Passion Distribution has closed a raft of sales into the region, totaling over 150 hours of content in the last three months and continuing its strong business in the territory.
Australia’s national public broadcaster ABC TV has picked up a host of shows for its entertainment channel ABC2. These titles include Firecracker Films’ Diary of a Teenage Virgin (1 x 60’), Mentorn Media’s hit series The Fried Chicken Shop: Life in a Day (4 x 60’), both produced for Channel 4 in the UK and SnagFilms’ gripping documentary Lost for Life (1 x 90’ or 1 x 60’), which follows juveniles who are serving life in prison without parole.
Nine Network has also picked up a number of factual shows from Passion: Mentorn Media’s brand new clip-show series World’s Worst Holiday Horrors (3 x 60’), Firecracker Films’ vertigo-inducing Don’t Look Down (1 x 60’) which aired on Channel 4 and Rain Media Entertainment’s Joanna Lumley Meets will.i.am (1 x 60’). The latter show is scheduled to air later this year on BBC One, and follows Joanna Lumley as she meets will.i.am, someone she confesses being ‘fascinated’ with. Lumley joins will.i.am in LA to speak about his music career, childhood and life struggles and his ultimate success.
SBS has picked up the free-to-air second window rights for Season 3 (16 x 60’) of World Of Wonder’s Rupaul’s Drag Race for its SBS 2 channel following the success of the series on Foxtel’s Lifestyle You channel. SBS’s long running current affairs show Dateline has committed to further episodes of Quicksilver Media’s Unreported World. Both deals come after successful runs of each franchise for SBS.
Seven Network has inked a deal with Passion for free digital channel 7 Mate to air two hit fortune-finding series, Paperny Entertainment’s gold hunting Klondike Gold Fever (Season 1-2: 20 x 60’) and the first season of High Noon Entertainment’s Prospectors (Season 1: 9 x 30′, Season 2: 8 x 60’), which follows some larger than life characters as they mine and dig for some of the world’s rarest gems, in the most dangerous gem fields on the planet. 7 mate has acquired the second window to the Scripps Network’s International (SNI) show Baggage Battles (Season 1: 12 x 30′, Season 2: 14 x 30′, Season 3: 13 x 30′, Season 4: 13 x 30′) which is currently exclusively airing on Foxtel’s A&E channel. The treasure hunting series, Baggage Battles, has been an international hit for Passion, being licensed into over 230 territories. Seven also licensed Reef Television and GroupM Entertainment’s Craziest Christmas Lights (1 x 60’) for their main channel. Continuing the growing appetite for SNI brands on free digital platforms in Australia, Network Ten picked up Garage Gold (13 x 30’) to air on ONE.
Also licensing SNI shows, National Geographic Channels picked up Magic Man (8 x 30’) for its Australia and New Zealand feed. Foxtel concluded the region’s sales with a large package deal totaling over 50 hours of SNI content for its Lifestyle Home channel, licensing the property shows Kitchen Crashers (13 x 30’) and Power Broker (8 x 60’) to name a few. As part of the same deal Foxtel also picked up Mentorn Media’s cookery series John Torode’s Australia (10 x 60’) for its Lifestyle Food channel.
