Rare TV’s Contagion Doc Sells to Public Broadcasters

Rare TV’s award-winning documentary Contagion, originally commissioned by BBC Four and aired in 2018, has seen a raft of new sales amid coronavirus fears.

The one-hour special was retransmitted on the U.K. public broadcaster in February, and since then, it has been picked up by TV4 in Sweden, NRK in Norway, RSI in Switzerland, TRT in Turkey, PTS in Taiwan and RTHK in Hong Kong.

Magnify Media has locked in the deals.

In Contagion, Dr. Hannah Fry launches a nationwide mathematical-modeling experiment to help predict and plan for the impact of a pandemic. Central to Dr. Fry’s mission is the BBC Pandemic app, downloaded by several thousand citizens, which is designed to predict how quickly an infection disease would spread across the country, potential fatalities and what can be done to prepare for it. Emergency physician Dr. Javid Abdelmoneim explains why viruses are still such a danger to society. He talks to the researchers who are attempting to discover what makes some people more contagious than others and visits a factory tasked with producing vaccines when the next pandemic hits.

Andrea Jackson, CEO of Magnify Media, said: “This is not only an intelligent and informative documentary, but it’s also a timely one in the light of the misinformation and uncertainty surrounding the coronavirus. Contagion is a sensitively made program that explains how pandemics evolve and move around communities, based on reliable modeling techniques and technology. The take-away is that, when it comes to a pandemic, knowledge is our best protection. If we understand how viruses behave, we can learn how to keep ourselves safe and calm, and avoid panicking ourselves into a greater crisis.”

Alexander Gardiner, CEO of Rare TV, commented: “Rare Television is very proud that this important story is reaching wider audiences across the globe in light of the current situation. The data generated by the groundbreaking nationwide citizen science experiment at the heart of the program set a new gold standard in pandemic research information and is informing decisions made on the ground today. The program is packed with genuine science revelation and fascinating information, all of which is more relevant today than ever.”