Viacom International Studios Sells Stephen King Doc, Raft of Others

Ahead of this year’s MIPDoc, Viacom International Studios (VIS) has landed a raft of global sales for its factual titles produced by VIS UK, including Stephen King: Master of Horror.

The hour-long one-off—which explores the life of the prolific author—is headed to Reelz in the U.S., following its launch on Paramount Network in the U.K. It will also air on the Netherlands’ RTL Z and RTL 5.

Travelogue documentary series Cruising with Jane McDonald’s latest seasons have sold to SBS Australia and Albania’s DigitAlb. Denmark’s TV2 Networks and Norway’s NRK will also air the series, and the two broadcasters have additionally bought the show’s spin-off Jane McDonald: Down Under, which sees the cruise singer head to Australia.

Also in Australia, SBS’s free-to-air digital channels SBS and SBS Viceland will broadcast biographical documentary series The Kennedys: A Fatal Ambition. The show garnered over 1 million viewers when it aired on the U.K.’s Channel 5, and has been picked up in Portugal by SIC network’s entertainment channel SIC Caras.

VIS UK’s Billionaire Kids on Holiday, which explores the world of wealthy parents and their pampered progeny during their vacations, will air across Europe, having been picked up by four broadcasters in Poland (WP), Norway (TV2), Israel (Good Life, The Travel Channel and AVA) and Finland (SUB).

Two-parter Secrets of the Royal Servants, featuring fly-on-the-wall interviews with royal household staff, has been licensed by Israeli broadcaster Ananey Communications for Israel’s lifestyle channels Good Life and The Travel Channel. Lastly, the Inside… series has sold worldwide, including to U.S. broadcaster American Public Television, Australian network SBS (SBS1 and SBS Viceland) and to AMC Networks (Spektrum) across the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia.

“We are seeing an insatiable demand for all kinds of content, with factual entertainment at the top of the list for many of our clients,” said Lauren Marriott, VP of international content sales at VIS. “Our latest sales reflect an international appetite for high-quality escapist travel series and fly-on-the-wall biographical documentaries, which will always hold universal appeal for audiences around the world.”