parents Splash The Cash. Also included in the VIBE package are two seasons of A Place In The Sun.

Lastly, ABC in Australia has bought Heal Me In the Name of Jesus, a one-off that takes a look at Australian faith healer John Mellor.

Karen Young, founder and CEO of Orange Smarty, said: “Australia and New Zealand are key markets for the U.K. distribution community, so closing a string of package deals with the broadcasters of the caliber of Foxtel, SBS and SKY speaks volumes about the depth and diversity of our catalog and the creative talent of our producer-partners. We couldn’t hope for a better start to MIPTV season.”