At MIPCOM 2023, BBC Studios has announced international pre sales of the third instalment of its Natural History Unit’s landmark BAFTA award-winning series, Planet Earth, presented by Sir David Attenborough.

The eight-part series produced by BBC Studios’ world-renowned Natural History Unit and co-produced by BBC America, ZDF and France Télévisions in partnership with The Open University has sold to; Australia (Nine), Belgium (VRT), Czech Republic (Czech TV), Denmark (DR), Italy (Mediaset), New Zealand (TVNZ), Spain (Movistar Plus+) and Sweden (SVT). In Japan the show is a co-production in association with NHK. In China, the show has been acquired by Shanghai Media Group for their linear channel and by streaming platforms including Bilibili, iQiyi, Tencent Video, Youku and China Mobile’s Migu Video. 

Planet Earth III will also be available on the BBC Nordic channel and on the BBC Earth channel in: Asia, Canada, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Macedonia, MENA, Poland, Romania,  Slovenia, South Africa, Spain and Turkey. Viewers will also get to enjoy the series on Sony BBC Earth in India,  BBC Earth SVOD in Taiwan and BBC Player in Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. 

Nick Percy, President, Global Markets, BBC Studios said: “The Planet Earth series has a whole accolade of awards behind it including four Emmy’s, a BAFTA and Oscar winning composer, Hans Zimmer. At BBC Studios, we strive to deliver phenomenal television, and this latest instalment of Planet Earth III is just that. I am delighted to see, from the pre-sales of the series, that it is taking the international markets by storm.”

Unrivalled in scale and ambition, this new series combines the awe and wonder of Planet Earth, the new science and discoveries of Blue Planet II and Planet Earth II, and the immersive character-led storytelling of Dynasties, taking the Planet Earth experience to new heights. It will take audiences to stunning new landscapes, showcase jaw-dropping newly-discovered behaviours, and follow the intense struggles of some of our planet’s most amazing animals.

Each blue-chip episode showcases the planet’s last great wild places and features the astonishing strategies that animals have evolved to survive there. Alongside those engaging animal characters, this contemporary chapter of Planet Earth also reveals the new challenges that wildlife faces in our modern, crowded world.

At this crucial time in our history, Planet Earth III brings a new and important insight into our increasingly fragile world. Highlighting the critical role each of these wilderness areas and the animals that inhabit them, play in sustaining a healthy planet for all of us, whilst retaining the sense of awe, beauty, and the warm accessible tone of its predecessors.

The Executive Producer is Mike Gunton and the Series Producer is Matt Brandon. The commissioning editor is Jack Bootle, Senior Head of Commissioning, Specialist Factual. 

Two-time Oscar winner Hans Zimmer, producer Russell Emanuel from Zimmer’s long term collaborators Bleeding Finger Music, and Bastille’s Dan Smith have partnered across the Planet Earth III series score.

Other titles from the BBC Studios Natural History Unit presented to buyers at Mipcom include two new definitive series. Mammals, co-produced by France Televisions, ZDF and BBC America, offers fascinating insights into one of the most remarkable groups of animals in the world with exclusive never-seen before behaviours encountered; whereas Big Little Journeys, co-produced by PBS, magnifies the dramatic adventures faced by six of the world’s tiniest heroes of the animal kingdom.